Wolves 0-1 Villa: Verdict Thread

[Tony Towner]

From 15 minutes into the Leicester game, I didn't watch a match live for a month. I did on Saturday because it was Villa and for me that's the game that means the most. Tomorrow I'll walk the dog with goal alerts.

Fanless football has played a part in that, but VAR is the main reason. We rightly look at decisions in Wolves games and get annoyed, but some of the others are equally as bad. The Bamford arm offside, the Liverpool penalty yesterday, it just sucks the enjoyment out of the game. Even in the case of the latter, which wasn't VAR it's made because of the law adjustments which have been made because of it and it didn't overturn the decision

Someone at work said to me that VAR is just there to provide entertainment to the neutral viewer and if you think about it that's true. You think the Bamford offside is bollocks, but unless you are a Leeds fan you don't really care. It provides colour to the game.

There are two things i hate about it, firstly the forensic lines and secondly with penalties or offsides they spend ages looking at it to still get the wrong decision. The Kilman penalty at Leicester being an example. The Elneny none sending off yesterday another. Players are now turning which is a good thing, I think if you gave them a vote they'd bin the lot tomorrow. I bet a lot of refs would too, can't forget Martin Atkinson's face for having to give the Mahrez penalty last year when he knew it was bollocks

 

[Tredman]

Someone at work said to me that VAR is just there to provide entertainment to the neutral viewer and if you think about it that's true. You think the Bamford offside is bollocks, but unless you are a Leeds fan you don't really care. It provides colour to the game.

that’s been my opinion for a very long time - it’s all about the WWE-ification of football. The only focus is on the arm-chair fan - fuck the rest of us, with their fake fan noise even that part has gone.

 

[Jabbawolf]

If you offered goal-line technology and no VAR, I’d bite your hand off.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I can never understand this sort of argument about it being to the benefit of neutral/TV viewers.

What about it is meant to be entertaining? I don't really care a great deal for results one way or another in most games I watch but watching everything grind to halt for a few minutes a time adds nothing. You can have controversy and incorrect decisions influencing results just as much with real time snap decisions and not have to sit there watching literally nothing for minutes while some bloke in an office makes the call.

It's nothing but dead time, it adds nothing for anyone as a spectacle. The beneficiaries are meant to be the clubs getting the correct decisions but it's not working, it's nothing to do with entertainment.

 

[Dinowolf]

"I may disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Several people have used the quote, but it was originally attributed to Voltaire.

 

[Tredman]

Yes, easy to say as a privileged white dude.

 

[sycophantia]

I was all for VAR initially and I think it could have been useful if used correctly but its been an abomination. The time it takes and forensic decisions are bad enough but the thing thats really finished it for me is the fact that its getting obvious decisions wrong still...thats just unacceptable

 

[Paul]

Someone at work said to me that VAR is just there to provide entertainment to the neutral viewer and if you think about it that's true. You think the Bamford offside is bollocks, but unless you are a Leeds fan you don't really care. It provides colour to the game.

I'm sorry, I don't get that, in what way does it provide anything, whatsoever ?

 

[Tredman]

I'm sorry, I don't get that, in what way does it provide anything, whatsoever ?

It’s not during the game - it’s to drive all the SSN watching / talk sport listening. It’s talking points to get viewers so they can push them to gamble more.

 

[Paul]

It’s not during the game - it’s to drive all the SSN watching / talk sport listening. It’s talking points to get viewers so they can push them to gamble more.

Really ? that sounds very 'tin foil hat' to me, believe me as an armchair fan for the last two seasons it adds nothing to the experience, so you 'real fans' or the 'rest of you' aren't missing anything.
I do believe it was something that was brought in , I think, with all good intentions that was totally mismanaged and incorrectly carried out, I had more faith in the goal line assistants and they were a waste of effort

 

[Parkins left foot]

VAR 'could' be a useful tool if it was used sensibly - it isn't for now

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm sorry, I don't get that, in what way does it provide anything, whatsoever ?

Sorry Paul, but you don't understand how social media/radio/sky sports news works if you can't see the correlation

 

[MARKakaJIM]

The talking points still exist whether they get given/not given in real time or with VAR though.

It's not creating any incidents whatsoever, it's just a different means of judging them when they happen. Some of the rule changes that have been bought in to make it easier for them to reach definitive conclusions are frustrating but I think people's anger towards it makes more noise than the VAR itself. Not unlike certain other conversations in this forum when the mass response to particular posts is far more disruptive than the original comment.

Look at that penalty against Kilman in the Leicester game, Wolves fans raging against VAR giving it, maybe that's where this idea of it artificially creating talking points comes from. A few years ago and it could have gone either way as an on field decision, it's still a talking point then, perhaps more so for Leicester fans though as there would be plenty claiming it should have been a penalty if not given.

It's a shit system at the moment but I think it's bonkers to believe there is any ulterior motive behind it, it's just really badly setup.

 

[Johnny75]

Sorry Paul, but you don't understand how social media/radio/sky sports news works if you can't see the correlation

Tin foil hat stuff right here. Of course it wasn’t bought in for that reason, the controversy was there already.

VAR was bought in to eliminate the howler as it is in all other sports that use it. You’re talking, as a man who doesn’t watch the game, like it doesn’t exist outside of football and that’s not true.

 

[Paul]

Look at that penalty against Kilman in the Leicester game, Wolves fans raging against VAR giving it, maybe that's where this idea of it artificially creating talking points comes from. A few years ago and it could have gone either way as an on field decision, it's still a talking point then, perhaps more so for Leicester fans though as there would be plenty claiming it should have been a penalty if not given.

It's a shit system at the moment but I think it's bonkers to believe there is any ulterior motive behind it, it's just really badly setup.

Yes but surely VAR didn't create that issue the handball law did, VAR just endorsed it

 

[Johnny75]

It’s not during the game - it’s to drive all the SSN watching / talk sport listening. It’s talking points to get viewers so they can push them to gamble more.

It’s your birthday man, chill and don’t take the blue pill.

Happy birthday.

 

[Tony Towner]

Tin foil hat stuff right here. Of course it wasn’t bought in for that reason, the controversy was there already.

VAR was bought in to eliminate the howler as it is in all other sports that use it. You’re talking, as a man who doesn’t watch the game, like it doesn’t exist outside of football and that’s not true.

Of course it wasn't brought in for that reason, but that's the role it now performs. Any theoretical merit has long gone it's now about the 'entertainment', otherwise why not fix it?

 

[Johnny75]

Of course it wasn't brought in for that reason, but that's the role it now performs. Any theoretical merit has long gone it's now about the 'entertainment', otherwise why not fix it?

My own tin foil hat theory is the refs don’t want to fix it because now the game is more about them as arbiters of the game making the decisions that decide results rather than the players.

Just look at the way Mike Dean behaves, the twat knows he’s on camera. Ref’s should be put back in their box but our FA is so shit they won’t.

 

[sycophantia]

I'm mainly a tv viewer (even before covid) only get to 6-8 matches at Molineux most seasons. I don't find it entertaining at all, quite the opposite, I find it irritating, unnecessarily time consuming and frustrating.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Yes but surely VAR didn't create that issue the handball law did, VAR just endorsed it

It hits his arm in the box, I don't think it really matters what the exact wording of the rule is at any point you'll always have supporters on either side that aren't happy with the referees interpretation.

Talking points are everywhere in the game, whether it's referees decisions, player performances, managers performances, people just seem to fixate on VAR and then whinge about it dominating the headlines. Well the power is with each and every one of us to change that, we choose what we talk about, change the bloody record if the topic is so unpalatable, it's not like there's nothing else to go at.