Alan Shearer says he doesn’t understand was VAR assistants are there for after officials failed to award Luis Diaz’s goal against Tottenham after it was incorrectly ruled out for offside
Alan Shearer asked what the point of having a VAR assistant was after being stunned by the mistake that ruled out Luis Diaz’s goal in Liverpool’s defeat to Tottenham on Saturday.
The match was marred by a number of controversial referees, chief among them a serious miscommunication that resulted in Diaz’s perfectly legitimate first-half strike being unfairly ruled offside. correct, even after VAR review. Speaking during the day’s match, an angry Shearer said he could not understand why the referees made the situation so bad.
“What’s the point of having a VAR assistant, because I understand there’s about 30 to 35 seconds between [VAR Darren England] making a decision and then allowing kick-off,” he said. “He gets scared at times or loses concentration. Either way, this was a big mistake.
“So that’s the VAR Darren England. The assistant VAR, Daniel Cook, why can’t he then say, hang on a minute, before you kick-off, we need to stop this. Rather than going through this process of saying we’ve made a huge error, they should’ve and could’ve, I think, stopped it before [play restarted].”
The mix-up occurred because England and Cook mistakenly thought Diaz’s goal had been awarded, rather than being ruled out for offside by the linesman. As such, after reviewing the situation they sent a message to referee Simon Hooper that the offside call he’d made was ‘correct’.
Professional Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) admitted the error after the match and apologised, before removing Anh and Cook from future VAR duties. However, Shearer insists the damage has been done and trust in Premier League officials may never fully recover.
The Newcastle legend said: “It was a terrible day for the referees and VAR. “We’ve seen some people scream in our time, but that’s the biggest problem. Confidence will be a big issue for them going forward.”
Diaz’s disallowed goal came with the score at 0-0 and just minutes after Liverpool were 10 men down after Curtis Jones was sent off for a bad foul on Yves Bissouma. Son Heung-min put Spurs ahead shortly after, but Cody Gakpo hit back for the Red Devils in first-half stoppage time.
Things got worse for Liverpool after the break when Diogo Jota was sent off for a second bookable offence, although they narrowly escaped the north London side with a point. But in the 96th minute, Joël Matip accidentally shot into his own net while trying to block a cross, sealing the score for Ange Postecoglou’s unbeaten side.
