Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez was left fuming by referee Andre Marriner's decision to disallow Steven Gerrard's early free kick in Saturday's goalless draw with Stoke City. Gerrard, who was in line to net his 100th goal for the Reds, hit the net in the second minute with a free kick from the edge of the area, but Dirk Kuyt was adjudged to be offside. Replays showed that Kuyt did not touch the ball, despite his attempt to flick it into the net. "It is difficult to explain, when we scored the first goal the game would be open and just the referee in a very bad position disallowed the goal," Benitez told Sky Sports. "It is strange as I have watched the replay and no one can understand why. "His [the referee's] position is impossible. It is impossible to have a good view, if it was the linesman you could say okay it could be offside but it wasn't. "Very, very strange [decision], but the referee normally is very, very strange. "He said to Carra [Jamie Carragher] that he disallowed it but didn't say why so maybe he doesn't know. "Really [the disallowed goal] could be a massive difference, we knew it could be a massive difference, but again having said that we have to score more goals and I think we tried." Liverpool dropped two points at Anfield for the first time this season as they lie second in the Premiership table with 11 points. Gerrard's disallowed goal
