Terrible idea which is going to change nothing. The whole problem with VAR stems from the fact that it’s the VAR who has to decide what should be a review and not someone on the field, like in literally every other sport that has video reviews.

The VAR has an impossible job. They aren’t trying to decide “what’s the right decision”, they’re trying to decide “is this decision incorrect enough for there to be a review?” which is such a difficult question to answer from their perspective, it’s no surprise they can’t do it consistently. Plus they have to make that decision non-stop for 45 minutes, which must be exhausting, it’s no surprise their concentration levels drop and mistakes are made

Either the referee, the captain or the coach should be asking the VAR for a decision, and they should just be giving the correct decision based on what they would have given if they were the referee and they saw the incident in real time. None of this “clear and obvious error” nonsense. And there’s no reason they should only give opinions on red cards, penalties and goals. Then the VAR should make the final decision and there is no need for the referee to go to a monitor and confirm it. It works in every other sport, why football have decided to overcomplicate it is a mystery.

So the ref didn’t see Guimaraes smashing Jorginho on the head, fine, Jorginho would challenge. Then the VAR just has to watch the incident and decide for themselves what the right decision is. If he really thinks it’s a yellow card only, then fine, give a free kick and a yellow card. That way it takes the pressure off the referee’s if that’s what they’re worried about, it stops the massive increase in non-decisions from the on field officials because they just let things go thinking the VAR will review it anyway.

The way the protocol is now just introduces so many unintended consequences in the decision making, we’d be better off not having VAR at all.

It’s quite difficult to play through balls when you play against a deep block with a clogged midfield every game. I mean how can you play a pass through the defensive line into open space if the defensive line is on the edge of the penalty area?

For comparison, Bernardo Silva has 1 through ball this season. Whereas players in counter attacking teams generally have more - eg bruno fernandes has 8. Xhaka had 6 through balls in the whole of last season. Point being, teams like Arsenal and City just don’t create chances by playing through balls.

I’m not saying Havertz has been good, but to use 1 stat with no context to beat him with is a bit silly.