Liverpool disallowed goal vs Man City: Howard Webb says 'not unreasonable' to rule out Virgil van Dijk header

PGMOL chief refereeing officer Howard Webb says it is "not unreasonable" that Virgil van Dijk’s header for Liverpool was ruled out in their 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.

Van Dijk's first-half header was disallowed on-field for offside after Andy Robertson was penalised for impeding goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The decision was made on-field by referee Chris Kavanagh after the assistant referee raised his flag for offside. A check from the video assistant referee (VAR) determined that Robertson had interfered with play from an offside position and the goal was ruled out.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said it was "obvious and clear" the decision was wrong before the club contacted the PGMOL, but referees chief Webb stopped short of saying it was incorrect on Match Officials Mic'd Up.

Webb said: "As the ball moves towards Robertson - three yards out from goal in the middle of the six-yard box - he makes that clear action to duck below the ball. It goes just over his head and finds the goal in the half of the six-yard box where he is.

"The officials have to make a judgement, did that clear action impact on the goalkeeper and his ability to save the ball? That's where the subjectivity comes into play.

"They looked at that action so close to the goalkeeper and formed that opinion.

"I know that's not a view held by everybody but it's not unreasonable to understand why [the officials] would form that conclusion when the player is so close to the goalkeeper, the ball is coming right towards him and he has to duck to get out of the way.

"They form the conclusion that it impacts Donnarumma's ability to dive towards the ball and make the save.

"Once they've made that on-field decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide was the outcome clearly and obviously wrong.

"Only Donnarumma truly knows if he was impacted by this and we have to look at the factual evidence."

Slot compared the decision to the one that went in favour of Manchester City last season when John Stones headed in a late winner at Wolves despite Bernardo Silva standing in a similar position in front of goalkeeper Jose Sa.

Webb said: "There's a clear difference here in that the ball goes directly over Sa's head and doesn't go over the head of Silva. He is in an offside position, importantly he moves away from the flight of the ball.

"It's difficult to see this and think in any way Sa is impacted by the action of Silva. If the ball had gone over Silva's head, maybe causing Sa to hesitate in case it hits Silva then we'd come out with the same outcome of disallowed goal."

Assistant referee: Robertson's in line of vision, right in front of the keeper. He's ducked under the ball. He's very, very close to him. I think he's line of vision. I think he's (Donnarumma) been impacted, mate.

Referee: Ok so offside then.

Assistant referee: I think offside.

Referee: On-field decision is offside.

VAR: Checking the on-field decision of offside against Andy Robertson. Delay, delay.

So you've got clear offside position.

AVAR: I agree with the on-field decision. I think it's offside. It's a clear, obvious action which clearly impacts on the goalkeeper.

VAR: Chris, it's Michael. Confirming the on-field decision of offside against Andy Robertson. He is in an offside position, very close to the goalkeeper and makes an obvious movement directly in front of him. Check complete, offside.