As if I'm not feeling depressed enough about our footballing future, I now find myself agreeing with Garth Crooks on the subject of VAR. When that plonker disallowed Gabbiadini's goal at Wembley we all, understandably, squealed with outrage and demanded something must be done. Classically, football has come up with a complete dog's dinner of a system. There are s many things wrong with it, but let's just highlight two. How far do you need to go back to see an incident? This was highlighted by the Wales "try" against England. Just looking at who touched the ball down gave a try. Reel back and there's an unnoticed knock on. Let's suppose we had had VAR at Wembley last year. Might it have shown an unpunished offence by a Saints player in the build up? Secondly, and arguably my biggest concern, is the impact on the referee's credibility and his/her confidence to make a call. As a former club cricketer, I am not happy with the review system. Will someone tell me how a test level umpire can miss a no-ball? Yes, it happens. But then being given out LBW off an inside edge; some bugger snaffling a "catch" after it's bounced; caught behind off your pads all happen too. As cricket has demonstrated reviews do not eliminate controversy, but often fuel it. The end result seems to be an erosion of the umpire's confidence to make a call. Allegedly, according to my fellow Northamers, we always get **** refs. It's called football, and refs will, in my view, get ****tier
They need to use it less, really it should only be used if the ref or linesman feel they saw an offence or when the guy watching the Var's see's one quickly. Most issues will be improved with experience like with any tool. Things like offside should also be shown on the viewscreen.
I prefer the time when the ref just guessed at decisions. Truthfully. VAR is just an advert break in the making.
I can see a time where (under pressure) almost every goal will undergo a review, so the moments of joy and despair are muted....as everyone sits back like good little children until the result is flashed up on the screen. And how small a touch has to happen before a goal is disallowed?....after all Burnley claimed Gabbi fouled their player for his goal. Those decisions will still be down to personal opinion....and still be debated for years afterwards. As Saints fans we can all recall where we have been hard done by....the hand ball incident for one, Gabbi's disallowed goal in the Cup....but I bet we have forgotten a lot that have gone our way. VAR must be used in a limited way....its introduction must not herald a free for all that ruins the game.
I originally was a "for" but after the recent debacles, I believe it's been a bad move. The ref's, like umpires are using as a "save me" tool & whereas in cricket, the break & subsequent tension, works, in football, it's ****ing ****e. Hindsight I know, but I think WE all (fans, managers, players & especially pundits & media) should support the refs more & give them the confidence to do their job & hopefully better. As we've seen in recent weeks, even VAR can't really decide 100% on all situ's. Agree with Fran above & if it's now inevitable, it's got to be used in a very limited & defined format.
The only thing that I can see in regards to var is that there is no fail safe system. From refs making the decisions on there own to a man in a corner looking at a television supposedly helping. The flaws are still there for all to see.....leave well alone I say......JUST LEAVE IT TO THE REF. As we have done for over a century.
Am also concerned about it's use in offsides....as it correctly calls a player offside....but down to millimetres. The human eye is not so accurate....because we don't see in a continuous way, but in a collection of stills.....however, the opinion of a human is more likely to say if it was enough off side to actually gain from it. VAR may be more accurate, but may mean perfectly super goals are disallowed on a technicality.
Really they shouldn't have jumped from goal line only straight to use it for everything. Take it in steps. We might have won a league cup though.
It's not great in cricket. When you trap a world class batsman for a duck it's a great feeling. To then hang about while it's reviewed does take the edge off it. But it was introduced in cricket to get rid of howlers, and in some ways that's fair enough. A person watching a video and telling the on-field umpire that he's made a glaring mistake -e.g. the batsman hit that - is one thing. Re-watching the bowler's foot 20 times is not what it was meant to be about. If in football, a 4th official simply said to the ref "that was handled" then I might see the sense. Standing around to check the legitimacy of what might be a marginal decision should not be what it's for.
The offside rule has become a dog’s dinner of a rule. I seriously think it should revert back to the time when anyone in an offside position IS offside, with referees or VAR deciding on interference, if a goal or penalty has occurred. At least we would know what is happening, rather than the situations we currently have now, where defenders are being forced into making hurried and miss hit clearances because there is a player in an offside position who hasn’t been flagged as offside, conceding advantage to the team that has infringed the rules. An example of this happened at WBA, when Stephens did just that with the ball going to an Albion player, on the edge of our penalty box, who drew a foul, and from the resulting free kick they almost scored. I can’t accept that any player in the penalty area, in an offside position, isn’t interfering with play. Even if he isn’t within the immediate vicinity of the ball, he is distracting defenders/goal keepers by being there.
Absolutely. As Shanks said, if you're not interfering you shouldn't be on the pitch. One of the reasons I can be reasonably relaxed about the Wembley "goal" is that Bertrand is about 7 miles offside.
I think it needs a bit more than just fine tuning, but I yes I too am confident that it will ultimately be a success. What we are seeing in the FA Cup is the first steps of an FA trial - not the final VAR product. People need to give it more time in my view - to expect a trial to be perfect first time was always asking a lot. Hence why we're seeing it in the odd FA Cup game, not every single week in the PL.
I'm glad they've decided to ruin the world cup with it then. Sack if off its ****e. Simply too many variables and will ruin both the flow and emotion of the game.
Of course, the crashing irony of Crook's position is that the constant microscopic scrutiny of ref's decisions by him and his ilk during and after the match has partly brought about VAR in the first place. My personal opinion is that it is bound to have teething problems and it will improve and get much quicker and efficient as the technology gets better. It is very important to come to a correct decision with the amount of money that is at stake in the game nowadays and anything that helps stop match officials getting crucified is a good thing IMO.
It's far, far too early to be using it at the World Cup in my view. That is when we should be seeing the final product. Instead we have the FIFA president getting five steps ahead of himself. I can completely understand the want for it, but it's too early. And on the world stage, using it in its current format could cause more harm than good, in terms of VAR's long term future. In the grand scheme of things, you can brush off negative comments from an FA Cup replay against Rochdale. It's substantially harder to brush off negative comments from the second biggest sporting event in the world.
Absolutely. Refs will never be perfect, indeed most are knobs as @tomw24 will surely confirm , but Var will never be perfect either. Support the best refs, incentivise them, train them, and let them get on with it. Var is nonsense, bin it.
It's far too early for use at the World Cup. It needs serious improvement but it is the future. The thing that puzzles me is - when are they planning to improve it? We've had it as a test this season and the same issues are apparent every time with no mention of changes, where is the directive coming from? They need to implement changes now to see if they solve the issues before it goes to the World Cup.
