The Referee Admits That He Did Not Pay Pickford A Red Card After Van Dijk's Tackle

JAKARTA - Premier League referee Michael Oliver admitted that he had made the mistake of not giving Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford a red card. The goalkeeper made a horror tackle on Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk during the Merseyside derby in October last year.

Van Dijk suffered a front connective tissue injury in the match which ended 2-2 and had to undergo knee surgery. However, Pickford's offense did not get him punished by Oliver and VAR officials.

VAR thinks the Liverpool defender is already in an offside position so he doesn't deserve to be awarded a penalty, but Oliver admits that Pickford is lucky to continue playing.

"The initial thought was' this is not a penalty for being offside, so first we check it for offside," he told the Daily Mail.

"I think I told VAR, if it wasn't offside, I would give it a penalty." I have watched that match many times. I don't think Pickford has done anything other than save the ball but he did it in the wrong way as the injury shows. "

He later admitted, "We can still give the offside decision and send Pickford off."

But Olver was amazed that no Liverpool player had begged to be issued a red card for the Everton goalkeeper.

"We should continue the match with an offside decision as we have taken, but with a different penalty for Jordan Pickford," he concluded.