Dale Johnson Profile picture
Editor at ESPN FC. Lots of VAR, plus regulations, coefficients and permutations.

Jan 10, 2022, 8 tweets

Villa goal was disallowed cos Jacob Ramsey was offside when the cross came in, and then challenged an opponent (Edinson Cavani).

Play restarted with an indirect free-kick for the offside offence.

If disallowed for impeding with contact, restart would have been a DFK. #MUNAVL

Not sure why it took the VAR, Darren England, so long to get to the decision.

It seems he wanted to find a factual offside offence, when the subjective offside offence was quicker and more straightforward.

Michael Oliver was excellent in explaining this to Tyrone Mings.

This is the section of the offside law that applies.

Edinson Cavani was tracking the runner who then created the goal. You do not have to think Cavani WILL win the ball, only that it impacts on his ability to challenge for it.

So:

✅Jacob Ramsey is standing in an offside position
✅He interferes with the movement of Edinson Cavani (steps to the right into his path, too)
✅Impacts on the ability of the Cavani to challenge for the ball with the player who created the goal

Here's the video, the key incident starts at 2mins 55secs. Ramsey clearly blocks Cavani's run to challenge.

The VAR first looked at the factual offside as Michael Oliver could actually have rejected the subjective offside. So it was actually logical.

And just to answer a lot of repeat comments. Subjective offside overturns are always made at the monitor.

Here's one involving Aston Villa from last season.

Steven Gerrard after the game:

“I don’t think anyone knew [what was happening] in the stadium in all honesty. But for me, now I have learned the reasons why, I don’t think it was that complex to take three-and-a-half minutes to straighten it out.”

So, Law 12 for the foul and Law 11 for offside interfering are separate with different interpretations.

One requires a foul, the other only interference.

Oliver saw the players come together, but not the offside. A clear and obvious error by the officials collectively.

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