I have to say I'm really pleased we didn't surround the referee when Matic caught Mane when he could have been sent off. Hate that behaviour.
Long may our impenetrable penalty shield continue, Two debatable ones against Chelsea and a stone-wall one for Aguero which was not given .
An interesting one that. Obviously refs watch motd and, believe it or not, are also human. They might just be a little more generous to us for precisely that reaction.
What utter ****ing rubbish. Dean had a good game today. Were you saying this after he turned down a good penalty shout for Chelsea?
I think the fact Tadic kept his weight off that foot by stopping (because he didn`t want to do damage) made the ref think he avoided contact
Tintin you can't have it both ways. You can't wait to criticise referees when a dodgy decision goes against Saints but when one goes for Saints you side with the referee.
You are the one talking ****ing rubbish. Matic hacked down Mane as he was about to pull the trigger. Could easily have been a red for denying a goal scoring opportunity with a strict ref. Mane was more than capable of putting that away. Then he makes a nailed on yellow card challenge when on a yellow. Your defence of referees on here is boring. Mike Dean is not your dad. You don't have to jump to his defence like he is . Ivanovic went down like he weighs 50lbs soaking wet. He's a pussy and didn't deserve the penalty. For such a big unit it is pathetic how easily he goes to ground.
Despite the fact that Ivanovic took a bit of a swan dive, Tadic really did catch him. It was more than enough contact that Ivanovic could not have played the ball had he legitimately tried. It's very, very obvious on replay. Would be difficult to see at full speed though. Ivanovic hamming it up actually hurt him because it was so overdone that it looked way more like a dive than a clip. It could easily have been a penalty. In terms of degree, it was about the same as Matic's tackle really--- no real intent, just accidental bad timing. Just much harder to see. Also, the thing with Mane was he got a little bit of a shove from Ivanovich a split second before Matic got him. So between the two of them it was a clear sort of joint foul. You can't split a yellow card, so Matic got it. That may have been what was on Dean's mind when he let Matic slide on the second yellow. And we got the makeup call when Schneiderlin got away with one later. I can see the argument that the official should just call everything by the book, in which case Dean could be criticized for blowing several calls. Me, I think it's okay to take into account the larger picture and give or not give a tad bit of leeway here or there. But though it somewhat pains me, I have to agree with tomw23 on this one. If you're going to complain about bad calls, complain about ALL the bad calls. And watch the replays, too. Tadic CLEARLY caught Ivanovic.
The thing with Ivanovic is it wasn't just his arms, he did the modern classic 'I've been touched so now my legs no longer work' routine, dragging his toes along the ground with the foot that wasn't touched to help him over rather than the natural stumbling to the ground that would have actually happened. At full speed with the actual contact so hard to see (though it was blatant on replay) and with him going down in an inexplicable way, I can totally see how the ref hasn't given it. Meanwhile the second yellow for Matic was clear as day and the only reason he hasn't given him one is either not wanting to send him off or that it was so soon in the second half, which are both complete nonsense. That being said I've seen much much worse refereeing performances this season and referees have cost us much more dearly, overall he had a decent game for me.
Yes, the second one should have been a yellow card. I think he cut him a break and then let Schneiderlin get away with one as a makeup call. Like I said, I'm okay with it, but I can understand why people might complain about that.
Are you saying that was a penalty? If so, then that's two BIG decisions he got wrong. If he was a gymnast they'd be knocking some big points of his score. I thought Dean had a good game, but you are slowly convincing me he didn't.
If I compare Ref Dean with the majority of the muppets we have had this season, he ranks highly. He got some decisions right, some wrong but it effected both teams fairly evenly. We can't expect perfection but we can expect fair. Any game involving Chelsea is going to be a challenge because they throw themselves to the ground at every opportunity and are good at it. It's a real issue that pundits/commentators spend most of their time analysing every penalty claim with slow mo and dozens of different angles to try and prove the ref wrong. For the likes of Ref Dean I feel sorry for him on yesterday's performance
Well it certainly wasn't a straight red. He was 25 yards out with defenders ahead of him. And Mane wasn't hacked down. Matic just tripped him. It could easily have been a second yellow but I'm not going to lose it and call him a disgrace for not sending him off. Way over the top. I'm defending Mike Dean because you said he's unfit to referee which he clearly isn't. He's a good referee.
