Footage has emerged of Elliot Anderson receiving a kick to his thigh that was seemingly ignored by VAR in the second half of Newcastle United’s latest win.
With the game seemingly settled for Newcastle in the second half as they raced into a 3-0 lead, Eddie Howe decided to make a raft of changes, with the likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Allan Saint-Maximin and Anderson all entering the pitch.
Anderson was deployed as a wing-back for parts of his cameo appearance against Southampton – something he’s not used to doing, which was clear to see with the youngster at fault for the goal Newcastle conceded as he lost track of his man, although the goal could’ve been ruled out.
This is because goalscorer Romain Perraud appeared to kick out at Anderson during an off-the-ball incident just seconds before racing through and netting the Saints’ only goal of the game.
Should this have been a red card?
Yes!
No!
TIF Thoughts on this incident…
The fact that Perraud ended up putting the ball in the back of the net only seconds later, VAR probably should have looked at the incident, as the Southampton defender could well have seen red for foul play.
While this incident and the resulting goal didn’t end up impacting the result, Newcastle went up the other end moments later and restored their three-goal lead through Bruno Guimaraes. However, that doesn’t excuse VAR from ignoring the kick.
If Perraud had caught Anderson more cleanly, he could have seriously hurt the youngster – and if he had gone down, VAR may have been more inclined to look at the incident in more detail.