It's a strange fight that Barça has decided to wage against the arbitration if we are to believe the information from Sport. The Catalan club is annoyed by the management of offside by the assistant referees. Despite the impressive results of the high defense put in place by Hansi Flick (108 offsides caused and 14 goals canceled thanks to VAR this season) the club deplores an abuse of the “let play” policy. This strategy, applied since the introduction of VAR, consists of only raising the flag at the end of an action to avoid putting the attacking team at a disadvantage. While this is understandable for doubtful situations, Barça criticizes that this practice is used even for obvious offsides.
Offsides signaled way too late?
The Blaugranas defenders, often positioned near the halfway line, must therefore make intense runs in the event of a pass behind them. This Wednesday against Red Star, at least two situations of this type resulted in unnecessary physical effort for the defense. Players like Koundé or Íñigo were thus able to draw on their reserves unnecessarily. After the match in Belgrade, Flick expressed his annoyance. “I don’t like having to run backwards in certain situations…” he confided, before moderating his remarks and avoiding direct criticism of the referees. Barca perceive a tendency among assistants to rely excessively on VAR, which they believe undermines their physically demanding style of play.
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To summarize
Barça is unhappy with the arbitration according to information from the Catalan press. And this for a very specific reason. Indeed, the Blaugrana club would not appreciate the tendency to let play take place after offsides, however obvious.
