Sky Sports pundit: ‘Big trouble’ avoided by Jack Clarke after incident in Leeds United loss v Sunderland
Jack Clarke was fortunate to avoid a red card for a shirt pull on Crysencio Summerville as Leeds United lost 1-0 to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday.
In the second half, Summerville was counter-attacking against the Black Cats and only ex-Leeds attacker Clarke could keep up with him.
However, replays show that Clarke pulled Summerville’s shirt and due to the fact the Dutchman didn’t go down, it potentially stopped the referee from showing a red card to Clarke for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Ex-Reading player Jobi McAnuff admits that Clarke avoided a lot of trouble due to Summerville staying on his feet.
Speaking on Sky Sports News on Tuesday night (12 December, 09:33pm), McAnuff said: “Summerville has a really good opportunity to go and break and get in.
“The ball drops here and Jack Clarke does really well initially to stop him but he does give [Summerville] a bit of a pull.
“If Summerville goes down a little bit earlier, he could have been in big trouble.
“But he doesn’t, he wants to try and score his goal but nothing comes of it in the end.”
It’s a red
A player doesn’t have to go down to be fouled.
Summerville was slowed down and pretty much stopped by Clarke pulling at his shirt.
If he didn’t do that, the Dutch dazzler could have had a clear sight at goal and that means the ex-Leeds academy player should have been sent off for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Referees have caused the game to go down the pan with their stupid decision making.
Players now have to throw themselves to the ground to win a foul because referees are too bad in this country to realise when a foul is made.
A shirt pull is a shirt pull – there’s no denying it. So when Clarke pulled back Summerville by his shirt, it should have been pulled up for a foul and then the appropriate punishment should have been dished out.
That’s now two games in a row where Sunderland have avoided a player being sent off after Dan Ballard crippled West Brom forward Josh Maja with a two-footed challenge from behind.
They’ll just keep injuring players and getting away with breaking the rules of the game if referees do not act and start sending their players off.
In other Leeds United news, FIFA red tape is blocking Leeds’ move for this left-back in January.