Wayne Rooney weighs in on Jack Grealish rant after Everton loss to Liverpool

Wayne Rooney has backed Jack Grealish's annoyance with referee Darren England following Saturday's Merseyside derby. Everton suffered a 2-1 loss to rivals Liverpool in the 247th derby at Anfield. Strikes from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike put Liverpool 2-0 up in the first half before Idrissa Gueye's strike offered Everton hope of salvaging something from the match.

As the Toffees hunted for a leveller, they grew irritated with the match officials. First for England brandishing a yellow card to midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall when taking a swift free kick and second for the shortage of additional time at the end of the second half, with three minutes added on by the refereeing team.

Speaking to TNT Sports following the match, Grealish made no attempt to conceal his emotions. "It was a bit frustrating in the second half, because they were trying to slow the game down at times," he said. "I've never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick.

"I don't know where that rule has come in. Even the stoppage time, what was it, three minutes and one minute? Come on, I've never seen that in the Premier League in the last two or three years."

When questioned if he felt frustrated, Grealish continued: "Yeah, of course. Listen, I get sometimes you want to let the game go, but then you can't not give something for us. Two seconds later, one of their defenders gets touched in the back, goes down, and he gives it.

"I'm just like, you can't do that. I get it, you come to these stadiums and the crowd are on you and I think they feel like they've got to give it. But like I said, I think Kieran is now on four yellows, he's only got one more [before a ban] and he gets a yellow today for taking a quick free-kick.

"We want to get the game going, we're losing the game, you know? . I've never heard of that in my life." Rooney, an Everton academy product, believes the players have every right to be irked.

"I've seen Jack's rant about the referee, which I agree with," he stated on BBC Sport's The Wayne Rooney Show. "I think two or three times, he stopped Everton from taking quick free-kicks; maybe he wanted a breather and wanted a rest.

"But in that situation, I can understand why Jack got frustrated and was having a go at the referee because you're trying to get back in the game and the referee has completely stopped that momentum."

Dewsbury-Hall also expressed his annoyance at receiving a yellow card. After the match, he posted three images from the game on his Instagram story, captioned: "Spirited performance 2nd half but ultimately disappointing result.

"Quick turnaround to put it right Tuesday! Amazing support. Let's not talk about that yellow."