Gary Neville says he didn’t see VAR drawing their usual lines to check Luis Diaz’s offside goal today.
Diaz had looked to put Liverpool ahead with a superb finish shortly after Curtis Jones’ debatable first-half red card in North London.
But despite replays appearing to show the Colombian just behind Cristian Romero’s trailing leg, the goal was quickly ruled out. This was to the surprise of Gary Neville, who told Sky Sports that he hadn’t seen VAR checking the goal.
“I’m mystified by it,” admitted the pundit. “The speed of the decision. We were looking and we didn’t see any lines go on, I suspect they did but we didn’t see it.
“How quickly that decision was made, it didn’t feel they had enough time to do anything with it. There does need to be an explanation on that one.”
VAR in the spotlight again
Interestingly, there was no clear image of the goal shown by Sky Sports during the half-time break.
Online, others were drawing their own conclusions as to why that is. Obviously, none of these claims can be substantiated for the moment.
But the truth is that it Diaz really did look to be behind Romero when collecting Mohamed Salah’s excellent pass.
For that reason, it’s fascinating to hear that Neville didn’t spot the lines being drawn on the in-stadium screens.
Once the game is finished, Jurgen Klopp’s views on the incident have the potential to be box office. With Jones already having been dubiously sent off earlier in the game, it was a second huge, debatable decision that went against Liverpool.
It isn’t the first time Klopp’s Reds have been on the end of some strange officiating at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Back in 2021, officials failed to show Harry Kane a red card, before Diogo Jota was denied a stonewall penalty.
Those two calls were bad enough, but the two today run them very close indeed. An explanation is certainly needed.