He touched his shoulder and Salah went down like he had been shot. Salah was never getting that ball. How can that be a ‘clear and obvious’ penalty. Worrying that Pawson watches that and thinks it’s a penalty in my view. Pathetic reaction from Salah.
Still need a proper defensive mid. Can's a good midfielder, but he's not providing enough support. Liverpool's CBs will always look somewhat poor when they're playing with 8 attacking mids/players who want to be attacking mids.
I have no issues with VAR so far. Player's responsibility to not give a chance for a penalty to be given by pulling someone back in the box.
I do however have issues with playres appealing for VAR to be used. I think the only way around that is a tennis/cricket style review system, where a team captain can request a team review. 1 per match (if they are correct they retain their review)
I'm becoming a big fan of VAR. I would rather there be a 3 minute delay in the game and come to the right decision (as happened in this case) then there be no stoppage and get it wrong.
They need to put it up on the big screen. And, as in cricket, I am confident that that will ultimately come. But other than that, I think VAR has been excellent so far. Pawson should have issued a few WBA yellow cards in my view - if they'd let him get on with it, it wouldn't have taken three minutes - but that's not a VAR issue in my mind. Not much different to referee's letting themselves get surrounded when they want to talk to the linesman. That should be clamped down better too.
Quite long imo. Not so bad for penalty decisions but for goals etc. Picture the scene: Last minute winner in an FA Cup quarter final "YESSSSS!!! Oh wait refs reviewing it" 3/4 minutes later goal given- "oh jolly good, kind of ruined the moment a bit though." I can see what's going to happen, refs are going to bottle making any big decisions eventually and we'll probably get to the point where VAR is sponsored by betting companies and we'll get ****ing adverts while it's being reviewed for Paddy ****ing power.
Baseball is great when it comes to video reviews. Each team gets one per game - they keep it if they are right. But if the manager argues at all with the outcome they are instantly ejected from the game.
So you want to turn it into a non contact sport? Any sort of contact gives players the opportunity to go down.
What if you're getting 6/7 of those per game? 3 of which aren't black and white but subjective and down to opinion?
Although apparently contact in the penalty box after the ball has long since been crossed is absolutely fine now. Or at least that's how the match at SMS was refereed today, on the basis of the tackles on Long and Cedric.
