Dermot Gallagher has spoken out on Sunday about a controversial incident following Liverpool’s defeat at Anfield.
It took Bryan Mbeumo just over 60 seconds to put Manchester United ahead yesterday, although Michael Oliver controversially allowed the game to continue despite Alexis Mac Allister lying on his stomach on the turf after suffering a head injury in an accidental collision with Virgil van Dijk.
Despite Premier League guidelines stating that referees must stop play as soon as a suspected head injury is discovered so that medical staff can enter the pitch to treat the affected player, the match official has neglected this duty in L4, with significant consequences.
What did Gallagher say about that controversial incident?
Gallagher made his usual appearance Sky Sports News’ Ref. Watch on Monday morning, and he claimed that Oliver had the right to continue playing because no foul had been committed and the game was progressing very quickly.
The former top official said: “Is there a foul? No, because it’s Van Dijk coming in behind Mac Allister. Michael Oliver judges it and says ‘no foul’ and the game continues very quickly.”
“He has to break it and so does the assistant, so neither of them sees Mac Allister behind them. Within five seconds the ball is in the net.”
“The first time they see Mac Allister, the ball is in the net, so that’s the first time they can go back [and check him]. It’s just an unfortunate incident.”
Liverpool should have defended better, but Oliver neglected his duty
To Arne Slot’s great credit, he chose not to make a big deal of that incident in his post-match media duties, instead insisting Liverpool ‘should have done better’ in their bid to prevent the goal from being scored.liverpoolfc.com).
The Reds’ defending at that stage of the game was indeed questionable (with Van Dijk called up for his overall performance on the day), but that doesn’t absolve Oliver of the blame for failing to intervene when Mac Allister went down with a head injury.
We do not have Gallagher’s claims that the referee could not stop play due to the speed at which the goal was scored. The official could clearly see the stricken Argentinian holding his head and also saw how the collision occurred, but inexplicably did not blow through to allow treatment.
Slot is right when he says Liverpool didn’t do nearly enough to stop Mbeumo from scoring, and the Reds had almost the entire match to turn things around but spurned and lost numerous golden opportunities.
However, that doesn’t give Oliver a pass for his precious moment of negligence in the opening minute at Anfield. Referees are expected to have a duty of care to players; in that incident, one of the country’s most prominent officials failed to do his job. Unfortunately, the home team did not do the same in what followed.
You can watch Slot’s full post-Manchester United press conference via Kingdom of the Kop on YouTube:
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