For many people, the ridiculous VAR decision to rule out a Manchester City goal in their Carabao Cup victory against Newcastle on Tuesday was a new low — Pep Guardiola included.
“Ahhhh, it’s a good question,” he said in response to being asked why Antoine Semenyo’s would-be second goal was disallowed. “It’s a good question.” From there, you could tell more would be coming.
The official version is that City forward Erling Haaland, in wrestling with Newcastle defender Malick Thiaw from an offside position, was interfering with play and affecting Nick Pope, the Newcastle goalkeeper.
That seemed highly questionable, of little tangible impact. But perhaps worse of all was that it took around six minutes to sort out. It summed up why so many fans and journalists have grown to detest VAR as an entire concept over the years.
Managers have generally only got involved in the discourse when it goes against their team specifically, and while that is probably still the case for Guardiola — he very much focused on the times when City have been wronged — it was rare for him to come out so strongly about this kind of thing.
Guardiola says many things that people can agree with or not, but he usually sticks to the maxim of never complaining about things like refereeing decisions or, say, the manufacturer of a ball, if his team loses. Maybe if they win.
He said on Tuesday night, “on the touchlines sometimes, but nothing” in the press conference, which is stretching the truth somewhat, because he is regularly in the fourth official’s ear. It was only on Saturday that he had to watch the 10-1 FA Cup win over Exeter from the stands because he had picked up his third yellow card against Brighton a week ago.
“I was complaining why it wasn’t a penalty,” he said after that game, explaining that he had taken umbrage at the most stonewall penalty you will ever see had to be referred to VAR. “And after it was (a penalty). I was right.”
Some might argue that that shows the merits of VAR but it was such a stinker of a miss from the official that it can all be bundled into the same complaint — and if VAR stuck to getting involved in such clear and obvious cases, we would not be in this mess.
At St James’, Guardiola was certainly in the official’s ear but managed to avoid a booking — when the referee came bounding over to the technical area with the yellow card in his hand, he had to reassure an incredulous Guardiola, “it’s not for you, it’s not for you!” before showing it to set-piece coach, James French.
When City did finally add a second goal late on, Guardiola turned to his staff who did not fit onto the bench and shouted, sarcastically, ‘Disallowed?! It’s a goal? It’s a goal?’. He also made a phone gesture to the fourth official several times, and judging by his press conference comments, he is expecting an explanation from Howard Webb, the technical director of the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL), which looks after refereeing in England.
Having already been asked about it all in front of the television cameras, Guardiola was ready as soon as VAR was brought up in the press conference.
“I said just now, I would like to know why VAR, in the 60th minute of the Premier League game against Newcastle (on November 22), which we lost 2-1… it was 0-0, it was an insane penalty from (Fabian) Schar on Phil Foden — not even in consideration.”
He is referring to when Foden fired off a shot — actually in the first half — and was absolutely clattered by Schar afterwards, only for the officials to decide that there was no issue. Presumably because of the old thinking that Foden had managed to get a shot off — never mind that he missed it, possibly because he saw Schar coming in above the ankle with a challenge that would have been a yellow card anywhere else.
Guardiola continued without missing a beat. “And after 20 minutes, there is an unbelievable penalty from a shot from Jeremy Doku, that hits the hand, and not even VAR.
“Today, four people were not able to decide because the line was, I don’t know, but the second goal that Newcastle scored (in the league), that was perfect. It was perfect, the line.”
There he goes back to Newcastle’s second goal, which was checked and cleared by VAR, despite some later complaints — largely online — that the still image had not been generated at the right moment. Whether Guardiola is referencing that particular element or not is unclear but, rightly or wrongly, he seems to be upset with the accuracy of the line drawing — the Florian Wirtz debacle at Fulham would add fuel to that fire, though he may have decided to sidestep that one at the risk of dragging Liverpool into things.
“But I’m not suspicious of that in 10 years,” he said, not for the last time. “I didn’t say anything when we lost 2-1 here. I didn’t say anything after the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace when it’s a red card, after 30 or 40 minutes, for (Dean) Henderson, it’s a red card. Did I say anything? No. But OK, it’s fine. But… The fact that we don’t say… I’m pretty sure Howard Webb is going to comment tomorrow, to make an explanation about that.”
The Athletic have contacted the PGMOL for comment.
On that day at Wembley, the Palace keeper Henderson handled outside the box after Haaland had gone around him, but it was decided that there was no issue — although it looks a worse decision the more you see it.
Guardiola continued down this road, even when the next question was nothing to do with VAR, but at times his words were as hard to follow as his hand movements when he tells his players where to move.
“Listen, I am zero suspicious,” he continued, unconvincingly. “In 10 years, when we lost semi-finals in big competitions, in the league here, I didn’t say anything. In the touchline sometimes, but nothing (here).
“But, come on, in the same stadium, what happened, VAR didn’t intervene. Take a look, take a look. Take a look at the 60th and 20th minutes. Take a look at the two penalties… And I don’t (take away) any credit to Newcastle, I can say they deservedly won the game in the Premier League, but why didn’t (VAR) intervene and today it was more than six minutes and not even we were able to discuss it with the referee? But they will call me. This time, they are going to explain it to me.”
As much as he remains riled by those decisions and that Tuesday’s intervention seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, the biggest factor in his animated outburst was probably… joy.
His mood has not been so good over the past couple of weeks, with his team dropping points in the title race and the injury situation posing problems, but it was not too long ago that he held court at the City Ground after his side picked up a similarly impressive victory over Nottingham Forest, when Rayan Cherki scored late on, as he did in Newcastle.
It was one of those occasions where journalists could have asked Guardiola anything and he would have been up for giving an insightful answer, as opposed to the often moody interactions when even the most casual team news enquiry is batted away with little more than a hard stare.
On the agenda that day in the East Midlands was a defeat against Brighton earlier in the season — he would not normally fancy raking over a defeat in the wake of a fine victory — and the impact of the Club World Cup on the vibes in his squad, when he said he was “p***** off” that they got knocked out because he was enjoying life on the beach at Boca Raton.
The happier Guardiola is, the more talkative he is, and it seems that his delight at beating Newcastle, mixed with the obvious frustration at the latest VAR shambles, produced this volatile cocktail — a humorous, engaging settling of old scores.