This is an excerpt from this week's McGarry on Motherwell, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
First of all, for any Kilmarnock fans peeking in, let me make clear here that the following is not a case of sour grapes on the back of Motherwell’s defeat at Rugby Park on Saturday.
Who knows how things would have played out had Kofi Balmer not been wrongly dismissed - a decision that would never have been taken, in my view, had there not been an almighty stooshie over James Tarkowski’s follow-through on Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby just a couple of nights prior to the game.
At the time though, the home side were a goal to the good and looking comfortable. The fact is that Motherwell stunk the place out both with 11 men and with 10, and I’m not sure they would have gotten anything from the game regardless.
However, so ridiculous was the decision to send off the Motherwell defender, a red card that has since been rescinded, that it bears addressing, along with the wider debate over the implementation of VAR in Scottish football.
I don’t like to see anyone lose their job, incidentally, but it is interesting that Alan Muir has parted ways with the Scottish FA this week after a series of high-profile blunders as a VAR official involving both halves of the Old Firm. The frequent errors against Motherwell (and Killie, St Mirren and whoever else for that matter) don’t seem to provoke the same kind of inquest.
From Dan Casey’s ludicrous red against Killie at Fir Park earlier in the season to the failure to send off Aberdeen striker Pape Gueye for his scythe on Andy Halliday the week before, Motherwell have been on the end of some stinkers this season, and the club were right to point out that the six-figure sum they are currently shelling out for VAR is hardly proving to be value for money.
For clubs who can ill afford to waste a penny, all they are really getting from the current iteration of VAR here is weekly confirmation that our refereeing talent pool is shallow in the extreme. And for the officials, it seems not only to be getting them into a fankle, but is also increasing the pressure on their shoulders.
In days gone past, a poor decision would cause uproar, yes, but there would be a level of understanding that referees have a difficult job, and have to make decisions in a split second. How VAR official Andrew Dallas, assistant VAR official Graeme Leslie and on-field ref Matthew McDermid can repeatedly view the Balmer incident and conclude it merits a dismissal takes a great deal more explaining.
Read more:
-
Bull****, BMW, and beers with the Bois: Michael Wimmer's long road to Motherwell
-
Michael Wimmer on how he addressed lack of effort in Motherwell loss to Aberdeen
-
Who would you like to see back at Motherwell as contracts and loans expire?
I have been a VAR sceptic ever since its inception and would have binned it long ago. One thing I always hear though from defenders of it though is that it is not the technology that is the issue, but the people using it.
This argument makes little sense to me. The people using it are our referees. That isn’t going to change unless semi-automated offsides are introduced here down the line. So, my money is on the whole thing continuing to be an utter shambles that adds little value to our game.
As far as I can see, it only takes away from Scottish football. The spectacle for the fan in the stadium suffers, big decisions are still getting called incorrectly with alarming frequency, and the officials don’t seem to know when they should be using it and when they should not.
In so many ways, not just in terms of the financial outlay involved, it just isn’t worth it.
I have called for this before, but I would now like to see the club take their anger at VAR and channel it into something constructive, and perhaps canvas other clubs to see if there is an appetite to get rid of the technology altogether.
The SPFL is the clubs, after all, as we are frequently told, so if a groundswell of fan opinion can push at least some of them to push for a vote on binning VAR, it would be worth doing.
Ok, you might not get 11 of the 12 clubs to vote for its removal, but we might at least see it stripped right back to factual decisions like offsides or whether a ball has crossed the goalline.
It perhaps would at least be tolerable if that was the case, rather than sticking its neb in unnecessarily to incidents like the Balmer one at the weekend.
AND ANOTHER THING…
VAR controversies aside, the Motherwell performance at Killie was concerning, because it seems now to point to a regressive trend where the high-pressing, high-energy play of Michael Wimmer’s first few matches in charge has somewhat tailed off. And at just the wrong time.
Remarkably though, this team still have a chance of pulling off a top six finish, with a win over Hearts on Saturday being enough to get them there so long as St Mirren don’t beat Ross County.
Most importantly though, they owe the fans a performance after these last few weeks. A whole-hearted, energetic display.
Do that, and the league places can fall as they may. Turn in another lethargic performance, and it is likely that many may be out on their ear come the summer, and that few will really be missed.
