Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has once again vented his frustration with the VAR technology following Spurs’ Premier League victory over Southampton in north London.
After Brennan Johnson struck twice in the first half, Mateus Fernandes’ late reply couldn’t prevent bottom-of-the-table Southampton, beaten for the 25th time in 31 games, from crashing back to the Championship.
Spurs midfielder Lucas Bergvall thought he had scored in the 33rd minute when he found the net from close-range, but VAR chalked off the goal for a marginal offside, with the check lasting four minutes and fifty seconds.
During the delay, Postecoglou was seen flipping an imaginary coin and playing rock-paper-scissors, seemingly implying the goal had been put down to chance.
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Speaking to reporters after the game, the Australian reiterated that offside decisions should not be “microscopically adjudged”, while he remained hopeful the impending semi-automated offside technology would speed up the process.
“If you told me a few years ago that we would be spending five minutes during a football game standing around I would never have believed you,” Postecoglou told reporters.
“They draw those lines (to check for offside) – is anyone convinced by those? This is not a slight on anyone as I don’t think it favours us or not favours us but the fact we’re waiting five minutes, I really don’t think that’s what technology was brought in for.
“I think it’s gone too far down the road for anyone to claw it back. We used to allow the assistants to make those decisions and we all accepted it.
“Offside was never meant to be microscopically adjudged but if they ever get to a place when that is done instantaneously then I accept it because offside is offside.
“I just can’t believe that this is what we brought it in for, to stand around for five minutes for something that in the end is still, in my view anyway, inconclusive.
“Like I said, the semi-automated will come in, says it’s going to hopefully improve and speed up the process but I didn’t think there was a crying need for the game of football to be disrupted like this.”
Tottenham will next host German team Eintracht Frankfurt for the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday.
“The first half, I thought was excellent. We were really disciplined, really well-organised. We always looked a threat going forward,” Postecoglou told SpursPlay.
“That’s probably as threatening as we’ve looked. We scored two goals, and had one disallowed.
“The second half, not so much. We became way too passive without the ball, and not aggressive enough with the ball – we didn’t keep possession as well as we should have.”
He continued: “The important thing is we got the win, scored three goals and everyone got through unscathed and ready for a big night on Thursday.”