Here's the thing about VAR....so many people are saying "the refs are horrible". "VAR is horrible". But is it really horrible? I agree there have been a couple head scratchers, but for the most part, we can't even agree what the right call is after seeing a replay, so what's to say that the refs call was wrong?
I think our penalty today wasn't a penalty. Plenty here do and so did the official and VAR didn't over rule it. So if we can't agree, then they will never be right because we are split too.
One thing for sure, some of the laws need to be looked at. For example, handling the ball. On one hand I like the new handball rule. It takes interpretation out of the equation. It either is a handball, or it isn't. But on the other hand, we've seen some questionable ones, like the call against Chelsea recently where the only reason he handled was because he was fouled.
So this is where "spirit of the game" needs to come into play. But then again, now we are taking a black or white decision and offering it some grey area. That will open the door for more controversial calls, which VAR was supposed to get rid of and so was the new handball rule.
Then there's offside. There have been a lot of goals called back because of mere millimeters. Something that can't be seen with the naked eye. So if it can't be seen with the naked eye, is that an obvious mistake made by the AR? I lean towards no. It might have technically been offside, but it's not an obvious error. So perhaps offsides should be called that way. But then where is the cut off line? How far does he have to be offside to distinguish between "obvious error" and allowing the goal to stand?
I for one think the offside rule needs to be revised. The whole point of offside in the first place was to stop teams from "cherry picking", or to stop teams from getting a clear advantage by standing goal side of the last defender. If it were up to me, I would make two changes.
First off, I would make it so in order for there to be an offside, there needs to be clear daylight between the attacker and last defender (well, second last defender technically). This way we would be saying "he was onside by a toe" rather than "he was offside by a toe".
Another change I would make is to say that if a player starts in an offside position when the ball is kicked, but collects the ball in an onside position, then the game should play on. Offside is supposed to keep teams from getting an advantage. What advantage do you gain when you are running away from the goal you are trying to score on to collect a ball? We see it all the time. Guys coming back from an offside position and when they finally collect the ball, there are 4 guys from the other team behind him. So there was no advantage gained. For me, blowing the whistle there is just wasting time.
Bottom line is I want to see more offense in the game. Tweak the laws to promote scoring, not to take scoring away...
