David Robinson

🚨Roberto De Zerbi on Mathys Tel’s injury after Jayden Bogle’s challenge during Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat to Leeds: 🗣️ Roberto De Zerbi: “I was on the touchline when it happened, and immediately I knew something was wrong with Mathys. He had the ball, Bogle came across him, and Mathys tried to move away from the challenge. Then Bogle caught him heavily on the back of the lower leg. You could see the force of the contact. Mathys went straight down, and the expression on his face told me everything. I turned to my assistant and said, “Did you see that?” He said, “Yes, Roberto. That is a terrible challenge.” I looked at him and said, “Then why is the referee doing nothing?” That was the part I couldn’t understand. My player was lying on the pitch in obvious pain, and the referee was just standing there as if nothing had happened. I called Pedro Porro over. I said, “Pedro, go and check on Mathys. I need to know if he can continue.” Pedro came back and told me, “He’s really struggling. He doesn’t look okay.” At that moment, I was furious. This wasn’t Mathys looking for a free kick. This wasn’t a player trying to waste time. He had genuinely been caught and was clearly hurt. I looked towards the officials and thought, “How are you not seeing this?” Then VAR gets involved. I thought, finally, someone is going to look properly at the incident. They have the replay. They have different angles. They have time to analyse the contact. And somehow, after all of that, nothing changes. That is what makes me angry. You can make a mistake during a match. I understand that. But when you have VAR and the opportunity to correct something, you have to use it properly. Mathys couldn’t continue. He had to leave the pitch injured. And we are still supposed to accept that there was nothing serious enough to punish? I don’t understand that. Football is physical, yes. But physical does not mean you can challenge a player recklessly and then simply walk away because the referee doesn’t want to make a decision. My assistant looked at me and said, “Roberto, they aren’t going to give anything.” I said, “That’s exactly the problem.” Because today it is Mathys. Tomorrow it could be another player. We talk so much about protecting footballers, but protecting them means something when these moments actually happen. I don’t want to hear that the game was intense or that the referee had a difficult angle. They had the technology. They had the replay. They had the time. And Mathys still left the pitch injured. For me, that is unacceptable. I can accept losing a football match. What I cannot accept is losing a player to an incident that I believe should have been dealt with properly. For me, the officials failed Mathys today”.