There's no getting away from Mike Dean's comment "Not only that but they're your mates too." when talking about referees and VAR. If a referee gets it wrong then it doesn't matter who his mates are. It's not about saving face, it's about doing your job right. It also brings into question the intelligence, or lack of it, of referees when the whole world and its dog can see incidents during the game. VAR is supposed to simplify and rectify. I can think of a few hackneyed phrases to describe the operation of VAR: Too many cooks and too many chiefs and not enough Indians amongst them!
