London. Wrong decision, scandalous decision, short circuit.
A handful of Premier League coaches are sleeping tonight with rage exploding in their chests.
They would probably agree that it’s easier to get angry with a screen referee than someone who doesn’t have a screen.
usually David Moyes Actually calm, bordering on the shy. For example, he smiled, and politely answered questions, after Mark Noble missed a penalty in the closing stages of last season’s Manchester United encounter. A difficult situation for the coach who took the opportunity and replaced Noble only with the goal of adding the penalty kick.
Moyes can, of course, make a fuss, too. Like when he hit a head-on in connection with the exit against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League (with the justification that it was ‘well-placed’. UEFA didn’t buy the explanation).
But furious aside, he was just as furious, with the West Ham boss after the London derby against Chelsea probably the most deflated. A late goal rejected by Maxwell Cornet, which resulted in a lack of a point, sparked a fury rarely seen at Stamford Bridge’s podium.
“It is a scandalous decision,” Moyes said bitterly, and perhaps added internally:
VAR strikes again.
Not everything can be measured
What bothers us most about VAR, it seems, is that a flesh-and-blood human sits in front of a screen. Modern society is spoiled by gauges that can determine exactly how many calories a person should eat to maintain weight, whether the car is going too fast, or whether the distance between places A and B is reasonable for pedestrians.
Knowing whether or not the goal should be allowed, despite all the technology, is still a matter of taste, and football fans have a very hard time accepting that the human factor behind the rulings can be partially but not completely erased. Perhaps we have been deceived by the promise of “fairer football” and realize that the debates have become more and more heated in recent seasons.
Oh my gosh, we still don’t always agree 100 percent on what’s sneaky or not, despite drawing a billion lines. Just ask Alexander Isaacs.
One of the few who trusts gut feeling
There are a few basic explanations for why problems accumulate Premier League. This is partly due to (lack of) efficiency, as referees are not always able to handle high tempo and judge under pressure. This is a concern that the EGA has been grappling with for some time and desperately trying to address it, don’t ask me how they are doing.
Moreover, alarmingly few rulers trust their intuition these days. For example, some avoid blowing in crowded situations in the hope that the VAR assistant will scream if something is really up. Once an overall decision is made, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) may ask the referee to rush to the screen to see the situation again, and several are immediately folded.
Michael Oliver was an exception on Saturday, who stood by his position on the penalty awarded to Nottingham Forest by Bournemouth’s Lloyd Kelly. Personally, I don’t like the ball bouncing on his arm having dire consequences, but Oliver, who is considered by most to be the best referee in England, at least chose to rely on his experience and feeling rather than the VAR room.
It’s easier to get angry after that
Andy Madeley didn’t do that at Stamford Bridge. It’s easy to sympathize with judgment under the circumstances, the tumultuous arena, the drops of sweat trickling through the temples and a decision that will stir passions no matter who favors it. But was Jarrod Bowen’s effort on goalkeeper Edward Mendy enough to rule out West Ham’s goal? According to Declan Rice, this is one of the worst VAR decisions of all time, and Moyes agrees.
Not only that, in tonight’s final match between Aston Villa and Manchester City, we finally come to some lacking human factors. Philippe Coutinho was not offside at all before he shot hard at home as a potential winner for the FIA. Why was the error not fixed? Referee Simon Hooper has already blown his tube which means an automatic short circuit has occurred in the VAT room.
A slew of football managers go to bed tonight with rage rising in their chests (Jesse Marsh, who saw the red card in Leeds’ massive loss to Brentford, is one of them). Today is not the first time the rulings have caught the eye, and certainly not the last. But after all, it is easier to get angry with a referee who has a screen, than it is with someone who does not have a screen. This says something about the matter.
