FA Cup: Solskjaer, Lampard exchange words over VAR

Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his Chelsea counterpart, Frank Lampard, have exchanged words concerning Virtual Assistant Referee, VAR.

Ahead of their semi-final clash on Sunday, Lampard stated that Manchester United has benefited a lot from VAR decisions.

"People said it would favour big teams maybe, because of the pressure or fan influence," Lampard told reporters on Friday. "But those days are gone. VAR has come in to try and change that, not just favouring teams but just to get the right decision.

"But there is always a human element to VAR, still, and clearly they have to make a decision. The confusing thing about some of the recent ones, and the one on Thursday night, is that it’s a very, very clear and obvious decision that was wrong and didn’t get reviewed and changed. "A few of those have happened and that is strange. I would like to think that with VAR you have to be level headed. Some might go against you or not, but we seem to be in a period where, in terms of Manchester United, they’ve got a few in their favour. It would be nice if VAR worked in our favour in this one", he said.

In reaction, Solskjaer pointed out instances where the VAR didn't favour his side when it should have.

“I can sit here for hours now and try to talk about this.” Solskjaer said.

“It looks like there's a narrative, it looks like people want to influence whoever's making the decisions. I hear people talking about luck, that we've been lucky more than unlucky.

“If you look at the factual decisions, I don't want to sound like a certain manager talking about facts, but if you're offside, you're offside. That's clear. Talking about lucky, the penalty we got against Tottenham in the last minute that was taken away from us, that might be two points for us.

“Talking about the red card Romeu should have had against us when he almost got Mason Greenwood crippled, that should've been a red card, maybe that would've helped us.

“Talking about Mark Noble when he should have been sent off against us when we lost at West Ham, talking about the actual decision that is made that is against Man Utd but is overturned and corrected.

“So it's actually me that should be complaining that we get decisions against us on the pitch by the on-pitch referee.”