West Brom sources baffled by VAR incident in 1-1 v Man United – Ornstein
West Brom were left baffled by the decision to review a Manchester United penalty call on the pitchside monitor on Sunday, according to David Ornstein.
In the second half, Craig Pawson pointed to the spot after Harry Maguire appeared to be felled by Semi Ajayi in the penalty. However, replays showed that Maguire was well offside even though Pawson was told by VAR Jon Moss to consult the pitchside screen.
According to The Athletic journalist Ornstein, sources at West Brom were “perplexed by the decision not to review whether United’s Maguire was offside before Semi Ajayi’s challenge”.
Ornstein added: “The Athletic understands VAR Jon Moss checked the incident in the penalty area and decided it was not a foul. At this point, Moss should have checked the APP (attacking possession phase) and seen Maguire had been offside but he skipped that stage and asked Craig Pawson to consult the pitchside monitor instead. The referee agreed there was no foul and his penalty call was overturned.
“The process was indeed muddled but West Brom were relieved the correct outcome was reached. And, had Pawson insisted it was a foul, Moss would have checked APP, spotted the offside and the penalty would still have been disallowed.”
Ornstein’s source said: “It’s something to learn from. The VAR went from A to C but missed out B. Checking the foul first is normal but then he should have checked for offside before sending Pawson to the monitor.”
Absolutely useless
We’re glad that Pawson watched over the incident and decided that it wasn’t a foul in the end because if he stood by his initial decision, Man United would have had a penalty.
How can an experienced referee like Moss overlook an obvious offside?
You didn’t need the lines or anything like that to see it. Maguire was well ahead of the West Brom defensive line when the ball was played into the box.
It’s one of many bizarre uses of VAR in the Premier League.
How do English officials keep on getting it so wrong?
You don’t hear of much VAR controversy come out of other countries that are using it.
The Dutch Eredivisie and Australian A-League appear to be miles ahead of the English game when it comes to using this type of technology in the game so why not collaborate with their officials to seek improvement in the Premier League?
VAR is here to stay whether you like it or not but there doesn’t appear to be anything happening in the way of fine-tuning and improving things.
It’s just horrible and one good side to being relegation back to the Championship will be that we don’t have VAR ruining our matches any more.
In other West Brom news, Gary Neville was disappointed by this player’s display against Manchester United on Sunday.
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