Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [20th - 25th February 2015]

That slip was almost as funny as Gerrard's :D.

The only one the ref got wrong was Southampton's second claim. The keeper one I can't really tepp from the replay.
 
You have to remember that Rodgers was factoring in the campaign against Chelsea. Any free-kick, or even appeal for a free-kick, within 10 yards of your box should be a penalty.

I'm surprised JM forgot that handball on Goals on Sunday. We've now doubled the amount of decisions that have gone in Chelsea's favour this season.
 
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BaZ87 said:
You have to remember that Rodgers was factoring in the campaign against Chelsea. Anything free-kick, or even appeal for a free-kick, within 10 yards of your box should be a penalty.

I'm surprised JM forgot that handball on Goals on Sunday. We've now doubled the amount of decisions that have gone in Chelsea's favour this season.
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Or the Costa assaults he was talking about :D, special needs must've rubbed off on Brendan a bit :(
 
The FA have announced that Barnes will receive no further action. Now I'm no Chelsea fan but you can't let challenges like that go unpunished. He could and should have been sent off for the Ivanovic tackle earlier on too, but certainly should have been for the one on Matic.

Also, referees should be punished for performing that badly. In my opinion Martin Atkinson should be docked a week's pay and suspended for at least one premier league weekend. Okay they are under severe pressure but that performance by Atkinson was bordering on negligent.
 
The rules are stupid however they prevent retrospective punishment if the ref has seen the incident but simply made the wrong call on the day.

As for punishing refs. I don't see it any different to how players are treated by clubs. If a player has a bad game he's not docked wages or suspended, is he? If that player continues to underperform then he's dropped and it should be the same for refs. Atkinson had a bad day but unless it becomes a regular thing then I don't see the sense in dropping him and bringing in a worse/less experienced ref.
 
All decisions should be decided by public vote rather than referees tbh. Get Ant and Dec on as pundits, the voice of Big Brother doing the commentary and we've got Saturday nights sorted.
 
Purdy said:
They shouldn't be treated the same as players, players are meant to influence a game of football, refs are not.
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I was referring to their performance levels and whether or not they should be dropped after 1 bad game.

Utd wouldn't drop De Gea if he had a bad game because they'll be worse off for it if they did. In the same way it makes no sense to drop a ref based on having 1 bad game, bringing in a worse ref to replace him. Or would you prefer Atkinson to be dropped and a poorer ref, far more likely to make mistakes, gets his game?
 
BaZ87 said:
I was referring to their performance levels and whether or not they should be dropped after 1 bad game.

Utd wouldn't drop De Gea if he had a bad game because they'll be worse off for it if they did. In the same way it makes no sense to drop a ref based on having 1 bad game, bringing in a worse ref to replace him. Or would you prefer Atkinson to be dropped and a poorer ref, far more likely to make mistakes, gets his game?
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I don't think refs should be dropped on the basis of one poor performance, but what Atkinson had was an absolute shocker of a performance. It was one of the worst refereeing displays I can ever remember seeing, so bad in fact that the former referees' chief has come out and said that Atkinson needs a break. They don't need to call it a suspension, but he certainly needs a break. There are more than enough refs to cover the prem games, and if Atkinson has another game like that then whoever replaces him will be an improvement.

To use your DDG example: imagine he had a dreadful game one week where he let in two goals that should have been really easy saves, maybe he lets one through his legs like Taibi did, and his distribution is poor throughout the game. I think there is every chance LvG would drop him for Valdes just for a game or two to let him recover, get his confidence back, and also to make him aware that such poor displays won't be tolerated.
 
Purdy said:
They shouldn't be treated the same as players, players are meant to influence a game of football, refs are not.
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Referee's have been fairly terrible over the last couple of years. However, anyone who thinks that the performance of the referee in the Chelsea game was the worst they have ever seen needs to come and watch more Championship football or lower league football.

Sky should have had better interviewers talk to Mourinho, saying that, I would have more time for Mourinho had he come out and talked about the wider problem of the referee's and not just pretended that Chelsea have done no wrong this season.

I think he makes some valid points to be honest, Chelsea have had some poor decisions, but they have also had some very fortunate decisions from referee's. Mourinho could have acknowledged the bigger picture and still made valid points about referee's being rubbish, not just anti Chelsea, or that is the feeling I got.
 
I agree that Atkinson had a dreadful game but it can happen, just like it can with players. The decision as to whether he should get a game again at the weekend can't be based purely on that though. The question has to be whether he's the best ref available.

Giving him a break is different to suspending and docking his wages. Maybe he does need a break, I don't know and think it's easy to say that because he had a bad game. As crazy as it sounds, maybe he just had a bad day and there was no real reason for it.

We have to remember that Atkinson is considered one of (if not the) leading refs in the country from what is a very small pool of PL refs. Yes that's probably telling but we've got to be pragmatic here - there's no point in dropping Atkinson only to end up with a worse ref.
 
There is no point dropping Atkinson because as Baz said, he might be poor but he is better than other referees. It is a rubbish situation to be in.
 
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