Milan Baros, who’s been criticised heavily for his tackle in the derby victory on Sunday, has made an apology.
We’ve been saying since the tackle was made that although Baros probably did deserve a sending off, there was no need for all of the over-reaction to what was really nothing more than mistimed challenge.
Said Baros: "I wanted to kick the ball away. I closed my eyes and ran for it and unluckily I hit his knee. I am sorry. My style of playing is based on aggressiveness."
Baros is often referred to as a player who needs to look up more when running at goal with the ball, and so it’s probably no surprise when he says he had his eyes shut. He went on: " I appreciate it looked furious on television but I surely didn’t want to knowingly foul him. I wanted to kick the ball away."
Every time a Liverpool player is sent off or commits a foul it seems all the experts are out to condemn the player. This game was no different, as Baros says: " I saw worse fouls and they were only yellow cards, but this doesn’t excuse me. My challenge was surely a red card." In other words, he accepts the red card, but believes that the referee had previously been lenient to the Everton players. " I will be given a three-match ban, that’s normal here. If we hadn’t won, I would have felt guilty for that."
The usual twisting of quotes has taken place already in the aftermath of this game. The London-based national press seem to enjoy taking Liverpool to task. For example on Sunday Steven Gerrard was interviewed immediately after the game for television. He was slightly critical of Baros for missing chances, and wasn’t happy that Baros had got sent off, but how could Gerrard be critical of a player for being sent off – something he’s managed himself more than once. Gerrard was basically pointing out that this event had made an already tough task due to the injuries even tougher.
Another quote from Gerrard was that he loves playing and scoring for Liverpool. Yet when these quotes appeared in the national press the "for Liverpool" part was taken out of the quotes. After all, it wouldn’t fit the agenda of the national press to report Gerrard saying he loves to play for Liverpool.