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Liverpool supporters have been left seething after the controversial decision to disallow Virgil van Dijk's goal against Manchester City was explained.
The Reds suffered a 3-0 defeat at the Etihad on Sunday, a result that further dented their title defence hopes, but there was a moment when it seemed they had equalised. City were leading 1-0 courtesy of an Erling Haaland goal as half-time approached, when Van Dijk outjumped everyone to meet Mo Salah's corner and headed the ball past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The Liverpool skipper began celebrating, only for the assistant referee to raise their flag. The official had noticed Andy Robertson, who was in an offside position, making a run across the goal and ducking just before the ball hit the net. He had been tussling with Donnarumma when the corner was taken.
City appealed for offside and referee Chris Kavanagh ruled out the goal.
This sparked outrage among the travelling fans and on the touchline, with Arne Slot describing the decision as an 'obvious and clear' mistake that VAR should have corrected post-match.
On Tuesday, with Liverpool's title defence in shambles after just 11 games, refereeing chief Howard Webb gave his opinion. Webb, a former referee, featured on the latest episode of Match Officials Mic'd Up, where the audio from Sunday's officials was shared.
However, many Liverpool fans, whose club have reached out to the PGMOL, remain deeply dissatisfied.
The assistant referee was heard saying: "Robertson's in line of vision, right in front of the 'keeper. He's ducked under the ball. He's very, very close to him. I think he's [in] line of vision. I think he's (Donnarumma) been impacted, mate."
"Okay, so offside then," Kavanagh replied. His assistant then reaffirmed: "I think offside."
Television replays, though, demonstrate that Robertson failed to obstruct Donnarumma's sight of the ball. Webb declined to go beyond suggesting that Robertson's duck 'could still cause hesitation from the goalkeeper' - rather than definitively stating it 'did'.
The regulation, nevertheless, is unambiguous. Only players who make an obvious action which 'clearly' impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball should be flagged.
"I know that's not a view held by everybody but it's not unreasonable to understand why [the officials] would form that conclusion when the player is so close to the goalkeeper, the ball is coming right towards him and he has to duck to get out of the way," Webb explained.
"They form the conclusion that it impacts Donnarumma's ability to dive towards the ball and make the save. Once they've made that on-field decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide was the outcome clearly and obviously wrong. Only Donnarumma truly knows if he was impacted by this and we have to look at the factual evidence."
Liverpool supporters have expressed their discontent, with one comment on X stating, "The very fact the words 'I think' is used, then that decision has to be scrutinised. How the hell the ref followed the linesman's call when he is in a better position? And the VAR team - no words!"
Another fan reacted to Webb's remarks by posting, "Did anyone actually expect Howard Webb to take any accountability in the first place? I didn't. No accountability. No action. No improvement."
"Yet again a shambles from the PGMOL," a third supporter vented.
"Absolute joke. Change needed from the top down," a fourth added.
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