Maybe, thing is rules have changed so much … used to be quite a broad interpretation, down to ref to see how he felt on the day (and no VAR). It’s not now, rightly or wrongly, they’ve tried to define what they think counts as reckless/a yellow and this is what they’ve come up with.
@SilentWitness … the law says serious foul play includes “lunging at an opponent”. I’m assuming ref (and VAR … who’d look at it from a few angles, slow and full speed) felt the distance from him landing to opponent (x inches) meant it didn’t meet that definition and he had some control, so just reckless.. a yellow.