On Sunday, Nottingham Forest met Tottenham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Premier League, and there was a major incident between James Maddison and Ryan Yates.
Tottenham won 3-1 as the Reds huffed and puffed in the capital, thanks to two brilliant goals from Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro.
Forest settled better in the opening half than the other squad. Chris Wood cancelled out Murillo’s own goal, and the New Zealand striker should have put the Reds ahead.
Gary Lineker chastised Wood for his miss, and he will know in his heart that his wayward moment was highly costly from a Forest standpoint.
The incident involving Maddison and Forest midfielder Yates drew attention in the first half. Yates was marking the Tottenham player, and he seemed to strike him in the stomach.
Staying true to Forest’s form this season, the VAR elected not to suggest a review to referee Simon Hooper, who let play to continue with both players ticked off.
Following the game and that particular occasion, another expert has weighed in with an intriguing opinion.
Richard Keys delivers the verdict on Forest star Ryan Yates’ confrontation with James Maddison.
Keys never hesitates to come forward, especially when it comes to match officials and VAR. Now he’s chimed in on the argument, which has divided opinion since it began over the weekend.
Keys is outraged by what he witnessed over the weekend. He targeted Michael Salisbury in the VAR bunker and Jamie Redknapp, who was covering the game for Sky Sports.
Keys, now a BeIN Sports anchor, said on his latest blog: “And was everyone in the bunker asleep when Maddison punched Ryan Yates off the ball at Spurs?”
“It’s not so horrible that Simon Hooper missed it, but it was as obvious to VAR. Maddison should have been sent off.
“I’m told Jamie Redknapp did not want to make too much of the incident on Sky. I wonder if this has anything to do with Maddison modeling for Redknapp’s clothes line. If that’s not a conflict of interest, I’m not sure what is.
Forest experiment is simply not working.
I have nothing but respect for Mark Clattenburg, but Forest appointing him feels like a mistake. It has not changed any of the rulings in favour of the Reds, and it appears that the referees are now giving Forest even less.
It’s not difficult to understand why Clattenburg came in. Appointing referee analysts is common on the continent, although it is a relatively unknown concept in the Premier League.
Given that the incident involving Forest midfielder Yates was not reported, it’s unclear what the point of VAR as a system is. The referee certainly missed it, yet it was not reviewed.
Clattenburg will receive a wage from Forest, which seems useless. The officials appear terrified of making Forest-related decisions, and the club may have to part ways with the analyst in the summer.
