November 3 – New Nottingham Forest boss, Sean Dyche, has been left grasping at straws in his first two weeks as game-changing decisions haven’t gone his way and Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United, left him fuming at officials and with plenty to say.
Casemiro’s opening goal for the Red Devils came from a corner that shouldn’t have been given, with Nicolò Savona clearly keeping the ball in play. For Dyche, it’s the second week running that his side has been undone by a similar mistake.
“Two weeks on the trot, which is bizarre in itself,” Dyche said. “Similar but different, obviously. The last one was a clear mistake [at Bournemouth], which I was booked for. How on earth I get booked for an actual mistake, proven, is bizarre.”
Unlike many in the game, Dyche is a supporter of Video Assistant Review (VAR). “The thing that annoys me the most, and I’m a big fan of VAR, is that someone’s got to have to overrule these decisions, just really quickly,” he explained. “That’ll be five seconds. You just go ‘that’s in play,’ but they whack it in and score a goal two weeks on the trot.”
Under current rules, VAR can’t step in if a corner is wrongly awarded, no matter what happens next. But as Dyche points out, that limitation can lead to injustice.
“Then today I just can’t understand it. You’re an assistant referee, you’re 70-odd yards away, you’ve got a goal and a net in the way, but apparently you can see. I’ve got a better view and I’m not in the right position, so that’s got to be wrong in the current climate.”
VAR was meant to eliminate clear errors, but if it starts judging corners, throw-ins, or minor touches, the game will potentially lose its momentum with yet another stoppage.
Dyche summed up: “Now, of course, you can say, ‘well, you’ve got to deal with the corner,’ but the point is it shouldn’t even be that, so that’s really difficult.”
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