VAR had a very good opening weekend for me. In our game the decision on a potential penalty against Rodri lasted seconds and was over before Ederson even got the ball from the ballboy, that’s exactly what you want. Big tick there.
There’s obviously an issue with what’s offside and what isn’t but it’s a flaw in the rule and the interpretation of the rule than VAR itself. as long as every decision is given equally I’m perfectly fine with sterling’s goal being offside.
Im sure there will be another decision somewhere this season that’s given onside that’s worse than the sterling decision but the margin of error is much lower than what we get without it. It’s never going to be absolutely perfect from the start, the key thing is there’s a reduction in errors. I also fully expect the law to change within the next year or two for greater clarity and the tech will improve to aid this too.
For Sterling’s second goal, I looked over at the linesman before he even put it in and he looked as though he wanted to flag until he realised he can let it go to var, everybody around me thought he was offside too resulting in the subdued celebration more so than fans not celebrating until var had made a decision.
The penalty decision was fantastic, the ref didn’t want to give it initially and the encroaching is something that never gets pulled up. In fairness to refs it’s impossible to simultaneously watch every player on the edge of the box, the taker and the keeper so var finally enforcing this often ignored rule is a big win in my eyes.
Away from City, I’ve just heard Wolves manager coming out with the bullshit “var destroys the spirit of the game” what spirit? Football isn’t this gentlemen sport we like to believe anymore, players will take any advantage possible, Diving, feigning injury, cheating, ignoring rules of the game destroyed the spirit of the game long ago. I’ve not seen it but reports suggest the decision was a correct decision and stopped a team gaining points they didn’t deserve and another losing points they didn’t deserve to lose. “Fans shouldn’t cheer no goals” why not? fans cheer when the keeper makes a great save, fans cheers when strikers miss open goals, they cheer when penalties are missed/saved. He’s effectively saying cheating is part of the game and should be accepted which is utter bollocks.