Former Premier League referee Graham Barber believes Chris Kavanagh got it right when sending Ryan Gravenberch off during Liverpool vs Manchester City at Anfield, but says it would have been “interesting” to see if the two yellow cards were the other way around.
The sending off of the Dutchman changed the complex of the match, with Liverpool, who seemed to be in control of proceedings, crumbling after going down to ten men and eventually losing 3-0.
All of the talk in the build-up to the match surrounded the guilty verdict handed down by the Premier League to Man City over their 115 financial breaches. It was a hostile atmosphere inside Anfield, with City and their players continually booed, but on the pitch, the players let their football do the talking, and they eventually put the Reds to the sword when they had ten men.
Gravenberch had been Liverpool’s standout performer for an hour of the match, but in the 62nd minute he was shown a second yellow card, for stopping a Jeremy Doku counter-attack and was sent off.
The controversy surrounded his first caution, however, with the Dutchman booked just after half-time for a very soft foul on Elliot Anderson in the middle of the park.
Speaking exclusively to GIVEMESPORT, Barber, who spent nearly a decade officiating in the top flight, delivered his verdict on the decision.
He said: “It unquestionably changed the game, so obviously it will be a big talking point.
“When you’re refereeing, when you’re giving two yellow cards, I would say nine times out of ten, if you look at the first one, it’s the cheapest.
“And, you know, everyone will say that if you’re on a yellow card, you need to be very careful, whether you think it’s a soft card or not a soft card, you need to be careful. You are asking the referee to make a decision, and in this case, he made a decision that it warranted a second yellow card.
“I always said to young referees, I always said to referees who were coming up through the ranks or getting involved in games, make sure your first yellow card is a worthy yellow card.
“And the result is what actually happens in this particular instance, nobody’s going to say it’s not a sending off, they’re going to say it’s soft, and it’s soft because of the first decision.
“I would say what you need to do is you need to make sure as a referee, that the two yellows equal red and sometimes we fall down because we give away an early one and then we don’t think of the consequences, particularly in a hostile atmosphere like that, where it was difficult for players.
“You can’t argue whether it was a red card or not, because it ended up as a red card for two yellows, but that’s what I try and learn from those situations.”
And Barber believes things might have been different if the two fouls had been the other way around.
He added: “It’s an interesting one to say, what if the roles had been, or the tackles had been reversed? If the one on Doku was the first one, and the one on Anderson was the second one.
“That would have been a very, very interesting discussion point, because I don’t think anybody would argue that the second yellow card was a yellow card because it was a breakaway situation.
“I think if a lot of people look back at the first yellow card, maybe that’s questionable.”
As Barber mentions, it was certainly a soft decision from the referee, but he’s put in a difficult position when Gravenberch makes the foul for the second yellow card.
It’s a huge talking point that will likely rumble on into next week, which is no surprise after it clearly gave Manchester City a huge advantage as they kicked on to score three times in front of their travelling supporters.