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Jack Grealish has confessed to feeling exasperated with the match officials during Saturday's Merseyside derby encounter between Liverpool and Everton.
Despite putting up a valiant fight, the Toffees departed the fixture with nothing to show for their efforts following a slender 2-1 defeat at Anfield. Ryan Gravenberch broke the deadlock for the Reds in the 10th minute of the match, latching onto Mohamed Salah's through ball and firing home on the volley to beat Jordan Pickford.
Hugo Ekitike then extended the advantage in the 29th minute, before Everton managed to reduce the deficit through Idrissa Gueye after 58 minutes had elapsed. Grealish has now revealed where things went wrong for Everton at Anfield.
Discussing the atmosphere at Anfield in an interview with TNT Sports, he commented: "It was what I expected, coming here it was hostile, faster.
"I don't think we played well in the first-half, we came in a half-time and had a chat with the manager and then second half, we lost the game in the second half.
"It's frustrating because if we had played like that, pressed like that from the start it would have been a different game. In the end we couldn't get that last goal."
He added: "It was a bit frustrating in the second half, because they were trying to slow the game down, at times. I've never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick!
"I don't know where that rule has come in. Even the stoppage time, what was it, three minutes and one minute? Come on, I've never seen that in the Premier League in the last two or three years."
When he was then asked if there were a few frustrations with the officials, Grealish added: "Yeah, of course.
"Listen, I get sometimes you want to let the game go. But then you can't not give something for us and then, two seconds later, one of their defenders gets touched in the back, goes down and he gives it.
"I'm just like, you can't do that. I get it, you come to these stadiums and the crowd are on you and I think they feel like they've got to give it.
"But like I said, I think Kieran [Dewsbury-Hall] is now on four yellows, he's only got one more [before a ban] and he gets a yellow today for taking a quick free-kick. We want to get the game going... we're losing the game. I've never heard of that in my life."
This follows Dewsbury-Hall's contentious booking by Darren England in the 78th minute for attempting a free-kick before the referee's whistle, as he desperately sought an equalizer with time running out.
Grealish himself received a yellow card after the final whistle when he approached the match officials to challenge their decisions during the encounter, before Pickford intervened to separate him from the situation.
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