James Tarkowski was lucky to escape a red card for his high challenge on Alexis Mac Allister
James Tarkowski was lucky to escape a red card for his high challenge on Alexis Mac Allister
The Premier League have explained the reasopns behind Samuel Barrot's decision to NOT send off James Tarkowski for a dangerous challenge on Alexis Mac Allister during the first half of Wednesday night's Merseyside derby.
The Everton defender went flying into a tackle on Mac Allister just outside his penalty area. The Liverpool star was left writhing in pain as VAR reviewed the incident to determine whether or not Tarkowski's challenge met the threshold for serious foul play.
A social media post on the Premier League's Match Centre account was released a few minutes later, explaining: "The referee’s call of yellow card for a reckless foul by Tarkowski was checked by the VAR, with contact on the follow through after Tarkowski had played the ball deemed to be reckless."
While Tarkowski's challenge was judged to be reckless by VAR, not everybody agreed with that call.
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville, commentating on the game, branded the tackle 'horrible', saying: "It is a horrible tackle. He did not need to follow through like that."
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Former Premier League official Mike Dean went one further by questioning VAR's failure to overturn the call on Sky Sports News. Dean said: "He should have gone to the screen and he should be off. It is a horrible challenge.
"It is a red card all day."
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