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Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer have both concurred that Everton midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall ought not to have received a yellow card for executing a free-kick too hastily during Saturday's Merseyside derby against Liverpool.
Referee Darren England cautioned Dewsbury-Hall, 27, in the 78th minute after he endeavoured to accelerate the tempo with a swift free-kick. With his side trailing 2-1, Dewsbury-Hall was eager to avoid squandering precious time and delivered the ball to Jack Grealish, but England sounded his whistle and booked the former Leicester player.
David Moyes appeared visibly exasperated on the touchline, whilst Dewsbury-Hall and James Garner expressed their displeasure at the ruling.
Meanwhile, Jack Grealish lambasted the referee in his post-match interview, insisting he has never witnessed a player receive a booking for executing a rapid free-kick throughout his entire career, hinting that the Anfield atmosphere may have swayed the decision.
"I've never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick," Grealish told TNT Sports. "I don't know where that rule has come in. Even the stoppage-time, three minutes and one minute – I've never seen that in the Premier League in the last two or three years.
"There were frustrations with the referee. Sometimes you want to let the game go, I completely get that, but you can't not give us something and then two seconds later one of their defenders goes down after getting touched in the back and he gives it.
"You come to these stadiums and the crowd are on them, I feel that they feel they have to give it. Kiernan is on four yellows now and he got one for taking a quick free-kick. We want to get the game going, we're losing."
Now, Lineker and Shearer have waded into the discussion, both concurring that the ruling was overly severe.
Initially, former Everton forward Lineker remarked on The Rest Is Football: "They had a bit of a gripe at the end didn't they, and we should probably talk about it. They got a yellow card for taking a quick free-kick.
"Now, it should be encouraged – this is one of my pet peeves, what we need in the game is for free-kicks to be taken a lot quicker because at the moment it takes like a minute.
"Everyone gets organised, the referee has to wait, he tells them to wait, this and that, everyone gets back. They're talking about trying to eliminate time-wasting and the referees are the biggest time wasters of all because they want everything to be so slow and drawn out.
"What we should have enforced, the right to take a free-kick as quickly as you possibly want to because it should be the team that gets fouled, they should have some sort of advantage," he added.
"But, at the moment, they don't. So someone gets fouled like they did yesterday, they take a quick free-kick and then they're penalised, double penalised."
Shearer subsequently branded the ruling as "madness", voicing his exasperation at Dewsbury-Hall's yellow card. "Unless you're taking it from a ridiculous spot, like 20 or 30 yards nearer to the goal or something like that," Shearer said.
"Why does the referee have to set himself? You're the team that has been punished. Your the team that had the foul given for you, yet you're getting booked for taking a quick free-kick on the spot. It's just madness."
Everton were eventually beaten 2-1, with Idrissa Gueye finding the net after the interval following earlier strikes from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike that had put Liverpool in control.
The Toffees created the better opportunities in the dying moments but couldn't find that vital equaliser and left Anfield empty-handed.
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