Officials have never known the laws, ask yourself this, when in the last 20+ years have you seen a referee give an indirect free kick for obstruction? In fact, when have you seen a ref, recently, correctly indicate a free kick is indirect by raising their arm?
The obstruction law is still in the book, but referees consistently give direct free kicks and penalties for obstruction, deeming it a "body check" when it is no such thing in the majority of cases.
To referee even semi professional footballer referee's are frequently tested on their knowledge of the Laws of the game, I suspect nobody knows the laws of the game better than professional referee's whose sole occupation is to referee games of football. I think the issue is more their application of these laws as opposed to a lack of knowledge.
It is an indirect free kick if a player impedes the progress of an opponent without contact being made with the player, if contact is made such as a body check as you described then that is a direct free kick. I've also never seen a referee fail to indicate a indirect free kick, that would be something picked up straight away by one of their match day observers.
The issue is there is no easy solution to refereeing standards. All this talk of importing referee's is all well and good but how many times do people complain in champions league matches about referee's giving cheap fouls? Its because we still have by far and away the most physical league, watch any match in any of the European league's and there are fouls given all the time for stuff which simply wouldn't be given here because our league is more physical. You would then have fans moaning about the league losing it's physicality and referee's not understanding our league.
Having ex professionals involved is also an absolute non starter in my eyes, the amount of times pundits incorrectly quote laws of the game shows they have little to no understanding of the laws which is the whole role of the referee. Referee's might not like some of the laws, the yellow card for shirt removal springs to mind, but they can't pick and choose which laws they enforce like pundits appear to think they can. Let's also be honest no matter what ex professional was involved fans would moan that they were bias against their team for some trivial reason, can you imagine the reaction if Carragher, Neville, Henry, Keane, etc were appointed to matches involving Chelsea, Spurs, Man City etc.
VAR is an absolute nightmare because nobody will ever be happy with it, in the same way nobody was ever happy with referee's before VAR came in. People thought VAR would fix refereeing but it won't because lots of decisions are subjective, how often do you see some people thinking a decision is correct and others thinking it was incorrect. People say they want consistency but they had it with offsides last season when it was black and white what was offaide and what wasn't but then nobody liked that so it has now been changed to something more subjective.
Last year people moaned constantly that goals were being disallowed because referee's were raising their flags for offsides and not letting the game play, this year they delay the flag and it is described as pointless and potentially endangering player safety for no reason. Last year people complained that decisions were being looked at and overturned to much, now people are complaining that to little is being overturned. The issue is nobody will ever be happy with referee's, it was the same twenty years ago and it will be the same in twenty years time.
Trouble is every time I think Palace might get pulled into the relegation fight, they go and win a game.
And with the 3 who come up from the Championship usually now so far behind even the worst teams in the PL, 2 or 3 of them are almost certain to go back down.
Unfortunately, therefore, unless Palace implode spectacularly they can drift around in mid-table in the PL for years to come. Still, we can always enjoy nights like this. (Cue amazing turn around)
State of the commentary on Sky Sports these days. He's just said that West Ham would have celebrated a stoppage time overhead equaliser against them? 😂
3 blatant penalties missed in the Watford v Spurs game. 2 for Spurs, 1 for Watford, none which got looked at by VAR. Thats 7 or 8 contentious decisions in 4 games for us now, including the game against the Bin Dippers.
3 blatant penalties missed in the Watford v Spurs game. 2 for Spurs, 1 for Watford, none which got looked at by VAR. Thats 7 or 8 contentious decisions in 4 games for us now, including the game against the Bin Dippers.
The one on Dier was a proper shocker of a decision, and the ref is looking straight at it too
3 blatant penalties missed in the Watford v Spurs game. 2 for Spurs, 1 for Watford, none which got looked at by VAR. Thats 7 or 8 contentious decisions in 4 games for us now, including the game against the Bin Dippers.
The one on Dier was a proper shocker of a decision, and the ref is looking straight at it too
In all the years I've been watching Spurs, I cant remember a refereeing performance in the PL as bad as that. Some baffling decisions all round.
Lukaku has been dropped from today's Chelsea squad to play Liverpool .. seems he has royally pissed off Tuchel with his well publicised critical comments .. will Chelsea now all but write off a near £100 Million investment ?
Lukaku has been dropped from today's Chelsea squad to play Liverpool .. seems he has royally pissed off Tuchel with his well publicised critical comments .. will Chelsea now all but write off a near £100 Million investment ?
Smart by Tuchel, it's not the type of game Lukaku is decent in, but it's a big game - drop him to send a message, and play the team more suited to the game anyway.
Lukaku has been dropped from today's Chelsea squad to play Liverpool .. seems he has royally pissed off Tuchel with his well publicised critical comments .. will Chelsea now all but write off a near £100 Million investment ?
Smart by Tuchel, it's not the type of game Lukaku is decent in, but it's a big game - drop him to send a message, and play the team more suited to the game anyway.
If you're van Dijk though would you rather mark Lukaku or whoever Chelsea will play there instead (Pulisic, Havertz etc)? I'm guessing he will be quite happy if Lukaku is missing.
However i do agree with the stance Chelsea have made. In the past Chelsea have been a club who've definitely sided with players over managers so assuming that Tuchel has got the boards permission to omit a 100m striker, it can only be applauded.
Lukaku has been dropped from today's Chelsea squad to play Liverpool .. seems he has royally pissed off Tuchel with his well publicised critical comments .. will Chelsea now all but write off a near £100 Million investment ?
Smart by Tuchel, it's not the type of game Lukaku is decent in, but it's a big game - drop him to send a message, and play the team more suited to the game anyway.
If you're van Dijk though would you rather mark Lukaku or whoever Chelsea will play there instead (Pulisic, Havertz etc)? I'm guessing he will be quite happy if Lukaku is missing.
However i do agree with the stance Chelsea have made. In the past Chelsea have been a club who've definitely sided with players over managers so assuming that Tuchel has got the boards permission to omit a 100m striker, it can only be applauded.
Honestly? Lukaku. Van Dijk is strong and quick, he negates Lukaku. Havertz is more likely as a false 9 to drift around to try and pull Van Dijk out of position.
Lukaku is hugely overrated IMO. Jota is twice the player Lukaku will ever be and cost less than half what Chelsea paid. Michail Antonio is another player I'd have over Lukaku.
Lukaku has been dropped from today's Chelsea squad to play Liverpool .. seems he has royally pissed off Tuchel with his well publicised critical comments .. will Chelsea now all but write off a near £100 Million investment ?
Smart by Tuchel, it's not the type of game Lukaku is decent in, but it's a big game - drop him to send a message, and play the team more suited to the game anyway.
If you're van Dijk though would you rather mark Lukaku or whoever Chelsea will play there instead (Pulisic, Havertz etc)? I'm guessing he will be quite happy if Lukaku is missing.
However i do agree with the stance Chelsea have made. In the past Chelsea have been a club who've definitely sided with players over managers so assuming that Tuchel has got the boards permission to omit a 100m striker, it can only be applauded.
Headline tomorrow, Tuchel sacked after dropping £100m striker.
Comments
It is an indirect free kick if a player impedes the progress of an opponent without contact being made with the player, if contact is made such as a body check as you described then that is a direct free kick. I've also never seen a referee fail to indicate a indirect free kick, that would be something picked up straight away by one of their match day observers.
The issue is there is no easy solution to refereeing standards. All this talk of importing referee's is all well and good but how many times do people complain in champions league matches about referee's giving cheap fouls? Its because we still have by far and away the most physical league, watch any match in any of the European league's and there are fouls given all the time for stuff which simply wouldn't be given here because our league is more physical. You would then have fans moaning about the league losing it's physicality and referee's not understanding our league.
Having ex professionals involved is also an absolute non starter in my eyes, the amount of times pundits incorrectly quote laws of the game shows they have little to no understanding of the laws which is the whole role of the referee. Referee's might not like some of the laws, the yellow card for shirt removal springs to mind, but they can't pick and choose which laws they enforce like pundits appear to think they can. Let's also be honest no matter what ex professional was involved fans would moan that they were bias against their team for some trivial reason, can you imagine the reaction if Carragher, Neville, Henry, Keane, etc were appointed to matches involving Chelsea, Spurs, Man City etc.
VAR is an absolute nightmare because nobody will ever be happy with it, in the same way nobody was ever happy with referee's before VAR came in. People thought VAR would fix refereeing but it won't because lots of decisions are subjective, how often do you see some people thinking a decision is correct and others thinking it was incorrect. People say they want consistency but they had it with offsides last season when it was black and white what was offaide and what wasn't but then nobody liked that so it has now been changed to something more subjective.
Last year people moaned constantly that goals were being disallowed because referee's were raising their flags for offsides and not letting the game play, this year they delay the flag and it is described as pointless and potentially endangering player safety for no reason. Last year people complained that decisions were being looked at and overturned to much, now people are complaining that to little is being overturned. The issue is nobody will ever be happy with referee's, it was the same twenty years ago and it will be the same in twenty years time.
It's embarrassing how poor these officials are.
Happy New year you stripy pricks
Beautiful
And with the 3 who come up from the Championship usually now so far behind even the worst teams in the PL, 2 or 3 of them are almost certain to go back down.
Unfortunately, therefore, unless Palace implode spectacularly they can drift around in mid-table in the PL for years to come. Still, we can always enjoy nights like this. (Cue amazing turn around)
Full of cliches and contradictions.
Getting good money for talking shite. Aaargh....
However i do agree with the stance Chelsea have made. In the past Chelsea have been a club who've definitely sided with players over managers so assuming that Tuchel has got the boards permission to omit a 100m striker, it can only be applauded.
Jota is twice the player Lukaku will ever be and cost less than half what Chelsea paid.
Michail Antonio is another player I'd have over Lukaku.