Frank Lampard has refuted suggestions that Anthony Gordon goes down too easily after the Everton youngster went to ground twice in the Liverpool penalty area but was denied a spot-kick on both occasions, being shown the yellow card for simulation after the first incident.
Lampard declared straight after the game at Anfield that he felt the second claim would have been given if it had been a challenge on Mohamed Salah at the other end and Everton wrote to the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the group responsible for improving refereeing standards) to ask why they weren’t awarded a penalty.
Asked if he thought that Gordon goes down too easily, the Blues boss said: “I don’t think that’s the case, I think Anthony’s booking was the first of his senior career for simulation, someone will check me on that maybe but I know that’s what I’ve been told.
“If you’re looking at attacking players in the league, forward players, fast players that change direction very quickly and look at them when they change direction, if somebody sticks their leg out and makes contact, I think you can go back and find a lot of clips that look very similar to the first half incident. Whether that’s a penalty or not, I’m not going to sit here and say that’s a stonewall penalty but there’s definitely a contact.
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“The second half one is a penalty in my opinion. It won’t be in everyone’s opinion but in my firm, firm opinion it’s a penalty because Anthony was ahead of the defender, the defender stepped on his foot and gave him a push – not a big one – but one at pace, to knock him over and we didn’t get a penalty for it.
“None of us in this room run as quickly as Anthony or change direction as quickly as him and at that speed lots of wingers will have incidents in and around the box. I think it would be unfair to put that on Anthony, he doesn’t feel it, he’s a dedicated boy, he just wants to play well for this club.
“I played in the game for a long time and if I changed direction – maybe not as quickly as Anthony – and there was contact, I would go down, that happens. That isn’t simulation, that isn’t diving as far as I’m concerned, and that happens and has happened for years and years.
“Every player, English players, foreign players, Premier League players, Championship players and the fact is there’s a debate about it happening in the first half against Liverpool but the thing that for me was the most definite thing in the game was the penalty that should have been given in the second half.”
Gordon responded to the incident himself with a social media post and Lampard added: “The boy is a human and he knows if you get across somebody, it’s a foul, you want a penalty because you care. He loves playing for the club.
“I feel for Evertonians who travelled to Anfield and have to go for a beer after the game with their friends who are Reds. They know the game was there for us to go 1-0 up and it changes the face of it so I feel sorry for Evertonians there because in the bigger picture to that it can also affect what happens to us this season.
“There might be lots of reasons for the position we’re in but the reality of definite decisions that happen and go against you in big games against big teams, they can affect you with your points. Anthony is a great kid and possesses one of the greatest young attitudes I’ve experienced in the game.
“We’re playing against him this weekend and he’s very similar to Mason Mount, very similar in his attitude, application, his talent levels and he’s fine this week, he’s determined, that’s what he is.”
