VAR

[PeterWithesShin]

[AllanW]

VAR in the Premier League
227 - Incidents checked by VAR
6 - On-field decisions changed
10 - Decisions that should have been overturned

Quelle surprise; the Establishment are trying to spin the outcomes of the experiment so far. These figures go nowhere near to describing the mess we've seen in just four weeks. Nice attempt at wallpapering over the cracks but we are not fooled.

VAR: Premier League referee chief Mike Riley admits four mistakes this season

Can anyone on this list spot an obvious error missing from this carefully selected list? Hmm? Anyone??

When pressed on why those mistakes were made, Riley added: "A combination of factors. That is the fascinating thing as this project evolves, we are constantly learning."

Then FFS do your learning away from the lives, careers and futures of the professional game, please. This is too important to act as a test-tube for you to 'learn' from. Such an irresponsible attitude is unforgiveable.

It's a mess at the moment; no-one has confidence in it because we can all see errors not being corrected. That was the whole point of introducing it. All we are treated to is more self-serving bullshit from the referees body propped-up by the PL telling us 'trust us to get it right in the long term'.

Is anyone else thinking that they are the last people we should trust? Kevin and his friends?

[ChicagoLion]

Could not agree more mate.
A bunch of self serving sanctimonious twats.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

Mike Riley came out and backed Friend saying he got it right!
In my mind, that makes Riley an equally incompetent/cheat as Friend and also should never go near another pitch. Not even championship.

[paul_e]

I assume by 'obvious error missing' you're referring to the Grealish dive/Lansbury goal.

On that basis lets repeat, VAR couldn't have done anything differently. The only choice they had to make was penalty yes or no, given no one even appealed they couldn't say it was an obvious error to not give the penalty so the on-field decision stays. The events after the 'incident' are irrelevant so "not a dive or a penalty so the goal stands" couldn't be an option because play had, technically, stopped before Lansbury took the shot.

Friend would know that the dive wouldn't have conveyed an advantage in the goal and therefore the goal couldn't be overruled because it was a dive so if he wanted to book Grealish he had blow the whistle before we scored.

The fault for this one lies entirely with the fucking abysmal decision of the on-field referee and no version of VAR would've seen us awarded that goal, VAR did nothing wrong.

The other incident we've had was where McGinn had a penalty shout denied against Tottenham. That one had a similar situation where there was a first challenge and then McGinn carried on and there was a challenge in the box. Again it was never a penalty so VAR got its review spot on (within it's remit). In both cases the issue is that there was a strong case for a free kick from the first challenges but the the games becoming stop-start (like in the Womens World Cup) meant the Premier League introduced a much more restricted version of VAR which doesn't allow the 'advantage', if the ref allows play to go on and then a 2nd incident occurs only the referee can take play back.


The short version, don't let Friend get away with being fucking useless by blaming VAR.

[AllanW]

The short version, don't let Friend get away with being fucking useless by blaming VAR.

Accepted.

Words to live by.

[pooligan]

Mike Riley was a god awful referee himself ,so its no surprise he thinks Friend made the correct decision

[PeterWithesShin]

Where has Riley said Friend got it right? All i've seen is him saying there's been 4 VAR errors, which is very different to mentioning ref rights and wrongs.

[paul_e]

I could've sworn there was something in an article saying he was happy with Friend's performance on the Monday after the game but I can't find it now.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

Yes, said it right after the game.

[pooligan]

I am certain i  read Riley saying he thought Friend made the  correct decision .I have tried to find where i read it but to no avail ,it was getting on for nearly a fortnight ago after all Anyway as far as i am concerned Riley was a a poor referee and Friend as most people have said got it wrong and made a terrible mistake and who knows it   could have a big bearing come the end of the season

[purpletrousers]

Riley said what Paul_e said.

It was terrible refereeing. Under the current system it was not a VAR failure. It should be a different system perhaps that could have overturned it, but once the whistle is blown oppo will just say they stopped playing. We’ve gone over this so many times.

[PeterWithesShin]

How does VAR not give Liverpool a pen?

[baddowvillans]

Literally just watched that this morning on MOTD. Incredible decision to give a penalty what are VAR doing

[ChicagoLion]

Literally just watched that this morning on MOTD. Incredible decision to give a penalty what are VAR doing

You literally watched it.