’It’ happened five times to us, in one season. Five written apologies.Liverpool were absolutely robbed and it's a disgrace. I hope it's just a coincidence that Spurs were the beneficiaries, as they were last season against us.
But it's sticking in the throat a bit that the entire UK football media seems to be in agreement that this cannot stand and Something Must Be Done, because when it happened to us their response was just "ah well, them's the breaks"
This. It’s ruining the game. I’d rather have the spontaneity and the odd ‘in good faith’ bad decision from the man in the middle than the breathtaking incompetence and inconsistency we’re seeing over and over again from VAR officials.I understand the schadenfreude side of things, I really do. But…
I just don’t want to see it, full stop. Whether that’s against Liverpool, us, Chelsea or even Palace.
These bad decisions undermine the sport, it’s hypocritical to laugh at others getting shafted with terrible incompetence, then expect sympathy when it inevitably happens to us again. And given that, factually, it has happened to us more than any other team in Premier League history, I take no joy in normalisation of these dreadful f*** ups
Do you really though? I remember us being 1-0 down to Liverpool and Kevin Friend not only bottled giving Robertson a second yellow he then decided to give him a three minute lecture during injury time and then blew the whistle for full time all aimed to get Liverpool the win of course.This. It’s ruining the game. I’d rather have the spontaneity and the odd ‘in good faith’ bad decision from the man in the middle than the breathtaking incompetence and inconsistency we’re seeing over and over again from VAR officials.
But I think they were competent Spanish var officials, no?I take no pleasure in it at all. VAR should go until the people using it are vaguely competent. At the moment it’s ruining the fan experience, yet there are still patently incorrect decisions.
And, yes, I know VAR gave us two pens, correctly, against AEK but take the safety blanket away and the on field refs have to start concentrating again.
But that will NEVER happen; there will always be human error. Unless there is change those who say "VAR is fine, it's just the people operating it" will still be saying the same thing in ten, twenty, thirty years' time.I take no pleasure in it at all. VAR should go until the people using it are vaguely competent. At the moment it’s ruining the fan experience, yet there are still patently incorrect decisions.
And, yes, I know VAR gave us two pens, correctly, against AEK but take the safety blanket away and the on field refs have to start concentrating again.
Howard Webb was brought in, at the start of last season, to oversee improvement. He even visited PBOBE after one of his written apologies.But that will NEVER happen; there will always be human error. Unless there is change those who say "VAR is fine, it's just the people operating it" will still be saying the same thing in ten, twenty, thirty years' time.
Among the many, many threads we've had on this the best one was a discussion about a Guardian article where a top ref said that people think that refereeing is an exact science done badly, and that every decision is either 'right' or 'wrong', whereas it is way more nuanced than that. All VAR is is another layer of fallible decision-making imposed over the top of the existing fallible decision-making. The belief that just because the VAR officials have computers and stuff that they could and should get everything right is quite naive.