Gerrard slams derby refereeing

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has slammed two refereeing decisions that he believes denied the Reds three points against Everton.

The teams played out a 2-2 draw in the Merseyside derby on Sunday.

Gerrard bemoaned the decision to award Everton the throw-in that led to Steven Naismith’s equaliser but focused most of his attention on the controversial ruling out of Luis Suarez’s strike in the final minute of injury time.

The Uruguayan tucked home Sebastien Coates’ knockdown in the penalty area in stoppage time but appeared to be incorrectly denied by the offside flag.

“I’ve seen it again and we can feel sorry ourselves because it was a clear goal,” Gerrard told the Liverpool Echo of the Suarez incident.

“We should be taking away the three points rather than just one. There is no offside and it’s difficult for me to explain it. The only person who can explain it is the linesman.

“I asked him after the game if it was offside and he said ‘I think so’. That’s not good enough. If every decision in this league is based on ‘we think so’ then we’re in trouble.

“The linesman got it badly wrong. The benefit of the doubt is supposed to go to the attacking player anyway.

“And for their second goal, it’s a clear throw-in to us. The linesman gives us the throw but the referee saw something different. He gave Everton the throw and their second goal came from that.

“I feel sorry for our lads because I thought we were fantastic today and deserved to win. We had a young, small team out there but they were all men today and stuck together. There was one team here who came to play football and win the game and that was us.”

Gerrard also hit out at Everton captain Phil Neville, who was booked for diving in the second half of the match at Goodison Park.

Simulation had already become a talking point when Suarez responded to David Moyes’ criticism of him by feigning a dive in front of the Toffees boss after the visitors’ opening goal.

“I think Phil Neville badly let his manager down today,” Gerrard said. “His manager did every paper, every radio station and every TV channel talking about Luis Suarez and then his captain, who is meant to be setting an example, blatantly dives.

“If David Moyes is a real man and a real manager, which I think he is, then he will be speaking to Phil Neville about it.

“With what he said about Luis Suarez before, David Moyes was trying to get in the referee’s head, which is fine, that’s all part of the game stuff like that, but you don’t expect your captain to dive like that.

“Luis Suarez was fantastic for us again today. I can’t control what he does when he scores a goal, I was just happy to see it hit the back of the net.

“He doesn’t need David Moyes to fire him up. But if people want to try to get in Luis’ head and wind him up then it’s the wrong thing to do. You saw from today’s evidence that it seems to inspire him rather than go against him.”