Marco Silva unleashes on VAR decisions after Chelsea loss as he despairs after Josh King goal was ruled out.
Marco Silva slams ‘unbelievable’ VAR decisions in Fulham’s defeat at Chelsea.
After Fulham’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea, Marco Silva made no secret of his displeasure with the referees, calling it “unbelievable” that Josh King’s first goal in senior football was disallowed due to a video assistant referee review after the game ended in a draw.
After nothing went their way in a fierce west London derby, the head coach and Fulham were left fuming. When King scored in the twenty-first minute, they believed they had the lead, but the 18-year-old’s goal was disallowed after VAR Michael Salisbury told referee Rob Jones to check the pitchside monitor to see if Rodrigo Muniz had fouled Trevoh Chalobah during the buildup.
Although Muniz had possession of the ball when he unintentionally caught Chalobah, Jones decided against Fulham. Jones eventually gave Chelsea a penalty for Ryan Sessegnon’s handball, but only after rejecting João Pedro’s calls for a foul throughout the buildup.
Marco Silva goes off on VAR
“In the first half I saw my team playing outstanding football,” Silva said. “Playing football – not trying to be fake, not parking the bus or something like that. All the decisions from the VAR and the referee made a massive impact on the game.
“To disallow a goal like that is unbelievable. Unbelievable. We have all the meetings with the people in charge; we try to see their direction. One of the main things was: ‘VAR is not here to referee the game.’ I would prefer to say nothing more as I will be punished. I want to be on the bench for the next game, I don’t want to pay fines. But it has been difficult with so many decisions against us at the start of the season.”
The fact that Chelsea was allowed time to take the lead at the conclusion of the first half further infuriated Silva. They added at least eight minutes. Before João Pedro opened the score in the ninth extra minute thanks to a corner from Enzo Fernández, Fulham believed the halftime whistle should have sounded.
“There were eight minutes of added time, they score in the ninth,” Silva added. “He has to stop the game, it’s the rules. I asked the referee, he told me that we lost time because he was talking to a player. I checked the video – the game didn’t stop one second. What can I say? Chelsea won the game and we move on.”