We’ve been told going back to the implementation of VAR that it’s there to correct clear and obvious errors, the moments when an official might reasonably struggle to spot an incident due to angles and obstructions and the speed of the match.
That there are dozens upon dozens of cameras watching, and that VAR reviews every significant incident—the tackles, the goal scoring opportunities, the penalty area shoves and pulls and challenges.
Which makes VAR’s failure to intervene in the denial of a goal
scoring opportunity via a clear, obvious, and significant pull on the shirt of Alexander Isak in the penalty area during Sunday’s 1-0 Liverpool home defeat against Arsenal risible.
With the pull obscured from the referee’s view by the bodies of the players, it seemed a textbook case for why the technology is used. But then technology can only do so much when the people operating it fail in their jobs.
“We have 50 cameras,” visibly annoyed Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk said of Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber’s blatant shirt pull. “I’ve seen it back, yes, and I’ve seen it given. Everyone has seen it. In the end it wasn’t given and we lose.”
Head coach Andoni Iraola was also clearly bothered by the decision and spoke about the failures of referee Andy Madley and VAR lead Stuart Attwell following the match.
“The Isak one is a clear penalty,” Iraola said. “We can all see he holds the shirt. The ball goes one centimetre in front of Alex, and Alex is going to hit the ball. Since he doesn’t go to the floor you are not going to call a penalty? I don’t understand it.
“That’s a problem we have with the game, that because he doesn’t dive and go to the floor—if he goes to the floor, they call the penalty. They call the penalty 100% of the time. So the next time, now the I should tell Alex you have to go to the floor?”
Both Van Dijk and Iraola acknowledged Liverpool weren’t perfect and could have been better—but having been the better side for most of the match, it’s galling to see another big game decided by yet another Premier League officiating failure.
