Wolves boss Gary O'Neil eager to see better VAR technology and questions big West Ham decision
Gary O'Neil admits he will be 'pleased' when semi-automated offside technology arrives in the Premier League after Wolves' disallowed goal at West Ham.
Trailing 2-0 in the second half, Pablo Sarabia finished off a superb move before a long VAR check, in which the officials took their time drawing lines, ruled the Spaniard was offside.
Although it seemed the right decision was eventually made – before Wolves went on to lose 3-0 – O'Neil believes it is time to bring in the new technology which does not require lines, to speed up the decision making process.
He said: "I'm disappointed the goal is deemed fractionally offside. It's hard to tell.
"Obviously we have to trust the fact the lines are correct, even though I'll be pleased when they finally bring in automated ones, because the lines never seem to meet the floor at the right place and it seems really hard to get them right on the end of people's toes accurately.
"We trust it's correct and to be fair, live it did look maybe just off. But it's disappointing because it's a big moment and it was a fantastic move."
Meanwhile, O'Neil believes Hammers defender Vladimir Coufal was fortunate to stay on the field.
The right-back escaped punishment for an apparent elbow on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, before finally getting booked for a clumsy tackle on the Wolves man in the second half.
O'Neil was also booked in the first half for his protests.
"Over the course of the game I think his challenges warrant two yellows at least," O'Neil added.
"The fact he wasn't even booked for the one in the first half was strange and then there was the really bad one on Jean in the second half that he was booked for.
"I spoke to the officials briefly around some of the soft bookings we've had this season and we've ended up playing with 10 men a couple times already from things you'd go 'oh yeah you could give a yellow but possibly not'. They are really big moments.
"They played no part in the final result because of the goals we gave away, and I don't want to complain about the officials or VAR because it all seemed fine and that's not what I'm here to do."
"The officials were fine, but I thought my booking was really harsh," O'Neil added.
"I spoke to them about that and I voiced that I thought Coufal should have been booked and Zouma should have been booked for going through the back of Cunha.
"I received a yellow card. That's two now, so I'll need to be on my best behaviour from this point onwards."
