Liverpool couldn’t have too many complaints after being beaten 4-3 by Manchester United on Sunday.
The Reds had only themselves to blame as they failed to kill United off while in the ascendency at Old Trafford. Inevitably, their failure to score a third goal in regulation time came back to bite them.
However, according to former Liverpool striker Neil Mellor, the Reds should actually have had cause for complaint over Antony’s late equaliser to send the game into extra-time.
Taking to X yesterday, Mellor claimed that the play should have been pulled back for a Marcus Rashford offside just before the goal.
“86mins: Why doesn’t the lino put his flag up when someone’s blatantly offside?!” questions the pundit.
“VVD has to clear the ball, Liverpool never regain it and fewer than 20 seconds later the ball is in the back of net to make it 2-2. Put your flag up lino!”
Mellor questions refereeing blunder
In fairness, Liverpool should have no qualms about the way this game went down. It was generally from their own doing that United were allowed back into the tie.
Even for Antony’s goal, the Reds had a couple of chances to get the ball back once Van Dijk’s clearance lands with Scott McTominay.
Perhaps that’s why we haven’t heard anything about this at all in any of the match reviews so far.
Having said that though, you really have to wonder why the fourth official didn’t raise his flag for this one. It wasn’t as if it were close, Rashford was comfortably offside when Bruno Fernandes played the ball forwards.
Had it reached the United striker, then the whistle would surely have gone. But as Van Dijk had to step in and make the clearance, Rashford clearly interfered with play anyway. It’s offside.
Mellor says there are 20 seconds between Van Dijk’s poor volley clear and Antony sticking it in the net. In fact there are more like 15.
Given the unbelievable furore over Liverpool’s win against Nottingham Forest a couple of weeks ago, we know how important these things can be.
On that occasion, people were foaming at the mouth over the Reds scoring more than two minutes after being incorrectly awarded a drop ball. After this one, barely any noise at all.
Of course, there’s a chance that United would have scored anyway given how lax Liverpool were playing at the time. But there’s little question that the fourth official’s failure to do his job properly directly contributed to Antony eventually scoring.