‘Failed to do his job’ – James Pearce incredulous after hearing VAR for disallowed Van Dijk goal

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:

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