The only rule that works in VAR is offside - Hasenhuttl criticises Wenger's proposed change

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has strongly criticised Arsene Wenger's proposed change to how offside works in the VAR era.

Former Arsenal manager Wenger, appointed chief of global football development at FIFA in November, said a tweak should be made after this season's implementation of VAR in the Premier League led to many goals being ruled out for marginal offsides.

"There is room to change the rule and not say that a part of a player's nose is offside, so you are offside because you can score with that," Wenger said at the recent Laureus Sports Awards. 

"Instead, you will not be offside if any part of the body that can score a goal is in line with the last defender, even if other parts of the attacker's body are in front. That will sort it out and you will no longer have decisions about millimetres and a fraction of the attacker being in front of the defensive line."

According to Hasenhuttl, Wenger's idea would not solve any problems at all.

"The only rule that really works in VAR is the offside," said Hasenhuttl.

"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 anymore.

"It will change the game massively in my opinion. The only thing that really works well at the moment is the decision about offside. And everything else we must discuss more."

The body that governs football's global laws, the International Football Association Board, has ruled out an imminent change to the offside law, with its annual general meeting due to be held in Belfast on February 29.