Aguirre calls Elliott red card “absurd” after Valencia loss

Javier Aguirre described Elliott’s dismissal as “absurd” and “ridiculous” after the Liverpool loanee was sent off late on, wiping out the man advantage Valencia had been handed when Villarreal’s Pape Gueye saw red.

Pepelu’s first-half penalty had put Valencia ahead before Alex Freeman equalised for Villarreal. With Gueye off, the match had tilted toward the home side. Instead, Elliott, introduced in the 69th minute, picked up two quick yellow cards in the 89th minute. Mirror Sport reports the second appeared to be for dissent. Seven minutes later, Georges Mikautadze scored the winner.

Aguirre did not hide his frustration, but his quotes were more complicated than a simple public dressing-down. “It’s an absurd, ridiculous sending-off,” he said, according to Mirror Sport. “I don’t know what he could have said to the referee, he barely speaks Spanish, so getting sent off for something he said just makes me angry.

“It’s a ridiculous dismissal, and I told him as much. It’s not his fault; the fault is mine, though I’ll address it with him privately. Ultimately, the responsibility is mine, because I’m the one who decides who plays and how we play.”

That is the kind of managerial response that tells you two things at once: the moment mattered, and Aguirre knows better than to let one player carry the whole defeat in public. Even so, he was clear about the effect. “We were in a solid position and it was 11 against 10, but the sending-off disrupted everything,” he said. “We ended up playing an all-or-nothing, wide-open game.”

For Elliott, it is another ugly entry in a loan spell that has not yet settled. Mirror Sport says he has no goals or assists in six appearances for Valencia this season. For Valencia, the immediate problem is plainer still: a winnable situation dissolved, and Villarreal took the points in stoppage time.