Sean Dyche calls out puzzling VAR intervention

Sean Dyche believes the VAR slow motion replay of Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s red-card challenge against Crystal Palace made the “minor contact” appear more serious.

Calvert-Lewin was dismissed after 79 minutes during Thursday’s FA Cup third round draw at Selhurst Park for “serious foul play” following a challenge on Nathanial Clyne.

The striker went in to the slide tackle with one foot off the ground, and this was not initially deemed a red card offence by referee Chris Kavanagh before he was sent to the monitor to review the incident by VAR Craig Pawson.

Dyche said Everton were similarly unfortunate to not be awarded a penalty after Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen grappled with Beto in the box.

“I haven’t asked Dom (how he feels about the decision),” Dyche told ITV Sport. “Slow-mo shows a different picture. If you’re going to slow mo things then you’ve got to slow mo the penalty on Beto — or what should have been a penalty. Andersen’s got his hands clearly around him, cupping his body, but it’s not a penalty.

“If you want to slow mo everything, you’ve got to slow-mo everything. You can’t just have it one for one and one for the other. At the end of the day, there’s contact, it’s minor contact. Live time he doesn’t give anything, slow it down everything looks worse on slow mo, we know that.”