Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer agree on controversial Liverpool vs Everton referee incident

Everton midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was shown a yellow card for taking a free-kick too quickly during Saturday’s Merseyside derby against Liverpool

Referee Darren England and Everton winger Jack Grealish

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer have both agreed that Everton midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall shouldn’t have been given a yellow card for taking a free-kick too quickly during Saturday’s Merseyside derby against Liverpool

Dewsbury-Hall, 27, in the 78th minute after he attempted to speed up the game with a quick free-kick. Trailing 2-1, Dewsbury-Hall was keen not to waste any time and passed the ball to Jack Grealish, but England blew his whistle and booked the former Leicester player.

David Moyes looked visibly frustrated on the sidelines, while Dewsbury-Hall and James Garner voiced their objections to the decision.

Now, Lineker and Shearer have joined the debate, both agreeing that the decision was harsh.

Firstly, former Everton striker Lineker commented on The Rest Is Football: “They had a bit of a gripe at the end didn’t they, and we should probably talk about it. They got a yellow card for taking a quick free-kick.

“Now, it should be encouraged – this is one of my pet peeves, what we need in the game is for free-kicks to be taken a lot quicker because at the moment it takes like a minute.

Everyone gets organised, the referee has to wait, he tells them to wait, this and that, everyone gets back. They’re talking about trying to eliminate time-wasting and the referees are the biggest time wasters of all because they want everything to be so slow and drawn out.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was booked for taking a free-kick prematurely(Image: 2025 Getty Images)

“What we should have enforced, the right to take a free-kick as quickly as you possibly want to because it should be the team that gets fouled, they should have some sort of advantage,” he added.

“But, at the moment, they don’t. So someone gets fouled like they did yesterday, they take a quick free-kick and then they’re penalised, double penalised.”

Shearer then labelled the decision as “madness”, expressing his frustration at Dewsbury-Hall’s yellow card.

“Unless you’re taking it from a ridiculous spot, like 20 or 30 yards nearer to the goal or something like that,” Shearer said. “Why does the referee have to set himself? You’re the team that has been punished. Your the team that had the foul given for you, yet you’re getting booked for taking a quick free-kick on the spot. It’s just madness.”

Alan Shearer was not impressed with the officiating

Grealish criticised the referee in his post-match interview, claiming he has never seen a player get booked for taking a quick free-kick in his entire career, suggesting that the Anfield crowd may have influenced the decision.

“I’ve never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick,” Grealish told TNT Sports. “I don’t know where that rule has come in. Even the stoppage-time, three minutes and one minute – I’ve never seen that in the Premier League in the last two or three years.

“There were frustrations with the referee. Sometimes you want to let the game go, I completely get that, but you can’t not give us something and then two seconds later one of their defenders goes down after getting touched in the back and he gives it.

“You come to these stadiums and the crowd are on them, I feel that they feel they have to give it. Kiernan is on four yellows now and he got one for taking a quick free-kick. We want to get the game going, we’re losing.”

Everton ultimately suffered a 2-1 defeat, with Idrissa Gueye netting in the second half after Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike had given Liverpool a commanding advantage.