‘What am I going to do – complain, complain and complain?’ Fed-up Kompany at wits’ end with VAR

READ MORE: Kompany more determined than ever to improve officiating after Luton Town controversy

Burnley were on the brink of a possible season-sparking win against their fellow relegation rivals until Carlton Morris' controversial stoppage-time equaliser. Speaking straight after the game, Kompany's frustrations were clear for everyone to see.

“I’m sure you can very well imagine what is going through my mind at the moment. Who was there for the Aston Villa game away? A raise of hands. It’s not so long ago, right? Who was there for the Bournemouth game away? Who was there for the Forest game?

“What are we doing, seriously? It’s a joke. I will start by saying this, 100% respect and credit to Luton because they’re a terrific outfit. What they do as a club, the players, the manager, they deserve whatever is coming to them. They are a really, really good club.

“But I’ve got to defend my team and my club. I don’t understand how we can go through this phase, through these events and come to the conclusion it’s not a foul. You’ve got a striker, and good luck to him, who’s first looked at the goalkeeper, takes a couple of steps back, backs into him and clears the way for his colleague. Then he has a look at the referee to see if he gets away with it. The ball goes in, but none of the Luton players celebrate. Nobody.

“From the side, I’m thinking if I don’t complain they might get away with this, you never know, so I complain but I think in my head ‘surely that’s going to be given as a foul’. The VAR is not intervening or sorting it out, I’m seeing the ref is having a think about it and I can see they’re going to say ‘clear and obvious error’ again and we’re going to have the same discussions we have every single time.

“For those who were here for the conversations we had after Villa, after Bournemouth, after Forest, how many times is it going to keep happening?

“There will be a couple of lines in the newspaper and on we go. Consequences? Zero. Maybe if we’re lucky we will get a bit of a feature on one of these specialist things where they explain what the referee’s decision was. But we won’t spend much time on it because we’ve got to worry about what Man Utd are doing, what Liverpool are doing and what’s happening in their game, so we move on. But I can honestly say, if the referee’s are confused themselves with the rules, they will have my sympathies or whether it’s us who are not collectively able to understand the rules.

“I go to my players and of course we’ve always got to look after ourselves, but I can’t give them an explanation for what has happened at the end. Especially as not so long ago we had a similar press conference after the Villa game, even though there was a bit more humour to it. A bit more like ‘come on boys’. This is even against my nature. I’m doing stuff here against my nature because I’d only like to congratulate Luton, I’d only like to tell my players what they have to do in this moment and in this phase, how we need to improve.

“But I’m shocked, I’m disappointed. But if you know me, tomorrow the only person I will blame is only ourselves and what we can do better. But hopefully it balances out and you will get a lot of angry managers from the opposition.”

Referee Tony Harrington decided against going over to the monitor after being told by VAR the goal should stand. Kompany, though, felt it shouldn't have even got to that point.

“I think you can give it there and then. It’s not that much more complicated, you have to give it there and then. If then you start saying ‘okay, let me pause, let me listen to the VAR, let me go to the monitor’, you start to make up stories in your head when it couldn’t be more clear. If it’s allowed in this phase, then we can go and put our players on the goalkeeper, back into them. There’s a difference between standing your ground and backing into someone. It’s a big difference, especially if it involves a goalkeeper. Look, I have to say honestly, these situations and moments can leave a person that has been in the game for 20 years confused at times.”

Despite his anger and confusion, Kompany saw no point in confronting the officials afterwards.

"To say what? I did that in the past, once, in a very calm way. It was a phase against Bournemouth at the very end where a defender challenges, loses the challenge, throws his hands in the air because he’s lost the challenge and it hits his hand.

“For me, if you understand football, it’s a penalty because the defender has lost the challenge and puts his hand in the air. It’s not the same thing than if it goes off your body or off your chest. So I had this discussion there in that moment and I was very willing to hear his interpretation and it happened in a very good way, but I had a different opinion. But on this occasion, what am I doing to do? Complain, complain and complain? It’s not even in my nature. I’m saying it because the questions are getting asked.”