Gary Neville has said that Premier League referees look like they've been 'programmed like robots' when it comes to VAR.
His comments follow Aston Villa's controversial 2-1 defeat against West Ham on Monday Night Football, with Villa denied both a late goal and late penalty due to an offside decision.
In the aftermath of the game, Aston Villa manager Dean Smith called VAR 'wrong', a debate which bled into the post-match analysis from Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
Neville believes that VAR has taken away the authority of referees, with officials being briefed continuously on protocols regarding VAR and going to the screen.
"When referees go to the screen, they've got to have the nerve to say to that guy in Stockley Park, 'No,' I'm sticking with a decision if they think it's wrong... That's the problem at the moment, they look like they've been briefed, they look like they've been programmed like robots."
🗣 | "This nonsense of going to the screen has got to stop."
❌ | "Going to the screen is not the problem."@Carra23 and @GNev2 clash over what the problems are with VAR in the Premier League...🍿 pic.twitter.com/RdEm3dV1MN— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 30, 2020
Carragher weighed in on the VAR debate, saying that referees going to the screen is a 'nonsense' with officials now obsessed with finding the issues they've been told about, rather than trusting what they've seen.
"They're so obsessed with looking for that offside, and getting the lines right, that they miss the foul."
Carragher also cited the incident between Jordan Pickford and Virgil van Dijk during the Merseyside Derby as another example of referees failing "to see the big picture".
Gary Neville did mention some silver lining for VAR, stating that the rules regarding handball and offsides are nonsensical and once they change, VAR may start to improve.
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