Fulham will feel very hard done by
Liverpool took the lead against Fulham in the most controversial of circumstances on the stroke of half time in Sunday’s early kick-off.
Fulham had the ball in the net as Aleksandar Mitrović headed in from a Tom Cairney cross, but he was judged to have been offside, and the goal was chalked off.
Liverpool then proceeded to counter attack immediately, as Alisson passed to Trent-Alexander Arnold, whose through ball released Mohamed Salah in behind the Fulham defence who were caught napping. Salah slotted the ball under Sergio Rico to give Liverpool the lead just before the break.
However, replays would suggest that Andrew Robertson was playing Mitrović onside for the disallowed Fulham goal.
And to rub salt in the wounds, the ball was rolling when Alisson began Liverpool’s counter-attack.
Fulham will feel very hard done by, having contained Liverpool up until that point.
Once they went a goal down, heads dropped and Liverpool doubled their lead with a caressed volley from Xherdan Shaqiri early in the second half.
Michael Owen insisted that the assistant referees shouldn’t be criticised too harshly for this error, as André Schurrle blocked the view of the linesman.
⚠️ VAR NEEDED ⚠️
"You can forgive the linesman that."
The argument for VAR rolls on… pic.twitter.com/lf9H7Dr9XE
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 11, 2018
It feels inevitable now that VAR will be introduced to the Premier League for next season.
As Charlie Austin said yesterday, the officials clearly need help.
