Controversy breeds discussion, and there’s plenty of material for debate when it comes to the officiating in Newcastle United’s Saturday visit to Aston Villa in the FA Cup’s fourth round.
Being a referee is a thankless job, especially given human error comes built into the species. And whereas players take bad touches or woefully miss their assignments, referees get far less grace from the general public.
MORE — Aston Villa 1-3 Newcastle recap, video highlights
The Video Assistant Referee system is supposed to aid the referees and the game in delivering consistently less-controversial outcomes. It has largely done that, though the grey area between rules and implementation has enabled so-called purists to fly the flag of a VAR-free existence.
Maybe they’re right, who knows? But Saturday’s cup tie and — at first blush — its perceived officiating errors in game-changing situations seem to make a pretty strong case for VAR. Although I have to admit that halfway through this post I started to wonder whether the mistakes made a pretty intriguing case against video intervention.
Which side would win the day?
Referees’ rough day at the office in Villa vs Newcastle in FA Cup
The controversial calls started early at Villa Park when Tammy Abraham boosted Villa into a 1-0 lead.
It was a clever central free kick routine from Morgan Rogers than Abraham settled and pushed past Aaron Ramsdale, but replays would show than Abraham’s run was just a bit early and VAR would have surely found him to be offside.
The game continued from there and Newcastle were furious when Lucas Digne’s sliding, studs-first challenge into the ankle of Jacob Murphy left the Magpie with two stud marks worth of blood and the veteran Villa back with just a yellow card. Would VAR have overturned it? Digne’s boot was studs-up but at ground level, and calls like it have gone both ways in the past even if the book seems to say it would’ve been a red card. If anyone got off easy here, it was the Villa back.
Villa will have some complaints with the game’s biggest call, too, though at first blush it certainly felt easy enough. Backup goalkeeper Marco Bizot came 30 yards out of his box in a bid to break up a Newcastle counterattack and his slide got enough of Murphy to see a red card decisively pulled by Chris Kavanagh. Was the ball heading out of play? Would Villa’s far defender be judged to have the chance to close down an unfouled Murphy or teammate? We’ll never know.
That wasn’t the end of the drama, though, as Newcastle served up a cross from outside the right corner of the 18. Digne left his feet inside the box and the ball struck his elbow, which was moving toward his body. A foul was called but a free kick given outside the box despite all evidence that Digne was definitively inside the 18.
All four calls involved a little bit of grey area, sure, but each of the calls was a potentially game-altering flashpoint.
Taken in isolation, this game will see supporters back to their locals for lively discussions and complaints about the actual incidents and perceived referee mistakes. Is that different in spirit than arguing about the calls being upheld or overturned by VAR? Is it less pure?
Here’s the larger point, though. Players acted more like fools once they realized there was no VAR. Dan Burn shoved Pau Torres in the chest while jockeying for a corner kick and was warned by the referee as Torres hit the turf and grabbed his neck. Torres then dropped Burn on his run toward the corner kick and no call came his way (It could’ve easily been a penalty). Would Torres have grabbed his neck like his trachea was shattered? Would Digne earlier have left his studs into the tackle on Murphy with VAR around?
Ultimately, the game will likely just need to decide where it can accept grey area and where it wants to draw lines (or how thick it wants to draw lines)? There is too much money tied into clubs’ seasonal and tournament fates to allow misdeeds. Could VAR be only used on dangerous fouls or red card situations while ignoring line infractions and similar appeals that are mere guesswork for the naked eye? Maybe. One thing’s for sure — VAR remains a relatively new advancement and fans want to see less of the calls like the decision at the end of last week’s game between Liverpool and Man City that sent off Dominik Szoboszlai and denied Rayan Cherki a late goal.
When it’s all said and done, video review isn’t going anywhere. Because referees, like players, can have awful performances and more often than not those mistakes do not improve the spectacle. And when a whole crew struggles like the group did on Saturday at Villa Park, it can leave a result without credibility. VAR just needs further refinement.