ESPN pundit suggests Tottenham have ‘missed the point’ over Liverpool VAR debacle 

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Tottenham Hotspur’s reaction to last weekend’s VAR debacle is not in the ‘spirit of the sport.’

Spurs were the beneficiaries of a humongous mess-up from the officials, as Luis Diaz’s goal was given, but not counted in the game.

Since then, the focus has been on Liverpool’s and specifically Jurgen Klopp’s reaction. Aside from some mealy-mouthed comments from Ange Postecoglou after the game, Spurs have stayed quite on the matter.

But speaking to ESPN FC, former England defender Nedum Onuoha has suggested that the London club know that they’ve ‘gotten away with something.’

“The only thing I would say against anything that’s been said, is the idea of ‘why can’t we just stop the game at some point?’ From the Spurs perspective, if you’ve scored a goal, achieved something else and the game’s moved on, we’re all competitors, we’re happy to move on when we know someone’s made a mistake that isn’t at our own expense,” Onuoha explains.

“I think to be in a position to say ‘well, that’s fine then’ I think that misses the point in terms of the spirit of the sport itself.

“I get it, it would be fair [to give the goal], but I think that’s from our neutral perspective, as oppose to the perspective of the side that knows they’ve gotten away with something.”

Spurs miss the point

Onuoha is absolutely right with his point – Tottenham haven’t been helpful in the least after Saturday’s game.

Of course, that is their right, though. As far as they are concerned, the game is done and the points are won. Everything else is just noise.

Although that’s disappointing, it’s probably the response 99 per cent of teams – including Liverpool – would give in the same circumstances.

Indeed, a clip has surfaced in recent days of Virgil van Dijk’s famous ‘who cares’ comment, when asked about decisions that went against Roma in the Champions League in 2018.

But that was a completely different circumstance, and a different, much more subjective set of refereeing ‘mistakes.’

Rival fans and clubs may argue, but preventing a repeat of what happened on Saturday is most definitely in everyone’s interests. Next time it could well be Spurs who are on the wrong end of it, and by Jove, they’ll be interested then.

Few now expect anything to be awarded to Liverpool on the back of one of the worst officiating errors in Premier League history. If Tottenham were to bow and offer some kind of concession, even as a gesture, they would earn the respect of football fans everywhere. Frankly though, we won’t be holding our breath.