It wouldn’t be a Manchester City match without an absurd VAR decision

VAR decisions have become a familiar topic in recent Manchester City matches. From Antoine Semenyo’s disallowed goal against Newcastle, to Diogo Dalot not being sent off for a dangerous challenge on Jeremy Doku in City’s 2-nil Manchester derby defeat, to City not being awarded a penalty against Wolves for handball, through to Dominic Solanke being awarded a goal that came off Marc Guehi after Solanke kicked through the back of Guehi’s legs last weekend in City’s 2-all draw with Tottenham, VAR has played a role in Manchester City’s matches.

VAR once again played a role in Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield yesterday. This time, VAR got the decision right by the letter of law. But seriously the entire situation that unfolded was absurd and it highlighted everything wrong with VAR currently.

A special moment for Manchester City was taken away by VAR at Anfield.

Late in yesterday’s match at Anfield, Liverpool were pushing men forward to try and find a late equalizer. Arne Slot’s side pushed their keeper Alisson upfield in a desperate attempt to find a late goal. By doing this, Liverpool left the opportunity for City to score a third goal into an empty net wide open. In the 101st minute of yesterday’s match, that is exactly what happened.

A high ball in midfield was won by Bernardo Silva. The Manchester City captain flicked the ball to Rayan Cherki. With Alisson stranded behind him, Cherki knew that the Liverpool goal was unguarded. The French international hit a dribbling strike that slowly rolled towards the goal. Cherki’s strike wasn’t powerful, to say the least. The ball was meandering its way into the net. As the ball rolled towards the net, Erling Haaland took off like a freight train in an attempt to tap the ball into an empty net. All that was in Haaland’s way was make shift Liverpool right-back Dominik Szoboszlai. As Haaland went to sprint past Szoboszlai, the Hungarian international pulled Haaland back. In response, Haaland pulled Szoboszlai back as the ball rolled into the net. Referee Craig Pawson awarded a goal and the Manchester City fans, staff and players celebrated jubilantly.

Then the absurdity of VAR hit, and the scenes that followed were laughable for how absurd they were.

But the Manchester City celebrations were cut short. VAR intervened. Referee Craig Pawson was called over to the monitor. This is when the absolute absurd nature of VAR struck. Trying to describe all of this isn’t simple, as the events were barely believable, but the entire situation was laughable.

First, we had Liverpool players protesting that Cherki’s goal shouldn’t stand due to Szoboszlai having being fouled by Erling Haaland. Those protests ignored the fact that Szoboszlai had fouled Haaland moments before Haaland fouled Liverpool’s goal scorer. Once Craig Pawson was called to the monitor there was only one outcome coming to the situation. Rayan Cherki’s goal would be ruled out, and Dominik Szoboszlai would be sent off. There was no reality that exists where Szoboslai stayed on the pitch after denying Haaland a clear goal scoring opportunity and Cherki’s goal was disallowed with no action taken against Szoboszlai for his foul on Haaland. Perhaps in the emotion of it all the Liverpool players forgot this.

Then, we had a situation where the Manchester City players and staff were arguing against their opponents having a player sent off. Has that ever happened before? I can’t think of that situation ever occurring. City wanted the goal to stand, understandably so. Liverpool likely didn’t want Szoboszlai sent off, who will now have a three-game ban to contend with. While the decision that VAR reached is correct by the letter of the law, is that what we want VAR used for? A special moment was taken away, and in one instance, the absurd nature of VAR stood out for the world to see. The scenes that followed would never have happened in football until VAR arrived. Added to the mix was that Craig Pawson’s explanation could barely be heard. If any one particular moment highlights how ridiculous VAR has become, it occurred last night at Anfield.

🤦‍♂️ “It was madness… it’s insanity!”

😡 “It made a laughing stock of the game! Pathetic decision!”

Stelling and McCoist hammer the decision to rule out #MCFC‘s third goal vs #LFC and send off Szoboszlai! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/9a0yxWV930

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) February 9, 2026

VAR needs to be refined before it cause any more damage to the game.

First of all, I’ll say I don’t believe there is a conspiracy against Manchester City in terms of VAR or anything else. I’m not going to go into that topic. But I do believe that VAR isn’t fit for purpose. It is now re-refereeing matches to the point that is ridiculous. Striving for perfection in terms of refereeing decisions goes against the very nature of the game. Football happens in real time, and referees make decisions in real time in an instant. They do not get the benefit of a replay, nor do the players. We now have referees in a room at Stockley Park forensically dissecting every moment of a match. The elation of celebrating goals is fading, as the first instinct is now to pause to see what the referee will do. It’s frankly absurd.

VAR isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The genie is out of the bottle in that regard. But it does need to be refined. Common sense needs to prevail in some instances, like last night’s, for example. Rayan Cherki’s goal should have stood, and we all move on. Also, the match-attending fans need to be better informed of what VAR is investigating rather than a token message on a screen. Another possibility to consider is that a time limit must be introduced to stop VAR from halting the momentum of a match. But all of that is a topic of discussion for another day.

Final thoughts.

In the end, the absurd and ridiculous nature of VAR stood out like a sore thumb at Anfield yesterday. Manchester City and Rayan Cherki were robbed of a spectacular moment by a system determined to find perfection in an imperfect game. Perhaps that is the entire issue with VAR. Who knows at this point but you do sense that scenes like the ones we witnessed last night will happen more often.