I'm not convinced the standard of referees actually is a problem. They're better trained, fitter and more professional than ever. I think the biggest problem is that football's rules are very hard to interpret consistently. The handball on Saturday is a perfect example; that incident happens week after week, and about half the time it's deemed a handball and half the time it isn't. Either way, fans on one side are aggrieved. Because the handball law isn't black and white and relies on a certain amount of interpretation. The more scrutiny and analysis we put decisions under, the more we convince ourselves that a universally agreed version of "correct decisions" is achievable, but it isn't. The other thing is that home advantage plays a big part. Subconsciously refs will want to give more decisions to a vociferous home crowd who would otherwise give him a hard time. And I'm convinced that some clubs get a much greater home advantage than others in that sense. I say it all the time but I think we're too meek at home and as a result don't get the home advantage from refs that other clubs do.
As time goes on and you start to judge him more as a left back rather than with the bias of a centre back ‘doing a job’ he’s starting to look worse and worse there. He’s our best centre half in my opinion and should be playing there regardless. I wonder when we’ll start seeing Guardiola shafting all his best players into makeshift positions and leaving all his strikers on the bench in a team full of midfielders.
He's well known for it, particularly with successfully using makeshift left backs in fact. Zinchenko, Cancelo, lately Bernardo Silva. Greaves is doing fine, and there's been no suggestion he's unhappy. Jones and McLoughlin have been a brilliant partnership recently and to disrupt that would be daft.
I haven’t seen the handball but they have tried to take the grey area away now, if it hits the hand outstretched it should be a penalty. There shouldn’t be any more interpretation than that so presumably if it hit an outstretched hand the ref and officials didn’t see it clearly and so didn’t/couldn’t give it. I notice linesmen seem to make less and less calls these days or more likely they’re just telling the ref what to do through the headset.
I can't say I've kept up with the latest changes to the handball law. Is it really that strict? Usually the rules tend to get more and more complicated by each attempt to clarify them.
Same thoughts when reading the earlier post about linesmen looking bemused half the time. I'd hate to be a linesman nowadays. They are basically no longer allowed to do what was their job. To my mind, most of the time it's just stupid. FFS, just let them do their job, make the calls (which is why they were there in the first place), then let the ref over-rule them only if the ref is sure they've got it wrong (which is rare as the linesman is 99/100 better placed to see if it's offside, if the ball went out of play, who it came off last, etc). And be allowed to put their flag up right away when it's as clear as day to everyone that it's offside.
when I was a linesman I would concentrate on offside decisions as they were more important and likely to need to be made I'd always know who was in an offside position in case somebody kicked it forward - then I could make the judgement They dont put up the flag right away because VAR may overrule them and they will have stopped a legitimate goal scoring opportunity It's much better to see what happens and then flag
I do tend to agree but in the 3 games we've had him that Gavin Ward has been awful. Even the Sunderland game with the red card given he was just blowing every little foul. Will never begrudge an official for making a decision instinctively especially without VAR to aide them. My main annoyance especially at this level is the ones that pull the game up for any little thing and proper jobsworth it. The game is getting short enough as it is especially with time wasters. Cant wait for them to implement the World Cup added time
Having just checked the fa laws of the game, the red card will be for denying a goal or clear goal scoring opportunity, whether deliberate or not. So there is some subjectivity around whether a red card should be awarded too. Here is the handball rule which is now much more black and white than it used to be: HANDLING THE BALL For the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit. Not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence. It is an offence if a player: deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised scores in the opponents' goal: directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental
Dont think we are far from having VAR in the championship. The money involved to get promoted back to the premier league is too high
I thought you were making a general point and not specific to the Championship If you are specifically talking about the Championship then I will question your comment: "And be allowed to put their flag up right away when it's as clear as day to everyone that it's offside." They do put their flag up right away in the Championship It's only in the Premier League they delay because of VAR
That still seems incredibly subjective to me. The part about a natural position for the movement of the body could be argued to cover most of those ones where an arms blocks a cross from close range, like ours on Saturday.
On Saturday his arm was stuck out Do you remember at Tottenham when Elmo stopped a cross with his thigh and the ball flew up and hit his arm? Amazingly a penalty was awarded.
