The Football Thread - 17/18 Season

[AZWification]

mZuzek said:

Talal said:

The referee was excellent today. No one can even argue that Gerrard didn't deserve a red. Huge props to the referee for having the balls to call that at the Anfield and against Gerrard. Jones did have one rough challenge, but the yellow was the correct call imo. The penalty was also correct. Also don't forget Skrtel deserved a straight red at the end for stamping De Gea.

If the ref was truly excellent today, then why the hell is he the focal point of 95% of the discussion regarding the game? I mean, Juan Mata scored two goals (one of which was an absolute beauty) today in a massive derby and yet he ISN'T the main thing people are talking about? Surely there had to be something wrong, right?

I'll try to contain myself on the Gerrard case. I was watching the game in a pub and I saw a regular midfield foul become a red card out of nowhere. Naturally, I was pissed off. But I couldn't see anything from the replays and everyone (including Liverpool fans) has been saying it was a fair sending off, so I don't have a lot to discuss on it.

But the rest? Ugh... Phil Jones had two red card worthy challenges today, don't deny it. In the first half, he rushed at Lallana at high speed and raised an elbow to hit him as hard as he could, and then in the second half had a very unfair challenge on Henderson's back. I thought both challenges should have resulted in sending offs, but with a lenient referee maybe (MAYBE) a couple of yellow cards was acceptable. But he didn't do even that. And that's considering the ref today wasn't AT ALL lenient considering he would just give our players cards for any random foul (Allen's comes to mind) and even sent off a player who wasn't even a minute into his game.

But then again, you're telling me the penalty was a correct call, so I'm not sure why I'm arguing with you in the first place. If that was a penalty, then everything is. I guess it's Rodgers fault for not telling his players to dive everytime there's a challenge inside the box. But seriously, I can understand why you'd think it was a pen - for Manchester United's standards, it was a pretty clear one.

I actually agree with you that the penalty wasn't a correct call! I guess it was a good thing that Rooney missed it.