Everton vs Liverpool

That's because the new rules are to raise the flag AFTER play stop so as not to interfere. The flag went up as soon as play had stopped. Without VAR he would have been flagged right away, an offside given and serious foul play would not have been an option. You can't punish a player for screwing up a challenge when the player was only in that position due to breaking a law of the game first. If VVD had stayed onside there is a reasonable chance Pickford isn't in a position where the challenge happens. For a sending off it would have had to be deemed violent conduct which doesn't cover attempted tackles

 

That's from the offside section of the rules. The 2nd example is totally irrelevant as VVD attempts to play (and does play) the ball.

You could argue he is in a position that he is impeding Pickford's ability to win the ball so could be guilty of 1 and is certainly guilty of example 3. So in both cases Pickford can't be red-carded.

Serious foul play is only applicable when it's an attempt challenge and as another offence has happened first it isn't something that can be penalised. It has to be deemed to have happened off the ball (which the second example is talking about) in which case its then violent conduct not serious foul play

 

Yes, they are though. It's defining what is considered a foul and what's considered violent conduct. It has to be deemed a foul for Serious Foul Play and as VVD got the shot away having benefited from being offside its not deemed a foul. Pickford could only be sent off for Violent conduct there and what he did isn't deemed violent conduct as it was a tackle. You can argue that it should be able to be classed as violent conduct but its not and the ref followed the rules