Ex-refs chief urges Unai Emery to ‘have self-control’ as Aston Villa boss slammed vs Liverpool
Unai Emery can have no complaints after being cautioned by Stuart Attwell during Aston Villa’s defeat to Liverpool.
That is according to former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee, Keith Hackett, who exclusively told Football Insider that, while he understands the frustrations of time-wasting, there are no excuses for the manager’s actions.
Mohamed Salah was on target for Liverpool once again, opening the scoring after Giorgi Mamardashvili escaped the wrath of Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins on multiple occasions.
Ryan Gravenberch returned from injury with a goal to secure all three points at Villa Park on Saturday, 1 November, before his teammates played out the rest of the game, frustrating their opponents in the process.
Unai Emery lashes out at Dominik Szoboszlai
In the closing stages, Dominik Szoboszlai attempted to run the clock down, kicking the ball away from his teammate, who was waiting to take a throw-in right next to the Villa manager.
Emery and Villa are experiencing a much better run of form, but with time quickly disappearing, the former Arsenal boss was eager to get play restarted, come out of his area and onto the pitch to take the ball off the Liverpool man.
Attwell quickly ran over to the situation before anything got out of hand, dishing out yellow cards to both parties, but very little was done about the time-wasting at Villa Park.
Generally, the clampdown on time-wasting has been disappointing, or at least Hackett believes so, with many referees ignoring the new role around goalkeepers holding onto the ball for longer than eight seconds.
Keith Hackett has sympathy for the Aston Villa boss, but there are no excuses
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the former referee said: “Referees need to be more proactive about time-wasting. The lawmakers are concerned about the amount of time-wasting in the game.
“A bit of proactive refereeing would be fine, but I don’t condone the manager coming on and trying to speed up the game. That’s not his role. Near the end of the game, I understand that frustrations creep in.
“But he’s got to have self-control, so he’s rightly yellow-carded. Jarred Gillett won’t shirk from that. Referees need to step up a gear to prevent a problem.
“You could be standing 15 yards away, but a couple of blasts of the whistle would hurry things along. They let things escalate at times, with eventual yellow cards being given.”