Marcus Rashford offside: Man Utd striker was given 'benefit of the doubt' vs Liverpool | OneFootball

Marcus Rashford was actually ‘offside’ when he scored Manchester United’s second goal during their 2-1 win over Liverpool.

Replays appeared to show Rashford marginally offside when Anthony Martial played him through on goal in the second half. The assistant referee’s flag stayed down as Rashford finished cooly past Alisson to double his side’s lead.

VAR images appeared to show Rashford had gone marginally too early as Joe Gomez defended against him.

But it was soon announced that Rashford was onside and that the goal would stand.

However, it seems the United goalscorer wasn’t actually onside.

Why Rashford was given the ‘benefit of the doubt’

That’s according to ESPN’s Dale Johnson.

He explains how, 12 months ago, UEFA proposed a new rule to give the “benefit of the doubt” back to the attacker when it came to offside. If the two VAR lines touch, the attacker should be given onside.

The aim was to remove the most marginal offside decisions.

Johnson explains: “It gives tolerance level, or margin of error, of 5cm back to the attacking player, meaning they can be just in front of the defender but the goal will stand due to the possible inaccuracies in the system.

“Usually the offside image shows both lines to attacker and defender, but when a player is onside due to the tolerance level the computer automatically only displays the line to the defender – which in the Premier League is green to make it clearer that a goal is good. The line isn’t displayed to both players (in any league) because they would sit on top of each other.

“Rashford was marginally offside, but onside due to this ‘benefit of the doubt.'”

Offsides will be ‘semi-automated’ at the World Cup

It’s understandable that UEFA wanted to get rid of ‘toenail’ offsides with VAR spending minutes trying to work out if an attacker is onside or offside. But, then again, it seems unfair for a goal to count if an attacker is marginally offside.

Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of the FIFA referees’ committee, explains how offsides will now be as accurate as goalline technology and it will remove these grey areas.

“The objective is to have a very accurate technology, something similar to goal-line technology which offers a very high accuracy,” Collina explained. “The goal-line technology is praised by everybody for its accuracy. So if the ball did, or didn’t cross the goal line by very few millimetres, and the technology proves it, everyone is happy and everyone praises the technology for the very good answer provided.

“It should be the same for the Semi-Automated Offside Technology, which provides the evidence that a player was offside or onside in a very accurate manner. This technology should be praised as well.

“I don’t see any difference between certifying that a goal was scored or not, or certifying that a player was in an onside or offside position.”

That’s no consolation for Liverpool, who may feel hard done by after Rashford’s goal was allowed to stand.