Wolves and VAR continue to clash this season with Monday night’s game defeat to Fulham becoming the latest chapter in the ongoing saga.
In the side’s 3-2 defeat to Fulham, the hosts were given two questionable penalties, one of which came in the 94th minute.
In addition to this, VAR failed to send Carlos Vinicius off for an alleged headbutt late on.
After the game, the referee Michael Salisbuy admitted that he made a mistake giving the hosts their first penalty. PGMOL representatives also confirmed to Wolves that Fulham’s Tim Ream and Carlos Vinicius should have been sent off for separate incidents.
These mistakes from the officials have become commonplace for Wolves this season.
Both manager Gary O’Neil and captain Max Kilman have become increasingly annoyed with the decision-making on the field with the referees getting multiple key incidents wrong.
Therefore, we look at where Wolves would be now if VAR had made the correct decisions on the day.
Wolves have been hurt by VAR since day one
The first major incident where VAR made a bad call for Wolves happened in the first game of the season.
In added time, with Wolves losing 1-0 at Old Trafford, Man United goalkeeper Andre Onana clattered into striker Sasa Kalajdzic without winning the ball.
VAR decided not to give the visitors a penalty at the time despite watching numerous replays. After the game, they admitted this was a mistake.
The next highly controversial decision came away to Luton Town. With Wolves winning 1-0 thanks to Pedro Neto’s opener the referee gave the hosts a penalty for a Joao Gomes handball.
Upon reviewing the incident, the ball deflected off an outstretched leg before hitting the midfielder’s arm. However, VAR upheld the referee’s decision which allowed Luton to equaliser from the spot.
Two penalty decisions were then given in back-to-back games against Wolves. Newcastle and Sheffield United both received penalties for identical incidents which changed the game.
Sheffield United’s penalty was particularly controversial as it came deep into added time to give the hosts a 2-1 victory.
Then comes the most recent incident against Fulham where two penalties were once again given against Wolves as well as the failure to reduce the hosts down to 10 men.
Wolves should be sitting in Europe
If you presume Wolves would have scored their penalty against Man U that would give O’Neil’s men an extra point.
Then take away Luton’s, Newcastle’s, Sheffield United’s and Fulham’s penalties that total adds up to nine points.
With Wolves currently sitting 12th on 15 points, an extra nine would push Wolves all the way up to sixth.
O’Neil’s side would be above Man United and three points clear in the European spots.
Wolves would also only be six points off top-of-the-league Arsenal. Whereas, as it stands, the Black Country side are only six points clear of 17th-placed Luton.
Gary O’Neil believes he has two options
After Monday night it is clear that O’Neil has had enough of poor decisions going against his side.
He believes that Wolves should have had seven more points so far this season. However, as shown above, this could easily be nine.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game he said: “Bad luck keeps going against us. I’ve had a real, grown-up conversation.
“I’m trying to remain calm. I’m not angry with anybody. I’m not abusing anyone. It’s just a conversation around, ‘Come on guys, it’s six or seven points that have gone against us’.”
O’Neil has previously spoken to Howard Webb, the head of referees’ body PGMOL this season, but said: “I won’t be calling anybody. What can I do?
“I’ve got two options. I keep behaving in the way that I should and make my players behave in the way we should. We respect everybody and the decision-making.
“Or we start to go, ‘That’s not working. We’re going to have to make some noise’. They are the two decisions I have.
“I’ve been really honest. I’d rather be a decent human being and answer things honestly but things need to get better.
“I can’t accept us being on the wrong end of decisions as often as we are. That needs to get better.”