Following the introduction of Video Assistant Referees in the 2019-20 season much of the idea behind the addition was to reduce the number of controversial incidents - but hindsight is a beautiful thing.
The idea of officials making decisions hundreds of miles was one that created an uneasy feeling with referees playing God with decisions that have very real repercussions in the future of football clubs.
Now however following the unprecedented 2020 Premier League season it is clear that a number of factors have negatively impacted the previous positive views about technology in sport.
Offside
The recent controversy surrounding Jordan Henderson's goal in the Merseyside Derby is one of the clearest events highlighting how the technology used within football is not at the level possible for offside to be judged at a 100% accuracy rate.
Option One
One instance is the frame rate - for the exact moment the player is deemed offside, the official and their technological assistant are working with a limited number of framcs per second - this in turn could be milliseconds before or after a player has passed the ball and the actual moment it leaves the player's boot could be split down the middle.
Following this - a Sky Sports Super Sunday clash between Manchester United and Chelsea will likely have more cameras than a Brighton v Aston Villa game thus already creating a 'technology imbalance' with the view of officials limited in terms of how they can view the incident.
A higher frame rate camera will develop over time and with many games kicking off at similar times - it is likely not possible to find the budget for high resolution cameras at every ground despite the need.
Option Two
A camera with a higher frame rate with instant feedback should be one option to explore but the technology that INTEL has created may be another:
The state of the art technology which provides a 360 view of the pitch including that of a player - which has already been demonstrated and utilised by a number of different clubs' social media output is surely one avenue to travel down.
While the feedback and output may not be as instant - a delay and limited use in crucial moments such as offside could prevent misuse of VAR and provide a unique perspective from the players point of view.
This would show a 3D pitch perspective rather than using the current system of 3D lines which fail to fully clarify whether a player is offside or not.
Option Three
Fine margins are what the beautiful game, especially at the elite level is all about, and with the above options it does leave margin for human error; referees have one of the hardest jobs in football along with their officials so limiting their room to err may be the next best thing.
Sensors placed along the length of the pitch parallel to the other side to create a 3D perspective could be an option - similar to that used by Hawkeye on goal line technology but with a wider view.
If it is possible to digitally recreate a goal-line attempt - it is possible for the same technology to be manipulated on a larger scale to give a correct line across the pitch and provide the most accurate view of a football decision yet to be seen.
However implementing this across all Premier League grounds would cost millions in the long run especially with potentially infrastructure issues and teams promoted one season and relegated the next.
Drawbacks
All of these options would however cost money and in the current climate of Covid-19 with no fans and question-marks surrounding TV deals and financial packages there are much bigger factors at play with clubs in the lower levels struggling to survive.
In the future however any of these options could be explored to limit the number of errors that VAR was drafted to reduce.
Fouls
It is very rare for an incident to have stirred up such a foul taste in technology but following the recent tackle attempted by Jordan Pickford it is obvious to all that human error was no doubt to blame.
The failure of technology has very rarely been to blame as it is often controlled by operators and assistants but another incident during the run in to the previous season saw Goal line technology fail as Sheffield's goal was deemed to have not crossed the line - a decision that may have saved Aston Villa from relegation but placed another team in danger.
It is easy to criticise Liverpool fans for venting their anger as defender Virgil van Dijk suffered a season ending injury as a result but the underlying issue is that a Premier League official failed to protect a player - and as a result discipline their opponent, the very essence of their role.
This is not limited to this specific tackle, but several others across the 90 minutes went unnoticed and were deserving of cautions such as Sadio Mane tripping Yerry Mina but in this instance the failure to act has only served as yet another strike against VAR.
Pickford will not receive retrospective action and rightfully so, he attempted to play the ball but in his choice he done so poorly, thus lunging in recklessly which resulted in a fellow professional's season ending prematurely.
While not his intention, 'the drunk man who throws a punch never intends to kill his best friend' - but while blame lies on the England international - it should fall on the officials who have yet to openly respond to incidents and be held accountable for errors.
If VAR is to be looked at fondly, incidents need to be checked more thoroughly and a full report of VAR outcomes distributed to media outlets to create a level of trust rather than conceal errors.
The biggest takeaway and request last season was for on field referees to perform an on-field review to instill a sense among the players, spectators and everyone involved that they were the ones in charge not an assistant 200 miles away.
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