Virgil van Dijk speaks out on Liverpool goal controversy - 'It should have stood'

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Virgil van Dijk insists Liverpool were robbed of a perfectly legitimate goal in their 3-0 loss against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon following a controversial offside call.

The Reds captain powered home a header shortly after Erling Haaland had broken the deadlock but his celebrations were cut short by the offside flag with Andy Robertson judged to have been in an offside position and interfering with Gianluigi Donnarumma's attempts to save the ball.

The Premier League confirmed that the goal was disallowed as Robertson was "deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper". But Van Dijk has made it clear that he doesn't agree with that call - even if Pep Guardiola's side were deserved winners on the day.

"I don't know who was on the VAR, Michael Oliver? I think therefore, the officials at the stadium and the couple behind the screen have to make the right decisions for the game," the Netherlands star said.

"Today it was decided the goal wouldn't stand because Andy Robertson was, for any reason, hindering Donnarumma but I think the goal should have stood, that is all I will say. But I am not the one who is making the decisions.

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"I think [the explanation] was just hindering the goalkeeper or something like that? But someone showed me a clip that Man City scored last year against Wolves and the referee was [Chris Kavanagh] back then as well.

"I don't know, I've already said too much because the thing is, the decision has been made, we lost 3-0 and we don't make excuses in that sense. We lost 3-0, we have to take it on the chin and move on. How tough it is is obviously a hit but we have to keep going."

Van Dijk and other Liverpool stars will link up with their nations for the international break with Liverpool languishing eight points behind Arsenal after the weekend's results.

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The imperious defender admits there are lessons to be learned from the club's fifth defeat of the Premier League season but insists nobody will be getting carried away over the gap between the champions and Arsenal. He added: "You don't forget about results like this. If you forget about these things then you don't get better. You cannot only think about the good things all the time.

"You have to think about what went wrong today and how we can improve it. You have to feel that responsibility, I definitely do. What could we have done better? And you take that into the next games.

"I don't think there is any reason to get carried away, we faced some difficult opponents this week and we got two wins from three and we have to just keep going. It's a difficult season so far for many reasons but I am confident we can turn this around.

"It doesn't happen overnight, we have to keep working and we need everyone to be fit to keep helping us, so that is the key for all of us in the dressing room.

"There's no point looking at the table for us, that is it. I don't think there is any point for us. If you lose as many games as we have lost, I don't think we can look at the table at this point but I have been in the game quite a long time [to know] that seasons aren't decided in November or December.

"It's when it comes to March time, you know, April, when it starts to become very interesting how it all shapes up up there. We want to be there but there's a long way to go and a lot of hard work to be put in."

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