Dale Johnson’s explanation this morning doesn’t explicitly say this and ignores the seemingly contradictory follow up communication from the PGMOL, but he does claim that Oliver appeared to only review the first incident.
Verdict: The incident was cleared too quickly, with Oliver only considering the first touch of the arm. This was clearly wrong as Senesi then deliberately knocked the ball from Ekitike’s run.
Have they offered any explanation - regardless of VAR - why it was given as a Bournemouth free kick?
Having watched the ManU / Arsenal game - any sort of nudge, touch or shove from behind was given as a foul. Yet Bournemouth were aggressively clattering and haranguing Liverpool players all game with very little being given as fouls. I get that they need to let some of it slide for game flow reasons, and it is a contact sport. But some teams use it as a tactic to unsettle, break the rhythm of teams like Liverpool and there needs to be some consistency in how the rules are applied.
When the defender ultimately cleared it Gakpo tried to catch it assuming that the handball was so obvious that we’d get at least a free kick. The ref penalized that. It was a long way from where the free kick was ultimately taken from, even in the wrong half, which added to the confusion.
Dale Johnson says the second handball was missed and should have resulted in a red card for Senesi as a DOGSO.
What happened: Liverpool were on the attack in the 13th minute when Mohamed Salah tried to play in Hugo Ekitike. Bournemouth defender Marcos Senesi intercepted the pass, but seemed to commit a handball that prevented the striker from running through on goal. Referee Anthony Taylor didn’t spot it, and actually issued a handball against Cody Gakpo a few seconds later. The VAR, Michael Oliver, considered a possible red card for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO) against Senesi.
VAR decision: No red card.
Marcos Senesi deliberately swipes at the ball with his hand.
VAR review: The ball was in contact with Senesi’s right arm two times. The first when it rebounded off his thigh onto his arm, which was in an expected position. And then when Senesi made a deliberate swipe to knock the ball out of Ekitike’s path.
Oliver was too concerned with the first touch on the arm, which was clearly accidental and wouldn’t be considered DOGSO, and didn’t notice the second handball for the actual offense.
Verdict: The incident was cleared too quickly, with Oliver only considering the first touch of the arm. This was clearly wrong as Senesi then deliberately knocked the ball from Ekitike’s run.
DOGSO on the halfway line is rare, but not unknown: Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off against West Ham United last season through a VAR intervention. Senesi should have been shown the red card; only Liverpool’s two late goals to secure the win prevented this from being a bigger talking point.
There would be a question about a possible covering defender, but no more than that. There should have been a VAR intervention as the clear likelihood is Ekitike would take control of the ball and be in on goal.
Across 15 VAR appointments and 35 key match incidents last season, Oliver had only one mistake, though it was a big one: West Ham’s late penalty that gave them a 2-1 win over Manchester United.
Evidently Oliver fucked up.
Evidently he deliberately screwed up.
Well I’ve had issues with Oliver for a while now, our record last season was I think the worst among all referees and there seemed to be an issue every game.
I don’t think Taylor is as bad as is suggested here but he is wrong in this game.
It was a shocking decision. Utterly perplexing and blatantly obvious. You’ve literally got an
ultra slow motion replay, fuckface. Being a ref in real time is very hard but I still cannot understand how someone sitting in a cushioned chair in complete comfort, with an assistant as well let’s not forget, can get so many things wrong while review systems in other sports don’t.
I don’t blame Taylor, because it seems like he genuinely missed it. There was lots of talk about ref cams before the match. Isn’t it odd that they didn’t use it here?
I think we would have justifiably been furious if we had a similar decision to the Tarkowski penalty. So is nobody allowed to move their body to block a shot in case it hits their arm which is by their side?
The handball law is so murky. Maybe just go the whole hog and say every handball, no matter how it occurs, will be penalised.
Senesi attempted to play basketball.
There’s a whole lot of difference between that and something which can be escaped as a natural movement of the arm etc etc.
Also this reminds me of the penalty which Liverpool were denied in the europa final vs Sevilla.
We were leading 1-0 and there was a clear as fuck , stone cold penalty when the opponent player decided to play handball instead of football.
I think the problem for me is that if that’s not a penalty, that’s a worse precedent. It would mean you could move your arm towards the ball to save a shot provided your body also moved with it.
So where can you safely put your arm so you can move to block a shot?
This was the directive 2 seasons ago.
Players were told by the Premier League they do not have to move with their arms rigidly by their sides or behind their backs.
The position of their arm or hand will be judged purely in relation to the movement of their body.
I think he could have got his arm out the way of the ball by actually moving it away from his body. He made no effort to get his arm out the way because if he had, he wouldn’t have blocked the shot.
If he hadn’t moved towards the ball at all then I don’t think that could have amounted to a penalty.
If you are diving to block a shot you are responsible for making sure you get only legal body parts in the way of it.
I get grievances based in the seemingly random way these are officiated but this is at least consistent with the spirit of why a handball rule exists.
Ignoring the incident last night for the moment.
At what point does distance or speed of shot get factored in? If you are say 2 metres away and I smash it at you is that handball? 3 metres. 4 metres, 5 metres. When does it become an offence? When is it judged impossible to get your arm out of the way? That is the arbitrary bit…
I can see why it was given. I think the problem in this case was that he leaned into it absolutely knowing that it was very likely that the part of his body that would be blocking the shot would be his arm. It wasn’t right by his side at moment of impact, his elbow was bent and there was air between his body and arm. It was a risk they chose to take and it didn’t come off.
Well…I suggest that everyone defending should pull their arms thru’ the sleeve so the whole of the body including the arms is enclosed in the shirt…like kids do in the playground when it is cold…that should be fun…
