“Reformed” VAR Still Persecuting Leeds United - Life, Leeds United, the Universe and Everything 14/8/21
Rob Atkinson
Any Leeds fans with nightmare memories of the number of
occasions last season, when Leeds United had ridiculously tight VAR calls go
against them, might have gone into today’s game against the Pride of Devon
hoping for better, or at least fairer, things. It’s fair to say those hopes
were dashed, and thrice dashed, making an opening day defeat at the Theatre of
Hollow Myths an even bitterer than usual pill to swallow.
Let’s start with an admission – Leeds deserved nothing
better than defeat on the day. It’s the scale and manner of that defeat I’m
taking issue with, and although I’m probably going to be accused of blinkered
bias, I’ll say here and now that two of Devon’s goals were as dodgy as a seven
pound note – AND we should have had a penalty near the end. As ever, I’ll
welcome comments that disagree or agree with my not entirely objective view –
but I’d be grateful to see reasons, pro or con.
The first goal came directly from our young keeper’s less
than habitually accurate kick out, gifting possession to the Devonians and
allowing Bruno Fernandez to score. No quibbles here. In the second half,
Ayling’s howitzer of an equaliser was a thing of beauty and a joy for a few
minutes, until Greenwood managed to get by Pascal and score. 2-1 to the
European Super League wannabes – and that’s where the game started to go bent.
For the third home goal, I remain unconvinced that the whole of the ball
crossed the line. Where was the computer graphic of last season, showing
clearly the position of the ball relative to the line? All I saw was an
unconvincing and blurry freeze frame, and my dander was well and truly up from
that point onwards.
The fourth goal looked offside to me in real time, and again
I was unconvinced by replays – the lines so often drawn last season seemed to
be on leave of absence, and it felt as though justice was not seen to be done.
I’d heard the lines were supposed to be thicker, not AWOL. As I said earlier,
I’d welcome other views on both of these “goals”, perhaps I’ve missed something
while tearing my hair and gnashing my teeth.
The fifth goal was down to lax and demoralised defending,
too much room in our box, ‘nuff said. But then we should have had a penalty
(yes, I know that’s unrealistic at Old Toilet, but this was a stonewall
penalty). Contact was demonstrably made with Tyler Roberts’ trailing leg, and a
commentator mouthed something along the lines of “not enough to make him go
down”. But Roberts was moving at speed, and any contact was going to be enough
to put him on the deck. I guarantee that, if the incident was in the other
area, with a Franchise player measuring his length on the turf, the ref would
have whistled long and hard.
So, there we have it. No complaints about the result, but
there was some devil in the detail, and those injustices were salt rubbed into
a raw and painful wound. At least I’ve got this off my chest, so now maybe I
can look ahead to other battles where perhaps we’ll acquit ourselves rather
better. It’s just that, after one game, admittedly against opponents who
notoriously always get the benefit of any doubt, I have this feeling that Leeds
United will not benefit from this supposedly fairer application of VAR. I guess
we’ll see over the next 37 games.
Marching On Together
