Referee Michael Oliver has admitted he made a mistake in not focusing more on Jordan Pickford’s horror tackle on Virgil van Dijk during October’s Merseyside derby.
Pickford’s tackle left the Liverpool defender needing knee surgery which could yet rule him out for the entire season, but both Oliver and VAR officials decided against punishing the England goalkeeper on the basis that a penalty could not be awarded because there had been an offside in the build-up.
However, the referee has now admitted that the Everton ‘keeper’s reckless challenge could still have been punished with a red card - and that the officiating team should have focused more closely on that decision, rather than being consumed by whether or not to give a spot-kick.
“The thought initially was, 'it can't be a penalty because it's offside so we need to check the offside first'. I said to the VAR, 'if it's not offside I'm going to give a penalty'. I've watched it back so many times," Oliver told the Daily Mail.
"We've all, myself included, not thought about the challenge as much as should have done. We could still have given offside and sent Pickford off.
"We got sucked too much into going step by step as opposed to thinking of the bigger process, which was considering the challenge as well and not just the fact it can't be a penalty."
League leaders Liverpool's three main centre backs -- Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip -- are all sidelined with injuries. They next face Manchester United in the league on Sunday.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
