Yep you can even pull in the Curtis Jones red. The differential diagnosis the ref goes through is -
was there contact above the ankle? Yes.
did it cause the leg to bend or ankle to buckle? Yes
Ok, that is excessive force so a red.
You can see how when sitting around a table trying to identify a process all refs can follow in the interest of achieving consistency this sort of differential seems to makes sense. But then very quickly you are forced to apply to real world situations where it fails. There is no way that Jones’ tackle meets the definition of excessive force in any common understanding of the term outside of the way refs use it. And then to add that it fails to punish wild challenges like Kane’s, or Havertz’s the other week against newcastle. Through more luck than judgement the tackler failed to make a big impact but it doesn’t make it any less awful a challenge. If we say there is no harm so now foul, we’re basically back at only giving a red if there is a broken leg, but then it means that
It’s a bad thought process for how to get consistency in applying the red card law. So many of the bad outcomes in refereeing that we see are from exactly this scenario - refs doing what they are told but producing bad outcomes from the guidance not being well thought enough to have it work sensibly for a wide enough variety of situations.
. It’s 1st v 2nd at the weekend. A game we can win. And everyone rattling on about a Tierney decision 3 years ago, ignoring that we’ve won almost all our games with Saturday’s ref in charge
Give it a proper go here, like if it was a CL knockout leg at Anfield.
There’s more to gain here with a win than lose if we get beat. Don’t be too wild and naive of course, but let’s try and beat them. Let’s remind of the times when we went neck to neck, regardless where it was played.
This is certainly not a season decider, not for either teams, but would be a nice step for this team at this stage.
May I suggest that we have a dedicated thread for discussing the referees?
It looks like Tsimikas is fit for us. Apparently his absence from the Greece squad was tactical as he is only one yellow card away from a suspension for them.
No word yet on the South American guys. It sounds like Mac Allister ran himself into the ground for Argentina but my concern with him would be the jet-lag.
If they are in training today on Thursday like last time they will be able to play. If they are training tomorrow due to arriving today like the time before the last time we are in even more trouble than we are already.
We have not won a PL match in the Emptyhead since 2015 …
I wouldn’t play Mac - I think he’s been poor so far - probably as not in best position and when he came back last time from internationals he was all over the place.
Endo, Sozbo and Jones/Gravenbach in the middle for me.
Salah, Jota and Diaz to start - id bring Nunez on as I still think hes a better sub.
City will look to exploit our full backs. TAA has been defensively really poor for a few games - he just has no awareness of people behind him.
I think the best we get here is a draw. Need the win but 1 win in 8 years says that’s unlikely.
Alisson and VVDs superb form will be really tested and they need 9/10 games for us to stand any chance of getting anything here.
Yeah, Darwin and Diaz in great form coming off their qualifiers. Don’t see how they wouldn’t start. Nice to have the Slotta to come off the bench with the late game winner!
. It’s 1st v 2nd at the weekend. A game we can win. And everyone rattling on about a Tierney decision 3 years ago, ignoring that we’ve won almost all our games with Saturday’s ref in charge
