Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard set to avoid FA action over Jon Moss comments – report
Steven Gerrard will escape FA punishment for his comments on referee Jon Moss’ performance in the 2-1 Aston Villa loss to Liverpool, i News reports.
A game which saw a number of heavy challenges produced zero cards from the official, while what appeared to be a stamp from Naby Keita on the ankle of Villans’ midfielder Douglas Luiz was given as a Reds free kick.
The home side were also unhappy at what they saw as a foul in the build-up to Joel Matip’s equaliser that was not called.
Following the game on Tuesday (10 May) the former Anfield captain spoke to the media and when asked about Moss he said, via a clip posted to Twitter by Football Daily: “No comment, I just hope that it’s [Moss’ performance] looked at. That’s all I’ll say, I just hope it’s looked at.
“Hope. I hope it’s looked at.
“No [I haven’t been to speak to him]… I just hope Jon’s performance is looked at.
“I don’t want to get into trouble, and I don’t want to be sour. We’ve lost the game, Liverpool have scored two goals against us. We need to look at that.
“I don’t want to cover over any cracks but you asked me a question and I said I hope the referee’s performance is looked at.”
In response to hearing that the 51-year-old referee is set to retire following the season Gerrard replied: “Is he? Good.”
Tightrope
The FA have apparently reviewed the comments and decided they didn’t bring the game into disrepute.
Former Rangers manager Gerrard is clearly implying very heavily that Moss was poor in the game, but by not explicitly saying so, or why, he has been successful in not bringing trouble on himself.
The governing body reacted differently after another recent Liverpool match when they charged Everton boss Frank Lampard for suggesting the home side’s Mohamed Salah would have been awarded a penalty at Anfield, where his player Anthony Gordon was ignored by Stuart Attwell.
In that instance he specifically said that the two teams were treated differently, and therefore suggested bias which brings the game into disrepute in the FA’s view.
Referees simply being wrong also brings the game into disrepute of course, but undermining the game through incompetence is not generally seen as the same level of seriousness compared to doing it deliberately.
The end result may end up being the same but the intent is relevant, and criticism of referees tends to be cracked down on even when it may be accurate.
With Moss retiring within weeks there is little likely to come back on him either way, but it isn’t a great look to be going out amid complaints at the end of an 11-year career, especially when he is set to take up a role with the PGMOL managing the top referees in the country next.
In other Aston Villa news, the club are interested in Sunderland midfielder Dan Neil.