Couple of odd decisions in the Leeds Wolves game. Seemed like a pen on Costa considering the others we've seen given (maybe not an obvious error or something?). Jiminez then attempted to kick Koch in his cock, reminiscent of what Son got sent off for last season. All just seems so inconsistent.
Refs & VAR 2020/2021 Discussion
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Clearly the best Tech ever. Thanks for the Bruno Fernandes penalty 
I'm more impressed with him not falling for any of PSG's antics.Clearly the best Tech ever. Thanks for the Bruno Fernandes penalty
Yeah, balls of steel to take it a 2nd time, and same corner. He's a class act from the penalty spot for sure.
I am considering leaving my wife for this referee.
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For all the complaints about offsides, the way they handle these subjective calls in the PL has always been a far bigger problem to my mind.
We benefitted from it today but it's pretty ludicrous that Maguire got away with that. It's a blatant penalty.
If Chelsea had a challenge there and forced Atkinson to go to the screen, they would've had a penalty and rightly so.
I don't doubt that. You could also make the claim that Maguire tried to play the ball and had his eyes on the ball while Azpilicueta clearly tried to get a penalty and weren't looking at the ball.
You could but you'd think that a player would let go of his chokehold if he got himself tangled up with the opponent. It's pretty obvious that there was a lot of force from Maguire on Azpi.
How would you argue that? Did Azpilecueta insert himself into Maguire's arms?
I've got to be honest, I don't understand how VAR don't look at that and award it. Think a draw was an overall fair result, though Man Utd shaded it just for me. But that's a pretty clear penalty for me.
Would Dean have given the foul if he knew it was inside the box? Good call by VAR.
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Thought it was a stonewall pen, this place would have been crazy if it was vice versa.
VAR in a nutshell - the use of it is still horrendous. What Maguire does is a 100% penalty, he wraps the player with both hands, doesn’t let go in time, holds him down and then benefits from it by clearing it away. Then VAR has the audacity to check the «foul» on Rashford ten seconds later. Jesus christ, if we had gotten a penalty there I would have been embarrassed for the sake of football.
The way VAR works now makes me feel there is one guy sitting there drinking coffee, and situations are seemingly missed when the same guy’s out for a break. That bad defending from Maguire could be against us in the next game, that’s why it needs to be a fecking penalty every time.
The way VAR works now makes me feel there is one guy sitting there drinking coffee, and situations are seemingly missed when the same guy’s out for a break. That bad defending from Maguire could be against us in the next game, that’s why it needs to be a fecking penalty every time.
We got let off big time, how Chelsea didn't get a penalty for that is beyond me.
I'm a supporter of VAR, in theory.
I just want it to be more consistent, we benefited today but I'd have been furious if it was the other way.
Like now, when the dust settles and you can look at it objectively, we just need VAR to get the right decision consistently and for or against us if it's fair I'll take it.
I just want it to be more consistent, we benefited today but I'd have been furious if it was the other way.
Like now, when the dust settles and you can look at it objectively, we just need VAR to get the right decision consistently and for or against us if it's fair I'll take it.
I rewatched it and I agree with you. I was wrong, he actually had his eyes on the ball in real time. Whatever VAR does in regards to shirt holding and grabbing, they need to be consistent and figure out a way to ensure consistent decisions. Should be easy enough especially in these types of situations.
It would be far easier to accept VAR if it either officiated everything on the pitch or only were used as consultants for the refs. The way it's used now, with a bit of both, it becomes too unpredictable for both players/staff and fans.
I still have absolutely no idea why anybody likes VAR. IMO it’s about as appealing as having Hitler round for tea.
It’s not reliable, it kills the emotion in games, it’s become a bigger talking point than the game itself. Not to mention week on week it seems to produce worse and worse decisions.
I mean who wants to spend hours arguing about ‘technology’ and how it interprets the game instead of the actually just watching and enjoying the game we supposedly love...
It’s not reliable, it kills the emotion in games, it’s become a bigger talking point than the game itself. Not to mention week on week it seems to produce worse and worse decisions.
I mean who wants to spend hours arguing about ‘technology’ and how it interprets the game instead of the actually just watching and enjoying the game we supposedly love...
Just so everyone is clear on the rules... This isn't a foul :
I will never enjoy a referee blunder against my team. VAR is far from perfect and never will be but the game was broken before (and will always be broken)
This is the crux of the problem for me personally, I don’t think the game was broken to begin with.
Certainly not to the extent where we needed something so overly intrusive within the game. Something that affects fan emotion/reaction to goals, takes centre stage over football itself for discussion and ultimately gets it wrong a lot anyway.
Of course I hate when a decision goes against my team but it wasn’t frequent enough to warrant this monumental change in the game, a change that detracts from fan experience rather than improve it.
Speaking of feeling upset by getting a wrong decision for your team, I wonder how Liverpool fans feel after last weekend. That was as bad as anything we saw officials get wrong pre-VAR.
Offsides and handball have become a joke. All we needed was goal line tech for goals. The former two were never a massive issue.
I agree with your general sentiment tbh. I think VAR has its use but the refereeing bodies just went OTT with all these new rules. Something so impactful needed a much more careful implementation (like the Word Cup 2018 where it was much better IMHO). For offsides they need to be less anal about the margin and introduce a tolerance level. Biggest issue is by far the handballs, why make it so complicated for defenders ?
Its these easy decisions i want fixed. That's a foul all day long. Why cant the var ref just speak into his ear and say foul and just change it there and then. Shouldnt take 10 seconds
VAR only steps in regarding fouls if it's in the lead up to a goal, a red card or a penalty.
I'm not sure which side you're arguing for - but it is a foul.
a player doesn't have to actually be hit for them to be impeded. He gets to the ball first, bellerin misses it and then blocks his path. Justin has to jump out of the contact or get clattered.
These sort of situations show why players cheat and create contact by leaving a leg trailing even if they don't have to.
Ignoring VAR for a second, how the hell does that not get called as a foul
? The ref is looking straight at it!Where do we draw the line on holding in the penalty area? Are either or both of these ok?
I think that is linked to the refs just not being very good.Ignoring VAR for a second, how the hell does that not get called as a foul
don’t know why they don’t do away with it altogether. Surely “goal hanging“ can be dealt with by defenders just paying attention, ffs. I’m sure there’d be far less controversy than going through all this shite every week a million times, merely to accommodate a grossly outdated and irrelevant rule.
Impossible to tell by a still picture. What made Maguire on Azpi such a blatant penalty was how long he kept his arms around him, and how he used it to win the duel.
Does using it to win a duel matter that much? You can use it to stop someone being able to get into a position to even challenge for the ball. James isn't even looking for the ball, there's a picture of him bear-hugging Maguire as well. Only coming across pictures rather than videos atm though, it happens at the corner from Mendy misplacing a pass around the 30th minute mark. James holds him for a good few seconds.
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I’ve been banging this drum for years. Field hockey always had an offside rule but did away with it. The game changed to become a bit more stretched (improved it as a spectacle) but defenders adapted and it takes no less skill for teams to score than it did when offside was still a thing. Just a hell of a lot less controversy.
Offside is a tricky one, for me they should be left to the officials because we don't have the technology to definitively prove offside to the smallest possible margin (which is what we bizarrely set as the target for ourselves), so we are having to rely on referees interpretation anyway.
Personally I would remove offside and handball from what is reviewed by VAR. Put the responsibility back on the officials for those.
I appreciate the latter would effectively render VAR useless, but it would improve the game entertainment from where we are now. No doubt about that in my mind.
If you look at the vast majority of goals disallowed by VAR, I believe that prior to VAR very few of them would we have been that unhappy about being given... Let's use the Bruno goal that was disallowed against Newcastle as an example, Mata is slightly offside when he plays the return pass for Bruno to smash it top bins. Now personally, if that goal was allowed against me if I were a Newcastle fan, I would not have been up in arms about it. If Mata were a few inches further forward he would have played the same pass and it would have had the same result, it served no benefit to us as the attacking team for Mata to be slightly offside in that move.
To me that's a prime example of an excellent goal being chalked off for the sake of it, because with this technology we've now bound/committed ourselves to take every rule to the furthest. possible. degree. When the reality is, prior to VAR, we wouldn't have thought that was a disgraceful decision to miss that offside and for the goal to stand. And it works both ways, we've had the rub of the green with VAR as well as anybody, it just doesn't sit right with me, I don't think it A) Improves the game. B) Get's everything correct.
I'm arguing that you'd have to be a crazy person (or incidentally a Premier League Ref) to not think this is a foul.
But yeah everything you said is spot on.
That should have been a second booking for Bellerin.
Why VAR thinks a straight red card and two yellow cards are different things is anyones guess.
One thing I would say is that the introduction of VAR has made me realise how many offsides I would have called wrong when watching at home.
Take the below Salah offside, for example. Pre-VAR I would have been certain his knee was offside, when in reality the camera perspective is misleading.
I've also come to realise I know way less about the rules of football than I would have assumed I did. I think a lot of the decisions we wouldn't have complained about would have been based in ignorance as much as acceptance.
In regards to the tech though, the good news is that they'll be introducing a more accurate and quicker GPS system in the coming years anyway.
Yep, remember as kids we often had a goal hanger in unregulated street games, etc, who did nothing but hang around the oppo goal, waiting for a stray ball to drop into his path to grab the glory but we‘re talkin pro football here, ffs. In what universe would coaches not legislate for this, apart from the prospect of it opening up the game. All the better for entertainment. Worth a trial at lower levels.
They did an experiment in Germany and the only person who thought it was a definite improvement was the referee! Just one game though. It would take a good while for them to refine the best tactics.
I don't think VAR can do anything about a foul that should bring about a 2nd yellow card.
Although reducing the compactness would make the game more open and end-to-end, for me that would be offset by the ball getting slung into the mixer multiple times a game in the hope of a lucky break in the chaos that ensues.