Just catching up this morning as yesterday was a rugby day and drinking beer day. Did I miss anything at Woeful FC? Seems like another quiet one…
I thought people would forget my previous pro Val, no chance of relegation etc comments if I got this in early
To be fair, you probably wouldn't get good odds on Gino re-hiring Ismael for next season. Wouldn't be the Pozzo family's first rodeo in that regard.
Something I noticed yesterday was the amount of poor first touches our players seem to have. A lot of the time the ball simply bounces off them and either into empty space or to an opposition player.
I thought Coventry were one of the dirtiest sides I have seen in quite a while. Reminded me a bit f the old Burnley, where they systematically attempt to intimidate or even injure opposition players. I have not seen replays (can anybody help there?) but I thought the tackle from behind on Chak, which injured him and the lunge at Martins when he had just come on were candidates for red cards. Yet more fuel for my campaign for a sin bin. Madeley, of course, should be part of this discussion.
I thought the ref had a good game overall. He seemed to want to keep the game flowing, played some good advantages and it was good to see him book Palmer for them for dissent when he kept whining about not being given fouls. Plus I don't want to see red cards for the sake of it and thought the tackles on Asprilla and Martins were yellow card tackles that were punished correctly. He missed the foul on Chak, albeit from my angle I couldn't work out if it was a bad tackle or not. None of the Watford players really appealed and these days a player going down appearing injured is completely meaningless as they all do it every time.
The tackle on Chak was a straight red offense, clear as day, but apparently the ref missed it completely since he didn't even give a free kick. The lunges on Asprilla and Martins - although brutal and cynical - were probably only yellows. Overall I totally agree, though. Coventry are the dirties team I've seen in a long time and a better ref would have punished them much earlier so that they couldn't continue with that nonsense. Deliberately injuring players really should be a thing of the past.
Isn't that one of those football fan sentiments that's tricky to apply in practice though? Mostly refs can only respond to what actually happens. He booked two Coventry players inside 23 minutes - hardly a sign of leniency.
Yeah, maybe, but a better ref would probably pick up on what was clearly a plan from Coventry to scare the living daylights out of our creative players and tell them in no uncertain terms that "the next player who makes a tackle purely to hurt another player is off". It's been the rules of the game since the mid-to-late 90s that you should give a straight red for that. Granted, experienced players mask it well, but the tackle on Chak was just insane. Full speed from behind on the floor and following through by scissoring the ankles - doesn't get more straight red than that.
Fantastic first 35 minutes, but the old adage of if you don't put your chances away, you don't win The rest was bang average and we got caught sleeping again.
Trouble is someone like Martins throws himself all over the place it’s probably hard to tell if he is seriously hurt or not and if they meant it .
I'm not sure any referee would ever say anything like that. Certainly not in earshot of the opposing players anyway, otherwise it just encourages more play acting. Is there a replay of the tackle of Chak anywhere? I'd be interested to watch it back but I've not found one yet.
McGinn got sent off yesterday for Villa, in what seemed like a similar incident to what Martins suffered.
I don't think Martins is any worse than most. The point is not whether he was hurt but whether or not the tackle was designed to risk hurting him. It was late, high, powerful and there was absolutely no chance of getting the ball. OK - he could get up and , in a minute able to play on. Good. But that was not the intent of the tackle.
I think I recall the ref implying, when challenged for not even giving a foul, that he didn’t see the tackle, he had his back to it (not only dirty but late too). I think one or two of our players then approached the 4th official about it.
Indeed, it’s frustrating. If he stayed on his feet and was a bit braver he’d have much more impact. Asprilla is the same sometimes.
Forestieri had a few decisions (that should have resulted in dangerous free kicks or even penalties) go against him due to his tendency for theatrics- throwing himself to the ground and rolling around. The times where he genuinely was fouled or hurt were largely ignored as a result of his reputation
I really wish we could find a replay of it. You would see that in no possible way could he be accused of diving with that tackle.
Well, OK, I'm no great fan of Martins. But this is irrelevant to this discussion about this particular tackle.
A wasted talent could of achieved so much more....I did hear he was partial to a drink and it got out of hand at Sheffield Wednesday
