Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has recently discussed Emiliano Buendia’s sending-off in the Championship.
Halsey was recently exclusively talking to This Is Futbol and the recent games in the Premier League and the Championship were the main talking point. One topic of discussion was Buendia’s dismissal in the Championship clash against Middlesbrough. The Argentine was handed a second yellow card after he and George Saville went sliding in for a challenge.
The game had ended 0-0 but as a result of Buendia’s red card, the Norwich star became the player to have picked up the most red cards in the English game since 2018.
Did Buendia deserve a second yellow card?
Yes
No
When talking about the decision to give Buendia his marching orders, Halsey said: “Looking at the challenge, both players going to ground, both going in for a 50-50 ball. He does look like he tries to pull out of it. For me, I think the referee could’ve managed that a lot better than he did.
“If he’s taking that long to pull out a yellow card, then he’s guessing. You know straight away – if you’re going to give someone a second yellow card, you know straight away. For me, I think Norwich can count themselves unlucky that they went down to 10 men in that situation.”
While Norwich did not lose the game and maintained their position at the top of the league, Buendia is the fourth-highest rated player in the Championship this season and has been rated at 7.51 so far in the campaign (as per WhoScored).
He has played as many as 3.3 key passes per game, which is the highest tally in the Championship season. He has also taken 2.9 shots per game and only six players have taken more shots on goal per game than him (as per WhoScored).
It shows how important he has been for the Canaries this season and he will now be serving a suspension because of his red card. Considering the ability he has shown this season, Norwich might miss him.