Carabao Cup final: Liverpool’s Naby Keita should have seen red for Trevoh Chalobah tackle, says Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink | Football News

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink believes Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita should have been sent off during the Carabao Cup final for his “dangerous” challenge on Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah.

Chalobah revealed the tackle left him needing stitches in his leg and questioned the decision of referee Stuart Attwell to not award a free-kick or a card before VAR Darren England also dismissed the incident.

Keita – only playing because of a late injury to Thiago – caught the Chelsea defender with his studs high on the leg as they stretched to meet a loose ball midway through the second half of the thrilling Wembley showdown.

Attwell played advantage to Liverpool at the time and neither he nor the VAR saw fit to punish Keita, much to the amazement of Chalobah, who tweeted afterwards: “Had to get stitches because of this. Referee is right there I don’t get it?”

The centre-back went on to play the entire 120 minutes and scored his penalty in the shootout which Liverpool eventually won 11-10.

The potentially game-changing decision incensed former Chelsea striker Hasselbaink, who praised Attwell for his overall performance, but felt the referee and VAR should have reduced Liverpool to 10 men.

“I’m surprised that nothing was said about it,” he said. “If you look at Keita’s movement, he slows down and then he goes for the tackle but totally misses the ball and he hits the player really hard.

“For me, that is endangering the opposition and that should be a red card. I don’t understand that the referee didn’t see it and I don’t understand at all that VAR hasn’t seen it because this is a really bad foul. I’m very, very, very surprised.

“He knows what he’s doing because he doesn’t get injured, but he stays on the floor like he is hit. He knows ‘oh, I might be wrong here, I might be late’. He is significantly late. I don’t want to see players being sent off – it would have spoiled the game – but this is a really bad tackle.

“I think he refereed the game really well. He let it flow, the game was really good. I think there were no really bad tackles, apart from that one. Chalobah was really lucky to be able to play on. It was very dangerous.

“I clocked it straight away and I said ‘VAR is going to give a red card’. I was amazed that they didn’t do anything. Maybe they were thinking it’s going to spoil the final and you don’t want to see that, but sorry, the tackle was just not right.”

Redknapp: ‘The more I see it the worse it gets’

Jamie Redknapp and Jamie Carragher both initially thought Attwell and VAR had made the right decision, but changed their minds after reviewing replays during the post-match analysis.

“At the time I disagreed with you, but the more I see it the worse it gets,” said former Liverpool midfielder Redknapp. “What Keita does is I would call it the old fashioned… midfield players used to do it, as they’re running towards the ball they slow down. Keita, just before he gets to it, he slows himself down, he makes sure he’s not going to get hurt, and he definitely puts his foot into his groin area. I think he’s really, really lucky.”

Liverpool legend Carragher added: “When it initially happened, I thought the two of them had gone for it and completely missed the ball, that’s why I thought the referee let the game go on.

“Chalobah gets a slight touch which in some ways makes it worse. The longer you look at it, it’s not a great challenge. Slow motion looks worse, but it doesn’t look great.”

Sky Sports’ Paul Merson was also surprised no action was taken. He said: “It wasn’t great. He does follow through and he catches him badly. He’s caught him high, so he could have been sent off. Who’s sitting up there in that VAR, seriously? They look at what they want to look at.”

Ref Watch: Dermot Gallagher says Keita tackle deserved yellow

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher praised Attwell’s performance but believed the match should have been halted immediately following the Keita tackle and the Liverpool man shown a yellow card.

He said: “I thought he (Attwell) dealt with it really well. Both players were challenging high. That was the one decision I thought, ‘I wonder if he’ll regret that?’ I think he should have gone back and yellow carded him.

“I don’t think it was malicious challenge, I don’t think it was a brutal challenge. Both players were as high as each other. Probably the wisest decision was to stop play immediately but he didn’t, that was his choice, that’s how he refereed and as I say, I thought he refereed it brilliantly.”