Yahoo News Nottingham Forest VAR penalty explanation blasted in angry referee rant
Troy Deeney says Nottingham Forest’s rejected penalty appeals in their controversial defeat to Everton show the need to improve the standard of refereeing in the Premier League.
The Reds were left furious at having three spot-kick shouts dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor during last month’s 2-0 loss at Goodison Park. And the release of the VAR audio from the third of those incidents will have done little to ease their frustration.
Taylor judged Toffees defender Ashley Young to have got the ball when he challenged Callum Hudson-Odoi. He was not sent to his monitor to review the incident by VAR Stuart Attwell, who described it as “a tussle” after checking a replay.
READ MORE: The 13 Forest players who could soon be saying City Ground farewells
READ MORE: Forest penalty explanation revealed as VAR audio from Everton controversy released
Pundit Deeney disagrees with the decision. And he has backed Reds head coach Nuno Espirito Santo’s call for referees to take more responsibility for decisions on the pitch, rather than relying on VAR.
Deeney said on talkSPORT: “You listen to what Howard Webb (Professional Game Match Officials Board chief) said about improving VAR and this, that and the other. Improve the standard of refereeing.
“Anthony Taylor’s got that wrong. No problem, he’ll admit it. But how can you have someone watching it and say that’s a tussle?
“We’ve all seen it. I think there’s definitely two (penalties). One is a bit questionable, the (Gio) Reyna one in the first half where Ash kicks the back of his foot.
“But the referees are going into this place where they just look after each other. They don’t go: ‘You got that wrong there, mate, go and have a look at it.’
“The on field decision now is: ‘I hope my mate looks after me, so I won’t really give too much and VAR will make sure that it happens.’
“But don’t worry too much about trying to make VAR work really well. We watched the Champions League game last night and how many times did you worry about the referee? Not once. The VAR never gets involved. It’s quick and seamless. But we seem to just mess it up all the time.”
Nuno said last week: “My personal feeling is about referees not taking decisions on the pitch. They were doing it before so they should do it again, and then comes VAR - not the other way around. The other way around is a huge mistake for the game.
“I can speak and tell my opinion and try to be honest. The general feeling in football is referees are not taking their own decisions so this is affecting a lot. They are not taking their decisions, and waiting for the VAR to intervene is not helping the situation. Referees are the authority on the pitch and then VAR should help. What we want is to move forward.”
