Pundit Adrian Clarke has slammed the VAR decision involving Southampton’s Jannik Vestergaard in the Premier League recently.
Clarke appeared as a guest on the Totally Football Show podcast and the panel talked about numerous issues involving the Premier League weekend and Southampton’s 1-1 draw against Leicester City. Clarke talked about the decision to send Vestergaard off in the game.
Vestergaard was said to have denied Jamie Vardy a goalscoring opportunity and even though the Dane was sent off, the Saints held on to a point as Jonny Evans equalised after a James Ward-Prowse penalty (As per Sky Sports).
Clarke believes that the decision to send the defender off was ‘nonsense’ and it marked the fact that the standard of officiating in English football has really fallen.
Should Vestergaard have been sent off?
Yes
No
Clarke believes that Vestergaard actually won the tackle and it was a shocking decision from the referee and VAR officials (22:55): “It shouldn’t have been a red card in my opinion. I just think he just wins a tackle, it’s a nonsense in my opinion, and for the fact that officials back in Stockley Park spent time looking at that and then decided it was a red is just another sort of nail in the coffin of the refereeing standards that we’ve got in this country at the moment. It was a shocking decision.”
TIF Thoughts on Vestergaard’s sending off…
After the game, Ralph Hasenhuttl slammed the decision about the red card, saying that the call was ‘simply wrong’ and he also revealed that the club is planning to appeal the decision too.
Darren Bent and Jamie Redknapp were in agreement that no foul was committed and the red card shouldn’t have stood.
So as disappointing as the sending-off was and it might have cost Southampton some points, perhaps the appeal can work in their favour.
In other news: ‘Let’s not kid ourselves’ – TalkSport pundit makes big claim over key Saints player’s future