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Men’s Football VARy frustrating result for Chris Wilder as Sheffield United share the spoils with Tottenham

CHRIS WILDER said he is “100 per cent” tired of talking about VAR, but couldn’t suppress his disappointment as the Blades had a goal cruelly struck off during Saturday’s 1-1 draw in Tottenham.

After a hard-fought but goalless first half, Son Heung Min capitalised on Dean Henderson’s rare mistake to put Spurs ahead after 58 minutes.

But almost immediately, David McGoldrick’s answer for the Blades was ruled out after almost four minutes of deliberation — VAR dubiously putting John Lundstram’s big toe ahead of Eric Dier a few passes before the goal — before the Blades survived a later check for offside when George Baldock looped a cross into the bottom left corner.

In the stadium, Spurs fans celebrated the overturned goal like a Get out of Jail Free card — and the Sheffield end broke into bitter chants of “VAR is fucking shit.”

And speaking after the game, Wilder struggled to level his club’s hard-working and positive ethos with such an opaque decision.

“I believe I am an honest football man — that started off in the game at 16 and still going at 52 — and I believe we deserved something out of the game. And I imagine a lot of people in the stadium, if they looked at the game in general, would believe that’s correct,” he said.

He confirmed that managers had met with Premier League officials this week to discuss recent high-profile VAR cases, but for Wilder the parameters remain unclear.

“When’s the reset? … It’s gone down the right obviously, [Lundstram’s] crossed it, it’s come back out — and where does it get reset to go again?”

When a reporter complained that such a lengthy decision surely couldn’t be “clear and obvious,” Wilder reflected: “No. I didn’t think so anyway. I’m just glad that the second goal was given, because obviously after the big delay on the first goal all sorts of things were running through my coconut that time.

“The length of that stoppage, obviously, I don’t think it does anybody any good — from managers to players, to most importantly supporters.”

The manager said he is “100 per cent” tired of talking about technology — especially when it overshadows an otherwise positive performance for his side on the road.

“It does seem every press conference on a Thursday and after a game it’s the major talking point. 



“And, you know, I am disappointed about that because I think the main talking point for me today — watching my team go head-to-head, toe-to-toe with a team that were in the Champions League final, in their own back yard — fills me with immense pride in terms of how we’ve played, with and without the ball, and how we’ve limited the opposition.”

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