Prem forward suggests VAR could’ve fixed Liverpool damage on the spot after they ‘messed up massive’

Michail Antonio feels the official should have asked if Tottenham would give Liverpool a goal immediately after VAR “messed up massive” in their recent fixture.

The footballing world has been engulfed by the fallout from the Reds’ 2-1 loss to Spurs. That’s due to the fact they might not have lost at all had Luis Diaz’s goal have stood.

The goal should have been allowed, as while it was chalked off for offside, the Colombian was clearly in an onside position when it went to VAR review.

The problem was that the VAR official thought the on-field decision was a goal, and therefore believed he was upholding that, rather than actually upholding the wrong decision of offside.

Jurgen Klopp has since come out and stated “a replay is the right thing to do”. That’s unlikely.

In any case, Premier League forward Antonio feels it should have been resolved within the game, and should never have got to this point.

“What they could have done, this is what I feel they should have done. They could’ve stopped the game, pulled the two captains together and gone, ‘we have messed up massive time here, the goal should have stood’,” he said on The Players Channel.

“You speak to the captain of Tottenham and you go ‘do you mind doing us a favour here’ or speak to the manager and say ‘we messed up, do you mind awarding them a goal?'”

It demonstrates how poorly VAR reacted that the decision wasn’t even acknowledged until after the game. Had it been, and the apology had been instant, or at least come within the game, something like that would have been possible.

It would then have been down to Tottenham to decide if they wanted to give up a goal. At least being given the option to have the decision rectified would have been better for Liverpool than only being told about it afterwards.

There have been instances where sides have given up a goal due to their opponents being hard done by. Leeds were forced to do so by manager Marcelo Bielsa in 2019 when they scored while an Aston Villa player was down injured.

In that situation, Villa were actually better placed than Liverpool, as they were simply defending with one less player, rather than having a goal completely taken away for no reason.

As such, it could be suggested the Reds are more deserving of having being given a goal in this situation. However, after nothing was done in the game and the result would now be impacted, it would be unfair on Tottenham to replay.

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