'He's ran into him!' - Graeme Souness fuming at Chelsea's 'dangerous' Timo Werner over penalty award against Sheffield United

Chelsea's Timo Werner (C) collides with Sheffield United's goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale (bottom) resulting in a penalty during the Premier League match between Sheffield United and Chelsea at Bramall Lane (Photo by OLI SCARFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The Blades were 1-0 down at the break through Mason Mount’s opener but were gifted an equaliser less than 10 minutes into the second half when Antonio Rüdiger passed the ball into his own goal.

However, straight up the other end, a short backpass from Kean Bryan saw the ball fall to Timo Werner who tried to round Aaron Ramsdale and went tumbling in the box under a challenge from the Blades keeper.

Referee Kevin Friend didn’t initially award the penalty but after an intervention from VAR, the official went back to look at the monitor and eventually pointed to the spot.

Jorginho stepped up to score the penalty and that proved to be the winning goal.

On the face of it, it looked like the decision to award a penalty was correct, however former Liverpool manager Graeme Souness took a dim view of Werner’s part in the incident.

Souness claimed that the Germany international could have injured Ramsdale in his attempt to ensure he got the penalty after seemingly allowing the ball to drift too far from his touch around the onrushing Blades stopper.

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“He's overkicked that, he sees the covering Sheffield (United) player coming in,” Souness said. “He makes no attempt to avoid the goalkeeper coming in, he could have damaged the goalkeeper big time there.

“He's run into him because he sees he has overhit it and he's not getting the ball and he's just touched. He could have really damaged the goalkeeper here. Fortunately for the goalkeeper it wasn't the kneecap that caught him, it was his thigh.

“I don’t know what to say about penalties and referees anymore,” Souness added on Sky Sports.

“I hate using 'the modern game' it suggests we are playing a totally different game nowadays. I'l put it this way, that is the kind of play that has crept into our football.

"People will call it cute, simulation... he's ran into him today. And the biggest problem I have with that is he made no attempt to avoid the goalkeeper, he ran into him and he could have badly damaged him.

"If he'd caught him with his knee (Ramsdale) would have been in hospital. Fortunately, he caught him with his thigh.

“You can call it cute, I see it as really dangerous play.”