Nuno on VAR, refereeing decisions and Awoniyi
Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo faced the media before Sunday’s home Premier League game with Manchester City.
Here are the headlines:
Nuno was asked about whether referees are relying on VAR too much in their decision making: "I can speak and tell my opinion and try to be honest. The general feeling in football is referees are not taking their own decisions so this is affecting a lot. They are not taking their decisions and waiting for the VAR to intervene and it is not helping the situation. Referees are the authority on the pitch and then VAR should help. What we want is to move forward."
He continued: "My personal feeling is about referees not taking decisions on the pitch. They were doing it before so they should do it again and then comes VAR, not the other way around. The other way around is a huge mistake for the game. When it came, I supported it but maybe, one day not much ahead of us, we will say football was better before VAR because it’s been a mess."
He said Forest's stance on not being awarded three penalties against Everton las week is not a personal issue with the VAR Stuart Attwell: "We don’t want things to go much further and it becomes personal or abusive to the referees. Try to understand us and put yourself in our skin. We don’t want things to go much further - we want to keep things on the game and on the issues we can control. But it’s so many things. It’s not just the recent games. It goes on and on and on and on. That’s why we feel so much anger."
On his feelings following that game: "I still can’t quite believe it. How the decisions went against us. It’s very clear - the three penalties. It has a big impact as it eventually means points, it means frustration and disappointment. It feels like it’s always against us."
However, he has not heard the audio recording from the game of the officials: "I have not. I don’t know, it didn’t listen to it so I don’t know the situation with the audio."
Finally, Taiwo Awoniyi is slowly recovering from a thigh injury but remains a doubt while Willy Boly is still out for the hosts.
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