Why was Virgil van Dijk ruled offside when Cody Gakpo scored for Liverpool against Aston Villa?

The Premier League is never without controversy. Whether it’s a VAR issue or not, a handball, offside, a push or a shove, some group of football fans find reason to complain over the course of the weekend. And things were no different in Liverpool’s clash against Aston Villa in the Premier League.

With both teams fighting for European football, the Anfield game had three massive points on offer for both sides. Spurs’ poor form had opened the door for Villa to sneak into the Conference League and Liverpool needed the points to keep the pressure on both Manchester United and Newcastle.

So, when Gody Gakpo’s second-half goal was ruled out for offside after a scramble in the box allowed him to tap the ball into the net, the Anfield crowd were left scratching their heads wondering why.

Let’s go through the action play by play to work out why it was ruled offside:

1. Trent Alexander-Arnold plays a cross into the box and Mo Salah heads the ball back where it came from, trying to lay the ball off to a teammate inside the box.

2. When the cross is played in, no Liverpool players are offside. However, when Salah heads the ball back across goal, Virgil van Dijk is in an offside position.

3. The header from Salah does not find a teammate, instead the ball hits Aston Villa defender Konsa on the leg, whose touch sees the ball land at the feet of Van Dijk.

4. The Dutch defender plays to Konaté, who has his shot blocked off the line before Gakpo finishes past Emi Martínez to equalise.

So, why was Van Dijk offside?

The VAR checks the goal and calls the referee over to the screen in order to determine whether or not the touch from Villa defender Konsa was either an attempted clearance, or a deflection from the Mo Salah pass.

The outcome of the decision was that it was in fact a deflection, that Konsa did not try to make a ‘deliberate attempt’ clear the ball, it merely hit him and bounced to the offside van Dijk, meaning the goal was to be ruled out.

Had Konsa tried to swing his leg at the ball or attempt to clear it, the phase of play would have been different and van Dijk would not have been ruled offside.