The SEVEN mistakes VAR made during Spurs 2-1 Liverpool
On Saturday evening, the Premier League witnessed one of the worst refereeing displays of all time as Liverpool slumped to a 2-1 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
An intense and high quality fixture was ruined by the incompetence of officials in charge as several calls have been labelled unfair by fans, pundits and journalists.
In charge of the fixture were:
- Referee Simon Hooper.
- Linesmen Adrian Holmes and Simon Long
- Fourth official Tony Harrington
- VAR Darren England
- Assistant VAR Dan Cook
Not a single official in charge of the fixture has escaped with their reputations in tact as both the officials in the stadium and in the VAR booth made a sleuth of errors.
What were the errors the match officials made?
We'll start with the most glaring issues first.
Curtis Jones red card - VAR influenced call
There's no denying that Jones' tackle was dangerous and must have put Yves Bissouma in considerable pain, however, the manner in which referee Simon Hooper was presented the on-pitch review influenced his decision making.
When the 41-year-old reached the screen to review the foul, he was met with a freeze frame of Jones' studs on Bissouma's ankle before the VAR played the clip.
This likely influenced the decision he reached which was to rescind the yellow card initially shown before he reached for his red card to send the young Liverpool midfielder for an early shower.
Luis Diaz goal incorrectly ruled for offside
This call was so bad that, during the immediate replays, I was fully convinced that it would be pulled back for a VAR review but, as we all know, this did not happen.
What happened was Diaz scored a brilliant goal from an acute angle from Mohamed Salah's well-timed pass, giving the Reds the lead despite already being reduced to 10-men.
VAR did not use lines to check the decision which was made faster than most offside calls are.
The PGMOL released a statement after the game, admitting to the error. Although nothing has been said about the host of other missteps from their referees at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The statement reads: "PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool.
"The goal by Luiz Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.
"PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error."
Diogo Jota red card - another bad joke
The Portuguese is the fourth Liverpool player this season to have been shown a red card and he's no closer to deserving his marching orders.
This moment in the game saw two bad calls made.
First of all, the first yellow shown to Diogo Jota was for a supposed trip on Spurs fullback Destiny Udogie but replays show that the 20-year-old tripped himself.
90 seconds later, Jota made an idiotic decision to dive into a challenge on Udogie. While the fullback made the most of very little contact, Jota needs to be held accountable for being baited into a second yellow and subsequent red.
The shocking officiating didn't stop there though as Simon Hooper conveniently seemed to forget that referees have been told to book players asking/gesturing for opposition players to receive a card for perceived fouls.
Udogie brandished an imaginary card to the referee before Jota was shown his second yellow but Hooper did nothing.
Perhaps it's a rule that doesn't apply to Spurs players...
Joe Gomez penalty not awarded
Just like all these other calls, this one beggars belief.
Joe Gomez gets the ball in the box and despite taking a touch to take the ball beyond Spurs centre-back Micky van de Ven, the Dutch defender clattered into him, fouling him.
The decision from the linesman and referee? No foul.
What about a review from VAR? Nope.
Plenty of conspiracy theories are floating around Twitter as to an explanation for the volume of terrible calls against Liverpool on Saturday.
This is where I stand on the situation...
What other mistakes were made during Spurs 2-1 Liverpool?
Yves Bissouma cynically stuck his hand in Endo Wataru's face but escaped any retribution.
Salah was adjudged to foul Bissouma in the below clip as well but this was another obvious error.
The rest were minor in comparison.
For instance, Andy Robertson and assistant coach Peter Krawietz being booked for complaining wasn't a mistake per se but when Spurs players and staff get away with madness, it's difficult to make sense of it all.
So what happens next?
The PGMOL needs to issue a public apology. They admitted to the mistake made for Luis Diaz's wrongfully disallowed goal but it lacked an apology.
While that's never going to happen, it's time for change with the way VAR is used and the referees that officiate weekly in the Premier League need to be held accountable.
When a result is wrongfully taken away from a side that would have climbed to the top of the Premier League, a lot more needs to happen.
Additionally, players and managers should no longer be fined and suspended for calling out incompetency in refereeing displays.
It's dodgy. How can improvement be made when referees are allowed to routinely ruin matches without much accountability.
I don't have a lot of hope for the referees in the Premier League unfortunately as it's been broken for a long, long time...
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