Liverpool vs Manchester City: Howard Webb supports officials over the Reds’ disallowed goal

Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up, Webb said that although he accepted there was a difference of opinion, there were good reasons to disqualify the goal.

“Tackling an opponent where the offside player is not playing the ball and the officials have to make a judgment call as to whether that player’s actions are affecting the opponent is one of the most subjective decisions we have to make,” Webb said.

“So, it is not surprising that some people believe that this goal should have been achieved, so I think it is important to look at the facts of what actually happened in this situation.

“We know the corner is coming and the ball goes to Van Dijk. When the ball comes across the penalty area, the Manchester City players come out, leaving Robertson in an offside position in the heart of the six-yard box.

“When Van Dijk heads the ball forward, that’s the moment we have to make an offside ruling on Robertson and what he’s doing there.

“We know he doesn’t touch the ball but what does he do? Well, when the ball is moving towards him, three yards from goal, in the middle of the six-yard box, he makes this obvious movement to crouch under the ball.

“The ball goes right over his head, and the ball finds the goal in the half of the six-yard box where he is. The officials then have to make a judgment – ​​did this apparent action affect Donnarumma, the goalkeeper, and his ability to save the ball? This is where subjectivity comes in.”

“Obviously that’s the conclusion they came to. They looked at this situation, they looked at this action, they were very close to the goalkeeper, and they formed this opinion.

“I know this is not a view held by everyone but I think it is not unreasonable to understand why they came to this conclusion.

“The player is very close to the goalkeeper, the ball is coming straight at him and he has to crouch down to get out of the way of the ball – and they came to the conclusion that that affects Donnarumma’s ability to just jump towards the ball and tackle it.

“And then, of course, once that decision is made on the pitch, it’s VAR’s job to look at that and make the decision, was the offside result clearly and obviously wrong?

“Only Donnarumma really knows if he was affected by this, and of course, we have to look at the factual evidence, and when we see this factual evidence of this position of the player crouching under the ball, close to the goalkeeper, the VAR determines that the result of offside is not clearly wrong, and they walk away from it.”