Referee Michael Oliver has admitted Everton goalkeeper should have been sent off for his challenge on Virgil van Dijk.
Oliver officiated the derby at Goodison Park in October and he decided not to send off the Blues goalkeeper after he lunged at the Liverpool centre-back.
Van Dijk was then taken off and it was later revealed that he would miss the majority of the season after tearing his ACL as a result of Pickford's challenge.
The Dutchman isn't expected to return until later this year, with Oliver and his VAR assistants coming under heavy criticism for choosing not to send off Pickford.
Speaking to Mail Online, Oliver admits that the officials in charge made a big mistake with Pickford's challenge, too heavily focused on a marginal offside call against Van Dijk.
"It was a big game, both teams were flying in," Oliver explained.
"The assistant had given offside and there is a delay in the flag, as we had this season. Jordan then comes out to Virgil.
"The thought initially was 'it can't be a penalty because it's offside so we need to check the offside first'. I think I said to the VAR 'if it's not offside, I'm going to give a penalty'.
"I have watched it back so many times. I genuinely don't think Pickford has done anything apart from try to spread himself but he did it in the wrong way, as the injury shows.
"We have all, myself included, not thought about the challenge as much as we should have done,” Oliver admitted.
“We could still have given offside and sent Pickford off. What I was surprised about looking at it afterwards was that nothing was expected on-field in terms of a red card. None of the players were asking for that.
"We got sucked too much into going step by step as opposed to thinking of the bigger process, which was considering the challenge as well and not just the fact it can’t be a penalty. We should have restarted with the offside, as we did, but with a different punishment for Jordan Pickford."
