Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has suggested that VAR is destined to fail because it will never eradicate mistakes from officiating.
Postecoglou was speaking after the Premier League’s referee body, the PGMOL, admitted a “significant human error” in disallowing Luis Diaz’s goal in Tottenham’s last-gasp 2-1 win over Liverpool on Saturday.
Diaz was flagged offside after firing 10-man Liverpool ahead in the first half and the decision was not overturned on review by the VAR, despite replays showing the forward was onside.
PGMOL said it was “a clear and obvious factual error” and promised a “full review” into the circumstances of the mistake.
Liverpool finished the game with nine men and eventually succumbed to Joel Matip’s own goal in the sixth and final minute of stoppage-time.
Asked afterwards about the use of VAR, Postecoglou said: “I’ve never really been a fan of it since it came in.
“Not for any other reason than I think that it complicates areas of the game that I thought were pretty clear in the past, but I can see at the same time why it was inevitable that technology would come in. We have to deal with it.
“The biggest problem I think that we have is that we seem to fail to grasp is that no form of technology is going to make the game errorless. We used to understand that errors were part of the game, including officiating errors.
“You’d have to cop it and some people would cop it better than others but that was part of the game. The game is littered with historical refereeing decisions that weren’t right but we all accepted it that it was part of the game because we’re dealing with human beings.
“I think that people are under the misconception that VAR is going to be errorless. I don’t think there’s any technology, because so much of our game isn’t factual. It’s down to interpretation and they’re still human beings. They’re going to make mistakes the same way managers make mistakes, the same way players make mistakes.
“When you put such a high bar on something it invariably is going to fail, so if people are thinking that VAR is going to be something that at some point that is perfect, that’s never going to happen.”
The result extended Spurs’ unbeaten run under Postecoglou to seven League games and leaves them just a point off leaders Manchester City ahead of a favourable run of fixtures, starting at Luton Town next Saturday.
Few expected Spurs to make such a promising start under the Australian, particularly after selling Harry Kane on the eve of the season, but Postecoglou insisted they are not ahead of schedule - because he does not have one.
“I’ve been at pains to say that I don’t have a schedule I’m marking it against,” the 58-year-old said.
“It is what it is. It’s fair to say that we’ve had some significant challenges in the first seven weeks of the season and the way we’ve dealt with them I’ve been really pleased, including today.
“Obviously you want to put the game to bed earlier than when we did but sometimes when you score that late it just helps to continue to build that belief in the group and the spirit within the group that we have that in us to go to the last minute.
“All these things, they’re not by design, it’s just the nature of the game and I’m not sitting here thinking we’re ahead of some schedule.
“I can understand why some people might have had that in their minds because they’re making prognostications based on the information they have, but for me it’s just not of interest because I don’t know how far we can go with the group. We just need to keep pushing on.”
Heung-min Son fired Spurs ahead shortly after Diaz’s goal was chalked off, with Liverpool having already lost Curtis Jones to a straight red card for a studs-up challenge on Yves Bissouma.
Cody Gakpo equalised in first-half stoppage-time before substitute Diego Jota was shown two yellow cards in quick succession for fouls on Destiny Udogie.
Son’s instinctive finish was his sixth goal this term but he was substituted before the end.
“He wasn’t 100 per cent but I had a chat with him yesterday and he was desperate to play,” Postecoglou said of the Korean.
“He was going to give what he could and he did. He was never going to play the whole 90, we were always going to give him an hour or so but he lead from the front again and he was the one doing the pressing. He got his goal as well so great captain’s effort.”
