Tottenham Boss Ange Postecoglou Offers Relaxed Response to Questions on Officiating of Win vs. Liverpool
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou offered a relaxed response to questions on the officiating of their win vs. Liverpool, largely sidestepping the main talking points. Jurgen Klopp’s response to the dismal officiating of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat was calm by the German’s standards – he knows the consequences of reacting angrily. As coach of the winning side, Postecoglou had more freedom to speak on some of the decisions that altered the game.
Instead, he chose to largely swerve the big questions, saying: “I’ll leave it for others to sort of decide whether they’re right or wrong.” On Curtis Jones’ red card, he added: “It’s hard for me to comment on decisions on opposition teams, I think the first one, Bissa (Yves Bissouma) has got a decent whack on his ankle and it didn’t look great.”
Video Assistant Refereeing: Postecoglou’s Thoughts
The former Celtic boss was also asked for his thoughts on video assistant refereeing in general, and gave a more detailed response on this topic. “You might have to dig up some research on it,” the Australian explained.
“I think I’m on record saying I’ve never really been a fan of [VAR] since it’s come in, not for any other reason than I think it just really complicates areas of the game that I thought were pretty clear in the past. But, I can see at the same time why it was inevitable that technology would come in, but I guess we have to deal with it.
The biggest problem I think we fail to grasp is that no form of technology is going to make the game errorless. We used to understand that errors were part of the game, including officiating errors. You know, you have to cop it sometimes, some people cop it better than others, but that was part of the game.
On the subject of Diogo Jota’s two yellow cards, Postecoglou said: “I just think the second one came from our pressure, to be honest. I thought we were pretty relentless in the second half and we didn’t allow them to breathe. We obviously had the man extra and there were a fair few fouls and I just think there was an accumulation of those things.”
VAR: Is It Making The Game Better?
While there is truth in what Postecoglou is saying, the incompetence shown by officials, specifically in the Tottenham vs. Liverpool match, is something that can certainly be improved on. VAR has been introduced in an effort to make football more fair and accurate, but it has been met with mixed reactions from fans and players alike.
The technology has been used to make some correct decisions, but there have also been plenty of controversial calls that have gone against teams and players. This has led many to question whether VAR is actually making the game better or if it is just creating more confusion and controversy.
Postecoglou believes that people are under the misconception that VAR is going to be errorless. He argues that much of football is down to interpretation and that human error will always be part of the game. He also believes that people are expecting too much from VAR and that it will never be perfect.
Conclusion
Ange Postecoglou’s response to questions on the officiating of Tottenham’s win vs. Liverpool was largely relaxed and he chose to largely sidestep the main talking points. He also offered his thoughts on video assistant refereeing in general, arguing that no form of technology can make football errorless and that people are expecting too much from VAR. While there is truth in what Postecoglou is saying, there is still room for improvement when it comes to officiating in football and VAR can certainly help with this.