Chelsea UCL watch: VAR fails Morata, City’s mentality, Simeone’s “bollocks”

Wednesday night’s Champions League ties had plenty of Chelsea connections and far more intrigue than Goalless Tuesday. Here are a few things we can take away from Manchester City’s and Atletico Madrid’s wins.

Chelsea fans are sadly becoming accustomed to spending Tuesdays and Wednesdays watching whatever Champions League games they can find, knowing they will not see the Blues until the lowly Thursday slot. Until Chelsea somehow claw their way back into Europe’s top flight, we’ll find ways to make these games relevant and useful so you can justify watching them all.

1. Alvaro Morata’s bad luck follows him to Madrid

To all the world, Alvaro Morata opened his account at Atletico Madrid in the 70′ against Juventus. Morata rose higher than the defenders tightly marking him 10 yards in front of goal, and headed a cross past Wojciech Szczesny’s right hand. It was a goal made in Chelsea, as the cross came from one-time Blues full-back Filipe Luis. The play was also a near-mirror image of all those link ups between Morata and Cesar Azpilicueta on Chelsea’s right.

To the match official, though, Morata was simply too aggressive, because that makes sense. After a minute or two of review by the VAR official the referee went to the screen to watch the play for himself. The view from the camera behind the Jan Oblak’s goal 100 yards away showed Morata’s hands on Giorgio Chiellini’s back as he jumped. The official called this a push worthy of a foul, and waved off the goal.

Let’s unpack a few things here. First, this is not how VAR is supposed to work. Officials are instructed to interpret what they see on the screen as if they were seeing it at pitch-level in real-time. Despite having multiple angles and speeds, they are supposed to approach it as if they were seeing it for the first time in real time on the pitch.

This is a difficult ask, akin to telling someone “don’t think about lemurs having sex.” Having been told not to, they can’t help but do so.

The referee initially signalled for a goal. This sets the standard for disallowing the goal to “clear and convincing evidence” of a foul. The evidence was only persuasive – let alone clear and convincing – upon multiple reviews and prolonged conversation based on slow motion from the most distant camera.

Second, the overturned call showed the silliness of literal interpretations of the Laws of the Game. The manipulated speeds of video review allow referees to sever the questions “what did somebody do” from “what impact did it have.” Only through slow-motion replay from 100 yards away could the referee determine that Alvaro Morata put his hands on Giorgio Chiellini. Nothing in the video indicated that what Morata did rose to the level of a foul, only that his hands were there.

Again, this contravenes the purpose of VAR. In real-time, at pitch level, the referee saw nothing from Morata or Chiellini that made him think Morata committed a foul en route to scoring a goal. Only by review did he see that Morata committed the prerequisite to a foul, the contact. The referee overruled his decision based not on evidence that a foul was committed, but only that a necessary but not sufficient condition for a foul was committed.

The double silliness is the idea that Alvaro Morata, one of the least physical, least imposing, dare we say delicate players in European football, felled Giorgio Chiellini, one of the most physical, blood-and-thunder, warrior defenders the game as ever seen. And that Morata did it in Chiellini’s penalty area, a place in which Chiellini imposes the castle doctrine against all invaders.

Had the Atleti striker in question been Diego Costa, absolutely. That would be a fantastic battle. But if Chiellini goes down under contact from Morata, we may need VAR to investigate simulation.

Finally, this is another example of circumstances conspiring against Alvaro Morata. This call was asinine. If it does not become a teachable moment for UEFA, then VAR will only accelerate Europe’s decline to England’s level of officiating.

Morata took the blame at Chelsea for many things beyond his control. Poor officiating, random acts of football, incorrect offsides calls, players around him having career best or career worst performances – those were all heaped onto Morata’s shoulders to justify the abuse he received.

Hopefully Morata will be able to externalize this incident and not enter another bout of low confidence and moping. He was 100% the victim, and we wager even some bianconeri fans would agree. I stand by my prediction that he will finish the season with more goals in all competitions than Gonzalo Higuain, and more goals in the second half than Higuain. Poor application of VAR should not stand in the way of me being right again.