Mauricio Pochettino warns Chelsea: Be ‘clever’ in Middlesbrough tie without VAR

Mauricio Pochettino warned his Chelsea players they must be clever when they face Middlesbrough without VAR (John Walton/PA)

Mauricio Pochettino warned his Chelsea players they must be “clever” in playing without VAR when they meet Middlesbrough in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at the Riverside.

Stadiums outside of the Premier League are typically not fitted with the technology required for the video assistant referee and so Pochettino’s side will take on Championship Boro with only the on-field officials in place.

Chelsea took part in perhaps VAR’s most controversial fixture this season when they won 4-1 at Tottenham in November, a game that featured nine video interventions including five disallowed goals and two red cards shown to Spurs players.

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There were a total of 21 minutes of time added on, despite the ball only actually being in play for 43 per cent of the match.

It will be a different proposition for the team on Teesside. Chelsea have the youngest squad in the league this season with an average age of just over 23, many of whom turned professional around the time of the widespread implementation of VAR by Europe’s top-flight leagues in 2018.

Pochettino said his players must prepare to be cautious in the face of unfamiliar circumstances.

“There’s no VAR,” he said. “That is a thing we need to be careful of. Our normal attitude is to play with VAR. We need to be cautious of that.

“We need to be in a different way in our approach. We need to change. Now, it’s just the referee that is going to decide,