The officials and guidelines. All this "clear and obvious error" is rubbish as too wide a latitude. Clear dialogue between ref and VAR official on what he has seen and why he has given a certain decision. VAR ref has a *quick* look and the incident is either as described or not. If not, send the ref to the monitor.
A question for Mike Malarkey
Another question for Mike Malarkey seeing as he trains them.
I didn't say the line officials
I believe his talk is about VAR.I didn't say the line officials
I could forgive the referee not seeing it in live play as he a row of four or five players in front of him and he didn't have any kind of view. VAR though................... clear and obvious error? I should say so. The worst for me is the sending off that never happened. Havertz had to go for the challenge on Dan Burn. Referee's a re continually banging on about unnatural position when it's to handball. That principle has to be applied to flying elbows. The first case for the defence is that he is using his arms to gain height. That has a limited amount of merit to it but Dan Burn is 6'7, a good half a foot taller than Kai Havertz, what is Harvertz elbow doing half a foot above his head in the first place? Second, try jumping and watch what happens with your arms. You put them out or up in front of you and you your body through to gain your height/distance, depending on what your trying to achieve. Third, when you use your arms to jump they work together similar to the way a birds wings work. They flap up and down together for a bird to fly, and your arms go out together and are pulled back together when you jump. There is a picture on the BBC match report which quite clearly shows Havertz right hand is down around waist/stomach level and his right elbow is in Burn's face, how unnatural do you want it to be? Finally, watch the movement of Havertz elbow. It's not held in a position as a leading elbow might be, there is a definate thrust of his elbow towards Burn. 'Oh but he wasn't looking at him' is the immeadiate case for the defence. As Jimmy Floyd Hasslbaink said in the Sky studio during the game, any striker with half a brain cell doesn't need to be looking for his marker, he already knows where he is.
And then Newcastle benefit from a very dodgy VAR decision against Everton but don't take advantage of it
. Followed up by a poor second yellow card last night for Raul Jiminez, he didn't even make a challenge in the end but he couldn't just disappear. Poor refereeing decisions whether on the pitch or with their feet up at Stockley Park are making real differences in games, not VAR as such.
Add Brentford's second penalty to that list, if you're going to stick you head down at waist height your asking for it to be knocked off not that Isak barely touched the Brentford lad.