Burnley boss Scott Parker issued a passionate rant after his team lost 3-2 against Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
Manchester United finally picked up their first win of the season, edging past Burnley 3-2 in a dramatic contest at Old Trafford.
United opened the scoring when Burnley’s Josh Cullen put the ball into his own net, giving the home side a deserved early advantage.
Burnley hit back soon after the restart, but Bryan Mbeumo quickly restored United’s lead with his first ever goal at Old Trafford less than a minute later.
The visitors equalised once more to set up a tense finale, before Amad won a late penalty. Captain Bruno Fernandes converted confidently from the spot to seal all three points for the Reds.
Parker issues passionate rant after United defeat
Once again, a Premier League game was filled with VAR drama. There were two major decisions the technology came in to make during the 90 minutes.
Firstly, United had a penalty on Mason Mount overturned despite Kyle Walker clearly fouling the United midfielder as he entered the box.
Then in the dying embers, VAR checked the clear penalty on Amad, who was having his shirt pulled, and awarded United a penalty to win the game.
Scott Parker has criticised how the game needed to be ‘re-reffed’ at the end and how the video assistant referee ‘in a box’ 200 miles away is making a crucial decision. He labelled it as ‘sterile’.
“The way the game ends, it is the way the game has gone – quadruple checking every minute,” the Burnley boss told BBC Sports.
“The on field decision, the referee didn’t give the foul. Then we have re-reffed it, VAR seeing a clear and obvious error. It’s not the ref, it’s a fella 200-odd miles away in a box. That’s the way the game has gone.
“It’s a sterile game, a long time ago when you had the passion and celebration – now you are standing around and waiting.”
Parker’s rant isn’t right
Many supporters will resonate with Parker’s feelings but it was such a clear foul on Amad and he would have been begging for VAR to intervene if it was the other way.
That’s the main problem with the technology – It can be very useful. The referee cannot see that shirt pull in normal time but it still should end up being a penalty.
But then the officials need to find more consistency and also handle situations better for supporters inside the stadiums. There were lengthy waits for both VAR checks in this game.
There is plenty that VAR needs to improve on, but Parker’s rant is probably misplaced. He is moaning because they were able to come to the correct decision, and that doesn’t happen often with Premier League officials.
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