Liverpool: PGMOL admits latest VAR ‘error’ with ‘red card challenge’ missed in Merseyside derby

PGMOL chief Howard Webb admitted referee Sam Barrott made a mistake in not sending off James Tarkowski in Everton’s Merseyside derby defeat to Liverpool.

The defender caught Alexis Mac Allister high in a studs-up challenge but avoided the dismissal, with the referee suggesting the “foot has to go somewhere.”

At the time, Barrott, who became a Premier League referee last year, said it was a “follow through” but Webb has now clarified that was an error.

“It’s a red card challenge, it’s an error on the part of the match officials not to send James Tarkowski off,” Webb told Sky Sports.

“The referee recognises on the field that Tarkowski plays the ball and the way he does so is reckless. The VAR then checks that on-field decision of a yellow card – and puts too much focus on the fact that Tarkowski plays the ball.

“You hear him talking about where else his foot can go – but Tarkowski makes the choice to play the ball in that way.

“When are you clearing or playing the ball close to an opponent, you have to think about the opponent and the way you’re going to go into that challenge, thinking about the safety of the opponent.

“He lunges towards Mac Allister in the way that he does and you see the contact – it’s excessive force and it endangers the safety of the opponent and it should be a red-card offence.”

Webb also addressed whether it being a derby influenced the decision but said the priority is always protecting the players.

“The game has asked us to protect players’ safety. That’s our most important thing as a match official.

“We will never try to read a player’s mind, we will only work on the physical evidence that is presented to us on the way a player plays.

“We see the defender coming in, clearing the ball but following through with real high levels of force. There is contact happening with a player that is in front of him, it’s not a player stepping in front of him from a position he wasn’t in previously.

“It was not the right outcome. We take the learning as a group, analyse these situations on a regular basis to try and reduce the occasions we fall short.”

There was more controversy later in the game with Everton arguing that Diogo Jota’s late winner should not have stood as Luis Diaz was in an offside position. Webb though said Diaz did not influence play enough for the decision to be made.

“Just being in an offside position, which Luis Diaz is, is not in itself sufficient to be penalised.

“It’s about what you do – and to be penalised you have to do one of the things here to be penalised for offside and interfering with an opponent.

MORE ON LIVERPOOL ON F365
👉 Liverpool will sign ‘two certs’ from Premier League rivals as they also get ‘free run’ at third star
👉 Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea? Ex-Man Utd star predicts 25/26 Premier League champions
👉 Signings Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City must make for 2025/26 Premier League title push

“We don’t see Diaz do any of these things in an offside position. He just stands there.

“You can feel a bit sorry for Tarkowski because he stretches out to stop the ball going through to Diaz. But that ship sailed some time ago.

“If you are in an offside position and don’t do anything, you won’t be penalised. That’s what we see in this situation.

“Diaz was not challenging, he was just standing there. That’s why this goal was allowed to stand.

“Challenging an opponent for the ball would involve physical contact with an opponent. You come from an offside position to do that, that would be challenging. It’s not an offside offence, because of the way the law is written.”