Nottingham Forest have fumed at VAR decisions this season. To help them understand the VAR process, Mark Clattenburg has been hired to answer any queries during upcoming games.
What did Gary Neville say?
Clattenberg has been appointed by Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis. According to The Telegraph, the former official has been added to the City Ground’s staff in a bid to ‘improve understanding and relationships’.
Clattenberg managed 291 Premier League in his career.
During Sky Sports coverage, Gary Neville gave his two cents on the situation.
He said: “Honestly, I think – for a start over the last four of five weeks we haven’t talked too much about VAR. There’s been the odd decision here and there but it’s actually got a lot better in the last five to six weeks.
“There haven’t been many decisions that have been that bad in my opinion. Every team will whinge when they get a bad decision, we used to do whinge all the time. But what is Mark Clattenburg doing? I’ve worked with Mark. What are you doing?
“You’re being employed to go and tell a football club how referees are making mistakes or what mistakes they’re making. I mean, it’s plainly obvious. A fan in the crowd could go and tell you exactly what a referee is thinking.”
How many VAR mistakes have Nottingham Forest been apart of?
Despite Nottingham Forest’s complaints, it’s actually been Liverpool who have been hard done by the most through VAR. They’ve suffered 20% of the mistakes made by VAR.
The Premier League think VAR has made 57 correct decisions so far this season. According to Sky Sports, there have been 20 mistakes, with 17 of those occurring because VAR did not intervene when it ought to have.
The most infamous example of this was the Luis Diaz goal against Spurs.
Nottingham Forest have actually benefited from two VAR mistakes. Aston Villa are the team who have benefitted the most with three mistakes going in their favour.
Forest have been on the wrong end of plenty VAR decisions too.
“I’m disappointed with Nottingham Forest,” Neville continued. “It’s as if, look at all of this, woe me. Look, I get it, some teams feel as though they’ve been hard done to, some teams feel they’ve had bad decisions against them.
“That happens sometimes during a season and I would have hated it. You’re speaking to someone who would have been furious if we had one bad decision against us. But to employ an ex-referee to tell you why you’re having decisions against you, for me, I think it’s a step too far.”
Neville did however want to make it clear his criticism was aimed the club hierarchy and Clattenburg, rather than the fans, given they were likely to share the same view as him.
“This is not an attack on Nottingham Forest fans because some of them will probably think it’s embarrassing,” he said. “They won’t like the decisions against them, but I’m sure they won’t sit there and think that’s a really good move by the club.”
Nottingham Forest aren’t in the Premier League’s good books due to the club breaking FFP rules. Their punishment is still yet to be decided.
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