The Season So Far - Part 2 (VAR)

It’s Saturday. Football day. Well, it should be anyway. There is football on today, but no Premier League.

It doesn’t quite feel the same waking up on a Saturday morning during an international break, with no domestic football to look forward to. There never seems to be that same level of excitement to stick Sky or BT on for the day and set up camp, from Soccer AM right through to Match of the Day. A lunchtime kick-off, Soccer Saturday, evening fixture and a little trip to Europe inbetween.

There is plenty of opportunity to traverse the continent throughout today, as Nations League qualifiers take place throughout — from Germany to Malta. Sweden to San Marino, and every European beauty spot inbetween. I would recommend, however, indulging in the lower leagues back home, with League 1, League 2, and the Vanarama National League uninterrupted by the break, and pushed to the top of the billing.

As with yesterday’s piece, we can also use this break to have a look at the season so far. Reflect on what has been an enthralling start to the Premier League. Yesterday we looked at goals, today we discuss the technology that’s stopping them — sometimes rightly, sometimes not so much...

VAR

‘Be careful what you wish for’ — a phrase usually paired with an infuriatingly smug look as you naively wish for greater use of technology to “reduce human error” and make football the perfect and beautiful game it should be.

I wanted it. Players and coaches wanted it. Pundits wanted it. And at the start of the 2019/2020 season we got it. VAR was introduced into the Premier League, with a second official at Stockley Park — home of all the technology, camera angles, lines and slow-mo’s a match official can dream of.

It was sold as the relinquisher of controversy. The answer to all of our problems. Pinpoint decisions that will carry justice through the season, leading to a more fair and beautiful game, with more air-time for pundits to discuss moments of magic, moments of joy, and tactical genius.

It has, however, proven the opposite. The antithesis of joy. The devil on the shoulder telling Mike Dean that Patrick Bamford’s shirt sleeve is nanometers ahead of Nathaniel Clyne’s arm — or Cheikhou Kouyate’s backside, or appearing on the shoulder of David Coote in the Merseyside Derby and distracting him as Jordan Pickford ended Virgil Van-Dijk’s season. I could go on…

Both Leeds and Liverpool have requested that the Premier League either clarify or review their rules — the seriousness with which requests were received remains unclear — and represent just a small part of the injustices suffered throughout the league. I guess it all evens out over the course of the season. But is that actually true?

The VAR controversy has manifested in two more common ways: handball and offside, with the former bringing us goals, and the latter taking them away.

The early season fixtures saw a glut of goals — as discussed in yesterday’s piece — and this was, in part, due to the huge rate at which penalties were being awarded for handball. Labelled as “nonsense” by Roy Hodgson, “an absolute disgrace” by Jamie Carragher, and “the most ridiculous interpretation” by Gary Neville, the ruling and interpretation of the handball rule was eventually tweaked. But that proves no consolation for the teams that had already suffered.

Case in point: Eric Dier. Any consideration for the fact he is facing away from the ball? No. Any consideration for proximity? No. Penalty? Apparently… And the same was happening up and down the country. Joel Ward fell victim to the dreaded interpretation at Selhurst Park. Arms in a perfectly natural position by his side, Ward had the ball headed at him from close range by Everton full-back Luca Digne. Is he trying to block the ball illegally? No. But slowing everything down with VAR makes everything look so sinister. So purposeful.

^{Source: Twitter @primevideosport}

In more recent weeks, there has been a nullifying of the handball chaos, as pressure from clubs and pundits led to a review of the interpretation, and a subsequent reduction in handball offences. But not completely.

Just last Sunday we saw two handballs, neither of which should be handball, but both of which were given after VAR reviews judged Wolves’ Max Kilman and Liverpool’s Joe Gomez to have purposefully blocked the ball with their arms as they were running. Go have a look at them both and I’ll leave you to be the judge of them.

One ruling that hasn’t shown any signs of compromise or alteration, is offsides. These are the calls ruining the game. Football is rightly known as a game of fine margins, but microscopic inspection of every attacking run is taking to game beyond repair. It is quite simply, sucking the joy, the fun, the spontaneity out of football, and replacing it with lines and dots and shirt sleeves.

Complicated further by the introduction of the new bottom of the armpit / shirt sleeve handball interpretation. Officials at Stockley Park are seemingly taking every possible opportunity to create the most anti-climactic, frustrating version of the beautiful game — something that fortunately, the players are rebelling against, with some enthralling fixtures.

Labelled as “the worst ever in the history of football” by Robbie Savage; the decision to disallow Patrick Bamford’s goal typified what is wrong with VAR. Not only is the use of the shirt sleeve as a point with which to measure a goalscoring part of the body utterly ridiculous, this part was only used on Bamford, with Clyne’s shoulder being marked as the other point of reference. Furthermore, the boffins as Stockley Park seemingly disregarded the fact that Palace centre-back Kouyate was stood even further back than Clyne, blocked by Bamford in the singular camera angle analysed, but clear as day had they taken a second look.

^{Source: twitter @pantsdanny}

Unfortunately, this is far from an isolated incident. Liverpool fell victim once again as Jordan Henderson’s last gasp winner in the Merseyside Derby was chalked off upon review, after Sadio Mane was adjudged to be offside in the build up, leading to the Liverpool captain claiming — tongue in cheek albeit — that the officials “bend the lines” up at Stockley Park.

It seems as if the VAR officials are focusing solely on handballs and offsides, and throwing caution to the wind when it comes to some very clear fouls. Virgil Van-Dijk will be out for the majority — if not the entirety — of the season, after Jordan Pickford’s, lets call it ‘mis-judged’, tackle on the Dutchman in the first half of the derby. Having brought out the dreaded red and blue lines, and judging Van-Dijk to be offside, VAR official, David Coote completely disregarded the subsequent horror tackle and Pickford went unpunished.

Stuart Attwell was at the helm in October, as Manchester United hosted Chelsea at Old Trafford, with Martin Atkinson the on-field official. A long ball into the United box caused Harry Maguire enough worry to perform some sort of headlock on Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta, pulling him to the ground as the ball arrived— causing Patrice Evra to compare the United centre-back to Hulk Hogan.

^{Source: Twitter @goal}

It somehow wasn’t blatant enough for Stuart Attwell to pick up on the “serious missed incident” and refer back to Martin Atkinson who, in his defence, was unsighted on the pitch.

There have been plenty of correct decisions made by VAR, and it is important to note that penalties have been correctly given or overturned, offsides have been correctly called or chalked off, and goals have been correctly disallowed.

Sheffield United were correctly awarded a penalty against Liverpool after VAR referred Mike Dean to the screen. Dean originally gave a free-kick after Fabinho’s clumsy challenge brought down Oli McBurnie on the edge of the box. After having a closer look, Dean judged that the contact between the two occurred on the 18-yard line, which is — according the rules — in the box and therefore a penalty.

VAR correctly overturned a penalty at the AMEX as Brighton played Man United. Brighton’s Aaron Connolly was seemingly fouled inside the box by Paul Pogba, who also received a yellow card for his troubles. But VAR official Simon Hooper referred on-pitch referee Chris Kavanagh to the screen, who rightly saw that Connolly had initiated the contact with Pogba, before going to ground. Both the penalty and the yellow card were correctly rescinded.

The above are just two of many correct decisions, made as a result of the use of VAR. The technology has — on many occasions — proved incredibly useful in coming to correct decisions. The luxury to be able to isolate, slow down and assess an ever quickening game, if done correctly, is incredibly useful.

The problem is that these correct decisions are rarely discussed in anywhere near as much depth as the incorrect ones. They are merely waved away as expectedly correct decisions. VAR doing exactly what it should do and nothing more.

Have there been more correct than incorrect calls? Absolutely. But we do love a bit of controversy, and VAR is serving it up in bucketloads.

Kyle Newbould

Read more from Kyle - https://kylenewbould.medium.com/

[23 Year Old Kyle Newbould is one of the best up and coming football journalists and we’ve managed to snap him up before any of the big tabloids do! This will not affect the TIPS in any way, shape, or form. Simply an excellent addition for us all, giving us that extra insight on the elite leagues when I’m sometimes caught up in Lower Leagues around the world!]