There is nothing players can do when VAR intervenes, says Patrick van Aanholt

BY SAM SMITH

Patrick van Aanholt has said that there is nothing players can do to argue with decisions made by VAR.

Crystal Palace were on the wrong side of the technology against Wolves on Friday night. The Eagles had a penalty award overturned and then saw Luka Milivojevic sent off late on.

Michy Batshuayi also had a goal disallowed for offside, but that decision had already been made by the assistant referee and VAR only confirmed that the Belgian had strayed ahead of the Wolves defence.

Van Aanholt had won the penalty given to the Eagles, but the technology showed that the Dutchman was offside before he was fouled by Willy Boly.

“It’s VAR, so there’s nothing you can do about it,” the defender, who was starting for the first time this season, told Premier League Productions.

“Offside is offside. It’s the same with Michy’s goal, that’s offside as well. We have to get on with it and move on to the next game.

“I haven’t seen [Milivojevic’s tackle] yet, a few of the players saw the review in the changing room. You can decide, I won’t say anything about it.”

Palace were 2-0 down inside 25 minutes thanks to goals by Rayan Ait-Nouri and Daniel Podence. The South Londoners struggled to contain Ait-Nouri and his fellow wing-back Nelson Semedo.

“We lost, that’s about it. We started not too good compared to how we could have started. Two mistakes cost us two goals.

“After 20 minutes, we got into the game and played well. We scored the offside goal and had a penalty which was unfortunately offside as well.

“We dropped off a little bit and let them play their football. They kept switching [the ball] in the first half and it was great for them, what they did.

“We tried to get into the game in the second half, we tried to dominate the game more. We had more chances but we lost the game.”

Feature image: Keith Gillard