Liverpool beat Nottingham Forest in fortunate circumstances on Sunday, with Gary Lineker sharing his thoughts on the closing stages of the Premier League clash
Stephen Killen Senior Sport Central Audience Writer and Kieran Horn
16:47, 23 Feb 2026
Gary Lineker discussed the VAR controversy from Liverpool’s win over Nottingham Forest(Image: Rest Is Football podcast)
Gary Lineker has delivered a fresh rant on semi-automated offsides after Liverpool’s late goal against Nottingham Forest. Alexis Mac Allister scored the winner deep into stoppage time at the City Ground with VAR confirming Virgil van Dijk, who played a key role in the goal, was played onside by Ola Aina.
Just minutes earlier, the Forest full-back was full of relief as his delayed clearance was forced in by Mac Allister but that goal was ruled out for a handball. Controversy also surrounded what was deemed to be a legitimate goal by the Argentine with Lineker making his feelings perfectly clear on the incident and the technology used.
Lineker said on Rest Is Football podcast: “I think Nottingham Forest fans will think it’s a little bit suspect. But we’ve got technology haven’t we? Deciding whether you’re offside or not, or semi-automated.
READ MORE: Arne Slot left fuming as Alexis Mac Allister delivers unusual Liverpool response
OPINION
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“I think semi-automated means that it’s automated but we’ll give ourselves semi incase we make a mistake. Why’s it called semi-automated? What does that mean?”
Micah Richards added: “You know what annoys me about it, sometimes they do the onside/offside, sometimes they show you it, sometimes they don’t, sometimes it’s not working. I thought this was supposed to iron out the mistakes.
“You see Van Dijk, on the replay I saw, he was offside and it goes to semi-automated.”
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Lineker then stated: “There was a dangling leg and I was trying to work it out because it didn’t have any socks on on the freeze frame I saw. Within, unusually quick, I quite like if it’s pacey.
“I think we trust goalline technology, whether it’s as accurate as we say I don’t know, but now semi-automated, even the wording doesn’t suggest it’s 100% right. Doesn’t it? I mean doesn’t it? To the naked eye, there was dangling leg and couldn’t work it out.”
This is not the first time that Lineker has made his feelings clear on the offside technology and it benefitting Liverpool.
Liverpool’s late winner against Nottingham Forest was fortunately given(Image: (Photo by Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images))
Earlier in the year, Florian Wirtz’s goal at Craven Cottage against Fulham looked to be offside but the semi-automated technology stated he was behind Issa Diop.
“In football, you are talking fine margins,” Alan Shearer said on The Rest Is Football podcast at the time. “Fine margins helped them get the Wirtz goal because, looking at that, I thought it was offside.”
“That was bizarre, wasn’t it?” Gary Lineker replied. “The line on the pitch was exact… maybe the line was a bit [skewed], I don’t know, because they’ve got this automated thing that we’re trying to trust.”
Florian Wirtz missed Liverpool’s win over Nottingham Forest through injury(Image: Getty Images)
Arne Slot was without Wirtz for the victory at Forest because of a back injury that he felt in the warm-up. However, the Liverpool boss is hopeful he will be back to face West Ham United on Saturday.
When asked for an injury update, Slot said: “We don’t think it is very serious. He felt his back too much during the warm-up to start.
“He wasn’t able to be 100% or close to 100%. So we decided not to play him but hope and expect him to be with us next week.”
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