Manchester City defender Kyle Walker has given his take on the VAR decision which robbed Liverpool of a goal against Tottenham Hotspur.
By now, we all know the story. Luis Diaz ran through to open the scoring for 10-man Liverpool against Spurs in September, only for VAR to incorrectly communicate an offside call.
The incident has created much debate in the football world, with City man Walker the latest to weigh in. Speaking via Manchester Evening News, the 33-year-old admitted that he has mixed views on VAR.
“I like it when it helps us out and I don’t like it when it doesn’t help us out!” said the former Tottenham player.
“Sometimes it does take away the talk about football when you’re talking with your mates about whether it was a goal or if it was offside, so it does take that out of it. Sometimes that does make it not go well.”
Commenting on the Diaz decision specifically, Walker suggested that two weeks on, the matter should now be closed.
“They’ve come out and said sorry to Liverpool about that,” he added. “It’s football, it’s going to be opinions about who’s right and who’s wrong.”
Walker misses the point
What Walker seems to be missing here is that this was not ‘about who’s right and who’s wrong’ at all. Perhaps he missed the incident in question.
For the Diaz non-goal, there was no other opinion to be had at all: it was onside, that was the whole reason for the controversy.
Nevertheless, the appetite for Liverpool to do something meaningful about the debacle seems to have dissipated.
Just as these things usually do, it has faded into the background as the game ticks on and on.
That’s all well and good, and it’s no use getting bogged down in the injustice of the situation. But what about when this simply happens again? It may not be Liverpool on the wrong end of it, but that’s not the point.
Indeed, VAR almost caused another scandal just a few days on from their mess at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. During Burnley’s game against Chelsea the weekend after, Raheem Sterling’s dubious goal hadn’t been fully checked before the referee restarted the game.
Luckily, the decision of ‘onside’ was the right one and the officials got away with it. But it won’t be long before this happens again. As Walker says, we all like it when the decision goes for us, but let’s hear his thoughts when City get one illegitimately taken away themselves.
