BBC pundit makes weird criticism of Luis Diaz

Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that Garth Crooks is at it again.

The BBC's chief team of the week picker – famed for his unbalanced selections – named two Liverpool stars in his XI of Monday's column, after the Reds' 2-0 win over Everton at the weekend.

However, any fans expecting to dig into Crooks' latest article and find praise for the Reds' performance would be quite mistaken.

Instead, 65-year-old Crooks – a former forward at Spurs and (very briefly) Manchester United – used his word count to have a pop at the refereeing in Saturday's Merseyside derby as well as Liverpool's left winger...

In the section of his piece marked for Mohamed Salah's inclusion in the team of the week, Crooks wrote: "Referee Craig Pawson's inability to show some discretion in the Merseyside derby exposed him once he failed to exercise any consistency.

"Neither was it helped by Luiz Diaz who rolled over at least five times for dramatic effect after Young had fouled him. Meanwhile Mo Salah is back to his brilliant, unselfish and supportive best and has erased the sort of antics now effecting Luiz Diaz. It's time Salah had a word with Diaz."

Just FYI, the misspelling of 'Luis Diaz' is Crooks and the BBC's not Anfield Watch's.

Meanwhile, Virgil van Dijk was the other Liverpool player worthy of a place in Crooks' team. However, the Liverpool captain received even less attention than Salah in the write-up, with Garth fixated on Ashley Young's (quite obviously correct) dismissal.

He wrote: "Was Everton's Ashley Young's sending off for a second bookable offence really necessary? If it was then Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate had to go. Young's tackle was a genuine one to try and win the ball. Konate's challenge on Beto was cynical and crude and what the yellow card was designed for but the Liverpool defender didn't receive one for the challenge in question. Fortunately for Liverpool they have Virgil Van Dijk in defence who is slowly coming back to some kind of form."

High praise indeed.

Cheers, Garth.