Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has some strong opinions on the VAR system.
Tottenham Hotspur’s clash with Rochdale last night was littered with VAR controversy, and Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino had some interesting views on the ordeal and the system as a whole.
The North London side wound up running away as 6-1 winners in the replay, but the magnitude of that victory was outweighed by the frustrations the Argentine felt.
“I am so happy because the job is done and we are in the quarter-finals,” Pochettino told the Daily Mirror.
“That was our objective but the first half was a bit embarrassing for everyone. It is difficult to keep focus on the football.
“I am not sure that the system is going to help. I love football. That is why we love the game that we know. Football is about emotion. It is a contest of emotion and if we are going to kill emotion in football, the fans, the people who love football, are not so happy about what they saw.”
While his initial reaction is more than understandable, you have to question the long-term effects of this weighed up against the first few months of feedback. One of the key things to remember is that this is simply the testing phase of the system and that as time goes on, edits and changes will be implemented in order to improve the service for fans and media members alike moving forward.
It was never going to be perfect from the word go and while the issues have been there for everyone to see, the amount of time it takes to enforce seems to be the one thing that is criticised above everything else. With that in mind, it needs to be said that the time taken to come to a decision will only dwindle as the weeks go on, and other sports seem to be able to handle it just fine.
Rugby and American football are two examples right off the bat, with both benefitting from this more elaborate system. It does not add mountains of time onto the game as a whole, and it clearly does not affect the atmosphere because the fans are still cheering and reacting to the game until the final whistle.
The FA needs to be clear about the specifications of VAR in order to get fans on board, but in equal measure, there needs to be some kind of patience from supporters. Change is obviously a difficult thing to handle in football, but these overreactions are just making things worse.
If this is something we have to deal with in order to eventually get a more refined product, then so be it.
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