Jordan Pickford will face no retrospective punishment for his shocking challenge on Virgil van Dijk, according to The Athletic‘s David Ornstein.
Van Dijk has been ruled out for most of the season with an ACL injury, following Pickford’s dreadful tackle in Saturday’s Merseyside derby.
The Everton goalkeeper launched into the Liverpool centre-back early on in the 2-2 draw at Goodison Park, forcing him off the pitch.
Despite rumours that Pickford could still be banned after the dust has settled, this latest reliable report claims that won’t be the case.
Ornstein says that ‘the FA’s policy is to issue retrospective punishment only for red-card offences that are not seen by match officials at the time, including the VAR.’
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I think it seems completely wrong that Pickford should avoid a ban simply because he wasn’t sent-off at the time. That decision in itself almost beggared belief, even though Van Dijk was in an offside position at the time – it was one of the worst tackles you could wish to see.
Call it cynical, but you have to wonder if Pickford being England’s No.1 goalkeeper has helped him out in this instance, even though Ornstein does state what the FA’s policy is.
Had it been an England international on the receiving end of that tackle, from a foreign goalkeeper, would there have been more of an outcry? In a sense, at the FA ‘looking after their own’ as it were?
Liverpool have to move on and regroup now, though, and not let the injustice of Saturday impact their season. If anything, they should use it to create a siege mentality, using it as inspiration as they look to win back-to-back Premier League titles.
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