I know, I know, I know! It's still very early in the season with everything still left to play for, but this is a game that Everton could have won, and that would have put us above LFC, should we beat Arsenal today, with a game in hand. Instead, yet another dreadful refereeing decision could have cost us dear. It worries me, because I see this as a sign of King Kenny's intimidation tactics (against refs) working as planned. He knows his side is not good enough to compete for 4th on a level playing field, so he and his squad have taken to cheating in order to make up for their lack of talent. I really do hope that referees wise-up to this, and see it for what it is. I am looking for a backlash next game, with absolutely nothing going their way.
Calm HIAG, calm! we will have our slices of good fortune too, thats football! beating them will count for more because thats fact, there's no reason why they couldn't have still won against an 11man Everton either.
Liverpool, us and the goonies will all have good and bad days with the man (who used to be) in black. It's in our hands whether this result will cost us. What we need to do is put a decent run together and win most of our games this season. All we can do is beat what's put in front of us. The rest is out of our control and this early in the season, not worth worrying about.
Liverpool and Man Utd must gain around 12 points more per season through favourable Refereeing decisions than everybody else, thats always happened and probably always will.
I know what you're getting at HIAG, but it's a little early to consider this sort of thing, for me. Their luck has been a little bit up and down, as far as I can see, though they're probably slightly up at the moment. Their breakthrough goal at Arsenal was offside and the Rodwell sending off was extremely harsh, but they can feel hard done by about one of the handball appeals at Stoke.
Appalling decision to send Rodwell off and the ref did seem to have it in for Everton. But what comes around goes around.
Some thing needs to be done about the bad officials.Rodwell sent off even though he played the ball,ohara being taken down inside the area only for the ref to give a free kick outside the area and then the linesman flagging the ball out of play when it was clealy in,and he was'nt even up with the play.these decision are costing teams games.
I usually like your posts Totsfan, but under the current laws, playing the ball is irrelevant to whether a tackle is a foul. What matters is whether it is careless, reckless or of excessive force. Rodwell's tackle was very forceful and while i think the ref got it wrong, I don't think it was a gross error
"Intent" is a hard one to call, and a lot must be left up to the ref. However, Rodwell's tackle was so clearly a case of his going for the ball. To believe otherwise would be to assume that Rodwell intentionally lined up the ball with the player in order to go through the player, which at the pace the tackle came in would have taken super-human judgement by Rodwell.
All very interesting but 'intent' is not mentioned in the relevant law. The gudeilines for referees say '“Careless” means that the player has shown a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or that he acted without precaution. • No further disciplinary sanction is needed if a foul is judged to be careless “Reckless” means that the player has acted with complete disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, his opponent • A player who plays in a reckless manner must be cautioned. “Using excessive force” means that the player has far exceeded the necessary use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent. • A player who uses excessive force must be sent off.' It doesn't matter whether he got the ball or intended to foul. If he tackled with excessive force he needs to get a red card. Personally I think he was only reckless, but he did come in very hard so I can see where the ref was coming from
I can't agree. It was a fair clean tackle. It looked reckless because Suarez acted like a little girl, going down like he'd broken his leg. He fooled the ref imo.
I think there is such thing as a legal "test of reasonableness" (perhaps a legal scholar could provide the details), which goes something like "is it reasonable to assume that...." Basically in order to say the tackle was anything more than careless (and I'm not sure it was even that) you've got to be reasonably sure that Rodwell "acted with complete disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, his opponent". Clearly something like that would never stand up in Court because that implies he had a chance properly assess the situation, determine that there was risk to the opponent, then make the challenge anyway. This is clearly incompatible with how football is actually played because if players had to take the time to make a proper assessment first then there probably would be no tackling at all! In many tackling situations you are already penalising players for something they have little control over (basically what the opposition player is going to do, what pace and exactly where they will be at the time you get to the ball), because complying with the letter of the law effectively means a no contact sport! Alternatively you have to accept that there will be contact from time to time, but redefine what "intent" means, because these definitions are IMHO unreasonable - OK on paper but not in the real world.
It wasn't a red. Defenitely a yellow. And is this article a joke? Something finally went our way 7 matches into the season and it's going to cost you?
agreed. But it didn't influence the decision at all. Atkinson went straight for the red card as soon as it happened. He got it wrong IMO but player reaction had f&*(all to do with it. That aside, I'd like Suarez to stop acting so 'south american'
It was never a red, but the Hibbert challenge should have been a red. Like said previously, what goes around comes around. This game has hardly cost you 4th.
And what about the shocking decision's in the Spurs v Arsenal game that went in Spurs favour. VDVs goal was hand ball and even if it was'nt he should have been sent off for the way he celebrated according to the rules.
It looked like his shoulder to me. The ref didn't have a good view, and if he's not sure he has to give the benefit of the doubt to the player. So, it certainly cannot be said to have been a "shocking" decision. It's a grey area The ref exercised his discretion on that one.
