Wolves defender Toti Gomes gives take on VAR after latest blunders
Defender Toti Gomes admits Wolves players are losing confidence in VAR with a string of controversial calls having gone against them.
Head coach Gary O’Neil claimed he was now turning against the technology after Monday’s 3-2 defeat at Fulham and his exasperation is shared in the dressing room, where Toti says players have grown tired of being on the wrong end of bad calls.
Wolves were beaten after the Cottagers were awarded two contentious second-half penalties, while home striker Carlos Vinicius also escaped sanction for headbutting visiting skipper Max Kilman. Toti said: “Everyone will lose faith in VAR with these kind of decisions. It is not helping. We completely understand the coach’s point of view. It is frustrating. We have been talking about this week after week. It is getting very normal. It is not good for the Premier League.
“We try to be positive but we are frustrated. It is not just one decision which causes us to lose the game, of course. But it is these little details during the game can really change the result at the end.
“It has been happening a lot with us, since the first game of the season. I don’t know how we can change it. We just want to play football and have a fair result at the end.”
O’Neil claims Wolves are seven points worse off due to officiating errors with Monday following previous incidents in matches with Manchester United, Luton, Newcastle and Sheffield United. The club have received at least two apologies from the Premier League’s refereeing body, the PGMOL.
Toti’s words were echoed by Matheus Cunha, who said: “It’s hard. Everyone’s very upset. There’s been a lot of hard decisions against us and I’m not the guy who’s come here to put the responsibility on someone else, but there’s been a lot of times.
“To hear them say sorry again and again, it’s very hard for us. We respect that every (incorrect) decision against us is not intentional, everyone makes mistakes, even us, 100 per cent, but it’s hard.”
Wolves now travel to Arsenal on Saturday and Cunha added: “We are upset from the game, of course, and 100 per cent we need to do much more, but also, these points are hard for us to accept and to continue, because maybe in the next game, someone touches someone in the box and it’s a penalty against us again.
“It’s like that, but we respect (the referees), we need to recover well because in the Premier League you don’t have a lot of time to be upset. We need to come back and do the best that we can.”
