Like most football fans I normally sit down
on a Sunday to watch all things premiership live on TV. We all know that the
station push it as Super Sunday, well most weeks it really is poor and we have
to watch boring games, not this weekend it has been excellent and to top it all
off plenty of controversial decisions. I would like to have a look below at the
performances of two referees, Mark Clattenburg and Mike Dean. Mark was in
charge at Leicester and Mike took charge of the big game of the weekend between
City and Chelsea. Both men left a few questions to be asked about their
performances on the day.
Let me have a look at the Leicester v Man United
game first. It is amazing how sometimes a refereeing decision can turn a game
or cost teams points. Let us be honest, at three one up, United had the game in
the bag. They were cruising and all things were happy in Louis Van Gaal,s
world. So when referee Mark Clattenburg gave the home side a penalty it was to
be the start of a collapse that would cost United dearly. In my opinion it was
never a penalty in fact it should have been a free kick from outside the box as
I in my opinion Vardy uphended Rafael in the first place to get control under
control. But ok, fair enough Mark missed it the phase of play moved on into the
penalty area where he blew for what only can be described as a very, very soft
penalty. The Leicester player clearly made a move towards Rafael to get himself
a penalty and Mark bought it. Awful decision and I am not alone in saying that.
It let Leicester back into a game in which they had no right to be still
involved in if Manchester United had taken their chances and the referee had
been on his game.
So with one game over and a cup of tea made I
sat to watch the so called biggie of the weekend at the Ethiad stadium. These
games between the top sides decide the destination of the title even at this
early stage of the season. A referee who gets these games has to be strong and
exude authority. Mike Dean normally would fall into this category in my opinion
but on Sunday he was awful. He strangled the game to death and had far too many
yellow cards in the first half. Having dished out so many cards in the first
half for silly free kicks he was on a hiding to nothing in the second half and
was always going to have a reveal the red at some point. I actually don't think
there was one bad tackle in the game and in my opinion I thought Mike was
afraid to let the game loose or develop,
I repeat he strangled it to death. Zabaletta,s second yellow was correct but
his first booking was questionable. I thought Mike,s performance was poor and
it ruined what could have been a super game.
It will be interesting to see if both of
these guys get a Premier league game this coming weekend. If they do I hope
they learn from their mistakes and improve as for I one do not want to be
writing about refereeing decisions deciding games every weekend, but if it is
to happen I will be all over it. Until the next time enjoy your football guys.
