Stuart Attwell slammed as Simon Jordan and Sam Matterface argue over Everton VAR incident
Simon Jordan and Sam Matterface clashed over the controversial incident that saw VAR intervene to have Everton man Allan sent off against Newcastle.
Craig Pawson overturned his original decision to show a yellow card for the cynical foul on Allan Saint-Maximin, replacing it with a red after consultation with VAR Stuart Attwell and the pitch-side monitor.
A subsequent goal from Alex Iwobi secured a key 1-0 win, but the latest contested decision, and particularly the involvement of Attwell, lead to a heated debate between the two pundits.
In a discussion about VAR on talkSPORT this morning (18 March, 10.40am) that saw the hosts repeatedly argue with each other, Sam Matterface said: “But Simon, if you’re Craig Pawson, you’ve seen the track record of Stuart Attwell who as a VAR has made several mistakes over the course of a season. If he’s in charge of it…”
Simon Jordan cut in: “Hold on a second. You’re in the middle of a stadium with 40,000 fans screaming at you, in the middle of a moment, and all of a sudden you’re going to look back through the catalogue of this guy’s CV and go ‘Oh actually this guy’s a bit of a clown’?”
Matterface countered: “You’ll know for a fact that he’s made poor decisions, even over the course of the weekend.”
As the pair started talking over each other and Martin Keown began to jump in Jordan said: “I think you’re overcooking it.”
Inconsistency
The reality of fouls sometimes being a judgment call can never fully be taken out of football.
But the complete lack of consistency from officials is a key catalyst in fans and pundits getting irate at decisions.
Stuart Attwell was the video assistant for Liverpool’s visit to Brighton last weekend (12 March) and decided Robert Sanchez’s wild kick on Luis Diaz was not worthy of a sending off, yet apparently convinced Pawson of the opposite at Goodison.
The official was also criticised recently as the on-pitch referee in the Carabao Cup final (Mail), and had a penalty-award overturned in Leeds v Norwich.
All this lead former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett to tell Football Insider he should be stepped down due to poor form.
And this comes soon after Paul Tierney and Chris Kavanagh combined to not penalise Rodri’s handball for Manchester City, a decision that lead to a personal apology to Frank Lampard from Mike Riley.
Not all these situations are 100% comparable, and everyone makes mistakes, but the appearance of a totally different mindset from the same official within a week opens the whole process up to anger.
That it’s reached the point where one referee is being criticised for not ignoring another because he’s so useless then it’s clearly quite an issue.
In other Everton news, Frank Lampard compared one of his players to two ex-England stars.
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