Sky Sports pundit defends officials after Gary Lineker mocks Everton VAR involvement
We’re delighted to welcome former Everton striker Kevin Campbell as our exclusive columnist. Each week the former Toffees captain will be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Goodison Park…
Anthony Gordon was a “mile onside” for the second Everton goal against Crystal Palace but there was “no harm done” once VAR got involved, says Kevin Campbell.
Initially the winger’s second-half tap in on Saturday (22 October) was ruled out despite the 21-year-old being easily onside, but after the video assistant corrected what Gary Lineker called a “blindingly obvious” error the goal stood.
Sky Sports pundit Campbell has taken a charitable stance towards the referee’s assistant on trying to keep up with play, and is glad that VAR was there to solve the problem.
Speaking exclusively to Goodison News he said: “What you’ve got to remember as well for a linesman, sometimes they aren’t perfectly in line.
“So you imagine you’re not in line straight, and you’re at a little bit of an angle, you’re seeing Gordon before you see the defender.
“So maybe that’s why he puts his flag up, and I understand that all goals are reviewable, so if he does get it wrong it will be rectified.
“Now if he doesn’t put the flag up and he’s a mile offside we’d be having the same conversation and saying, ‘How come he didn’t see that!? Blatant!’
“You know me, I don’t like to even get involved in these things with VAR and all that, but he was a mile onside.
“As I say, I don’t think the linesman was right in line with it properly so he thought it was offside.
“When it went to VAR obviously it got rectified, no harm done.”
When live the assumption was there must have been a much tighter call earlier in the build up to the goal, which featured numerous Everton players before Vitalii Mykolenko’s strike was parried into Gordon’s path.
Once it became clear that it was from that shot that the flag had been raised it did appear to be a blindingly obvious mistake as Lineker said.
But that was indeed the sort of situation where even the most ardent opponent of video technology’s use would have to admit that it had been a positive influence, so after plenty of interventions going against the Toffees it was a relief that it did its job there.