Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has revealed that the club have approached the PGMOL with evidence of Guglielmo Vicario being obstructed on the pitch from corners and free-kicks. The Spurs’ keeper has faced numerous interferences during recent matches against Manchester City and Everton.
Postecoglou expressed his frustration about the issue. He said they had sent in evidence highlighting instances where Vicario was obstructed by the opposition to prevent him from effectively defending set pieces. He stated that although he is not usually one to question the referees, he thought it necessary to seek clarity on the rules regarding how goalkeepers can be challenged off the ball in their penalty area.
“I haven’t [had conversations with the officials]. I struggle with that stuff. Like I’ve said before, I’ve kind of always been the one who says you’ve got to respect the referee’s decision or the umpire’s, but I think we have sent some stuff to get some clarification,” said the Australian boss.
“I’m going to get called out for this, but there was a thing that was quite evident in the game that the goalkeeper was a protected species. I don’t think that’s just me making that up. The reason people used to say that was that if you really impeded a goalkeeper in any way in the six-yard box, you are going to get a foul. I knew that as a player, I knew that as a manager.
“There seems to be a shift there. Somebody will say to me that the rules haven’t changed but I think there’s been a shift there where now… to me, it’s obstruction. If you’re standing in front of a goalkeeper stopping him before a ball has even arrived, in layman’s terms that’s obstruction. Now someone is going to tell me that that’s not a law either, it wouldn’t surprise me.
“But it was something that I kind of thought was part of the game. I’ve seen it in general play, I’ve seen our guys get blocked trying to close people down by other people and I’m finding it bizarre that it’s not being pulled up anymore. With the goalkeepers, what’s that going to do now? Well, it’s pretty much opened it up that you can surround the goalkeeper and crowd him and put balls on top of him and just wait for the scramble to finish and see what happens.
He added: “I was really proud of Vic the other day. I think they had nine corners after we conceded and I think he dealt with just about every other one by coming out and actually having a crack at it rather than just standing on his line and saying, ‘No, I don’t want to get exposed’.
“I can’t praise him highly enough over the way he handled it, and the whole thing where people say ‘you’ve got to be stronger’, well, what does that mean? If he pushes or does anything to a player, with VAR, you’ve got no chance. You’re going to get a penalty against you.
“We’re telling our players now ‘just be careful in the box, they’re looking for everything with VAR, you’re not going to get away with a little shirt pull or a little push’. So how are goalkeepers supposed to be stronger in that sense when you’ve got somebody standing next to you obstructing you doing your job? If there’s contact before the ball arrives, I thought that was obstruction.
“Like I said, I’ll get called out for this because I’m probably behind the times and maybe there’s been a rule change, but there’s definitely been a shift as I see it where we’ve definitely had two goals, maybe three, [against us] that maybe in the past would have been fouls on the goalkeeper, and it’s not just in our games, I’ve seen it in other games too.”
