Anthony Gordon incident is proof of why Premier League needs to KEEP VAR – Not get rid of it
Anthony Gordon has sparked a lot of headlines after Wednesday night at Old Trafford.
A first half incident seeing the Newcastle United player denied a stonewall penalty.
The pace with which it happened meaning understandably the referee on the pitch wasn’t in a perfect position to see exactly what happened.
However, the kind of incident that VAR was obviously designed to deal with.
As the TV replays clearly showed those of us watching at home that Amrabat raking his studs down the Achilles of Anthony Gordon.
Yet somehow, the VAR Jarred Gillett NOT sending referee Robert Jones to the pitchside monitor to watch the TV replays and award the obvious penalty.
Anthony Gordon talking to Sky Sports about the key ‘penalty’ incident during Manchester United 3 Newcastle United 2:
“I have watched the incident back.
“It is a clear penalty.
“I just…
“I don’t mind the referee getting it wrong on the pitch because it is a difficult decision.
“Things happen really quickly
“But I don’t understand what the point of VAR is then?
“It is there to correct mistakes.
“He (Amrabat) goes down my Achilles and pushes me in the back
“Casemiro comes and gets the ball but there are two fouls before that.
“I honestly don’t see the point in it…
“I knew straight away, that’s why I didn’t appeal, because I don’t mind the referee not giving it, it’s fast [how things happen].
“But I will wait for the VAR to check.
“You can see me telling my teammates, ‘Don’t worry, it is a clear penalty’… and then we carry on and I’m just like, my sock… I’ve got no sock left, how can it be possible [that VAR hasn’t directed the referee to check for a penalty].
“I don’t understand the point of it, I really don’t.
“I’m actually quite fond of it (VAR), I’m fond of the idea, it should be a thing that works in the league, but it’s not, there’s constantly too many mistakes.
“We’ve missed too many chances there to blame anybody else, but we could go one nil up and the game changes.
“It is a clear clear obvious mistake [for the referee not to give the penalty].
“Just, I don’t know how you can get it wrong?
“So either get rid of it (VAR) or get better[at applying it].
“It is very simple.”
This Anthony Gordon incident and what he has said afterwards, has been twisted into so much of the media claiming the Newcastle player is saying VAR should be got rid of.
That is only a half truth, as what he is obviously and clearly saying is that they might as well get rid of VAR if these kind of ridiculous HUMAN errors keep on getting made.
The shocking no penalty decision wasn’t the fault of the VAR system and the technology, it was the fault of Jarred Gillett and other humans involved, who bizarrely didn’t direct the on-pitch referee to go and look at the incident on the TV replays.
What Anthony Gordon is saying AND the incident in question, are proof of why we need to KEEP VAR, not get rid of it.
If VAR wasn’t a thing, then last night no penalty would have been given for Newcastle United (though for Manchester United…?).
However, with VAR, it clearly should have then ended up with the correct decision of a penalty being made.
The fact it wasn’t, is due to a massive human error, from Jarred Gillett and others.
An absolute disgrace and he should be sacked off, not VAR!!
