Liverpool take action over Virgil van Dijk disallowed goal vs Manchester City

Liverpool have been in contact with Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) chief Howard Webb about Virgil van Dijk's disallowed goal against Manchester City on Sunday. The Reds skipper nodded home Mohamed Salah's corner to level the score against the Sky Blues, after Erling Haaland opened the scoring at the Etihad Stadium with a header of his own moments earlier.

However, the offside flag was quickly raised, and the goal was chalked off as a result of Andy Robertson standing offside in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma as the ball crossed the line - despite the Scot seemingly having no impact on the play. The PGMOL claimed that Robertson was "deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper," but Liverpool executives refused to accept the governing body's assessment after scrutinising footage further, given that the full-back didn't impede Donnarumma's view and wasn't directly in his line of sight.

The Liverpool Echo suggests that the club believe the wording of the law is clear, and that the criteria needed to disallow a goal was not met and therefore the goal should not have been ruled out. Meanwhile, Michael Oliver - who was the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for the clash didn't ask referee Chris Kavanagh to watch the footage back on the pitchside monitor, only adding to Liverpool's view that additional checks which stand up the VAR process did not occur, and if they had, the outcome may have been different.

Speaking after the game, Arne Slot also made his feelings clear on VAR's decision to disallow the goal. He said: "For me it was a wrong decision that this goal was not allowed, but I will not say because of that we lost the game. Even at 1-1, if City kept on playing like they did, then we would have struggled as well."

Meanwhile, Van Dijk added: "I think the goal should have stood. I think the explanation was hindering the goalkeeper or something like that? But someone showed me a clip that Manchester City scored last year against Wolves and the referee was the same.

"I don't know, I've already said too much because the thing is, the decision has been made. We lost 3-0 and we don't make excuses in that sense. We have to take it on the chin and move on."

It was a tough day at the office for Liverpool, as they suffered their fifth Premier League loss of the season thanks to a 3-0 humbling from City. Haaland saw a spot kick saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili early on before taking the Cityzens 1-0 up with a looping header 29 minutes into the action.

Nico Gonzales then ensured that the hosts headed into the interval 2-0 up thanks to a long-ranged effort which deflected heavily off Van Dijk before finding the back of the net. Jeremy Doku then sealed the deal midway through the second-half, cutting inside on his right foot before letting fly on the edge of the box to find the top corner.

As a result of their victory, City currently occupy second-place in the Premier League standings, just four points shy of Arsenal. They now have a two-week international break to relish in, before they return to top flight action come Saturday, November 22 to face a struggling Newcastle United away from home.

Defending champions Liverpool, meanwhile, currently languish at eighth in the standings. Their next match is against Sean Dyche's Nottingham Forest on November 22.