Newcastle boss Eddie Howe believes referees have become too reliant on VAR after Chris Kavanagh’s horror show in his side’s 3-1 FA Cup win at 10-man Aston Villa.
In the absence of VAR, Kavanagh and his assistant referees seemingly got at least three major decisions wrong in a blundering performance at Villa Park which could easily have cost the Magpies.
Tammy Abraham’s opening goal for Villa was clearly offside, Kavanagh failed to send Lucas Digne off for a shin-high tackle on Jacob Murphy and then the worst decision of all came after the break when Kavanagh and assistant referee Nick Greenhalgh ruled Digne’s handball to be outside the area when it was at least three yards inside.
Former England captain Wayne Rooney called it “one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in football… it’s an absolute shocker”.
The one major decision Kavanagh got right was to send Villa goalkeeper Marco Bizot off for taking out Murphy near the centre-circle and that gave Newcastle a platform to fight back against 10 men in the second half.
Sandro Tonali scored from the free-kick which should have been a penalty then added a second with a sweet strike from distance before Nick Woltemade wrapped up the win at the end.
Howe says VAR has given referees something to hide behind.
“I think there’s an argument to say that, because when VAR is there, there’s always a, ‘Well, I won’t give that, but let’s check it’,” he said.
“And I think then your decision-making maybe isn’t as sharp as it may normally have to be so maybe there’s a difference there.
“I’m always torn on VAR. I said this many times because I still love the emotion, even tonight, when a goal is given and you don’t see a flag or a referee, it’s a goal, and no-one’s going to take it away from you.
“That joy that you get in that moment, I still really love and VAR takes it away. But then on the other side, I was wishing there was VAR on the first goal against us, and probably throughout that game.
“I think it does give accurate results. It does make the game more concise in terms of decision-making and those moments, you have to respect that they’re worth their weight in gold, especially for us today, when we’re on the wrong side of it.
“So I’m still very much torn on it.
“The officials don’t make any (wrong) decision on purpose. It’s what they think at the time. But with without VAR, I thought there was a lot of errors.”
Howe was pleased with how his players kept their cool amid a host of decisions going against them.
“I thought the players did really well to control their emotions, to stay calm, not let it affect our performance negatively.
“And that’s not easy to do in that situation where you feel aggrieved, so I think that certainly helps our performance in the second half.”
A fortnight ago, Villa boss Unai Emery said VAR was “unfair” after it cruelly intervened to deny a goal they scored in a Premier League defeat to Brentford.
But the Spaniard admitted: “Today VAR makes sense. VAR is necessary to help the referees.”
He added: “We played a very competitive match. I was so, so happy about us in the first half. With the red card, and Newcastle scoring, it was more difficult for us.”
