This twitter thread has Keith Hackett and Mark Halsey arguing about the offside: Hackett points out that the law explicitly contradicts his viewpoint, so Halsey ignores that and claims that the law is wrong and needs changing. Probably should expect that from a man who does **** like this: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...y-admits-booking-player-asked-for-yellow-card
So in order to ''even things out'', Southampton were denied 2 penalties last weekend. What are the chances they will get a soft penalty this week?
Hackett should be in charge of PGMOL. He was an excellent referee. He's been on H&J a few times and he's no time for the current style of refereeing. He'd get them following the laws or officiating in the lower leagues. It has got to the point where the laws of the game are a poor second to 'getting the game the TV viewer wants' or the referees think the laws should be. You can commit the worst fouls in the early parts of a game, without censure and you've **** all chance of getting a penalty then either. My current pet peeve is 'bumping' a player setting himself to jump for a header. The 'offender' has no intention of playing the ball and usually isn't looking at it. It puts the opponent off balance to the point where they can't jump and gains you a distinct advantage. It used to be a foul, not any more. Arsenal did it a number of times on Saturday, only Mustafi got penalised, for seriously overdoing it.
Or climbing on the back of the player in front . It's a lottery which way the free kick will go if at all.
I agree there is lot of poor refereeing. But there are some situations where the refs have little chance of getting the decision right. The issue I raised is one of those (and was a recurring theme in games this weekend). The issue of bias is subjective depending on whether decisions go for or against your team. I think there is undoubtedly more pressure for refs in games involving big teams, not just because there is more scrutiny of their decisions, but also because they have more of those tricky decisions to make, more often. When teams are attacking relentlessly and quicker, nimbler players are going down in the box frequently, eventually the pressure to call a foul is overwhelming. Fortunately, Liverpool have been rubbish at attacking recently so Salah has spent more time on his feet and outside the box.
The solution to that is to abolish the penalty area. Make it a penalty only if there was a clear goal scoring opportunity. That would reduce the incentive to dive.
That's definitely going to be a terrible idea. Thats the rule we use at my local kick around in the powerleagues to stop professional fouling as there arent cards. Just ends up in an argument half the time lol. Letting the ref be subjective on it being clear goalscoring opportunity is asking for trouble (player moving away from goal, covering players etc). They barely get it right for red card offences let alone if you are doing it for pens
Why do the refs nearly always turn a blind eye to the wrestling going on in the penalty area before free kicks and corners. It's so obvious to anyone but a blind man (ref!). Ban it until the kick is taken at the risk of penalties and free kicks.
They are so weak on this. Every team and 95% of defenders do this and get away with it. That was the one decent thing VAR was doing in the world cup as it stopped played from being fouled on set pieces.
The worst case of this is what Leeds used to get away with back when they had money, where they'd have a player wrestle with a defender in the penalty area right in front of the goalkeeper in the hope it would distract the keeper and create enough space for an Ian Harte free kick to go in The main reason I remember this is because that tactic worked against us two seasons in a row...
The whole bloody Leeds team under Revie were hitmen.Except for goalie Gary Spracke(?) He was useless! Bite yer legs Hunter,snides Bremner and Giles,not forgetting "our Jack!".....to mention a few. I hope they remain in a lower league...…..
Meanwhile, the BBC were gleefully reporting they went top of the Championship on Friday night...until Norwich played on Saturday and bumped them back to second It's like when they got out of League One, if you just watched the coverage you'd think they went up as champions after strolling the season when they actually finished second by a point on the final day of the season. It's like they have an attitude that, as they used to be in the Premier League, that means everyone wants to see them back...although they never seem to say how great it would be if Charlton, Ipswich or Sheffield Wednesday were back in the Premier League The difference being that Charlton, Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday fans by and large aren't complete and utter twats...
All four divisions being led by teams beginning with L. I'm glad we can put that **** to bed. I've always preferred M and N anyway.
I get that. But the problem with the current Law is that it is also subjective in practice and it essentially punishes minor contact like Sanchez on Aubameyang in exactly the same way as a deliberate foul like Mustafi on Kane. Two criteria for the Laws ought to be that the punishment fits the crime and that the punishment is worse than the advantage gained by the cheating.
Pauls Madeley and Reaney were good professionals, as were Allan Clarke, Peter Lorimar and Mick Jones. The rest were scary.
