Scott Parker's verdict on penalty and red card drama during Burnley v Liverpool
Scott Parker had no complaints with the awarding of Liverpool’s late penalty – but by the same token he refused to attach any blame to Hannibal.
The Burnley man was penalised after turning his back on Jeremie Frimpong’s stoppage-time cross, which rebounded off his elbow.
Referee Michael Oliver immediately pointed to the spot and Mo Salah dispatched the resulting spot kick to give Liverpool the three points.
For the Clarets, it was another cruel way to end a game they had performed so well in, with Parker unable to hide his disappointment.
“It's probably a penalty, but I've got no issues with Hann,” the Clarets boss said.
“It's two yards away, three, four yards away, the ball's coming at 80mph, he’s turned and as he's turned, it’s obviously a natural reaction that your arm does come out. If anyone wants to try, turn a little bit. The disappointment is maybe you could just front it up.
“The learning from it, from us, or certainly from me as a coach, is we probably need to train defenders to put their arms behind their backs.
“That’s a brand-new technique, I've never seen it in football, but I think you're probably going to have to see defenders with their arms behind their back. We'll probably have to work on something like that.”
It wasn’t the only major flash point during the game, with Burnley being reduced to 10 men in the 85th minute when Lesley Ugochukwu was shown a second yellow card.
The midfielder was initially booked during the first-half for a foul on Alexis Mac Allister. While Ugochukwu won the ball, his follow-through landed on the Liverpool players’ heel/ankle.
With a yellow to his name, Ugochukwu knew he had to be careful, but Oliver was given no option but to show a second booking for a blatant foul on Florian Wirtz 30 yards from goal.
“I've not seen it to be honest with you,” Parker said on the incident.
“But it looked a little bit like a second yellow, so I've probably got no complaints on that. It looked a bit like it, so I’ve got no complaints there.”
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