Former referee and former Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) boss Keith Hackett explained why he believed the wrong decision was reached.
“Well, we saw Liverpool have a perfectly good goal canceled for offside,” he told Football Insider.
“I know there’s a degree of subjectivity to this particular law, but let’s take a look. A player who is in an offside position at the moment a teammate plays or touches the ball is only penalized if he engages in active play by playing or touching a ball that has been passed or touched by a teammate, interfering with play, clearly obstructing an opponent’s view, or interfering with an opponent by demanding the ball from an opponent or interfering with an opponent’s play or play.”
“Yes, he (Robertson) is in an offside position, but that in itself is not an infringement. Did he really interfere with the goalkeeper?”
“I think the goalkeeper had a clear line of sight. He could have made a save, but he didn’t. The ball went in, but the referee made an easy decision to award it offside and invalidate the goal.”
“In my opinion, it’s wrong. Yes, I agree with some subjectivity regarding this law, but my opinion is that I don’t like when good goals are eliminated.”
Speaking after the match, Van Dijk said of the controversial decision: “In football, referees make important decisions and we have to deal with them on the pitch. From my point of view there is no point in discussing this matter.”
“The reality is that we lost 3-0 and that is a big blow. It doesn’t matter what I say[about the goal]because everything I say will be in the media and the whole international break will be about my comments on this decision. I will just focus on the fact that we lost. You can argue whether it should have stayed that way or not.”
“It was difficult in the first half, but they were much more comfortable with the ball and it was difficult for our players to put pressure on them.
“I don’t think there were too many dangerous situations, but Doc played a good game and there were some difficult moments for Conor (Bradley) one-on-one. I don’t think we were in too much trouble, but we could have done better.”
“We had to dig deeper in the second half. We had more momentum in possession, but we didn’t press enough out.
“The important thing is to find consistency and continue. Now we go to our respective countries, stay healthy and prepare for the big run after that.
“We’re never going to give up. We’re in November and we’re ready for a long season and big battles.”
