Though given … the constant apparent favouritism to them in fouls and yellows the pen not given the dangerous tackle from Vardy on Suga the free kick not given to Tyler on the edge of their area the added time to added time He has influenced the game a bit in their favour
It was noticeable that at the end of the match, with the officials standing in the centre circle, a large number of Leicester players went over to shake the ref's hand. I couldn't be sure, but the handshakes seemed suspicious...
Started looking at an Echo article, but hit a paywall. Think he said it was because we were down to 10 men. Guess he thought we wouldn’t have enough of the ball, who knows?
He should have been on waaayyy before that though imo. It was obvious how the game was going even before their first goal.
Yeah don't disagree but I just wouldn't go as far as saying he cost us the game. That just provides a convenient excuse for our own failings imo.
The two yellows he dished out to us in the first ten minutes clearly put our defenders under pressure and set the store for what he was going to allow, except similar fouls by the foxes went unpunished, so there was no consistency in his decision making. His decisions, whether they were right or wrong did influence the result, but they weren't the only cause of our defeat.
I think the ref had a genuine impact. Dibling - who got fouled about 5 times without winning a single freekick - was visibly demoralised by it. That referee was so poor he bordered on corrupt.
The one at Arsenal was almost as bad too. Becoming a theme. Regardless though if we'd made more sensible subs and actually defended the edge of our box for set pieces then we wouldn't have lost.
I can't get over the fact we've conceded near identical goals in the last kick of the game in both home games against our fellow promoted sides. Comically bad. Almost a sackable offence in its own right tbh.
Comment from a Leicester forum which says a lot: Anybody who thinks the PL is going to have officials completely against us this season, should go and watch that game back. I'd be absolutely fuming with the balance of offiating in that game if I were in the Southampton camp. Shambles.
Well we were a man short and at least two players weren't really contributing, Smallbone seemed to have had a recurrence of his injury and Sulemana was just wandering about without any purpose, in these situation you need eleven players giving 100%.
You also need to be setup to defend the edge of your box from set pieces. Something we consistently don't do and didn't in previous ones during yesterday's game. Lots of teams can successfully defend set pieces with 10 men. Poor excuse that imo.
RM on why Lallana didn’t come on. “We were down to ten men and we were not going to have a lot of the ball. That's not Adam's strength. Adam's strength is to really dominate the ball.” I posted a comment yesterday about how I get frustrated when managers take off ball retaining players for less skilful players who run around more, when we are under the cosh. I get that we were down to 10 men but a player who can keep hold of the ball for a few seconds buys time for the defence to reshape and, imo, we should always have one player on the pitch to do this, rather than someone who occasionally regains the ball only to give it straight back through poor control or a bad pass.
Whilst Taylor decision to not award our penalty was bad, I'd say Fraser's decision to pull back Vardy was worse. It was the 72nd minute, not the 95th minute. He must have known that he'd be both giving away a penalty and getting a red card. Just let Vardy score and keep 11 men on the pitch. It would have been the right thing to do at the end of the game, because you gamble on the penalty being missed and there being barely any time to suffer with 10 men. But not when there was 25 minutes still to play. Stupid from Fraser.
I’d argue that Smallbone is pretty **** against the ball too though…especially half fit and not fully recovered from injury. AND as has been said, it was obvious during the game that Lallana should have been on earlier anyway. The game had changed well before we went down to 10 men. We needed Lallana for his experience, leadership, nous, his vocal coaching to his team mates AND his ability on the ball. It was so obvious from early on in the second half that he should have come on. Same for Taylor at LB when Sugawara had to go off injured, another experienced PL player.
But this is bs isn’t it. Lallana should have been on at 60 mins with 11 men and 2-0 up. That would have helped us dominate the ball. Criminal if journalists don’t press him on this. It was just so obvious to all.
That’s rubbish, lallana has been our best midfielder when he’s played. He has to play him when he can.
