Collymore’s column: VAR should be scrapped, worrying times for Spurs and why Jack Grealish should be dropped against Arsenal

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In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points including an embarrassing weekend for VAR, Tottenham Hotspur’s problematic season and which winger could give Manchester City the best chance of beating league leaders Arsenal on Wednesday, plus much more…

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VAR is turning the ‘beautiful game’ ugly…

What a disastrous weekend for VAR. There were two huge errors in the Crystal Palace vs Brighton and Arsenal vs Brentford games where the official in the VAR room actually forgot to draw the offside lines onto the phase of play.

Look, I get it – it’s frustrating. They’ve made two big and obvious mistakes but referees are human beings and if you leave humans to do something, it’s inevitable there will be some mistakes. However, let me explain why I, someone who was pro-VAR, am now calling for it to be scrapped.

Prior to VAR being introduced, correct refereeing decisions were around the 98 per cent mark and now, with VAR, that number has gone up by about half a per cent, so the improvement is minimal.

We’ve now got a situation where referees are having their natural skills blunted because they know they can always rely on VAR and you’ve got a group of other officials sat miles away in Stockley Park, who are also human beings, running the technology to help other human beings, so unless VAR is 100 per cent guaranteed to run by its self and get every single decision bang on every single time, it’s pointless having it.

It’s a system that was supposed to come in to make more decisions correct but it’s only marginally done that. What it is doing is taking the spontaneity away from the game and the constant nit-picking is creating more debate than the actual play itself. There are some instances where we, as fans, are made to review offside offences that we can barely see with the human eye.

It’s ridiculous and it’s making a mockery of the world’s biggest sport. In my opinion, the VAR experiment is over. It hasn’t worked and it doesn’t look like it’s ever going to work, so let’s just get rid of it and go back to how it used to be.

Although there is always the argument that a club could get promoted or relegated based on one incorrect decision, that is true, but what else is true is that teams have another 30-plus games over the course of a season to decide their fate. Nothing ever comes down to just one decision. So for the sake of football, which is now becoming a passionless sport because no one knows when to celebrate or put their head in their hands, scrap VAR and instead look to bring in a pathway that opens the door to more future referees.

The FA and Premier League should consider an official’s programme for released youth players so, if they want to, they can go into refereeing and aren’t just left without a career after being rejected as a player. We could give them the best training and they’d already have experience of actually playing the game. That way we might end up producing a generation of top referees that we can feel proud of. Maybe then we’ll get the best of both worlds by improving the percentage of correct decisions and not needing VAR. What do you say, folks?

Worrying times for Spurs…

Sometimes there are managers that just don’t fit clubs and I think Antonio Conte at Spurs is one of those examples. We also saw it with Rafa Benitez at Everton and Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.

Stylistically, Spurs fans rightfully have a certain expectation of how the team should play and Conte is failing to deliver that so it’s strange to me why he, or the players, have yet to really come under fire. All the heat appears to be directed at Daniel Levy.

Interestingly, I’ve seen some whispers about three of the top jobs in Serie A potentially being available in the summer and Conte being in line to take up one of them, so in terms of what the incentive is for him to do well at Spurs, and only Spurs, I don’t think it exists.

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From the club’s perspective, it’s quite worrying because Harry Kane could leave and so could Heung-min Son. Even if they don’t both go, you’d expect that partnership to be broken up one way or another.

Conte is probably looking at the complete picture and thinking ‘some of my best players could leave soon, I haven’t been properly backed in the market and the fans are protesting against the owners – do I really need this?’

Everything at Spurs at the moment is pointing toward a disappointing season. After being thumped 4-1 by Leicester, it’s impossible to back them to finish in the top four.

Heung-min Son would tick a lot of European boxes…

On the subject of Son – he came to the Premier League from Germany and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up back there.

I know Bayern Munich have Sadio Mane, who obviously plays in the same position, but with just two years left on Son’s deal, it’s unlikely Spurs would let him go for free, and at the age of 31 come the summer, it’s a given they’re not going to be able to demand £70m plus, so for a fee half that, you’d think Bayern would at least enquire.

France is another league I could see him going to. I’m sure Paris Saint-Germain would take him. He’s a Premier League-proven quality player who has a great reputation for being a good professional. He never causes any trouble and he’s a huge star in Asia, so he would certainly tick a lot of boxes.

Son Heung-min Tottenham

If he did leave Spurs, I couldn’t really imagine him staying in the Premier League. I’m not sure he feels he has anything left to prove to England and although he’d want trophies, the same as every player, you’d think it’s very unlikely that Man United and Man City would move for him considering how many wide-men they both already have on their books, and obviously given the rivalry Chelsea and Arsenal both have with Spurs, a move to either of those is probably out of the question too.

Pep Guardiola should drop Jack Grealish against Arsenal…

If Erling Haaland does miss Wednesday’s game through injury, make no mistake, it’ll definitely be a huge boost for Arsenal but a lot of their focus will be on stopping Kevin De Bruyne first.

Obviously, Pep Guardiola would like to have Haaland fit and available, but it isn’t like they don’t have suitable replacements. They’ve got a World Cup winner in Julian Alvarez ready and waiting to step in, so stopping the supply line that comes from De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan will probably be Mikel Arteta’s priority.

Man City face another big tactician decision though – Riyad Mahrez is nailed on to start on the right, but does Guardiola go with Jack Grealish or Phil Foden on the left? – Personally, I’d start Foden in this one. He works harder and is guaranteed to offer you more going back, and with Bukayo Saka in the form of his life, the Citizens will need to load up on Arsenal’s right-hand side to stop him.

So for me, although Grealish is playing really well, I think it’d be wise to bench him mid-week in favour of Foden and then look to bring him on with half an hour or so to go.

More Stories Antonio Conte Heung-Min Son Jack Grealish Phil Foden Stan Collymore