Referee Watch With SFC Ref 6th January Friday, 6th Jan 2023 09:31 Think you know the laws of the game ? most of us think we do, but few us actiually do, SFC Ref takes his regular look at the Premier League games with a special focus on Saints and follows it up with a little quiz. Last weekends ref watch certainly seemed to be a fairly clean and decent job for the refs, with very little for VAR to get involved in, and no real controversies, debatable decisions and very few complaints over VAR or the officials. So a great job for them, although this weeks incidents certainly seem to be a lot more interesting and up for debate, so should be a much more interesting read than last weeks! Southampton VS Nottingham Forest (Thomas Bramall) Again, a very frustrating game for us saints fans, with very little to cheer about, but at least this loss had nothing to do with VAR or the officials who had a fairly easy game to do. Although it doesn’t seem like Jones has got that though, as his job of trying to keep us up is certainly far from easy! As irrelevant of whether you think he’s any good or not, this squad certainly ain’t one that should be able to guarantee you prem status season after season, and without some decent signings in January will probably be certain to go down irrelevant of who’s in charge! Although back to the officials side of thing, the linesman (Bhupinder Singh Gill) was the first ever Sikh-Punjabi official that the prem has ever had. But it was also one of Bramall’s first prem games, as you could certainly tell that Bramall wasn’t a regular prem ref, as you could just tell from his body language and the delays to some of his decisions that he’s not a regular ref for this level. But still he did do fairly well as all top refs have got to have their first few prem games at some point in their career. TUI FAN VIEWPOINT Watching from the stands was very frustrating from a fans point of view, Bramall might not have got many big decisions wrong, but his failure to apply the basic rules of the game meant that he lost control of the players and allowed Forest especially to constantly time waste. For me the tip of the iceberg was when, despite much Saints protest that the player being subbed should leave the field by the nearest point some 10 yards away, he brushed these aside and allowed the Forest man to walk very slowly to the opposite touchline. In my opinion it is time that referees clamp down on this and start booking players who slouch off to waste time, despite this constant timewasting, with the addition of at least two lengthy injury stoppages and 9 second half substitutions Bramall only added 4 minutes at the end. He might be a new ref but he failed to set out his stall early on and impose basic discipline.
Although we hit a more debatable decision around Brentford’s 3rd goal! As Klopp’s certainly made his opinions on this decision clear (although he’ll look for any excuse!) and thinks that a foul should’ve been awarded for the slight nudge on the Liverpool player before Brentford scored. But for me there’s so little force and real contact that it’s just never a foul, and VAR was right to stick with the refs on field decision. As if you start giving them as fouls then you might as well declare football a non contact sport, irrelevant of what the likes of Klopp says! But still a really good game for VAR and the officials. And Newcastle had an early shout for a penalty with a bit of pulling in the box, but as the replays clearly show, it’s the Newcastle player doing more of the pulling than the Newcastle one, hence why VAR and the ref rightfully didn’t award a penalty. As for the handball shout, I can understand why Arsenal fans want it as it does strike the hand, but as the hand is in a natural position and is clearly unintentional (due to the very little time he has to react) it’s not a penalty under the current LOTG and the appeals were rightfully turned down. Although this still doesn’t excuse Emery’s and certain players reactions and behaviour around these decisions, as really they should’ve been cautioned for it (especially Emery). So maybe not the greatest game for VAR or the officials, but at the same time they still did get a majority of their major decisions right.
Then in the second half there was an early shout for a red for a Leeds player. As it was fairly clear that he went back for revenge for a challenge that the West Ham lad had just committed on himself (which in my view was a foul in the first place) but had nothing given, so made sure to get back at him. But after seeing the replays to this incident I do think that a yellow was the correct disciplinary action as his studs weren’t up and it’s only the force behind and the fact that it’s late, which makes it a yellow but isn’t enough for a red, with VAR rightfully not getting involved. So overall I do think VAR and the ref got all the major decisions correct for this game and did well in dealing with them, although again I do feel as if the levels of dissent around some of these decisions was too high and how the refs again should’ve dealt with it a lot more and given out a few more cautionings for them.
Although I’m quite surprised more Palace players didn't complain about the slight nudge from Son onto the Palace defender, especially with how many coaches and players act these days! Although VAR was certainly right not to get involved as irrelevant of whether you see the nudge as enough for a foul or not, it certainly wasn’t clear and obvious, hence why VAR (which was actually Mike Dean) was spot on not to get involved. Well this gameweeks certainly had a lot more to discuss that last weekends! As last weekends there was very little to discuss with only like one or two VAR checks, yet this gameweek we’ve had a lot more! But still, VAR’s not been getting involved as much, has been letting the less clear decisions kept as what the on field refs original decisions, which is what Webb wanted and seems to have done fairly well since taking over the prem refs.
So overall a good, but not perfect, week for VAR and the officials, which hopefully it can continue to do, as I don’t think many people have had many complaints at all over VAR since the prem resumed. And now for this gameweeks questions, which like last week I’ll post the answers to just before the next post is done… Q1= What is the minimum number of players required for a team to have at any point in play, where if they go below this number the game must be suspended? Q2= A game ends level and a kicks from the penalty mark (aka penalty shoot out) takes place. But Team A is on 10 men as you sent off one of their players before, whilst Team B are on 11. Does anything need to occur before the penalties are about to be taken with regards to numbers of players? Q3= Team A goalkeeper catches the ball from a cross. He sees the Team B keeper quite far off of his line, so throws the ball towards his opponents goal. It’s a windy day and the wind helps to blow the ball straight into the opponents goal. What should be awarded? Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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