Allegri: 'VAR only objective issues'

By Football Italia staff

Max Allegri admits Juventus were afraid of losing their 2-2 draw with Atalanta, but thinks VAR “should only be used on objective situations.”

The Bianconeri had been 2-0 up in Bergamo after 25 minutes through Federico Bernardeschi and Gonzalo Higuain, but Mattia Caldara and Bryan Cristante completed the comeback.

“It was a good performance in terms of technical passing and intensity, it seemed comfortable, then we conceded that goal on a free kick to shake things up,” Allegri told Mediaset Premium.

“In the end, it actually went well for us, because we got irritable and risked losing it on the counter. It’s disappointing because we conceded two goals.

“We should’ve been better prepared on the free kick for the rebound, while on the second goal we gave the ball away too much and it was a fine header from Cristante. I was worried at the end, as we could’ve lost it on an incident and every point will be precious come the end of the season.”

This was Bernardeschi’s first start for Juve and he crowned it with a goal and an assist.

“Federico had a good game, he hadn’t played for a while. In a big team, you need to work in defence too, but I am very happy with his performance.”

The game was dominated by VAR – video assistant referees – as Mario Mandzukic saw his goal disallowed because of a Stephan Lichtsteiner elbow on Papu Gomez, then in the final minutes Juve received a contentious penalty, which Etrit Berisha saved from Paulo Dybala.

“If we want football to be a sport that is no longer a sport, then use VAR on every incident. However, if we get to March where every point becomes decisive, then games can last three or four hours,” moaned Allegri.

“In my view, technology should only be used on objective situations – offside, in or out of the box, over the line or not – but when it comes to subjective situations, people are never going to agree. That’s sport.

“The referee can give a penalty or not, that’s his decision. Otherwise when we get to more complicated games, we’ll end up like American Football where there are constant stoppages and we sit there eating nuts until the match ends at midnight. It’s the same in basketball.

“I am not saying this is a penalty and that isn’t. That’s not the point. I simply believe it should be used for objective and not subjective decisions.”

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