West Brom boss Slaven Bilic: Matheus Pereira ban unfair
Slaven Bilic says it is not fair Matheus Pereira has received a three-game suspension for his red card against Crystal Palace – with Albion's boss having expected the ban to be reduced.
The Baggies take on Newcastle today without their talisman after Pereira was controversially dismissed for flicking his boot towards Patrick van Aanholt as he fell to the floor after being fouled.
Despite there being minimal contact, referee Paul Tierney opted to overrule his original decision to give the Brazilian a yellow card after being told by VAR officials to check the incident again on his pitch-side monitor.
It was the latest decision to go against the Baggies with Bilic believing VAR also wrongly ruled against his side at Everton, Manchester United and in the Palace game when Conor Gallagher arguably should have had a penalty.
Albion appealed Pereira's red with Bilic expecting the ban to be reduced to one game after Everton's Lucas Digne saw his suspension cut following a red card picked up for treading on Southampton's Kyle Walker-Peters in October.
But Bilic was again left frustrated with the game's decision makers.
"The red card shouldn't have been given in the first place," Bilic said.
“But I expected it to go down to one game like Everton's Digne against Southampton.
“I wouldn't even be happy if it was reduced to two games. Then when I found three games, it was very disappointing.
“It is simply not fair, especially when you look at the bigger picture, what happened in that game, what has happened in the previous games.
“With VAR, everything goes against us. Every decision.
“There is not one of them, not two of them, not five of them. I don't know how many? Eight is it or more than eight? It is a lot."
With just one win in 15 league games this season, Bilic knows he has to mastermind an upturn in results at The Hawthorns.
But he says incorrect VAR decisions is only increasing pressure on the managers.
“It does, of course, it does," Bilic said when asked if VAR is putting bosses under more pressure.
“You get less points and your position is different in the table.
“They say at the end it levels up but in our case it is not the case unfortunately. It is completely going against us.
“Nobody knows what would be the result against Crystal Palace if Matheus Pereira was on the pitch.
“Nobody knows what would be the result if the penalty was given with 10 men in the 53rd minute on Conor Gallagher when it is 1-1.
“Nobody knows. Maybe we would lose 5-2. I don't know but with Matheus and a penalty, I'm thinking we would be closer to winning the game.
“Or Man United and the penalty, maybe we lose 3-1 but maybe we would have won that game. Not to mention more games.
“We can't measure the points. I don't know whether it is one point , two points or six points. But that completely changes things.
“We wouldn't be 19th , we would maybe be above Brighton. All I am saying is it is very unfair to us the situation with VAR because every decision was against us."
