‘I can’t take this’ – Ange Postecoglou reveals who to blame for Tottenham misfortune in 4-1 loss to Chelsea
Ange Postecoglou: “Decisions are decisions: you either accept it or you don’t. If we are going to go out and complain about bad decisions every week what will happen is what happened today: a forensic study of every decision. That’s the way the game is going. I don’t like it”
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has called for an end to the questioning of officials’ decisions in order to prevent their authority being undermined.
Spurs had two players sent off in the 4-1 defeat at home to Chelsea – their first loss of the Premier League season – but Postecoglou refused to criticise referee Michael Oliver.
However, after a first half which had 12 minutes added on due to several VAR checks, the Australian, who himself was cautioned during the game, felt a number of incidents have led to an overuse of technology.
Saturday and the club issued a statement calling for the standard of officiating to be “urgently addressed”.
“Decisions are decisions: you either accept it or you don’t,” Postecoglou told Sky Sports.
“Some of it is self-inflicted [but] if we are going to go out and complain about bad decisions every week what will happen is what happened today: a forensic study of every decision.
“I think that’s the way the game is going. I don’t like it – I could be a lone voice as I’m told that’s the way forward. With VAR intervention it just felt like a lot of standing around.
At some point, we have to accept the referee’s decision. This constant erosion of referees’ authority, this is what the game is going to get: they will not have any authority, it is going to get diminished and we are going to be in the control of someone a few miles away watching a TV screen.”
When asked later in his press conference if he had been involved in a crazier game during his managerial career, the Australian said: “No, but I think it’s going to become the norm. It’s where the game is heading.
“I think it’s unfortunately how we’re going to have to watch and participate in football from now on. I’ve said it before that I don’t like it. I don’t like the standing around, I don’t like the theatre around waiting for decisions.
“But I know that I’m in the wilderness on that. In my 26 years [as a manager], I was always ready to accept the referee’s decision good, bad or otherwise. I’ve had some shockers in my career let me tell you, and I’ve had some go my way as well.
“But I’d cop that because I just wanted the game to be played. But when we’re complaining about decisions every week, this is what’s going to happen. People are just going to forensically scrutinise everything to make sure they’re comfortable it’s right, and then even after that, we’re still not happy.
“What does that mean? It means we’re going to see a lot of standing around. I just think it’s diminishing the authority of the referee.
“You can’t tell me the referee is in control of games now – they’re not. The control is outside of that, but that’s the way the game is going and you have to accept that and try to deal with it.”
When pressed on whether there was support from other managers and those at the club to put pressure on the Premier League to scrap VAR, Postecoglou said: “There doesn’t seem to be a great call for us to go back to accepting the referee’s decision in the majority of cases.
“I understand goal-line technology. That’s a simple one as that came in and no one’s complained about it. But in searching for this utopia where there are no wrong decisions in a game… that doesn’t exist and it never will.
“But it’s the road that everyone wants to go down. Some of it’s self-inflicted because we all complain about decisions every week. It’s nothing new, but in the past, we got on with it. We didn’t find the need for a miracle cure for it.
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