He is, in my opinion, at this point a fairly invested cheerleader for VAR. It’s become his specialist subject, his source of relevance in a saturated market, and he will frequently defend it when it’s application (or lack of) it being questioned by everyone else.
Maybe he’s changed in the last year, but as I said, I got bored of his PGMOL approved stuff and stopped reading.
As you say it is guidance, i.e not definitive and sometimes common sense needs to prevail
95% of the complaints about VAR come from people who just wear on their sleeves their commitment to not knowing the rules. Johnson’s column is a much needed public service to explain what the VAR protocol is under the circumstances being reviewed and why it was used the way it was. Even often pointing out the mistakes in the application, and where it produced bad outcomes or was used incorrectly in a way that will result in the PGMOL admitting a mistake. If you cannot tell the difference
between that vs defending the outcomes then you are too far gone. You’re always just going to be the guy standing in the corner shouting at a wall about things being unfair.
Audio or no audio, I think they are going to struggle to restore credibility. It’s too far gone.
I’d say genuinely I think refereeing is at crisis point in the UK. This is proper rock bottom stuff. Everyone fucking hates them. The fans hate them, pundits are putting boot in every week. And the players absolutely fucking hate them. You can see that in any match you watch.
Everyone goes on about respect, but it’s a two way street. Players are supposed to respect the refs, but you can’t demand respect on pain of fines and censure. You have to earn it, or it dictatorial. They are terrible at the job, decisions are totally random a lot of the time, there is no consistency, and even worse they deem themselves to be above scrutiny or accountability. The way the conduct themselves on the field is pathetic.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I am pretty sure the this attack by Liverpool needs to be the start of something bigger, including other clubs and key stakeholders in the game with a view to setting how the players and fans want football matches to be officiated. Whatever the answer, this can’t go on.
The protocols are the problem.
For me it also the application of the laws, Mo gets awarded a freekick against him for the slightest arm across Bissouma, Then Virg goes in to attack a ball from the corner and their player is hanging onto his shirt throughout, they get the foul and Mo a yellow for disagreeing Virg. gets nothing and where is VAR to look at that and the foul on Gomez earlier?
You don’t mind if they are consistent but it isn’t
Partly. I’d argue the biggest issue with the refs has been the communication void they have allowed to exist, especially in the rapidly changing world of VAR. That void has been filled with some sort of perverse martyr Olympics amongst the fans. Honestly sometimes these thread read like a purity contest with people competing for who can find the most number of incidents to be aggrieved about and who can be most committed to refusing to acknowledge there are legitimate reasons for a ref to have given a decision you didnt like.
We have so much to legitimately be aggrieved by as a fan base. Even concerned by. But we make it so much easier to ignore us with how much we dilute our legitimate arguments with these nonsense ones. And to the game as a whole, the refs cannot clean this up by themselves just as they didnt cause it by themselves. On top of the fans you have a media who live by the controversy of it. They give air to players and managers to talk utter bollocks after the games then report on those clearly self-serving, often uninformed comments as if they are worth of evaluation. Their pundits are just as bad, and that all feeds a fan base desperate to feel aggrieved by the unfairness of it all.
I’d imagine the live audio is being recorded as I type this.
In all the commotion I must have missed the fact that we got fined for getting more than 7 yellow cards?
We should refuse to pay this fine. I understand that currently yellow cards can’t be reviewed but most of the yellows are so ridiculous that this needs to be vigorously contested on principle!
The fucking cheek!
His leg didn’t bend his ankle gave way! 
I always use the Ben Arfa incident NU vs Man C? as the excessive force test. Leg bent in 3 places, multiple broken bones and who knows what damage to ligaments and not even a free kick. The rules are obscene and pathetic, an ankle giving way is not an indication of excessive force, it can go even with out a challenge and the play practically standing still miles from action!
Thank you for saying this.
There are two legitimate claims in that match alone so I’d rather we focus on them and not the slight tug here or there.
Hooper lost control of what he was doing that second half and it’s not the first time. I don’t think he is a very good ref, that VAR room is an altogether other matter.
Regarding the traditional media they can eithier be a little more open or they can start to lose the narrative. Governments do it a lot you can eithier accept there is a problem or you get consumed by it.
Something that’s gotten lost in all of this is @Sportbilly1966’s avatar. Normally when one doesn’t upload an image to use, the avatar is a solid color circle with the first character of the screen name in the center of it. See @1972 or @ILLOK for examples.
Somehow or another, this sneaky bastard has managed to get his avatar to be a green circle with an inexplicable “M”, which is a letter that appears NOWHERE in his screen name. Why is no-one else bringing this up? @ISMF care to explain how this has occurred? I’ll hang up and listen for your answer. Love you, love the show.
Maybe my 1st name is Mark, simple
VAR have looked into it and at the behest of Sheikh Pep, I am not guilty of any misdemeanors
Mark Sportbully born in 1966, what a vintage! 
You’ve also set yourself up as a var expert on here. You seem to love defending the rules, protocols whatever.
Let’s face it, the rules, implementation of said rules, implementation of var, the protocols or whatever else you want to waffle on about is crap if a legitimate goal can be given offside, after it is viewed by var and seen to be perfectly fine. It’s INDEFENSIBLE.
My take on Limie’s educated input:
Let’s focus on the tightest aspects we can, rather than spiraling out to issues that will lose support, as they are more contestable.
If I am understanding that part accurately, it is well said.
As a fan I’ve got a long list of issues I want to ‘prosecute’, but I think to gain traction, the club will need to be very disciplined in what it wants to pursue, and how it want to pursue it.
And I know it’s just a discussion board and all, but let’s keep some unity among good reds in here.
I have loved reading Limie and Mascot on this stuff today.
It looks like the club has the bit between its teeth, and there is a fair amount of support among the wider footballing community on the worst aspects of what we witnessed on Sunday.
In other words, we have a card or two in our hand to play. Let’s hope it’s the start of some much needed change.
I read a rumor had England was not in his spot in the VAR room when the incident happened. And the club know this which is another reason they want the recording.
I’d also like sky sports being properly exposed for being in cahoots with pgmol.
Gary Neville needs to be grilled
I knew something stank when they met Postecoglu have an unusually long interview followed by that fouling spurs player…as if they needed time to get their story straight on air