Liverpool referee Michael Oliver stats emerge after VAR controversy

After 38 minutes, Van Dijk’s first-half header was disallowed as Andy Robertson was judged to be obstructing play.

The Premier League issued a formal statement saying: “The referee’s offside ruling and no goal for Liverpool was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Robertson in an offside position and deemed to take an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper.”

However, Liverpool claim the goal should have counted, with senior club officials disputing the idea that Donnarumma’s line of sight was obstructed by Robertson, as reported by The Athletic.

Furthermore, Liverpool states that the standard procedures involved in the VAR review were not properly followed.

Michael Oliver, who took on VAR responsibilities for the match, faced backlash from fans for failing to direct referee Chris Kavanagh to re-examine the incident on the pitch monitor.

In his post-match comments, Arne Slot stated that it was “clear and obvious that a wrong decision had been made” in ruling out the goal, adding: “He did not interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do.”

According to haliqcapital’s post, which references Transfermarkt statistics, Oliver has managed 23 games for Liverpool since the 2020-2021 season.

In all those matches, Liverpool have recorded eight wins, eight draws and seven defeats – which equates to a winning percentage of 34.8%.

After Sunday’s match, Virgil van Dijk shared his thoughts on the disallowed goal.

“I think the goal should have stood,” he said. “I think the statement bothered the goalkeeper or something like that. But someone showed me a video of Manchester City scoring against Wolves last year and the referee was the same.”

“I don’t know, I’ve said too much already, because the point is, the decision has been made,” he added. “We lost 3-0 and in that sense we have no excuses. We have to take it on the chin and move on.”