Sport Football Thread 2011/2012

[Charliemouse]

We don't need a more clinical striker, Danny Graham has done brilliantly. His work rate is second to none and he's scored six this season. What we did need was an attacking midfielder who can chip in with a few goals and we signed Sigurdsson on loan from Hoffenheim to play that role.

He will be amazing for you lot. Even at the age of 21 he is one of the best players to ever have worn a Reading shirt and the way you play will suit him perfectly and I can see him getting over 10 goals by the end of the season.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

[DC Lemon]

The problem is, players are utter gays now. This would have been ended in the 70s in the club car park with two lads armed with snooker cues. Players simulate fouls now... pathetic. An actual footballer tweeted they had a 1 1/2 hour hair cut the other day. 1st problem, they TWEETED, second, they had a haircut that lasted over an hour....

They all had perms in the 70s.

[Windowlicker]

Regarding Lampard's challenge today:

Quote from Ref, 'it could have been a sending off offence but i know Franks not that type of player'

It would explain why he was not sent off, it was a horrendous tackle. Cole was also lucky to get away with a couple of bad fouls that should have seen him off too.

[El Pibe]

Do you know the colour of a pot? If you don't, ask Mr Suarez.

Hey, how was the Devon Derby?

[Silent Runner]

John Terry to sue after his image used in warning on cigarette packets in India

I see.

[Windowlicker]

John Terry to sue after his image used in warning on cigarette packets in India

I see.

He may take offence at saving dark-skinned people's lives.

[Art Vandelay]

Not to keep on about it, but if you only look at yesterday's fixtures there must to be about half a dozen refereeing cock ups that cost teams points. Blackburn had a perfectly good goal chalked off, Lampard should have been sent off, Gervihno should have had a clear penalty, Barton shouldn't have got a red card and there's no doubt more. Remind me again how all of the affected teams losing points makes it more fun. The argument that 'it all evens itself out in the end' just isn't appropriate really.

[fat flatulent git]

RIP Gary Ablett

[a big boy]

Warnock is such a pratt. "I'm sure joey would not have gone down", yeah tell that to Gervinho you numpty.

Barton can complain all he wants, but he put his head in the face of the other player so it was always at risk of being punished. It's not like he's new to such situations, but seems to have some sort of mental block where he does not learn or mature as a player.

I was dissapointed in him for getting involved in the first place, but you're saying he's got no case to complain when another pro trys to get him sent off by basically fabricating something he didn't do, as if Barton squaring up to him somehow justifies Johnson cowardly trying to get him sent off. How is what he did it, for example, any better than Busquets' infamous peek-a-boo incident against Inter?

THe only way to stamp it out is by saying anyone caught trying to get anyother pro sent off should have to face an equivelant ban themselves. And yes you're right, that includes Barton on Gervinho.

[Guest]

I've been going through the last 3 match of the days. That Phil Dowd decision to send off Sammon at Man Utd was awful - yet the thing with Dowd is that even his own decisions aren't consistent.

When Rooney elbowed a player off the ball in the corresponding fixture the season before he kind of shook his head and was a bit "Ohh Rooney you wag".

Then he should have sent Carragher off for that awful tackle on Nani at old Trafford last season. Instead he lets the tackle go with just a yellow, the Man U players get righty annoyed, and Raphael then gets a red card.

What Dowd did there was terrible. He allowed an awful tackle to not get punished as it should the effect being the players became more worked up and Raphael's challenge (and Maxi's moments before) were te result.

Because Dowd didn't punish Carragher correctly he's been responsible for an escalation that could have resulted in another injury/career ending tackle.

I don't know how one guy can be so inconsistent, dangerously so, and still be allowed to ref at top grounds. It doesn't appear that he has the capacity.

[a big boy]

Not to keep on about it, but if you only look at yesterday's fixtures there must to be about half a dozen refereeing cock ups that cost teams points. Blackburn had a perfectly good goal chalked off, Lampard should have been sent off, Gervihno should have had a clear penalty, Barton shouldn't have got a red card and there's no doubt more. Remind me again how all of the affected teams losing points makes it more fun again. The argument that 'it all evens itself out in the end' just isn't appropriate really.

You're right the two arguments against video replays that are most often trotted out: that all the bad decisions even themselves out over a season (except for those in cup competitions, when playing relegation/title rivals, and at Old Trafford of course), and that the debate they inspire is part of the game are both utter bollocks. In fact it's a cliche to say what a shame it is to say what a shame it is that refereeing decisions have to be talked about so often, when really all anyone wants to talk about is the actual football.

[Art Vandelay]

I've been going through the last 3 match of the days. That Phil Dowd decision to send off Sammon at Man Utd was awful - yet the thing with Dowd is that even his own decisions aren't consistent.

When Rooney elbowed a player off the ball in the corresponding fixture the season before he kind of shook his head and was a bit "Ohh Rooney you wag".

Then he should have sent Carragher off for that awful tackle on Nani at old Trafford last season. Instead he lets the tackle go with just a yellow, the Man U players get righty annoyed, and Raphael then gets a red card.

What Dowd did there was terrible. He allowed an awful tackle to not get punished as it should the effect being the players became more worked up and Raphael's challenge (and Maxi's moments before) were te result.

Because Dowd didn't punish Carragher correctly he's been responsible for an escalation that could have resulted in another injury/career ending tackle.

I don't know how one guy can be so inconsistent, dangerously so, and still be allowed to ref at top grounds. It doesn't appear that he has the capacity.

Ultimately it just proves that these people are human and will make mistakes. Currently they're being given no help whatsoever and the FA and FIFA are just sending them out there every weekend to get absolutely slaughtered. There's always going to be some referees who are only happy when they're centre stage and revel in the celebrity of their position, but the time has long since passed when there should be some sort of back-up system for a couple of blokes making educated guesses. Handing out bans and fines for managers who get pissed off that their teams get screwed over every week hardly helps matters.

[phresh]

Yeah, we criticise referees but they really get the worst of an already bad situation. They get pretty much no help from anyone, the players all cheat, managers spout rubbish, the FA and FIFA are useless and the linesman inept. I can't imagine anyone performing in those circumstances.

Ultimately you have to accept that mistakes will be made and aim to reduce their severity and the inconsistencies that are currently present.

[dr_manhattan^]

That would be fine if the mistakes they made were unbiased. But in reality they tend to favour the top six clubs.

[DC Lemon]

That would be fine if the mistakes they made were unbiased. But in reality they tend to favour the top six clubs.

Not really, it's just that the top clubs are better at taking advantage of the decisions.

[monobrow]

John Terry to sue after his image used in warning on cigarette packets in India

I see.

The very first comment says it all really:

"Would have thought he had enough money without suing over an image that could save lives.Oh I forgot we are talking about Terry here "

[phresh]

Plus it's quite common in any sport that decisions will go in favour of the attacking team (or the team with the momentum). This is quite often the 'bigger' team.

[dr_manhattan^]

Can't agree with those two points.

[Guest]

That would be fine if the mistakes they made were unbiased. But in reality they tend to favour the top six clubs.

I think it's ridiculous that Frank Lampard gets away with it because he's Frank Lampard. How can a ref say that, and another ref send off someone for something neither he or his assistants saw?

I agree to an extent about fining/dropping refs once they've made mistakes - yet is this all we have? Surely there's someone better than a fat Phil Dowd wobbling around the pitch with his massive gut four foot ahead of him. What sort of message does that itself send, it's not going to help him around the pitch. He's at the top level and seemingly can't be bothered to get properly fit or be consistent.

Players are asked to respect referees, rightly so, yet it must be quite a stretch when you're presented with people like that.

We must have other refs to replace people like a blind, slow, ageing Dowd?

[SaintM]

I was dissapointed in him for getting involved in the first place, but you're saying he's got no case to complain when another pro trys to get him sent off by basically fabricating something he didn't do, as if Barton squaring up to him somehow justifies Johnson cowardly trying to get him sent off. How is what he did it, for example, any better than Busquets' infamous peek-a-boo incident against Inter?

THe only way to stamp it out is by saying anyone caught trying to get anyother pro sent off should have to face an equivelant ban themselves. And yes you're right, that includes Barton on Gervinho.

I'm not saying that at all. He did put his head in the other guy's face. It wasn't a headbutt, but you know, it wasn't nothing either. The other guy didn't fall down as far as I saw from the highlights, so I don't think there was any attempt to get Barton sent off unfairly by play acting.

I'm of the opinion that if you lay hands on anyone in an aggressive manner off the ball then you should be punished.

(This is all from what I saw on MotD. Whether there was any contact at all or not was hard to tell from the footage)

[phresh]

Can't agree with those two points.

Well we'll agree to disagree but the first point is definitely true of both Rugby codes (and Aussie rules when I used to watch it). I think the same generally applies in football as well, defending teams almost inevitably commit more fouls as they don't have the ball and once a team has momentum a referee will often favour them in 50-50 calls.

[dr_manhattan^]

Oh yes I agree with that, but that doesn't stop top six clubs generally prospering from refereeing mistakes. Let's not forget lampard was defending when he made his shocking tackle yesterday. Chelsea came out on top of that.

[phresh]

I don't deny some decisions go there way but i'd be surprised if it was anywhere as disproportionate as is made out. Firstly the severity of a bad decisions is generally decided by the final result of the game. Big clubs have plenty of decisions go against them* in games they win so these are then completely forgotten about. There is too much focus on the result (that may or may not have been influenced by a decision) and not the actual decisions themselves.

*I lose count of the amount of bad offside calls against United, you can nearly guarantee at least one per game because of the pace of our frontline.

[Guest]

Arsenal vs Fulham and another decision referees make that I find hard to understand. Or in this case non-decision. Gervinho turns his man in the box, retains possession of the ball as the defender doesn't touch it and goes down.

It isn't a penalty, so Gervinho has not been fouled according to the officials - so he must have dived. Yet no card whatsoever for his apparent simulation (we know of course he was fouled but the ref didn't).

And in some ways I don't see how that foul on Gervinho was that different to Djorou's second yellow. It looked more blatant than when Zamora clattered easily to the floor. A massive game changer.

(I believe it was a foul for the record yet compared to Gervinho's non penalty it seemed soft)

It's easy to see why there's such frustration there.

[Naysonymous]

Said this before and I will say it again. If a controversial decision goes against a club like Manchester United then it is shown on Sky Sports News every 15 minutes for three days. If it goes against a club like Wolves it might not be mentioned more than once, immediately after the match. Nobody likes the glare of the media on them, referees included, so consciously or subconsciously the profile of a club and how the media reacts to it has to weigh on their mind.

[Guest]

I'm sure when Phil Dowd didn't send off Vidic in the League Cup final a couple of year's ago it was forever highlighted as a great travesty...oh everyone forgot as the media didn't make much of it?

Good old Dowd! Carry on.

[SaintM]

Until they replace referees with robots who have instant slo-mo replays from every conceivable angle available within .5 seconds of something happening, there will be mistakes.

What may look inconsistent to us with the benefit of time and endless loops on Sky Sports may well have seemed consistent to the guy on the pitch at the time.

Of course, that is sorta undermined if refs start saying things like "he's not that kind of player"

[dr_manhattan^]

That is what winds me up. There's no doubt at all in my mind that if a Wolves player had made Lampard's foul then he would have walked, and that's just not fair.

This is further supported by the sending off of the Wolves player Milijas against Arsenal, he's not a dirty player at all and it wasn't even a foul.

Things like this are making me lose interest in football.

[a big boy]

I'm not saying that at all. He did put his head in the other guy's face. It wasn't a headbutt, but you know, it wasn't nothing either. The other guy didn't fall down as far as I saw from the highlights, so I don't think there was any attempt to get Barton sent off unfairly by play acting.

I'm of the opinion that if you lay hands on anyone in an aggressive manner off the ball then you should be punished.

(This is all from what I saw on MotD. Whether there was any contact at all or not was hard to tell from the footage)

They each put their heads together to square off. So at this stage they're equally guilty of being needlessly aggressive and probably both deserve either a telling off or at most a booking.

But then if you accept that there was no headbutt, and presumably that Johnson recoiled holding his face as if he'd been headbutted... I'm at a loss as to how you can possibly interpret that as anything other than Johnson play acting in an attempt to get Barton sent off?