Bruno Lage: VAR ‘balance’ is needed

Battling with only 10 men after Raul Jimenez’s sending off, Wolves were defending valiantly and keeping the hosts at bay.

That was until referee Jon Moss gave a penalty when a cross seemed to strike Joao Moutinho on his armpit and side.

Despite taking several minutes to check the incident, VAR did not overturn a penalty that many City fans were also surprised to see stand.

Lage has always been a fan of the technology but has now called for more consistency when it intervenes during Premier League games.

“I am a defendant of VAR because it’s important as it can help the referee,” Lage said.

“I’ve already watched the image and some VAR decisions since the first day.

“Moutinho put his arm up but the first touch was here (on his armpit). I don’t know how he can take a penalty from that.

“When you look back it was the same VAR, but not the same person, who watched the touch (Paul) Pogba had on Ruben (Neves) when Man United scored that goal.

“VAR changed the opinion of the referee for our penalty against Crystal Palace. In the end, we need to find a balance between the decisions. It’s easier to see on the screen.

“But now it’s time to move on. We don’t take any points from this and we need to move on to prepare in the best way for Brighton.”

Although Lage did not agree with the penalty decision, he chose not to directly criticise referee Moss.

But captain Conor Coady made his feelings clear and insisted the penalty should not have been given.

He said: “For me, it wasn’t a pen. Usually, you can tell. I get on with the referees really well, all of them, I get on with them really well and haven’t got a bad word to say about them, but sometimes you can see from the players’ reaction.

“You tend to look and think, ‘Oh hang on, that looks a bit dodgy, that one there’. I think you can really tell by his reaction that he was raging in the fact it got given.

“I’ve not seen it back, I’ve come straight here, but I’ve been told it wasn’t, and for a game like this, of this magnitude, against this sort of team, to be decided on a contentious decision is massively disappointing, from our point of view.

“But we’ve given everything, and we’ll take that confidence into the next one at Brighton.

“We go with confidence from the last two games. We’ve given probably the two best teams in the land at the minute two really good games and conceded just two goals.

“Two really tough goals to take – one in the 94th minute and a contentious penalty – against two of the best teams. We’ll take confidence, but we know we have to start picking up wins and picking up results as soon as possible.”