Today's referee

[Matty]

FWIW I wondered yesterday if Marriner went into the game with a pre conceived idea that certain players of ours are persistent foulers and that affected his decision making. The benefit of the doubt went against us nearly every time.

Then I wondered how refs get these pre conceived ideas (I'm sure they all have them). Do they form them themselves, or do they get scouting reports just like the players do.

Maybe the refs body had just done one about us, if you look at Mattys stats it would be easy to assume that we are a cynical, dirty team. So he has that in his mind at the start of the game and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I don't buy that it was a bad day at the office, if it was you would have seen bad decisions go both ways.

Ok I've gone back and watched the first half and this is what I honestly made of each decision:

MCFC v Chelsea-1st Half

Freekicks given to City(2)

33.32 Freekick given to City for offside against Ramires. Correct decision.

43.45 Freekick awarded to City as Milner misjudges the run of Ba on the byline and stumbles into Ba’s knee, falls over and gets the freekick. Very soft, Ba did nothing wrong and I don’t think it was a freekick.

Freekicks given to Chelsea(14)

09.00 Javi Garcia trips over Chelsea player from behind without touching the ball, right side of Chelsea half of the pitch. Foul.

11.52 Aguero & Ivanovic jump for a header, Aguero jumps behind Ivanovic and may give a slight inadvertent knock on the side of his cheek with his right arm as he goes up for the ball, soft but there was minimal contact.

13 mins: Freekick given for offside against Aguero as he makes attempt to play ball in an offside position 2 yards out from goal after Cech saves Nastasic’s header. Correct call.

14.40 Freekick given when TV not showing live footage, audible handball shout and freekick given. Unable to tell as haven’t seen incident.

18.46 Rodwell slides in on Ramires just inside the Chelsea half, he clearly wins the ball with one foot and then inevitably Ramires trips over Rodwell’s trailing leg as he comes down from jumping away from Rodwell’s original tackle. Good tackle, not a foul imo.

22.35 Rodwell leans over the top of Ramires to win a header in Chelsea’s half, causing the Chelsea player to tumble over. A fair free kick imo.

23.33 Zabaleta runs in behind Hazard and tackles him one footed from behind whilst on his feet and catches Hazard’s right leg as he tries to turn. Hazard stumbles onto his hands and knees and is awarded the freekick. Correct decision.

25.13 Foul given as Hazard goes over after playing the ball and apparently being caught by Zabaleta. Didn’t seem to be any contact on the replay so if there was it was minimal. No freekick imo.

26.20 Yaya Toure pushes Ramires over halfway inside the City half with two hands into the back of the Chelsea player. Clear freekick.

28.03 Long ball played up to Demba Ba, he and Nastasic are tussling, a bit of pulling and a bit of backing in, Ba is backing in but Nastasic has 2 arms around Ba and the combination of the backing in and pulling down causes Ba to go over. Can see why it was given especially as the referee was looking head on and seeing Nastasic with his arms around Ba, clever by Ba to win the freekick.

28.22 Ivanovic plays the ball on the right touchline and Rodwell goes into the back of him with his knee and Ivanovic goes over. No need to make contact by Rodwell and it was a freekick, a needless one at that. Rodwell booked.

33.14 Silva trips Mikel as the Chelsea player goes to run away from the City midfielder. Clear freekick.

38.51 Freekick awarded to Chelsea on advice from the linesman who spots that Kolo Toure has cynically tripped Mata off the ball. Correct decision. Kolo Toure booked.

41.55 Ashley Cole makes a run down the left hand side of City’s penalty area and is fouled by Zabaleta who slides into him after the ball is gone. Correct decision. Zabaleta booked.

Of the 14 freekicks, I’d say 10 were correct, 3 were incorrect and 1 was impossible to call.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to City(1)

05.34 Yaya Toure tripped by Lampard on left edge of area.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to Chelsea(1)

20.55 Silva blocks off Chelsea player to prevent his run upfield and then takes the ball for City. Thought it was a foul on viewing.


Others(7)

11.23 Mikel slides in on Aguero just inside the Chelsea half, pokes the ball away with his foot first but does catch Aguero on the foot slightly. Won the ball pretty fairly so probably not a freekick although Aguero was caught slightly in the follow-through.

18.05 Rodwell fouled by Mikel in central area of Chelsea’s half, Marriner plays advantage and ball is played into Aguero who rounds Cech and runs the ball out for a goal kick. Advantage to City correctly played.

19.29 Aguero pulls Cole out of the way after ball is played, advantage correctly played by Marriner to Chelsea.

19.55 Lampard pulls back on Yaya Toure to stop him getting away, advantage is played and Toure plays ball through to Clichy whose cross is cleared for a City set piece by Cahill. Advantage correctly played.

35.55 Yaya Toure tripped by Ramires in the centre of the park. Advantage played by Marriner as City had the opportunity for the break however they put the ball out of play as Yaya stayed down. Can see why he played advantage and it lasted for the correct amount of time, problem with the laws rather than the decision-making. Ramires booked.

41.00 Mikel tripped by Aguero as Kun plays the ball forward, City get the break and Rodwell’s shot is tipped over. Could have been given either way, benefit of the doubt to City.

41.30 Referee plays advantage to Chelsea as Ba is held back by Nastasic as he tries to win a header from a goal kick, Chelsea play on.

Out of those 25 decisions, I’d say 18 were correct, 6 were wrong and 1 was impossible to call.So to sum up I think he did pretty well though there were a few obvious mistakes which I accepted in my original post on the issue. Not his best half but still got the majority of the calls right.

I can only assume from this assessment that you are quite happy for centre forwards to tussle, back-in and generally foul centre halves as Demba Ba, in my eyes, should have given away somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 fouls in the game on his own.

 

[tidyman]

He was awful, no doubt about it.

But it always seem to be in whatever sport and club i follow the referee always seems to have a bad game and be favouring the other team.

Are referees in general just incompetent or do fans just see what they want to see?

Looking for a smiley of a big fuck off nail hitting a head.

Also looking for the 100 page threads on the dodgy penalties we've got this season against Villa, Everton and Real Madrid.

 

[Deleted member 52846]

He was awful, no doubt about it.

But it always seem to be in whatever sport and club i follow the referee always seems to have a bad game and be favouring the other team.

Are referees in general just incompetent or do fans just see what they want to see?

In a sport as fast as football when a ref has one view of all incidents at one angle at one speed with no replays and often "helped" by linesmen who also only have the same things from a slightly different angle...the sport is going to be incompetently officated in almost every game.

There is a reason why Rugby League started using a video ref, and why rugby union and cricket followed suit; why American sports use video refs; why cricket developed things like hot spot/sound waves/hawk-eye and tennis followed suit; why horse racing, atheltics and cycling use photo finishes etc... Football is officiated like it was 100 years ago. I find that quite pathetic! I can't take this sport fully seriously whilst we're still being left behind by almost all of the rest of the world's top sports. Football is in the dark ages and needs to modernise and wake the fuck up.<br /><br />-- Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:07 am --<br /><br />

FWIW I wondered yesterday if Marriner went into the game with a pre conceived idea that certain players of ours are persistent foulers and that affected his decision making. The benefit of the doubt went against us nearly every time.

Then I wondered how refs get these pre conceived ideas (I'm sure they all have them). Do they form them themselves, or do they get scouting reports just like the players do.

Maybe the refs body had just done one about us, if you look at Mattys stats it would be easy to assume that we are a cynical, dirty team. So he has that in his mind at the start of the game and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I don't buy that it was a bad day at the office, if it was you would have seen bad decisions go both ways.

Ok I've gone back and watched the first half and this is what I honestly made of each decision:

MCFC v Chelsea-1st Half

Freekicks given to City(2)

33.32 Freekick given to City for offside against Ramires. Correct decision.

43.45 Freekick awarded to City as Milner misjudges the run of Ba on the byline and stumbles into Ba’s knee, falls over and gets the freekick. Very soft, Ba did nothing wrong and I don’t think it was a freekick.

Freekicks given to Chelsea(14)

09.00 Javi Garcia trips over Chelsea player from behind without touching the ball, right side of Chelsea half of the pitch. Foul.

11.52 Aguero & Ivanovic jump for a header, Aguero jumps behind Ivanovic and may give a slight inadvertent knock on the side of his cheek with his right arm as he goes up for the ball, soft but there was minimal contact.

13 mins: Freekick given for offside against Aguero as he makes attempt to play ball in an offside position 2 yards out from goal after Cech saves Nastasic’s header. Correct call.

14.40 Freekick given when TV not showing live footage, audible handball shout and freekick given. Unable to tell as haven’t seen incident.

18.46 Rodwell slides in on Ramires just inside the Chelsea half, he clearly wins the ball with one foot and then inevitably Ramires trips over Rodwell’s trailing leg as he comes down from jumping away from Rodwell’s original tackle. Good tackle, not a foul imo.

22.35 Rodwell leans over the top of Ramires to win a header in Chelsea’s half, causing the Chelsea player to tumble over. A fair free kick imo.

23.33 Zabaleta runs in behind Hazard and tackles him one footed from behind whilst on his feet and catches Hazard’s right leg as he tries to turn. Hazard stumbles onto his hands and knees and is awarded the freekick. Correct decision.

25.13 Foul given as Hazard goes over after playing the ball and apparently being caught by Zabaleta. Didn’t seem to be any contact on the replay so if there was it was minimal. No freekick imo.

26.20 Yaya Toure pushes Ramires over halfway inside the City half with two hands into the back of the Chelsea player. Clear freekick.

28.03 Long ball played up to Demba Ba, he and Nastasic are tussling, a bit of pulling and a bit of backing in, Ba is backing in but Nastasic has 2 arms around Ba and the combination of the backing in and pulling down causes Ba to go over. Can see why it was given especially as the referee was looking head on and seeing Nastasic with his arms around Ba, clever by Ba to win the freekick.

28.22 Ivanovic plays the ball on the right touchline and Rodwell goes into the back of him with his knee and Ivanovic goes over. No need to make contact by Rodwell and it was a freekick, a needless one at that. Rodwell booked.

33.14 Silva trips Mikel as the Chelsea player goes to run away from the City midfielder. Clear freekick.

38.51 Freekick awarded to Chelsea on advice from the linesman who spots that Kolo Toure has cynically tripped Mata off the ball. Correct decision. Kolo Toure booked.

41.55 Ashley Cole makes a run down the left hand side of City’s penalty area and is fouled by Zabaleta who slides into him after the ball is gone. Correct decision. Zabaleta booked.

Of the 14 freekicks, I’d say 10 were correct, 3 were incorrect and 1 was impossible to call.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to City(1)

05.34 Yaya Toure tripped by Lampard on left edge of area.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to Chelsea(1)

20.55 Silva blocks off Chelsea player to prevent his run upfield and then takes the ball for City. Thought it was a foul on viewing.


Others(7)

11.23 Mikel slides in on Aguero just inside the Chelsea half, pokes the ball away with his foot first but does catch Aguero on the foot slightly. Won the ball pretty fairly so probably not a freekick although Aguero was caught slightly in the follow-through.

18.05 Rodwell fouled by Mikel in central area of Chelsea’s half, Marriner plays advantage and ball is played into Aguero who rounds Cech and runs the ball out for a goal kick. Advantage to City correctly played.

19.29 Aguero pulls Cole out of the way after ball is played, advantage correctly played by Marriner to Chelsea.

19.55 Lampard pulls back on Yaya Toure to stop him getting away, advantage is played and Toure plays ball through to Clichy whose cross is cleared for a City set piece by Cahill. Advantage correctly played.

35.55 Yaya Toure tripped by Ramires in the centre of the park. Advantage played by Marriner as City had the opportunity for the break however they put the ball out of play as Yaya stayed down. Can see why he played advantage and it lasted for the correct amount of time, problem with the laws rather than the decision-making. Ramires booked.

41.00 Mikel tripped by Aguero as Kun plays the ball forward, City get the break and Rodwell’s shot is tipped over. Could have been given either way, benefit of the doubt to City.

41.30 Referee plays advantage to Chelsea as Ba is held back by Nastasic as he tries to win a header from a goal kick, Chelsea play on.

Out of those 25 decisions, I’d say 18 were correct, 6 were wrong and 1 was impossible to call.So to sum up I think he did pretty well though there were a few obvious mistakes which I accepted in my original post on the issue. Not his best half but still got the majority of the calls right.

I can only assume from this assessment that you are quite happy for centre forwards to tussle, back-in and generally foul centre halves as Demba Ba, in my eyes, should have given away somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 fouls in the game on his own.

Holding ground, tussling and backing in aren't actually fouls, it's a full contact sport. I don't actually think there's much wrong with any of that sort of play. Let it all go as far as i'm concerned. We've allowed this sport to become too soft in my eyes. A good old tussle is great and what many players thrive off.

 

[moomba]

FWIW I wondered yesterday if Marriner went into the game with a pre conceived idea that certain players of ours are persistent foulers and that affected his decision making. The benefit of the doubt went against us nearly every time.

Then I wondered how refs get these pre conceived ideas (I'm sure they all have them). Do they form them themselves, or do they get scouting reports just like the players do.

Maybe the refs body had just done one about us, if you look at Mattys stats it would be easy to assume that we are a cynical, dirty team. So he has that in his mind at the start of the game and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I don't buy that it was a bad day at the office, if it was you would have seen bad decisions go both ways.

Ok I've gone back and watched the first half and this is what I honestly made of each decision:

MCFC v Chelsea-1st Half

Freekicks given to City(2)

33.32 Freekick given to City for offside against Ramires. Correct decision.

43.45 Freekick awarded to City as Milner misjudges the run of Ba on the byline and stumbles into Ba’s knee, falls over and gets the freekick. Very soft, Ba did nothing wrong and I don’t think it was a freekick.

Freekicks given to Chelsea(14)

09.00 Javi Garcia trips over Chelsea player from behind without touching the ball, right side of Chelsea half of the pitch. Foul.

11.52 Aguero & Ivanovic jump for a header, Aguero jumps behind Ivanovic and may give a slight inadvertent knock on the side of his cheek with his right arm as he goes up for the ball, soft but there was minimal contact.

13 mins: Freekick given for offside against Aguero as he makes attempt to play ball in an offside position 2 yards out from goal after Cech saves Nastasic’s header. Correct call.

14.40 Freekick given when TV not showing live footage, audible handball shout and freekick given. Unable to tell as haven’t seen incident.

18.46 Rodwell slides in on Ramires just inside the Chelsea half, he clearly wins the ball with one foot and then inevitably Ramires trips over Rodwell’s trailing leg as he comes down from jumping away from Rodwell’s original tackle. Good tackle, not a foul imo.

22.35 Rodwell leans over the top of Ramires to win a header in Chelsea’s half, causing the Chelsea player to tumble over. A fair free kick imo.

23.33 Zabaleta runs in behind Hazard and tackles him one footed from behind whilst on his feet and catches Hazard’s right leg as he tries to turn. Hazard stumbles onto his hands and knees and is awarded the freekick. Correct decision.

25.13 Foul given as Hazard goes over after playing the ball and apparently being caught by Zabaleta. Didn’t seem to be any contact on the replay so if there was it was minimal. No freekick imo.

26.20 Yaya Toure pushes Ramires over halfway inside the City half with two hands into the back of the Chelsea player. Clear freekick.

28.03 Long ball played up to Demba Ba, he and Nastasic are tussling, a bit of pulling and a bit of backing in, Ba is backing in but Nastasic has 2 arms around Ba and the combination of the backing in and pulling down causes Ba to go over. Can see why it was given especially as the referee was looking head on and seeing Nastasic with his arms around Ba, clever by Ba to win the freekick.

28.22 Ivanovic plays the ball on the right touchline and Rodwell goes into the back of him with his knee and Ivanovic goes over. No need to make contact by Rodwell and it was a freekick, a needless one at that. Rodwell booked.

33.14 Silva trips Mikel as the Chelsea player goes to run away from the City midfielder. Clear freekick.

38.51 Freekick awarded to Chelsea on advice from the linesman who spots that Kolo Toure has cynically tripped Mata off the ball. Correct decision. Kolo Toure booked.

41.55 Ashley Cole makes a run down the left hand side of City’s penalty area and is fouled by Zabaleta who slides into him after the ball is gone. Correct decision. Zabaleta booked.

Of the 14 freekicks, I’d say 10 were correct, 3 were incorrect and 1 was impossible to call.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to City(1)

05.34 Yaya Toure tripped by Lampard on left edge of area.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to Chelsea(1)

20.55 Silva blocks off Chelsea player to prevent his run upfield and then takes the ball for City. Thought it was a foul on viewing.


Others(7)

11.23 Mikel slides in on Aguero just inside the Chelsea half, pokes the ball away with his foot first but does catch Aguero on the foot slightly. Won the ball pretty fairly so probably not a freekick although Aguero was caught slightly in the follow-through.

18.05 Rodwell fouled by Mikel in central area of Chelsea’s half, Marriner plays advantage and ball is played into Aguero who rounds Cech and runs the ball out for a goal kick. Advantage to City correctly played.

19.29 Aguero pulls Cole out of the way after ball is played, advantage correctly played by Marriner to Chelsea.

19.55 Lampard pulls back on Yaya Toure to stop him getting away, advantage is played and Toure plays ball through to Clichy whose cross is cleared for a City set piece by Cahill. Advantage correctly played.

35.55 Yaya Toure tripped by Ramires in the centre of the park. Advantage played by Marriner as City had the opportunity for the break however they put the ball out of play as Yaya stayed down. Can see why he played advantage and it lasted for the correct amount of time, problem with the laws rather than the decision-making. Ramires booked.

41.00 Mikel tripped by Aguero as Kun plays the ball forward, City get the break and Rodwell’s shot is tipped over. Could have been given either way, benefit of the doubt to City.

41.30 Referee plays advantage to Chelsea as Ba is held back by Nastasic as he tries to win a header from a goal kick, Chelsea play on.

Out of those 25 decisions, I’d say 18 were correct, 6 were wrong and 1 was impossible to call.So to sum up I think he did pretty well though there were a few obvious mistakes which I accepted in my original post on the issue. Not his best half but still got the majority of the calls right.

I can only assume from this assessment that you are quite happy for centre forwards to tussle, back-in and generally foul centre halves as Demba Ba, in my eyes, should have given away somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 fouls in the game on his own.

That was one of my gripes. Ba was fouling our players as much as he was being fouled, but got the benefit of the doubt on every occasion.

At the other end it was a totally different story.

 

[Matty]

He was awful, no doubt about it.

But it always seem to be in whatever sport and club i follow the referee always seems to have a bad game and be favouring the other team.

Are referees in general just incompetent or do fans just see what they want to see?

In a sport as fast as football when a ref has one view of all incidents at one angle at one speed with no replays and often "helped" by linesmen who also only have the same things from a slightly different angle...the sport is going to be incompetently officated in almost every game.

There is a reason why Rugby League started using a video ref, and why rugby union and cricket followed suit; why American sports use video refs; why cricket developed things like hot spot/sound waves/hawk-eye and tennis followed suit; why horse racing, atheltics and cycling use photo finishes etc... Football is officiated like it was 100 years ago. I find that quite pathetic! I can't take this sport fully seriously whilst we're still being left behind by almost all of the rest of the world's top sports. Football is in the dark ages and needs to modernise and wake the fuck up.

-- Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:07 am --

Ok I've gone back and watched the first half and this is what I honestly made of each decision:

MCFC v Chelsea-1st Half

Freekicks given to City(2)

33.32 Freekick given to City for offside against Ramires. Correct decision.

43.45 Freekick awarded to City as Milner misjudges the run of Ba on the byline and stumbles into Ba’s knee, falls over and gets the freekick. Very soft, Ba did nothing wrong and I don’t think it was a freekick.

Freekicks given to Chelsea(14)

09.00 Javi Garcia trips over Chelsea player from behind without touching the ball, right side of Chelsea half of the pitch. Foul.

11.52 Aguero & Ivanovic jump for a header, Aguero jumps behind Ivanovic and may give a slight inadvertent knock on the side of his cheek with his right arm as he goes up for the ball, soft but there was minimal contact.

13 mins: Freekick given for offside against Aguero as he makes attempt to play ball in an offside position 2 yards out from goal after Cech saves Nastasic’s header. Correct call.

14.40 Freekick given when TV not showing live footage, audible handball shout and freekick given. Unable to tell as haven’t seen incident.

18.46 Rodwell slides in on Ramires just inside the Chelsea half, he clearly wins the ball with one foot and then inevitably Ramires trips over Rodwell’s trailing leg as he comes down from jumping away from Rodwell’s original tackle. Good tackle, not a foul imo.

22.35 Rodwell leans over the top of Ramires to win a header in Chelsea’s half, causing the Chelsea player to tumble over. A fair free kick imo.

23.33 Zabaleta runs in behind Hazard and tackles him one footed from behind whilst on his feet and catches Hazard’s right leg as he tries to turn. Hazard stumbles onto his hands and knees and is awarded the freekick. Correct decision.

25.13 Foul given as Hazard goes over after playing the ball and apparently being caught by Zabaleta. Didn’t seem to be any contact on the replay so if there was it was minimal. No freekick imo.

26.20 Yaya Toure pushes Ramires over halfway inside the City half with two hands into the back of the Chelsea player. Clear freekick.

28.03 Long ball played up to Demba Ba, he and Nastasic are tussling, a bit of pulling and a bit of backing in, Ba is backing in but Nastasic has 2 arms around Ba and the combination of the backing in and pulling down causes Ba to go over. Can see why it was given especially as the referee was looking head on and seeing Nastasic with his arms around Ba, clever by Ba to win the freekick.

28.22 Ivanovic plays the ball on the right touchline and Rodwell goes into the back of him with his knee and Ivanovic goes over. No need to make contact by Rodwell and it was a freekick, a needless one at that. Rodwell booked.

33.14 Silva trips Mikel as the Chelsea player goes to run away from the City midfielder. Clear freekick.

38.51 Freekick awarded to Chelsea on advice from the linesman who spots that Kolo Toure has cynically tripped Mata off the ball. Correct decision. Kolo Toure booked.

41.55 Ashley Cole makes a run down the left hand side of City’s penalty area and is fouled by Zabaleta who slides into him after the ball is gone. Correct decision. Zabaleta booked.

Of the 14 freekicks, I’d say 10 were correct, 3 were incorrect and 1 was impossible to call.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to City(1)

05.34 Yaya Toure tripped by Lampard on left edge of area.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to Chelsea(1)

20.55 Silva blocks off Chelsea player to prevent his run upfield and then takes the ball for City. Thought it was a foul on viewing.


Others(7)

11.23 Mikel slides in on Aguero just inside the Chelsea half, pokes the ball away with his foot first but does catch Aguero on the foot slightly. Won the ball pretty fairly so probably not a freekick although Aguero was caught slightly in the follow-through.

18.05 Rodwell fouled by Mikel in central area of Chelsea’s half, Marriner plays advantage and ball is played into Aguero who rounds Cech and runs the ball out for a goal kick. Advantage to City correctly played.

19.29 Aguero pulls Cole out of the way after ball is played, advantage correctly played by Marriner to Chelsea.

19.55 Lampard pulls back on Yaya Toure to stop him getting away, advantage is played and Toure plays ball through to Clichy whose cross is cleared for a City set piece by Cahill. Advantage correctly played.

35.55 Yaya Toure tripped by Ramires in the centre of the park. Advantage played by Marriner as City had the opportunity for the break however they put the ball out of play as Yaya stayed down. Can see why he played advantage and it lasted for the correct amount of time, problem with the laws rather than the decision-making. Ramires booked.

41.00 Mikel tripped by Aguero as Kun plays the ball forward, City get the break and Rodwell’s shot is tipped over. Could have been given either way, benefit of the doubt to City.

41.30 Referee plays advantage to Chelsea as Ba is held back by Nastasic as he tries to win a header from a goal kick, Chelsea play on.

Out of those 25 decisions, I’d say 18 were correct, 6 were wrong and 1 was impossible to call.So to sum up I think he did pretty well though there were a few obvious mistakes which I accepted in my original post on the issue. Not his best half but still got the majority of the calls right.

I can only assume from this assessment that you are quite happy for centre forwards to tussle, back-in and generally foul centre halves as Demba Ba, in my eyes, should have given away somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 fouls in the game on his own.

Holding ground, tussling and backing in aren't actually fouls, it's a full contact sport. I don't actually think there's much wrong with any of that sort of play. Let it all go as far as i'm concerned. We've allowed this sport to become too soft in my eyes. A good old tussle is great and what many players thrive off.

In that case it's not a foul when the centre half reciprocates and pushes, shoves, baulks and nudges the centre forward, yet Marriner gave those time and time again when Ba and Toure/Nastasic were grappling. It can't work 1 way only.

 

[lionheart]

Sorry but I simply cannot be bothered to read all of the posts on this thread. Having watched the game again on PLTV without the stress of the live event, it does appear that the City players were going much harder into the tackles than the chavs, so more fouls was the inevitable consequence. Incidentally, Marriner's last two City games have been City 1-0 United and City 2-0 Chelsea, so let us not complain too much this time or we may look stupid.

 

[moomba]

Sorry but I simply cannot be bothered to read all of the posts on this thread. Having watched the game again on PLTV without the stress of the live event, it does appear that the City players were going much harder into the tackles than the chavs, so more fouls was the inevitable consequence. Incidentally, Marriner's last two City games have been City 1-0 United and City 2-0 Chelsea, so let us not complain too much this time or we may look stupid.

What does the score have to do with the refereeing performance?

 

[Vienna_70]

Caveman, I completely agree with you regarding video technology in football.

The argument seems to be that we can't use it because it's not possible to implement it at all levels of the game.

What?

Does FIFA / UEFA really think that every village green and muddy rugby pitch at even the lowest levels have video cameras set up to review decisions?

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

FWIW I wondered yesterday if Marriner went into the game with a pre conceived idea that certain players of ours are persistent foulers and that affected his decision making. The benefit of the doubt went against us nearly every time.

Then I wondered how refs get these pre conceived ideas (I'm sure they all have them). Do they form them themselves, or do they get scouting reports just like the players do.

Maybe the refs body had just done one about us, if you look at Mattys stats it would be easy to assume that we are a cynical, dirty team. So he has that in his mind at the start of the game and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I don't buy that it was a bad day at the office, if it was you would have seen bad decisions go both ways.

Ok I've gone back and watched the first half and this is what I honestly made of each decision:

MCFC v Chelsea-1st Half

Freekicks given to City(2)

33.32 Freekick given to City for offside against Ramires. Correct decision.

43.45 Freekick awarded to City as Milner misjudges the run of Ba on the byline and stumbles into Ba’s knee, falls over and gets the freekick. Very soft, Ba did nothing wrong and I don’t think it was a freekick.

Freekicks given to Chelsea(14)

09.00 Javi Garcia trips over Chelsea player from behind without touching the ball, right side of Chelsea half of the pitch. Foul.

11.52 Aguero & Ivanovic jump for a header, Aguero jumps behind Ivanovic and may give a slight inadvertent knock on the side of his cheek with his right arm as he goes up for the ball, soft but there was minimal contact.

13 mins: Freekick given for offside against Aguero as he makes attempt to play ball in an offside position 2 yards out from goal after Cech saves Nastasic’s header. Correct call.

14.40 Freekick given when TV not showing live footage, audible handball shout and freekick given. Unable to tell as haven’t seen incident.

18.46 Rodwell slides in on Ramires just inside the Chelsea half, he clearly wins the ball with one foot and then inevitably Ramires trips over Rodwell’s trailing leg as he comes down from jumping away from Rodwell’s original tackle. Good tackle, not a foul imo.

22.35 Rodwell leans over the top of Ramires to win a header in Chelsea’s half, causing the Chelsea player to tumble over. A fair free kick imo.

23.33 Zabaleta runs in behind Hazard and tackles him one footed from behind whilst on his feet and catches Hazard’s right leg as he tries to turn. Hazard stumbles onto his hands and knees and is awarded the freekick. Correct decision.

25.13 Foul given as Hazard goes over after playing the ball and apparently being caught by Zabaleta. Didn’t seem to be any contact on the replay so if there was it was minimal. No freekick imo.

26.20 Yaya Toure pushes Ramires over halfway inside the City half with two hands into the back of the Chelsea player. Clear freekick.

28.03 Long ball played up to Demba Ba, he and Nastasic are tussling, a bit of pulling and a bit of backing in, Ba is backing in but Nastasic has 2 arms around Ba and the combination of the backing in and pulling down causes Ba to go over. Can see why it was given especially as the referee was looking head on and seeing Nastasic with his arms around Ba, clever by Ba to win the freekick.

28.22 Ivanovic plays the ball on the right touchline and Rodwell goes into the back of him with his knee and Ivanovic goes over. No need to make contact by Rodwell and it was a freekick, a needless one at that. Rodwell booked.

33.14 Silva trips Mikel as the Chelsea player goes to run away from the City midfielder. Clear freekick.

38.51 Freekick awarded to Chelsea on advice from the linesman who spots that Kolo Toure has cynically tripped Mata off the ball. Correct decision. Kolo Toure booked.

41.55 Ashley Cole makes a run down the left hand side of City’s penalty area and is fouled by Zabaleta who slides into him after the ball is gone. Correct decision. Zabaleta booked.

Of the 14 freekicks, I’d say 10 were correct, 3 were incorrect and 1 was impossible to call.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to City(1)

05.34 Yaya Toure tripped by Lampard on left edge of area.

Freekicks I felt should have been given to Chelsea(1)

20.55 Silva blocks off Chelsea player to prevent his run upfield and then takes the ball for City. Thought it was a foul on viewing.


Others(7)

11.23 Mikel slides in on Aguero just inside the Chelsea half, pokes the ball away with his foot first but does catch Aguero on the foot slightly. Won the ball pretty fairly so probably not a freekick although Aguero was caught slightly in the follow-through.

18.05 Rodwell fouled by Mikel in central area of Chelsea’s half, Marriner plays advantage and ball is played into Aguero who rounds Cech and runs the ball out for a goal kick. Advantage to City correctly played.

19.29 Aguero pulls Cole out of the way after ball is played, advantage correctly played by Marriner to Chelsea.

19.55 Lampard pulls back on Yaya Toure to stop him getting away, advantage is played and Toure plays ball through to Clichy whose cross is cleared for a City set piece by Cahill. Advantage correctly played.

35.55 Yaya Toure tripped by Ramires in the centre of the park. Advantage played by Marriner as City had the opportunity for the break however they put the ball out of play as Yaya stayed down. Can see why he played advantage and it lasted for the correct amount of time, problem with the laws rather than the decision-making. Ramires booked.

41.00 Mikel tripped by Aguero as Kun plays the ball forward, City get the break and Rodwell’s shot is tipped over. Could have been given either way, benefit of the doubt to City.

41.30 Referee plays advantage to Chelsea as Ba is held back by Nastasic as he tries to win a header from a goal kick, Chelsea play on.

Out of those 25 decisions, I’d say 18 were correct, 6 were wrong and 1 was impossible to call.So to sum up I think he did pretty well though there were a few obvious mistakes which I accepted in my original post on the issue. Not his best half but still got the majority of the calls right.

I can only assume from this assessment that you are quite happy for centre forwards to tussle, back-in and generally foul centre halves as Demba Ba, in my eyes, should have given away somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 fouls in the game on his own.

not at all, i only did the first half and there were a couple of tussles for the ball where we came away with it that I felt were just part of the game, the only 2 I pulled up were the 2 Marriner did which was when Nastasic started putting his arms round him and pulling him back which takes him from just using your body strength into a foul.

As for Moomba, it's one half and it wasn't his best half and yes it's subjective. However just because I thought they were wrong decisions doesn't mean I got everything right as well, however I do think I've given him a fair assessment of that first half. It was nowhere near his best performance but I don't think he was that bad, I think you'll naturally get a few wrong and on top of that he did make 2 or 3 mistakes which bring his percentage down but sometimes you don't have your best game. It certainly doesn't point to any sort of conspiracy or agenda against us, it's just a ref who got most of it right but a couple more freekicks wrong than he normally would, it happens.

 

[moomba]

I've never suggested there was an agenda. But it was a very one sided performance for whatever reason.