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Howard Webb has said officials did not act unreasonably in denying Liverpool an equaliser against Manchester City last weekend, but stopped short of calling the controversial decision correct.
Virgil van Dijk’s header was disallowed by the referee Chris Kavanagh, and not overturned by the video assistant Michael Oliver, after Andy Robertson was adjudged to have had an impact on the City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma while standing in an offside position.
The call was widely criticised after the game, with Liverpool subsequently writing to Webb’s PGMO organisation to challenge the decision.
The offside law allows for referees to penalise a player, even if they do not touch the ball, if they are adjudged to be interfering with an opponent by “making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball”.
Speaking on Referees Mic’d Up, the regular TV review of officials’ recent decisions, Webb was challenged by the presenter Michael Owen, with the former Liverpool star saying he was “strongly of the opinion” that the goal should have stood.
Webb, in unpacking the officials’ thinking process, admitted that “only Donnarumma truly knows if he was impacted by this”, but said there was enough contributory evidence to lead Kavanagh to take the action he did, with Robertson’s ducking out of the way of the ball a key action.
“It’s not unreasonable to understand why they would form that conclusion [of disallowing the goal] when the player is so close to the goalkeeper, the ball’s coming right towards him, and [Robertson] has to duck to get out of the way of the ball,” Webb said. “They form the conclusion that it impacts Donnarumma’s ability just to dive towards the ball and make that save.”
After Owen suggested that Robertson’s decision to duck actually appeared an attempt to avoid having an impact on the play, Webb said: “That action could still cause hesitation from the goalkeeper. Goalkeepers work from reactions that make it possible to pull out some incredible saves. And that’s the judgment formed on the field.” Oliver could have overturned Kavanagh’s call only had he thought the referee had made a “clear and obvious” error.
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After the match the Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, had compared the Robertson call to a similar decision that went in Manchester City’s favour against Wolves last season when a John Stones goal was awarded despite Bernardo Silva being offside and close to the keeper in the six‑yard box.
Asked by Owen to review that footage, Webb said it was a different case as Silva had been behind the Wolves goalkeeper José Sá and moving away from him. “I think there’s a clear difference in that the ball goes directly over the goalkeeper Jose Sa’s head [before Silva can make an impact],” Webb said. “It doesn’t go over the head in the way it went over the head of Robertson, who ducked below it. Importantly, Silva moves to the left away from the flight of the ball and the ball goes straight over the keeper.”
