‘It’s so obvious’ - Sky Sports Ref Watch panel disagree over Pascal Gross red card incident

The Sky Sports Ref Watch team disagreed over the decision not to send off Pascal Gross during Liverpool’s 2-2 with Brighton over the weekend.

A double from Mohamed Salah seemingly set Jurgen Klopp’s side on their way to an away victory, but a late goal from Lewis Dunk saw them fall short of another victory.

But there was certainly controversy around the failure to award Gross a red card for his pull-back on Dominik Szoboszlai for the penalty which Salah converted.

Szoboszlai was set to put Liverpool ahead with the goal at his mercy before the German’s intervention, and fans were incensed when referee Anthony Taylor failed to brandish a red card for the incident.

It drew a very lively reaction, as you could imagine, from Jurgen Klopp who said: “I don’t know - I really have no idea. I thought when the foul is in the penalty box, then it’s a yellow card. If it would have been outside, then a red. I don’t know - don’t talk to me about the rules. I take what I get.”

Before then commenting in his post-match press conference that: “I’m over it. I’m too old for these kind of things. It won’t change it.”

In terms fo the comments from the Ref Watch team, ex-professionals Stephen Warnock and Sue Smith disagreed with former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher who had an understanding as to why it wasn’t given while the duo of ex-players agreed wholeheartedly that it should have been a red.

“I think it’s a combination of a few things” Gallagher explained when asked why it wasn’t a red card.

“He’s not going directly at goal, the ball has run away - I get it, the ball has run away because he’s pulled back, the goalkeeper is also very close and if you look there’s a defender coming round.

“I think there’s a lot of moving parts there, what I would say is that if you give a yellow card this debate would be a lot more diluted - people would accept there would be some kind of punishment.” Gallagher concluded.

Warnock and Smith then gave an alternative view, claiming it was a clear and obvious red card: “We felt that it was an obvious goalscoring opportunity for Szoboszlai” Warnock began.

“And then the pullback of the shirt is so clinical it’s just so obvious. I think he knows he’s lost his player and the only way he can make a challenge is by pulling his shirt to pull him closer to him. If he doesn’t pull his shirt then he can’t make the challenge because Szoboszlai is two yards away from him.”