Up the VAR! | OneFootball

On Wednesday night at St James’ Park, VAR was once again centre stage.

Sitting in the Gallowgate end, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from some of the other Newcastle United fans around me.

These Newcastle supporters saying how sick they are of VAR and wish we could get rid of it etc etc.

I found this very bizarre, considering what we all saw happen in this win over Wolves.

It was very fine margins at times and no way was it a 3-0 match. Newcastle United definitely deserved to win but Wolves had their chances as well, things could have potentially gone badly wrong if small margins had gone the way of the visitors, especially without VAR…

I totally get the frustration with how long delays can be at times BUT that is a completely different debate for me, as opposed to whether we have VAR at all.

Does anybody really want to go back to a time when you had countless wrong decisions in pretty much every Premier League match, often decisive in the final result. Do we really want to go back to freedom for cheats to win key decisions, penalties and red cards etc, when if watching at home you can clearly see the injustice?

There are still times where mistakes are made even with the use of VAR but the reality is that they just stand out more due to the fact there is far less of them than pre-VAR. Fans kid themselves and have such short memories as to how bad it was before, there was back in the day just an acceptance that so many key wrong decisions were made, due to the fact that match officials couldn’t see what everybody was watching on TV…

In this Wolves match, Newcastle United went 2-0 up but Wolves continued to threaten, another goal definitely needed to settle any NUFC nerves in a very open game.

As we know, Isak was put through and eventually set up Gordon for the killer third goal. However, a VAR check then announced on whether Isak had been offside when put through.

It took a strangely long time but eventually the correct decision made.

I reckon that it would be odds on that without VAR, the assistant referee would have raised the flag for an Isak offside.

We saw it against Bromley, a number of times NUFC players were flagged offside but TV replays showed they weren’t.

With VAR, the assistant referees are told to keep their flags down unless absolutely certain of offside (often not even flagging then…), so that play can progress and as happened on Wednesday, a goal allowed to be scored that otherwise wouldn’t have been, knowing that then VAR can correct the situation,, it indeed it had been offside.

Without VAR, I reckon that Gordon goal wouldn’t have happened and the score would have stayed at 2-0 to Newcastle United.

Then play switched to the other end and another big VAR call.

A corner swung in and bundled in by a Wolves player at the near post.

The visitors pulling it back to 3-1 but a VAR check for possible handball by the Wolves player.

This was actually quickly decided by VAR compared to that bizarre lengthy (not!) offside wait for Newcastle’s third goal, however, VAR doing its job once again.

If VAR had not been in operation on Wednesday night, instead of 3-0 up, Newcastle United could/would have been only 2-1 up and still having 15 or so minutes left to play, including added time.

VAR and Newcastle United were the winners on Wednesday night.

For that handball, it is simply the rules and why it took minimal time for VAR to disallow, as compared to the ridiculous wait for the NUFC third goal. Semi-automatic offsides are used all over, the 2022 World Cup and before. The pathetic Premier League developing their own system which keeps getting delayed, rather than adopting what others use.

In the 3-0 over Villa on Boxing Day, the ball was blasted at Bruno, his arm was in front of his body, the ball hit his arm then hit a Villa player and went over line. It was disallowed for handball, as that is the rule, as compared to to when it hit Joelinton’s hand accidentally in the build up to Gordon scoring at Spurs.

VAR has to be here to stay, this win over Wolves proves that.

It needs to be improved in terms of how the Premier League use it, especially the length of time on certain decisions, however, we can’t go back to cheats prospering and key wrong decisions every match.

Newcastle 3 Wolves 0 – Wednesday 15 January 2025 7.30pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Isak 34, 57, Gordon 74

Wolves:

Possession was Newcastle 60% Wolves 40%

Total shots were Newcastle 17 Wolves 13

Shots on target were Newcastle 5 Wolves 7

Corners were Newcastle 4 Wolves 2

Touches in the box Newcastle 32 Wolves 23

Newcastle team v Wolves:

Dubravka, Livramento (Trippier 85), Botman, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Joelinton (Miley 83), Bruno, Murphy (Almiron 78), Isak (Osula 78), Gordon (Willock 78)

Unused subs:

Vlachodimos, Kelly, Krafth, Longstaff

Newcastle United upcoming matches:

Saturday 18 January – Newcastle v Bournemouth (12.30pm) TNT Sports

Saturday 25 January – Southampton v Newcastle (3pm)

Saturday 1 February – Newcastle v Fulham (3pm)

Wednesday 5 February – Newcastle v Arsenal (8pm) Sky Sports (League Cup)

Weekend of Saturday 8 February – Birmingham v Newcastle TBC (FA Cup)

Saturday 15 February – Man City v Newcastle (3pm)