Brentford Boss Says VAR Is Stopping Refs From Doing Their Job

Brentford head coach Keith Andrews says video assistant referees are getting in the way of match officials making their own calls, after his side scraped past Reading in the Carabao Cup.

The Bees won 2-1 at the League One club to reach the fourth round, but Andrews spent much of his post-match comments talking about refereeing standards rather than the result.

A big talking point from the game was a disallowed goal. Reading defender Paudie O'Connor thought he'd scored with a first-half overhead kick, but referee Tom Nield chalked it off for a high boot. Reading manager Leam Richardson didn't hold back afterward, calling it "possibly in the top three [wrong] decisions that I've seen in my career, and I've seen thousands of games and played in hundreds."

There's no VAR at this stage of the EFL Cup, and Andrews said that's exactly the problem, not just for this game but across the sport lately. "It's been a tough week for officials as everybody is probably aware," he said. "I think we just need to let them ref the game and be human beings and make decisions."

He went on to say the reliance on technology has actually made things worse in both boxes. "We have gone through a period in the game where I feel like they weren't actually making decisions in both boxes because of the technology we have in the game and I feel like that is a real shame."

Andrews' comments come just days after Pro Ref admitted an "error of judgement" over Erling Haaland's winning goal for Manchester City against Manchester United on Sunday. That decision sparked plenty of arguments, with many asking whether the goal should have been ruled out because City's Enzo Fernandez, who was offside, dived in and tried to head the ball just before Haaland finished it off.

Brentford currently sit seventh in the Premier League, and Andrews feels referees are no longer given room to slip up. "I always felt as a player, when there was a relationship with an official that was built on respect and being able to speak to each other in a certain way," he said.

He added that officiating has drifted away from that trust in recent years. "We've gone away from allowing them to officiate and allowing them to make mistakes and I think it is a real shame. Now they are having to go back to that and it's not the habits they have had in recent years."

Asked directly about the Manchester derby mistake, Andrews didn't mince words, saying it was "pretty alarming" that the goal was allowed to stand. "The first thing was whether [Erling] Haaland was offside and then obviously [Enzo] Fernandez was. It's a shame," he said.