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Fulham were robbed against Liverpool by the absence of VAR — why the Premier League must act
With 40 minutes gone during Liverpool’s clash with Fulham at Anfield, a succession of decisions changed the course of the match and revealed why the Premier League must institute a Video Assistant Referee system.
Off a short corner, Tom Cairney received the ball and whipped in a cross to the far post. As Liverpool’s defence stepped up to apply an offsides trap, right back Andrew Robertson was slow to react.
Aleksandar Mitrovic received the ball, unmarked, and nodded home past Alisson with ease. Yet the linesman inexplicably raised his flag and incorrectly called the Serbian offside.
Within moments, Alisson had picked the ball out of the net, rolled it forward to take the free kick, and set the Reds out on the counterattack while the ball was still moving. Less than 15 seconds later, Mohamed Salah slotted home past Sergio Rico to put the home side 1-0 up.
It was a comedy of errors and revealed the disgraceful, backwards stance of the Premier League to not use VAR in its matches.
Firstly, the Mitrovic goal would have been confirmed, albeit narrowly, by VAR. In addition, due to the review time after the ball had gone in the net, Liverpool would have never been granted an opportunity to counter so quickly. And even if they had done, VAR would have chalked off the goal due to the moving nature of the ball before Alisson pumped it forward.
Fulham were embarrassingly robbed of a valid opening goal against Liverpool, a fact which all football supporters should accept as disgusting.
Even Liverpool fans can agree the league needs VAR: the Reds saw Sadio Mane’s legitimate goal called incorrectly offsides against Arsenal last week, a decision that would have been overruled by the review system.
The Premier League needs to institute VAR at the start of next season, thereby catching up with the rest of the world and moving out of the dark ages.