Steven Gerrard described the failure of Stuart Attwell on VAR to intervene over a crucial decision at Anfield on Sunday as 'an absolute embarrassment'.
There was controversy in the 21st minute of Liverpool's defeat to Arsenal when Jurrien Timber pulled Alexander Isak's shirt inside the penalty area, a clear foul which somehow went unpunished just five minutes after Kai Havertz's winning goal.
Reds boss Andoni Iraola went as far as to suggest that he'd encourage his players to go to ground in such situations, with the Swedish striker staying on his feet and not protesting to the referee despite the obvious offence on him.
Speaking on The Overlap Daily , Gerrard was aghast at how Attwell on VAR failed to intervene over the incident involving Timber and Isak.
The ex-Liverpool captain said: "The speed of the cross and how it happened and the reaction, you can understand how a referee could possibly miss that or think there's not much in that, but for someone to sit in [the VAR room] with all these screens around – how you miss that in the VAR seat is an absolute embarrassment."
He added: "To hold someone's shirt for that long and have three or four opportunities to see that and slow it down, and the amount of cameras that are in stadia at the moment, it's really poor from Stuart Attwell."
Image via Sky Sports
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Gerrard's incredulity over the lack of intervention from Attwell is quite justified – the official on VAR majorly dropped the ball in that instance.
We can absolve on-field referee Andy Madley to an extent, although the shirt tug was so blatant that he could viably have spotted it too, but there's no excuse whatsoever for those in Stockley Park to let it slide.
VAR was brought in with the intetention of correcting 'clear and obvious' errors, and what Timber did to Isak yesterday very much meets that description. Why, then, did Attwell not recommend a pitchside review to the ref when it would've been very much warranted?
Some decisions are quite subjective even when slowed down or viewed from multiple angles, but this seemed like one of the more clear-cut calls to make, yet nobody with the power to take action was proactive enough to do so.
In a tight game settled by that early goal from Havertz, it had a significant impact on the final outcome, and Liverpool have every right to be apoplectic at bearing the brunt of that baffling call by the officials.
