by Fine margins. A little more than five years ago at the Etihad, John Stones zone cleared into Ederson and then, as it rebounded towards the line, lunged to hook the ball away. If he went in? Liverpool appealed. Referee Anthony Taylor looked at his wrist monitor. Without a goal. The Goal Determination System ruled that the ball was 11.7mm from the full crossing of the line. Liverpool were denied a final, losing 2-1 and cutting a four point lead at the top of the table. Pep Guardiola went on to win his second Premier League title.
In that same game, Sadio Mané had a shot that hit the inside of the post and stayed out, while Leroy Sane’s winner hit the inside of the post and went in. the ball came from the upright, but it was the goal line technology to remember. Referee decisions tend to stick in the mind (even when, despite what some people claim at the moment, using shadows and theoretical geometry and mocking ballistics experts and convincing Jim Garrison to dismiss the magic bullet, the decision is clearly correct) .
Sunday’s 1-1 meeting between Liverpool and Manchester City was extremely exciting. City dominated the first half and Liverpool were much better in the second half. Luis Díaz was brilliant but missed three great chances in a row. But late on, Jérémy Doku had a shot that hit the inside of the post and bounced out; 11.7mm left and would probably be short.
With City defending a corner in injury time, the ball fell between Doku and Alexis Mac Allister. The Belgian lifted his boot and played the ball, his boot going into the Argentinian’s chest. Was it dirty? It might have happened: that kind of incident, where a defender follows an attacker in after he has touched the ball, is a gray area. If Michael Oliver had been given a penalty, VAR would certainly not have overturned it. As it was, Oliver didn’t give it and VAR decided that no clear and obvious error had been made.
Jürgen Klopp claimed, “If the ball is not there, it kills him” – which is inflammatory and obfuscatory; many things that happen elsewhere on the pitch are penalties (but not murders) if the ball is not there. Photos were still published on social media, which are not useful as a decision-making tool: there is no doubt that Doku’s leg touched MacAllister’s chest, or that it hurt; what are the matters of force and angle, how many balls were taken and, basically, the referee’s instinct given the lack of clarity in the application of the law in such circumstances. Some found precedents – mostly unimportant: this is not a court that makes an ad hoc decision with an appeals process; and some have cited when the incident occurred, as if the threshold for penalties is higher in terms of time of injury than earlier in the game, which also makes no sense.
Some events are grey. If Oliver had given a penalty: a fine. He didn’t; also fine. In this case, there is no clear right or wrong. But even if there were, referees sometimes make mistakes, as the previous week Paul Tierney had given Liverpool possession in an uncontested drop ball late on at Nottingham Forest even though Callum Hudson-Odoi was in possession when the stoppage time a game. head injury. Get on with it.
Perhaps the worst aspect of VAR is how it seems to have convinced fans and pundits that there can be absolute clarity on every decision and that every referee gets everything 100% in right. It’s not – but of course it’s much easier to blame external errors or wild conspiracies than to accept failures on the part of your own team (or even, perhaps, that much of the sport is a mess can actually be explained).
It is depressing that an extraordinary football game like Sunday’s can be reduced in the analysis – and this piece is also now guilty – of the argument about the referee’s decision. This was for Liverpool in the second half which shows that this City is vulnerable in terms of direct running, that Guardiola’s age-old fallibility for balls played behind the defensive line is more significant this season.
Liverpool may regret not putting a clean sheet between themselves and City when they had the chance to do so, and that really isn’t just because of a boundary call. Arsenal are top on goal difference, but they have been far from assured since beating Brentford 2-1 on Saturday (in another game where the referee’s decision was close, without Kai Havertz being shown a second yellow card for diving before scoring the winner, became frustratingly dominant).
With 10 games to go, three teams are separated by one point. It’s probably still City’s advantage, but this could be one of the great title races of all time. And that doesn’t really apply to any referee.
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This is an excerpt from Jonathan Wilson’s Soccer, the Guardian US’s weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition
