Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter believes Virgil van Dijk didn’t foul Rodrigo Muniz against Fulham, despite some of his contemporaries insisting the Liverpool captain should have been punished.
The Reds had a day to forget as their title charge stalled at Craven Cottage with a 3-2 defeat. Arne Slot’s side suffered just their second league defeat of the season, although they still need a maximum of just 11 points to secure their crown after Arsenal could only pick up a point at Everton.
For the second game running, there was some controversy around Liverpool’s latest outing, particularly during the early stages. Fulham felt it should have had a penalty after catching Ibrahima Konate dawdling on the ball inside his own penalty area.
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Andreas Pereira was upended by Caoimhin Kelleher in the process of squaring the ball to Rodrigo Muniz, who collided with Virgil van Dijk as Liverpool escaped conceding early - not that it helped them in the context of the rest of the game.
Neither incident resulted in a penalty despite a VAR check, although that has raised the ire of one or two pundits, including former official Keith Hackett.
“I think the Fulham manager has every right to jump up and down in the technical area when he sees two incidents – neither given, unbelievable!” Hackett told Football Insider.
“Is there any wonder that the Fulham manager is jumping up and down? Liverpool’s Kelleher came out, with arms outstretched, nowhere near the ball, and in doing so, uses his body and brings down Pereira.
“It’s a penalty kick. In the same phase of play, Virgil van Dijk turns his body on his opponent in an act of unfair impeding – an offense – on Muniz, and we’ve got a double scenario here.
“The VAR didn’t interfere with either, didn’t recommend referee Chris Kavanagh going to the monitor – he should have done. Where is [Matt] Donohue, the VAR, looking?
“Because there’s two offenses that both required a penalty kick decision; goalkeeper and Van Dijk, both guilty of offenses inside the penalty area. [It’s] beyond belief.”
One of his former contemporaries disagrees though. Speaking to Grosvenor Sports, Winter - who spent nine years officiating in the Premier League - feels Van Dijk didn’t deserve to be punished.
“I honestly thought they just ran into each other,” Winter said. “I mean, there's one thing when defenders are blocking attackers, which Van Dijk is good at, but my initial reading of that incident was that it wasn’t a penalty. Van Dijk had nowhere to go, and Muniz just turned into him.
“To me, if you’re going to give free kicks or penalties for that sort of thing, you're going to end up stopping the game all afternoon - I just thought it was a collision.”
Liverpool.com says: If you can’t get two referees agreeing on the same incident, then that probably tells you it shouldn’t be that controversial. Clearly, it was an accidental collision between Muniz and Van Dijk, and the Liverpool captain surely can’t be punished for that.
