Liverpool reach out to PGMOL following contentious decision

English Premier League champions Liverpool have contacted referees’ chief Howard Webb to express serious concerns about Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal in Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.  

The club say the decision went against both the spirit and letter of the law after Andy Robertson was deemed to have made an “obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper” while in an offside position following Van Dijk’s trademark header. 

Liverpool disagree with this assessment, insisting that Robertson had no impact on Gianluigi Donnarumma’s ability to make a save and that the decision lacked the proper VAR review process.  

Club officials believe the “checks and balances” central to VAR protocol were not properly followed, as video assistant referee Michael Oliver did not recommend an on-field review for referee Chris Kavanagh.  

Liverpool’s analysis of the footage suggests that Donnarumma’s view was unobstructed and that Robertson was not interfering with play. 

 “For me it was a wrong decision that this goal was not allowed,” Arne Slot, Liverpool manager, said. “But I will not say because of that we lost the game. Even at 1-1, if City kept on playing like they did, we would have struggled as well.” 

Van Dijk also questioned the inconsistency in the decision-making saying: “I think the goal should have stood. The explanation was hindering the goalkeeper or something like that? But someone showed me a clip that Manchester City scored last year against Wolves and the referee was the same.”