Funny press conference gaffe reinforces Sheffield United VAR point as scars remain ahead of play-off final
It was incredibly ironic that, halfway through an answer about VAR and its “stumbles along the way,” a journalist’s phone pinged louldly on the desk in front of Chris Wilder. “Is that the ball over the line?” he quickly quipped. “He’s not at Villa Park, is he? They’ve switched it on!”
He can laugh about it now but at the time, back in 2020 in the first game of ‘project restart’ after Covid-19 shut down the Premier League, it was anything but funny as a Hawkeye failure, and VAR’s subsequent and inexplicable lack of intervention, denied the Blades what could have been a key goal in the first game back at Aston Villa.
That wasn’t United’s only grievance with the technology during their time in the top-flight, with a David McGoldrick goal away at Tottenham Hotspur memorably disallowed after a lengthy wait because John Lundstram’s boot was half a size too big in the build-up.
Nothing much seems to unite football fans like opposition to VAR but it will be in operation for Saturday’s play-off final against Sunderland at Wembley, despite United playing 46 league games, two more in the play-offs and three in the domestic cups without any input from Stockley Park.
“I was pro-VAR when it first came out,” said Wilder. “I think there have obviously been stumbles with it along the way, and we’d all like it to be better than maybe it is at the moment. So hopefully VAR doesn't come into action on Saturday afternoon and if it does, everybody gets the correct decision because that's all we're after.
“We're after correct decisions and if it plays its part as it is, or was meant to be, or brought into the game to be, then [that’s fine]. You just want good decisions to be made and I'm sure, with the experience and quality of Chris [Kavanagh, the on-field referee] and the whole world looking on, that he'll play a part in managing the game correctly.”
That hasn’t stopped United taking extra steps in the build-up to the game to prepare their players for the introduction of the VAR technology, which many of Wilder’s men have experience with from either last season in the Premier League with the Blades or previous big games earlier in their careers.
Callum O’Hare was infamously part of the Coventry City side who saw a last-gasp FA Cup semi-final winner against Manchester United snatched away after a very tight VAR call, while Michael Cooper has also enountered the technology before during his time at Plymouth Argyle - on one occasion, rather ironically, at Bramall Lane against United in the FA Cup.
“We've had a meeting about it,” the Blades goalkeeper admitted, “because it is different to normal refereeing and there are different scenarios and situations where you might have to treat the game a bit different. So yeah, we've covered those bases as well.
“I think it would be silly to say this is just another game, because it's not. There'll be probably double the amount of people that we've played in front of all season there, and there's VAR and all that sort of stuff. And there is something big on the line.
“But, equally, once kick-off's done and the whistle's blown, it's effectively another game of football that you've prepared throughout the week for. The other team has done the same and so if we can just score more goals than them, then I guess it is another game of football.”
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