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Former Premier League referee Howard Webb says a blunder by assistant Mick McDonough cost Liverpool victory at Old Trafford.

Antonio Valencia was clearly offside when he received possession in the build up to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late equaliser.

However, McDonough wasn’t in line with play and kept his flag down.

“Manchester United benefited from an error by assistant referee Mick McDonough,” Webb told The Times.

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“Positioning is everything as an assistant referee and he is not where he needs to be, which is looking along the offside line.

“Because he is too far down the touchline, he cannot judge whether Antonio Valencia is just offside before he receives the ball, which he is.

“In those circumstances, he gives the benefit of the doubt to the attacker. He will have known he lost his position at a crucial time.”

Webb also insisted that Wayne Rooney was lucky not to be carded for a poor challenge on James Milner.

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“I think Wayne Rooney’s tackle on James Milner, for which Michael Oliver gave a foul and no more, is one of those that is somewhere between a red and a yellow card,” he added.

“Looking at the video, which Oliver did not have the chance to do, I would ultimately say it is a yellow card.

“Rooney’s tackling technique is poor, and he is reckless, but he puts his foot in the direction of the ball and does so with less than the excessive force that would make it a sending-off offence.”

Keith Hackett, the former general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, agreed with Webb that some big decisions went against Liverpool.

“When Michael and his team look back on the game there will be three decisions they will be disappointed with,” he told the Telegraph.

“The most serious of them was when assistant referee Mick McDonough failed to notice Antonio Valencia was offside in the build-up to Manchester United’s equaliser.

“He was completely out of position and it was a poor error considering the move was being conducted at walking pace.”