Good to see Steve Bruce come out and decry something that has favoured his side for once. However, interesting to note he didn’t take a page out of, of all people, the Leeds managers book and do the right thing at the time, he still took it, so his words are hollow and empty and he is in fact just being his usual hypocritical self. I wonder what he might have said if VAR was around that day Jozy Altidore ‘head butted’ Alan Hutton. If Steve Bruce the big fat lying **** was to be believed, Hutton was all but lying in a coma in intensive care. He really is a horrible two faced ****.
I am with you Mr Shackleton. The person sitting in front of the VAR screen and making the final decision is himself a qualified PL referee. The handball rule he currently adjudicates on is farcical and contradictory but he does not set the guidelines on ruling on handballs . Solution is to clean up the handball rule. For years on here my pet hate was watching penalties being taken with complete disregard for the rules on goalkeeper feet position and player encroachment into the penalty area . Finally it looks like VAR is ensuring penalties are taken according to the rules.
"It’s time they changed the handball law. Make it that every time it strikes a hand/arm it’s a free kick/penalty regardless of intent.” Gary Lineker 2016. Now he is criticising it.
Someone posted the specific guidance given to referees on Twitter last night and there's an exclusion on the handball rule if the player is unable to see the ball, which was obviously the case with the Dier one yesterday as it was behind hem, so it seems it was just a wrong decision by the ref.
I'm still confused as to why there is even an on-field official at all now. Either trust in human judgment and accept the inevitability of human error, in a game played sans VAR, or get rid of referees and linesmen and simply have somebody (or a couple of people) sitting pitch-side with a monitor. The mishmash of allowing horrendous decisions to stand in certain instances and then overturning decisions made wrongly, but not clearly and obviously, in others is what is ruining the spectacle.
breaking news: Jota goal ruled out after full-time due to handball. Arsenal should have had a penalty late on. Therefore the revised final score is Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal , not 3-1 Only joking, But tell you what that scenario may be nearer then you think.
