James Tarkowski Knew Exactly What He Was Doing – Ex-PL Star Slams Challenge On Alexis Mac Allister | OneFootball

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Former Premier League midfielder Craig Burley has claimed that Everton star James Tarkowski knew what he was doing when he made a reckless challenge on Liverpool‘s Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby.

Tarkowski came out as the hero in the previous Merseyside derby in February, where he scored an injury-time goal to seal a 2-2 draw, but he is now a controversial figure after Wednesday’s Premier League game against Liverpool.

The 32-year-old centre-back went into a challenge against Mac Allister where he initially won the ball but, in the follow-through, made dangerous contact with his studs on the Argentine’s leg, and he was shown a yellow card for the tackle with VAR agreeing with the on-field referee’s decision.

Liverpool managed to win the game 1-0 in the end, but the incident has sparked anger among former players and the Reds fans regarding Tarkowski not being sent off for the tackle.

Burley admitted that the tackle was horrific and thinks that Liverpool star Mac Allister should consider himself lucky, as his foot was not firmly placed on the ground during the tackle; otherwise, he could have suffered grave injury.

Ex-Premier League star Burley thinks that Tarkowski’s tackle was something that in the past players used to make consciously to hurt an opposition player and claimed that the Everton centre-back was fully aware of what he was doing.

“It is the kind of challenge back in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s and in the early 2000s when a player was annoying you or giving you a lot of chat or you were in a bit of a scuffle with them all game; when a ball landed like that, you thought, ‘right I play the ball here, it is not going to be a free kick and I am going to wipe him out'”, Burley said on ESPN FC (3:15).

“He [Tarkowski] knows exactly what he is doing there and let me tell you Alexis Mac Allister is very lucky that his full boot was not planted into the ground… but it was a horror show.”

Diogo Jota scored the only goal of the game to hand Liverpool the bragging rights on Wednesday and ended David Moyes’ nine game unbeaten run in the Premier League.

With the win over Everton, Liverpool have established a 12-point lead over Arsenal in the league table and they progressed one step closer to lifting the Premier League title.