Frank Lampard rues three key decisions as Coventry beaten by Everton
The Sky Blues boss felt his side should have had two penalties and seen a Toffees goal disallowed.
Coventry manager Frank Lampard was annoyed key decisions went against his side as he felt they should have had two penalties and one of Everton’s goals in their 3-1 win should have been ruled out.
James Tarkowski appeared to pull the hair of Caleb Yirenkyi as the pair challenged for a cross in the first half but no penalty was awarded.
The same went for Vitalii Mkykolenko’s tackle on Taiwo Awoniyi, which VAR ruled was marginally outside the box, while the second of Thierno Barry’s two goals was checked for handball but was allowed to stand.
“For sure, I have looked at them because emotions in the moment, sometimes you can’t be clear, but Tarky pulls on Caleb’s hair,” said ex-Everton boss Lampard.
“I think that’s a hard area to be in. What is a hair pull and what is not? He’s decided it is but it’s not enough.
“Taiwo, for me, on the line of the box is a penalty. You have to give the foul in real time anyway but the ref let it go. I thought it was a penalty by the time Myko’s knee is in the back of Taiwo’s knee.
“The Barry (second) one is handball, I’ve heard it didn’t hit his hand but he’s flicked it in with the final touch. VAR is there for that. Nothing went for us tonight.
“Well played Everton, they won the game and we knew it would be a tough match, but if three decisions are that big – I can’t sit here and say I know everything and they should give all three of them, but if one or two go our way they would clearly change the game.”
Rules were changed in relation to hair pulling this season, with the offence downgraded from a red card in most circumstances, but Lampard still felt the officials got the interpretation wrong.
Lampard was seen speaking to fourth official Sam Barrott at the start of the second half and the former Toffees boss added: “I was only told in an interview just now it was a hair pull but not enough of a hair pull. If they say it’s a hair pull, it’s a hair pull.
“The fourth official was staying away from the details. I didn’t get any details on the sideline.
“The rules are fine. It’s not a red card and I kind of get that, I think in a game of football a lot of stuff happens and it’s not absolutely dramatic, but the rule remains it’s foul so I felt it was a foul.”
Yann Gboho scored his first goal for Coventry but Barry’s double, taking his tally to 10 for the season, was followed by a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall goal nine minutes from time.
“Fabulous. I just mentioned it then, (Erling) Haaland’s worried about him catching him,” Toffees boss David Moyes, who disagreed with all Lampard’s views on the VAR decisions, said of Barry.
“If you look at a lot of the money being paid for big centre-forwards we have paid enough for him, but we took a bit of gamble on him and went early on him.”