Gary Neville has delivered his verdict on the VAR controversy during Tottenham's defeat to Manchester United amid a claim from a former Premier League match official.
During Spurs' 3-1 home loss to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men, United were denied the opening goal after VAR pointed out a perceived foul from Scott McTominay on Son Heung-min.
In the lead up to the goal, a stray arm from McTominay appeared to catch the face of Son and after a review from VAR and a look at the pitchside monitor from referee Chris Kavanagh, the goal was ruled out.
It mattered little for United in the end anyway, the Reds going on to win 3-1 despite going behind, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been plenty of frustration.
In fact, a former Premier League match official has since claimed in an anonymous interview that referees themselves are unhappy with how VAR is being used.
“A kick to the head is not a foul, but a player collapsing after his face is barely touched is and we have the PGMOL coming out with all sorts to justify the decisions and we wonder why there’s no trust in the process,” an ex-match official told the Independent.
“I have spoken to a few refs from the Select Group and they are as frustrated as everyone else. Some hate being a video assistant referee because it is a completely different job to actually reffing a game on the pitch.
“Some feel like they are being undermined by Stockley Park. I don’t know any official who agrees with the way offside is being reviewed and it doesn’t help when instead of admitting mistakes, the PGMOL tell us why wrong is right. We are talking about decisions more than we ever have because VAR is creating problems to solve.”
Former Manchester United defender turned pundit Neville disagreed with that initial claim from the ex-referee, suggesting McTominay may have known what he was doing and that VAR should be here to stay, even if it should be used differently.
"There were two other similar incidents [to the McTominay foul] - there was the [Serge] Aurier one on the far side and there was the Marcus Rashford one," he said on his Sky Sports Podcast.
"I'm a cynic about these types of things and I would say out of every hundred of those types of things, arms in the face, I'd say 75 are meant.
"I think a player knows what he is doing if he puts an arm into another player. I always knew that I was doing it and would potentially get away with it.
"I think Son had tried to grab McTominay, he tried to have a bit of a tussle with him, but I think it's the ones where there's a little bit of a follow-through and they leave it in or stamp on them. Players can usually get out of the way and avoid making contact with the player's face.
"I am a cynic around these things but maybe it's because I played the game and I always knew when I thought I was going to put my arm up to someone's upper chest or ribs, you just knew it was that type of game.
"At the end of the season, we need to look back at what's happened with VAR and think about how it can be improved. I don't go along with the fact it needs to be binned because I do think offside can be sorted if we can use the foot in the right place to put the line on, I think we can get consistency.
"We are where we are, but the fans absolutely despise it. They hate it and we've got to be really conscious about that. We as commentators, ex-football players and analysts, we're probably not the barometer of if it should stay and the fans despise VAR.
"I would keep it, I would regulate it, I would make some changes to it, changes to the offside rule definitely.
"They've made changes this season, the handball is better, going over to the screen is better but just generally, I think I would personally stick with it for another season to see if it is the teething problems from the first couple of years."
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