The Football.....

[Salad Dodger]

Blimey, this VAR business is a bit of a pain, isn't it?
I don't usually watch top grade football, but I have watched some cup matches this weekend, including one tonight.
All this agonizing about whether some blokes knee was in an offside position just ruins the flow of the game for me. I prefer lower league football, where the referee is always right, even if he is hopelessly wrong ...

 

[PaulSB]

Blimey, this VAR business is a bit of a pain, isn't it?
I don't usually watch top grade football, but I have watched some cup matches this weekend, including one tonight.
All this agonizing about whether some blokes knee was in an offside position just ruins the flow of the game for me. I prefer lower league football, where the referee is always right, even if he is hopelessly wrong ...

Popped in here to make the same point. My lad is home while he isolates and wanted to watch the game. I've rarely seen VAR used. This took 2-3 minutes. Ridiculous.

Does the time get added on?

 

[VelvetUnderpants]

Michael Oliver was Man Utd's best player by a country mile

 

[PaulSB]

Alan Shearer said the VAR was 3 minutes 36 seconds. Now that is ridiculous.

Apparently this was two PL teams. Doesn't say much for the PL. What a rubbish match.

 

[downesy]

How hard did those cheating c***s work to find a way to disallow that goal, nearly four minutes means it's not clear nor obvious

 

[jowwy]

How hard did those cheating c***s work to find a way to disallow that goal, nearly four minutes means it's not clear nor obvious

Offsides are not about clear and obvious……its offside or not, but they could have saved 3mins by just going straight to the free kick for the blocking off of cavani

 

[downesy]

Not going to get into a tedious argument what I will say though, I expect no more goals to be scored at a corner ever again due to " blocking off".
I fully expect players just to run into other players to get a goal disallowed, and finally they went that far back to find a fault with the goal, when they went back to the studio I expected to see des lynam and Trevor brooking

 

[yello]

I expect no more goals to be scored at a corner ever again due to " blocking off".

You have a point. It sometimes seems arbitrary (obvious ironic pun there if you look for it) as to which bit of blocking, shirt tugging or general shenanigans we always see at defensive set pieces will get hauled up. Make them a total no-holds-barred, free-for-all, I say.

 

[Dave7]

Offsides are not about clear and obvious……its offside or not, but they could have saved 3mins by just going straight to the free kick for the blocking off of cavani

My 1st thought was that Cavani was blocked. Looking at the replay I think he deliberately ran into the Villa player.
He is an old pro and IMO new exactly what he was doing.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Reading the laws of the game to the letter it could certainly be construed a correct decision, strictly speaking. The key thing is whether the Villa defender was intentionally interfering with play and unfortunately for fans of VAR, that's still a subjective part and subject to human interpretation. My own gut feeling is that Cavani ran into the defender and was never going to reach the ball, but that's subjective and clearly Oliver saw that differently.

I think what most neutrals have an issue with though is how long the game was on hold while it was reviewed. You could forgive the layman for getting the impression that the officials seemed to be looking for any possible reason to disallow a visitor's goal, at Old Trafford, against Manchester United. I don't by the way believe officials are that biased, nor that there's some big 6 (sorry, big 7 if we have to include United) agenda, but I think that was the "easier course of action" by Oliver, if I'm being charitable.

I argued against VAR from the outset because so many incidents are subjective and a game is just better for everone when it flows, mistakes included. There will be contentious moments, but there are just as many contentious moments now. VAR isn't clearing up the subjective parts, and it never will.

 

[jowwy]

My 1st thought was that Cavani was blocked. Looking at the replay I think he deliberately ran into the Villa player.
He is an old pro and IMO new exactly what he was doing.

The rules state you cant stand in an offside position and interfere with play - The villa player was doing exactly that ( if he was in an onside position, cavani couldn't have run into him)

 

[jowwy]

Reading the laws of the game to the letter it could certainly be construed a correct decision, strictly speaking. The key thing is whether the Villa defender was intentionally interfering with play and unfortunately for fans of VAR, that's still a subjective part and subject to human interpretation. My own gut feeling is that Cavani ran into the defender and was never going to reach the ball, but that's subjective and clearly Oliver saw that differently.

I think what most neutrals have an issue with though is how long the game was on hold while it was reviewed. You could forgive the layman for getting the impression that the officials seemed to be looking for any possible reason to disallow a visitor's goal, at Old Trafford, against Manchester United. I don't by the way believe officials are that biased, nor that there's some big 6 (sorry, big 7 if we have to include United) agenda, but I think that was the "easier course of action" by Oliver, if I'm being charitable.

I argued against VAR from the outset because so many incidents are subjective and a game is just better for everone when it flows, mistakes included. There will be contentious moments, but there are just as many contentious moments now. VAR isn't clearing up the subjective parts, and it never will.

You also cant stand in an offside position and interfere with play either, the villa defender was doing that. If he wasn't there, cavani wouldn't have anyone to run into.....

 

[Dave7]

The rules state you cant stand in an offside position and interfere with play - The villa player was doing exactly that ( if he was in an onside position, cavani couldn't have run into him)

I would have to watch that again as, regardless of where the Villa player was I still think Cavani did it deliberately.

 

[Mike_P]

IIRC VAR at the Euros was quick until the game with British officials involved.

 

[jowwy]

I would have to watch that again as, regardless of where the Villa player was I still think Cavani did it deliberately.

again - if villa player wasn't stood 5yds offside, cavani would have no one to run into. The villa players also moved into the line of cavani when free kick was taken......minute 52:45 oliver decides Ramsey is in an offside position and does impact on cavani's run towards the ball. Ramsey doesnt need to move out of the way and neither does cavani need to alter his line of run