For me, the Dominic Calvert-Lewin sending off, though of itself funny, highlighted how effective peer-pressure can be in affecting decision making. The ref initially makes the right decision, then, on being told to 'look at the screen', with the VAR bloke wittering in his ear, is convinced to change his mind.
This has made me think about how successful 'getting in the refs ear' can be, and how targeted it probably is on refs with weaker characters. And how, seeing as the FA blather on about stopping it but never do, we need to do it ourselves, no matter how odious it is. The moral high ground isn't putting points on the board.
Talking of VAR, I was quite surprised to hear some Premier teams managers and their acolytes banging on about how unfair it was that, in an fa cup context, premiership teams playing at home had to endure VAR while games played at teams from lower divisions didn't. I even heard it said that this made it not 'a level playing field' . Whooosshhh.
Finally, on the 'level playing field' theme, how is it fair that the team with statistically the worst record of all teams in the third round of the FA Cup has to start with the handicap of, well, being us? How does that work?
From the bloke formally known as DistortR til he lost his log-in to, um, everything. |  |
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