In the aftermath of the defeat against Napoli, Udinese technical director Federico Balzaretti gave his thoughts, firstly on the penalty that allowed the Partenopei to open the scoring.
"That incident at 0-0 was significant yesterday – it was a soft penalty. What is missing at the moment is uniformity of judgement," he said.
"The referee was three metres away, he assessed the extent of the contact and there was no reason for the VAR to call him over."
"We have meetings in which the procedures are explained, but the correct protocol was not followed. If you're assessing routine contact between players, you have to value the sensitivity of the referee on the pitch. We have asked for this and we always ask for it, otherwise even the push on Festy Ebosele against Fiorentina would have been a penalty if reviewed by VAR."
Drawing a comparison with the Irishman's handball against Juventus, which gave the away side a penalty to take a 2-0 lead, he says: "I believe that the referee on the pitch has the right level of sensitivity, the VAR should intervene only when strictly necessary."
The technical director adds, however, that there are no excuses for the performance against Napoli, which must be redeemed immediately.
"We have a very important game on Sunday. The Fiorentina game knocked the stuffing out of us and then we came up against a strong Napoli side. Above all, we lacked the ruthlessness and spirit that should set us apart," Balzaretti says.
"We play Genoa at home and we expect a reaction from a temperamental viewpoint. We need greater unity – we have spoken with the team and our togetherness must come out in these difficult moments. You get out of this with hard work and a positive attitude.
"That's why I keep saying that there must be spirit in a team with big players, but we must find consistency, because Fiorentina apart we have been very stop-start. Against Genoa we want to take charge of the match."