Crystal Palace v Aston Villa post match thread

[AsTallAsLions]

Gary Lineker

The disallowed goal for @AVFCOfficial in the last minute has to be seen to be believed. Why VAR didn’t correct what appeared to be an awful refereeing error is beyond me.

Says it all, as Lineker has never liked us. Friend should be relegated after today's showing, quite frankly.

[KRS]

Having just watched the short sky sports highlights, you can hear the whistle blown just as Henri is about to shoot, so VAR can't actually 'award' the goal, as play had stopped - even if they wanted to.  They COULD have corrected the ref's mistake and given us a free-kick or a penalty, but there is no way within the current rules to give us a goal in those circumstances. Refs are supposed to play on a little longer, knowing VAR can correct a mistake, but he blew so quickly that was never an option. It's shit, but it's the way it is.

That said, not sure we really deserved much from today by the sounds of it, but a disallowed goal like that is going to hurt for a while I think...

I have heard that too...it’s a shit rule and only serves to endorse the incompetence of the referee for blowing so quickly. There has to be some common sense applied by match officials to allow play to carry on particularly around the penalty area especially now that they can call upon VAR to make correct decisions. I don’t care if we deserved a point or not, we were robbed of 1pt today and Palace gained 2pts.

[achilles]

The problem with VAR is that now we have the facility, we want all contentious decisions reviewed regardless of where they happen, whereas IFAB want to limit it to make only decisions which could decide a game like a penalty or a red card. Clearly, in this case, you want VAR to review this period of action but it's not there for that under current regulations. Trouble is, where does a decision not become contentious? In midfield? You might get into a situation where all decisions beyond the eighteen yard line get looked at, which is ridiculous but would have sorted the one today.

But in short, VAR couldn't actually have done anything for us. What should have happened, and where we were cheated, was that Kevin Friend should have kept his whistle out of his mouth, played advantage like a proper referee and if he wasn't sure, consulted with his assistants after the goal went in. So instead of seminars on technology, maybe IFAB should be reminding referees how to use a fucking whistle.

It was either a penalty or a goal, and in the penalty area, isn't that what VAR is all about?

[Villafirst]

If the dingles lose by two clear goals tomorrow, am I right in thinking we'll be out of the bottom three? Looking at the table, one win will get you mid-table!

[LeeB]

The thing that really gets me angry is the inconsistency of yellow cards, and not just today.

The first yellow for Trez, he's a fraction later than his opponent to a bouncing ball and gets a yellow, but it's a genuine attempt to play a loose ball.

Then their captain deliberately pulls back his opponent with no attempt to play the ball, it's pure cheating, but he gets a ticking off?

It's just fucking twattery.

[themossman]

The yellows were soft today but actually thought Trezeguet’s were the most legit and his second was just brainless considering it should have been obvious by then the ref was a homer. He doesn’t get a pass from me.

[rougegorge]

We were in line with Grealish when he was brought down and assumed the ref had possibly blown for a pen only for him to decide he had seen something that nobody else had. I get the point about refs clamping down on diving but there was no intention to deceive and no dive.

There was obvious contact not once, but twice so falling down is to be expected at speed.

Friend had earmarked Grealish from the outset, but not Zaha who was excused any fouling.

That said, we were very poor from 20 mins in until we conceded. Whether we merited all the yellow cards or not, Smith simply had to change things at half time.

Trezeguet and Jota were ineffectual and Luiz and Wesley just didn't get to grips with the game. The insistence on playing two wide players was negligent given the amount of midfield possession we conceded.

Also, at this level, you have to have better free kick delivery. The free kicks without Hourihane were simply abject.

[ez]

I can't believe var even looked at the incident and said, Yes, definite dive.

[themossman]

Feels to me that the ref had decided jack is a diver and took it upon himself to be a Johnny big bollocks about it, putting himself front and centre. Absolutely the opposite of how a good, professional ref should be approaching a game.

[Ads]

You could tell it was a foul as Cahill pretends to be injured. I was also directly in line and I felt he'd given a penalty first too.

[PaulWinch again]

I don’t think Friend was cheating, but he very obviously came to the game with a preconception and he let it colour his judgement.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Missed the first fifteen minutes.

Thought the ref had a bit of a mare. But we can't allow that to hide the fact we were mainly garbage throughout. Bit worrying.

We can't do anything about the refs performance, but we can and absolutely must do something about ours.

[Ads]

If the referee wasnt a ******, we get a point. We certainly could have played much better and weren't particularly good in the slightest; too deep, slow and tentative against poor opposition.

But Grealish cut them apart, was fouled by Zaha, was fouled by Cahill, pops the ball off and Lansbury buried an equaliser.

But Kevin Friend is a ******, so we cant talk about grinding a result out.

[The Edge]

 

The problem with VAR is that now we have the facility, we want all contentious decisions reviewed regardless of where they happen, whereas IFAB want to limit it to make only decisions which could decide a game like a penalty or a red card. Clearly, in this case, you want VAR to review this period of action but it's not there for that under current regulations. Trouble is, where does a decision not become contentious? In midfield? You might get into a situation where all decisions beyond the eighteen yard line get looked at, which is ridiculous but would have sorted the one today.

But in short, VAR couldn't actually have done anything for us. What should have happened, and where we were cheated, was that Kevin Friend should have kept his whistle out of his mouth, played advantage like a proper referee and if he wasn't sure, consulted with his assistants after the goal went in. So instead of seminars on technology, maybe IFAB should be reminding referees how to use a fucking whistle.

It was either a penalty or a goal, and in the penalty area, isn't that what VAR is all about?

Spot on. Grealish was clearly fouled so it's exactly where VAR should step in. Just why they didn't is anybodys guess. You could say that they waited to see if we scored,which we did. So advantage was correctly played. Once he blew his whisle for the perceived dive they had a duty to overrule the ref and give the penalty. So the ref got it wrong. VAR tried to do the right thing but ultimitely did nothing. Both parties clearly at fault and failed to follow the new directives. Friend should be dropped from the rota as he's obviously incompetent. And whoever the faceless prat is who was the VAR official today should be given the boot from his cushy little number. But wer'e dealing with the referees closed shop mafia here so expect neither to be punished for their incompetence. Oh it's great to be back amongst the elite isn't it?

[KevinGage]

That's all well and good.

But when he dishes out four yellow cards early doors you understand players being far more cautious and playing within themselves.