I know this is now getting boring and fans from other teams will accuse me of sour grapes but just watched the West Ham vs Villa match. Firstly, I feel for Villa fans, that sense of elation from scoring a last minute equaliser is completely gone - this is not football. Secondly, this was inconclusive for a goal to be chalked off and finally by spending so much time reviewing the offside, the VAR officials did not spot that it was a penalty. Time and time again, this is happening and destroying the game we all love. I was a huge fan of bringing technology in but the application of VAR is a shambles and need reversing unless we can have practical solutions to make it work. For instance, any offside call less than a few inches should be referees’s call like in cricket. And handballs etc should be clear and obvious to. E overturned - that is, the ref can watch it again and decide whether to stick with his decision or not. However, the latter cannot be a diktat by Stockley Park as it is now. At the moment, any referee going to the screen changes his decision within seconds - which means he is just following what he is being told and not confident in his original decision .
Anyway, what do my fellow red fans think?
VAR
posted on 1/12/20
An armpit could decide the title this season.
posted on 1/12/20
comment by Troy's Tanguy Tanganga of Tottenham (U6468)
posted 31 minutes ago
An armpit could decide the title this season.
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Better grows those pubes then hey hahaha
posted on 1/12/20
comment by morespurs (U15748)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
if a defender so chooses he can up up the park seeking advantage yet a forward no cannot even lean or point towards goal.
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When changing the rules from the old rule which most of us liked, and that was the rule I played under, the point the officials used to take is where is the striker's foot and not his arm, which is a part of the body a striker cannot use legally or his armpit which isn't either a part that the striker uses to score with.
Where his feet are at the time of being given offside?
Borderline decisions were made clear by the authorities had to favour the attacker, and yet the current situation with VAR favours defenders on offside decisions and favours the attacker on penalty decisions.
Mind boggles, because it is just not natural to start drawing lines to a striker's armpits or ask defenders to defend without their arms?
VAR has also taken away that instantaneous burst of joy and elation fans used to feel when their team scored a goal!
Now, we have curb our joy for few minutes and look at the ref and see what he is going to say first!
Killing the game softly!
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The current system doesn't favour defenders though. It applies the same standard to both. If a striker has any part of the body that can play the ball closer to goal than the second last defender then he is offside. If it is level or further away then he is onside. What you seem to be saying is that it favours defenders by calling offside strikers as offside but thats just the rules of the game.
This has been the law for years before VAR. We just had to rely in linesmen who were much more inaccurate and so extremely tight calls were a coin toss and you then had some absolute howlers thrown in for good measure.
posted on 1/12/20
VAR is just a tool to be used as an aid. Trouble is there are idiots using it, how are armpit offsides "clear and obvious" errors? Officials should be given a short time to review a decision before moving on, 30 seconds max, at the moment they seem to have an infinite amount of time.
posted on 1/12/20
The interesting thing about the Villa offside goal, was that the defender seems to push the attacker, who was then deemed to be offside as he was leaning forward due to being pushed.
Let's be honest, as much as its maybe 99% correct in its decisions, VAR is 5h1te, and his spoiling the game as a spectacle.
posted on 1/12/20
It was a blatant penalty too! I don't know what's a mote absurd decision. That the penalty wasn't given or that Watkins goal was ruled out.
posted on 1/12/20
VAR is not the problem. It's who is deciding the rules and those who are applying them are the problems.
posted on 1/12/20
If they would stop messing around with the rules and allow people to get practice with VAR and improve their skills, their judgement, we'd likely see better results. Most of the complaining seems to come from them making correct calls based on current rules.
posted on 1/12/20
To be honest, VAR has the potential to be one of the best instruments in the game, it's just not being used correctly. I think the rule changing does need to be stopped and the speed of decisions does need to improve, but if we can iron that out then I think it can be a success.
I don't even mind offside goals, it's frustrating when an armpit hair is offside and it is a bit pedantic, but offside is offside at the end of the day. On the flip side, I do think calling offside decisions that are as close as that can almost never be accurate with the naked eye.
The best way would be to bring in a hawk eye styled technology to look at offside decisions, if that would be practical and would speed up time where it doesn't rely on people drawing lines on, viewing decisions for a couple of minutes plus etc.
posted on 9/12/20
After what happened today, I am now convinced that VAR should be ditched and a referral system should be in place called by the Captains. Otherwise, I think the whole thing is an absolute shambles.