Liverpool have had more VAR errors go against them than any other Premier League side this season, while Aston Villa have benefited the most from mistakes.
The Reds certainly suffered the most blatant VAR error of the season when Luis Diaz’s goal was wrongly disallowed for offside against Tottenham, owing to miscommunication between the officials.
But ESPN has now revealed that Jurgen Klopp’s side have also been on the end of the most incorrect VAR calls this season, with all contentious incidents assessed by the Premier League’s Independent Key Match Incidents Panel.
While Liverpool have had four VAR errors against them, Brighton and Wolves have suffered three, Arsenal two and eight other clubs on one each.
Aston Villa are the side to have benefitted most with three VAR mistakes in their favour, while Arsenal, Manchester United, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest have each had two errors go in their favour.
The report has revealed that ‘of the 20 VAR errors this season, 17 have been for missed interventions, with two decisions changed incorrectly and one situation where the VAR wrongly rejected an overturn at the pitchside monitor’.
The accuracy of key match decisions has increased from 82% pre-VAR to 96% this season and Tony Scholes, chief football office of the Premier League, rejected criticism of refereeing in England, saying the standard is “at least as good [or] better than it’s ever been.”
“It’s critical that the match officials keep up with the quality and the advancement of the players and the coaches,” Scholes said. “Further improvement is always required. I know myself from my club background that one mistake can be incredibly costly to a club and can be incredibly costly to individuals.
“It’s important that all of us at the league and in the refereeing organisation stay mindful of that and of the need to keep developing, keep improving so that we are in a world where no factual mistakes at all are made and subjective mistakes are minimized.”
There were 25 mistakes at the same stage of the 2022-23 season, but the time taken over reviews has increased markedly since the error to wrongly disallow Diaz’s goal against Tottenham at the end of September.
Scholes believes the lengthy delays are adversely affecting games and the fan experience in the ground, but said that plans to adopt semi-automated offside next season have yet to be rubber-stamped, and there remain doubts about the overall effectiveness of this technology.
“Clearly everything in the world of VAR is not perfect,” Scholes said. “We’re aware of that and we know that we’ve got work to do. We’re doing too many checks, we’re taking too long in doing them as well. It’s to a degree understandable, given the level of scrutiny these guys are under.
“But the reviews are taking too long and it’s affecting the flow of the game, and we’re extremely aware of that and the need to improve that speed whilst always maintaining the accuracy.”
Scholes wants decisions to be made more quickly, but accepts that placing a time limit on VAR reviews might not be appropriate at the expense of getting decisions correct.
“We don’t want to jeopardise accuracy,” Scholes said. “But decision times have increased this season and that’s alongside the increased scrutiny that is on the VARs as a result of a couple of high-profile decisions.
“They are taking longer to check, we understand that, but by training and development we want them to focus on making a decision on the facts they see but not having to double or triple check.”
