Rodgers: Evans deserved red card

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said Manchester United should also have been reduced to 10-men in their 2-1 loss at Anfield.

Reds youngster Jonjo Shelvey was sent off for a tackle on United defender Jonny Evans, however Rodgers said he believes Evans was equally at fault for the tough collision.

“If Jonjo Shelvey gets sent off than so should Jonny Evans,” Rodgers told the BBC.

“I am bitterly disappointed the referee only saw one side of that.

“I thought the best team lost. What you can’t control is decisions by the referee. The players were outstanding.”

The former Swansea City boss also provided a damning verdict on referee Mark Halsey’s decision to award a penalty – converted by Robin van Persie for the winning goal – after Antonio Valencia was judged to have been tripped by defender Glen Johnson.

“It was never a penalty,” Rodgers claimed.

“It was just one of those days. The decisions just didn’t go our way. I think we were harshly dealt with today. We’ll soon turn these results into wins.

“I think performance wise everybody can see the growth. I’ve got I’m pretty sure our luck will change and then we’ll fly.”

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed Shelvey tried to blame him for his dismissal.

Shelvey vented his anger at the United boss as he was leaving the field and posted on Twitter after the match claiming the 70-year-old had contributed to the referee’s decision to award a red card.

“I think it’s a clear sending off, I’ve absolutely no doubts about it,” Ferguson told MUTV.

“I’ve seen the replay. It was reckless. Jonny Evans, who has dived in, went for the ball and got the ball, no question about that, but Shelvey was nowhere near getting the ball and could have given Jonny Evans a real bad injury. He was very lucky, actually.

“He (Shelvey) came and blamed me. Why not? Why look at himself in the mirror? Just blame someone else. I think the boy’s young and when he looks at it again he’ll realise the stupidity of it. He may apologise, he may not.”

Ferguson admitted that he was not pleased with his side’s performance but expressed his delight at sealing an important result at Anfield.

“In the last four years here we haven’t played well,” Ferguson said.

“Today at least we’ve got a result. Hopefully that’s a turning point for us because if you look back over the years we always did really well here.

“I think it was about five, six, seven years in a row we did exceptionally well, but it goes in cycles anyway. Before we had that run they had a period in the late 80s of getting results against us, so it’s maybe our turn to start.

“I thought we were poor, to be honest with you. I think the last four years we’ve allowed the crowd to get to us a little bit – they give fantastic support to their team and they really dominated the first half.

“Second half they got a great start. With 10 men I thought that was a great boost to them because it was something to hold on to, but credit to the players in that respect; the second half we played much, much better, but we were against ten men. I think (Paul) Scholes, (Michael) Carrick and (Ryan) Giggs’ experience got us through.”