“Unfortunately, it is a mistake” – Mike Dean slams “monumental error” by Paul Tierney in Liverpool’s win against Nottingham Forest

With Liverpool going into Gameweek 27 just one point clear of Manchester City in second place, the Reds had a lot riding on their clash against Nottingham Forest. That was especially true with City facing Manchester United in a tough fixture on Sunday. However, few gave Forest a chance against Jurgen Klopp’s side especially with the Tricky Trees sitting in 17th place, four points clear of the bottom.

Not only that, the Reds were on a fine run of form, winning eight of their last ten league games (1 loss and 1 draw), with that run stretching back to late December. Yet despite form on their side, Liverpool struggled to break Forest open with the latter nearly producing a shock upset. But eventually, Darwin Nunez netted a 90+9 winner to hand his side the win.

Referee Paul Tierney made a monumental error before Nunez’s goal

However, the post match talk was all about the error that referee Paul Tierney made about three minutes before Nunez scored. Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate went down inside his box and play was stopped while Callum Hudson-Odoi was in possession of the ball. But when play restarted, a few seconds later, it was via an uncontested drop ball that was given to Caoimhin Kelleher.

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That was even though the IFAB Law states that the referee had to drop the ball for a player of the team that last touched the ball where it last touched a player. The Reds eventually went on to win a corner, from the drop ball, where Nunez eventually scored.

Since then, Tierney has caught a lot of flak for his decision and Mike Dead admitted that it was right so. The retired referee also revealed that there needs to be a fallout as it was a “big error by a match referee”.

“Unfortunately, it is a mistake and it’s a bad one, because it leads eventually to a goal. The law states that whoever has the ball last when play is stopped, the ball is returned to them. Callum Hudson-Odoi clearly had the ball, and the ball should have been given back to Nottingham Forest,” said Dean, speaking on Sky Sports News.

“There has been a big fallout and rightly so, it’s a big error by the match referee. It’s something they are going to have to live and learn from – it’s a mistake, we all know it’s a mistake. It is right [that we focus attention on it] because the incident is wrong in law. It’s a monumental error. The drop ball law is there for a reason.”