tonea2003 said:
Blue Mooner said:
We got 72 yellows equal with Stoke and only Villa getting more yellows, this despite having the best possession stats in the whole league. So we have the ball more than any other team yet still manage to rack up the second highest card count.
That is a total and utter anomaly, that can only be explained by biased refereeing.
The other critical factor on this is the timing of the yellow cards, early yellows should obviously carry more weight if you are going to score discipline, because you are playing with a the threat of a red for more of the game. Stats on this would very interesting. It stinks and after Sundays game it stinks even more.
after 38 minutes both teams had two players booked so that respect both teams were walking tightropes
i will add by half time we had another two bookings
but it certainly wasn't all one way
The way we play doesn't help our cause any either. The two most relentlessly punished fouls in the game now are going through the back of players and the cynical pull back to stop the opposition counterattacking. We play the highest defensive line in the league, with the back 4 defending on the front foot, trying to get in in front of the opposition forwards. Fouls and yellow cards are an inevitable consequence of this.
I also don't subscribe to the notion that referees are cheats. They may be shit, they may succumb to pressure, they may make mistakes, but deliberate cheating? Nah. Even Clattenfuck was pretty reasonable for the first 45 down at the Emirates the other day and for a supposed rag he had a nice line in awarding penalties against them this weekend. The notion also that Mike Dean 'cheated' us against Chelsea is too risible for words. Over the course of the last 10 years he's given us more soft decisions than any other referee on the planet. Some you win, some you lose.
There are 2 or 3 exceptions however. Mason and Taylor are rags, it's that simple. Taylor even used to go to the Swamp to watch them as a kid, and yet they pass themselves off as Bolton and Altrincham fans in order to officiate at the Etihad and Old Nafford, and they never give us anything. We really should make more of a fuss about those two. The only other referee to consistently grind my gears over the course of the last 10 years was, ironically (given that some City fans seemed determined to venerate him) was Mark fucking Halsey. From Gillingham to his retirement, he diddled us left, right and centre.