Pochettino Makes ‘Worrying’ VAR Prediction After Spurs Win

Tottenham Boss, Mauricio Pochettino made has made worrying comments after seeing his side seal a 1-0 victory against Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.

The game saw several controversial issues, but it didn’t take long for the video assistant referee to be involved.

VAR is set to be introduced into the Premier League next season and Pochettino believes there is concerned about how it will change the game of football.

The Argentine thinks there is still a lot of work to do in the off-season to get the system ready.

“I think there are many things that we need to try and make clear,” Pochettino said.

“The spirit of football is going to change, we are going to see a different sport. Not the football we grow up watching, for sure.”

Pochettino is calling for clear guidelines on how VAR going to be used next year.

“We need to be clear and set the protocol, so everyone knows or it is going to be a big problem,” he said.

“It is going to be a tough summer, we need to be all involved to try to find the best way to work.

“It is going to be important if it is going to check everything, if it is only handball, it is aggression, I don’t know.

“Because today there is a lot of action you can check.”

VAR judged that Spurs defender Danny Rose had handled the ball in the box from a Raheem Sterling shot.

Sergio Aguero an opportunity to give City the lead from the penalty spot after 15 minutes but the penalty was saved by Hugo Lloris.

Harry Kane also suffered an injury in a challenge with Fabian Delph, which could rule out the Spurs striker for the rest of the season.

The 25-year-old suffered his injury as he slipped trying to block Delph’s clearance on the right touchline.

Delph got to the ball first but his foot made contact with Kane’s ankle on the follow through.

Pochettino believes if VAR was consulted Delph could have been given his marching orders.

“I said to [Delph] ‘you were lucky’,” Pochettino said.

“Because if checking on the VAR maybe, technically, it was a red card.

“But I think both were fighting for the ball and had no intention of damaging each other.”

Pochettino feels the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium shows there is still room for improvement with VAR.

“I think today shows that the system is still a lot of things to do, there is a lot of work to do,” he said.

“You know there are many decisions where nobody knows if VAR is going to be in or not, if you are going to check or not.

“Maybe, technically, it was a penalty because it was hand ball, but I think you know, we still we don’t know the protocol.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *