'It's a foul': Match of the Day pundits agree that the referee got one big call wrong last night

It wouldn't be a post-match review without a refereeing decision to pore over, would it? There were a couple of incidents last night that had Newcastle United fans talking as the Magpies played out an entertaining 3-3 draw with Liverpool.

In the first half, Newcastle fans were incensed that an off-the-ball incident between Anthony Gordon and Virgil Van Dijk went unpunished. After spurning a glorious opportunity to extend Newcastle's lead, Gordon was then dropped to the floor by a needless barge by Van Dijk which seemed to connect with the face of Gordon.

Shockingly, the incident was looked at by VAR but nothing was even said about it. Match of the Day looked at it in the highlights but then it wasn't mentioned by the pundits.

However, the non-penalty on Alexander Isak was looked at with all three pundits agreeing that Isak was fouled, but not all agreed that it should have been a penalty.

Newcastle had a strong case for a penalty

Jarell Quansah stepped across Isak as he ran into the box and took the player before the ball, but the referee opted not to punish the challenge and it was one of those decisions in which VAR was always likely to go along with the on-field ref's call, which they did.

It sparked debate in the Match of the Day studio however with the pundits all putting their own interpretation on things.

Martin Keown: “The defender dives in; I’m going to go with the ref because that’s what we want to do in the game, but, Gary, that looks like a penalty to me. I’m not certain he gets a touch on that.”

Micah Richards: “He gets a little touch there, but he gets Isak as well."

Gary Lineker: “But it’s still a foul, it’s a foul."

Once again we are left to question the purpose of VAR

It's another one of those incidents that call into question the purpose of VAR if it doesn't overturn decisions that are clearly wrong. We understand that the 'clear and obvious' error applies to whether they feel that the referee made the right call at the moment, but when replays show that they were wrong, isn't that VAR's job to step in and say "Actually, mate, you missed that one"?

The Match of the Day panel also discussed whether it was right for the referee to blow up for full-time with Newcastle bearing down on goal in a three-v-two situation which looked like it could easily have resulted in a winner.

Again, the pundits were all shocked that the ref didn't allow Newcastle to complete the action, but the ref did blow as the ball was in flight over the halfway line, so it's one of those that could be looked at either way. Obviously, from a Newcastle perspective, it would have been nice if we could have seen where that counter attack led.