BENNETT BLUNDERS

Let's be clear. Masch was an idiot.
He had far too much to say right from the start, as soon as he sythed down Paul Scholes for a deserved yellow card.
Knowing the tightrope he was walking on, it beggars belief that he chose to run 15 yards to confront Bennett to ask why Torres had been booked for allowing United to repeatedly kick lumps out of him.
Mascherano's subsequent tirade after the red could now land him in even bigger trouble at a time when we need him most.
Any chance of us getting any points from our nemesis Premiership fixture went out the window when the South American mist descended.
His pathetic behaviour acknowledged, Mascherano's misplaced actions should not draw attention away from a showing of appalling short-sightedness from Steve 'Schoolteacher' Bennett.
If we study the incident in detail it hardly stands up to the test of strong, balanced, proportionate refereeing.

Fernando Torres gets hacked and kicked as he goes past a posse of United defenders, once having to pick himself up from the floor in the process, such is the desire of United to leave him on his backside.
Bennett rightly blows for a foul. Torres, in a polite and questioning manner makes the point that he's being kicked black and blue.
Torres gets booked.
I can't understand that and neither could thousands of others, notably closet Red-hater Andy Gray who made a passionate and well-argued case for Liverpool at half-time on Sky.
Mascherano, seeing the injustice in this farce runs over to the referee to protest (remember I've already acknowledged the lunacy of his actions already being on a yellow)
Bennett hardly lets two words come out his mouth when the red card is gleefully brandished in the South American's direction.
The referee ruined the game as a contest. Instead of acting like an adult, with some kind of appreciation of the volatile nature of a Liverpool v Utd clash, his display was like one of those card-happy referees you get in the Champions League, where you have to bite your lip and remind yourself 'they ref a bit different over here.'
I'm sure a quick final warning to Mascherano that dissent would not be tolerated would have been a much more mature response from Bennett, but sadly he saw his chance to grab a few headlines in the morning papers.
Yes, Masch was losing the plot and had a few rants from afar after his initial yellow card, but what happened to the good old-fashioned word in a player's ear?
It goes something like this Steve: "Listen son, you're on a yellow. I don't want to send you off, but any more dissent and you're getting an early bath.'
On seconds thoughts Steve, don't say 'early bath', as Javier probably hasn't mastered English slang yet.

Bennett was fourth official during last week's much-discussed Spurs/Chelsea game at White Hart Lane, now famous for Ashley Cole's latest brand of childlike petulance.
No doubt that was uppermost in his mind on Sunday and he was determined to punish any form of dissent severely.
The problem with Bennett's display was that he seemed to be introducing rugby union rules without telling anyone.
In the oval ball game, you don't talk back to the ref. The captain can, but has to ask his permission first and address him as 'sir'.
Surely, it would have been right for Bennett to tell the Liverpool players that this was the policy he was operating before we kicked off?
I'm all for a system which encourages players to cut the chat, it's something which has been going on for far too long.
But you cannot suddenly operate a hardline policy without stating your intention of doing so first.
Mascherano would have around 5 red cards already this season if that was the case.

Furthermore, if that was the case, John Terry would be sent off every week, as would Rio Ferdinand, as would Kolo Toure........
United and Chelsea have been past masters at chasing and intimidating referees for years without censure.
Remember Keane, veins bulging out his head, eyes wild with fury, haranguing a fearful Andy D'Urso at Old Trafford?
Or how about Terry amazingly trying to take a card out of the referee's hand when he didn't like a decision being given against his team.
Or Gallas screaming at the referee after he gave a last minute penalty against the Gunners against Birmingham.
Ths list is endless. All of them are worse than Javier Mascherano jogging up to Bennett and asking why his centre forward has been booked for being used as a kicking bag.
And on Ferdinand, how about him walking up to Bennett and asking for Mascherano to be given a second yellow card, early on in the game?
How about that Steve? Did you forget about that one?
And why didn't you book Xabi Alono when he protested at half time in front of you? Carragher had a few words to say too. Why wasn't the notebook out for him? Starting to think you'd massively over-reacted perhaps?

Bennett wrecked the game as a contest, but if this does act as a watershed, then perhaps some good will come of it.
If we're going to say that from now on players don't talk back to the refs, I'd be all for it.
It will stop a lot of the infantile egotistical behaviour which we've grown tired of watching for years.
And while we're at it, how about introducing the automatic yellows for card waving and feigning injury as was once promised.
But to go suddenly hardline, as a one-off, in one of the biggest Premiership clashes of the season, without informing the players first, is lunacy.