Liverpool have been worst affected by VAR errors throughout the season, with director of football Tony Scholes calling for improvements to the assessment process.
Liverpool suffered the most VAR errors of any team in the Premier League in the 2023/2024 season. Football boss Tony Scholes said the review was “taking too long” and “impacted on the flow of the game”, amid growing complaints about the quality of refereeing.
Big incidents involving Jurgen Klopp’s side are one of the main reasons why the VAR process is taking longer this season. The protocols were updated following Luis Diaz’s goal against Tottenham earlier in the season. The forward “Liverpool” was declared offside by the referee on the field.
Afterwards, the VAR quickly realized it was a relatively simple decision, but mistakenly confirmed that “the review has been completed” without asking the referee to overturn the original decision. “We don’t want to compromise on accuracy,” Scholes said. “However, decision-making time has increased this season, leading to increased scrutiny of the VAR for a number of important decisions. “We understand it takes more to check, but hopefully through training and development, they can focus on making decisions based on the facts they can see without double or triple checking.”
The VAR system made a total of 20 errors in the 2023/24 season. Of those errors, 17 were missed tackles, two were bad decisions and one was wrongly awarded by VAR after an on-field review.
ESPN have since revealed that Liverpool have suffered the most VAR errors this season, with four decisions given to manager Jurgen Klopp’s side. That is ahead of Brighton and Wolves, who have committed three fouls each, and title rivals Arsenal, who have committed two fouls.
At the other end of the spectrum, Aston Villa suffered three VAR errors. Scholes added about the VAR error: “Obviously not everything is perfect in the VAR world. We know that and we know we have work to do. “We do so much testing that it takes too much time, which is somewhat understandable given the level of control these people have. But reviews take too long and it hurts the game.
“We understand this very well and need to improve speed while maintaining accuracy.” According to Liverpool, Liverpool lost a game against Tottenham that could have been a draw or a win.
The title race between Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal is fierce and it will be difficult not to blame VAR if Liverpool miss out on the title.
