James Murray

Thu 5 October 2023 11:33, UK

Jacqui Oatley has drawn a previous West Ham incident into the conversation after the Liverpool controversy involving VAR in the game against Tottenham.

Jurgen Klopp has called for the fixture to be replayed after Luis Diaz saw a goal wrongly chalked off in the Reds’ 2-1 defeat to Spurs on Saturday (30 September).

But broadcaster Oatley, who has worked for Sky Sports, Fox Sports and the Premier League recently, tweeted on Wednesday (4 October) whether the incident was “so much worse” than when the Merseysiders were “wrongly awarded” a clear offside goal against the Hammers in February 2019.

She said the linesman on the night was in the “wrong postcode” as James Milner was well beyond the last Irons defender before playing a ball into Sadio Mane to score the opening goal in the 1-1 draw at the London Stadium.

Oatley added that they were both “huge procedural errors” as other teams have “suffered before and since” the incident took place.

Has a point

The broadcaster definitely has a point because that was a shocking piece of officiating from the assistant and there was nowhere near as much anger around that situation.

Obviously, the Diaz goal being ruled out should never happen with VAR in place, but that doesn’t mean that either incident was right.

Liverpool actually only lost out on the Premier League title by one point that season, so if they had held onto the lead that night, that moment could’ve been crucial in seeing them win the league.

You can, however, be on the side where you recognise that both decisions were extremely poor from the officials and shouldn’t be happening in the top flight.

There won’t be a replay of the Reds game against Spurs, but the PGMOL has to make sure that kind of incident doesn’t happen again because it’s unforgivable when there’s so much on the line and the fans pay an awful lot of money to see their teams play at this level.

In other West Ham news, a journalist has called for one Irons gem to receive a squad upgrade.