Mo Salah on VAR: “More penalties for me!”

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Mohamed Salah says he had ‘accepted’ the way football was before the introduction of VAR but is hopeful he will benefit from it.

The first uses of the technology in the league have, inevitably, prompted great debate.

Many are keen to remain constructive in their criticism with the knowledge that VAR is here to stay, but some are expressing a fear that it’s robbing the game of its spirit.

Salah is inclined toward the latter point of view, but feels a key benefit of the system may be the protection it offers players, with bad challenges more likely to face punishment.

“I don’t like it… that’s my answer, always. I don’t like it. I love football how it is,” he told CNN.

“It’s like that with the mistakes of the referee, with the aggression from the player sometimes.

“It’s OK sometimes to protect the players from dangerous play. But OK, that’s it, in my opinion, that could be the only reason that happened, just to protect the players.

“But for me, I accepted the football with the mistakes of the referee, mistakes of the player, I don’t know, whatever. That’s how the football gets more excited.”

The Egyptian does, however, reckon that he’ll be able to win his side more spot-kicks as defenders face greater scrutiny in their efforts to wrestle him off the ball.

Salah was often criticised for going down too easily at points last term, but he was canny rather than deceptive amid rough treatment from the opposition.

“More penalties for me, you will see that,” he predicted.

VAR has not had a truly significant impact on either of the Reds’ opening league games, but we can be sure that there’ll be a match-defining intervention soon enough.

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