We are six games into the Barclays Premier League and to be quite honest on the refereeing front it has been a bad start. In my opinion there are have been far to many controversies to talk about. It has been one refereeing error after the other which has been totally ridiculous, the standards need to be raised and the referee's need to start getting things right. As we went into the most recent round of games I was wondering where and when controversy would strike and would we be hearing managers and fans once again moan about officials who got things wrong. Those of you that follow my regular article for the boys at Pitch Talk will know I have been very critical of the officials this season. I have been accused by many of being very negative towards the officials, well I am sorry but if the boys are not doing there stuff I will be all over it for the good lads at Pitch Talk. Last weekend I sat down and focused on all the games and the officials involved, I was pleasantly surprised to see two excellent refereeing performances by Neil Swarbrick and Jon Moss. It was great to see two guys putting in a shift and coming out of their games leaving no controversy behind them. I will lay out below a few incidents in their games that they handled so well and left no one in any doubt that they were on top form.
Neil Swarbrick took charge of the Swansea v Manchester City game and in my opinion he put in a top class performance, with possibly only one error to talk about after the game. Swansea can be a very awkward place to go and referee and if you get things wrong the fans have no problem in letting you know. From a footballing point of view you can never tell which Swansea side will turn up and if you had put that together with the start Manchester City have had then you had a recipe for a nice little game. Neil was on top form and very cool in handling any issues thrown at him. The big talking point to come out of the game was the awarding of a penalty to Manchester City which Sergio Aguero scored from to put the blues in the lead at two one. The incident leading up to the penalty was when Swansea defender Mike Van Der Hoorn completely flattened Kevin De Bruyne with an arm across the face. It was a clear penalty in my opinion and Neil was also correct to show a yellow card to the Swansea defender, in fact the player was very lucky he was not sent off for putting his hand on the referees shoulder after the awarding of a penalty. A lot of people pointed out after the game that the player should have seen red, but I totally disagree. Neil man managed the whole situation correctly, all the Swansea players were already up in arms over the penalty been awarded and in fairness to the referee, on this occasion it was right to just leave the shove alone, it would only have made things a lot worse. This in my opinion was an excellent use of common sense by a referee who was on top of his game and knew he was having a good day. It was great to see a referee use common sense as it is something that is sadly and slowly disappearing from our game. So well done Neil your performance was real old school.
Another referee in the spotlight was Jon Moss who took charge of the West Ham United v Southampton game. West Ham have had a disastrous start to the season and had lost three games on the trot. It was imperative that Jon did not have any problems in the game because as you know the managers love to blame referees on having cost their teams defeat to take the eye off their own tactical errors. Over the period of time I have been doing this article for the boys at Pitch Talk Jon has appeared a couple of times, mostly in a good way. His performance in this game was spot on and he got all his big decisions correct in my opinion. Jon on the day had three issues to deal with, I will take you through them now as I review his performance. One issue he had to deal was a penalty claim by West Ham after Saint's player Bertrand appeared to handle the ball from a Sofiane Feghouli shot. In my opinion Jon was correct to turn away claims for the penalty as I felt the ball struck the players hand and he was unable to do anything about it. Jon also had to turn down another penalty claim by West Ham when Zaza went down in the box. This in my opinion was clear cut cheating by the West Ham player and he totally deserved the yellow card he received. It is great to see referees producing yellow cards for players who try and cheat in some cases maybe a red should be used, but that discussion is for another day. Jon sailed through this game and in my opinion his best yellow card was when Payet sarcastically clapped at him after he had blown his whistle for yet another free kick. It was a good days work by Jon Moss a referee who was totally on his game in this match.
So there we have it another weekend over, but we are talking about good refereeing this week. This trend has to continue if we are to have a trouble free season. I have always been of the opinion that if you put the work in off the pitch the results will show on it. It is clear to me after these two guys performances over the weekend they are putting in the hours to get the job done. I will leave it there for this week and hopefully when I write another article for the boys at Pitch Talk I will be praising more excellent performances by the officials. Until then I do hope you enjoy your football and no refereeing decision gets your blood boiling. CIAO
Friday, 14 October 2016
Mike Reilly Take Charge
In most walks of life a good manager advises his staff on how to do things. The main reason that he is in that position is because of his experience and his know how, to run things smoothly. Well the manager of the referees in the English Premier League is Mike Reilly a former referee himself, but what I am finding very hard to work out is exactly what does this guy do. Later on in my column for the boys at Pitch Talk, I will do my usual and have a look at two refereeing incidents that caught my eye last weekend. The point I am trying to make is that I have two more incidents this week having had quite a few leading up to this and we are only four games into the Premier League season. It is obvious to me that the powers to be at the top of refereeing do not know how to coach or can not be bothered. First on Mike Reilly,s list for Monday should have been to have words with Roger East and Lee Mason who took charge of the Hull City v Arsenal and Everton v Middlesborough games over the weekend. Just a few words to try and iron out wrong decisions in my opinion that had happened over the weekend.
Roger East was at the centre of things in Hull when he sent off the home teams Jake Livermore. The referee,s decision to send off the player was just another error in a season that is going fast down the pan. In my opinion Livermore did not deliberately handle the ball and in no way did he stop a goal scoring chance. The ball struck his hand and there was no way he could have got it out of the way, not every handball in the penalty area has to lead to a spot kick. When the referee awarded the penalty I was astonished to see him produce a red card, how did he come up with that one I thought. If you get a chance to see the incident again, look very carefully at the positioning of the Hull City goalkeeper, he is directly behind Livermore and it looked to me that the ball was going straight into his arms. Looking at those facts leads me to believe that it could not have been a sending off for a goal scoring opportunity. I know there are times when a player does handle a ball and stops a goal scoring opportunity which rightly leads to a dismissal, but in this case the referee got it totally wrong in my opinion. Overall I thought Roger was poor on the day and when he had to get help from his assistant to award a penalty to Arsenal later in the game you really had to wonder was his mind totally focussed on his game. The incident happened right in front of the referee and it was hard to see how he needed help to get to the correct decision. Fair play to his assistant for been strong enough to give the decision, but really Roger should not have missed it.
Lee Mason was at the centre of controversy in the game between Everton and Middlesborough played at Goodison Park. His problems happened when he allowed Negredo,s goal to stand although it could be clearly seen that he had headed the Everton goalkeeper,s arm as the cross came in. I can not understand how the match official allowed the goal to stand, it was clearly a foul and it was a very easy decision to award a free kick rather than a goal. The Everton equalizer was also very questionable when Ashley Williams dived in to try and make contact with a cross, he clearly impeded the Middlesborough goalkeeper and it was very dangerous and Lee Mason should have awarded a free kick. It seemed to me that the referee tried to even things up after his first blunder. There is a saying out there that two wrongs do not make a right and in this situation in my opinion that is exactly what happened with the official. It was poor refereeing from a very experienced referee who simply should have known better.
Well another weekend over and more silly mistakes by the so called top officials in the Barclays Premier League. It is becoming very clear to me that the standard of refereeing in the top league in England is at an all time low, week in week out there is controversy. The referees and their mentors really need to get their heads together and try and sort out this mess. As I finish off this article for the boys at Pitch Talk I am sure next week I will have more controversy to discuss. Maybe the answer is to try and bring more new referees in, to try and freshen things up. Every week we are seeing the same match officials and it leaves it wide open for problems to mount one on top of the other. For example if we were only to see the same referee once a month it might help things. This would also act as a double edged sword, it would take the officials out of the limelight if they have caused an issue in their previous weekend,s game. It would also give the lads a break to recharge their batteries and have a look at their previous mistake. I can not see their bosses running with this idea so the controversy will continue and I will surely have more to write about again next weekend. On that note I will leave you alone to enjoy your football and I do hope I am not writing about a controversy involving your team next week. It is a very long season and we are barely underway, so let us all hope things calm down a bit. " Ciao "
Roger East was at the centre of things in Hull when he sent off the home teams Jake Livermore. The referee,s decision to send off the player was just another error in a season that is going fast down the pan. In my opinion Livermore did not deliberately handle the ball and in no way did he stop a goal scoring chance. The ball struck his hand and there was no way he could have got it out of the way, not every handball in the penalty area has to lead to a spot kick. When the referee awarded the penalty I was astonished to see him produce a red card, how did he come up with that one I thought. If you get a chance to see the incident again, look very carefully at the positioning of the Hull City goalkeeper, he is directly behind Livermore and it looked to me that the ball was going straight into his arms. Looking at those facts leads me to believe that it could not have been a sending off for a goal scoring opportunity. I know there are times when a player does handle a ball and stops a goal scoring opportunity which rightly leads to a dismissal, but in this case the referee got it totally wrong in my opinion. Overall I thought Roger was poor on the day and when he had to get help from his assistant to award a penalty to Arsenal later in the game you really had to wonder was his mind totally focussed on his game. The incident happened right in front of the referee and it was hard to see how he needed help to get to the correct decision. Fair play to his assistant for been strong enough to give the decision, but really Roger should not have missed it.
Lee Mason was at the centre of controversy in the game between Everton and Middlesborough played at Goodison Park. His problems happened when he allowed Negredo,s goal to stand although it could be clearly seen that he had headed the Everton goalkeeper,s arm as the cross came in. I can not understand how the match official allowed the goal to stand, it was clearly a foul and it was a very easy decision to award a free kick rather than a goal. The Everton equalizer was also very questionable when Ashley Williams dived in to try and make contact with a cross, he clearly impeded the Middlesborough goalkeeper and it was very dangerous and Lee Mason should have awarded a free kick. It seemed to me that the referee tried to even things up after his first blunder. There is a saying out there that two wrongs do not make a right and in this situation in my opinion that is exactly what happened with the official. It was poor refereeing from a very experienced referee who simply should have known better.
Well another weekend over and more silly mistakes by the so called top officials in the Barclays Premier League. It is becoming very clear to me that the standard of refereeing in the top league in England is at an all time low, week in week out there is controversy. The referees and their mentors really need to get their heads together and try and sort out this mess. As I finish off this article for the boys at Pitch Talk I am sure next week I will have more controversy to discuss. Maybe the answer is to try and bring more new referees in, to try and freshen things up. Every week we are seeing the same match officials and it leaves it wide open for problems to mount one on top of the other. For example if we were only to see the same referee once a month it might help things. This would also act as a double edged sword, it would take the officials out of the limelight if they have caused an issue in their previous weekend,s game. It would also give the lads a break to recharge their batteries and have a look at their previous mistake. I can not see their bosses running with this idea so the controversy will continue and I will surely have more to write about again next weekend. On that note I will leave you alone to enjoy your football and I do hope I am not writing about a controversy involving your team next week. It is a very long season and we are barely underway, so let us all hope things calm down a bit. " Ciao "
Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Set Piece Hell
It was only the third weekend of the season that we witnessed Saturday and Sunday's ago, but my god the officials are making a right mess of things. As we all know, this season there has been an instruction to all referees to clamp down on holding and pushing in the penalty area. The instruction had to be brought in as the way things were going was ridiculous. In some cases players were nearly swapping shirts by force when any set piece was been taken in or around the penalty area. But in my opinion what has unfolded in the opening games of the season has been bordering on the downright idiotic. Let us all not forget that the top referees had been given the new instruction well in advance of the new season but are dealing with it as if had just jumped out of their corn flakes box on the morning of the new season. There is only ten games every week in the Premier League and this week I have picked out issues in three of those games to have a look at. This in my opinion is a very high percentage and should not be happening. The referees who have fallen under the spotlight are Michael Oliver, Robert Madley and unbelievably Mike Dean for a second weekend in a row. Let me below have a look at the incidents and try and put some clarity on what is fast turning into a nightmare for the officials.
I have to start this week at White Hart Lane with Rob Madley. I am looking at an incident when Liverpool had a corner, which was taken by Henderson. The ball was clearly in play when Spurs defender Vertonghen took hold of Matip and brought him to the ground. It was a clear cut penalty, a one hundred percent stonewall penalty. How referee Madley did not give it was incredible. Then to put the tin hat on the whole thing, he decides to stop the play, talks to the players and restarts the game with a retaken corner. I am sorry but did not sit well with me at all, the players have been told about the new directive and the referee in this case bottled it. This in my opinion was the total wrong way to deal with this issue and I am sure Jan Vertonghen has a wry smile still on his face, because he knows he got away with it. The best way to teach the player about this new directive was to give a penalty and I can guarantee you the Spurs defender would not do the same in his next game. Bad refereeing by a guy who should be doing better in my opinion.
Incident number two takes me to Goodison Park and the performance of Michael Oliver. I suppose not so much the performance but the one and only talking point of a poor game. Michael’s overall performance was quite good on the day. The one decision that the official got horribly wrong was when he awarded Everton a penalty, for a foul I am still trying to work out what the referee thought he saw. It was another talking point about the new directive, but I cannot see how he justified awarding a penalty when Phil Bardsley and Ashley Williams tripped over each other on the taking of an Everton corner. In my opinion it was just two players coming together and one falling over, nothing else, nothing cynical, and nothing done to try and gain any advantage over his opponent. It was a game changing decision as Everton scored from the resulting penalty. Every referee knows that his decision making should not decide games and in this case Michael Oliver cost Stoke City any sort of result. Having looked at the incident on a couple of occasions since the weekend I still cannot see how it was given. I do hope as Michael looks back on this performance he will see the big mistake he made and will not even dream about giving a penalty for this sort of challenge or non-challenge as I saw it, for not just this season but the rest of his career.
As I am putting this blog together I am just noticing that the decisions are getting worse. The last incident I want to have a look at this week involves my old pal Mike Dean. Last Saturday in the Crystal Palace v Bournemouth game, this official took the new directive to an all-time low. Let us get this clear, the directive is designed to stop players hanging out of each other in the penalty area. I am not sure Mike has got a grip of this yet, no pun intended, but if he keeps giving penalties for the sort of challenge Charlie Daniels of Bournemouth put in on Christian Benteke then we may as well just pick up the goalposts and go home. This decision was the worst of the weekend by a country mile. As the two players challenged in the air for the ball, the showman that is Mike Dean decided it was a penalty. Ridiculous decision in my opinion, it was if the referee was looking to give a stupid penalty. One factor you have to add in to all this is that Mike had a poor weekend previous to this one and in all fairness he should have been stood down by his bosses. It would have protected Mike from any other major issues and also helped to calm down all the criticism of referees who are getting the big decisions wrong.
So there we have it once again, another weekend of the beautiful game is over but the controversy rumbles on. The introduction of this new directive is causing quite a few problems and in my opinion will not be sorted until referees get consistency in their decision making. The powers to be, need to get them all together and try an find a common interpretation of the new directive so we can move on in the new season and have a lot less controversy. Now that sounds very easy in theory, but do not expect to see it happening anytime soon. In a strange sort of way maybe the international break has come at the right time for all involved. I will leave it there for this week and hopefully next week I am not blogging for the boys at Pitch Talk about an incident involving your club. Enjoy your football till then, Ciao.
I have to start this week at White Hart Lane with Rob Madley. I am looking at an incident when Liverpool had a corner, which was taken by Henderson. The ball was clearly in play when Spurs defender Vertonghen took hold of Matip and brought him to the ground. It was a clear cut penalty, a one hundred percent stonewall penalty. How referee Madley did not give it was incredible. Then to put the tin hat on the whole thing, he decides to stop the play, talks to the players and restarts the game with a retaken corner. I am sorry but did not sit well with me at all, the players have been told about the new directive and the referee in this case bottled it. This in my opinion was the total wrong way to deal with this issue and I am sure Jan Vertonghen has a wry smile still on his face, because he knows he got away with it. The best way to teach the player about this new directive was to give a penalty and I can guarantee you the Spurs defender would not do the same in his next game. Bad refereeing by a guy who should be doing better in my opinion.
Incident number two takes me to Goodison Park and the performance of Michael Oliver. I suppose not so much the performance but the one and only talking point of a poor game. Michael’s overall performance was quite good on the day. The one decision that the official got horribly wrong was when he awarded Everton a penalty, for a foul I am still trying to work out what the referee thought he saw. It was another talking point about the new directive, but I cannot see how he justified awarding a penalty when Phil Bardsley and Ashley Williams tripped over each other on the taking of an Everton corner. In my opinion it was just two players coming together and one falling over, nothing else, nothing cynical, and nothing done to try and gain any advantage over his opponent. It was a game changing decision as Everton scored from the resulting penalty. Every referee knows that his decision making should not decide games and in this case Michael Oliver cost Stoke City any sort of result. Having looked at the incident on a couple of occasions since the weekend I still cannot see how it was given. I do hope as Michael looks back on this performance he will see the big mistake he made and will not even dream about giving a penalty for this sort of challenge or non-challenge as I saw it, for not just this season but the rest of his career.
As I am putting this blog together I am just noticing that the decisions are getting worse. The last incident I want to have a look at this week involves my old pal Mike Dean. Last Saturday in the Crystal Palace v Bournemouth game, this official took the new directive to an all-time low. Let us get this clear, the directive is designed to stop players hanging out of each other in the penalty area. I am not sure Mike has got a grip of this yet, no pun intended, but if he keeps giving penalties for the sort of challenge Charlie Daniels of Bournemouth put in on Christian Benteke then we may as well just pick up the goalposts and go home. This decision was the worst of the weekend by a country mile. As the two players challenged in the air for the ball, the showman that is Mike Dean decided it was a penalty. Ridiculous decision in my opinion, it was if the referee was looking to give a stupid penalty. One factor you have to add in to all this is that Mike had a poor weekend previous to this one and in all fairness he should have been stood down by his bosses. It would have protected Mike from any other major issues and also helped to calm down all the criticism of referees who are getting the big decisions wrong.
So there we have it once again, another weekend of the beautiful game is over but the controversy rumbles on. The introduction of this new directive is causing quite a few problems and in my opinion will not be sorted until referees get consistency in their decision making. The powers to be, need to get them all together and try an find a common interpretation of the new directive so we can move on in the new season and have a lot less controversy. Now that sounds very easy in theory, but do not expect to see it happening anytime soon. In a strange sort of way maybe the international break has come at the right time for all involved. I will leave it there for this week and hopefully next week I am not blogging for the boys at Pitch Talk about an incident involving your club. Enjoy your football till then, Ciao.
Monday, 15 August 2016
The Cheating is Back
Like most of the Pitch Talk family I was delighted to see football back on our screens last weekend. I know we didn't have to suffer to much this summer as we had the Euros to watch, but you can not beat the antics that go on in the club game. I have always written that the game has turned into a win at all costs sport, and it doesn't matter how teams and their players go about getting results. Those of you who read my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk will know that I dislike cheats with a passion.
Cheating is a cancer in our game and it hurts me to see it going on week in week out on the football fields around the U.K. and Ireland. I am of the opinion now that the authorities don't seem to or are unwilling to come down on this issue like a ton of bricks. They ran a Respect campaign that in my opinion was a waste of time and money, and the great men at the FA have decided this season to come down hard on players and managers who misbehave.
I have to admit I nearly fell off the with laughter when I heard that one. So whilst sitting watching a couple of games last week I was watching with great interest to see would there be any changes this season. Queens Park Rangers and Leeds were up first and then followed the big game in Scotland, Hearts and Celtic. I want to focus on two incidents in both games, which goes some way in my opinion to show that the cheating is still going on in our beautiful game.
I will start at Tynecastle where Hearts took on Celtic. It was a game that was won by Celtic but the cheating antics of Hearts player Jamie Walker made the headlines. Referee John Beaton awarded Hearts a penalty after Celtic,s defender Tierney was adjudged to have fouled Walker in the box. It was an awful decision in my opinion and Walker was guilty of diving. It was an outrageous act by a player to con the referee. I do not blame the referee on making the mistake to give a penalty, but I do blame the player for cheating, absolutely disgusting behaviour in my opinion.
After the game Celtic skipper Scott Brown was reported to have called Walker a cheat and it is very unusual to hear players talk about other fellow professionals in that manner. I was delighted to hear during the week that Scottish FA had handed Walker a two match ban for his antics. The decision to do this is long overdue and a brave call by the authorities.
This is were its gets a little bit worse in my opinion, as Heart of Midlothian actually had the cheek to appeal the ban, an absolute downright liberty in my opinion. By putting in their appeal they condoned Walker,s behaviour and we're hoping they could have got the two match ban overturned, in my opinion the FA should have increased his ban to three games once the appeal was lost to send out a signal that cheating is not acceptable in our game. Yes they got it right by giving Walker retrospective punishment but in my opinion they could have gone one step further and send a signal to every other player who might be thinking of taking a dive in the penalty area. Heart of Midlothian also need to take a serious look at themselves because they seemed quite happy to launch an appeal in favour of getting a cheat out of trouble.
If you take a look at the Queens Park Rangers v Leeds United game I spotted another form of cheating. I noticed that when corners were been taken the ball was outside the quadrant on most occasions when the home side took one. I am of the opinion that if referees notice this happening during the game they should penalise the taker by showing him a yellow card. This ploy by players is now a more regular feature in our game and needs to be stamped out.
It is nearly impossible for a referee to see that the ball is placed correctly, unless he takes a trip out to the taker and this can cause loss of position for the official. I would really like to see this form of cheating cut out and if the side taking the corner use three different players each time they take a corner and all three are guilty of using this tactic, the third player should be shown a red card. It would cut out this issue within a week and I for one would not have to watch as players try to cheat referees once again. The game really is rife now with the win at all cost brigade, even if it means cheating.
So there you have it, week one done and dusted and already we have controversy. I have no doubt we will have plenty more during the season and I will cover it as best I can for the boys at Pitch Talk. Let us all hope that next week I am not typing on a computer somewhere, explaining a decision involving your side.
Until next time enjoy your football. CIAO
Cheating is a cancer in our game and it hurts me to see it going on week in week out on the football fields around the U.K. and Ireland. I am of the opinion now that the authorities don't seem to or are unwilling to come down on this issue like a ton of bricks. They ran a Respect campaign that in my opinion was a waste of time and money, and the great men at the FA have decided this season to come down hard on players and managers who misbehave.
I have to admit I nearly fell off the with laughter when I heard that one. So whilst sitting watching a couple of games last week I was watching with great interest to see would there be any changes this season. Queens Park Rangers and Leeds were up first and then followed the big game in Scotland, Hearts and Celtic. I want to focus on two incidents in both games, which goes some way in my opinion to show that the cheating is still going on in our beautiful game.
I will start at Tynecastle where Hearts took on Celtic. It was a game that was won by Celtic but the cheating antics of Hearts player Jamie Walker made the headlines. Referee John Beaton awarded Hearts a penalty after Celtic,s defender Tierney was adjudged to have fouled Walker in the box. It was an awful decision in my opinion and Walker was guilty of diving. It was an outrageous act by a player to con the referee. I do not blame the referee on making the mistake to give a penalty, but I do blame the player for cheating, absolutely disgusting behaviour in my opinion.
After the game Celtic skipper Scott Brown was reported to have called Walker a cheat and it is very unusual to hear players talk about other fellow professionals in that manner. I was delighted to hear during the week that Scottish FA had handed Walker a two match ban for his antics. The decision to do this is long overdue and a brave call by the authorities.
This is were its gets a little bit worse in my opinion, as Heart of Midlothian actually had the cheek to appeal the ban, an absolute downright liberty in my opinion. By putting in their appeal they condoned Walker,s behaviour and we're hoping they could have got the two match ban overturned, in my opinion the FA should have increased his ban to three games once the appeal was lost to send out a signal that cheating is not acceptable in our game. Yes they got it right by giving Walker retrospective punishment but in my opinion they could have gone one step further and send a signal to every other player who might be thinking of taking a dive in the penalty area. Heart of Midlothian also need to take a serious look at themselves because they seemed quite happy to launch an appeal in favour of getting a cheat out of trouble.
If you take a look at the Queens Park Rangers v Leeds United game I spotted another form of cheating. I noticed that when corners were been taken the ball was outside the quadrant on most occasions when the home side took one. I am of the opinion that if referees notice this happening during the game they should penalise the taker by showing him a yellow card. This ploy by players is now a more regular feature in our game and needs to be stamped out.
It is nearly impossible for a referee to see that the ball is placed correctly, unless he takes a trip out to the taker and this can cause loss of position for the official. I would really like to see this form of cheating cut out and if the side taking the corner use three different players each time they take a corner and all three are guilty of using this tactic, the third player should be shown a red card. It would cut out this issue within a week and I for one would not have to watch as players try to cheat referees once again. The game really is rife now with the win at all cost brigade, even if it means cheating.
So there you have it, week one done and dusted and already we have controversy. I have no doubt we will have plenty more during the season and I will cover it as best I can for the boys at Pitch Talk. Let us all hope that next week I am not typing on a computer somewhere, explaining a decision involving your side.
Until next time enjoy your football. CIAO
Dave Meier aka @Meiercy
Wednesday, 20 July 2016
The 2016 European Championships Finals
The weekend just past saw the final of the European Championship Finals. It saw the coming together of France and Portugal. At the time of writing this article I have no idea who was going to win and by the time you read it the result will be known. But I am not writing this article about the final I want this to be a review of what happened in the month of June in France. In my opinion it has been a fantastic tournament with everything for the football loving nut. It has seen some superb performances by the lesser nations and some of the big boys crumbling. The other thing that I have noticed from this tournament has been the superb refereeing, it has been a competition that really has been controversy free and I have to take my hat to the top officials who have been involved. It also has been a superb tournament from a fans point of view. If you look back we really only had one weekend when there were hooligan problems which seemed to have been caused by Russian fans. God only knows what will happen when the World Cup comes around in Russia, but that's another days work, so I will park it for the moment. It has been a tournament for the underdog and that is why I feel the new format has worked. So what about the home nations including England, Wales, Northern and Republic of Ireland, how did they get on. Let me lay out below what my views are on how the finals developed for our sides in France.
If you look at the four teams that travelled to France from these islands, the only one on paper who had have any realistic chance of progressing would have been England. How wrong could we all have been. Wales put on a performance over the whole tournament that made every Welshman feel ten feet tall. Manager Chris Coleman has installed such a belief in his squad that they very nearly went and won the whole thing. They believed in themselves and nobody was better than them as they got through to the semi finals. In my opinion they only showed fear in both the games they lost. Playing the so called bigger fish caused them dear in the end but what a journey they gave their fans. Wales will go forward now with great belief and who knows where they will end up on their journey to Russia. From the Republic and Northern Ireland's perspective you have to say they punched well above their weight. They gave their fans the party of all parties as they moved through the tournament. What Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic showed us was a unity and togetherness like a club side. It was obvious from the outside looking in that they were enjoying themselves as a group. They may not have won the competition but all three teams came home with their heads held high. It also looks very promising for the future and all three will be in with a great chance of getting to the next World Cup if they can negotiate the group stage.
England was another story all together. They were a monumental let down to themselves and the loyal fans. In my opinion Roy Hodgson should have stepped down after England,s disastrous performance in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Although they qualified for the Euro,s with ease, I felt they were heading for a disastrous tournament, yet again. Going into the finals I am not sure Hodgson even knew his best starting eleven. The manager in my opinion was trying to build a team by getting everyone into it. Wayne Rooney is not a midfielder and if Roy wasn't going to play him up front,then he should have had him on the bench. The whole aura around the England set up was all totally wrong for me. It is as if the England team is made up of individuals that can not seem to gel as a team. It will be very interesting to see who the new England manager will be and what sort of progress he can achieve going forward. Something will need to be done to stop the fiasco of France 2016 ever happening again. England in my opinion are fast becoming a third world football team, which should never be allowed happen. The new man needs to come in and get a unity and team spirit into his players, he will need to be his own man, Hodgson in my opinion went a long with the press in many team selections. I feel Gareth Southgate is the man to take things forward for England, he is young and has great potential and I feel he will be his own man. The World Cup is up next and let us hope England travel with more than just hope and can improve immensely from this tournament.
If you look at the four teams that travelled to France from these islands, the only one on paper who had have any realistic chance of progressing would have been England. How wrong could we all have been. Wales put on a performance over the whole tournament that made every Welshman feel ten feet tall. Manager Chris Coleman has installed such a belief in his squad that they very nearly went and won the whole thing. They believed in themselves and nobody was better than them as they got through to the semi finals. In my opinion they only showed fear in both the games they lost. Playing the so called bigger fish caused them dear in the end but what a journey they gave their fans. Wales will go forward now with great belief and who knows where they will end up on their journey to Russia. From the Republic and Northern Ireland's perspective you have to say they punched well above their weight. They gave their fans the party of all parties as they moved through the tournament. What Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic showed us was a unity and togetherness like a club side. It was obvious from the outside looking in that they were enjoying themselves as a group. They may not have won the competition but all three teams came home with their heads held high. It also looks very promising for the future and all three will be in with a great chance of getting to the next World Cup if they can negotiate the group stage.
England was another story all together. They were a monumental let down to themselves and the loyal fans. In my opinion Roy Hodgson should have stepped down after England,s disastrous performance in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Although they qualified for the Euro,s with ease, I felt they were heading for a disastrous tournament, yet again. Going into the finals I am not sure Hodgson even knew his best starting eleven. The manager in my opinion was trying to build a team by getting everyone into it. Wayne Rooney is not a midfielder and if Roy wasn't going to play him up front,then he should have had him on the bench. The whole aura around the England set up was all totally wrong for me. It is as if the England team is made up of individuals that can not seem to gel as a team. It will be very interesting to see who the new England manager will be and what sort of progress he can achieve going forward. Something will need to be done to stop the fiasco of France 2016 ever happening again. England in my opinion are fast becoming a third world football team, which should never be allowed happen. The new man needs to come in and get a unity and team spirit into his players, he will need to be his own man, Hodgson in my opinion went a long with the press in many team selections. I feel Gareth Southgate is the man to take things forward for England, he is young and has great potential and I feel he will be his own man. The World Cup is up next and let us hope England travel with more than just hope and can improve immensely from this tournament.
Wednesday, 15 June 2016
Mark Clattenburg The Man in The Middle
Those of you who read my regular blog for the boys at PitchTalk will know only to well I am a big fan of Mark Clattenburg and the way he referees. I have watched his career unfold and he has just got better and better, the amount of mistakes he makes in a season can possibly be counted on one hand. This season his performances have been top quality and more importantly it has been on a regular basis. He was the official in charge of the recent Chelsea v Spurs game, when it has to be mentioned that the players were a disgrace on the night. He managed to get through that game by keeping a lid on things exploding as best he could. The amount of cards he showed that night were required and in my opinion all were well warranted. So at the end of what can only be described as an excellent season for the official he was awarded the FA Cup Final and then to put the cherry on the cake was the awarding of the Champions League Final to Mark. It was a huge vote of confidence in Mark by the FA and UEFA to give him both these games, it also showed, not only is he the best official in the UK but also Europe, something I have been saying all season in my blogs for the boys at Pitch Talk. So how did Mark get on over the two games ? If you read on I will pick out some issues that came to my attention in both matches, games that actually went to extra time and put a lot of pressure on all concerned.
The amount of people that watch the FA Cup Final around the world is unbelievable. Millions from across the planet tune into the showpiece for the FA. This can put pressure on all concerned and the referee has a huge part to play, just one mistake and the trophy can be decided. If I am to be totally honest, this years Cup Final was a poor game. It was a stop start type of game and had no real pattern. All the same it had to be refereed and overall I thought Mark did quite well, although in the post match analysis he did come in for some stick. Unfair stick in my opinion, the official had two big calls in the game and I know Crystal Palace manager thought he got them both wrong. His comments could not be further from the truth, Mark got both calls correct. A lot of people including Pardew thought the official should have allowed an advantage to Conor Wichkham after he was brought down by Chris Smalling. I thought in this instance Mark was correct to blow as it was early enough in the game and it was a great time to put his authority on the game and caution Smalling. If you look at it again, it is not even 100% that the Palace player would have scored as the United players had stopped after hearing the whistle. As I said earlier I was happy Mark blew for the free kick, playing advantage is not always the best thing to do and in this case the correct call was made. The other big shout in the game was also not given in the Eagles favour, something that might have made them think it was not to be their day. The incident I am looking at, is the moment when Zaha made a brilliant probing run into United,s box. A lot of the pundits thought it was a penalty, but in my opinion the referee got it correct. Wayne Rooney made no contact with the ball but also did not foul Zaha, it was a brilliant piece of defending by the England captain as he used his body to shield out a shot coming in from the Palace player. Overall Mark did very well in the Final in what as I mentioned earlier was a poor game. Disappointing game or not, it was decided by a wonder strike from Lingard which I don't think ten goalkeepers would have saved.
Having done an extremely good job at Wembley, Mark,s next challenge was the biggest of his career as he took control of the Champions League final in Milan. Not just any Final, but an all Spanish affair between Real and Atletico Madrid. This one would be tough to control as both sides were known to have a bit of a nasty streak within their squads. Atletico,s manager Simeone can be a nightmare on the line and two other problems were Pepe and Ramos. These two guys in my opinion are possibly the two biggest cheats in the modern game. In the final, the minute Mark blew for free kicks they were in his face looking for players to be cautioned and this is just not acceptable. After approximately twenty minutes Mark had enough and laid into the both of them and told them to shut it or he would take serious action. It worked perfectly for him and this made his game. Real,s goal was probably offside but it was so close to call, it actually took about three replays for me to see it clearly. Officials do not have the luxury of TV replays as we know so we will let the assistant off with that one on this occasion. The only issue I can say I was unhappy with Mark,s performance was his failure to send off Pepe for a challenge that caught Gabi on the thigh over the knee. If a red had been produced no one would have batted an eyelid. One thing that will stay with me forever from this game is the moment Mark made a disgusting stare at Pepe as he was rolling around the pitch after been caught accidentally by a an arm. Mark just stood over him looked down and I can only imagine he was saying to himself, get up you fool your making a show of yourself. A lesser experienced referee might have got caught out by Pepe,s antics, but not Mark Clattenburg the best referee in Europe at the moment.
Both the domestic and european seasons have now come to an end we can look forward to the start of the 2016 European Championships. Mark Clattenburg has had a fabulous season and gets all the plaudits from me for a job well done. I was not the only one that thought Mark was top of the crop after the Champions League Final, his boss Mr.Collina waited in the tunnel to congratulate the official on his performance. The Italian even went as far as to say that it was the best refereeing performance he had seen in a long time. So as we all sit down to watch the upcoming Championship I will be interested to see who will get the final. Do not rule Mark as I am sure he will be in the shake up at the end and it will be well deserved. The next few weeks are going to be very interesting and as usual I will give my opinions to the guys at Pitch Talk. Best of luck to everyone who has teams taking part and let us all hope a refereeing blunder does not send your side out the exit door. Until next week CIAO !
The amount of people that watch the FA Cup Final around the world is unbelievable. Millions from across the planet tune into the showpiece for the FA. This can put pressure on all concerned and the referee has a huge part to play, just one mistake and the trophy can be decided. If I am to be totally honest, this years Cup Final was a poor game. It was a stop start type of game and had no real pattern. All the same it had to be refereed and overall I thought Mark did quite well, although in the post match analysis he did come in for some stick. Unfair stick in my opinion, the official had two big calls in the game and I know Crystal Palace manager thought he got them both wrong. His comments could not be further from the truth, Mark got both calls correct. A lot of people including Pardew thought the official should have allowed an advantage to Conor Wichkham after he was brought down by Chris Smalling. I thought in this instance Mark was correct to blow as it was early enough in the game and it was a great time to put his authority on the game and caution Smalling. If you look at it again, it is not even 100% that the Palace player would have scored as the United players had stopped after hearing the whistle. As I said earlier I was happy Mark blew for the free kick, playing advantage is not always the best thing to do and in this case the correct call was made. The other big shout in the game was also not given in the Eagles favour, something that might have made them think it was not to be their day. The incident I am looking at, is the moment when Zaha made a brilliant probing run into United,s box. A lot of the pundits thought it was a penalty, but in my opinion the referee got it correct. Wayne Rooney made no contact with the ball but also did not foul Zaha, it was a brilliant piece of defending by the England captain as he used his body to shield out a shot coming in from the Palace player. Overall Mark did very well in the Final in what as I mentioned earlier was a poor game. Disappointing game or not, it was decided by a wonder strike from Lingard which I don't think ten goalkeepers would have saved.
Having done an extremely good job at Wembley, Mark,s next challenge was the biggest of his career as he took control of the Champions League final in Milan. Not just any Final, but an all Spanish affair between Real and Atletico Madrid. This one would be tough to control as both sides were known to have a bit of a nasty streak within their squads. Atletico,s manager Simeone can be a nightmare on the line and two other problems were Pepe and Ramos. These two guys in my opinion are possibly the two biggest cheats in the modern game. In the final, the minute Mark blew for free kicks they were in his face looking for players to be cautioned and this is just not acceptable. After approximately twenty minutes Mark had enough and laid into the both of them and told them to shut it or he would take serious action. It worked perfectly for him and this made his game. Real,s goal was probably offside but it was so close to call, it actually took about three replays for me to see it clearly. Officials do not have the luxury of TV replays as we know so we will let the assistant off with that one on this occasion. The only issue I can say I was unhappy with Mark,s performance was his failure to send off Pepe for a challenge that caught Gabi on the thigh over the knee. If a red had been produced no one would have batted an eyelid. One thing that will stay with me forever from this game is the moment Mark made a disgusting stare at Pepe as he was rolling around the pitch after been caught accidentally by a an arm. Mark just stood over him looked down and I can only imagine he was saying to himself, get up you fool your making a show of yourself. A lesser experienced referee might have got caught out by Pepe,s antics, but not Mark Clattenburg the best referee in Europe at the moment.
Both the domestic and european seasons have now come to an end we can look forward to the start of the 2016 European Championships. Mark Clattenburg has had a fabulous season and gets all the plaudits from me for a job well done. I was not the only one that thought Mark was top of the crop after the Champions League Final, his boss Mr.Collina waited in the tunnel to congratulate the official on his performance. The Italian even went as far as to say that it was the best refereeing performance he had seen in a long time. So as we all sit down to watch the upcoming Championship I will be interested to see who will get the final. Do not rule Mark as I am sure he will be in the shake up at the end and it will be well deserved. The next few weeks are going to be very interesting and as usual I will give my opinions to the guys at Pitch Talk. Best of luck to everyone who has teams taking part and let us all hope a refereeing blunder does not send your side out the exit door. Until next week CIAO !
Friday, 27 May 2016
Play Off Trouble
We all know as football fans that at this time of the season all the medals and trophies are won. It is also the time when the play off,s are played and the clubs who narrowly missed out on the automatic promotion get a second chance. These games can be very exciting and make for good viewing on TV. They can also have a lot of problems in them, as players know they need to win for to gain promotion. The play off games are refereed by the top performing guys of the season and the men who know how to handle pressure games. Over the weekend I sat down and watched with great interest as all the games kicked off. Sadly though even in the play offs I have to report on bad refereeing in my opinion. Two games that I focussed in on this week were the ones between Portsmouth and Plymouth and the championship play off between Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton, two games that left me with two huge talking points to write about for the boys at Pitch Talk one good one bad. Read on below and let the mystery unravel.
When I sat down to watch the 1st leg of the play off game between Portsmouth and Plymouth I have to be totally honest I did not know what to expect. What unfolded in front of my eyes was astonishing, one of the best games I have seen in a longtime. It had goals, great atmosphere and yes, controversy. The referee for the night was Mr. Oliver Langford and I can only presume that he is one of the better officials at lower levels than the Barclays Premier League. Well when the referee looked back on his performance overall he must have been disappointed in my opinion. The one explosive incident in the game was a clash between Jamille Matt of Plymouth and Pompey,s Michael Doyle. Matt could clearly been seen putting his head into Doyle and this action should have received a red card from the official. How he did not send off the Plymouth player is beyond belief. To make matters a lot worse was the reaction of the benches as Plymouth coach Paul Wooton and Portsmouth manager Paul Cook clashed, the inevitable then followed and Mr. Langford had to send both of them to the stand. I can not understand how the official missed the incident and to really put the tin hat on things, the Plymouth striker scored two goals. The incident that was missed, had a total knock on effect to the whole tie and in my opinion probably cost Portsmouth a place in the play off final. If the referee had not seen the clash it was down to one of the other officials to try and help him out, but ultimately it was Mr. Langford who made a bad call and the repercussions are been felt in Portsmouth now. It was bad refereeing in my opinion as it only takes a quick second to have a look back as players clear a ball and if there is any afters, a good referee will nail it so fast.
Let me move on now to have a look at the Championship play off first leg game between Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton which was played last Friday night. I was asked by a lot of the Pitch Talk family to have a look at the disallowed Wednesday goal and give my opinion. In fact a Pitch Talk family member Brad Hicks asked especially for my opinion on it. The match official appointed to this game was our old friend Andre Mariner, a referee who has fallen under the microscope earlier in the season. As we all know, Andre is a FIFA official and one of the elite referees in the UK. He is the type of official who I expected to get such a high profile game and overall I thought he had a super match on the night, he let the game flow and this helped to create a superb game. The one big talking point in the game was the awarding of a free kick for offside when Sheffield Wednesday,s Forestieri was judged to have been in an offside position before he went on to score. Now I want to make it clear from the start that in my opinion it was a brilliant decision by the officials. Both Andre and his assistant Darren Cann called it correct and if I am totally honest I reckon it was one of the best decisions this season. I know it caused all sorts of confusion but the communication between the two officials was excellent in getting the call correct. I have always promoted communication between match officials and this case it worked a treat. So well done to the officials, that is not something I have been able to say this season.
Before I go this week I just want to congratulate Mark Clattenburg on his appointments to the FA and Champions League Finals. As you all know, I think Mark is the best referee in the British Isles and he deserves these games as a reward for his season, do not rule him out for the European Championship final either. So there we have it, another football season has more or less come to a close, but do not worry I will be still doing my stuff for the boys at Pitch Talk as the finals get under way and I am sure there will be plenty to write about. So until next week enjoy your football and if you are lucky enough to have a team in a final, enjoy. CIAO
When I sat down to watch the 1st leg of the play off game between Portsmouth and Plymouth I have to be totally honest I did not know what to expect. What unfolded in front of my eyes was astonishing, one of the best games I have seen in a longtime. It had goals, great atmosphere and yes, controversy. The referee for the night was Mr. Oliver Langford and I can only presume that he is one of the better officials at lower levels than the Barclays Premier League. Well when the referee looked back on his performance overall he must have been disappointed in my opinion. The one explosive incident in the game was a clash between Jamille Matt of Plymouth and Pompey,s Michael Doyle. Matt could clearly been seen putting his head into Doyle and this action should have received a red card from the official. How he did not send off the Plymouth player is beyond belief. To make matters a lot worse was the reaction of the benches as Plymouth coach Paul Wooton and Portsmouth manager Paul Cook clashed, the inevitable then followed and Mr. Langford had to send both of them to the stand. I can not understand how the official missed the incident and to really put the tin hat on things, the Plymouth striker scored two goals. The incident that was missed, had a total knock on effect to the whole tie and in my opinion probably cost Portsmouth a place in the play off final. If the referee had not seen the clash it was down to one of the other officials to try and help him out, but ultimately it was Mr. Langford who made a bad call and the repercussions are been felt in Portsmouth now. It was bad refereeing in my opinion as it only takes a quick second to have a look back as players clear a ball and if there is any afters, a good referee will nail it so fast.
Let me move on now to have a look at the Championship play off first leg game between Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton which was played last Friday night. I was asked by a lot of the Pitch Talk family to have a look at the disallowed Wednesday goal and give my opinion. In fact a Pitch Talk family member Brad Hicks asked especially for my opinion on it. The match official appointed to this game was our old friend Andre Mariner, a referee who has fallen under the microscope earlier in the season. As we all know, Andre is a FIFA official and one of the elite referees in the UK. He is the type of official who I expected to get such a high profile game and overall I thought he had a super match on the night, he let the game flow and this helped to create a superb game. The one big talking point in the game was the awarding of a free kick for offside when Sheffield Wednesday,s Forestieri was judged to have been in an offside position before he went on to score. Now I want to make it clear from the start that in my opinion it was a brilliant decision by the officials. Both Andre and his assistant Darren Cann called it correct and if I am totally honest I reckon it was one of the best decisions this season. I know it caused all sorts of confusion but the communication between the two officials was excellent in getting the call correct. I have always promoted communication between match officials and this case it worked a treat. So well done to the officials, that is not something I have been able to say this season.
Before I go this week I just want to congratulate Mark Clattenburg on his appointments to the FA and Champions League Finals. As you all know, I think Mark is the best referee in the British Isles and he deserves these games as a reward for his season, do not rule him out for the European Championship final either. So there we have it, another football season has more or less come to a close, but do not worry I will be still doing my stuff for the boys at Pitch Talk as the finals get under way and I am sure there will be plenty to write about. So until next week enjoy your football and if you are lucky enough to have a team in a final, enjoy. CIAO
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