Dermot Gallagher claims Liverpool were given raw deal by erroneous refereeing decision v Fulham | OneFootball

Dermot Gallagher feels that Liverpool were hard done by over one big decision in the 2-2 draw against Fulham on Saturday.

The former Premier League referee made his weekly appearance on Ref Watch for Sky Sports News on Monday morning as he looked back on some of the major talking points from the weekend’s action.

He bafflingly agreed with Tony Harrington’s decision to give Andreas Pereira a yellow rather than a red card for a nasty foul on Ryan Gravenberch’s Achilles, but the ex-top flight whistler claimed that the Reds had a legitimate grievance over another call which went against them.

Gallagher says Robertson red card was wrongly given

Gallagher gave his verdict on Andy Robertson’s dismissal for a foul on Harry Wilson which was perceived to be denial of a goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO), believing it to have been harsh on the Liverpool left-back.

He told Sky Sports: “I have had a lot of chances to look at this again. I did not think it was a red card at the time, and I still don’t.

“Robertson doesn’t know he’s coming. He miscontrols the ball and Wilson nicks the ball. Is he in control of the ball? No. Is he going to gain control of the ball? Very doubtful because the Liverpool player is going to get there first. Is he moving towards goal? No.

“There’s are too many variables and the ‘O’ [in DOGSO] stands for obvious and not possible. Then [Raul] Jimenez has a shot and the whistle actually goes when [Virgil] Van Dijk clears the ball so it adds a lot of complications to it. A more palatable decision would have been a yellow card.

“If you’re going to give a red card then you whistle because once you whistle you’re in control of the situation. If he thinks it’s a red card then just blow. If the referee had whistled immediately then everyone would have accepted that.”

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Gallagher has a point

On initial viewing it had seemed as though Robertson prevented a goalscoring opportunity for Fulham, but upon looking back at the footage and hearing Gallagher’s verdict, we’re inclined to view it differently.

Van Dijk was indeed in the vicinity of the ball and succeeded in clearing away Jimenez’s subsequent chip, at which point Harrington then called it back for a foul and showed our number 26 the red card.

Perhaps if the referee blew immediately after the challenge, the visitors may have been enraged at him for not playing the advantage, but the decision to leave Liverpool a player light for all but the opening 17 minutes unquestionably had a massive impact on the game.

Rightly or wrongly, it means that Robertson is now suspended at an inopportune time for the Reds – with Kostas Tsimikas injured, it leaves Arne Slot without any natural senior left-backs available to him for the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Southampton on Wednesday.

One small mercy for us is that a direct red card for a DOGSO foul carries just a one-match ban (whereas violent conduct or serious foul play is three), so the 30-year-old will be free to play in our next Premier League fixture away to Tottenham in six days’ time.