In essence, this is what we thought we were getting when VAR was introduced, and I’d be fine if that was the application they went for, told us that they wanted and stayed consistent with.
But all season long, and especially since Howard Webb came in, we’ve been told to accept when we don’t get penalties against Newcastle, Nottingham and Crystal Palace that were very clear because the bar for a VAR intervention is very high. When van Dijk studs someone and receives a yellow, we’re told to accept it because the bar for a VAR intervention is very high. When Fabinho lunges at a guy’s achilles from behind and receives a yellow, we’re told to accept it because the bar for a VAR intervention is very high. When Coady grabs a Liverpool player by the throat, we’re told to accept that no sanction is not a clear and obvious mistake because, you guessed it, the bar for a VAR intervention is very high.
A day before our game, multiple horrible tackles are made and VAR doesn’t intervene because the bar for a VAR intervention is very high (despite those tackles not even being punished with yellow cards!). An hour after our game, two very obvious fouls don’t get VAR interventions (Pope and Burn) because the bar for a VAR intervention is very high. Yet somehow in the middle of all that, you’re going to tell me that out of all those incidents, some involving literally the same referee, the worst mistake of the weekend, where VAR absolutely needed to step in to correct a clear and obvious mistake, was showing a yellow card to Casemiro for his tackle? How is this not blatant inconsistency bordering on dishoneaty from the guy sitting in the VAR room, who presumably is under the same instructions as every other referee sitting in that room?
