Scott Parker fumes at VAR following Burnley's cruel late defeat to Manchester United
Scott Parker was left furious after his Burnley side were denied a point away at Manchester United in a game dominated by VAR controversy.
The Clarets looked to be continuing their positive start to the season after fighting back not once, but twice to peg United back 2-2 during an action-packed second-half.
But a stoppage-time penalty from Bruno Fernandes handed United the win after Jaidon Anthony had been adjudged to have pulled the shirt of Amad Diallo as he ran into the Burnley box.
The infringement wasn’t spotted by referee Sam Barrott on-field, but was later awarded after he was sent to the monitor to check
“I think it’s tough,” Parker said.
“My understanding of it was it was always the on-field decision. If not, it needs to be clear and obvious.
“I think Diallo’s played for it really well. Don't get me wrong, the pull was there and that happened before it. But I actually felt that Jaidon got a tug early from Diallo that then gives him a yard to get in front of him, where Jaidon does clearly pull his shirt.
“But the referee doesn’t give it, the linesman doesn’t give it and he’s 10 metres away. A guy 100 miles away in a van has decided that it's a clear and obvious error from the ref and then obviously it's a penalty.”
It wasn’t the only decision to go against the Clarets, with Lyle Foster also being denied a second goal by an offside decision that was by the barest of margins.
In fact, when judging official VAR stills, it’s extremely difficult to see what part of Foster’s body was even offside.
“The game's going that way, “Parker added. “It's going to become the most sterile game there is.
“We're only probably months or a year away from not celebrating goals. I stand on the touchline, you score a goal and there's a million things that go through your mind. Checklists, what happened three minutes before it, was that offside? Did he stand on his toe two minutes before we've gone through on goal? Is it offside? We need to get the computer out by the millimetre to check whether it is offside.
“Linesmen and referees really are slowly becoming redundant and the game's becoming re-reffed in every phase.
“I think we live in a world of perfection, don't we? Everyone wants perfection and social media brings that. I think we want perfection in a game of football, which I just don't agree with, but it is what it is.”
When asked if the game could lose popularity because of the way VAR is ruining the game, Parker concluded: “I don't know how other managers feel. But look, I referenced this four or five years ago when VAR first came in.
“Ultimately what it comes down to is the world we're in and the world we're in is perfection. Whether that's a filter on your phone to make you look a little bit better or whatever it is, that's what everyone wants in life. They want perfection and we want the game to be this perfect game.
“This game, I've been in the arena, is going at a serious pace. It's a contact sport and there's decisions that you have to make in milliseconds. But now we can break it down, we can slow it down. He stood on his toe at that moment. That's the way the game's going. It's becoming even more theatrical at times.
“The refs are coming onto the pitch now and having their say and letting everyone know why their decisions are made and why they're not.
“The game's become very stop-start start in certain moments. The emotion of the game is probably coming out of it because you just don't know at any moment what could have happened.”
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