Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has called for the video assistant referee to be able to intervene when a corner is incorrectly awarded, as he expressed his frustration at Manchester United’s controversial opening goal in a 2-2 draw with his side on Saturday.
Forest fell behind at the City Ground on Saturday when Casemiro scored from a corner awarded despite Nicolò Savona appearing to keep the ball in play.
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It is the second week running that Dyche was unhappy with some costly officiating, leading him to call for a change to the way VAR is used. Forest conceded the opener from a wrongly awarded corner in last week’s 2-0 loss at Bournemouth.
“Two weeks on the trot, which is bizarre in itself,” Dyche said in a news conference. “Similar but different, obviously.
“The last one was a clear mistake [at Bournemouth], which I was booked for. How on earth I get booked for an actual mistake, proven, is bizarre.
“Then today I just can’t understand it. You’re an assistant referee, you’re 70-odd yards away, you’ve got a goal and a net in the way, but apparently you can see.
“I’ve got a better view and I’m not in the right position, so that’s got to be wrong in the current climate.”
Under current laws, VAR cannot intervene if a corner is awarded instead of a goal-kick, regardless of whether it then leads to a goal.
“The thing that annoys me the most, and I’m a big fan of VAR, is that someone’s got to have to overrule these decisions, just really quickly,” Dyche added. “That’ll be five seconds.
“You just go ‘that’s in play’ but they whack it in and score a goal two weeks on the trot.
“Now, of course you can say ‘well, you’ve got to deal with the corner’ but the point is it shouldn’t even be that, so that’s really difficult.”
Forest responded well to Casemiro’s goal and stunned the visitors after the break when Morgan Gibbs-White and Savona struck within five minutes of the restart to put new Forest coach Dyche in sight of a first league win since taking charge.
However, Amad Diallo scored a fine left-footed volley from the edge of the area to salvage a point for United.
Information from PA and The Associated Press was used in this report.