"Pure garbage"

For Glasner “a clear penalty” – not for VAR

Van Dijk pulls Guehi (bottom left), Oliver Glasner would have liked to have heard the penalty whistle.

(Bild: AFP/AFP, Twitter.com/ S👻)

"A clear penalty", was the verdict of Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner. In fact, an action by Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk against Palace striker Marc Guehi on Saturday seemed highly controversial. Nevertheless, the VAR was not used - "pure garbage" for an ex-referee.

The upset happened in the second half of the game, with Liverpool already leading 1-0. Palace striker Guehi tried to catch a ball that was lying in the opponent's 16 and push it into the goal. In doing so, he was pulled back by the hand of Liverpool's veteran Van Dijk. Pretty obvious in itself. You would think so.

"A clear penalty"
Palace coach Oliver Glasner said in a TV interview after the game: "I didn't see it in the game. But now that I see it, it's a clear penalty for me." It is quite possible that he is not alone in this opinion. At any rate, referee Simon Hooper saw it differently (or not at all). He allowed play to continue. And there was no intervention from the VAR either.

"Pure garbage"
Which, in turn, infuriates a former industry expert. For former referee Keith Hackett, the fact that the VAR did not intervene seems like "pure garbage". "When Marc Guehi tries to get to the ball at the back post of the Liverpool penalty area, Virgil van Dijk blatantly pulls him back to deny him any chance of getting the ball," he told the Daily Telegraph. Towards the end of the action, Van Dijk even worked with both hands - almost as if he was doing everything he could to achieve a punishable offense, says Hackett.

Of course there are referees "who miss things, so Simon Hooper is not entirely to blame", said Hacket: "But the fact that the VAR didn't intervene was, frankly, pathetic. The point of VAR is to correct mistakes, not ignore them for convenience or some other unknown reason."

Strong stuff. And Oliver Glasner can't buy any more of it. Crystal Palace are still waiting for their first win of the season after seven rounds in the Premier League.