Liverpool take action after rejecting PGMOL explanation for disallowing Virgil van Dijk goal | OneFootball

Liverpool have contacted the PGMOL to voice their dissatisfaction over the reasons for Virgil van Dijk’s goal against Manchester City on Sunday being disallowed.

The Reds captain briefly thought he’d equalised in the 38th minute, only for the goal to be chalked off as Andy Robertson was in an offside position and ‘deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper’.

That was despite the Scottish left-back making zero contact with the ball and standing to the left of Gianluigi Donnarumma rather than directly in the Italian’s eyeline. As Jay Bothroyd argued on Sky Sports, the only player who may have been impeding the ‘keeper was actually Jeremy Doku.

Liverpool contact PGMOL over disallowed Van Dijk goal

On Monday afternoon, James Pearce reported for The Athletic that Liverpool have contacted PGMOL chief Howard Webb to raise ‘serious concerns’ about the decision to disallow Van Dijk’s goal, which would’ve levelled the match at 1-1 had it stood.

The Merseyside club are insistent that none of the criteria for disallowing the ‘goal’ were met and it should’ve been given, and having ‘scrutinised all available footage from multiple angles’, senior LFC figures reject the view that Donnarumma’s sight was impeded by Robertson’s presence, as the Scot was ‘clearly not in his line of vision’.

Michael Oliver on VAR didn’t recommend a pitchside review to on-field referee Chris Kavanagh, and Liverpool’s position is that the usual checks for the VAR process didn’t take place, and that a different outcome may have otherwise been reached by the officials.

Image via Sky Sports Premier League

Liverpool right to make their stance known to the PGMOL

Liverpool are quite right to make their feelings known to the PGMOL, and clearly they’ve taken the time to review the incident rather than releasing a melodramatic statement in the heat of the moment.

Their communication with Webb is highly unlikely to yield anything except a copy-and-paste acknowledgement from the former top-flight referee, with any hopes of it leading to genuine change in officiating standards fanciful at best.

Two questions immediately arise from what transpired yesterday – why did it take so long for the assistant referee to raise his flag (it must’ve been at least 10 seconds after the ball hit the net), and why didn’t Oliver intervene?

The whole point of introducing VAR in the first place was to review incidents such as this and to correct any ‘clear and obvious’ errors. Had Kavanagh been summoned to the monitor, there would’ve been a good chance that he’d have overturned the initial decision and given the goal.

Unfortunately Liverpool’s legitimate grievances will probably be futile, and it certainly won’t change the miserable (and deserved) result, but the club are right to at least make their stance on the matter known to the PGMOL in a formal and cogent manner.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: