Chris Sutton blasts ‘ridiculous’ VAR after what happened in West Ham United clash v Southampton
Chris Sutton has branded VAR as “ridiculous” after it took over three minutes to award Nayef Aguerd’s goal for West Ham against Southampton.
The Moroccan centre-half headed home the opening goal of the game midway through the first-half, before a VAR check for offside took almost four minutes to complete before it was eventually given.
But footage and images showed Aguerd was well onside and sparked confusion as to why the decision took so long to overturn, leaving BBC and BT Sport pundit Sutton baffled on his personal Twitter account (2 April).
“Ridiculous VAR taking so long for the Aguerd goal…” he wrote.
Shocking
There was simply no reason whatsoever for the VAR and officials to take that long to get to the right decision.
The goal was initially ruled out on the pitch by the linesman so obviously had to be checked, but it felt as though they were looking for a reason to rule it out by taking so long.
The images on the screen were there for all to see and Aguerd was well onside, while Tomas Soucek and Declan Rice were clearly offside.
But neither of them made any attempt to play the ball and Aguerd headed home relatively easily from an onside position.
The fact it was checked isn’t the issue and obviously it’s great to see that they got the final call correct, but it simply can’t be taking that long to get basic decisions right when the images and footage were so clear to the naked eye.