Man Utd. in Round 5 of FA Cup After a No-VAR Controversy

In the last few years, we’ve heard many voices complaining about the role of the video-assisted referee, which goes by the name of VAR. The common denominator of such feedback is that this technology has killed the charm of football. 

However, after Leicester’s 1-2 defeat against Man. United in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday, we all might be a bit smarter when it comes to VAR’s practical use. Harry Maguire’s header in the stoppage time after he was obviously offside sparked a lot of controversies in the UK media and among football lovers. It wasn’t that Leicester was a better opponent. The odds before the match gave much higher chances to the United (1.25-1.30 on average).

The match was played at Old Trafford, Man. Utd. has been in much better shape since Ruben Amorim took them over this winter, so expecting that Leicester would make a miracle here was an illusion. 

But they opened the match surprisingly well. The first half was a match of two equal teams. Leicester even scored first, with Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s header at the end of the first half. Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was appointed the Foxes’ manager last November, must have thought he’d get a new chance in the spotlight in the Dream Theatre. During his stint as a United player, the Dutch striker scored an incredible 150 goals. After Leicester took the lead this last Friday, who knows how many of his own goals unrolled before his eyes. 

But the fairy tale didn’t last for too long –  Joshua Zirkzee scored an equalizer in the 68th minute of the match, and United kept attacking and playing pressing onto Leicester’s defensive line. The attacks finally paid off when Harry Maguire redirected Bruno Fernandez’s free-kick into the net. Still, if VAR had been used in this match, this wouldn’t have been a goal, but referee Salisbury would most probably nulled it. What would happen next is the extra time and who knows whether the final outcome would be any different. 

The FA decided in November that VAR wouldn’t be used in any FA Cup matches before the fifth round. We can now speculate whether such a decision was made for financial reasons, or whether the officials wanted to return some of the ‘charm’ to this game, as mentioned above. Such cases just prove how much we’ve already become accustomed to this technology, and it’s hard to imagine going one step back, to the no-VAR time. 

And if we take aside this controversy that has marked the game between Man. United and Leicester, we can still see the number of shots on goal: 4:3 in United’s favour. The Red Devils also had six corner kicks while the Foxes stayed on one corner. None Mr Nistelrooy nor Mr Amorim should be too happy with such an effort. 

Manchester United has qualified for the fifth round. They’ll play Fulham on 1 March, again at Old Trafford. But if they don’t improve their physical condition and their tactic, they might not be as lucky as they were in round four; plus, VAR will be there, meaning that the entire team must show more if they want to get to the final round of the oldest football competition in the world.