Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Been doing some research and FIFA's Laws of the Game 2014/15 states the following-

"A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent, who deliberately plays the ball (except from a deliberate save), is not considered to have gained an advantage."

So, assuming there has not been a further change since then, it seems to me that the linesman deemed the contact with the ball by the Newcastle player to be accidental and so Zohore was offside - I've only seen the incident the once and am unlikely to see it again, so I can't really comment either way on whether he was right in his interpretation of what happened.
You've been a bit selective there unless I've completely misread the offside laws. An 'offside' player can also be penalised if he interferes with an opponent by;

a) challenging an opponent for the ball
b) clearly attempting to play a ball which is close to him when this action impacts on an opponent
c) making an obvious action which impacts on an opponent's ability to play the ball

http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-...w-11---offside

I'd say Zohore was offside three times rather than none in this instance, I'm not even sure if the Newcastle player touched the ball so it may be four. Like I say though, there must be a big grey area here. If the defender stays on his feet and underhits a back pass which Zohore intercepts and scores from, how can the ref determine whether Zohore's presence 'impacted on the defender's ability to play the ball'? Very subjective. The defender would say he felt Zohore's presence behind him and had to rush the pass. Surely it would be much easier in this case for the linesman to raise his flag as soon as the attacker moves towards the ball?