Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho has been left fuming after his side’s 1-3 defeat at the hands of Sheffield United. Mourinho launched a scathed attack against the usage of VAR after Harry Kane’s equaliser in the first half was ruled out by the technology.

“I can only say that normally I’m a professional guy on the bench in these moments, I never complain at the guy with the whistle because it’s not the referee any more,” Mourinho said as quoted by PTI via AFP.

“This is the start of everything. I think the referee should always be the man on the pitch and the people in the office should just support and assist.

“That’s not the way it is. The referee who is not very good on the pitch, we cannot expect that he’s good in the office.

“We’re going in a direction that’s really bad for the beautiful game, the game that everybody fell in love with,” he added.

In a match that was highlighted by sloppy defending from Tottenham players on Thursday, Sheffield United team took the lead in the 31st minute when Berge combined with Chris Basham before firing his low shot into the far corner at the empty Bramall Lane Stadium.

The Spurs found an equalizer within two minutes through a strike from their captain, but VAR called off Kane’s effort. The review found that Lucas Moura had touched the ball with his hand while dealing with several Sheffield United players before assisting Kane.

However, Mourinho admitted that his players were not determined enough to give it back to Sheffield United. He further suggested that they need to be mentally stable to create chances and register comeback after falling short by a goal or two in any match.

“Football is about how many goals you score and how many goals you concede. I have to be honest, it would be very easy to just speak about the decision (our disallowed equaliser), but I also want to be honest with myself, and I have also to say that with the very offensive team that we played, we had a lot of the ball, but we were not aggressive enough or intense enough in the last third to create more than we did.

“If you want to reach objectives, you have to be stable in performances and stable in results and stable mentally. I agree that in the first half, we were completely in control despite the goal we conceded, but that disallowed goal cannot kill us. It can hit us strong, it can be a big disappointment for us, but we had enough time to psychologically react as a team in a different way, and not die with that decision. That’s where I blame ourselves, because we have to be mentally stronger to cope with situations like that,” Mourinho explained as quoted on the official website of Tottenham Hotspur.

The Jose Mourinho-managed team find themselves in a genuine position to miss out on Champions League football next season and the Portuguese manager himself accepts that. They sit nine points behind fourth-placed Chelsea and seven shy of fifth-placed Manchester United.

“An awful result, I think a crucial result for the fight for Champions League,” said Mourinho.

He added, “We had an opportunity to close the gap and put pressure on, but with this result it’s very difficult to dream about Champions League, and it will be difficult, a big fight with other clubs like Sheffield United, Everton, and lots of clubs that are going to fight for Europa League spots.”

Sander Berge, Lys Mousset and Oli McBurnie were on the scoresheet for Sheffield, while Kane had finally restored some pride for his team in the last minutes.