To the great surprise of almost nobody, Everton’s attempt to appeal Michael Keane’s red card from Wednesday’s 1-1 home draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers has failed.
As a result, Keane, who scored Everton’s only goal in the match, will miss the FA Cup contest against Sunderland, followed by two Premier League matches, away to Aston Villa and home to Leeds United.
The problem here, of course, is that the Toffees are already playing with a rather thin squad. Both Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gana Gueye are away on international duty, playing for Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations. The Lions of Teranga play their quarterfinal match against Mali today.
On top of that are notable injuries to centerback Jarrad Branthwaite, who has yet to play this season due to a lingering hamstring issue, right back Seamus Coleman, and midfielders Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Charly Alcaraz.
Everton will also be missing Jack Grealish for Sunderland, bringing the total number of players missing to eight across all means. It feels like an early FA Cup exit waiting to happen against a Sunderland side that will be motivated to advance to the next round.
Manager David Moyes was quite clear in his feelings about the upheld suspension earlier today, noting that he had “to question the three of them. I know who the three of them are and I’m absolutely amazed they didn’t in some way overturn it.”
The Scot continued: “To say it’s violent conduct . . . We saw last night a game where it’s OK to throw a ball at somebody and pick them up with a bad injury, yet to have a little pull of someone’s hair accidentally and for that to mean a three-game ban is quite extraordinary for me. Three games? It shouldn’t even have been any games. But I’m more embarrassed for whoever was on VAR. This was a young referee doing only his third or fourth game and VAR gave him a terrible decision. VAR didn’t need to get involved in that at all, looking for the smallest things and probably things I don’t think anyone would have paid any interest in otherwise.”
To say that the club is upset about the move, regardless of its impact on the team moving forward, would be an understatement.
Moyes also discussed the yellow card on Wolves’ Hee-Chan Hwang that was not reviewed by VAR, stating that it “sounds like they’ve [the PGMOL] got all their things in the wrong places at the moment.”
The suspension likely means a shift back to central defense for Jake O’Brien, and will ask a great deal of players like Nathan Patterson, James Garner, and Merlin Röhl, all three of whom have played right back at some point during this season.