Jeff Stelling has joined those who don’t agree that Tottenham deserved the penalty which Harry Kane converted to give Spurs the lead earlier today.
Ezgjan Alioski was adjudged to have fouled Steven Bergwijn in the Leeds United penalty area in the first half.
It was a tricky decision with the contact appearing to have happened outside the box.
Referee David Coote and his video assistant Paul Tierney looked at the incident for some minutes and they eventually agreed that the penalty happened inside the box.
Several fans and pundits have faulted that decision, and Stelling, who was working on Soccer Saturday, reckons that the contact clearly happened outside the penalty area and Bergwijn simply fell inside the box.
He added that it wasn’t a foul in which the player continued contact until they got into the box, rather it was just a trip.
He said as quoted by the Yorkshire Evening Post: “They [Spurs] are winning, but look, I’m lost. I don’t understand it anymore.
“Looking along the line, the contact was clearly three or four inches outside of the box.
“It wasn’t a foul whereby contact continues into the box, it was just a trip.
“It was outside the box – well, that was my opinion. David Coote and Paul Tierney were the ones who disagreed with that.”
Stelling clearly does not understand the rules that govern VAR, it has to be a clear and obvious error to overturn a decision and that was not clear, certainly not as clear as Paul Pogba tripping Paul Pogba and getting a penalty.
Even if it was a dodgy decision it was nothing compared to the diabolical decision against Eric Dier against Newcastle United but I never saw too much whining then.
My first wife was American, I lived there for 15 years. If you think the last 5 years were bad, just wait for the next 5 and ‘the great reset’. Biden even referred to Kamala Harris as the “president elect’ last week. If you ever imagined what an ideological communist and globalist puppet like Harris could do to eviscerate what’s left of the US Constitution, you are about to find out.
Dont mess with Uncle Joe. Do you even know what we in the States had gone through for the past 5 year? Stick to Merson and that other idiot from ESPN.
Well, that’s comes from working for 20 years with a couple of ex-Arsenal tossers like Nicholas and Merson, engrained institutional bias!
Firstly, the line is considered part of the penalty area, secondly, the trip manifestly continues inside the box and thirdly the referee had already awarded the penalty, so it would have taken a clear and obvious error for the decision to have been overturned.
Stelling is evidently about as ‘compus mentus’ now as Joe Biden, Sky should have canned him too!
You make some interesting observations Finn.Using VAR to your advantage is not beyond some managers and teams.Perhaps when Mourinho said he wants us to be a bunch of cnuts for 90 minutes that’s the sort of thing he had in mind.Is it more than coincidence that Utd.got their customary penalty in Friday’s game?
For their penalty yesterday my initial reaction was it was outside the box,just.What I have seen since several times has not altered my opinionDid not the VAR team consider the initial contact a foul?Who knows what a foul is these days.Besides clear and obvious error never seems to be mentioned anymore when VAR decisions are made.
And don’t get me going on the offside rule…..horizontal and vertical lines.Absolute nonesense.
You’re right BG: a case of selective myopia not entirely unlike that of a certain Arsenal manager who “...didn’t see l’incident” unless it was against his player.
It begs a bigger question tho’ and that is the abundance of penalties that some sides seem to amass. It’s hard of course to generalize, especially when I can sit comfortably nursing the beam in my eye whilst selectively casting aspersions about the splinter in the eyes of others!
However I do think that some sides are “playing” VAR. It’s hardly unexpected and if truth be known, I’d have put JoseM at the top of the list of those who would look to seek advantage from the new reality. But whilst there’s no doubt that our forwards are less inclined to try to play on when fouled of harassed in the box, I’m not sure we (THFC) actively coach it as a tactic/strategy – but that could be my-myopia (move over Sharona!).
My inclination tho, is that ManU do……. certainly Pogba and his reaction at Luke Shaw NOT taking a dive supports this. Perhaps I’m mistaken or being a bit unfair but Solskjear is a sneaky rat and so many of these penalties are described as “dubious”.
A bit of passive cheating by coaching to draw challenges in the box, for example by running across players, which whilst “technically” OK, will if impeded draw calls for fouls and VAR will used to give penalties on a “technical” basis; much like the ridiculous “technical” handball rulings.
Liverpool too have been working on routines; the second goal against us was a set play to remove Dier from his marker, allowing him a free header to score. Someone put up a looped video of how it was done and having watched it a few times, I have no doubt it was choreographed. I looked too at the Carroll header onto Dier’s arm in the Newcastle game; it was not the first attempt – Carroll had tried the exact same thing a few minutes previously!
The upside gain against the downside cost make weaponizing VAR by deliberate tactics a good bet – the best at it at the moment are ManU. If you get caught, there is nothing more than a free kick in the opponents box; however if you’re not caught, its a penalty.
With those sort of odds…………….
BG not HH for this one I think.
HH you so right. Wanted to mention that Pogba one. I like it when commenators say it is a foul, but not enough for penalty until for some reason it is a ManU players falling like autumn leaves