A former Premier League referee has called for clarification of the offside law after Murillo’s goal against Liverpool stood on Saturday.

Against Man City, Virgil van Dijk‘s headed goal was disallowed by the VAR after it was deemed that Andy Robertsonwho was standing in an offside position, interfered with play when ducking out of the way of the ball.

However, replays showed that Robertson wasn’t in Gianluigi Donnarumma’s eyeline and the goalkeeper probably wasn’t even aware of the Scotsman until the ball was past him.

A similar scenario ensued this weekend in a couple of matches, both with different outcomes.

Murillo’s goal at Anfield stood and in this writer’s opinion, rightly so, because Alisson‘s view wasn’t obstructed by Dan Ndoye, despite him being in an offside position.

So, Liverpool were the test animals and now the problem has been rectified, right? Wrong.

Arsenal‘s second goal against Tottenham was perhaps the perfect example of how players can impact a goalkeeper while standing in an offside position, but this wasn’t ruled out.

Eberechi Eze’s strike found its way through a crowd of bodies, with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario’s hand not strong enough to keep the ball out.

He likely would have saved the shot, though, if Martin Zubimendi and Leandro Trossard hadn’t been blocking his view while standing in offside positions.

Going by IFAB’s own definition of offside, this goal should have been ruled out.

---

Some of the definitions of offside provided by rule-makers IFAB are:

• Preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or

• Challenging an opponent for the ball or

• Clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or

• Making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball

---

Speaking on Sky Sportsformer Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher said: The grey area for this kind of incident is too wide.

“We are at the behest of the officials on the day. It’s so subjective and it is too loose. There is no defining barriers like handball.

“If you tighten this up, people might not like it, but we’d accept it. At the moment, people are saying this has happened to our team this week and this has happened to our team this week.”

Gallagher may say the law is currently too subjective, but the definitions provided by IFAB make it quite clear that if an offside player is blocking the goalkeeper’s line of vision, then offside should be given.