WHY SAY ANYTHING?

(Juan Mata’s knee races ahead of everyone but fails to beat the system despite the strangely shaped lines not being parallel to the penalty area!)

Juan Mata scored a goal, against Huddersfield in the VAR Cup, which was ruled out due to his right kneecap being in an offside position.

Unlike the War of Jenkin’s Ear, which resulted in a conflict between Britain and Spain lasting nine years, the VAR of Mata’s Knee only resulted in much discussion, disagreement and conjecture, and will probably last a few days.

Mata, for a midfielder, is caught offside far too often. His goal was the third occasion on which he had been penalised in the first half alone which, for the intelligent footballer he undoubtedly is, is around three times too many!

Now it is a fact that he doesn’t have much pace but that is no excuse for not getting back into an onside position when necessary. Even Lukaku, who tends to stroll casually back when an attack breaks down, wasn’t offside as often as the Spaniard.

In fairness, for his “goal”, he was trying to stay onside but he obviously has extended kneecaps which make it difficult when in line with defenders who only have the kneecaps of a mere mortal.

In actual fact, the defender’s arm was playing Mata onside but, as the arm is not a part of the body which can score a goal, (actually it can, but the goal would be disallowed), and therefore doesn’t count, then it was chalked off.

Mata was his usual affable self after the match pointing out that the team was more important and the win was all that mattered. This was the reaction we all expected from him but we would have forgiven him if he had been a little annoyed, perhaps thrown a teacup or two at the dressing room wall.

Poor Paul…..

Paul Pogba is being played out of position. Who says so? Paul Pogba says so, so it must be true.

He is playing in midfield for Manchester United but, apparently, his favourite position for Manchester United is in midfield. Confused? So are we.

He likes to play in a three man midfield and is unhappy when asked/told to play in a two man midfield. So, basically, what he is saying is that he is not good enough to play in a midfield position two yards nearer the middle of the pitch than his favourite and, maybe, a couple of yards further back.

He is, supposedly, a world-class player. He has been described as a box-to-box midfielder which, in fairness to all players described thus, is virtually impossible given the speed of today’s football at the highest level. Even Usain Bolt would struggle to keep up with the game if he had to run the length of the pitch, in both directions, with or without the ball, every fifteen minutes or so.

What Pogba means by his “favourite position” is that he wants another midfielder in the team so that he doesn’t have to track back as much and can concentrate on going forwards. So, to be more accurate, he has a favourite tactic which isn’t always used by the manager, rather than a favourite position.

And finally…..

VAR is used at FA Cup games involving Premier League clubs where the technology is available.

This immediately renders the competition unfair because some teams will benefit from the fact it is in use at their game while others, who have to make do without it, won’t.

If, for example, Juan Mata’s goal had stood, which it should have done for two reasons, then Manchester United would have led 2-0 at half-time not 1-0 and may have made changes during the break which could have been an advantage to Huddersfield.

Who knows? If United had come out in the second half to defend a two goal lead and Huddersfield had scored an early goal it may very well have been a different game with a different result.

This means that Brighton may have been facing Huddersfield in the next round, rather than United.

But why, we hear you ask, should Mata’s goal have stood? Well, firstly, the rule for using VAR is that there has to have been a “clear and obvious error”. In taking more than eight minutes to reach the decision of offside against Mata, due to lines drawn on the TV by the five-year-old son of the producer, it is very clear and obvious that the error wasn’t clear and obvious, otherwise it would have taken just a few seconds.

The second reason it should have stood is because the referee gave the goal. Consequently, as VAR should not have come into play in the circumstances, the goal was wrongly disallowed even though disallowing it was the right decision.

Still confused? So are we but, fortunately, both for ourselves and the millions of football fans around the world, there is a system which is going to put an end to all this confusion. It’s name? VAR of course! Bet you can’t wait!