Wolves ended the 2023/24 season with a loss to Liverpool in a game that saw more VAR controversy thrown at the Old Gold, something that BBC pundit Ian Wright has now commented on.
In his first season at Wolves, Gary O’Neil secured a 14th-place finish with the Midlands club, improving on their points tally of last term by five.
It was a campaign to mostly celebrate considering the mess that the club found themselves in going into the 2023/24 calendar last August, with O’Neil hired days before the opening day as a result of Julen Lopetegui’s swift exit.
While there has been plenty of progression shown in the Englishman’s first year at Molineux, things could have ended far better for the squad, who collected just five points from a possible 30 in their last 10 games.
The final day of the season ended in another defeat for Wolves who lost 2-0 to Liverpool at Anfield, a fixture that saw O’Neil’s side reduced to 10 in the first half as Nelson Semedo was dismissed.
What did Ian Wright say about Nelson Semedo’s red card v Liverpool?
Semedo’s sending off split opinion as the right-back lunged into Alexis Mac Allister after 28 minutes at Anfield.
The on-field decision of Chris Kavanagh was to show a yellow card to the Wolves defender, with VAR then prompting the referee to reassess the challenge on the monitor, leading to the card being upgraded to red.
Jamie Carragher didn’t agree with the decision of VAR when covering the game on Sky Sports, an opinion shared by O’Neil, who was ‘disappointed’ with the red, as relayed by journalist Nathan Judah.
The view on the dismissal was not shared by Ian Wright, who on BBC Match of the Day, branded the actions of Semedo as ‘dangerous’.
“That’s a dangerous challenge, I know that they’ve [Wolves] been hard done by this season really badly in respect to VAR but how can you look at that and say that that is not dangerous and that is not a red card?”
It was far from an acceptable challenge from Semedo, who will now miss the first three games of the 2024/25 campaign if he is a Wolves player after the summer, with VAR’s decision to call for a review seeing Wright disagree with O’Neil.
Ian Wright agrees with Wolves call for VAR to be scrapped
Last week, it was reported that Wolves made the first step to take action against VAR being used in the Premier League, which will see top-flight clubs vote on whether or not the system should be abolished next term.
Despite not agreeing with O’Neil’s disappointment with Semedo’s sending off, Wright did agree with the Old Gold’s decision to stand up against VAR when discussing the topic on Match of the Day, where he said:
“Yeah, let’s get rid of it, we’re losing everything, losing the celebrations of goals man.”
The season has now ended, giving Wolves the chance to reflect on areas that can be improved besides VAR in what will be a crucial summer for O’Neil and the club.