Standard of Refereeing

[LeeS]

For me the biggest issue is that the 'what if I'm wrong?' question that comes up on big/important decisions.

If you make a bad call against Arsenal it's going to be huge story in the press for ages, you'll probably get taken off games, etc.
If you make the same call against Bournemouth it's a footnote to the story and nothing much happens.

That means the threshold to give a red card for a clear 2nd booking is higher for some than it is for others and that's the inconsistency that we all hate.

On top of that you then also have the club/player reputation. Newcastle right now have a reputation for being aggressive which means refs go into their games knowing there's going to be challenges that the opposition will be upset about and that fore-knowledge sits there and has the ref thinking that if he's too card happy he'll lose control so he lets a few go and it means they keep kicking people until he eventually reaches for a card. This is exactly why Hughes got away with his clear yellow on McGinn the other night.

Forest and Wolves seem to have decided that they were going to try to 'solve' this by whining and, given it has worked to a degreee I can see us starting to follow their lead a little. We've definitely been a little more willing to call things out since Man U one.

The squeaky wheel always gets the grease

[Legion]

The opening of our game today. Shocking.

[hipkiss92]

We have the best competition in the world, no other leagues come close.
It’s time to ensure the officials are of the necessary standard.
The current PGMOL set up is certainly nowhere near.

We could start by using top officials from across Europe. Moneys no object so they could be flown in on match days. At least that would cut out the notion of bias in favour of the top English clubs.

Other than the officials we've come up against in our three seasons in europe have been worse

[London Villan]

I hope we make a point about the two unpunished challenges.

[Steve67]

The referee pulled play back when he didn't need to.  He was often too quick to give a free kick instead of taking a note of the player doing the foul. and going back to him afterwards  At one point, I think it was Buendia, was fouled and we played a lovely ball through and the referee pulled us back, therefore, punishing us twice.  I thought he was poor and failed to control some of Spurs thuggery.

[Nunkin1965]

Spurs clearly took advantage of the fact that there was no VAR.
Letting the game breathe early on by not issuing yellow cards for bad tackles is total bollocks btw.

[London Villan]

As has just been proved in the charlton match. Booking after 5 mins.

[Legion]

Spurs clearly took advantage of the fact that there was no VAR.
Letting the game breathe early on by not issuing yellow cards for bad tackles is total bollocks btw.

It's the Vidic factor.