In the Wolves vs Man Utd fixture on August 14, Wolverhampton Wanderers were denied a penalty because of what has been suggested as ‘over-thinking’ by VAR.
Referees chief Howard Webb has recently spoken out about it and suggested that VAR made an error when analyzing the incident.
Webb believes that the VAR check should have resulted in a video review being recommended and that the referee should have gone to the screen to view the footage. With the referee not making that decision, it inevitably led to Wolves losing the game.
During a conversation between referee Simon Hooper and VAR official Michael Salisbury, it can be heard that Hooper initially thought it was a collision and that they shouldn’t award a penalty.
However, Salisbury disagreed with this view and pointed out that Onana collided into Sasa Kalajdzic while trying to go for the ball, making it a penalty.
Nevertheless, Salisbury later changed his mind because the Wolves player didn’t head the ball, therefore making it a normal collision.
Webb suggests that sometimes VAR officials over-think things, and try to identify what the game would expect in terms of what is and isn’t a clear and obvious error.
This leads to incorrect decisions and, unfortunately, results in a team losing the game. While Wolves have received apologies after the match, it doesn’t change the fact that they were denied a penalty that could have changed the outcome of the game.