The recent Merseyside derby at Anfield has left both Everton and Liverpool fans with reasons to be upset with the officials. The game, which took place on Tuesday night (2 April), ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat for Everton. This marked their first league defeat in ten games under David Moyes, and was particularly notable for two key refereeing incidents.
The first incident involved James Tarkowski, who was deemed to have only committed a yellow-card offence after a reckless challenge on Alexis Mac Allister. This decision sparked controversy among fans and pundits alike. Later in the match, Luis Diaz was judged not to have been involved in play from an offside position before Diogo Jota scored what would be Liverpool’s winning goal.
Despite these contentious decisions, it was Tarkowski's strong challenge that drew the most attention.
Micah Richards' take on Tarkowski's challenge
Micah Richards, speaking on The Rest is Football podcast alongside Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer (3 April), shared his personal insights into the incident involving his friend James Tarkowski. According to Richards, he has had several text conversations with the Everton defender following previous incidents where he escaped with just a yellow card.
Tarkowski holds an interesting record: he shares the Premier League’s highest number of yellow cards (63) without ever being sent off. However, this statistic did little to quell the uproar over his latest tackle. Richards claimed that while Tarkowski certainly did not mean to inflict any serious harm on Mac Allister with his tackle, he did mean to “hurt” him under the premise of “letting him know”.
Micah Richards, Manchester City legend, said:
“[Tarkowski] has text me before previous incidents, not this one. I get some work done by a physio who now works at Everton and used to work at Manchester City,”
“Tarky always says to him ‘why’s Micah so harsh on me?’, as I’ve said he should’ve been sent off a couple of times before. But surely, surely that’s a red card. It was a definite red card. He had so much time just to nick the ball there, but he’s meant to hurt him. Not break his leg or anything like that, but he’s meant to let him know he was there.”
Football is often a game of opinions, and the recent Merseyside derby has certainly provided plenty of talking points. The debate over Tarkowski's challenge on Mac Allister is likely to continue for some time, as fans and pundits alike dissect the incident.
