Respected journalist, Henry Winter, has said that the Premier League could learn from Blades manager, Chris Wilder.
Winter was speaking on Sky’s ‘Sunday Supplement’ programme yesterday. The issue of VAR was brought up after the Blades had a goal disallowed at Spurs. It was disallowed for what looked like John Lundstram’s toe being offside.
The decision brought boos from both sets of supporters on Saturday. Ultimately, United got their equaliser just minutes later anyway as George Baldock scored.
However, Winter, who is one of the game’s most respected journalists, was not impressed. He called out Mike Riley and insisted they should be listening to Chris Wilder.
“The game should be about Chris Wilder, not Mike Riley. We should be listening to Chris Wilder, not Mike Riley. He should be shaping the future of the game, not Mike Riley”, Winter said.
Winter referenced something Wilder said about VAR. The Blades gaffer was quoted as saying:
“Has it really come down to the size of John Lundstram’s big toe?”.
Ironically for Wilder, he had supported VAR earlier in the week. The Blades gaffer insisted that the game needs to stick with it now.
Consistency and timings
The big problem with the VAR decision on Saturday was that it was still subjective. Despite drawing line upon line on the screen, it’s still open to interpretation. The image was slightly blurred, so there has to be an element of error allowed, surely?
The other problem was the time taken. It took VAR almost four minutes to reach a decision. The fact it took so long suggests it wasn’t a ‘clear and obvious’ error. That’s the term banded about so much when it comes to VAR.
Once again, fans were left in limbo and had a key element of the game sucked away from them. This has to change.
The powers that be are risking taking celebrating a goal out of the game. At what point do fans begin to hang fire before celebrating a goal? Surely that can’t be allowed to happen.
When the likes of Henry Winter are talking about the Blades, it should be for the right reasons. Not simply, because of VAR.