Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper believes his side were unfortunate to not be awarded a penalty in yesterday’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool at the City Ground.
The Championship outfit were denied a penalty when midfielder Ryan Yates claimed he had been tripped by Liverpool ‘keeper Alisson Becker, only for replays to show that the Brazilian made barely any contact with the 24-year-old midfielder.
“I haven’t seen them back. I think it would have been interesting if they were at the other end,” Cooper said (via the Nottingham Post).
“It’s the first time I’ve experienced VAR and the first time we’ve had it here. I guess you have to trust the process of what it is. It would definitely have been interesting if they were down the other end.
“It was tight for the goal, because obviously it went to the VAR with offside. Some of the questions I was getting asked when doing the TV interviews suggested it might have been an interesting one. That’s what I’m saying, if it had been down the other end…
“With the penalty shout, my instinct was, because of what the moment was and also, the guys who know Forest know Yatesy is one of the most honest players…
“He’s too honest, to be honest. That was the feeling, that there was no way he would go down. Plus you’re thinking, ‘go round him and score’.”
It’s certainly bemusing for Cooper to claim that had it been a Liverpool player that had gone down then it would’ve been given.
There was clearly hardly any contact so for him to make a comment on the decision after claiming he hadn’t seen it back was rather strange.
Roy Keane, who was covering the game for ITV, claimed Yates had been ‘too honest’ and hinted that the midfielder should’ve angled his run in order to collide with our No. 1 – rather bizarre advice from the Irishman ultimately encouraging Yates to cheat.
Fair play to the officials for not falling for the simulation and getting on with the game – nobody wants to see players going down easily, but sadly it’s a part of the game nowadays.
Our victory over Forest means we’ll now face Manchester City in the semi-final at Wembley next month – let’s hope we can defeat Pep Guardiola’s side and go one step closer to winning our first FA Cup since 2006 and our first under Jurgen Klopp.
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Yates should have been booked for simulation if there was no penalty, BUT, as always, Craig Pawson does a bad job officiating. If that was a penalty then Jota should also have had one.