Man City 3-0 Liverpool: Did disallowed Virgil van Dijk goal alter course of Premier League game?
Subjective offside decisions where the player does not touch the ball are always controversial.
Authorities need to comment on the impact, and this is often not easy.
Chris Kavanagh, the referee for Sunday’s match, also knows all about them.
As Virgil van Dijk’s header was heading towards the goal, Andrew Robertson leaned down and let the ball go towards the goal. The Scotland international was offside and the assistant raised the offside flag.
This decision was not about vision, it was “a blatant move that clearly affected the opponent’s ability to play the ball”.
The offside law does not require the referee to think that Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma will definitely make the save, only that his ability to do so is affected. Absolutely crucial is the bending movement.
If Donnarumma had not kept close to Robertson or if the Scotland international had not been in the six-yard area, the offside situation would have been slim.
But there has to be an argument that Donnarumma was impressed. For this reason, since the team on the field was offside, it did not seem possible for this situation to be reversed by VAR review.
This is a borderline decision, but it can still be supported as a decision to be made on the ground.
A good comparison is Everton’s disallowed goal against Manchester United in March 2020. Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s shot deflected goalwards and offside player Gylfi Sigurdsson, sitting inside the six-yard box, pulled his legs to allow the ball to pass. Referee? Chris Kavanagh.
We can compare this with the goal awarded by VAR last season. John Stones’ late winner for Manchester City at Wolves was canceled out on the pitch as Bernardo Silva was in sight of goalkeeper Jose Sa. However, while he was close to Sa, he was not in front of him and unlike Robertson, he did not run out of the ball’s path. Referee? Chris Kavanagh.
We have seen a few similar situations this season: Manchester United’s goal against Nottingham Forest and Leeds’ goal against Bournemouth. Situations where an offside player makes a small movement to move away from the ball. In these situations it was felt that the movement and positioning of the players (they were not within the six yard area) was not sufficient to influence the goalkeeper.
