[Albion] The Unconscious / Conscious Bias Towards the ‘’Big Clubs’

[Sheebo]

So there was an article / thread on here a few days back about the unconscious bias towards white players by commentators - we had a discussion, good thread, some couldn’t see it, some could, it was a fairly small study etc... fine...

So I’d like to talk about the clear and obvious bias from the commentators and referee / officials teams in the premier league. Now I’m not one to get too offended by outspoken, clueless pundits particularly - I find it funny at their ignorance and egg on face, but my word it was everywhere tonight and v Man Utd.

Tyler and Carragher decided that Liverpool had played half arsed after going 2 up. It wasn’t down to the Albion playing some great stuff. Maty Ryan dives the side a shot is going that deflects in completely the other direction and he’s ‘in no mans land / scrambling / all over the place’ apparently. Everything time and time again was pro Liverpool or making excuses for them not battering us... the list was endless. Souness comes out with disrespectful rubbish at half time then is astonished that the young left back, who was booked after his 2nd or 3rd bookable offence was subbed and claimed ‘he must be injured’. Clearly not noticing the battering young Lamptey (who looked a much better player) had given him... Even at the end of the match the studio called it a ‘comfortable 3-1 victory’ which it blatantly wasn’t...

The officials tonight didn’t get much wrong. But you notice most 50/50 decisions go the way of the ‘Champions’ without hesitation. I think there were 3 or 4 elbows / arms to the head, a very suspect tackle by Trent AA and Gomez quite possibly denying a clear goal scoring opportunity in that match. I’m not convinced any of them were blatant reds etc but again, as with the Man U second goal the other night, we see no VAR check. No replays etc etc, no time delay. No lines for tight offsides. Whereas I’m convinced if it was the other way around the game would have stopped several times for 17 replays of an Albion players arm catching a Liverpool players’ head... there’s a clear, clear bias to the top 6 (on paper), the ‘big clubs’ and it’s simply not right...

Agree / disagree? Notice it etc...?

 

[GT49er]

Agree.

 

[Stephen Seagull]

Yep, agree. Deal with it, it's the new normal and football in 2020, money talks

 

[Mr Banana]

In terms of commentators/analysts/media...the proportion of fans that are Man Utd or Liverpool fans is massive. It completely dwarves the rest of the clubs. When you consider that a large percentage of the rest is made up by the remainder of the top six, the proportion of the audience that supports any other club when one of them is playing is almost negligible. So it's not surprising that they get steered towards talking about them, and once they've done that a few times it becomes ingrained.

 

[Bodian]

The commentators are better on the American channels. Is is Townsend on one of them - he always seems pretty fair and gives praise where it's due.

 

[Deanbha]

Agree

 

[Sheebo]

Yep, agree. Deal with it, it's the new normal and football in 2020, money talks

I’ve ‘dealt with it’ and was well aware it’s always been there. But didn’t expect it to be so painfully obvious. It’s simply laughable at times.

In terms of commentators/analysts/media...the proportion of fans that are Man Utd or Liverpool fans is massive. It completely dwarves the rest of the clubs. When you consider that a large percentage of the rest is made up by the remainder of the top six, the proportion of the audience that supports any other club when one of them is playing is almost negligible. So it's not surprising that they get steered towards talking about them, and once they've done that a few times it becomes ingrained.

Aware of that, but that shouldn’t effect officials decisions, replay choices or analyses of a game from a ‘neutral perspective’ should it...

 

[Mr deez]

The var/Replay has been toned down across the board as it was very apparent it was a disaster.

 

[Stephen Seagull]

I’ve ‘dealt with it’ and was well aware it’s always been there. But didn’t expect it to be so painfully obvious. It’s simply laughable at times.



Aware of that, but that shouldn’t effect officials decisions, replay choices or analyses of a game from a ‘neutral perspective’ should it...

I've lived in Spain for over 15 years now, during this time I've enhanced the ability to "switch off" and not listen to commentary when watching football.

Just because they don't show us the replays doesn't mean it hasn't been viewed by VAR

 

[lawros left foot]

As I have said on another thread, Martin Tyler is so far up Liverpool’s arse he has probably found the source of the Mersey.

A couple of seasons ago when Gross scared the header that was just over the line, you can see the ref ( Atkinson?) apologise to one of the Utd players and say “ I had to give it”, pointing at his watch thing.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Was going to make a similar point before.

If one of our (or any other lesser team's) defenders makes a great block to deny a top 6 side an almost certain goal, it's never described as great defending, instead focusing on the attacking players failure to take the chance, yet a top 6 defender makes a routine clearance and it's all about how good that piece of defending was....

Any 50/50 type incident and it's nearly always the lesser team's player they deem to be at fault, yet any bad foul by the top side's player and it's 'harsh' to have awarded a foul against them or to have booked them, but if a lesser team's player commits an identical foul, then it's cynical / blatant and deserving of a booking and so on .......

It must affect how neutrals see a side / player as they don't watch them that often and just rely on commentary to be fairly accurate and this could also mean that good players at lesser clubs get overlooked for international call ups as this slant to commentary must influence a view of a player if all the manager has to go on is video highlights (like MotD) as they can't attend every game

 

[Mike Small]

Good post. What I found grating was that when we had an attack, Carragher would always focus on Liverpools defending or perceived lack if it, especially Gomez. Sourness also needs to realise he was a shit manager and would be even shitter now.

 

[Algernon]

Premier League = Institutionally big-club ist.

 

[portlock seagull]

Is this the beginning of a movement: Small clubs matter?

 

[Yoda]

What was that shite Souness was coming out with about us needing to basically show Liverpool all the respect and just hoof the ball for the first 10-15 minutes and not to try and play our game?

You mean like we did last week against United Graeme? Yeah! That went well.

 

[GT49er]

Sourness also needs to realise he was a shit manager and would be even shitter now.

 

[Sheebo]

Is this the beginning of a movement: Small clubs matter?

After getting a new black puppy I’ve already started ‘black dogs matter’ so don’t see why we shouldn’t start another here..?

 

[Yes Chef]

Agree with the OP, particularly as regards Lamptey, he murdered their full back.

 

[macbeth]

Commentators tonight yes, big time bias, though i thought the ref was pretty fair to us tonight, even slightly generous

 

[Eeyore]

Some of the The unconscious bias is in our own heads as we seem to desperately seek plaudits from observers. I don't get it. It's a small club mentality.

Albion had their moments after that splendid equaliser, but ultimately it was a comfortable win for them.

I don't know what I'm missing, but none of the commentators annoy me. It's inevitable there will be more talk of the 'bigger' teams. We never complained about our status when 17 of promotion campaign matches were live on the box.

The analysis of our game was reasoned and pretty complimentary. Not sure what more is wanted.