VAR thread

[rodo]

For me it was debatable, and possibly a penalty, but the fact it took so long and that 20 looks at it doesn't really decisively tell you one way or another should surely mean that the original decision doesn't get overturned. It was in no way clear and obvious.

[Exiled_red]

Does anyone still like this pile of ****e?

[McDermotX]

Load of bollocks

Mancs seem to get on well with it though. Doing wonders for their pens.

[Exiled_red]

Somehow it seems to be worse in Europe than the PL

[Buzzo]

They’ve even made a mess of hand ball.

The origin of handball is what defines the game. You cannot use your hand to catch and manipulate the ball.

The things they are giving hand ball for now are mental.

I literally don’t see how it’s difficult. Micing up the refs and getting a reason is totally crucial.

So for the one last night he could have said, it’s hard to say the ball was near both players hands however there was no intention, so the goal stands.

They just seem to have lost the original reason for most of the rules in football. Offside - ruined (no level is on, benefit to the attacker), penalties - ruined (keeper has to stay on line), hand ball ruined (forensic analysis of decision rather than common sense approach).

[Zapater]

I hate it. The pauses are bad enough, but they're killing the game. So many good goals are chalked off every week. Then they find a million reasons to give penalties in ridiculous situations. It's like they won't be happy until every goal is a penalty. Teams will set up tactics to win penalties more and more as this will become the greatest percentage of goals. Build up play, individual brilliance, passing, long shots, clever finishes could all become ancient history if they don't do something fast.

It's actually ridiculous. I thought that there were too many penalties previously, it's getting even more ridiculous. Bruno Fernandes takes about 2 per game. He could finish his career with record breaking goalscoring stats with less than 5% of them coming from open play. Will quickly make the game unwatchable.

[Exiled_red]

With the Minamino 'goal' last night did the ball even hit any part of Mane's arm? I was watching it on my phone so the screen size was tiny, so it wasn't easy to tell, but it looked to me like it didn't hit Mane's arm but did hit the defender's.

But explanations are essential because a couple of the incidents last night no one had a clue what was even being looked at offsides, fouls or handballs. The system is a farce.

I didn't really care about the result last night but despite that the VAR system really pissed me off.

[RichC]

Football for me at present is gone, the joy has been taken out of it with this absolute horror show of implementing var. The tech itself I'm sure works as to how it's supposed to it's the human intervention that's got this so wrong. No consistency pretty much game to game and you some some incidents being effectively re-reffed to the nth degree whilst others are just let slide.

I think if football continues down this path it'll self destruct as more and more fans will switch off from it as it's losing the passion and instant highs & lows football gives.

[Maxiedge]

I hate VAR, I want it changed but last night was not an issue me. I think it was just unfortunate that we had a spate of incidents that were unusual and hard to decipher. Thought VAR did well in the end to give the correct decisions.

Also thought the ref was very interesting too. He wasn't your typical CL ref that would blow for every minor foul. If he felt a player has gone down too easily and could stay on his feet he would let play go on. Yes, we should had have a few fouls go our way but he did the same for them too and imo, that's the type of refereeing we should have more of to stop the simulation.

[elrichio86]

For me, the problem is that its being over-used. If it was saved for only overturning clear and obvious mistakes, as we told when it was originally implemented, then that would be fine. But its being used to pickup on every last little infringment, many of which you couldn't possibly expect a referee to have seen.

[Roboklopp]

Over used, used badly, inconsistently and with no clear rationale or accountability. It’s ****ing wank and is killing the game. All the adrenaline and joy gone. Zapater makes some interesting points about change of tactic but yeah I might be gone by then.

[Kenneth]

For me, the problem is that its being over-used. If it was saved for only overturning clear and obvious mistakes, as we told when it was originally implemented, then that would be fine. But its being used to pickup on every last little infringment, many of which you couldn't possibly expect a referee to have seen.

Which is fair enough, but it seems to get plenty of clear and obvious ones wrong, eg the utd penalty the other day. If it can't even do those consistently, then bin it

[Doc_Piptorious]

VAR has been an absolute disaster. The only thing it has highlighted which we already knew, is just how poor the standard of officiating in the premier league is. Ref's dropping a massive bollock in nearly every game and too arrogant to correct themselves.

Think this is probably as close to the truth as one can get.

A VAR system in itself is a very good thing, as has been shown in many other sports that use a VAR set up.

In rugby it is generally a quick, clean and very effective system. Calls are made quickly with not a lot of disruption to the game and generally (from what I can tell) the calls seem to be correct.

So why can a similar effective system not be implemented in football, specifically the EPL? Seems to me it boils down to the people using the VAR set up rather than the system itself.

In theory a VAR system should make it almost impossible for a truly bad call to be made because you have the ability to review and then over rule that bad call after it has been made. The game should be more error free and less games should be getting impacted by goals and incidents being called incorrectly.

The problem is, imo, that there is and will be no stomach for an overhaul in the human side of VAR unless there are financial ramifications like big drop offs in revenus due to people turning away from the sport. But even something like that would be glacial in terms of how slow it would happen if at all as there will always be people lining up to buy the product and to sponsor the product and a product is very much what it is now.

[spud_gun]

Here's the Minamino 'goal'

[ame]https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1336761023232167937[/ame]

[Buzzo]

I've no idea how that wasnt given.

Shame for Minamino also, as getting a CL winner would have been good for him.