‘I was sure it was offside’ – why did Wirtz equaliser stand?

When one of Liverpool’s former stars Harry Wilson opened the scoring in a first half where Slot’s side failed to test home goalkeeper Bernd Leno, the top scorer was out with a muscle issue.

However, they did so in stoppage time with a contentious goal from Florian Wirtz and scored from Cody Gakpo in front of the away end in the fourth minute.

However, as Slot’s side again dropped points, late substitute Harrison Reed fired home a contender for the season’s opener from 25 yards in the 97th minute.

Marco Silva, the manager of Fulham, said, “It would have been completely unfair to us.”

Liverpool’s unbeaten run reached nine games, but their issues were once more exposed.

You believe you would win if you weren’t a part of Liverpool, Slot said. “But sadly, I’ve been experiencing this for months, whereby the opposing team gets their first chance to score.” The second is that the opposing team scores a goal in extra time that you don’t anticipate. Is that a surprise, then? the Dutchman asserted.

Even though replays suggested he was in an offside position, what surprised many inside Craven Cottage was that Wirtz’s equaliser was confirmed following a video assistant referee (VAR) check.

Wirtz told Sky Sports, “I was certain it was offside, so I didn’t even celebrate.”

Wirtz glared offside. And he was completely innocent. So why, following a VAR review, was his goal allowed to stand?

There were some ambiguous offside decisions in VAR’s first two seasons. The attacker and the defender would have opposite lines drawn to them.

There were numerous complaints that this omitted the offside law’s spirit.

So all leagues started adding a 5 cm tolerance level, or benefit of the doubt, to the outdated offside technology at the start of the 2021-22 season. Regardless of the on-field decision, the player would be given onside if the two lines touched.

The ball was passed incorrectly due to inaccurate information in the technology, which does not always indicate when the ball was passed.

A player could now apply the tolerance level while being slightly offended by the technology but still be onside when it was applied.

According to Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the referee body at the time, it could result in an additional 20 goals per season.

All of that was altered by the development of semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). The top leagues, including those in Germany, Spain, and Italy, have all reverted to non-scoring by a millimeter.

However, the Premier League wanted to keep the tolerance level so that the attacker could have some leeway when SAOT was introduced. Because of the uncertainty surrounding ensuring that this new technology is flawless,

I’d like to see more, but I’m not sure if there will be chance after chance if we play against Fulham at home against a 5-4-1 formation.

“Overall, we have done enough to win the game, and we did it very well by limiting them to a slight chance,” the final result still stands.

In spite of Liverpool’s recent struggles in terms of the quality of their performances, Slot was unwavering about his principles.

“My role as a manager didn’t change.” If it were possible to play with eight attackers defensively, but if those eight attackers didn’t defend enough, it would be difficult to win a football game,” said Slot.

“Compared to the previous seasons as manager, my view of football hasn’t changed this year.” However, we must use the available players.

With Alexander Isak injures, Slot claimed that he did not take the risk of Ekitike, who traveled to London but had a muscular condition known as Doms (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), especially given that he had already experienced it.