Current Nottingham Forest news as Nuno Espirito Santo’s team makes headlines following their contentious loss to Everton
Nuno Espirito Santo, the head coach of Nottingham Forest, believes that instead of depending solely on VAR, referees should be more accountable for their choices made on the field.
The Portuguese, speaking at a pre-match press conference before Sunday’s encounter against Manchester City, got into a furious tirade over the quality of officiating in the Premier League. It followed the Reds’ contentious 2-0 loss to Everton on the previous weekend, in which the visitors thought they ought to have been given three penalties.
Referee Anthony Taylor dismissed Forest’s appeals about Ashley Young’s challenges of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Gio Reyna, as well as the Toffees defender’s handball call. VAR Stuart Attwell did not give the proper instructions to go to his monitor to evaluate the situations.
After the game, Forest “warned” the Professional Game Match Officials Board that Attwell “is a Luton fan,” but “they didn’t change him.” Forest was furious and sent an angry tweet at full time. Nuno claims that the usage of VAR is “a mess” before of this weekend’s match.
He responded, “It’s a question I ask myself many times,” when asked if the game would be better without VAR. I backed it when it materialized. However, given how chaotic football has been, perhaps in the not too distant future we will conclude that the game was better before VAR.
“I personally think that referees shouldn’t make decisions on the field. They should resume their previous practice before moving on to VAR, not the other way around. The game made a grave error by doing it the opposite way around.
“I can speak and tell my opinion and try to be honest. The general feeling in football is referees are not taking their own decisions so this is affecting a lot. They are not taking their decisions, and waiting for the VAR to intervene is not helping the situation. Referees are the authority on the pitch and then VAR should help. What we want is to move forward.
“It’s an indication that everything went well if no one has previously inquired about the referee for this match. We hope that instead of talking about the referees, people talk about the game.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to it; things have gotten worse, and they ought to accept accountability for it because many errors have been made—not just in our games. As you can see, not everything is well. We are requesting progress.
Nuno emphasized, though, that criticism of officials and referees shouldn’t be taken personally. After last weekend, Attwell has been in the news, but the Reds manager believes that standards need to be raised overall.
He continued, “We don’t want things to get too personal or abusive for the referees.” Put yourself in our shoes and make an effort to comprehend us. We want to keep things focused on the game and the problems we can manage; we don’t want things to get too complicated. But it encompasses so much. It goes beyond the most current games. It never stops. It never stops. That explains why we get so angry.
Although we are accountable for our own errors, we have made blunders that are not reflective of who we are. I have the utmost respect for the players because I recognize our frustration. Let’s keep our attention on City, the upcoming games, and our best wishes for the referees.