Roy Keane blasted Liverpool’s, Jordan Henderson, on ITV Sport on Sunday afternoon for taking the penalty away from Everton striker, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, during England’s 1-0 win against Romania.
After Calvert-Lewin was fouled, it looked like he was going to step up and take the penalty, only for Liverpool’s midfielder to take the ball away from him and take it himself.
Henderson ended up seeing his penalty saved, as England held on to secure the win.
The only goal of the game actually came from the spot-kick itself when Jack Grealish was fouled and it was converted by Marcus Rashford – but he was off the pitch by the time the other penalty was awarded.
Keane wasn’t happy with Henderson’s actions and he thinks Calvert-Lewin should have told the Liverpool midfielder to ‘back away’.
“He should have fought his corner there,” said Keane. “Showed a bit more maturity and say ‘I don’t care who you are. I have won the penalty and I’m the striker. You have been out of the game for three and a half months. Back away’.
“Strikers are supposed to be selfish – Jordan’s come over, it’s not like he’s scored loads of penalties or loads of goals. You are the striker. You have won the penalty.
“You’re lying (after Wright suggested he would have given the ball to Henderson to not cause a fuss). You wouldn’t give it to Messi or Maradona – he shouldn’t have given it, it’s not a good sign from him (DCL).”
In truth, that wouldn’t happen in a competitive game, but Calvert-Lewin still should have taken the spot-kick because he was the main and only striker on the pitch, at the time.
But if the Everton forward did cause a fuss and told Henderson to ‘back away’ then he would have just caused an unnecessary scene on the field.
Either way, other than penalty shoot-outs, it’s fair to say that England fans won’t see Henderson taking a spot-kick any time soon during these next few weeks.
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