Michael Owen and Leon Osman criticized Fabinho’s imprint on Mario Lemina during Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Wolves on Wednesday night, and how he “has the history” to deal with those challenges.
Much to the confusion of him and his team-mates, the Liverpool midfielder was booked for his challenge at Anfield, as they appeared to believe Lemina was the guilty party.
Wolves signed in January to chase down his poor touch and slid towards the ball when Fabinho shot, with the Liverpool man over Lemina’s leg high and grabbing the player’s leg.
While Fabinho and the Liverpool players were surprised that he was shown the yellow card, when they look back on the challenge they will realize that a red card should have been shown.
But it’s not the first time the Brazil international has been involved in very dangerous tackles recently, as he has done so recently against Brighton and Evan Ferguson.
Leon Osman talked about it, and Michael Owen agreed that the player in question knew what he was doing, As they told Premier League Productions (01/03/23 10:35pm).
“Of course he has the ball,” Osman said. “He’s late and he has a recent history of wrong tackles. There is a stretch, no doubt.
“But he went over it with his left foot and it made contact with Lemina’s knee. I certainly think he knew what he was doing there.”
Owen: “Honestly, I definitely think he knows what he’s doing. He was shown a yellow card, so the referee obviously saw that and thought the yellow card was enough.”
Fabinho is lucky
Even with VAR, the referee’s call was not overturned, which just goes to show that those in power still don’t know how to steer their boat.
The referee was there to protect the player and at that moment, Fabinho should have been straight red.
Either way, with United visiting Anfield on Sunday, you can bet your bottom line, with Casemiro at the other end, that this duo will be cautious, aggressive and on the front foot in midfield.
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