Micah Richards slams VAR controversy in Everton v Aston Villa
Micah Richards has hit out at the controversial VAR decision to rule Alex Moreno’s goal out for offside in the 0-0 Premier League draw between Everton and Aston Villa.
However, it wasn’t the outcome of the decision the former Villa man took issue with, but the way they came to the decision. He claimed Arnaut Danjuma had been fouled in the buildup, meaning the goal should have been disallowed anyway.
Richards also slammed the length of time taken to make the call after a three-and-a-half-minute wait between the goal being scored and VAR checks being completed.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast [15 January], Richards ranted: “Why are they looking at the offside? I’m watching the game losing my marbles, like it’s a foul on Danjuma. Someone was pulling him into position, it’s a foul anyway.
“The only reason he’s in that position is because he’s being fouled. I don’t understand why they’re looking at the offside when it was a foul anyway. It took three and a half minutes or whatever it was to come to that conclusion, it’s just getting frustrating.
“I feel like when we talk about VAR I never want to put VAR away because they’re just trying to do their job, they’re trying to make the game better, but they’re just taking too long now.”
Problems emerge every single week
It feels like there is a fresh debate surrounding a VAR call every week in the Premier League, even when the decision is ultimately the correct one as we saw when the opening goal was ruled out at Goodison Park.
As Richards shared, Danjuma was fouled in the buildup to the goal. He was dragged down on the edge of the six-yard box which made the call as tight as it was with the Dutchman on the floor and almost in line with Leon Bailey who was eventually deemed offside.
So even after the correct call was made, VAR cannot avoid making headlines and controversy, now with the length of the video assessment the target of outrage after an almost four-minute wait for a decision left fans inside the stadium and watching on TV frustrated.
There is simply no avoiding the controversy as far as the officials are concerned, either they take their time to make sure they’re right and get slammed for it, or they rush it to cut the time, get it wrong, and receive both barrels from the fans and media. It’s a lose/lose situation.
In other Everton news, Ally McCoist hit out at the potential new points deduction.