Frustrated Everton manager David Moyes believed the role VAR official Chris Kavanagh played in Michael Keane's contentious red card against Wolves was embarrassing and the whole system was "in a difficult position".
The centre-back was sent off after rookie Premier League referee Tom Kirk was called to the pitchside monitor by Kavanagh, who spotted the defender pulling striker Tolu Arokodare’s hair in an aerial challenge late in the game.
Everton’s unsuccessful appeal against the dismissal and subsequent three-match ban for Keane left Moyes even more agitated as he did not think the punishment fitted the crime.
"Three games… it shouldn’t even have been any games but I’m more embarrassed for whoever was on VAR," said the Scot, whose options for the FA Cup tie at home to Sunderland have been reduced further by Jack Grealish’s dismissal for two yellow cards for dissent.
"This was a young referee doing only his third or fourth game and VAR gave him a terrible decision. VAR didn’t need to get involved in that at all, looking for the smallest things and probably things I don’t think anyone would have paid any interest in otherwise.
"They are doing the best they can but if that is the best they can do at the moment, then they are in a difficult position."
Moyes pointed to other inconsistencies: Hwang Hee-chan scraping his studs down the calf of Harrison Armstrong and Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli throwing a ball at injured Liverpool defender Conor Bradley before trying to haul him off the pitch.
"What Michael Keane did was a sending-off and a three-game ban but the (Hwang) tackle was a nothing in the game and not recognised by VAR or the referee," Moyes added.
"We saw last night it’s OK to throw a ball at somebody and pick them up with a bad injury but have a little pull of someone’s hair accidentally means a three-game ban – that’s quite extraordinary for me. It sounds as though they have got all their things in the wrong places at the moment."
