David Moyes lifts lid on Michael Oliver conversation amid ‘disappointing’ VAR decisions

The Everton manager could not hide his frustration regarding a number of key VAR calls going against the Blues this season.

David Moyes has revealed that he visited referee Michael Oliver after Everton’s 3-3 draw with Manchester City to question why his side was not given a penalty despite the incident in question being examined by VAR officials.

The Blues played out a scintillating six-goal thriller with Pep Guardiola’s team 11 days ago, and we only denied victory when Jeremy Doku curled home an equaliser in the seventh minute of time added on.

But Everton were left incensed when they were denied a spot-kick by officials after Merlin Rohl went to ground under pressure from City captain Bernardo Silva, while still leading 3-2 with just minutes to go in the match.

And in a further development, the Key Match Incident (KMI) panel has since reviewed the incident and admitted that the Blues should have been awarded a penalty against Man City as well as another one for a separate incident in a fixture against West Ham United on April 25.

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When asked about the ruling during his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of Sunderland to Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday, Moyes said: “The one against Manchester City I went to see Michael Oliver after the game, calmly, and I said I genuinely think you’ve missed something here, I’m finding it very hard to accept a referee, two linesman, a fourth official, VAR, that none of them would have picked up on it, and I still feel that way.

“How have they not seen it? Sometimes the referee might not, but with the other people around them, you’d hope they’d get the right result, and then you add in VAR as well.

“So we’ve had a couple, but we can’t do anything about it now, but really disappointing, and more disappointing because we’ve worked really hard this season to get into a strong position.

“We’ve been in the top half for most of the season and I think if you said that at the start of the season, I would have said, ‘thanks very much’.

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Had Everton beaten Man City and drawn with the Hammers, they would be four points better off and on the same points as seventh-placed Brighton & Hove Albion, who still have an outside chance of qualifying for the Champions League.

Strikingly, the Blues are only Premier League team not to have a VAR intervention go in their favour this season.

Speaking about his frustration with the issue, Moyes said: “The impact on us has been big. They don’t particularly like coming out and admitting they’ve got it wrong. At least they’ve owned up (to West Ham/Man City mistakes), so when you get that, you accept it, we all make mistakes, and if they’re making mistakes, we’ll move on and try and win the last two games.

“Everybody is pretty disappointed with lots of things that have gone on this year, so yes, I think they’ve going to have to do something.”