Liverpool have decided against appealing Jamie Carragher’s sending off in their 3-1 defeat at Fulham on Saturday.
Rafa Benitez had insisted after the game that he would be seeking to challenge both Lee Mason’s decision to send off his captain and Philipp Degen. Liverpool have decided to drop their objection to Carragher’s dismissal but will contest Degen’s sending off for a wild lunge at Clint Dempsey.
Carragher had claimed that he won the ball in his duel with Zamora as the Fulham forward raced towards goal. Perhaps he has now realised that you can’t have both hands round the opponent and pull him towards the ground before making a tackle from behind.
Carragher will now miss Liverpool’s next league game, which is against Birmingham on Monday.
this is how I came to see it too. At first I thought the decision harsh, but he’s really all over Zamora so it had to be a foul. And even the Degen tackle, which was really a yellow, wasn’t that bad a call by Mason.
Both Carragher and Kyrgiakos had their hands all over Zamora all afternoon. It was the only way they could stop him. The only way Carragher could touch the ball with his tackle was by holding Bobby back. It was a foul – and a clear red card. He seems to be in the middle of a bad trot of form, which is worrying for Liverpool.
I said to a mate of mine as we watched the replay afterwards that if Clint had his foot planted he could have been looking at a serious injury. One of my London-based Liverpool fans suggested that Dempsey had overreacted, to which I had to laugh. He didn’t role around or complain to the referee at all. Add that to the list of ways he makes Drogba look shite.