Micah Richards' not acting the clown for once so fair play to him
“I’m trying to stay calm here but I genuinely can’t understand how Manchester City have come out of this game empty-handed, because for me, this is two massive decisions, both wrong, and both going the same way.Let’s start with the goal. People keep saying it’s ‘tight’ or ‘subjective’ no, it’s not. Under the IFAB Law 11, if you’re in an offside position and you’re interfering with an opponent, that includes impacting a defender’s ability to play the ball or gaining an advantage from a deflection or phase of play. That’s in black and white.Barry is in that position, the defenders are reacting to him, there’s hesitation, there’s chaos and he benefits from it. That’s interfering. I don’t care if he doesn’t touch it first, he’s influencing the situation. That goal should not stand for Everton. Simple as that.Now the second one… this is the one that really gets me.Michael Keane on Jérémy Doku, how on earth is that not a red card? Honestly, explain it to me. Because when I look at it, I see a player going in late, with force, and he’s not in control. That’s serious foul play all day.The law says if you endanger the safety of an opponent with excessive force, it’s a sending-off. There’s no grey area there. Doku’s planted, Keane comes through him, that’s dangerous. We’ve seen those given all season.And this is where the frustration comes in, VAR is there to correct ‘clear and obvious’ errors. So if they’re not intervening for that, then what’s the point? What are we actually doing?Because now you’ve got a situation where:a goal that, by the law, should be ruled out… standsa red card offence… gets waved awayAnd people will say ‘it evens out over the season’, no it doesn’t! Not at this level, not in a title race.You’ve got Michael Oliver on the pitch, VAR in his ear, and between them they’ve still got both calls wrong. That’s not pressure, that’s poor officiating.I’m telling you now, if that’s the standard, then we’re going to be having this same conversation every single week. And Professional Game Match Officials Limited have got to answer it, because right now, it just looks like inconsistency at the highest level.”