Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has claimed that Liverpool should have been awarded a penalty against Newcastle United on Saturday.
There was a key clash between Magpies captain Jamaal Lascelles and Reds centre back Joel Matip in the visitors’ box at Anfield, which waved away by ref Andre Marriner and dismissed by VAR. Now, Gallagher has had his say.
“The positioning of referee Andre Marriner is where you’d expect him to be for a corner,” he told Sky Sports. “He obviously didn’t think there was enough contact, he can tell that. But I think it was a penalty, others don’t.
“It is more difficult for the assistant because he’s got a flat look at it. In incidents like that, you want to be looking sideways on to see the impact. If a subjective decision goes to VAR, it has to meet their threshold. I can’t tell you what that is but it hasn’t met it for overturning, so the assistant at Stockley Park can’t give a penalty”
OPINION
You have to agree with Gallagher, here, to be honest. There was some WWE stuff going on between Lascelles and Matip at this particular corner. The Magpies skipper was all over Matip, and you struggle to see how VAR didn’t look at this incident and give a penalty. In fact, quite the contrary happened. They did in fact look at the incident at Stockley Park, but decided that it didn’t meet the standards required for a penalty. How can that be the case, though? Lascelles was all over Matip, with his arms wrapped around the Cameroonian’s shoulders. Perhaps Marriner and VAR didn’t give a spot kick because the defender still managed to get his head on the ball. Still, that doesn’t mean that a foul didn’t occur, does it? You can be fouled and still get to the ball, after all. Obviously the Newcastle fans will be happy that this wasn’t given, and ultimately it didn’t affect the result, but VAR surely has to do better with incidents like this.
