Mike Dean says Taylor was right disallowing Manchester City’s goal

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Mike Dean has told the Daily Mail that Anthony Taylor made the right call disallowing Manchester City’s goal against Liverpool on Sunday, insisting that Erling Haaland clearly fouled Fabinho in the build-up.

The Reds picked up a huge win at Anfield, with Mohamed Salah scoring the only goal. Jurgen Klopp will be hoping that the result ignites their season at long last.

But it could have been very different. The first player to find the back of the net on Sunday was Phil Foden.

Initially, Liverpool were seemingly angered by the goal. It appeared that Haaland may have kicked the ball out of Alisson’s hands before it fell to Foden.

However, replays showed that Haaland had every right to get to the ball. But the Norwegian was penalised for a moment earlier in the move.

Fabinho went down after having his shirt pulled by the City striker. And after being informed to go to the pitch side monitor, Taylor decided to disallow the goal.

Taylor made right call disallowing Manchester City’s goal

Some will feel that the decision was harsh on Haaland as Fabinho potentially went down a little too easily. But Dean has claimed that the official got the call absolutely spot on.

“He let the game flow by waving away the soft fouls and penalising the ones that clearly overstepped the mark. It was the same for both Liverpool and Manchester City and it made for the physical battle we like to see in the Premier League,” he told the Daily Mail.

“VAR Darren England did his job, too, including requesting that Tayls should review a possible foul at the pitchside monitor, which led to disallowing City’s would-be opener by Phil Foden. Tayls couldn’t see the shirt pull by Haaland on Fabinho from his position – but VAR could.

“It was a clear foul for me which left the Liverpool man on the ground. And it’s important to remember that Fabinho would have been the one tracking City’s striker as he made his way into the box.”

Dean’s opinion is probably not going to settle the debate. For those who believe Fabinho went to ground too easily, they may struggle to see it from Dean’s perspective.

But Haaland’s decision to grab Fabinho’s shirt left the door open for a big decision to be made. Had he been able to avoid doing so, he may have still been able to win possession.

Every side will feel that the use of VAR goes unfairly against them at some stage. So Liverpool fans will probably be able to think back to a number of decisions which went the other way and feel that Sunday’s call was due.