The idea it was a dive can only be seen after multiple slo-mo replays....the ref is either a genius or we were very lucky.
that much is absolutely true. referees and linesmen are inadequate. too much is left to chance. better technology is needed or the rules need tweaking.
I think the main thing influencing Michael Oliver wasn't so much that Osman was going down before the contact, although that played a part. It was the fact that he'd lost control of the ball, which went harmlessly over the byline. Even if he hadn't gone down he couldn't have caught up with it, so the two things together made the ref's mind up. I do think the yellow card was slightly harsh though.
I'm not a referee but my take on it is that if the player is impeded or knocked out of their stride in a meaningful way, it's a foul, and if another player's leg is effectively laying on the ground in front of them, they would probably not be impeded in any significant way if they didn't want to be. The Fonte/Dzeko one was a penalty because Fonte thrust his leg out behind him at about waist height, it hit Dzeko, and although there wasn't a huge contact, I think you could reasonably say that it was an obstacle for him which would have slowed him down and probably the ball would have run away from him if he'd stayed up. The Osman one, for me, is different; he's knocked the ball a long way in front of him, so he may not have reached it anyway, and I don't think Lovren was presenting a big enough obstacle for him to warrant it being a foul (unless you consider it to have been unduly forceful, which by the time the contact was made, it wasn't really). Having said that, if you're going to go flying in like that, you're going to concede a lot of penalties, so it was pretty daft of him. I think he may have actually been stretching to block a cross and just misjudged it. He got away with it a bit to be honest. As for Osman, he obviously saw Lovren coming and expected more of a contact, and he was going down before the contact was made. I do think for it be a booking the player has to be making a concerted effort to deceive the officials though, and as there was no real appeal from him, I don't think he was (not that he wouldn't have taken the penalty had it been given of course...)
Two of the best Penalty takers in the World on the pitch and a spoilsport Referee denies them an opportunity of a shoot out.
Of the penalty shouts between Saints and Everton this season, the handball from Lallana`s cross up at Goodison was most valid.
Tom, despite your efforts always to be the voice of the referees' union on every decision, I must have missed the occasion when you argued for a Saints penalty in a game. It does rather feel like in your efforts to look independent you're overcompensating. Vin
Same for me 10 rows up, as soon as Lovren jumped I thought "well that's 2-1". Osman didn't dive at all, he just took the contact naturally as it came in. Contrast with Jarvis v Arsenal who generously jumped out of the way of Sagna's very wild tackle, causing the referee to correctly not give a penalty.
Did you see that he was going down the first time you saw it in real time at the game? I didn't, hence I think Lovren was lucky.
