I have just witnessed the answer to one of life's great questions , Sex or Football ? Walking the dog past one of the local pitches I saw a bloke getting changed on the touchline and heard the manager say to him " where the **** have you been" , KO was 15 mins ago , player replied " the Mrs woke up horney and I couldn't miss the chance " manager just shrugged his shoulders and said " get warmed up we're 1-0 down
The subtlety of bias This was prompted by yesterday's debacle but I wanted to make a more general point so am making it here. I am thinking that we often see ludicrous bias in favour of those teams we all know - a penalty given or not, an obvious incident leading directly and immediately to a goal etc. But it seems to me the problem runs far deeper than that. I'll take examples from the game yesterday, and may I first say that I don't think we deserved anything from it and what I am about to say is not to make excuses, it's to draw comparison with how the same might play out with other teams - which as a result don't even need to make excuses! So before their second goal was Hojbjerg fouled? I thought he probably was but it could have been interpreted differently (as it was). One thing for sure is that because it wasn't given as a foul they were able to go up the field and score. So the decision didn't directly lead to their goal, but without it their goal wouldn't have happened (if you see what I mean). How would this be different with other teams? I think that is given as a foul immediately, or maybe VAR let's the ref know that he missed it. And if that happened there wouldn't be any complaints at all - and it wouldn't even be mentioned again, particularly if certain teams benefited from the decision. Another incident happened when Kane was fouled on the edge of the area, I thought it might be in the box, but of course there was minimal analysis we'll never really know. As with the foul I mentioned, if this was another team, say Ronaldo getting clipped at Old Trafford does the ref let it go? Again, if it is missed maybe VAR lets him know and we go back for a pen (or more consideration). Something else less obvious which isn't that much of a thing in our game, but could have been a major incident if the "right" teams were playing. But what about this new policy of letting things go for the sake of a flowing game? Well sounds good if implemented evenly but of course it isn't. Both the incidents above could be put under that heading (as an excuse for the ref if he missed it perhaps!) But again if a different team was on the end of those decisions they could have been viewed completely differently and nobody would have mentioned a thing. Letting things go? Like Maguire last week? Something else that goes under this heading is the early use of the yellow card. Xhaka could have got a yellow in the first half but didn't. The ref can claim he's letting more go than last season as per the new directive. Anyone think he would have got away with that at Old Trafford? For years the big teams have often had matches where they've played badly but 'somehow' got results. Pundits who don't really understand simply trot out the old 'it's a good team that gets results when playing badly' but I don't think that's actually the case. I bet you can link a lot of those results to incidents in the match that helped them considerably, over and above the usual crap penalties etc. And as for yesterday we could easily have got a draw in that match. We wouldn't have deserved it, but it could have happened. And if we were a different team who knows? So keep an eye out for these more subtle biases. I'd be interested to hear about your views.
Dermot Gallagher's opinion on it shows this, for me: "I think White is lucky. He doesn't get the ball. Kane gets there quickly. I wouldn't have been surprised if a penalty had been given there. But it didn't meet the threshold for an obvious error. The VAR is in a tough position because if the referee had given a penalty, I don't think he would have gone against him. That's the thing, it's not an exact science. You have to allow a grey area [of subjectivity] and that fell in it." It simply is a clear and obvious error. He fouls him. Gallagher agrees that he fouls him. He still doesn't want to give the decision. Why would that be? There's no grey area. There is no subjectivity. He kicks his foot and gets nowhere near the ball. As we've seen from the crop of retired refs that are in the media, they're not using our rules. The fans, players and managers think one thing and the officials think another. There's some sort of disconnect there and it wasn't there during the Euros.
For me the clear and obvious error threshold is one of the major problems. I believe its supposed to be there to protect the authority of the ref on the pitch but everyone knows refs are fallible, they’re human and it’s been obvious they get things wrong since football has been played. The VAR should be used to check decisions (or lack of decision) and correct them, not to cover for incorrect decisions.
What does clear and obvious error mean? To me it means getting it inarguably wrong. This doesn't appear to be the definition that those on VAR are using. White fouled Kane. Nobody thinks otherwise. The ref didn't give it. He was wrong. Overturn him.
I agree with vimhawk , we were terrible but we did have a couple of crucial calls against us , the foul on PEH and the Kane pen, knowing how much pressure the Arse defences were under a couple of decisions against them would have put a different complexion on the game , having said that our 1st half display deserved what it got and if I don't see Ndombele and Dele play in those positions again it won't be soon enough
It does say a lot that Lucas is in the Standard criticising our playing it long all too often yesterday The reality is that Sanchez wouldn't have been sending it long so often if Dele or Ndombele weren't constantly pushing way too high up the pitch, making the out ball from the back as obvious as it was under the ubermensch
Oh great, r/coys are going to be sat in a circle rhythmically chanting "He plays his mates" while whinging about Ndombele not playing in the SKC final...
