Stan Collymore urges PGMOL to act now after incident in Aston Villa loss v Liverpool
Stan Collymore has expressed his frustration over the quality of refereeing in the game between Liverpool and Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday.
Villa succumbed to a 2-0 loss to the Premier League table-toppers at Anfield on 9 November, courtesy of goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah.
A lot has been said about David Coote’s officiating in the game, with the visitors not happy with his decision to deny them a penalty after Pau Torres had his shirt pulled by Conor Bradley in the Reds box.
The hosts, meanwhile, were surprised to see the referee think Salah was not impeded in the lead-up to Nunez’s goal.
Collymore has said that he would not be pleased if he played for either team and stressed the need for the PGMOL to act now and rope in better referees.
“I thought it was incredibly poor, and if I were playing for Villa or Liverpool tonight I wouldn’t be happy with some key decisions”, Collymore wrote in response to a question on X (9 November).
“Until English football addresses the huge gap in quality referees compared to other nations, we’ll get a less than vintage crop. Same for every one of 20 teams.”
Aston Villa cannot blame refereeing for loss v Liverpool
The refereeing in the game was below par as some of Coote’s decisions annoyed both sides, but Aston Villa cannot blame the officiating entirely for their defeat.
Although Unai Emery’s side enjoyed possession in dangerous areas at times, they failed to make the most out of it, managing only two shots on target and hardly testing Caoimhin Kelleher in the second half.
Pitted against an out-of-form Andy Robertson, one would have expected Leon Bailey to make an impact from the right flank. However, he was largely ineffective before being replaced by Jaden Philogene in the 65th minute.
Villa also left the back door open during Liverpool’s counter-attacks, leading to both their goals. Nunez would have doubled the lead for the hosts in the first half had it not been for poor finishing on his part.
Emery’s side have now lost each of their four games in all competitions and have to wait until the end of the international break to try and return to winning ways.
In other Aston Villa news, Robbie Savage has dubbed this incident involving a Villa player last week as the “daftest” thing he has ever seen.
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