Ange Postecoglou takes bizarre swipe at Liverpool as under-pressure Spurs boss lashes out
Ange Postecoglou has claimed there is a 'national campaign' when refereeing decisions go against Liverpool as pressure mounts on the under-fire Spurs boss
Ange Postecoglou has taken a bizarre swipe at Liverpool as the Australian continues to find himself under pressure at Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs lost 1-0 away at Chelsea on Thursday to leave them 14th in the Premier League table.
While they are through to the Europa League quarter-finals, they suffered early elimination from the FA Cup and lost to Arne Slot’s side in the League Cup semi-finals.
Meanwhile, they have lost 16 times from their 30 Premier League matches so far this season, and will likely need to win the Europa League to have any chance of qualifying for Europe next season. They remain on course to finish outside the top 10 for the first time since 2008.
Spurs have endured an injury-plagued campaign, but the pressure has started to pile up on Postecoglou as their miserable season continues with supporters now starting to turn on him.
Some away fans booed and directed chants of "you don't know what you're doing" at the Australian manager during their loss at Chelsea, after he replaced Lucas Bergvall with Pape Sarr.
When Sarr scored minutes later, Postecoglou was seen turning to the away end, cupping his ear and then waving at Spurs supporters. However, he later denied this was in response to the boos and chants after seeing his substitution immediately pay off.
Yet Sarr’s strike was belatedly chalked off following a lengthy VAR check, with referee Craig Pawson ultimately overturning his decision after being advised to have a look at the pitchside monitor. Replays showed the Spurs midfielder catching Moises Caicedo with his studs before taking aim at goal from distance.
And that decision has perhaps played its part in Postecoglou taking aim at Liverpool, suggesting there is a ‘national campaign’ when decisions go against the Reds - referencing two incorrect incidents that have gone in his own side’s favour - before insisting he alone is left to defend Tottenham.
“I think in the time I’ve been here, we’ve had two decisions that have gone for us against Liverpool and there has been a national campaign, almost,” Postecoglou said. “It seems like every fight ends up being an internal fight at this club.
“There’s never any sort of defending of the club or the club defending itself. That’s a unique challenge, but I accepted that challenge so I’ve got to try to find a way to overcome it.”
The first decision against Liverpool in question was when Luis Diaz’s goal was incorrectly disallowed following human error from VAR in the Reds’ 2-1 defeat last season, with the officials deciding not to intervene having thought the strike had actually been awarded on the pitch.
Jurgen Klopp’s side also saw two players controversially sent off that day following VAR checks, as it took a last-minute own goal to inflict defeat on them in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The second incident came earlier this season when Bergvall controversially avoided a second yellow card for a foul on Kostas Tsimikas, before scoring the winner moments later in Tottenham’s 1-0 League Cup semi-final first leg win over Slot’s men.
Postecoglou's comments come days after the PGMOL admitted James Tarkowski should have been sent off in Wednesday's Merseyside derby for a horror tackle on Alexis Mac Allister.
After taking aim at Liverpool, evidently missing the point that both decisions were unmistakeably incorrect, Postecoglou then seemingly pointed the finger at a number of former Spurs players who are now pundits for not defending the club in the media.
Former Liverpool captain Jamie Redknapp, ex-Reds striker Peter Crouch, Michael Dawson, Jamie O’Hara and Darren Bent are all prominent pundits who used to play for Spurs.
“By being more vocal,” he replied when asked how Spurs can defend itself. “I hope not [just the manager]. I think you hear enough from me, you probably hear too much from me, to be honest.
“It doesn’t have to be just from people at the club. I hear plenty of people talking and defending other clubs but it seems, with Tottenham, wherever there’s a sore there’s a real pile-on to sort of stick a finger in that sore and then we kind of accept our fate.
“You guys know the landscape better than I do, but it seems like…I never switch it [the television] on and hear any sort of strong voice. The only voice you hear is me.
“When we’re talking about the bigger clubs, there seems to be a lot more voices. And not always defending. You need scrutiny and constructive criticism as well. We definitely get enough of that! But we never get any of the other stuff.
“I think the fact that out of last night the big story is my interaction with the fans and not the fact a game of football was materially changed by technology.
“VAR said ‘clear and obvious’. Six minutes for clear and obvious and I’d have thought that would be the story from last night, but it’s not.
“Again, it’s my interaction with the fans and how I’ve made things more difficult. You kind of go ‘OK, well, that’s the challenge we face.’”
Postecoglou is a well-documented critic of VAR, and claimed human error has always been part of the game when downplaying Diaz’s wrongly-disallowed goal last season.
“I think I’m on record saying that I’ve never really been a fan of it (VAR) since it’s come in,” the Australian told reporters after the final whistle in September 2023. “Not for any other reason, I just think it really complicates areas of the game that I feel were pretty clear in the past.
“But I can see at the same time why it was inevitable that the technology would come in. I guess we have to deal with it. The biggest problem I think we have is that we seem to fail to grasp is that no form of technology is going to make the game error-less.
“We used to understand that errors were part of the game, including officiating errors. You have to cop it, some people 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 that as part of the game because we’re all human beings. But I think people are under the misconception that VAR is going to be error-less.
“I don’t think there is any technology, with so much of our game isn’t factual. It isn’t down to interpretation, they are still human beings. They are going to make mistakes, the same way managers make mistakes, the same way players make mistakes.
“So, I think when you put such a high bar on something, invariably it’s going to fail. If people were thinking that VAR is going to be something that is perfect at some point, that’s never going to happen.”
Evidently, controversial officiating decisions get under his skin more when they go against his side at a time when he is already at risk of losing his job.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou, who is actually a boyhood Liverpool fan, previously had a dig at Reds after their shock FA Cup exit to Plymouth Argyle, having seen his own side knocked out by Aston Villa.
"If you take nine, 10 or 11 players out of any team for one weekend, I reckon it'll affect them; we've been like this since mid-November," Postecoglou said on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Asked if that was the issue or whether there was more to it, he responded: "Well, I'll ask you the question: if you take 11 players - how did Liverpool go today?
"We're not talking about one or two - and not just for one weekend, by the way. So get Liverpool to do that for the next two and a half months."
It would appear Postecoglou is feeling the pressure as Spurs' dismal season continues, with his hypocritical change of tune and swipes at the Reds the sign of a man well-aware it would be no surprise if his days in North London prove to be numbered.
Tottenham have been linked with a move for Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola should they part company with Postecoglou before next season.
