Angry Ange Postecoglou let rip at VAR and accused the video refs of failing to learn from mistakes and ruining Celtic’s tempo. The Hoops boss took aim with a fiery bonfire night blast after his side edged Dundee United 4-2 in a sensational ending at Parkhead that saw them score twice in injury time.
United had levelled Sead Haksabanovic’s early opener from a Steven Fletcher spot kick after Alexandro Bernabei had been controversially adjudged by VAR Nick Walsh to have handled in the box. Soon after the video refs were again at it when of-field official David Dickinson was urged to stop the game as they took a look at a Craig Sibbald challenge on Giorgos Giakoumakis - with the decision eventually being taken that there was no serious foul play.
Another VAR check halted Celtic’s second goal celebrations momentarily. And brassed-off Postecoglou - who took a thinly veiled dig at Walsh after he failed to award his side a spot kick for handball at Tynecastle a fortnight ago - fumed: “Just to be clear here; I don’t have a problem with VAR but I have a problem with how it is being used.
“There is no secret that we want to be a team who plays at a high tempo, especially at home because we think that is effective for us but also it is entertaining for the fans. I don’t think people fell in love with football just to be sitting around waiting for someone in a building miles away to decide outcomes.
“They don’t need to take that long. Even our second goal - our players are celebrating for about two minutes and we are still waiting all that time. To see what? What? I still don’t know what it was. If you can’t decide in two minutes then it is probably not there. If they have seven camera angles it seems like they want to look at every one. I might be on my own on this one but I will cop people making mistakes but I just don’t feel comfortable. I know it is early doors and it is a new toy that everyone wants to use but you can’t be disrupting games like this. I don’t think it is good for anyone.”
Sibbald’s red card check also drew an angry reaction from the Hoops boss. He said: “He hasn’t even given a foul. I wasn’t blowing up that it was a red card. He is in a booth and he sees it but really .. we have to wait that long to come to a decision? To me the referee is close enough there. The same thing happened with Tony Watt last week.
“No free-kick and then a red card and then it gets overturned. I’ll cop teething problems but we have got to be learning along the way. I mean five minutes added onto the first-half of a game of football. It is crazy. For what?”
Postecoglou subbed Bernabei at half-time after the left-back had been booked for the controversial handball call. And the boss admitted it was because he had no faith in the player not being caught out by another VAR call. He said: “It seems like any time the ball touches your hand in the box - apart from when you are playing Hearts away - it's a penalty.
“So if that's the case, they could have seen that in the first screen that it hit Berna's arm. He had no idea that it hit his arm. It seems to me the interpretation these days is if it hits your hand it's a penalty. But why take so long? If they see it hits his arm, it's a penalty, let's get on with it.
"He can't even see the ball. He goes up for a header and his arm is in, I think, a natural position when you go up for a header. He is not even looking at it and it's a yellow card. It's the reason I took him off at half-time, I had no faith that I could keep him on because anything could come across. It's changing our game. It's changing what we all knew to be the laws of the game.
“They are not what they used to be. I was always pretty clear what a handball was, deliberate handball. I played the game, you kind of know. But it seems that's not the way. That's the problem we have got now, we have let technology come into the game and rules that have been in place for over a century that we are all comfortable with are all of a sudden having to be looked at. I don't think that's what VAR was for. VAR, I thought, was there to pick up clear and obvious errors.
“Clear and obvious. Someone is having a shot from that distance and it hits his arm, how they can say that's clear and obvious? I don't get it. That's not the case anymore. The problem is with technology is they are going to have to change a lot of rules because they are re-refereeing the game, which is the one thing they said they wouldn't do. But they are, there's no doubt about it.
“And I feel for the officials because I have no doubt that they are scared to make decisions, they would much rather let it go and see if VAR picks something up. We scored the second goal and we were celebrating for two minutes and they are still checking when they are about to kick off. What the hell were we waiting for? There was nothing there, I could see that in the first screen.
“We can't take away from the fact that we have 60,000 people here. Of course they want to see us win but they are also coming to watch a spectacle. They are not coming to watch someone in a building miles away take two or three minutes to make a decision. I just don't think that's what it's for. Anyway, that's my rant.”
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