Jamie Carragher believes that VAR is at a “crisis point” in the Premier League after the shocking error that occurred in the game between Liverpool and Tottenham on Saturday.
Liverpool have made a formal request for the audio recording between officials, and PGMOL were forced to issue an apology for a “significant human error” after Luis Diaz scored in the first half only to see the offside flag raised to rule out the goal.
“I don’t think the feeling around VAR has ever been lower. I really feel like this is almost a crisis point for VAR in this country,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.
“It’s not just on the back of this decision, it’s what’s been happening all over this season. On the first Monday Night Football there was a situation with Wolves at Manchester United.”
The Liverpool situation was even more chaotic when it was revealed VAR official Darren England drew lines to check for offside and determined Diaz was on side, but failed to realise the on-field referee Simon Hooper and his assistant officials had initially ruled the goal out for offside.
The “check complete” decision then instead of awarding the goal, gave the go-ahead for a restart with a Tottenham free-kick, ruling out Liverpool’s legitimate lead.
“I don’t want to pile on an official – or Howard Webb because I imagine they feel absolutely awful the last couple of days,” Carragher continued.
“And I’m not into the conspiracy theories about this one favours this team or this one favours that – no one gains anything from this.
“We’ve all been there and made mistakes, so we all feel for them but it was a horrendous mistake that isn’t unprecedented and you can’t quite believe the explanation that’s being given.
“The bit on this that I’m really struggling with is…the mistake has been made and then play restarts.”
