VAR

[Risso]

And what is the point of VAR if at the end of the game we weren’t given a penalty for handball?

I didn't think it was a penalty full stop. Nor the one when Jack kicked it against his own arm.

Nor did I. 

re: Jack's one, the rules now say explicitly that kicking the ball against your own hand isn't a penalty.

[OCD]

With the changes of rules regarding handball it was a penalty by the letter of the law. VAR only seems to be getting used for offside goals though so if the referee isn't going to give it, it's not going to get overturned. Referees too busy watching eachother's backs.

[Nev]

"I've seen them given".

That's what we used to say before VAR so what's the point?

Decision making in the game is as questionable as it ever was so I don't see what we have gained.

[OCD]

That's the frustration. If it's not going to be used then there's no point in having it.

[Drummond]

It's gone now so it won't make a difference but that handball should have been given.

His arm moved towards the ball.

[Luke8]

Just a query, as my understanding of the process and implementation of VAR is probably not very good, but is there particular reason that very little seems to be have been referred for a second look on the pitch side monitor?

Saw one in Granada vs. Barcelona on Saturday, which had some similarity to the one yesterday - cross came in and a player that went to block ended up unintentionally stopping the ball coming across the area with his arm (which was further away from his body that the Arsenal one to be fair). Only one player really appealed, but the referee was advised to check the monitor and subsequently have a penalty.

Admittedly, might have just been chance that I witnessed it in that one game, but just struck me as something that hasn’t happened much so far in the Premier League.

Is it different guidelines? Wanting to back referees initial decision more? Fan/Media pressure regarding decisions taking too long etc.?

[Ads]

I don't think we have the pitch side monitor in the Premier League. We do for FA Cup though, I think.

As I see it, it's like DRS where the presumption is umpires call and the bails are the size of a house, so its nigh on impossible for any decision to be overturned.

[Steve67]

You have to question why bother having it when such an obvious penalty isn’t given and the VAR referees don’t have the bollocks to question the on field referee?  Or is it only when their on the telly is it going to take place! Robbed again for the second time and those two points might be crucial. Fuck me! Even Danny Murphy thought it was a penalty.

[The Edge]

The only time they seem happy to use var is when it wouldn't be considered a mistake by the officials. They're using it as a self serving tool to protect each others backs . They will give an offside where it's so tight no one could call out the officials. Even then it's completely fallable. If your giving offside for millimetres you have to be absolutely certain of the exact moment the ball leaves the passing players boot. And it can't. Thats impossible. Give the pen yesterday and you highlight the refs blatant mistake. And they aint gonna do that are they?

[Luke8]

I don't think we have the pitch side monitor in the Premier League. We do for FA Cup though, I think.

As I see it, it's like DRS where the presumption is umpires call and the bails are the size of a house, so its nigh on impossible for any decision to be overturned.

This from BBC suggests that we do have them, but does go along with your interpretation of unlikelihood to overturn decisions:

“It is only if the replays show a different version of events to that described by the on-field referee that the VAR team will step in. The on-field referee will then decide whether to accept and act on the VAR official's view of the incident. This may involve the use of the pitch-side monitor, although the Premier League says this will be used sparingly, for incidents either not seen by the on-field ref or for those outside of their expected range.”

Seems a bit of a halfway house standpoint to take to me.

[fbriai]

With the changes of rules regarding handball it was a penalty by the letter of the law.

Exactly.

It would have been a penalty under the laws used last season, too.

[ktvillan]

Danny Murphy rarely gives us much credit and even he said it was as blatant a penalty as you could ever see.  So did Shearer.  Compare it to the one awarded against Spurs in the CL final, where there was no movement towards the ball, it was kicked at him from about a yard or two away and anyway it was more on the shoulder than on the arm.  That decision yesterday smacked of "not undermining one of our own". 

I was in favour of VAR but I'm afraid it's worse than useless when operated by idiot refs backed by idiot authorities who are tampering with the rules to fit in with it, and who all seem to have a different set of criteria for when VAR should be applied.  The penalty decision was a clear and obvious error in my view, and that of the MOTD pundits.  That was meant to be the primary purpose of VAR.  Instead we get goals disallowed for the tiniest margins of offside which are in no way "clear and obvious".  It's fucking farcical. 

I say get rid until they can decide on a proper way to use it, preferably by giving each team two chances to review and having an independent trained body of experts distinct from match day referees who make the VAR decisions. 

[jimmygreen]

I can’t wait til the ‘these things tend to even themselves out over the season’ horse shit actually kicks  in. We’ll be flying.

[danno]

I was on the fence, but the goal Tottenham had disallowed against Leicester was when I finally decided that I'm a Luddite. It was ridiculous.

Not using it in case it undermines our shrinking violet referees is utterly pathetic and needs to jumped on as loudly by the TV companies and managers who campaigned for VAR in the first place.

[Drummond]

I thought VAR worked well in the World Cup. Probably because those people who were the VAR officials didn't give a shit about the referee on the pitch.

Here though, we have colleagues of the officials on the pitch having to call them out as being wrong, which just won't happen.

VAR needs a separate (independent) set of officials/experts/ex players(?) to oversee it. Maybe an ex referee (they don't need to be fit after all) and an ex player together so that they get the nuance of the game.