Liverpool manager Arne Slot has slammed what he felt was a “clear wrong decision” to disallow Virgil van Dijk’s goal in Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City.
After Erling Haaland headed City ahead, Van Dijk thought he had tied things up with a header of his own seven minutes before the interval, only for the on-field officials to notice left back Andy Robertson standing in an offside position as the ball sailed towards Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal.
A quick VAR check did not overrule the decision and it was later confirmed that the offside call was validated because Robertson was deemed to be “directly in front” of Donnarumma. Replays showed the Scot, while in an offside position, was clearly to the left of the Italian’s line of sight.
Having missed out on the momentum that would have come with an equaliser, Liverpool went on to fall to a 3–0 defeat to Pep Guardiola’s rampant side, after which Slot did not hide his frustration towards the incident.
“It is difficult to give my view,” Slot reflected. “It is obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made, at least in my opinion.
“He [Robertson] 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.”
