Wolves boss Gary O'Neil losing trust in VAR decisions

Wolves were on the wrong end of several contentious decisions last season and this year, since O’Neil has joined the club, have seen two controversial calls go against them.

O’Neil is still a fan of having technology to help officials, but has called for major improvement on it’s application in the Premier League.

“I’ve been a big advocate of VAR, I think it makes sense to give the guys help in something that moves as fast as the game does now,” O’Neil said.

“But if I just go off how I feel, I’m a bit confused by where it is. I don’t know what’s coming next.

“I’m more confused on (decisions) now, more than I’ve ever been.

“It either needs improving, or the option that I don’t think anyone will end up at, is that we scrap it and go back to where we were. But I guess they’ll try and improve it.”

When asked if he still has trust in the process, O’Neil added: “I trust that they’re trying hard to fix it, but I don’t trust that we’re going to get the right conclusion all the time.

“They’ll still be mistakes that we question, but I trust that they’re working hard to limit them.

“I’ve lost a little bit of trust. Some of the lines I’ve seen drawn on offsides – I was OK at maths at school and I wouldn’t have put the line there.

“There’s a few bits that are off at the moment.”

Wolves were denied a last minute penalty against Manchester United on the opening day, which sparked an apology from the PGMOL, and O’Neil believes subconscious bias has played against Wolves with certain decisions – and across the game.

“I’ve spoken to the referees a lot about the subconscious human nature being to favour (the bigger clubs) as there’s more noise that end,” he said.

“I’m not saying they do it on purpose, I just think it’s natural. When my team faces Manchester City, I’m more nervous.

“The senses are heightened, understand there’s more people watching, there’s more noise if Haaland scores – and that’s the same with referees I think, naturally.

“There’s more people watching so it’s a bigger thing if you don’t give a foul on Haaland, than if you don’t get a foul on someone lower down.

“I’ve spoken to them about it and they should bear it in mind. Maybe there’s a tendency to lean that way.

“I’m confident we can leave it with them and they can get it in the best place they can.

O’Neil added: “They tell me there’s no tendency to lean towards the bigger clubs, which you would fully expect them to say and I get it.

“It’s not my job, but I just want them to be as good as they can at officiating.

“I want to get it to the best level so when there’s a decision made, the biggest population go ‘oh yeah, that makes sense’.

“I think we’re quite a way away from getting it to that place at the moment.”