Liverpool’s game against West Ham at the weekend had more than its share of weird moments.
As well as being another, final nail in Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes, the match also played host to a couple of bizarre sideshows.
The main one of which was clearly Mohamed Salah’s touchline argument with Jurgen Klopp. Let’s hope we don’t see anything like that again for a long while.
But as well as the shock of seeing two Liverpool legends go at each other, there was also a really strange refereeing decision at the London Stadium.
The incident involved Liverpool striker Cody Gakpo and West Ham goalie Alphonse Areola. With Areola rolling a loose ball out into the open, Gakpo emerged hoping to put the ball into the empty net. Out of nowhere, referee Anthony Taylor blew the whistle.
Had Gakpo put the ball past the ‘keeper before Taylor blew, it would have been mightily interesting if the goal had stood.
As it was, the referee didn’t allow the play to go on, before approaching Areola and calling on the physios. It was an utterly bizarre bit of officiating that West Ham forward Michail Antonio has now attempted to clear up.
Michail Antonio clears up Cody Gakpo moment
Some have pointed the finger at Gakpo after the game for not sticking the ball in the net and asking questions later.
However, watching the footage back, the 24-year-old actually has no possibility to reach the ball before Taylor blows. The problem is not the Liverpool man, it’s the referee.
With no explanation forthcoming from Taylor, it was helpful to hear Antonio asked to comment on the situation on the Footballer’s Football Podcast.
“What happened was, Phonse [Areola] got hit, the referee’s gone to him see if he’s okay, then Phonse goes to him ‘yeah I’m fine, is it on the floor?’ The ref has gone ‘yeah’ then ran off,” explains the Hammers forward. “But I’m not too sure if Antony [Taylor] has actually heard what he says. So, he’s put the ball down to fix his boots and stuff but Cody is figgy then someone’s shouts ‘Hey!’.
“Obviously Anthony must have clicked on that he’s told him it’s on the floor, so he’s blown the whistle before Cody’s actually kicked the ball. So that’s why everyone’s saying why’s he blown the whistle. He’s blown the whistle before hand then gone to check on Phonse and he obviously needed to be checked by the physio…” Antonio adds, chuckling.
“If Cody kicks the ball in the net before the referee blows then you win the game 3-2 because VAR , there’s no way they can actually mark it off. It was a bit of miscommunication, it happens in football all the time.”
Is Antonio’s explanation plausible
Honestly, we can kind of understand what has happened here. Essentially, Areola has assumed that a foul has been given from his conversation with the referee.
From the West Ham goalie’s point of view, that’s fine. But what we can’t really wrap our heads around is why Taylor went along with it.
He knew that he hadn’t blown for a free-kick. Regardless of what Areola thought, he knew the ball was active. As a result, there was no need to stop play other than to compensate the Frenchman.
From a Liverpool point of view, that isn’t really acceptable. Gakpo was alert to what was going on and would have scored had the whistle not blown.
As Antonio says, these miscommunications happen and you’d be furious if a goal like that was scored against you. But none of that is Liverpool’s fault.