Howard Webb’s reaction comes after Liverpool filed a formal complaint to PGMOL questioning the decision
Premier League refereeing chief Howard Webb has defended the decision to rule out Virgil van Dijk’s header in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Webb said the call was “not unreasonable” given Andy Robertson’s positioning in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The incident came when were Liverpool trailing 1-0 in the first half. Van Dijk’s 38th-minute header from Mohamed Salah’s corner was chalked off for offside. Robertson was standing a few yards from the City goalkeeper and ducked under the ball as it travelled into the net.
Referee Chris Kavanagh disallowed the goal for offside, and the decision was backed by VAR Michael Oliver.
Liverpool were unhappy with the interpretation and raised the issue formally with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) on Monday. The club argued that Robertson was not obstructing Donnarumma’s view and that none of the offside criteria were met.
Webb said: “[Robertson] doesn’t touch the ball, but what does he do? For sure, as the ball moves towards him three yards out from goal, right in the middle of the six-yard box, he makes a clear action to duck below the ball, which goes over his head.
“The ball finds the goal in the half of the six-yard box where he is. Then the officials have to make a judgement: did that clear action impact on Donnarumma and his ability to save the ball? That’s where the subjectivity comes into play.”
The referees’ chief said the key question was whether Robertson’s action had an impact on Donnarumma’s ability to react, rather than whether the goalkeeper could see the ball.
“He’s certainly creating an action, ducking below the ball as it comes towards him,” said Webb. “He moves below the ball and it goes over his head.
“The issue with that, that the officials have to judge, is does that position of Robertson and the action of ducking under the ball impact Donnarumma.
“That’s the conclusion they drew. I know that’s not an opinion held by everybody, but it’s not unreasonable to understand why they wouldn’t reach that conclusion when the player is so close to the goalkeeper.
“They concluded that the action impacts Donnarumma and his ability to reach the ball and make the save.
“He does see the ball all the way, but the assistant also talks about other things, ducking below the ball, being close to the goalkeeper.
“That could be enough to penalise a player for being offside, even if the ’keeper can see the ball all the way along. That could still cause hesitation to the goalkeeper.”
