‘Sham’, ‘Farce’ – Mark Goldbridge sympathises with Liverpool over ‘sickening’ moment at Anfield

Liverpool had an unlikely ally in Mark Goldbridge as the Manchester United-supporting podcaster fumed over events at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.

Andoni Iraola suffered his first defeat as the Reds’ head coach as, in their first match since being found guilty of 114 breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, Manchester City recorded a 3-0 win on Merseyside.

All three goals came after the ludicrously harsh 62nd-minute dismissal of Ryan Gravenberch for two yellow cards, with Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku netting within five minutes of the home side being reduced to 10 players.

Goldbridge disgusted over Haaland’s role in red card

In a series of posts on X, Goldbridge vented over the ‘farce’ of Man City continuing to play in the Premier League after their off-field misdemeanours and slammed the Norwegian for lobbying to get the Liverpool midfielder sent off.

That felt especially pertinent when, in the first few minutes of the game, Reds defender Ronald Araujo was booked for making a card gesture towards Chris Kavanagh after a foul by Marc Guehi on Lewis Koumas.

Some of the online posts from Goldbridge included:

‘Haaland has a word and the ref gets a card out. What a joke.’

‘Sickening. Haaland asks for a red. Then he scores. The league has zero integrity at the moment. It’s a farce.’

‘Hard to watch this. It’s a sham this league now.’

‘Funny how Liverpool player got booked for demanding a yellow. Haaland came over to get Gravenberch sent off and the ref obliges.’

‘This just isn’t right. The Premier League have a huge issue the longer this farce goes on.’

Goldbridge fighting Liverpool’s corner says it all…

When a staunch Man United supporter in Goldbridge is sympathising with Liverpool over what happened at Anfield today – and what’s gone on with Man City in recent years – then something clearly is not right.

Kavanagh was right to book Araujo for the petulant card gesture, but why then did he give Haaland a free pass for the same indiscretion just as Gravenberch was shown his second yellow card, which was undoubtedly the game-changing moment?

That the Norwegian gave his team the lead just two minutes later compounded the fury for Reds fans, who vented their ire by calling the visiting club ‘cheats’ towards the end of a game which was ruined by woeful refereeing.

We might see Pro Ref figurehead Howard Webb wheeled out publicly to cover for the officials in a few weeks’ time, but Goldbridge’s laments about the Premier League having ‘zero integrity’ will resonate with many football fans in this country.

Nothing will change this result for Liverpool, who’ll need to shake it off and focus on the Champions League fixture against LASK on Wednesday, but it certainly leaves a sour taste for not just their fans, but even some supporters of rival clubs.