Neil Warnock cites famous Bill Shankly quote in on-air rant over what he saw at Anfield yesterday

Neil Warnock took to the airwaves to vent his annoyance over the scenes in the closing minutes of Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, citing a famous Bill Shankly quote to underline his point.

With Alisson Becker caught upfield as the Reds sought a last-gasp equaliser, Rayan Cherki took full advantage by trying his luck from near the halfway line, and his shot tricked over the goalline.

However, the goal was disallowed after a VAR intervention which culminated in on-field referee Craig Pawson showing Dominik Szoboszlai a red card for a shirt pull on Erling Haaland as they both chased the ball, an action which was deemed to be denial of a goalscoring opportunity.

Warnock vents after VAR controversy at Anfield

Warnock phoned up Jeff Stelling on talkSPORT Breakfast on Monday and, never shy of offering his two cents on refereeing decisions during his lengthy managerial career, vented over what he witnessed at Anfield yesterday.

He blasted: “I remember Bill Shankly saying: ‘They [referees] know the laws, but they don’t know the game’, and nothing has changed in all these years.

“They know the rules, they know it inside out, they know what should be happening, but they haven’t got any idea about common sense. They all think: ‘If we don’t give this then we’ll lose some marks’, and it’s a load of absolute rubbish.”

Warnock continued: “I bet you [PGMOL chief executive] Howard Webb cringed, and he knows that he’s going to come on and he’s going to say: ‘As far as rules of the game concern this is what should have happened, they followed the right criteria’, and all that bull, and yet they still don’t grasp it.

“We’ve still got referees doing the VAR that aren’t any better than the referees. They don’t have any emotion. They don’t understand the game; they just know the laws. They all know the laws inside [out]. They go to bed with a book of laws, I would think, and read them up.”

Shankly’s famous quote still rings true in 2026

Webb will almost certainly explain away what happened yesterday as ‘following the rulebook’, and whilst referees are naturally conscious of adhering to rigid laws when they know they’re being assessed, they should also apply some bit of common sense in their judgements.

The scenes at the end of the match at Anfield didn’t please either team, with both Erling Haaland and Pep Guardiola decrying the decisions to disallow the goal and show Szoboszlai a red card, even though their team won.

Ex-PGMOL chief Keith Hackett has called for a clear explanation as to whether or not Pawson had played advantage before the ball crossed the line and VAR got involved, as the Liverpool midfielder should’ve been merely booked if advantage had applied.

That we don’t know the answer to that question further highlights the inexplicable lack of transparency which surrounds major refereeing decisions in what we’re constantly told is the best domestic league in the world.

VAR conversations are shrouded in secrecy, only being made public in sporadic stage-managed PR exercises by Webb as no actual steps are taken to implement a much-needed improvement in refereeing standards in the Premier League.

Warnock hasn’t always been simpatico with Liverpool in the past, that’s for sure, but we imagine that the vast majority of Reds supporters would agree with his latest assessment after what transpired at Anfield on Sunday.

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