Those of you saying the midweek was because of Ole's substitutions, I'll be expecting you to post any second lauding the substitutions he made this morning - Matic to Lingard for the winner, can't argue with that decision making.
On a different note, I can't stand the new leniency on contact for fouls. Players need more protection, not less. Players getting kicked out of the game is a blight on the sport and the new interpretations encourage it. Another week where Atkinson proves he has no business refereeing at the top level and the VAR absolutely bottled it too.
On a different note, I can't stand the new leniency on contact for fouls. Players need more protection, not less. Players getting kicked out of the game is a blight on the sport and the new interpretations encourage it. Another week where Atkinson proves he has no business refereeing at the top level and the VAR absolutely bottled it too.
totally disagree with your last point, the "leniency" on contact ion the box is stopping the constant diving/going down easily which has blighted the game for decades. Hopefully players will re-learn to hold their feet instead of diving lie they been shot when contact is incidental. I havent seen one non penalty call which would count as players being kicked out of the game.
For me it isn't about the diving, its about player safety - if you allow more contact you are actively encouraging players to injure other players. It also creates significantly more grey areas for referees and therefore more upset players/fans as there is much more being left to the ref to interpret.
It isn't about penalties, so I don't know why you would only focus on those, its about more contact being allowed in challenges all over the park.
Will be interesting to see statistics on injuries from contact in this season vs previous seasons when we get to the end - hopefully there's no increase but that seems incredibly unlikely to me.