Chris Wilder believes VAR is damaging football’s entertainment, and claimed referee Chris Kavanagh should not have allowed Manchester City’s opening goal last night after running into John Fleck.
Chris Wilder said ” Nobody knows where they’re drawing the lines from, they’re all blurred, it’s not going back onto his foot. The rule about the ball hitting the referee came in over the summer but (although it did not touch Kavanagh) he’s affected the game. I believe he should just blow up and I don’t think there would have been a big debate about it from opposition players or manager. If it had happened the other way around, there might have been a little bit more to say. I don’t think it hit the referee but he’s right in the midst of it. Does he affect the play? Does he affect John Fleck? Do we want referees playing a part in the opening goal, just as much do we want people drawing silly blurred lines on feet and arms and elbows and hands when it comes off the end of the foot? No.”
Both managers were complimentary about the Blades, whose unbeaten away run equalled the top flight’s longest by a newly-promoted side since World War Two. Pep Guardiola praised the way “one of the most physical teams in the Premier League” made his side work.
Pep Guardiola said “I already knew, but today confirmed why Sheffield are in the position they are in the table, why they had not lost away until this match,” he said. “If the first ‘goal’ had not been offside it would have been incredibly difficult to beat them.”
