Arne Slot and Ange Postecoglou were in agreement that the referee’s in-stadium VAR announcement on Wednesday night felt unnecessary.
For the first time in English football history, a VAR decision was explained to the crowd in Liverpool’s 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat against Tottenham Hotspur. Stuart Atwell announced via his headset to the ground that Spurs’ goal had been chalked off due to Dominic Solanke being in an offside position before scoring in the 79th minute.
But it was a tweak that neither manager felt was necessary given the obvious nature of the decision. Instead, Slot thought a better use of the microphone system would have been to explain why Lucas Bergvall was not sent off late on.
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The 18-year-old was already on a booking before he slid in on Kostas Tsimikas and somehow managed to escape a second yellow despite catching the Liverpool defender. To rub salt in the wounds, minutes later the Swede fired in the only goal of the game to give Tottenham a first-leg lead ahead of the trip to Anfield in four weeks’ time.
Asked for his view on the night’s VAR interventions and the in-stadium announcement, Slot said: “I think you can't judge something on one game but if it's offside then I don't think anyone had to explain something. When he started explaining something, you saw a red and a blue line.
“I think it would be more interesting for everyone if he would've explained why he didn't give a second yellow card than explaining why he cancelled the goal, because that's what everybody could see on the screen.
“But I know that's not the rule. It's the rule to have these decisions when the VAR is involved, and the VAR was of course not involved in yes or no [for] a second yellow. In general, I think let's judge this not on an evening. Let's judge this if we see this a few more times.”
As for Postecoglou, he was in a typically dour mood despite Tottenham’s win, its first since 19 December.
“Do I welcome it? No,” he said, in response to the offside explanation. “If they'd shown the handball at the weekend would our supporters have been happy? I have to accept this is the way forward, accept I have to be a part of it. But it shouldn't surprise anyone if I'm not a cheerleader for those kind of things.
“I'm really surprised at how, what's the word I'm looking for, how people in this country are so easily letting the game change so much so quickly,” he added. “It's changed more since VAR has come in since I've been involved than in the past 50 years.
“We've just got to be careful about constantly - why do we want to change the game so much? And I know I'm going to be the old bloke in the stands that keeps shouting 'boo' every time and I'll be the only one, but I just thought people would be a little bit more protective about the sanctity of the game.
“I think there's a lot of confusion at the moment. That's my belief that the game is changing on the basis of technology, and I'm saying why isn't anyone speaking up about it? Especially in this country who, for all intents and purposes, you feel, you guys think you're custodians of the game, you've got a song that says 'it's coming home', this is your game, and yet it takes an Aussie from the other side of the world to be the one that's most conservative about changes.”