Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has joined his opposite number Maurizio Sarri in blasting Video Assistant Referee (VAR) after his side beat Chelsea 1-0 in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Despite profiting from VAR’s decision yesterday when Harry Kane was handed a penalty while replays showed that the talisman was offside, Pochettino was unhappy with the technology. Sarri noted that referees are not accustomed to using the VAR, “I think that at the moment here the referees are not ready to use it in the right way the system. For example, apart from the image in our camera, Kane was offside, clearly offside, but it is not important.”
Speaking in a post-match press conference after the 1-0 win over Chelsea, Pochettino expressed his dissatisfaction with VAR, “To be honest, I am not happy with that system, it is a system that we still need to be agreed in the way we are going to use it. I think a good example is La Liga, no one is happy because no one knows the clear way we are going to use.
“Everyone is complaining in Spain from day one and I hope that now we have time to develop that system, we need to work a lot, we need to agree between of course players, coaching staff and referee. It needs to be a tool to improve the game.”
Tottenham head into the second leg of the fixture which will be played on Tuesday 22nd January with a one-goal advantage.
