VAR

[DOMNOLAN]

But I don't see what actual benefit that has. It isn't true transparency anyway because they'd know they were recorded and being heard, it's not like someone's going to say 'it's an absolute stonewaller mate but Everton isn't it so we're letting it slide', they're just going to say 'I don't think there's enough contact/he can't get his arm out of the way/it's six of one half a dozen of the other', and we can pretty much guess that's what they're saying regardless so I just don't see it as worthwhile. The truth is, what we want is the 'right' decision to be reached, nobody really cares what the justification is if that doesn't happen.

But then we at least have it categorically stated that that’s what they’re doing. We can then clearly show their justifications for one team and not the others. If with Liverpool its always something along the lines of “there was contact” or “please just confirm that there was contact”, but with everyone else it was “I don’t think there was enough contact” or “is that enough to make him go down” as the initial response, at least then we create a strong case for bias and have irrefutable evidence to show how it happens. Because those are very different questions the ref would be asking, but they’re very easy to hide behind in any single instance.