Athletico 1st goal v Liverpool

[Bla blade]

Their 1st goal tonight was near identical to our disallowed goal at Wembley (attacking player in vicinity of keeper). It went to VAR and was allowed to stand. We’d be at least 24 places higher right now if we’d had the same VAR officials as for Anfield tonight. I’ve been saying for a while now that English refs are hopeless compared to their European counterparts as evidenced by this and also week in week out on MOTD.

 

[Stretch]

English officials, on the whole, are completely substandard. And VAR has just made the issue worse. I don't think many would disagree with this.

That being said, we should not gloss over how badly the team reacted to that 2nd goal being disallowed. Instead of puffing out their chests, getting back in Sunderland's faces and going for another goal, they went into their shells albeit gradually and allowed Sunderland to galvanise themselves.

It's also not a cert that we would have gone up had the goal stood. All it might have taken was a decent HT bollocking from Le Bris and an early goal by them, for us to back off and surrender the ground.

These players have shown that when things are going well, they are a unit, but when things go wrong, I question their mentality. We will see if Wilder can make them more resilient this time.

Original point taken though. VAR + English officials = a sack of shit.

 

[Snake]

Their 1st goal tonight was near identical to our disallowed goal at Wembley (attacking player in vicinity of keeper). It went to VAR and was allowed to stand. We’d be at least 24 places higher right now if we’d had the same VAR officials as for Anfield tonight. I’ve been saying for a while now that English refs are hopeless compared to their European counterparts as evidenced by this and also week in week out on MOTD.

I agree. I hate VAR. However it has to be said that in the days before VAR some of the decisions were ridiculously bad too. Also to balance your point, without VAR that crazy penalty decision to Liverpool for handball would obviously not have been rightly overturned.

So what's the answer? Maybe a compromise, I don't know. Maybe the officials are allowed to ref the game but each team has 2 challenge calls to go to VAR where a goal has been scored? With a bit of tinkering this could work. It would give the power back to the on field officials and give control for VAR intervention to the managers. What's for certain is the forensic dissecting of major parts of the game is killing it as a spectator sport. However the speed and technique of the players now is making it almost impossible for big referring calls to be consistently correct. I think compromise is the answer!

 

[bertieblade]

There are as many good as bad decisions with or without VAR, subsequently get rid of it and restore the emotion to the sport. That magical moment when your team score a goal and you celebrate, with friends has been replaced by looking at a screen to see if the goal has been allowed. But no instant decision, up to eight minutes has been taken to make their minds up

 

[Tom Bott]

I remember when Liverpool used to be awarded a penalty for 'intent to foul'.
Does VAR make those same decisions?

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Their 1st goal tonight was near identical to our disallowed goal at Wembley (attacking player in vicinity of keeper). It went to VAR and was allowed to stand. We’d be at least 24 places higher right now if we’d had the same VAR officials as for Anfield tonight. I’ve been saying for a while now that English refs are hopeless compared to their European counterparts as evidenced by this and also week in week out on MOTD.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw that Llorente goal (3m32s).
This was allowed to stand while our PO goal was chalked off. No consistency.

 

[103SecondsOfMagic]

I remember when Liverpool used to be awarded a penalty for 'intent to foul'.
Does VAR make those same decisions?

Ohh yes. 'The Sheffield player intended to foul Stevie'