Tottenham Hotspur left-back Danny Rose has slammed the VAR as ‘laughable’ and as an ‘absolute disgrace’ following Spurs 6-1 win over Rochdale on Wednesday.
Spurs had a goal disallowed, a penalty awarded, and a penalty controversially disallowed through the use of VAR, which interrupted the game at multiple points, with Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino labeling the first-half as ‘an embarrassment to everyone’.
A Fernando Llorente hat-trick secured Spurs a place in the FA Cup quarter-final stages but Rose said his side progressed under shambolic circumstances.
“It’s just an absolute disgrace,” said Rose.
"Shambolic, laughable, an absolute disgrace!"#THFC defender Danny Rose is not a fan of VAR… 😡
Full quotes here: https://t.co/qDQCUPT8Rg pic.twitter.com/OgNnXIWPKP
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) March 1, 2018
“Waiting around for I don’t know how many minutes to get a decision; it’s -4C outside. It’s just laughable.
“To have stood around for a minute or two minutes for a decision while a football game is going on, it’s just… I just don’t get it and it’s just ruined it a little bit.”
Pochettino said that he worries that VAR could kill emotion in football and that football is about mistakes.
“The first half was a little bit embarrassing for everyone,” said Pochettino.
“Difficult to keep focus and play football. I am not sure that the system is going to help.
“Football is about emotion, it’s a context of emotion if we are going to kill emotion in football. I think the fans of people who love football are not so happy about what they see today.
“I think in my opinion we have the best referees in Europe, in the world, and I think we don’t need too much. Football is about mistakes, like us, the players can make mistakes, the refs can make mistakes. And it was always like this, and we understood football in this way.
“I think, if I can help, if my opinion is important, I think it is a lot of work to do, because we need to talk, to explain, because I saw today every one of us confused.
“I think if we try in this direction we are going to change the game we love, that is why I am happy to help, to analyse and to make it better. If we are going to use this system, we need to be clear what is going to happen in every single action, and how.”
