Liverpool legend claims Manchester United winner should’ve been offside

It was certainly not a great performance from Manchester United. But it was good enough to get all three points on the night and breath new life into their season, after they had lost three of their last four games coming into this one.

For most of the night, Villarreal looked like the much better side and if not for the heroics of David de Gea in goal, they could have walked out of Old Trafford with a comfortable victory. But with the Spanish goalkeeper looking at the top of his game, Unai Emery’s side could only find the back of the net once despite having a number of chances.

Manchester United got their equaliser from an unlikely source in the form of Alex Telles before Cristiano Ronaldo ended up grabbing the winner deep into stoppage time.

In many ways, Manchester United were very lucky on the night. And Liverpool legend, Pepe Reina, believes that the winner should’ve been disallowed. He tweeted out:

Was Ronaldo’s Manchester United winner offside?

The case that Reina makes in the comment section of the tweet as well is that Lingard is in an offside position. And there might indeed be a case to be made that Lingard had an effect on the goalkeeper during the run of play.

Lingard’s falls to the ground in front of the Villarreal goalkeeper and just before Ronaldo shoots, the goalkeeper even tries to push him away from his path. And while Lingard’s presence might not have obstructed his vision, it definitely made it more difficult to pull off a save.

What is done is done though and while one can understand Reina’s comment from the perspective of a goalkeeper, it might have been harsh to rule out the goal at the same time. What will matter most to Manchester United right now is that they got all three points and will be hoping to use this result to bounce back from their recent disappointments.