Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has hit out at Arsene Wenger’s proposal to change the offside law.
Wenger’s proposal is to make it so an attacker is onside if any goalscoring part of his body is in line or behind the line of the last defender, instead of if any goalscoring part of their body being ahead of the last defender.
Hasenhuttl says that this would not work and that he thinks offside works well with VAR at the moment.
Speaking at Southampton’s press conference, as transcribed by FourFourTwo, Hasenhuttl said:
To be honest, the only rule that really works in VAR is the offside so far in my opinion. And we want to change this? I don’t know why.
It’s the only black-and-white decision which is always right or wrong. The rest is subjective. If we change it the way he wants to do it, we can stop playing offside because it won’t work any more.
It will change the game massively, in my opinion.
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I agree with Hasenhuttl in that Wenger’s idea would not work. First of all, if they changed the law to this, it would need to be implemented across the globe to hundreds, if not thousands, of leagues that do not even use VAR.
This means that assistants officiating those leagues will have the difficult job of trying to judge these offsides, looking backwards and through bodies to see if a part of the attacker is onside, rather than having to spot if any body part is forward and out of place.
Secondly, it would not resolve any issues regarding the millimetre offside calls and lengthy hold-ups whislt VAR decide on such matters.
All the new rule would be doing is measuring from a different point, so it makes little to no difference in that regard.
One positive it could bring, however, is that it could lead to more goals. If you allow more leeway when it comes to offsides, then attackers have more of an advantage when it comes to making runs off the back of defenders.
Overall, I agree with Hasenhuttl and do not think that Wenger’s idea would work in the modern game with, or without, VAR.
