VAR controversy: players, pundits, coaches react

The Video assistant Referee, VAR, has come under a lot of criticism since its introduction into the English Premier League with lots of controversial calls on what is and what's not a goal, offside, penalty and so on

Wolves were denied an equaliser at Liverpool by close call on VAR; Palace, Norwich, Brighton and Sheffield United also .denied this weekend by marginal decisions

Players, pundits and as well coaches have, before now, been expressing their concerns about the negative effect it is having on the games and notably, the game week 21 has seen some VAR decision that has attracted some comments that will surely go down as one to watch out for should there be further adjustments to VAR applications.

Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness has called for the offside rule to be changed in the wake of more VAR controversy overshadowing Liverpool's clash with Wolves on Super Sunday.

"I just don't get it," said Souness in the Sky Sports studio.

"We're in the entertainment business. What we're doing is denying the people the enjoyment of goals. What we should do is say that if any part of an attacker is in an onside position they can't be given offside.

"We cannot go on like this. There's too much frustration going on."

Fellow pundit Jamie Carragher argued: "VAR is costing football goals."

It's calculated that 22 goals in the Premier League have already been ruled out for marginal offside rulings this season.

The decision to rule out Neto's 'goal' ultimately proved decisive with Liverpool holding out for a 1-0 win.

"It's ridiculous," Wolves captain Conor Coady told Sky Sports. "It's not working. I can't get my head around it. Decisions are killing us.

"VAR is affecting the game. Nobody likes it."

Wolves boss Nuno added: "The decisions are being made miles away by a referee looking at a television screen. He does not feel the game.

"Anfield is amazing, but they were celebrating a non-goal - it doesn't make sense. The referee should sustain their decisions because there is a referee miles away taking decisions of a lot of things that are happening here. Who feels the game? Who is inside of the game? Who feels the flow of the game? The distances of the game, the intensity of the actions, it is all from the referee."

VAR's weekend of controversy

Sunday's furore at Anfield was merely one of a series of highly contentious VAR calls this weekend.

Crystal Palace were denied a goal against Southampton when Wilfried Zaha's shoulder was deemed to be offside, what would have been Dan Burn's first Brighton goal was ruled out against Bournemouth for "my armpit or something like that" according to the player, while Norwich thought they had gone 2-0 ahead against Tottenham only for VAR to adjudicate that Teemu Pukki's shoulder had strayed millimetres offside.

Sheffield United were also denied the lead at Manchester City with Lys Mousset adjudged to be marginally offside by VAR after slotting the ball under goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.