Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has said that Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed goal in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday should have stood.

The incident in question came in the 38th minute when Liverpool captain Van Dijk thought he had headed home from a Mohamed Salah corner before VAR deemed that Robertson was in an offside position and impacting the view of City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

“Yeah I don’t think it has affected it all [Robertson impacting Donnarumma], when you look at it,” Rooney told BBC’s Match of the Day.

“Robertson is in an offside position but Van Dijk, good movement, really good header and Donnarumma can see the ball, we know he can see the ball the whole way and Robertson is to the side of him.

“Donnarumma is outstretched, he has a full dive, there’s no affect from Robertson on that goal for me.”

VAR ruled on the evening that Robertson was making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper, but Rooney believes Donnarumma had seen the ball early enough for the goal not to have been ruled out.

“Donnarumma puts all his weight on his right foot which makes it hard for him to get back across the goal but he dives as soon as Van Dijk heads the ball and he’s on his way, he’s diving and its a really good header, the goal should’ve stood to me,” Rooney said.

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Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy played down the importance of Van Dijk’s disallowed goal, saying that his former side are falling away in the title race.

“Unfortunately the level of Liverpool’s performance probably meant it wouldn’t have affected the outcome,” he said.

“Not from a points tally but from a performance level yes [out of the title race]. They don’t look like they’re playing well enough to make up the gap, unfortunately, away from home they’re too easy to play against, they’re too wide open and they’re making too many mistakes.”