Man United suffered a rather shocking 2-1 loss at the hands of Sheffield United in the Premier League last week and it seems like the Blades will have to thank the VAR for their second win of the season
Many have been claiming that Man United are sitting pretty towards the top of the league table thanks to VAR being too generous towards Ole’s men but this time, the referees got it wrong during their loss which the governing body of Premier League referees have now come out to admit.
Kean Bryan’s opener should have been disallowed for a Billy Sharp foul on David de Gea and the goal from Martial should also have stood since Maguire did very little to impede Aaron Ramsdale. But VAR chose not to intervene and according to the Man United manager, his side should have gone out and protested more.
“I understand why the decisions were made,” Solskjær said, as reported. “Unfortunately they went against us and they were wrong. Maybe we should have made more of a fuss about it. We are a bunch of nice lads: maybe we should have really made them look at it before the game started again.
“I’ve got the delegate’s report [on] the ref and the two decisions were wrong. They’ve admitted their [first] goal should have been disallowed and our goal should have stood. That’s a big momentum-changer for us.
“There has been a narrative for too long about the decisions we have got for us and I can look at many decisions this season that we feel [were actually wrong]. Even the first league game [a 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace] – Victor [Lindelöf]: they agreed on that one [too] – that wasn’t a penalty.
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“The [term] here is ‘clear and obvious’ [for VAR] so when it’s a debate, it’s still not clear and obvious. Although I felt the Harry one was clear and obvious – it should have been a goal [against Sheffield United].
“The other one could be debatable. We just have to leave it to the referees to make decisions. I don’t want my players to put too much – not too much, but unfair pressure on the referees. That’s their job, so I don’t really want to talk about that too much.”
VAR’s accuracy has been slowly increasing during the course of this season but it’s still the interpretation from the referees which needs to improve.
Last season, the on-field referees were told to rely on their video assistants for key decisions but thankfully this campaign, we have seen referees using the screens beside the pitch more often.
