Leeds manager Jesse Marsch slams "lack of respect" from VAR calls as beaten boss calls for refs meeting
Leeds manager Jesse Marsch on refereeing decisions after two contentious VAR calls in Brentford's 5-2 win over Leeds: "I've got to figure out how to have discussions with the league or with referees to help understand how some decisions get made."
Saturday 3 September 2022 22:53, UK
Jesse Marsch blamed a "lack of respect" from VAR decisions for the angry reaction which saw him sent off during Leeds' 5-2 defeat at Brentford.
Marsch was left seething after Crysencio Summerville was denied a penalty following what the Leeds boss felt was a pull by Brentford's Aaron Hickey. The Leeds boss felt it was a case of double standards after VAR had intervened to help award the hosts a spot-kick earlier in the game - in a review that took more than three minutes to complete.
The Leeds manager raced out of his technical area to gesture referee Rob Jones towards the same review monitor, which he had used to give that earlier decision against Leeds' Lucas Sinisterra, and after seeing red, vented his frustration about the consistency of the two decisions.
- Brentford 5-2 Leeds - Match report
- How the teams lined up | Match stats
- Premier League table | Results
"I was speaking with the fourth official, trying to be as respectful as I possibly could. Even when a penalty was given that I probably didn't think was a penalty and then when you don't see it reciprocated, it's the respect," he said. "That lack of VAR visit is a lack of respect in the end.
"I was calm even when Brentford were given the penalty, even though I didn't see it right away, but normally when the phrasing is 'clear and obvious' and it takes that long to watch it and look at it then for me, it's not clear and obvious" he said.
"When I saw it at half-time, I didn't believe it's a penalty and if it is, it's an incredibly soft one. I was told by the referee committee and the league in our managers' meeting before the season started that the threshold for penalties was going to go up so that was not, for me, represented by that decision.
"Then there's an action where I think Summerville is actually more of an egregious foul and it doesn't even get looked at for VAR, I'm clearly dissatisfied. I've got to figure out how to have discussions with the league or with referees to help understand how some decisions get made."
Frank: Toney England's most in-form striker
Brentford boss Thomas Frank, in a significantly brighter mood, fended questions over hat-trick hero Ivan Toney's England hopes as he moved level with Harry Kane in the Premier League goalscoring charts with his fifth goal of the season.
The 26-year-old has never been called up by Gareth Southgate in the past but a number of his rivals to become Harry Kane's understudy are either injured or out of form with only two months remaining until the World Cup in Qatar.
"I haven't seen everyone, but on the top off of my head, looking at in-form strikers, there's not a better striker right now," he said. "Kane is number one, of course, but after that, there's not a better striker in form.
"There's other things, performances in the past, they earned their shirt or whatever, but I don't see a better one after Kane. England have been in a few penalty shoot-outs, if they want to win one they should pick Ivan!"
