Jack Grealish has been left fuming after Ollie Watkins’ late equaliser against West Ham was chalked off by VAR, following a marginal offside call.
The ex-Brentford striker’s shoulder was offside as he attempted to escape the clutches of Angelo Ogbonna late on at the London Stadium.
After full-time, Grealish tweeted the following.
The England international, who netted his side’s only goal of the game, is spot on with his comments.
Yes, it can’t be denied that, by the laws of the game, Watkins was offside.
However, spending minutes drawing lines all over freezeframes and slowing the footage down significantly isn’t what football is about, in our view.
Typically, the mantra for VAR is that it’s there to clean up ‘clear and obvious’ errors – how can something be ‘clear and obvious’ if you need to zoom in, slow it down, and then forensically draw lines from a player’s armpit?
There’s no possible way that a linesman, or referee, would spot these hairline offences during the game, so what is the point in them being there?
Grealish has every right to be annoyed. Technology is ruining the spontaneity of football, which is arguably the best part of the game we used to love.
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