Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham manager, expressed his disdain for VAR as he criticized the replay system’s impact on his team’s “out of control” 4-1 defeat against Chelsea on Monday.
In a dramatic Premier League encounter, Tottenham saw Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie receive red cards and had two goals disallowed by VAR. Romero’s dismissal, resulting from a studs-up foul on Enzo Fernandez, and Udogie’s second booking for a challenge on Raheem Sterling, both appeared to be correct upon review, as did the disallowed goals by Son Heung-min and Eric Dier.
Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson netted a hat-trick in the closing stages, securing victory in the London derby after Cole Palmer’s penalty had canceled out Dejan Kulusevski’s early opener for Tottenham.
However, the excessive delays in waiting for VAR decisions, combined with Chelsea having three goals ruled out by the system, left Postecoglou seething.
“I felt like I was standing around waiting for things to happen with VAR intervention,” he said.
“There will be a forensic study of every decision out there, I think that is the way the game is going and I don’t like it.
“If you look at all that standing around we did today, maybe people enjoy that sort of thing but I’d rather see us playing football.”
Tottenham’s first league defeat since Postecoglou took charge in the close-season denied them the chance to regain top spot in the Premier League.
And Postecoglou claimed he would prefer the referee and his linesmen to have the final say on crucial decisions, rather than a VAR official who is not even based in the stadium.
“You have to accept the referee’s decision, that is how I grew up. This constant erosion of the referee’s authority is where the game is going to get,” the Australian said.
“They are not going to have any authority. We are going to be under the control of someone with a TV screen a few miles away.
“I don’t like it but I am probably in the wilderness with that because I keep getting told that’s where we want to go. I am too old school.
“It is almost impossible to analyse the game because it just seemed to get out of control for large parts of it.”