Ex-PGMOL chief calls for ‘investigation’ after ‘unacceptable’ event in thrilling Liverpool victory | OneFootball

A former PGMOL chief executive has called for an investigation from the Premier League after Liverpool saw off Newcastle in a pulsating encounter at St James’ Park on Monday night.

It had been billed as a potentially explosive fixture amid the backdrop of the Alexander Isak transfer saga and so it proved, with five yellow cards being dished out by Simon Hooper, who sent off Anthony Gordon for a dangerous challenge on Virgil van Dijk.

Rio Ngumoha came off the bench to score in the 10th minute of stoppage time at the end of the second half, and OptaJoe revealed afterwards that the ball was in play for only 40.8% of the match, the lowest in a Premier League match since Stoke’s 3-0 win over Blackburn in February 2010 (40%).

Hackett calls for investigation into number of stoppages in Liverpool win

Speaking to Football Insider, ex-PGMOL chief executive Keith Hackett was distinctly unimpressed with the amount of stoppages in Liverpool’s victory at St James’ Park, in which three Newcastle players were forced off through injury and 32 fouls were penalised.

The former top-flight official fumed: “This is frankly an unacceptable stat – it fails to deliver value for money to the paying fans. I would recommend that the Premier League launch an investigation to determine where time was lost. Once they have the facts, they can then produce an action plan.

“They should explore and determine if the stoppages were tactical – given the strength of the opposition, did one of the teams take measures to slow things down?

(Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

“Delaying the return of the ball into play at throw ins, corner kicks, free kicks etc – a review can easily determine time lost at various restarts. Did the substitution process take longer? Was there a large number of injury stoppages? How did the referee interventions slow things down?

“Hooper is an official who likes to keep his interventions to a minimum and create a good game flow. I would suggest that he is not to blame, but clearly can greatly influence the amount of game-time by ensuring the appropriate amount of added time is applied.

“The game has a problem that cannot be overlooked – the Premier League must investigate.”

Newcastle v Liverpool appeared to be an outlier in terms of stoppages

The tone of the match was set inside the first 10 minutes, when Joelinton and Kieran Trippier were both fortunate to avoid yellow cards before Ryan Gravenberch (deservedly) entered Hooper’s notebook.

The number of free kicks awarded last night (32) does seem like an outlier rather than the sign of a trend towards excessive stoppages – as per FBref, 435 fouls have been given in the Premier League so far this season, an average of 21.75 per fixture.

The number of yellow cards also exceeded the early-season average of 3.4 per game, with 68 handed out across the first 20 matches of the campaign, and Gordon’s red card is one of just three to have been awarded thus far (FBref).

We can understand Hackett’s annoyance over the number of stoppages in Liverpool’s win on Tyneside – the clock showed 102 minutes when Hopper blew for full-time – although the evidence would suggest that it was a particuarly stop-start match rather than a trend-setter.

What we can say for sure is that the abnormally low ball-in-play time didn’t detract from the game as a spectacle, with no shortage of drama at St James’ Park as Ngumoha preserved the Reds’ 100% start to the campaign, a feat matched only by Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur after just two gameweeks.