Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand was left stunned by Liverpool’s failure to field a single Englishman in their starting XI for the side’s 2-2 draw with Everton.
The last-ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park exploded at the death as James Tarkowski volleyed home a thunderous strike to rescue the Toffees a valuable point eight minutes into added time.
Premier League leaders Liverpool had looked to have completed a spirited turnaround, with Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah both hitting the target after Beto’s 11th-minute opener.
But Tarkowski’s late heroics mean second-placed Arsenal could close the gap at the top to just four points ahead of Liverpool’s next match with Wolves and the Reds’ frustrations were clear to see after the final whistle.
Curtis Jones was left apoplectic by Abdoulaye Doucoure’s decision to taunt and shush Liverpool’s away support during Everton’s celebrations, which resulted in a heated fracas and both players being sent off.
Arne Slot and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff were also given their marching orders in the immediate aftermath, adamant that Tarkowski’s stunning injury-time equaliser should have been disallowed over a foul in the build-up.
While the visitors ended the match with two England internationals on the field in Jones and Trent Alexander-Arnold, it was the first time in Premier League history that the club had started out without a single player from these shores.
‘This is the first time in a top-flight league match for Liverpool that they’ve started without an Englishman in the team,’ TNT Sports commentator Darren Fletcher noted shortly before kick-off.
‘They did it famously against Everton in the 1986 Cup final but not an English player out there for Liverpool, a historic night in that regard for them.’
The revelation took Ferdinand aback, with the ex-England defender suggesting that some of Liverpool’s academy players may not be overly impressed.
‘Wow. Yeah, that’s a crazy one that really. Curtis Jones is on the bench but yeah, I don’t know how the academy guys will feel about that.’
A BBC study revealed which Premier League clubs had dished out the most minutes to Englishmen last season.
Against a top-flight total of 30.2 per cent – that the proportion of total minutes across all clubs that England-qualified players account for – the range for individual teams varied from 8 per cent up to 64 per cent.
Given Sean Dyche’s gravitation towards English players, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Everton sat at the top of that table when the study was carried out.
Slot named five Englishmen in a largely inexperienced starting XI against Plymouth previously, with James McConnell, Jarell Quansah, Joe Gomez, Harvey Elliott and Trey Nyoni all given the nod at Home Park.
After the Merseyside giants were dumped out of the FA Cup by their Championship opposition, Slot came in for some criticism over his much-changed line-up.
‘When you make as many changes as Arne Slot did, you are always at the risk of getting a disjointed performance. And that is exactly what we saw today,’ former Liverpool youth player Craig Hignett said on BBC Radio Merseyside.
‘They have made a lot of changes, but you don’t want to make that an excuse because these players are more than capable.
‘Arne Slot could have had more [senior] players on the bench. It was his choice not to bring Mohamed Salah or Cody Gakpo.
‘As a manager, you live and die by your decisions. But at the end of the day, when he looks back and thinks about it, he might change his mind about one or two things he has done today and one of them would be to have more firepower on the bench.
‘Take nothing away from Plymouth. They defended brilliantly and came out with a win.
‘Liverpool have been so far away from the standards they have set for themselves. It was a really poor performance.’
Speaking shortly after Wednesday’s derby, Van Dijk accused referee Oliver of failing to have a ‘control’ over the game.
‘You saw they celebrated the goal, they have every right to,’ the Liverpool captain told TNT Sports.
‘Doucoure wanted to provoke our fans. Curtis didn’t think it was the right thing to do. The referee didn’t have the game under control. I said it to him.
‘It was a very big provocation from one player. We all saw it and reacted as a team as we were able to do.
‘You know what happens nowadays, it becomes one big tussle. Then it is not me who has to deal with it, it is the referee and today I am not sure he had it fully under control.’
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