Michael Oliver Stats From Refereeing Liverpool Emerge After VAR Controversy

A fan has created a Reddit thread containing statistics from Liverpool games that have been officiated by Michael Oliver since the start of the 2020-21 season.

This week, Liverpool made contact with PGMOL – the body responsible for refereeing games in English professional association football – to raise concerns about Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal in their 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.

With 38 minutes played, Van Dijk's first-half header was ruled out after Andy Robertson was adjudged to be interfering with play.

An official statement from the Premier League said: "The referee’s call of offside and no goal to Liverpool was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Robertson in an offside position and deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper."

Liverpool, however, believe the goal should have been allowed to stand, with senior figures from the club rejecting the idea that Donnarumma’s view was impeded by the presence of Robertson, according to The Athletic.

In addition to the above, Liverpool believe the usual checks involved in the VAR process did not take place.

Michael Oliver, who was on VAR duties for Sunday's game, has been criticised by fans after failing to advise referee Chris Kavanagh to watch the incident again on the pitchside monitor.

Speaking in his post-match interview, Arne Slot claimed it was "obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made" to disallow the goal, adding: "He didn't interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do."

Reddit thread details Michael Oliver record in Liverpool games since 2020-21

As relayed in the post by haliqcapital, which takes statistics from Transfermarkt, Oliver has refereed 23 games involving Liverpool since the 2020-21 campaign.

In those games, Liverpool have recorded eight wins, eight draws and seven losses, which works out at a win rate of 34.8 per cent.

Speaking after the game on Sunday, Virgil van Dijk made his feelings clear about the disallowed goal.

“I think the goal should have stood," he said. "I think the explanation was hindering the goalkeeper or something like that? But someone showed me a clip that Manchester City scored last year against Wolves and the referee was the same.

"I don’t know, I’ve already said too much because the thing is, the decision has been made," he added. "We lost 3-0 and we don’t make excuses in that sense. We have to take it on the chin and move on.”