Great ? Are you having a laugh ? He spent all the first half fiddling with something attached to his arm. He was also stood a good yard onto the pitch not on the line as he should be. He wasn't as inept as the referee but he wasn't that far behind.
That offside flag early on when Niasse took it on and Gomez pushed his shot round the post. WTF was that all about !!!!!!
His communications with the referee had failed. You could clearly see it wasn't working. That's what he was messing around with. He was screaming at the referee to check the corner being spotted correctly first half. He got his offsides correct and was decisive in his throws.
If he had no communication with the referee the game should have been stopped until he did have. If it wasn't working at the kick off then its poor preparation from the linesman. He shouldn't be on the pitch either. He is supposed to run the line, not run the line with it a yard behind him.
It failed towards the end of the season half. He's still got a flag so the game doesn't need stopping. It'll have been sorted at half time. He got most of his calls correct. It hardly matters where he was running as long as he does just that.
Eugh hate this. The idea of interfering with play. I know I'm in a minority but it just seems so wrong. I can't believe that when the founding football fathers sat down and devised the offside rule, they had in mind disallowing goals because someone on the far side was stood beyond the last defender three passes ago and may or may not have caught the keeper's eye. Surely it was just to stop the tactic of goal scrounging.
Totally agree with you. Unless they're stood in front of the goalkeeper to the point where he can't see, I don't like it...
Niasse was offside then passed the ball back and the linesman stood with his flag in the air for about thirty seconds before Madley finally saw it.
I hate the 'evens itself out' argument. It's such bollocks. What, so a different team should be punished with a dodgy decision? That's not evening out, that's just passing it on.
I agree Chazz I have looked at it 2 or 3 times on video and his foot caught his shin pads, that is why footballers wear them for protection, so to go down as if he is in agony is cheating.
There's absolutely no way Niang felt the pain he showed after Niasse's challenge. In fact, I thought he did well to sense there'd been any contact at all.
Yeah, I see that now. At the time I was only focused on the red. Watching the replays and reading stuff I can see now that Niang played the ref like a cheap fiddle.