Should we scrap VAR just because it doesn't work every time?

Jurgen Klopp was justifiably furious with a series of decisions that led to red cards for his players Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota, a legitimate Luis Diaz goal ruled out incorrectly for offside, and ultimately defeat for the Reds.

Mon, 02 Oct, 2023 - 07:26

Gerry Cox, Tottenham Stadium

Premier League: Tottenham 2 Liverpool 1

AMID ALL the sound and fury following Liverpool's loss at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night – and there was plenty – Ange Postecoglou delivered perhaps the calmest summary of the situation with referees, VAR and those controversial decisions that keep coming.

The erratic performances of referee Simon Hooper, his assistants, and VAR Darren England, had ensured that by half-time in this thrillingly chaotic match, there was already a raging debate among fans, pundits and neutral observers about the state of officiating.

Klopp's indignation, soon after Joel Matip scored a last-minute own goal to gift Spurs victory, was then compounded when the PGMOL released a statement while emotions were still raw, admitting Hooper and England had got it wrong and that the Diaz goal should have stood.

The referee's governing body later released clarification that 'human error' meant England wrongly assumed the goal had been given, so felt he did not need to overturn Hooper's decision (which was to disallow it). The naked eye suggested it was a tight call, and TV replays confirmed that Cristian Romero's outstretched leg was playing Diaz onside as he ran onto Mo Salah's pass to score.

Calling it offside was a clear and obvious error, the sort of thing VAR is supposed to correct, but the men in Stockley Park got their wires crossed and the result was a mess.

But for all the calls for VAR to be scrapped, the fundamental thing here is that the technology was not to blame – it was the men using it who failed, just as used to often happen in the days before VAR. Imagine the same scene before VAR - the assistant referee judges a marginal decision offside, raises his flag and the referee takes his advice and disallows the goal. The clamour from fans, players and managers back then would have been along the lines of: 'We must have a technology-based system to allow refs to review these tight calls', which was why VAR was brought in. So should we scrap it now because it does not work every time?

Postecoglou admitted he had never been a fan, and the phlegmatic Aussie put it in perspective. “I'm on record as saying that I've never really been a fan of it since it came in.

“Not for any other reason than I think that it complicates areas of the game that I thought were pretty clear in the past. But I can see at the same time why it was inevitable that technology would come in.

“We have to deal with it. The biggest problem I think that we have is that we seem to fail to grasp is that no form of technology is going to make the game errorless. We used to understand that errors were part of the game, including officiating errors.

“You'd have to cop it and some people would cop it better than others but that was part of the game. The game is littered with historical refereeing decisions that weren't right but we all accepted it that it was part of the game because we're dealing with human beings.”

England and his assistant VAR Dan Cook were swiftly taken off duties at the next two games they were due to cover, but that is of little consolation to Klopp, who said: “We will not get points for it today so it doesn't help.

“Nobody expects 100% right decisions. I think we all thought when VAR came in, it might make things easier. I don't know why people are acting under that much pressure. Today the decision was made really quickly for the goal. It changed the momentum of the game.”

Klopp and the rest of us will never know how the game may have panned out had the officials got all the big calls correct. The big momentum shift was not so much Diaz's disallowed goal, but the dismissal of Curtis Jones ten minutes earlier for a studs-up lunge on the shin of Yves Bissouma, a decision that VAR correctly recommended Hooper review on the pitchside monitor, resulting in an upgrade from the initial yellow card to a red. Klopp misjudged the mood in room when he told reporters, who were divided on whether it was a red or not: “Probably everybody here in the room thinks it's a clear red card, but I see it different because I played football and most of you probably didn't.”

Maddison produced a moment of magic to slice open the Reds' defence as Heung Min Son opened the scoring, and although Gakpo equalised in first-half stoppage time, Liverpool had been fighting a rearguard action since the dismissal of Jones. The situation worsened once substitute Jota joined him in the dressing room for two fouls on Destiny Udogie barely 90 seconds apart, the first for an accidental trip that VAR might have rectified if it were allowed to intervene in such a situation (it is not), but the second foul was senseless swipe after losing possession, and Jota's stupidity left his team-mates in even deeper trouble.

They battled heroically, however, led by the immense Virgil Van Dyke, and Alisson pulled off more remarkable saves from Maddison, Son, Pape Mata Sarr and Pedro Porro. But when the latter drilled in a cross from right five minutes into stoppage time and Matip diverted the ball high into the net, there was nothing the keeper could do.

Spurs are now second, one point behind City and still unbeaten. Postecoglou has put the spirit and belief back into Tottenham, and their supporters are loving 'Big Ange'.

But for Klopp and his fans, please don’t mention the VAR.

TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Vicario 7: Porro 7, Romero 6, Van de Van 7, Udogie 8 (Davies 83); Sarr 7 (Skipp 83), Bissouma 8 (Hojbjerg 83), Maddison 9 (Veliz 89); Kulusevski 7, Son 7 (Solomon 68), Richarlison 6

LIVERPOOL (4-4-2): Alisson 9; Gomez 6 (Konate 73), Matip 6, Van Dijk 8, Robertson 6; Szoboszlai 7, Mac Allister 6 (Grevenberch 80), Jones 5; Salah 7 (Alexander-Arnold 73), Gakpo 7 (Jota 46), Diaz 6 (Endo 73)

Ref: Simon Hooper 5