Why bring Fergie or LFC as a club into it?, sure sign you've lost it Boots, if not enlighten us on what you think the referees discuss at their meetings?
It was you who said I was naive for not believing that a campaign against Suarez would feature on their agenda mate. So I assumed it's you who has the detailed insider knowledge on the content of their discussions. Do you think that the World revolves around Anfield btw?
I've already posted Poll's piece from the Mail after the Norwich game & he said nor intimated nothing of the sort.
It is admitting that referees, who now get paid as much as GP's and Fire Station managers, are 'human' and base their decisions on reputations (gained fairly or not). If the said GP's and fire station managers, or airline pilots too, based their decisions upon reputations, hearsay and the noise from the crowd they would be prosecuted, never mind sacked. I do accept though that given the success of the baying, coin-throwing mob in the corner of the Gladwys St (how's that investigation going into the ones who threw coins at Suarez and Stevie G? - or is that only done if Rio gets hurt and is based upon 'reputation too?) in influencing the timid lino in the derby that you'd quite like to support all refs who make decisions based upon 'reputations' and crowd pressure. Maybe we should replace officials with clapometers.
To be honest, I would take what 3 card Poll says with more than a pinch of salt.. No doubt head lines sell and I guess he may need the cash, after all, how many times can he flog the "Three strikes and you’re out comes to football" on the after dinner speech tour? Such things are cyclical, back in our hay day we won more than our fair share of Pens, right now, for one reason (conspiracy theory?) or another, we’re not flavour of the month.
Would that be the same "baying mob" that saw a lino deny us 2 perfectly good goals a few weeks prior that cost us 2 points against Newcastle? (we're not as talented as the Mancs btw, as we missed his goofy grid) Back to the thread, if you take off your tear stained rose tinteds for a minute & actually try & take in waht he's saying there, it makes perfect sense. If player 'A' has a PROVEN reputation for being a diver & goes down in the box, then the referee is going to naturally think longer about the decision in case said player is trying to con him. If he thinks the latter may be the case, he'll wave it away. You can blame the referee all you like, but the reality is, that if if Player 'A' hadn't previously had form for diving like Greg Louganis then the referee wouldn't have had the same thought process. A classic case of "you reap what you sow"
fair point TB, just like to see the same sort of harshness given to players who blatantly know a player has been fouled and try to con the ref by making out said player (rep or no rep) is cheating, when they are the ones who are cheating. like to see that sort of thing highlighted more, and manager of said club have to defend their players actions, as plenty of them have enough to say when Suarez over reacts a challenge!
Shelvey doesn't have a reputation and yesterdays pathetic excuse for a tackle on him should have resulted in a penalty
Stop swerving it Boots, you've brought Fergie, LFC into it and now you're going off topic because you know the world revolves around our club. This isn't about clubs though this is about an individual player, a player that brings a lot of problems on himself but also a player that's entitled to the 'same' rights as others within the game.
This is a bit of a chicken and egg question. You could argue that players like Suarez wouldn't need to dive if they got the protection from referees that they should. I'm not condoning diving- I hate it and wish it could be eradicated from the game, but it's wrong that refs should pick on one form of unsporting behaviour to punish and yet be lenient on others.
Absolutely. Pullis forever whignes about diving, but a couple of seasons back Higginbottom scythed down lucas at the Brittania, screamed blue-murder at the ref that Lucas had dived, and not only did the ref not give the pen but he booked Lucas for diving. Not a peep from Pullis though about 'play-acting'. Point is Tobes, the one against Norwich especially had NOTHING to do with reputation - it was the clearest pen ever and a four-year-old could have given it, never mind a highly-paid (for that is what they are now) official. And that's the point, they're highly paid 'professionals' now and shouldn't be basing decisions on reputation as if they were publicity seeking X-Factor judges.
Another one of my loves, NFL, very rarely do the refs get the decisions wrong (well apart from the catch that never was when Green Bay played the Seahawks, but I digress) and when they do, they review them (if play can be reviewed), the game needs help from technology! Really don’t see the point of the 4th official, he needs to be there to hold up a board? FFS, why can they not contribute more than that? Don’t want Football to go down the route of NFL but I see no harm in giving the managers a red flag, they have one challenge per half, can only be used for incidents in the box, offside’s or sending’s off. So, with that in mind, Fergie could have used it yesterday, 3rd goal gets chalked off, flag is thrown, 4th official checks replay (which was shown seconds later on telly), see the goal is good, goal is given, would take 30 seconds out of the game max! Also, time keeping to be similar to Rugby/NFL, as soon as the ball goes out of play, clock stops, no more “added” time after the 90mins. The less the ref has to do the less they’re likely to cock-up.. Rant over..
I'll give you the Norwich one, it was a stinker of a decision & even looking at it with scepticism he should have got that one right, even I'd have given him that ****er Having said that, I don't think you can definitively say that Jones got that one wrong based on Suarez reputation, he can't have seen it properly as it wasn't even borderline. It's the borderline calls that Poll was referring to & as much as we might expect them to get every call right, they never will & the level of salary or training won't alter it either. The solution to the entire issue of poor calls is already at every PL ground in the country every week, but there's some crazy reticence on behalf of FIFA & the PL to embrace it. i.e. technology & a mic'd official sat in the stands.
That "catch" was when the replacement officials were up right? I could understand them getting a few decisions wrong as they were not suited or fit enough to officiate a NFL game (I think they were college game officials), the experienced officials very rarely get big calls wrong. It is unacceptable for anybody officiating to get a decision wrong. Yes, humans make mistakes, but when you are getting obvious things like offside or a stone wall penalty being denied, perhaps having the 4th official doing more than just holding a board up is the right call
Correct, however those refs still make some of the refs we have to endure look like a bunch of clowns!
By the rule book, yes it should have been a pen hoever I could then go and list another 4 examples in the same game that then "should have been a pen". Also watch it again and watch Cole on Agger just infront of him when he has his arms on his neck. Or a corner we had when someone had Agger in a headlock and nothing was given. Ref's are petrified to give anything like that in the box as it goes on all the time and if they give one, they know they have to be consistant and give the 5 others that are bound to happen.
Dear Rock hard Keyboard Warrior/Victim You lot sure do bite at being called victims eh? Stop acting and behaving like one then simples???
