Many memorable lines from Matt as usual, such as a six year old determined not to blink in case he misses something. I had been thinking about the transformation in Kiko since he was forced into the left back role. I thought he looked better there, and was pleased that Matt has seen it to. "Key here is Kiko, whose metamorphosis from a fun but slightly flaky right back into a hard-ass left back is exemplified by his bottling up of Adama Traoré. Traoré is suddenly the extraordinary physical specimen with no end product that we all understood prior to this season, prior to him seemingly becoming a footballer. He’s not permitted an end product today." Lovely turn of phrase.
Red card aside (it's all about opinions and it doesn't matter - a one game ban for the Tranmere match - take it on the chin and move on), Matt is spot on imho. Pretty much as always. Nice chap too, having chatted on several occasions... his sidekick Ig I am better acquainted with, and another thoroughly decent chap too.
Apparently one match for the offence itself and, I've just learned, a second match for getting so many cards!
The club are going to appeal the red card. This means they are appealing against VAR, not the ref. I think it is the first time this has happened, so will be very interesting to see what happens.
Wasn't Son's Red card the other week initiated by VAR? cannot be 100% though. Will be interesting to see the outcome and i would love to see a transcript of the appeal to understand why the VAR ref thought/saw differently to the on field ref
What needs to happen is for the VAR to tell the referee he's got it wrong and for the referee to look at the replays and judge for himself and make the decision accordingly... in this incident "the referee's decision is final" is certainly not the case, never mind anything else! Utterly ludicrous situation.
In the Australian A League the ref trots over to a pitch-side monitor and makes his decision accordingly. I think there was one case last year similar to the Kabasele incident. Not only was the player sent off as a result of the ref changing his decision, a penalty was given too. There is a bit of a delay when the ref goes to the side of the pitch but it doesn't seem so long because there is something to watch. It doesn't happen too often either; certainly not after each goal is scored. The system works perfectly well and the crowed are given the firm belief that the ref is in control and that it is his decision, rather than some remote being that no one can see.
I think we will need him more for the Spuds than the worst current team in the premier league FA cup is a good chance for fringe players and the best of the under 23.s as long as we have our superstars on the bench, just in case
I don't wish to prolong the Kabasele red card debate, but the logic confuses me. As I understand it, it's a red card if the offence causes a goalscoring opportunity to be lost - i.e. no chance of a defender intervening. Now, if Kabasele doesn't cause an offence, no card (any colour) and the attacker has his chance. So, it's deemed that Kabasele's offence prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity.. He had to commit the offence to get a card. So the red card means that the attacker had time to get up off the floor, recover the ball and take a shot before any other defender could get near to him. Really ? I don't think so! Can someone (we have a few on here who are referees I believe) explain this to me. Thanks
Far too many possibilities about this ruling I am afraid. Would a ref issue a red card to someone for hauling down an attacker on the halfway line? I don't think so. In the time it takes for the player to get into a shooting position many things could happen. He might simply fall over, or more to the point another very speedy player could catch up with him and take the ball away. Is the ref is expected to know about the current speed that different defenders can muster? So if it is unlikely that a red card is issued on the halfway line, how far up the pitch does an attacker have to be before he is in a scoring position?
If Dawson had read the game better or been aware, he could have blocked the guys run before the ball came loose from the Kabasele jump. Then the incident would never have happened.
