Should Javier Mascherano have been sent from the field at Old Trafford? Of course. Andy Gray was not watching the same match when he suggested that referee Steve Bennett should have involved Steven Gerrard as an arbiter when the Argentinian did little less than lose his mind.
Witness the player's behaviour throughout that fateful first half. When he was booked for a tackle on Paul Scholes, which was a rash one to say the least, his reaction suggested he had been watching too many replays of Ashley Cole at Stamford Bridge last Wednesday. He walked away from the referee, refused for a time to turn around and when he did so his comments to Bennett were clear to the lip-readers. "Fuck off, fuck off." No problem with the player’s English there then.
There were at least three other incidents throughout the half which, by the time it ticked into its 40th minute, had Gerrard and Alonso trying in vain to calm the player down and Bennett purposely trying to ignore him. Any suggestions that Bennett showed him a red card because, as fourth official, he had been implicated in the Cole debacle at Chelsea, are misplaced and wrong-headed. There was much more to it than his gallop across the pitch to remonstrate over a Torres booking.
Liverpool should not challenge the FA charge which is about to be levelled at Mascherano, and Benitez’s air of denial in all of this is curious since he seemed to see the red card coming. He leapt from the dug-out to remonstrate with Mascherano and held his head in his hands when he was dismissed.
Though the club show no sign of it, Mascherano now needs dealing with. John Arne Riise suggests the player is just hot headed and will learn but we have seen more evidence of the player’s dubious temperament in the past month. He was a nark at Anfield when Liverpool overcame Middlesbrough last month, petulantly tweaking Jeremie Aliadiere’s nose in an incident which saw Aliadiere sent off.
Alex Ferguson spoke ahead of Sunday’s game of United’s pivotal moment in their treatment of referees: the surrounding of Andy D'Urso, who was was virtually chased towards the corner flag after awarding Middlesbrough a penalty at Old Trafford eight years ago. Sunday must become Liverpool’s Damascene moment.
Andy Gray is simply protecting his contract/position as Sky anchor man and doesn't want to be pulled from the future Liverpool games, let's face it would we want to be left with the vacuous Jamie Redknapp... Mascherano was wrong on the day in his behaviour and had to take the red card, but if you judged the majority players by what they say to the ref during the 90 mins then most games would end up 4 a side. Is the problem with Liverpool dealing with their Argie hot head or the Premiership dealing with the behaviour of all their players ? Putting some simple codes of practice in place when dealing with the public ie TV audience wouldn't hurt. We can all be passionate about our work but don't have to abuse the Ref/Boss/Public to achieve and enjoy ourselves.
Posted by: Paulo Careca | 24 March 2008 at 11:13 PM
What a load of unsubstantiated nonsense. You obviously were not watching the match. Even though he swore at the referee was he the only player to do so? Why did Torres get booked for complaining about being fouled whilst Ronaldo and the Man United attackers did the same and got nothing. Of course Mascherano had every right to be wound up because the referee was a "Homer". The issue is that when he spoke to Steve Bennett, he clamed himself down and asked a simple question. You can dress it up however you like but there is no justification for either of those bookings.
Steve Bennett had no excuse to book Torres (who eventually went off injured because he was kicked off the park) and when that was questioned he didn't have to bottle to explain himself. If he was so concerned about Mascherano swearing at him before then, he should spoken to him and warned him.
Posted by: Scott Summers | 24 March 2008 at 11:21 PM
Of course he deserved to be sent off, and i'm a Liverpool supporter. Rather than support him, Benitez ought to fine him for letting down the rest of the team. No wonder referees can't do there job, most people would have punched the little xxxhole.
Posted by: COLIN MILLIN | 24 March 2008 at 11:22 PM
Mascherano should learn to keep his mouth shut. On at least six occasions he was shown mouthing off at the ref and was lucky not to be sent off earlier. Bennett also warned the player that if he didn`t move away he would book him. Mascherano has no-one else to blame but himself for ignoring that piece of advice. Its also odd that a `corrupt` ref should ignore a clear cut penalty when Carragher hacked at Rooney and overlook the opportunity it provided to send off a player who was the last defender. As for Torres, anyone who makes a mouth with his hand and then moves it up and down in a chatting gesture towards the ref is showing dissent and it brought him the yellow card it so richly deserved. Oh, and he`s fit to join the Spanish squad, its Ronaldo and Nani who have had to pull out due to injury.
Posted by: Jim | 25 March 2008 at 01:30 AM
Well....Masch more or less deserve what he got but it was a BIG game. i mean come on why does Bennet has to prove a point on this Particular game!? in the past the was lot more steamy action between ref and players, after all this is wat english football all about. Torres was getting his ass kicked all night and when he returns the favour guess what he got?... i hope that in the future the Ref are more consistent and shows more professionalism (same goes to the players). Man Utd....theres always time to beat you guys hehehehehe
Posted by: mojohoojo die hard Liverpudlian | 25 March 2008 at 02:56 AM
Hot headed? Do you blame him? Masch's question to Bennet: What was that for?
That's a sending off offense is it?
Well done Ian, congrajulations on The Independent's most ridiculous blog entry to date.
Posted by: Mithran | 25 March 2008 at 04:48 AM
James Lawton's article says it all. However I find it strange with his continued attack on Ronaldo not being a big game player and describing his performance as "embarrassingly inconsequential, apart from his goal" and only scoring against the EPL cannon fodder. The guy obviously does not realise that you need to score to win a game and that every player in the league plays against the same cannon fodder but not one of them has scored 25 times. Ronaldo hit a post and a cross bar as well against LFC. I am sure Stevie Me would not have minded such an embarassingly inconsequential game. He then goes on to say that he can redeem himself in the remaining games of the year. 25 goals in the league from a winger. Top scorer in the Champions league, won the title for United almost single handedly last year (and again this year most likely), took his country to a semi final of a World Cup but is not a big game player. James Lawton should be embarassed by what he wrote.
Posted by: John Hammer | 25 March 2008 at 05:14 AM
The only person who needs the FA to review video evidence is Steve Bennett he officiated this match with a preset agenda and his performance was at the least questionable .
Even Andy Gray ( as Blue nosed as you can get ) was firmly on the side of Mascherano in his Last Word review on sunday evening he clearly showed the Torres incident where Rio Ferdinand kicked out at Torres then Paul Scholes kicked him and stood on his calf and then Ferdinand chopped him to the ground , all this with Steve Bennett only 3 yards away AND WHO GETS BOOKED , Torres . no wonder the Liverpool players were incensed . However at no time did any Liverpool player approach the ref in an aggressive or abusive manner unlike many incidents involving Chelsea or Manchester united players where they run at the ref snarling and swearing .and before you all get excited even Steve Bennett confirmed that during this incident he was not sworn at .
Posted by: sherby | 25 March 2008 at 09:32 AM
I have followed Liverpool since the Shankley era and watched the game with Man Utd supporting friends.
My team has always stood for fair play and even if losing, could once be relied upon to stay cool, keep its mouth shut and play football.
Happily, my son's lip reading abilities are not good, but I continue to be aghast at the seemingly acceptable levels of verbal abuse meted out to refs every weekend. In rugby union, dissent is dealt with promptly and players know that to bad mouth a decision will lose the team 10 yards.
We continue to pay footballers obscene amounts of money, hold them up as idols and men our children should try to emulate. Yet we continually condone petulant juvenile behaviour on the pitch and the constant haranging of officials. What sort of example is that?
And what is Rafa thinking of? Get down off the fence man, your player was way out of line and you should deal with him severely. Dont wait for a eunuchoid league to mete it out. This is worse than the Souness era!
Posted by: Mike Bacon | 25 March 2008 at 12:56 PM
Mascherano got what he deserved - shame for Liverpool that he helped Man Utd win the game and probably the title. He should have been sent off earlier in my view as he did not respect the referee and he does appear to be a player who will only learn from his mistakes. Bennett still appeared to be a homer ref, but it makes a change that he's supporting someone other than Liverpool!
Posted by: scazz | 25 March 2008 at 06:56 PM
Err Jim, Mr Bennett at no time warned Mascherano that he would be sent off. That's just pure revisionism. Also people saying he was insulting or disrespecting the referee by swearing are wide off the mark. He was simply expressing his disbelief at decisions in a distasteful manner to some. Bear in mind that English is not his first language and when he scored the week before he expressed his joy using the same term. The facts of the matter are that Bennett was played by Ferguson in the build-up to the game and his decisions showed that. There is no logical explanation for the booking of Torres who had just been hacked down by 2 United players. The fact that 2 Man U players committed fouls but 2 Liverpool players collected bookings from that passage of play beggar's belief and shows the incredible stupidity of Mr Bennett's decisions. He should be held to account for his decisions on the day.
Posted by: Scott Summers | 25 March 2008 at 11:39 PM