The comments have been drastically misinterpreted. The reality is the way these refs are required to make their decisions is a convoluted mess. In medicine Drs use what is called a differential diagnosis where they come to your diagnosis not by evaluating the totality of the situation, but by breaking it down and evaluating it in a multi step process…if this then ask this question. If that then ask the next question. The laws of the game have become so convoluted that refs are now required to do this as well and Oliver simply got confused from having to ask himself so many questions and by the time he was done he forgot there was a player lying on the floor maimed from a brutal reckless challenge.
His point wasnt that he was not going to give the red unless asked. His point was that if it was such a clear case of a red the Liverpool players would have remonstrating about it and they werent. It was a huge fuck up, caused in large part by the way refs are asked to approach these decisions. But that was clear from day 1 (read my comments about the incident in the match thread). His comments didnt really add any clarity to the situation.