Follow-up: Dyche has good relationship with Howard Webber, but Forest won t complain about Manchester United corner kick

Hupu November 02 News TheAthleticUK Nottingham Forest and team reporter Paul Taylor wrote a post-match column about the 2-2 draw with Manchester United.

(The following is his first person)

We have bid farewell to the era when Nottingham Forest frequently issued strongly worded complaint letters to PGMOL. This situation was more common in the spring of 2024, when former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg served as Nottingham Forest's "match and performance analyst" for 77 days.

The club did not make a formal complaint after the game against Bournemouth. After the 2-2 draw with Manchester United, the initial feeling was that this was unlikely to change.

Ditch himself has a close relationship with PGMOL chairman Howard Webb, and the two are likely to communicate on the matter rather than through official channels.

Although the Nottingham Forest senior management attaches great importance to improving the team's performance, this shows that the team supports Dyche from top to bottom and does not agree with the chaotic coaching methods of his predecessor Ange Postkoglu.

But as Dyche begins a new chapter in his coaching career, every point is precious for this team striving to get out of the relegation zone. Dyche also made an important point: the way VAR is used should be changed.

The Premier League's complete Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system uses at least 28 cameras. In many clubs, the number of cameras is even greater. Semi-automated technology can now tell if a player is offside in a split second. Why not use these technologies to make other decisions that are more direct and objective?

We're not talking about those nebulous gray areas here, such as whether there was enough contact in the penalty area to award a penalty, or whether a player tugged on the opponent's jersey for too long (even for a nanosecond).

There is no subjective factor here. Things are black and white, very simple - did the ball go out of bounds or not?

Some people may worry that too many penalties on the field need to be reviewed, but the real reviewers can only sit in front of the TV screen in the office. We certainly don’t want the game to be paused every few minutes to determine whether the referee’s call was correct.

But why not take a page from other sports, such as cricket, tennis, and even Major League Soccer (MLS) football, which allow for review of a certain number of decisions?

Even if each coach can only choose to review one penalty per game, problems like this can be effectively solved. Spending a few extra seconds to ensure a simple call goes right rather than wrong is definitely worth it.