This is more of an inquiry about positioning and awareness. In the Liverpool-Newcastle match, I counted at least three times (19', 29', ...) when Referee [Lee] Probert seemed to be in the passing lane/s and acted like a statue (pardon the contrarian metaphor). The first time (19') after the Stripes had taken the ball upfield past Probert and he followed, and got stuck when Stripes turned backward to pass when Reds challenged. Probert stood motionless while Red took ball and shot goalward. The second time, on a similar play, Stripes reached the centre circle until Blue became part of play. Methinks this time Blue lucked out as a foul occured and he signalled. Both these times, Probert stood motionless. There was another one prior to end of 1st half when . Is this a good practice - remaining motionless when caught in a passing lane? Another awareness inquiry is about the time when Newcastle's tall midfielder (Vukcic?) got hit at the left side of his face with a searing clearance by the Red defense. This appeared to happen practically directly in front of Probert. The player went down on his haunches then got up and motioned to his TA with the help-needed semaphore. The camera showed the player walking directly in front of the referee, and the referee appeared to have his focus on the ball that was bouncing in the Red PA. Is this another good practice - to keep ball moving when a player has been hit hard in the head? It was a very happening first half. The second started with some an extended arm from Newkie #24 (Tiote) into Red right on the edge of the centre circle with Probert right in it. Red went down holding his head. This was followed by the raking of Spearing's shins by Cabaye. In this second instance, Probert's attention was called for by Red's teammates and only then did he blew whistle to stop play and give attention. None of this was referenced or discussed in any of the threads here, if it was, pardon me.
I doubt there will be any who say it's a GOOD thing to get caught in the passing lane, but once it happens??? If you are in tight quarters, my thought is always to just not make things worse. Given that I'm "part of the field" , I think most players would at least rather know where I am so they can figure out their next move. If I start dancing around at that point, I'm likely to screw up the next move also. The absolute worst, is when you get caught in the SHOOTING lane, and the only way out is to occupy space defenders want. Stay there, and you hurt the attack. Move, and you disadvantage the defenders. ugh. Only thing to do is to freeze, hope the players sort it out, realize you screwed up, and try not to do it again. (Oh, and if game management allows, apologize to the players )
I think hkref got the idea for his analysis here: http://fortheintegrityofsoccer.blog...ereeing/2011/12/what-did-i-just-say.html#more It pre-dates his by about 6-7 days! PH
Thanks for pointing this out fellows; the HKRef site is also exhaustive. Evans' rss-feed got mucked up when I updated Opera, else I would have referenced it. Both these sites have honest and unique analytical opinions - both put lots of holes in Probert's performance and it seemed to be they are teasing out critical aspects of refereeing differently. Be that as it may, I am certain readers of this forum may want to add to the brutally honest takes of both those bloggers than just take their word as absolute.