‘You’re all scared’ – Merson goes off at Mike Dean for ‘don’t know the game’ comment amid VAR debate
Paul Merson went off at Mike Dean who suggested players “don’t know the game” by saying referees are “all scared” to get in trouble and “no one’s going to die” if a Liverpool game was stopped after a wrong VAR call.
It’s been a week since the Reds were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham, with VAR not helping their case, and the fallout is continuing. Liverpool forward Luis Diaz scored a legitimate goal during the game, but VAR ruled it out for offside.
The VAR official had evidence that Diaz was on side, but upheld the original decision, which he thought was a goal, rather than offside.
Since then, many suggestions over what could have been done to solve that issue, and what could still be done – Reds boss Jurgen Klopp wants a replay – have been floated.
It also led to a fiery row between Merson and former Premier League referee Dean, who suggested players can’t be inserted into VAR rooms as they don’t know the rules.
“Do you get extra players in? For me, no, half of them don’t know the game full stop, as you can tell by what you’ve just said about restarting the game for the sake of it,” he said on Sky Sports.
Merson then went off at Dean, suggesting the game should be able to be stopped to rectify the mistake.
“For the sake of it? For the sake of it? What do you mean for the sake of it? You’re playing Liverpool v Tottenham, one of the biggest games and you’re saying for the sake of it?” Merson said.
“There’s no law, no one’s going to die, so stop the game, nothing’s going to happen, you’re all scared, you’re all like ‘oh my God, I’m going to get in trouble’, stop the game and then take the circumstances.”
Dean then largely continued to state Merson didn’t know the law, and that the game cannot be stopped.
Merson obviously knows full well the game can’t be stopped once it’s restarted, but it’s not an issue of not knowing the law, rather why can’t the game be stopped to rectify the decision?
Surely that’s better than asking for an entire game to be replayed, having the VAR official taken off a weekend of games and then every Liverpool game for the rest of the season.
Sure it might stunt the flow of the game and be a little bit confusing at first, but at least parity would be restored.
Unless Tottenham were literally through on goal about to score when it was taken back, they’d surely be ok with the fact the right decision was being given, aware they had conceded a legitimate goal, and that was just being rectified.
What does Merson know though, right, Deano?
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp’s ulterior motive for VAR replay request – He was doing a Sir Alex, says Souness
