Premier League referee Tony Harrington. (Photo by Mark Atkins/Getty Images)
Virgil van Dijk has accused referee Tony Harrington of being unable to properly handle Liverpool’s clash with Fulham due to “nervousness”.
The Reds ended up drawing 2-2 in a fierce battle at Anfield, coming back twice to score a point.
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Indeed, Liverpool might have been more than happy with the draw given Andy Robertson’s red card in the 17th minute, just six minutes after Andreas Pereira had given Fulham the lead.
but liverpool Still with 16 shots on goal and 2.26 xG, on another day they could have easily pulled off a huge win.
Robertson brought down Harry Wilson in the penalty area, denying Fulham a scoring opportunity and was sent off.
While the decision was clear-cut, Liverpool still had plenty of reason to be frustrated with Harrington in the opening minutes.
Robertson appeared to be injured in the second minute and Issa Diop received a yellow card for a strong challenge on him.
Minutes later, Pereira was also shown a yellow card after catching the backheel of Ryan Gravenberg during a scary challenge.
Former referee Mike Dean believes Pereira should have taken the challenge’s marching orders.
“Pereira grabbed Glavenburch’s Achilles tendon and scraped it off. He was nowhere near the ball. He knew what he was doing. It’s 100 per cent a red card,” Dean told Sky Sports (pass Popular Science Empire).
Pereira opened the scoring for Fulham two minutes later and Robertson was sent off eight minutes later.
Virgil van Dijk slams referee Tony Harrington for being ‘nervous’
It was a chaotic start to the match, to say the least, with Harrington showing clear signs of nerves as he failed to capitalize on it, according to Van Dijk.
“Great return and very positive. With 10 players in the squad it was disappointing but we showed fight and kept trying to create chances. It could have been more but we took that point and moved on, ” Van Dijk said after the game (via BBC Sport).
“Keep calm. It’s easier said than done. It’s always difficult against them. We saw it last year and last week against Arsenal. We have to turn the situation around and keep fighting. We tried.
“I spoke to the Fulham players and we felt the referee was nervous. I felt he couldn’t communicate properly with Robertson. We can’t put the blame on the referee. We were all talking about protecting the referee but I couldn’t speak to him. It was It shouldn’t be a big deal because he’s not the reason why we lost points.
“That’s it. We get the points, recover quickly and get ready for Wednesday’s game.”
