Ange Postecoglou has said that the miscommunication between VAR and the on-field referee in the game between Tottenham and Liverpool does not meet the threshold for replaying the match.
The decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside was not overturned as the VAR Darren England thought that the goal had been given on the pitch.
When the officials at Stockley Park realised what had happened, the game had already kicked off, meaning that it was too late for them to intervene.
Unsurprisingly, the incident has made a lot of headlines over the last week, with Jurgen Klopp even suggesting that replaying the game would be the fairest possible solution (Guardian).
Multiple sources have since confirmed that the Premier League will not consider replaying the fixture despite Liverpool’s attempt to escalate the issue (Football Insider).
Postecoglou has now pointed out that even though the type of mistake was unprecedented, it was still human error, which is not sufficient ground for the match to be replayed.
Credit: Michael Bridge
Ange Postecoglou responds to Jurgen Klopp quotes
When asked about Klopp’s statement, the Spurs head coach told Football.London: “I think Jurgen’s said that maybe that was taken a little bit out of context.
“My view is when you’re talking about a replay, there’s got to be some sort of threshold and I don’t think a mistake is a threshold for that, irrespective of the consequences.
“If we stray into integrity or misappropriation of the law, then you maybe have a case to say ‘well, you know what, there’s something there’. But, ultimately, when you strip it all back it was a mistake, that’s what it was.
“It was a unique mistake, people have used ‘an unprecedented mistake’ and I agree with that, but it was still a mistake. So if your threshold for replays is mistakes by individuals, that’s 365 games a year, I reckon.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The VAR system is still relatively new in the game and these types of occasional mistakes (it was the first time that this type of miscommunication has occurred) will help fine-tune the system. The communication protocols will certainly improve on the back of this.
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