ORIOL Romeu questioned the use of VAR to determine handball decisions, saying: "I don’t think before those penalties were even talked about."

Saints felt aggrieved after two decisions went against them in Sunday's defeat to Wolves.

Trailing 1-0, the visitors were given a route back into the contest at St Mary's when Ryan Bertrand was penalised when a Nelson Semedo shot struck his arm in the box.

Ruben Neves duly converted the spot-kick, before Pedro Neto fired home a winning goal.

However, at the other end in between the two Wolves strikes, when a dropping ball hit defender Leander Dendoncker on the arm, no penalty was awarded.

And Romeu believes it is difficult to try and define what should and should not be given as a penalty for handball in the box.

Discussing the decision to award Wolves a penalty, Romeu told the Daily Echo: "We all looked at the images after the game and we were a bit shocked. 

"From the game I had many bodies to look through and I didn’t really see it. But my point is, and I guess most of the boys think the same, we didn’t really understand why it was punished in our box and not punished in their box.

"I know that rule is there, we can agree or not, but it is there. So if it is a penalty on our side, why hasn’t it been given on the other side? That’s frustrating. 

"I don’t know, maybe someone will give us a reason or an explanation but we will have to accept it, digest it and go again."

Asked if the handball rules are clear enough, Romeu continued: "I have the feeling that to make things easier for the referees, they want to write everything down and put all the situations on paper and say ‘right, if he is blocking something or if he is doing this it’s a penalty’, but it’s football. 

"It is endless in terms of options and shots and blocks and sometimes trying to narrow it down, it just makes it worse because then the referees don’t know what to do. They just hang themselves to one decision or one rule or the other. 

"I don’t think before those penalties were even talked about. They were just natural actions and they were just part of the game. 

"Right now, because you can stop it and see it and clearly see that there is a handball, it just gives it away. But I think VAR should be to help referees, not to give things that weren’t given before, that’s my point. 

"I can understand they want to make everything as clear as possible, but sometimes it’s just the other way around."

The 2-1 reverse marked an unwelcome new record for Saints, having now lost six consecutive league matches for the first time in the club's history.

"I think we did alright in the first half and we came out in the second half trying to do the same thing," said Romeu. 

"They came a little bit higher with their lines to press.

"I would say we didn’t push enough in the last 15 or 20 minutes where we really could have done a lot better and a lot more. That’s what I would take out from it, we had probably not done enough, well enough."

Asked if he felt the team should have been more than one goal up at half-time, Romeu added: "Well, I think we dominated a lot more than they did, but we didn’t have many chances either. Although they barely crossed the halfway line in the first half. 

"We did what we had to do, we pushed them, we kept them away from our box. We got one goal, it was great, but the second half it all went away and we didn’t react well enough."