Liverpool manager Arn Slott says the Premier League is no longer fun to watch – VAR intervention in Manchester United’s win over Crystal Palace shows why he’s right
For Arne Slott, there aren’t many Premier League games that are fun to watch (Image: Getty Images)
Whatever your opinion of the job he’s doing at Liverpool, Arne Slott usually has interesting views on most issues in the world of football. And while many TV pundits have defended the Premier League’s standards in terms of quality of football, the Liverpool manager has been refreshingly frank.
“Most of the games I watch in the Premier League are not fun to watch for me,” he says. Slott stressed that he still believes the Premier League is “great”, adding: “It’s always interesting because it’s very competitive. It’s very competitive and that’s what makes this league great. Everybody can beat everybody.”
That’s not true. Excluding playing each other, Burnley and Wolves have played 56 games so far, winning a total of five.
Technically, anyone can win against anyone, but realistically, the outcome of matches between top teams and bottom teams is predictable. But I can see where Slot is coming from.
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Premier League arenas are full. There’s a lot of physical effort and a lot of really good talent. Games are an opportunity, but they’re becoming less fun to watch, especially on TV, especially for neutrals.
And the increased reliance on set-pieces as an attacking threat is not the only reason. In fact, that’s not the biggest reason. The biggest reason is VAR.
I watched the match between Manchester United and Crystal Palace on Sunday in a pub with some friends. To be honest, during the VAR over the penalty, all three of us lost all interest in the proceedings.
Referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR deliberated for five minutes over Maxence Lacroix’s foul on Matheus Cunha (Image: Molly Darlington/Copa, Getty Images)
The scope of VAR intervention will be expanded at this summer’s World Cup (Image: Getty Images)
The new guidelines will give VAR the power to cancel a second yellow card in the event of a clear error by the referee. That way, the player will not be sent off. But what if the second yellow card is legitimate and the first was a clear mistake? That poor player has to go. That’s completely wrong.
And what about corner kicks? They will only intervene if a clear mistake has been made, and correcting it will not interrupt the flow of the match. But they’ve been saying that since day one with VAR, so what happened? Anyway, how about a throw-in deep in the attacking area? They are becoming as important as corners.
I have a question here. Have you ever heard a player, manager, pundit or fan get so angry about a dodgy second booking or wrongly taken corner that they think VAR should be involved? No, never.
The people who are deploying these VAR add-ons are trying to do something to themselves. And unfortunately, the things we have to do to achieve that end diminish the fun of watching soccer.
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