Standard of Refereeing

[Baldy]

A few of the obvious pushes on our players (and a couple of others not given) have had commentators state "VAR have upheld the decision that there wasn't enough contact to cause the player to fall like that".

Not sure what that means exactly but it seems to be the go to statement.

You could have 100 referees sitting in the same room watching a replay of the 'Buendia incident' and then making a decision. It could easily be 50/50, 60/40, 70/30.

Because referees are human beings and no human beings are perfect. 

[Brazilian Villain]

Because referees are human beings and no human beings are perfect. 

Speak for yourself, mate.

[garyellis]

There is no conspiracy against us, it’s just rank incompetence. The laws of the game interpreted seemingly differently week in week out, VAR causing uncertainty for on field officials and as Paul says above PGMOL being reactive rather than proactive in explaining decisions made by their officials. If they were a government department they’d be in special measures. I’ve been watching football since the early 90s and we’ve never had a group of officials (apart from that fat twat Phil Dowd) as incompetent as they are currently. What I would say in their defence is how FIFA are currently tinkering with the rulebook from season to season is not helping consistency and they need much better protocols about the use of and clarity of communication for VAR.

Other than that it’s all going swimmingly.

That is an excellent summary, absolutely spot on.

[Baldy]

Because referees are human beings and no human beings are perfect. 

Speak for yourself, mate.

Sorry, I forgot about you.

[Brend'Watkins]

A few of the obvious pushes on our players (and a couple of others not given) have had commentators state "VAR have upheld the decision that there wasn't enough contact to cause the player to fall like that".

Not sure what that means exactly but it seems to be the go to statement.

You could have 100 referees sitting in the same room watching a replay of the 'Buendia incident' and then making a decision. It could easily be 50/50, 60/40, 70/30.

Because referees are human beings and no human beings are perfect. 

Yes, referees are only human and make mistakes it’s just that they make most of them that go against us. It’s pretty obvious that the ref who didn’t penalise Garner for the non push had his knuckles rapped as that same ref gave a penalty yesterday for virtually the same incident for Chelsea.
As for VAR upholding a decision on a push. Do these VAR people have a secret power that allows them to determine or even see velocity?

[LeonW]

A few of the obvious pushes on our players (and a couple of others not given) have had commentators state "VAR have upheld the decision that there wasn't enough contact to cause the player to fall like that".

Not sure what that means exactly but it seems to be the go to statement.

You could have 100 referees sitting in the same room watching a replay of the 'Buendia incident' and then making a decision. It could easily be 50/50, 60/40, 70/30.

Because referees are human beings and no human beings are perfect.

Great. But within 5 minutes the same incident is officiated differently and then in another game on the same match day, almost identical incident and it’s a penalty.

[Hillbilly]

I think it's simply unconscious bias by referees. The Sky 6 teams are for better or worse the best supported teams. I think refs have internalised that if they give a decision against a Sky 6 team it will bring down a storm of shit on their heads, from the heavily invested media and the hoards of online dickhead 'supporters'. Not such a worry with little ol' Villa.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

Still doesn't explain all the shit decisions in all the games not involving the 'sky 6'.

[Hillbilly]

Two things can be true at the same time.

[Baldy]

At the end of the day most Heroes and Villains wear 'claret and blue' tinted glasses. Just like our adversaries down the road wear 'blue and white' tinted glasses and our adversaries from Liverpool wear 'red' tinted glasses and so on.

It is also easier for us to forget the decisions that go in our favour.

Referees are 'f*cked' no matter what decision they make.

 

[LeeB]

I'm not saying refs re out to get us or that there's some big conspiracy against us but we've now had 5 of the last 7 domestic games be influenced by poor officials.

Arsenal - not sending Merino off for a blatant 2nd yellow.
Spurs - no bookings for Tel and Palhinha because it was 'too early' in the game to uphold the laws.
Everton - no free kick and 2nd yellow for Garner, they scored almost immediately after.
Brentford - dodgy disallowed goal.
Bournemouth - denied a blatant penalty for a barge in the back.

Obviously spurs was in the cup and we were already 2 behind at Arsenal but for the other 3 the decisions clearly had an impact on the result and we could very easily have taken 9 points from those games if the refs had got those pivotal decisions correct. The club have to make some noise about it now because when combined with the utter fucking bullshit at Old Trafford this is really hurting us right now and it isn't evening out, when was the last time we got away with a major one or had some dodgy VAR call in our favour? There's a reason internet twats still go on about Sheffield United and it's because that's the last one anyone can think of.

You missed the Forest game when their lad strolls over and pushes Rogers to the ground with two hands when he's on the ball and in the box.

[LeeB]

I think it's simply unconscious bias by referees. The Sky 6 teams are for better or worse the best supported teams. I think refs have internalised that if they give a decision against a Sky 6 team it will bring down a storm of shit on their heads, from the heavily invested media and the hoards of online dickhead 'supporters'. Not such a worry with little ol' Villa.

I think this is a lot of it, and also it's a bit in how we play, we're not a bunch of cloggers so gain no advantage from relaxing the contact rules and we have players that try to beat their opponent which encourages the grappling.

[Mister E]

You missed the Forest game when their lad strolls over and pushes Rogers to the ground with two hands when he's on the ball and in the box.

Twice.

[paul_e]

I'm not saying refs re out to get us or that there's some big conspiracy against us but we've now had 5 of the last 7 domestic games be influenced by poor officials.

Arsenal - not sending Merino off for a blatant 2nd yellow.
Spurs - no bookings for Tel and Palhinha because it was 'too early' in the game to uphold the laws.
Everton - no free kick and 2nd yellow for Garner, they scored almost immediately after.
Brentford - dodgy disallowed goal.
Bournemouth - denied a blatant penalty for a barge in the back.

Obviously spurs was in the cup and we were already 2 behind at Arsenal but for the other 3 the decisions clearly had an impact on the result and we could very easily have taken 9 points from those games if the refs had got those pivotal decisions correct. The club have to make some noise about it now because when combined with the utter fucking bullshit at Old Trafford this is really hurting us right now and it isn't evening out, when was the last time we got away with a major one or had some dodgy VAR call in our favour? There's a reason internet twats still go on about Sheffield United and it's because that's the last one anyone can think of.

You missed the Forest game when their lad strolls over and pushes Rogers to the ground with two hands when he's on the ball and in the box.

I did, but mostly because it didn't impact the result or lead to any of our players being injured (this is what I meant by the games were influenced by the officials) but yes, there's been plenty of other poor decisions over the season as well.

I just wish it'd start evening out because that's how this is supposed to be ok but I honestly can't remember anything where we 'got away with one' or the officials did something dumb that we benefitted from this season. There's been a few little things where the ball hits an arm and you get some "I've seen those given" comments or there's a foul that gets missed in a safe place in midfield but actually being given a free kick/penalty for nothing or not having a clear one given against us? I don't recall any and I certainly can't think of any case where our players have been shown surprising leniency by refs.

In fact we're 15th for fouls committed and top for fouls against, which makes it pretty clear that teams are considerably more physical against us than we are back.

[Dante Lavelli]

The BBC have live updates in the non-goal yesterday.  Our non-goal barely registered as a news story.

If it shines more light on VAR then its hopefully a good thing.  VAR is not making the game better.