For years fans have criticised Rafa for Zonal marking and rotation. Then when injuries happen and teams have crap defences, they say I wish rafa was still here.
Heard that it kicked off with Lascells and the ref at half time Lascells asking why it wasn't a sending off I agree, as the Law states anyone headbutting or attempting a headbutt is violent conduct with a red card issued it does not matter if the ball is in play or not, violent conduct and a sending off can happen on or off the pitch
It's pretty obvious - it's either nothing, or a red, yellow is just stupid. The ref seemed really cowardly - didn't want to explain it, just flapped a yellow card in the air. The commentators (and spectators) had no idea who was even booked. State of refs is abysmal, getting worse as well, not better. Especially with Masters now at the helm. That said, we benefited from equally abysmal reffing vs Sheff U, as the first incident with Joelinton/Egan wasn't a booking - at a push Joelinton deserved it, but Egan was hard done by. Said at the start of the match picking the same eleven was baffling. With so many games and a chance at the FA Cup, it didn't make a lot of sense. I'd have liked about 4 or 5 changes - Bentaleb, Yedlin, Lazaro, Schar and maybe Gayle/Muto should've started the match.
Fair score last night. They had their spells, so did we. Ref gave us **** all last night, he seemed reluctant to book their players despite several obvious trips/fouls, particularly when we were breaking. Type of fouls you hope your lads would be cute enough to make. The none sending off was just weird. If he spat on him or butted him he should be off surely?? Great substitution by Bruce in some ways, they obviously combined for the goal. However we saw the risk with it too. Hayden is taking a bit of stick, he did lose his man, but he was injured. Still his fault as he should have went down if it was that bad that he couldn't even track a man. But it could have been avoided long before that. In the lead up to the corner, twice Gayle just lazily put no pressure on the ball and allowed them up the field. You could sense he scored, and thought "I've done my bit". I quite like Gayle but that really pissed me off last night, really costly. No excuses for Dubravka, it was **** keeping. Someone on our group chat was trying to say he was unsighted etc. Bollocks, it was just **** keeping. He knew too. To be fair though that's the life of a keeper and hes saved us plenty so its one he gets let off with for me. Overall disappointing but its another game unbeaten. Just with it being Villa, I really wanted to **** them
But I want them to suffer. I want them to go down to the last day and then go down on goal difference.
Can't wait for Vile to go down. Will have a good laugh as they do! Probably looking forwards to it as much as the takeover now!
