Why I hate VAR – Mo Salah

Liverpool’s forward Mo Salah has confessed his total dislike for the newly introduced technology maintaining that VAR takes the element of chance out of football and should only be used to protect players from dangerous challenges.

VAR is making its debut in the English Premier League in the 2019/20 season after having been used at the 2018 men’s and 2019 women’s World Cups and last season’s Champions League.

Mo Salah, the 2019 UEFA Champions League winner, however insists that he holds no special affection for the technology meant to help referee make better decisions.

“I don’t like it (VAR) … that’s my answer, always. I don’t like it,” Salah told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview monitored by Soccernet.ng when asked about the use of VAR.

“I love football how it is,” added Salah,
“It’s like that with the mistakes of the referee, with the aggression from the player sometimes.

“It’s OK sometimes to protect the players from dangerous play. But OK, that’s it, in my opinion that could be the only reason that happened, just to protect the players.

“But for me, I accepted the football with the mistakes of the referee, mistakes of the player, I don’t know, whatever. That’s how the football gets more excited.”

Asked about what impact he thinks VAR, Salah who last season was forced to reject accusations of diving, added: “More penalties for me, you will see that.”

But Salah, who scored 44 goals in all competitions in his debut year at Anfield in 2017/18 and 27 last season, says he considers himself a winger rather than a forward.

“I’m not a striker, I play as a winger, so it’s my job not just to score but to also assist, play with the midfield.

“I play on the wing which no one recommended. For a long time I didn’t play as a number nine.

“I’m comfortable with that. It’s not my first job. Like, the number one his job is only to score but as a winger it’s not just to score, it’s to give assists … and play with the team. I’ll do a lot of things to defend.”