Posted by After his side had a goal ruled out by the video assistant referee in Monday’s FA Cup defeat at Manchester United, Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard stated he would not blame the authorities, but the decision left many people perplexed.
Danny Ings thought he had equalised the game early in the second half after turning in from close range after John McGinn’s free-kick had been flicked on, with Villa trailing to Scott McTominay’s early header.
However, the celebrations were put on wait when VAR officials spent over four minutes examining a number of shots in the build-up to a goal. A decision was finally made when referee Michael Oliver went to the pitchside monitor and ruled the goal out for offside.
“Yet another ridiculous VAR decision,” one person wrote on social media, while another said: “If it was such a clear-cut foul, why spend five minutes looking at the offside?”
“How long have you got?” Gerrard stated after the 1-0 defeat when asked about the choice. That one took the authorities three and a half minutes to settle. They’ve gone over everything and looked at two or three things.
“When VAR is there and they make a decision you have to accept it. There is nothing you can do to change it. The easy way out is to blame luck and the officials – we won’t do that.”