Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker and pundit Jermaine Jenas are in agreement with Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper over four penalty decisions during the Reds’ Premier League encounter against Brentford.
Forest salvaged a point with a last gasp equaliser in Saturday afternoon’s 2-2 draw at the City Ground. They did take the lead through Morgan Gibbs-White’s first goal for the club, but a controversial penalty was awarded to Brentford after a check by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), when there appeared to be minimal contact between Yoane Wissa and Dean Henderson.
It led to fury both in the stands and on the pitch from Forest, who themselves had three separate shouts for penalties, all of which were waved away. Cooper outlined his frustrations at the decisions after the game, as well as Gibbs-White saying Forest were 'cheated'.
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VAR has received a lot of criticism over a number of controversial decisions since its introduction. And both Lineker - who has criticsed VAR a lot - and Nottingham-born Jenas are in agreement over the controversy at the City Ground.
“There’s a little touch there, credit to Wissa, who tried to stay on his feet,” Lineker said on Match of the Day about the penalty incident, with Jenas replying with: “He tried to, but it’s not a penalty for me.
Lineker then had a little jibe at VAR for the amount of time it took to come to the decision to award Brentford a penalty. “Steve Cooper, he said it there, if that is a penalty and he’s kind of got a point,” he said.
“If that is a penalty, you would think they wouldn’t turn it over but it’s not enough is it to turn it over? They looked at VAR for 20 minutes.”
Jenas is in agreement with the presenter and Cooper.
“I think he’s (Cooper) spot on,” he added. “It wasn’t clear and obvious. And his point is, if that’s a penalty, then that’s (Forest’s penalty claim) is a penalty.
“None of these are penalties, none of them, and that’s what he’s (Cooper) is saying. He’s (Dennis) dived there, this is minimal on Yates as well, a tiny touch.”
Linker intervened with: “But that’s a similar kind of touch.”
And Jenas agreed, citing the new guidance given this season: “That’s correct, that is exactly Steve Cooper’s point, and if he’s giving penalties for that level of contact, then you have to give these penalties. And the PGMLO’s guidance at the start of the season was that the preference was not to penalise minimal contact.”
Lineker summed up the debate around the decisions with a simple conclusion. “Therefore none of them should have been penalties,” he said. “I think we all pretty much agree.”
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