[Football] Zerbi kicking off

[Icy Gull]

You know very well that you cannot expect all footballers (or even many footballers) to play fairly by the rules. You've surely seen enough of Zaha and Grealish swallow-diving to know that. So it has to be up to the officials to clamp down on it. Tackles from behind and over the ball tackles are no longer allowed and are generally penalised. Let's make use of VAR to review head injuries and advise the referee when there has been no head contact.

I was suggesting similar yesterday. Head injuries take a minute or two anyway so VAR should check them whilst the player is being treated. If there was no head contact or something obviously innocuous, like a slight backhander that brushes the hair and the player goes down feigning as something worse, a straight red card. There are so many faked head injuries, there should be checks and harsh decisions if it’s clear that the player is cheating.

 

[Bozza]

5 mins but no sub.

I'm not arguing against it, but I see two quite obvious flaws in this plan...

1. Players who suffer a genuine head blow through no fault of their own are weakened, ie the "Albion concede the winning goal with Dunk off due to a prior challenge from an opposing player" scenario

2. By enforcing this, there will be occasions when players refuse treatment/assessment because they do not wish to weaken their team, but have suffered a blow that really should be looked at for their own safety.

 

[Deadly Danson]

Providing they are not laying in the middle of the goal why not just let the game go on and the physios treat them on the pitch. You would soon see them springing back to life

I'm going to carry on suggesting this week in week out until someone tries it. It's an absolute no brainer.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Providing they are not laying in the middle of the goal why not just let the game go on and the physios treat them on the pitch. You would soon see them springing back to life

Unfortunately, physios can’t enter the pitch unless the ref gives them permission.

For those who think they are above getting annoyed at the referee, I take heart from Roberto. I don’t feel any shame at blaming the referee. Fulham were cheating but he allowed them to.
If what Roberto said to Darren England is reportedly correct, it only warrants a yellow card, so why did he get a red?

 

[e77]

Problem is the ref has to stop the game for a suspected head injury and if he gets it wrong once he will be in a world of trouble. Maybe as a start the Premier League should put together a montage of the incidents that lead to 'treatment' being needed and put them out for the world to see very Monday to see if it shames anyone into stopping it.

Blame Fulham for it happening yesterday, not the ref (although I would concede he didn't have a great match). It's something we need to learn to play against.

 

[Slum_Wolf]

I think the story of yesterday was that (a) Fulham did everything they could to disrupt our play, including multiple conning of the ref with fake head injuries - obviously a pre-planned tactic (akin to Hasenhuttl's fake injuries on 60 minutes to allow team-talks, etc); AND (b) the ref was extremely poor.

Of course, as others have pointed out, if we'd taken a few of our many chances, then it wouldn't have mattered.

Are there any teams in the Premier League (apart from us, of course!) who broadly try to play a "fair" game? Perhaps Brentford?

Unfortunately, physios can’t enter the pitch unless the ref gives them permission.

For those who think they are above getting annoyed at the referee, I take heart from Roberto. I don’t feel any shame at blaming the referee. Fulham were cheating but he allowed them to.
If what Roberto said to Darren England is reportedly correct, it only warrants a yellow card, so why did he get a red?

As England struggled to do his actual job, I would suspect that he is incapable of understanding any nuance in De Zerbi's words and has used this to justify whatever he writes in his report.

 

[peterward]

He was week as shit. As most are. Falling for cheating and time wasting.. Time and time again. But then getting all on top of minor f***ing shit like the ball might be moving slightly when we tried a quick free kick. (It wasn't) Poor. Not surprised De Zerbs unloaded on the inefficient berk.

Fulham were full of the dark arts. Total shithousery with so many laying on the ground at crucial moments to disrupt rythym and stop play.

All of whom carried on after game stopped.

Cleat tactic to disrupt us..... can't complain with our finishing or their goal, but ref was absolutely f***ing useless.

 

[Seasider78]

Unfortunately, physios can’t enter the pitch unless the ref gives them permission.

For those who think they are above getting annoyed at the referee, I take heart from Roberto. I don’t feel any shame at blaming the referee. Fulham were cheating but he allowed them to.
If what Roberto said to Darren England is reportedly correct, it only warrants a yellow card, so why did he get a red?

What about changing the laws so the fourth official can make the call for them to enter the field play of and they tell the ref what they have done through their ear piece. Would give them something meaningful to do rather than standing there monitoring managers in their technical areas

 

[um bongo molongo]

Providing they are not laying in the middle of the goal why not just let the game go on and the physios treat them on the pitch. You would soon see them springing back to life

Is the right answer

 

[um bongo molongo]

Unfortunately, physios can’t enter the pitch unless the ref gives them permission.

For those who think they are above getting annoyed at the referee, I take heart from Roberto. I don’t feel any shame at blaming the referee. Fulham were cheating but he allowed them to.
If what Roberto said to Darren England is reportedly correct, it only warrants a yellow card, so why did he get a red?

But that’s an easy rule to change, surely. As others have said the 4th official can be in charge of ensuring the physio isn’t coming on to try and tuck one away at the back post

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Problem is the ref has to stop the game for a suspected head injury and if he gets it wrong once he will be in a world of trouble. Maybe as a start the Premier League should put together a montage of the incidents that lead to 'treatment' being needed and put them out for the world to see very Monday to see if it shames anyone into stopping it.

Blame Fulham for it happening yesterday, not the ref (although I would concede he didn't have a great match). It's something we need to learn to play against.

I’ve just watched the England women’s match against Italy, where an Italian player was down, when England scored their second goal. The ref had ignored it, because the woman was holding her ankle, just like several of the Fulham players yesterday.
There are two linesmen, who are in contact with the ref who can alert him if there’s a head injury, plus a fourth official, so plenty of eyes and ears.

 

[e77]

I’ve just watched the England women’s match against Italy, where an Italian player was down, when England scored their second goal. The ref had ignored it, because the woman was holding her ankle, just like several of the Fulham players yesterday.
There are two linesmen, who are in contact with the ref who can alert him if there’s a head injury, plus a fourth official, so plenty of eyes and ears.

If it wasn't a perceived head injury then the shouldn't have stopped the game but equally we need to learn to play against such tactics.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If it wasn't a perceived head injury then the shouldn't have stopped the game but equally we need to learn to play against such tactics.

I don’t want to watch such tactics. I want football to be entertaining not cheating. If anything will stop me going, that is it.

 

[e77]

I don’t want to watch such tactics. I want football to be entertaining not cheating. If anything will stop me going, that is it.

So do I but it needs to come from the clubs and players, not referees.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

So do I but it needs to come from the clubs and players, not referees.

I disagree. It needs to come from the FA.

 

[Acker79]

Wherever it comes from, it needs the support of fans and media, even when there's perceived inconsistency, or it will go the same was as the 6 second rule, the move the freekick forward 10 years rule, the clamping down on holding at corners, the retrospective bans for diving, etc.

 

[trueblue]

Ok, so what exactly should he have done to prevent Fulham players from going down clutching their heads?
What he did yesterday was to follow the laws of the game = stopping play when someone go down with (alleged) head injuries.
You might say its his job to prevent it but you could also argue its a footballers job to play football rather than rolling around on the grass screaming for mummy.

But apparently you can expect all referees to watch all 22 players simultaneously for 90 minutes and make correct decisions about whether they actually get injured or if they're just faking it?

I wouldn't mind VAR being used in that way, but this is presently not the case.

Won't be a team managed by a Portuguese...

And then we're back to the core issue with this idea: you get rewarded if you cause head injuries and punished if one of your players has one. This is the reason we will never ever see this seriously flawed "if you get an head injury, you'll have to sit 5/10 minutes on the sideline with no replacement" rule.

Couldn’t be bothered to read all this but, in answer to your first question, book players that feign injury for unsporting behaviour. Even if he doesn’t do that, he should be adding on huge amounts of stoppage time to accurately reflect the minutes lost and compensate for the time-wasting. They are simply not doing the job properly.

 

[trueblue]

Unfortunately, physios can’t enter the pitch unless the ref gives them permission.

Indeed. Maybe they could actually give the 4th official something useful to do other than holding up the subs board and pestering the managers.

 

[Machiavelli]

I disagree. It needs to come from the FA.

Yes. While it remains admissible, teams will do it, and referees can't do anything about it. The rules need to change; the rules need to facilitate football, rather than anti-football.

 

[WATFORD zero]

The current laws are clear and correct. We don't need to change the rules, the refs simply have to competently do what they are paid to do.

The problem was that there wasn't 12+ minutes of extra time, It really is that simple.

And it's not as if they haven't been shown exactly how to do this very recently