PGMOL chief Howard Webb affirmed the VAR decision to disallow Virgil van Dijk’s goal for Liverpool against Manchester City, stating Andy Robertson’s offside position impacted the goalkeeper’s ability to make a save.
PGMOL chief Howard Webb supported the VAR decision to disallow Virgil van Dijk’s header against Manchester City, claiming the offside position of Andy Robertson impacted the goalkeeper, a verdict strongly disputed by Liverpool coach Arne Slot.
According to a report from the Manchester Evening News, PGMOL chief Howard Webb has weighed in on Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal for Liverpool in their 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Van Dijk’s header was ruled out after Andy Robertson was deemed offside and interfering with play, with the goal coming when the score was still 1-0 following Erling Haaland’s opener. Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku added to the score sheet for City.
Webb, appearing on the ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’ programme alongside Michael Owen, backed the decision made by referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR Michael Oliver.
Webb detailed the subjective nature of the judgment, explaining that the officials “formed the conclusion that it impacts Donnarumma’s ability to dive towards the ball and make the save.”
He further noted that “Once they’ve made that on-field decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide was the outcome clearly and obviously wrong.”
In response, Liverpool officially “reached out to the PGMOL to express their concerns.” Head coach Arne Slot publicly voiced his frustration following the defeat, asserting:
“It is difficult to give my view. It is obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made, at least in my opinion. He didn’t interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do.
Immediately after the game, someone showed me the goal that the same referee allowed – City against Wolves last season.
So it took the linesman 13 seconds to raise his flag to say it was offside. So there was clearly communication, but as I said, that could have influenced the game in a positive way for us.”