A tweet from Gary Lineker on Sunday evening has further convinced Liverpool fans that there is a conspiracy to stop the Reds from running away with the Premier League title.
In the 2018/19 season, Liverpool ended with 96 points and still didn’t win the title that would have ended their 29 year wait for a league triumph.
This didn’t deter them as they followed that extraordinary season with an even more incredible season, finishing with 99 points and the record for the fastest league title win in England.
Enter 2020/21, however, and it appears as though the officials are doing their utmost to prevent Liverpool from running away with the title again, with VAR ruling out some legitimate goals for the Reds.
Whether or not you believe that there is a conspiracy against the Reds or not, it’s hard to ignore the Merseyside Derby in October as evidence.
Virgil van Dijk was scythed down by the reckless Jordan Pickford. The result was that the Dutch defender has been ruled out for the rest of the season with an ACL tear which required surgery.
Liverpool weren’t awarded a penalty despite the fact that Dominic Calvert-Lewin kept van Dijk onside in the build-up and Pickford didn’t even receive a booking let alone a sending off.
And the reason that the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) gave for the VAR mistake? They didn’t give an explanation but did dispute an exclusive from the Daily Mail that claimed Coote forgot a rule which stipulates a player can be sent off even if the incident in question occurred after a player involved was offside.
Later in the same game, Liverpool scored a 91st-minute winner as Sadio Mane assisted his skipper Jordan Henderson to supposedly hand his side a dramatic lead late in the derby before VAR appeared to do its best to rule the goal offside.
I think most fans would find a way to come to terms with their goals being dubiously ruled offside or in violation of another rule but it’s the fact that identical goals have been scored against Liverpool and haven’t been chalked off.
In fact, the goal that Heung Min Son scored against the Reds at Anfield last week was just as tight as Mane’s Goodison Park decision yet it was given and supporters believe that it’s a bit fishy.
Had Spurs taken their chances in the second half of this game, VAR would have been implicit in robbing Liverpool of vital points in the Premier League title race.
While Lineker has nothing to do with the Premier League or the referees that oversee the game, his tweet on Sunday night has raised a few eyebrows. He tweeted: “Leicester, Everton and Spurs in the top 4. How marvellous. But what can we possibly do about Liverpool?”
Given that Liverpool have the worst net VAR overturn score of -6, Lineker’s tweet appears to be fodder for the conspiracy that nobody wants the Merseysiders to run away with the league title again.
