Frank Lampard questioned the consistency of major decisions after Everton conceded a controversial second goal at Bournemouth.
The Blues boss believes play should have been halted in the build up as James Tarkowski lay stricken with a head injury in the Everton box. He pointed to an instance in the recent game against Crystal Palace - when an Everton attack was stopped due to a Palace player suffering a head injury - as he contested the legitimacy of the decision. He also said his instinct was that Lewis Cook should have been sent off for a lunge on Amadou Onana.
Both incidents were checked over by VAR but there was no intervention in Everton's favour in either case. Lampard acknowledged that, despite his frustration, Everton fell to defeat largely due to a poor performance at the Vitality Stadium.
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Kieffer Moore headed in Bournemouth's crucial second as Everton were seeking to find a response to Marcus Tavernier's opener. Tavernier scored after Jordan Pickford spilled a shot from Dominic Solanke. Tarkowski was then lying injured on the goal line in the build-up to the second and was still there as Moore rose between Vitalii Mykolenko and Conor Coady to power in a header. VAR checked the goal and found no foul in the build-up. It does not rule on head injuries.
Asked why he thought Everton lost, Lampard said: "The performance was poor, it was below par and in the Premier League you get beaten for that. A mistake for the first goal, the referee should disallow the second one, it shouldn't stand, you have got to stop the game, we got told this against Palace a few weeks ago. A defender goes down with a head injury and the game stops whilst the ball is in the box, so the referee got that one wrong. But it is not one to hang on because our reaction after that wasn't right. But it is difficult coming back in an away game at 2-0 down, it gives the fans and the opposition a lot of impetus but on our part it wasn't enough."
Everton's players, Pickford included, were incensed by the decision not to stop play. Later in the first half VAR was called in to check a ferocious lunge by Cook on Onana. The ECHO understands the foul was deemed to be reckless but not so serious as to warrant a red card. On that decision, Lampard said: "I haven't really hung on it too much. I saw it briefly, I thought it may have been a red. I haven't gone back to it."
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