Chris in London
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 21 Sep 2009
- Messages
- 13,342
Two things seem to me to be important to appreciate.
The first is that whilst our results are mediocre, we are nonetheless a very good team. Our opponents in the CL do not forget that, even if sometimes our fans do. That is why Roma and CSKA (and Dortmund, and Napoli) play the way they do against us - very organised in defence,look to keep us at arms length, hope to score on the break. Only once in four seasons have we been comprehensively outclassed, against Bayern last season. Even when we have lost we have been in the game.
Granted, our results do not reflect our ability. But that may be down to a number of things - some indiscipline, some naivety, whatever, but we are not a mediocre team, we are one of Europe's best. Not, I agree, on a par with Bayern, but not a million miles behind Barca.
The second thing is to appreciate that whatever the reason, we have had a freakish series of bad calls from the officials, in game- changing situations. Consider-
Demichelis' red card against Barca. No arguments with the red card but it wasn't a penalty and every blue reading this knows it. The penalty changed the course of the tie.
Silva's non penalty against Bayern. 0-0 with 5 mins to go, the referee failed to give as clear a penalty as you will see.
Maicon's foul on Aguero. Why no red card? The law is you get a red card if you deny an obvious goal scoring opportunity. It is unarguable that Aguero was not denied an obvious opportunity to score, so the red should have been shown.
Then we have last night - the failure to award the Dzeko penalty with us at 2-0 and the red card that would have followed, and their dubious penalty 5 minutes from time.
Over the course of a 38 game season the decisions may not even themselves out, but you tend to get bad calls going either way. We do get decisions going our way, but few game changers like the above. Zabaleta was half a yard offside last night but we have conceded goals which were equally tight, or had equally tight calls wrongly go against us. But I genuinely cannot think of a major let-off that we have benefited from (like avoiding an obvious red card or a stonewall penalty appeal against us go unawarded) in our favour, in the 4 seasons we have been in the CL.
As I say, all of our games, except Bayern at home last season, have been tight. In tight games, over a short 6 game season, these bad calls have a disproportionately greater effect than bad calls over the course of 38 games in the league.
The first is that whilst our results are mediocre, we are nonetheless a very good team. Our opponents in the CL do not forget that, even if sometimes our fans do. That is why Roma and CSKA (and Dortmund, and Napoli) play the way they do against us - very organised in defence,look to keep us at arms length, hope to score on the break. Only once in four seasons have we been comprehensively outclassed, against Bayern last season. Even when we have lost we have been in the game.
Granted, our results do not reflect our ability. But that may be down to a number of things - some indiscipline, some naivety, whatever, but we are not a mediocre team, we are one of Europe's best. Not, I agree, on a par with Bayern, but not a million miles behind Barca.
The second thing is to appreciate that whatever the reason, we have had a freakish series of bad calls from the officials, in game- changing situations. Consider-
Demichelis' red card against Barca. No arguments with the red card but it wasn't a penalty and every blue reading this knows it. The penalty changed the course of the tie.
Silva's non penalty against Bayern. 0-0 with 5 mins to go, the referee failed to give as clear a penalty as you will see.
Maicon's foul on Aguero. Why no red card? The law is you get a red card if you deny an obvious goal scoring opportunity. It is unarguable that Aguero was not denied an obvious opportunity to score, so the red should have been shown.
Then we have last night - the failure to award the Dzeko penalty with us at 2-0 and the red card that would have followed, and their dubious penalty 5 minutes from time.
Over the course of a 38 game season the decisions may not even themselves out, but you tend to get bad calls going either way. We do get decisions going our way, but few game changers like the above. Zabaleta was half a yard offside last night but we have conceded goals which were equally tight, or had equally tight calls wrongly go against us. But I genuinely cannot think of a major let-off that we have benefited from (like avoiding an obvious red card or a stonewall penalty appeal against us go unawarded) in our favour, in the 4 seasons we have been in the CL.
As I say, all of our games, except Bayern at home last season, have been tight. In tight games, over a short 6 game season, these bad calls have a disproportionately greater effect than bad calls over the course of 38 games in the league.