Keith Hackett believes Julio Enciso should have been sent off minutes into his Ipswich Town debut against Liverpool and served an extended ban.
The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee confidentially told Football Insider that relying on on-field rulings, as recommended by Howard Webb, should be avoided for challenges like Enciso’s on Wataru Endo.
Enciso made his Tractor Boys debut against Anfield on Saturday (25 January), coming off the bench after arriving on loan from Brighton earlier that week.
Hackett believes the Ipswich debutant should not have been on the field for so long as his team lost 4-1 against Liverpool.
Julio Enciso lucky not to see red at Liverpool
Arne Slot’s team was already 4-0 up when Enciso came on in the 79th minute of their play at the weekend.
Liverpool had already secured victory with goals from Dominik Szoboszlai, Mo Salah, and Cody Gakpo, the second of which was subject to a lengthy VAR review.
Just two minutes after his arrival, Enciso created another flashpoint in the game with a challenge on Endo in which he appeared to jump and turn, catching the midfielder in the face.
That left the Japan international on the ground in discomfort for some minutes, but Salisbury eventually chose to simply book the Ipswich player.
However, there is some belief that Liverpool ought to have found themselves playing against ten men for the latter stages of the game, and that VAR should be directed to get involved in such incidents.
When asked by Football Insider if Enciso should have been sent off for that challenge, Hackett said:
“I think that this could easily have been red. I think the player’s lucky, I think the referee’s given him the benefit of the doubt and that’s why he’s got a yellow.
“But this could easily have been a red card, you can’t make challenges in that situation. But I think the referee’s given him a yellow and said ‘right fine’.
“I think the referee’s given him the benefit of the doubt. From my perspective I’ll be quite clear that these challenges should be outlawed in a game.
“Despite the fact that you don’t want to give a red card, I think you’ve got to give a red card because the boot’s high and it’s in the facial area.
“So therefore it’s endangering the safety of an opponent, it does have some force and therefore it’s serious foul play and my expectation would be that he goes.
“He’s very fortunate that the referee has given yellow, and surprised to some degree because I think there’s this aspect of VAR that could come in and say ‘look have a review of this’.
“These are the challenges where I do think, a yellow’s been given, I know that Howard Webb talks about referee’s call, but I think there’s an element here that says ‘have another look and make another call.”
Although the visitors pulled a goal back late on, that 4-1 win ensured Liverpool remain six points clear at the top of the Premier League table.
Ipswich, who were recently on the wrong end of a similar challenge when Christian Walton was caught by Brighton striker Joao Pedro, remain in the relegation zone.
