Jordan Henderson revealed that Jordan Pickford sent on his apologies to Virgil van Dijk after the Merseyside derby following a nasty challenge which is to sideline the Dutchman.
Dramatic and controversial would be an understatement for the 237th Merseyside derby, with a red card, VAR, poor officiating and injuries dotted around goals in either half.
Liverpool were on the wrong side of a myriad of calls, with Henderson’s winner at the death somehow denied by a distance not distinguishable to the human eye, while Pickford went unpunished for a scissor challenge on the No. 4.
Speaking to BT Sport after the game, Henderson assessed the performance and questioned the process of determining offside through VAR as sometimes it feels as though they bend the lines to make it so.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t get the win, I thought the performance was very good and we deserved to win the game,” the captain said.
“I think they bend the lines don’t they sometimes to make it offside, I’m not sure how they do it.
“Not just that goal but I thought the overall performance, the chances we created from start to finish we were the better team and I think Everton will be happier with the draw.”
And while unable to review the footage first-hand, the continued stream of questions pertaining to the challenge on Van Dijk ensured Henderson knew it couldn’t have been good – with Pickford’s desire to apologise post-match cementing the fact.
“Everyone keeps asking us about it so I’m guessing if you say it’s a red card it mustn’t be a good challenge,” Henderson added.
“But just to be fair, Jordan did come up to apologise to me after the game to tell Virg so it mustn’t be great.
“But not just that incident, you know. I thought we created so many good chances to score and overall we should have won the game.
“I think it woke some of us up certainly,” Henderson reflected on the bounce back from the defeat at Villa. “It was a bad game overall, we all know that.”
“But it’s about the reaction and I thought the boys reacted really well and that’s all you can ask is to give everything.
“Especially in the derby, to play the way we did, some of the football and chances we created, defended well with intent and very happy with the performance, disappointed we didn’t get the three points but we move on and we go again.
“For us, it’s about each game, as we always say the next game is the biggest game and this was our biggest game today and then Ajax and so on and so on.
“We don’t look too far ahead, we always concentrate on what’s important and that is the next game.”
For Liverpool, however, the next game is set to see them without Van Dijk, Alisson and potentially Thiago as more names were added to the injury list.
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