https://mixture.gg/v/61b4b1339548c We'd never get that. The original decision wouldn't go our way and VAR wouldn't overturn it.
It’s impossible to say. This and last season our attacking numbers are likely to be well down the list so we don’t put ourselves in enough positions to say if that would or wouldn’t have gone for or against us.
True dat. Was it just an idiotic f up, or was there more involved? Who knows. And as long as the officials are crap, no one will know. Having watched a lot of leagues, football stands out as the worst officiated by some distance. Of American sports, the NFL used to be by far the worst, because they had part-time officials. It's gotten considerably better, at least partly to do with VAR. I expect a certain amount of big team bias, and home team bias, in all sports. Sports other than football are subtler about it. A good example was the Steelers win in the 2006 Super Bowl. There were three very close, important calls. All went the Steelers way. One was definitely correct. One was probably correct. The other was endlessly debatable. So the Steelers got an appreciable edge, because there were three debatable decisions, and all went their way. But a reasonable person couldn't call any of the calls wrong. In football, you can watch, say, Mourinho at Chelsea intimidate officials and bully them into bending the rules in his favor. Same with the mobbing of officials. When you can see blatant intimidation go on in front of your eyes, you can't help but think some sort of intimidation or quid pro quo behind the scenes is likely. Football doesn't pass the smell test. Sports that do, like rugby, the NBA, the NHL and MLB, feature officials who act like kings of their castle, and don't take s***. Officials in football remind me of junior teachers with shady pasts getting bossed by the rich boys who know all about them. I did watch one fixed game, again involving the Steelers. It was very interesting. The fix was on the spread, not the outcome. So the Steelers would have won the game in any case, but the officials denied the other team a score which would have let them cover the spread--and cost the Las Vegas bookies a lot of money. The ruling was 100% wrong in the sense of not following the rules. When they tried to explain their nonsensical decision, they looked very nervous and ashamed. It got a certain amount of coverage, but no follow up. Fixes clearly happen. Most, including me, think they're very rare. I do wonder sometimes.
That’s a penalty but you'd need about 10+ more of those where all 10 have gone against us to imply that there is a bias against us or a bias for others. I’m sure a Pool fan could come on here and show us an incident where they didn’t get a penalty or a decision for a similar incident but how many people on here take notice of the incidents rivals don’t get? I doubt anyone.
Standard Pool fare that, incredibly soft penalty where Salah has dived to the floor again. The officials are once again doing their best to drag their darlings into a title race, which is no surprise.
Didn’t see the game so not sure the outcome there but I’d have given foul beforehand for Ings pushing Matip in the back.
Matip just runs into him! Alexander-Arnold's push on Watkins is far more of a foul. please log in to view this image
I’d agree that there’s a home team bias for just about every team. The crowd can really affect a refs decision on a possible 50-50 but when it comes to actual refereeing bias towards particular teams, that I just don’t personally buy as there just isn’t a big enough sample size to judge from. I think as Spurs fans, we’ll remember the 50-50s we don’t get and then notice the 50-50s rivals do get and then base a case for saying there’s a bias against us/ for others. When in reality you need to also try and remember the 50-50s we do get as well as the 50-50s a rival doesn’t get in order to get a clearer view.
Allison gets none of the ball and punches the Villa player in the leg, causing him to lose balance and fall over. But as we know, big decision will rarely go against the 13 men of Varpool, see the Milner none second yellow in the game v City for all the evidence you need.
Matip runs across and in front of him, Ings then shoves him. That’s a push in the back by Ings. You would 100% say that was the case if that was Dier running in front of an opposition attacker.
As every single defender would do, defenders will always look at blocking off an attacker and hoping to draw a foul once they feel contact. Ings pushes Matip in the back, I don’t know if a foul was given or not as I didn’t see the game but from that clip, it’s a foul on Matip before Alisson commits the brainfart.
Blocking them off doesn't mean running into them, though. He moves towards Ings. The ref didn't give anything, as far as I know. I'd check, but it's being removed from everywhere. Also fails to make the Sky Sports youtube highlights, shockingly.
If he ran into Ings, Ings would’ve gone flying as Matip’s a bigger unit than the striker. He runs across him and then gets pushed in the back. It’s quite similar to how Kane used to draw the fouls when he’d look behind and wait for a defender to jump into his back. It’s smart play to put yourself in that position as it’ll almost certainly result in a foul to the one that gets in hit in the back.
