Alarm bells over Leicester signing as VAR boss addresses Foxes controversy

Kelechi Iheanacho problems?

Former King Power striker Kelechi Iheanacho has found himself the subject of intense concern at Sevilla. After joining from Leicester City on a free transfer in the summer, the player has featured just 75 minutes, with supporters raising alarm over the perceived lack of appearances for what they were expecting to be a major signing.

During that short time, the Nigerian forward has only managed… zero goals and one shot on target. That’s it. Some speculate this might be a fitness issue the club is managing, although Sevilla’s head coach is rejecting this to be the case. The official explanation is that the player has to adapt to the Spanish side, football, and life in general before breaching into the starting XI. Hopefully Iheanacho does well out in Spain, but the early signs are not great.

Leicester City’s eventful VAR battle

The Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) is a much discussed collection of technologies designed to support the on-field officials in making more accurate decisions where the result would make a significant impact to the game. For example, red cards, offside goals, or penalty-inducing fouls.

Before the international break, Leicester City were at the receiving end of a well-run VAR process and good officiating for their 2-1 loss to Fulham. PGMOL boss Howard Webb praised the process and arguably wishes for Wout Faes’ given goal to be the example the rest of VAR officials to follow.

The important element was communication between the officials in what they saw. The on-field officials made their decision known, the VAR official then reviewed the footage, recommended an on-field review for a ‘subjective offside’, and the referee then declared the goal to stand as Jamie Vardy was not impacting the goalkeeper.

Meanwhile, against Crystal Palace, the officials were atrocious. The angles chosen to show the apparent offside were flimsily pieced together, leaving doubt for on-field referees and introducing too much human error into the process. The officials at the time chose to use a camera angle to draw the line which was before the ball had been passed forward by the Palace attackers.

As such, the player appeared even to almost be offside by that line, although they again decided not to show James Justin in the picture provided. Whether the VAR line-drawing tech was given the appropriate angle and moment is a mystery as the communication between officials was simply inadequate for this tier of football.

Every angle available clearly shows the Palace striker offside. They are yet to release a picture that clearly shows an onside position with all defensive Leicester City players in-view. They are also yet to clarify what angle, picture, and moment, was used to draw up the lines and why the lines were drawn specifically from the feet when the official offside rule should have taken into account the player’s head as it is a goalscoring part of their body.

So, we have had a legal victory, a new legal attack on the club, VAR debacles, questions around team selection and tactics from the manager, and ex-PL players criticising our signings. The Foxes are anything, but certainly not dull.