Michael Owen and Shaun Wright-Phillips disagreed over the awarding of a penalty during Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Fulham in the Premier League on Wednesday night at Anfield.
Fulham defender Issa Diop was adjudged to have fouled Darwin Nunez as he tried to make a clearance, but rather than make contact with the ball, he just swiped at thin air.
That’s when Nunez was nipping in to get the ball and on-field referee Stuart Attwell felt that Diop caught his man and a penalty was given to Liverpool.
Just like against Tottenham Hotspur over the weekend, Mohamed Salah, who had previously missed a number of spot-kicks, went down the middle again and scored the only goal of the game.
It’s a vital three points for the Reds because it keeps their slim chances of a top-four finish alive, as they sit in fifth place.
But the awarding of the penalty was huge and both Owen and Wright-Phillips couldn’t come to an agreement about it, as they told Premier League Productions (03/05/23 at 10:50 pm).
“I am not (convinced it’s a penalty),” responded Wright-Phillips. “I can’t. Not with that. I get it, he swings. But there is no contact with the leg he swings with. The other leg is standing still, so for that to happen, he has initiated it.
Owen responded: “I get what he is saying. When I saw it, I thought it was a stone-cold banker of a penalty. Nunez dips in, but Diop is slow, ponderous, dreaming and I don’t know what he is doing. When I first looked at that I thought ‘Oh, he has mugged him and he’s nipped in and bought a penalty’. But when you look at it from this angle (corner flag view), the left foot doesn’t catch him. There is the brushing of a leg. There is contact there.
Wright-Phillips added: “You can be honest, you can say it’s not.” to which Owen responded: “60-40. Just a penalty. The very fact that he thinks it’s probably not a penalty. I think it probably is a penalty. Well, there you go, there is a debate there.”
Wright-Phillips added: “You said ‘he brushes him’. If we got a penalty every time somebody ‘brushed somebody’, then we would have loads of them.” Owen then argued: “If he has just stood still, you go past him and brush him, then I get it. But he is swinging his leg. If he continues his run normally, then he probably gets a right good kick-in. He has to jump out of the way.”
SWP: “I think it should have been looked at by the referee. He should have gone to the monitor and had a good look at that. I don’t think you should give penalties for that, otherwise, defenders can’t go near anybody.” to which Owen added “What do you mean? He has just swung at him. It’s not a howler.”
IF THE SHOE WAS ON THE OTHER FOOT…
It would have been interesting to see Jurgen Klopp’s reaction if the shoe was on the other foot and his side had lost the game because of that penalty.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if he wouldn’t have been happy about it because Nunez did very well to buy that spot kick.
Perhaps the mistake the on-field referee made was not going to the monitor and checking his decision because it certainly wasn’t clear and obvious.
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