Just staggering. I don't know what's worse. That the EPL doesn't have protocols written for scenarios like this or that they do and their protocol is don't play the match until we get it fixed? I know on every game I've ever worked with comms, we always have a line in our pregame of "if comms fail/don't work, let's just go old school and use eye contact." They couldn't do that? MLS has it written where if VAR fails/doesn't work, you just communicate to the teams that we won't be using VAR today. I'm sure every league in Europe has something similar. Is the EPL that scared that the "integrity" of their competition will be ruined if one game isn't played with VAR? Half the games are practically played without VAR in the first place as they never over change any of the on-field decisions.
Will get a video when i have it, but looks like Kavanagh just have a penalty via VAR after an offside in the build up. Not 100%, looked like it.
Kavanagh today dear me. Penalty 1 - https://vk.com/video-12919375_456268836?t=2h8s Hahahahahaha the offside!! . And good to know this isn't (a clear) DOGSO. And imagine if they had played the game without VAR, this mistake... (not difficult to spot with positioning I'd expect from referees in Tier V/VI of our football). Penalty 2 - https://vk.com/video-12919375_456268836?t=2h31m46s So Gabriel impedes the progress of an opponent without the ball close to being in playing distance, then kicks out against him, and the result is that VAR wipes out the penalty and RC call, gives a freekick to Arsenal and only a booking for Gabriel. Well...
In retrospect it was good that they delayed the match given the two VAR decisions (which is two more than most EPL matches).
Genuinely incredible how inept our officials are at intellectually (not) trying to actually understand the nuances of VAR, as opposed to in their hearts feeling it is 'wrong', troping out well it is here to stay and just being generally awful at operating it. And the level of the refs does the complete opposite of bailing them out too.
I don’t know what the process is to remove an official from the FIFA list in England, but Kavanagh has to be demoted. He looks lost and totally bereft of confidence. I realize the options behind him aren’t great, but I cannot see how Kavanagh can represent England at any level on the FIFA list.
He seems to have fallen off a cliff. It was not that long ago that I thought he would be the future behind Oliver and Taylor, and he was handling the UEFA Youth League Final with ease. Now as you said, he seems to have lost all confidence.
Wut. On another note, some ref gets bonus points for doing their job to 100% and checking the goals before the match: Hull vs Birmingham has been delayed because the goals are too big. They are currently being sawed 2 inches smaller.The Championship. pic.twitter.com/kOLpLTgKLx— Second Tier podcast (@secondtierpod) October 16, 2022
I have questions on both… Comparing to MLS, I would have expected the offside on first penalty to be part of the VAR check. Granted, it was only briefly shown on replay, so hard to be certain it was off. But, the question is whether that was part of the attacking phase, and not a separate phase? And on the second… overturning the penalty for the push seems reasonable, but overturning the red? It looked like studs to the leg/side of the opponent. Shouldn’t that have still been red?
And, speaking of referees not having a great season, Taylor had a rough last quarter hour in Liverpool v. ManCity. I don’t know how NEITHER he nor his AR decided a blatant takedown of Salah was not a foul, but it resulted in Klopp being sent off and much pushing and shoving. It’s like Taylor is undermining his strong rep. This is not the first time this season Taylor has wilted.
I just thought he let an awful lot go both ways. He also seemed to let the emotions of the crowd get to him. He didn’t seem to recognize how the temperature of the whole environment was rapidly escalating, and the game really got rough in the final half hour. In my opinion only, overall I feel like Oliver does a better job of recognizing these kinds of moments and matching the temperature of the match.
Ronaldo’s yellow card and the minute or so preceding it is well worth the watch. Just poor stuff across the board today. It’s barely worth analyzing anymore.
The only thing they have going for them is their "common sense" to not allow such a farcical goal. I genuinely think that goal gets allowed in Spain or Italy. Everything else was so poorly handled. It's like they are not even trying to manage the games well. It's so bad across the board.
No way that goal gets allowed anywhere. CR still had hand up at the time Ronaldo touches the ball. He also blows his whistle immediately.
there was an incident in England last week where it was discovered a goal was two inches two short. The decision was to play anyway, as it would take two hours to recalibrate the goal line system if they moved the posts. Wonder if there was a directive out following that game?
How about the fact that it all stems from a delayed flag on a guy who was 5 yards offside? Like if that never happens and the goal doesn’t happen, the offside restart is so much cleaner and the subsequent idiocy never happens.
Exactly why I have been so quiet the past few weeks - it is so painful to watch a train-wreck (far less several train-wrecks each week!), that I just cant then go and talk about it afterwards.
In the women's CL match between Arsenal and Ajax two weeks ago, the Arsenal players/coaches complained pre-match that the goal was smaller, and sure enough, it was and had to be replaced.
1. Jurgen Klopp says "I deserved a red card." 2. Gary Lineker favors "issuing yellow cards for any form of abuse whatsoever." Jurgen Klopp red card among incidents prompting referee charity to call for inquiry into managers
Am I wrong in remembering that he was poor in that Youth League Final? Maybe I was just surprised he got the appointment and then did well. Regardless, I've personally never rated him for this level. I've always felt like he looked like he was a deer looking into headlights.
Good on Klopp for saying that but I do wonder if he would have done so if the scoreline was reversed. That said, I would point out that he should have been sent off before he actually berated the AR. His running out of the technical area like a maniac 10 seconds prior was, unequivocally, enough for a dismissal. But as we've talked about here, EPL referees don't actually handle technical areas per the LOTG. There was a dust-up just before halftime of Brentford-Brighton where both benches cleared outside their technical areas (or, at least, one cleared into the others) and the only result were two cautions to the head coaches (after one of them tried to delay their opponent restarting, which is explicitly a red card). In this match, as the BBC article notes, Guardolia dissented as Taylor went to the monitor (which I always find ironic, given the coach is dissenting at a guy who initially agreed with him and technically does up to that point). Taylor just ignored it. I understand these guys have directives and coaching and pressures from above, but watching Taylor yesterday it was jarring how differently he approached this versus a UEFA match. We used to talk about Webb having to change gears from England to Europe but by the time Clattenburg and Atkinson were at their peak, a lot of the differences had been erased. I think we are now at a point where the gap is wider than its ever been this century. It was like Taylor was refereeing a different sport compared to how he'd handle a match in Paris or Madrid.
No! . I rarely saw such a poor performance in modern UEFA football tbh. If a referee from eg. Estonia had such a performance, and with the 'right' (or in the ref's case, 'wrong') observer who could be a***ed to write up a very low mark in the report, then it would end their international career. Remember Kavanagh was on the same path as Mariani, whose last UEFA assignment was Sevilla vs. Dortmund. I watched Kavanagh right from his early international days (Yeni Malatyaspor vs. Partizan Belgrade, Moldova vs. Albania...) and he never showed anything. PGMOL don't understand (the art of refereeing) tbh. They really think Kavanagh he is quite decent just because he looks like a budget Michael Oliver. Oliver has his flaws too but they don't (seem to) really understand why he is good. If they did, then Kavanagh wouldn't be our fourth-highest rated international referee (with quite weak Gillett expected to make elite/élite by them, etc).