MAURICIO POCHETTINO will not rush to answer his phone if he gets another call from apologetic referees’ chiefs this week.
The Spurs boss was again left fuming over the performance of the match officials after conceding defeat in the title race.
Last week he was adamant that both Arsenal goals should have been disallowed in his team’s defeat in the North London derby. This time he was stewing over ref Mike Jones’ failure to get to grips with West Brom’s delaying tactics which left Wembley infuriated. Pochettino revealed: “I spoke last week with the referees’ people that called us to explain that, yes it was offside against Arsenal, yes, it was a foul, blah, blah, blah.
“But in the end it changed nothing and after that I promised that I would never again speak in public about the referee. He needs to do his job and I will do mine.” Yet if Pochettino was keeping his thoughts to himself, Spurs defender Eric Dier was happy to share his frustration with the world. He received a 58th-minute caution for complaining to Jones about Albion keeper Ben Foster’s time-wasting. And it was another 25 minutes before Foster finally followed him into Jones’ notebook after pushing his luck a little too far. Dier insisted: “The referee said he didn’t want to be the first one who blows the whistle for a keeper holding the ball for longer than six seconds because no one else does.
“But if you watch the game from the first minute and add up the amount of time wasted by their keeper, it would be a big number.
“He was holding the ball for a lot longer than six seconds and it makes no sense for the referee to wait until the final few minutes to show him a yellow card.” Spurs skipper Hugo Lloris knew exactly what Foster was up to and said: “It’s a part of the game for a keeper to slow things down, but not after ten minutes.
“It’s up to the referee to make the players understand you cannot do that all game and if you give a yellow card after 35 minutes he won’t do it again in the second half.
“But if the referee says nothing, then the keeper will keep doing it. That is what happened.”
A grinning Foster joked with Spurs players as he left Wembley and told them: “What time-wasting? I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Well, maybe a little bit . . . ” Yet Albion’s go- slow was not the reason Spurs have taken just four points from their last four Premier League games.
Break the news gently to Spurs fans, but there is a real danger that their team are turning into Arsenal as they struggle to cling on to their place in the top four.
Just as in previous home games against Burnley and Swansea, they totally dominated possession against opponents with no interest in taking them on.
Yet despite being camped on the edge of West Brom’s penalty area all afternoon, they conceded a soft early goal and were guilty of trying to walk the ball into the net until Harry Kane finally got on the end of Dele Alli’s 74th-minute cross to level from close range.
Dier insisted: “Drawing a game is never positive, especially at home.
"Certain teams come to Wembley just to make it difficult and pretty much play in their own penalty area.
“But we have to entertain the fans and we are really disappointed that we couldn’t win.”
From The Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment