Gary O’Neil calls for change after Wolves lose at Fulham and confirms the referee’s error. As he advocates for changes to the way VAR is used, Gary O’Neil claims that Michael Salisbury acknowledged that he made a critical error during Wolves’ thrilling 3-2 loss at Fulham on Monday night.
That irritated O’Neil, but it wasn’t the only decision the Wolves manager was upset about following the defeat. After the game, O’Neil went to speak with Salisbury and later told Sky Sports, “We discussed a lot of decisions.” Vinicius should have received a reprimand for headbutting Max [Kilman]. He clears his throat and headbutts him on the nose. Is not sent off and is given a yellow card.
‘On the penalty, Tim Ream should have been sent off for a second bookable offense. Those are both my opinions; obviously, everyone is free to have their own. ‘Nelson plays the ball and does not touch Tom Cairney on the penalties that went against us. I reviewed it with the referee, and to be fair, he believes they got it wrong and that he should have been sent to the monitor.
It doesn’t help me, it doesn’t help all the fans who have traveled so far to see the team, and it doesn’t help the players who are once again frustrated.’So the referee has basically admitted that the Nelson team made a mistake.
‘On Harry Wilson, we disagree a little bit. He believes there is enough contact to warrant a penalty. I believe it is extremely soft. So you could argue that two of them could go against us, but having all four go against us is a tough one for the lads, supporters, and myself to swallow because we’ve been here a lot this season. It’s difficult because we didn’t deserve it.’
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Wolves have been on the wrong end of a number of questionable decisions, including not receiving a penalty against Manchester United, for which they received an apology from PGMOL in August. O’Neil has had enough and believes a series of decisions are negatively affecting him and his team. ‘It’s unfortunate that it keeps going against us, but there are some poor refereeing decisions in there,’ he said. ‘I’ve had a real grown-up conversation with him in there, I’m trying to stay calm, I’m not angry with anyone, I’m not in there abusing people.
‘There’s a discussion going on about, “come on guys, it’s six or seven points now that have gone against us.” I’m in charge of a large football clear here. The difference you’re making to my reputation, the club’s advancement up the league, and people’s livelihoods is enormous. “‘It can’t be with all of the technology, all of the time, and the biggest league in the world that we’re getting so many things wrong. It can’t be right.
‘What can I do? I really only have two options now. I continue to act appropriately, and I expect my teammates to do the same; we respect everyone and the decision-making process. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to make some noise. I’d rather be a decent human being, answer questions honestly, and have open conversations with people, but things need to improve because I can’t accept us being on the wrong side of decisions as frequently as we are.
O’Neil stated that he previously supported VAR but has since changed his mind, and that it may be time to abandon the technology. I’ve always supported VAR, but I think it’s causing a major problem right now,’ he said. ‘The fact that the first isn’t deemed a clear and obvious error, but the second is, I just think VAR cost us there.
‘If it had been a normal referee, we might have conceded one penalty because of a mistake, but the fact that we’ve conceded two…VAR does not help me with subjective decisions. Perhaps tonight has finally turned me against VAR, which I thought would be beneficial but doesn’t appear to be.