James Pearce has accused Michael Oliver of abdicating his duty on VAR over Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal on Sunday.
The Liverpool captain briefly thought he’d equalised in the 38th minute against Manchester City, only for the goal to be ruled out as Andy Robertson was deemed to have made an ‘obvious action’ in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The Merseyside club subsequently contacted the PGMOL to register their stance that they believe none of the criteria for disallowing the ‘equaliser’ were met, and the audio from the exchange between the officials was made public on Tuesday night.
Assistant referee Stuart Burt initially gave offside as he deemed Robertson to be ‘in line of vision’ of the Man City goalkeeper, and Oliver on VAR upheld that decision after review as he found: ‘He is in an offside position, very close to the goalkeeper and makes an obvious movement directly in front of him.’
Pearce critical of Webb and Oliver
Taking to X after the audio was released, Pearce accused PGMOL chief Howard Webb of ignoring the assistant’s original declaration and was also critical of the official in Stockley Park for not challenging the initial call despite being able to see on replays that Donnarumma’s vision wasn’t hindered.
The Athletic journalist posted: ‘Webb completely ignores the fact that the assistant ref only flagged for offside because he believed Robertson was ‘in the line of vision’. Reality is the VAR failed to do his job properly when the replays clearly showed Donnarumma wasn’t impacted.’
Oliver should’ve corrected it on VAR
We can absolve Burt for giving the initial offside from his vantage point and without the aid of a replay, but Oliver has no such excuses. He was the one man who was able to not just watch it back, but also have the power to intervene and recommend a pitchside review to on-field referee Chris Kavanagh.
That he so quickly judged that Robertson was ‘directly in front of’ Donnarumma despite being able to see that that wasn’t the case is astounding. When Van Dijk made the header, the Liverpool left-back was one step to the goalkeeper’s left, and in any case the Italian was looking at the ball to his right.
In no way was our number 26 ‘in the line of vision’ of the Man City stopper, despite Webb’s insistence that there were sufficient grounds for the goal to be disallowed for offside.
Pearce is right to call out the PGMOL chief for ignoring Burt’s original explanation – if Oliver on VAR had focused on that, as he should’ve done, he’d have seen that Robertson wasn’t impeding the keeper’s view and would probably have at least advised Kavanagh to have a look for himself.
Unfortunately there’s nothing that Liverpool can do to reverse what happened on Sunday, but the fallout from the game’s major talking point continues to leave a sour taste three days on (and will do so for some time yet).
You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
It doesn’t matter. Action is never taken in this debacle called VAR. The actual screening of VAR is OK; it’s the clowns or should I say cheats who use it. Time upon time there have been diabolical calls on VAR in Liverpool games but not a thing is done, “Oh we’re sorry but we will learn from this”, but they never do.
Hard to prove that the PGMOL are cheats and highly punishable if a player or manager said or inferred it.
However, you’re right. There’s no standardisation from game to game, therefore the rules and spirit of the game is being made to look an ass.
There’s moves afoot for a new govt. accountable regulator, certain Mr Kogan is in charge of, I believe.
Hopefully that body will be looking at policing a fair game in EPL, not just financially, but also with what the occurs on the pitch.
One could think that one of the reasons there are for so many unjust decisions going on, is to build up a case for some proper remedial action.
Will fans still argue over what the regulator decides though ?
> Hard to prove that the PGMOL are cheats. Well, there was the Coote’s video, which was pretty blatant.
There has been data analysis published as well that shows without question that, for several seasons, Liverpool have either been wildly unlucky or something is up because they are an extreme outlier when it comes to all manner of measurable referee performance.
Klopp got under the skin of PGMOL referees and it’s not been the same since. Unfortunate on Klopp, inexcusable on PGMOL.
At last someone agrees with what i saw, the line of vision of the keeper was not blocked in any way.
dropping to the floor is not a forward movement towards the ball.
What we talking about here is not that Liverpool lost to a better team on the day but the inconsistency of VAR.
The decision makers could argue that Andy dummied the ball to impact play.
Donnarumma might’ve expected a glancing header from Andy and so couldn’t get his footing right to save it.
It is impacting play.
That said, The Stones goal in the City v Wolves game was referred to V.A.R. and subsequently allowed.
There’s an obvious double standard in adjudication here. A worrying concern for those in charge of the integrity of the game.
Are we surprised that webb is backing the officials, no not at all , webb has been anti Liverpool for years, he’s as bent as Oliver and the game will suffer whilst them two have anything to do with it🤬
Not true. The PGMOL will always pull together unless serious transgression or in the case of Cootes, a referee behaving in an unacceptable way leaves himself open to blackmail and other corruption.
The PGMOL are not answerable to fans and their beliefs about bias as things stand, but they are answerable to those in a higher authority.
All PL referees should only be allowed to ref in PL and internationals. They should not be allowed to ref in other countries for other associations (i.e Saudi Pro League)
Sometimes fledgling leagues need foreign skills to help train and set example to their own referees (we want the game to spread to new countries who are joining in global sport, it’s also one of FIFA’s aims because it’s a brilliant tool to bring countries and trade together).
It’s one of the reasons, other than the earnings, that footballers and other sporting individuals do it.
Places like Saudi, and maybe China (you’ll recall Didier Drogba and Rafa went out there for a while) want to join in world sport.
They want to know what makes our best sportspeople tick, so as to help train their own.
Of course, as a sportsperson or referee one should mull over what one thinks best with one’s conscience.
The NHS would be in a far worse state without international labour and know-how.
Not sure how the assistant ref could see that Robertson was in the goalkeeper’s line of vision from his position by the corner flag. Took him 13 seconds to realise!
He most likely took an educated guess and left it to the ref/VAR to take responsibility for.
Remove these overpaid, over protected referees from VAR completely and replace with ex pros. We all know that referees back each other and bend the rules to protect themselves.
If the goal had stood and Pep had complained, Webb and his cronies would have come up with an excuse to say why the goal had stood.
Oliver should never be involved in a Liverpool game again. Too many errors to be a coincidence.
Steve, we all know how neutral ex-players are.
The carnage would be far worse.
Nothing stopping an ex-player taking the course, though as with commentators who want the anchor jobs, any examples of unfair favouritism that doesn’t heed the evidence in serious moments, would mean they wouldn’t pass the exam.