The Australian manager again questioned the use of VAR after Saturday’s 2-1 win against Everton.
Spurs got off to a blistering start at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Richarlison scored his fourth goal in three games to put them in front after nine minutes.
Son Heung-min doubled his team’s lead moments later after deflecting a deflected ball in the box.
But Everton got back into the game, peppering Guglielmo Vicario’s goal with shot after shot.
They finally got the turning point at the end of the second half when substitute Andre Gomes found the back of the net with a superb strike, but despite their best efforts the game ended 2-1.
However, there was some controversy over VAR when an earlier Everton goal was ruled out for a foul in the build-up to the game.
Ange Postecoglou questioned the use of this technology in a post-match interview.
“It’s a tool that is used but I still don’t like it. Did it help us? I don’t know if it helped us.” He said this via the Standard newspaper.
“If that goal had stood, we might have scored a third goal. That’s the beauty of football. I’ve said before that I don’t like the way VAR is used; I didn’t like the way it was used today either.”
FEAR OF INJURY:
Cuti Romero replaced Eric Dier at half-time, presumably due to injury, which is a cause for fear for Tottenham fans as Micky van de Ven is also out with a thigh muscle injury.
Ange Postecoglou was asked about Romero in the post-match press conference, and although the great Ange didn’t give much information, it could be seen as… hopeful? Perhaps?
“Just before half-time he felt a strain in his thigh, so we had to take him off.”
Why does that raise hope? Well, “tightness” doesn’t mean “he pulled a thigh muscle”, so it means that Romero must have felt something by the end of the first half, but his substitution was probably just precautionary. Ange has made precautionary and proactive substitutions in the past, as we have seen a few times this season, because Postecoglou believes that his backup players can step in when needed.
However, Cuti’s status for Thursday’s game in Brighton is in doubt. It’s a short time, and if Romero does indeed have some thigh muscle problems, then the same impulse that led Ange to substitute him could keep him out of the game. We will have to wait for updates.