Howard Webb has admitted a mistake was made not to send off James Tarkowski in Everton’s Merseyside derby defeat to Liverpool – but says it was right to allow Diogo Jota’s winner despite a potential offside infringement by Luis Diaz.

April’s Anfield derby clash brought about plenty of controversy, with Tarkowski avoiding a red card for a high lunge on Alexis Mac Allister after clearing the ball – before Jota netted a second-half winner in a 1-0 win for Liverpool, despite Diaz apparently impacting the attack from an offside position, albeit without touching the ball or any defender.

In the latest episode of Match Officials Mic’d Up, the referee recordings of both incidents were published, with on-field referee Sam Barrott arguing Tarkowski should not have been sent off as the Everton defender’s “foot has to go somewhere.”

“That’s a follow through,” said Barrott at the time. “It’s part of it [the tackle] and his foot has to go somewhere. On-field decision is yellow card by James Tarkowski.

VAR Paul Tierney, while looking at the challenge, added: “So he wins all the ball, there is contact on the calf. It’s hard for his foot to go anywhere else.

“There’s no secondary movement and he [Barrott] has cautioned him. I think it’s referee’s call.”

The assistant VAR added: “Absolutely, I agree. He falls onto that area of the leg.”

However, PGMOL chief Webb believes Tarkowski should have been sent off as he uses “excessive force” and “endangers the safety of the opponent”.

“It’s a red card challenge, it’s an error on the part of the match officials not to send James Tarkowski off,” said Webb.

“The referee recognises on the field that Tarkowski plays the ball and the way he does so is reckless. The VAR then checks that on-field decision of a yellow card – and puts too much focus on the fact that Tarkowski plays the ball.

“You hear him talking about where else his foot can go – but Tarkowski makes the choice to play the ball in that way.

“When are you clearing or playing the ball close to an opponent, you have to think about the opponent and the way you’re going to go into that challenge, thinking about the safety of the opponent.

“He lunges towards Mac Allister in the way that he does and you see the contact – it’s excessive force and it endangers the safety of the opponent and it should be a red-card offence.”

Asked on the programme if the context of it being a Merseyside derby should work in Tarkowski’s favour, Webb replied: “The game has asked us to protect players’ safety. That’s our most important thing as a match official.

“We will never try to read a player’s mind, we will only work on the physical evidence that is presented to us on the way a player plays.

“We see the defender coming in, clearing the ball but following through with real high levels of force. There is contact happening with a player that is in front of him, it’s not a player stepping in front of him from a position he wasn’t in previously.

“It was not the right outcome. We take the learning as a group, analyse these situations on a regular basis to try and reduce the occasions we fall short.”

‘Jota winner should stand because offside Diaz does not interfere’

Tarkowski was involved in another contentious issue once again in the way he defended Jota’s winner in the 1-0 win for Premier League leaders Liverpool.

While trying to defend a forward ball, with Liverpool forward Diaz behind him in an offside position, the Everton defender lunged towards the ball and gave it away. Jota picked up the loose ball and scored what would be the winning goal.

The laws of the game state a player is only offside if they clearly obstruct the line of an opponent’s vision, challenge for the ball, clearly attempt to play the ball and impact the opponent or make an obvious action towards the ball.

VAR Tierney said, while assessing Diaz’s involvement, said: “He makes no challenge whatsoever. There’s no offence.”

Giving his take on the call by the officials, Webb said: “Just being in an offside position, which Luis Diaz is, is not in itself sufficient to be penalised.

“It’s about what you do – and to be penalised you have to do one of the things here to be penalised for offside and interfering with an opponent.

“We don’t see Diaz do any of these things in an offside position. He just stands there.

“You can feel a bit sorry for Tarkowski because he stretches out to stop the ball going through to Diaz. But that ship sailed some time ago.

“If you are in an offside position and don’t do anything, you won’t be penalised. That’s what we see in this situation.

“Diaz was not challenging, he was just standing there. That’s why this goal was allowed to stand.

“Challenging an opponent for the ball would involve physical contact with an opponent. You come from an offside position to do that, that would be challenging. It’s not an offside offence, because of the way the law is written.”

Replays showed Tarkowski pointing towards the offside Diaz and then moving to the position where he gave the ball away. But Webb reaffirmed that this was not enough to be considered interfering with play.

“Unfortunately for Tarkowski, that’s not the way the law is written,” said Webb. “It has evolved over time, it’s giving an advantage to the attacking team.

“We penalise when players do one of the physical actions to interfere the opponent, but he does none of those.

“As per the laws, it was the right interpretation even though Everton and Tarkowski can feel harshly done by philosophically.”