'It looks like VAR is supporting divers' - Mateusz Klich on Ian Poveda incident, the laws and Leeds United's struggles at Chelsea

The Leeds United midfielder has echoed team-mate Patrick Bamford and a host of other Premier League footballers in admitting that he is confused about the rules since the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee.

Bamford had a goal ruled out by VAR against Crystal Palace last month because the arm with which he pointed to where he wanted Klich to play a through ball was deemed offside.

After the game the striker said: “If you asked me what the offside rule is I couldn’t tell you. It is my job to stay onside but I just don’t know.”

On Saturday at Stamford Bridge Leeds felt aggrieved by another VAR decision, or on this occasion the lack of a decision, when Ian Poveda beat Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell to the ball in the penalty area and received a kick, but stayed on his feet.

Neither referee Kevin Friend nor VAR Michael Oliver deemed the incident a penalty and while Klich makes no bones about the Whites’ defeat in the capital, because in his eyes Chelsea were deserved winners, he wonders what if.

“It was a tough game, obviously Chelsea are a very good side but we made a lot of mistakes,” he said.

“We had a problem pressuring Thiago Silva when he was driving in with the ball, we had other problems pressuring the first pass and then it’s like dominoes, someone is late, someone else is late after.

“We didn’t play our best and although we had our chances Chelsea deserved to win, they created more.

“We didn’t have to lose it, it was 1-1, a set-piece again, this is our problem, we concede but then we could maybe have had a penalty if Ian goes down and then it’s 2-2, a different game.

“The third goal was a counter attack and I think if it’s 2-2 we could have avoided it, but it wasn’t 2-2 and we lost 3-1. This is the best league in the world, with quality players and they used whatever mistakes we did to win the game.”

Klich’s issue with the Poveda incident is the implication that the 20-year-old should have thrown himself to the ground.

“It looks like VAR is supporting divers because probably if he goes down it goes to VAR, then it’s a penalty because he got kicked,” said the Poland international.

“He didn’t want to go down, no-one really wants to. The referee is there, VAR is there as well but as you can see you can use it whenever you want. I don’t really know the rule right now, it wasn’t a penalty but it was a kick in the box, so I don’t know.”

Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson recently admitted he would prefer VAR to be scrapped, telling BBC Sport after the Reds’ game against Brighton: “I saw Kevin De Bruyne saying in an interview they have changed so many rules we don’t know what they are anymore. That for me is a big problem.

“We are talking about instances all the time and not the football. In my opinion I would rather play without it, yeah.”

Henderson apparently felt the need to censor himself, however, claiming he would face punishment if he gave his full thoughts on the issue.

Klich is of a similar mind, insisting that while he has ‘no idea’ of the rules, he doesn’t feel able to speak freely about it.

“I’ve no idea [about the rules], I think it’s created a lot of confusion,” he said.

“I don’t want to say too much because obviously we can’t.”