Postecoglou claimed that technology is diminishing the on-field referee’s authority.
Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou was not happy with the VAR after a shocking 4-1 defeat against Chelsea. He has insisted that he will always have respect for referees but reiterated his disdain for VAR.
The Lilywhites suffered their first defeat in the Premier League as Nicholas Johnson scored a hattrick for the Blues. Dejan Kulusevski’s deflected strike opened the scoring inside 10 minutes but Chelsea had the final laugh with 4-1.
Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero both escaped potential red cards. Cristian Romero was sent off soon for a shocking tackle on Enzo Fernandez inside the area.
Mikel Arteta and Gary O’Neil made no statements about their feelings towards debatable decisions that had gone against their team but Postecoglou talked about it and he was booked during the game.
The Australian claimed that technology is diminishing the on-field referee’s authority, telling reporters after the game: “I don’t like it. I don’t like the standing around. I don’t like the whole theatre around waiting for decisions.
“But I know that I’m in the wilderness with that. I’m on my own. In my 26 years I was always prepared to accept the referee’s decisions, good, bad or otherwise, and I’ve had some shockers in my career let me tell you.
“When we’re complaining about decisions every week this is what’s going to happen. If people are going to forensically scrutinise everything to make sure that they’re comfortable that it’s right and even at the end of that we’re still not happy.
“I just think it’s just diminishing the authority of the referee. You can’t tell me that referees are in control of the game because they’re not. The control is outside of that but that’s the way the game is going so you have to accept that and just try to deal with it.
“I understand goal-line technology because that’s a simple one. That came in and no one’s complained about it. But in searching for this utopia of no wrong decisions in a game, that doesn’t exist. It never will but that’s the road everyone wants to go down.
“Premier League managers should just manage their football clubs. I’ve never and I never will talk to a referee about the rules of the game. I was taught that you grow up and you respect the officials.
“You know what managers do? I tell you what managers do. We, me included, try to find ways to bend the rules and get around them. I think that it’s so hard for a referee to officiate the game nowadays. I grew up afraid of referees. They’d be like policemen. Nowadays I guess we talk back to policemen as well.”
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