Originally posted by McDermotX
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I'm not so fussed about whether it was on or offside or the fact that it was a situation involving us I'm more interested in how the laws of the game are applied and the consistency of officials.
I would question whether linesman who is 30 yards away can say with any certainty that he has seen that Lallana's toe is an inch behind Rose at the speed that the play is occuring, which means that it is guess work. If it is guesswork then that implies some doubt, and in these situations the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacking player meaning that the goal should stand.
I find it difficult to watch the analysis on TV where pundits can use technology to determine exactly whether the player was in an offside position or not using slow motion etc. The analysis then typically follows such that if the player was in an offside position and was flagged offside the decision was correct.
Because in situations which are as tight as the one yesterday you can't blame a linesman for not putting his flag up if it later turns out that he was an inch offside (you can't give what you can't see and you are supposed to give the benefit of the doubt to the attacker) in not flagging you are applying the rules appropriately. This however leaves a seemingly paradoxial position where the player was in an offside position but the linesman was correct in not flagging him offside (because it is too tight to be able to tell).
However if the rules are applied properly you should never see the linesman give someone as offside when they aren't in an offside position, because the linesman can't have been certain that he has seen them in an offside position and if there is any doubt the attacker gets the benefit, therefore to be flagged offside when you aren't in an offside position the official must have been guessing which means that they aren't applyig the rules properly. Based on the number of players that are flagged offside in these situations I would say that there are alot of officials who guess at decisions.
Now maybe the official yesterday was able to see Lallana was an inch offside, and could say with certainty that he was in an offside position - in which case we can have no arguements about it, it was a fantastic decision, if it was a guess then whether it turned out to be right or wrong it was a terrible decision.

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