OT - Chelsea v Man U

As you can probably remeber, I have verbally hammered most refs we have had this season, I was amazed at the one in last night's big FA Cup tie. To make matters worse, he even had the assistance of VAR but continued to make a series of crucial errors. I will name just 3 that spring to mind.



1. At a dead ball situation, Luiz spins right to run behind the "wall". Smalling grabs his shirt and puts a 90 degree tear in it that must have been a foot long either side of the right angle. That is a penalty. It wasn't given



2. From open play a Chelsea player, can't remember which one, was on the edge of the 6 yard box, back to goal. Smalling, who was behind him, had both arms wrapped aroung the Chelsea player. The attacker was going nowhere. Couldn't. He then backed into Smalling and was pulled down. 3 offences there in total. None were penalised. The first one should have been, Smalling's holding should have been a penalty.



3. Matic. Yellow carded, quite correctly, for a foul, then proceeded to commit more fouls. Three or four of which were nailed on yellow cards. The ref chose not to give Matic a second card and, thus, his marching orders.



Don't get me wrong, Chelsea were not in the game, United played very well and deserve to be through but, would they have gone through if the ref (and VAR) had done their jobs properly?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MadAmster

As you can probably remeber, I have verbally hammered most refs we have had this season, I was amazed at the one in last night's big FA Cup tie. To make matters worse, he even had the assistance of VAR but continued to make a series of crucial errors. I will name just 3 that spring to mind.



1. At a dead ball situation, Luiz spins right to run behind the "wall". Smalling grabs his shirt and puts a 90 degree tear in it that must have been a foot long either side of the right angle. That is a penalty. It wasn't given



2. From open play a Chelsea player, can't remember which one, was on the edge of the 6 yard box, back to goal. Smalling, who was behind him, had both arms wrapped aroung the Chelsea player. The attacker was going nowhere. Couldn't. He then backed into Smalling and was pulled down. 3 offences there in total. None were penalised. The first one should have been, Smalling's holding should have been a penalty.



3. Matic. Yellow carded, quite correctly, for a foul, then proceeded to commit more fouls. Three or four of which were nailed on yellow cards. The ref chose not to give Matic a second card and, thus, his marching orders.



Don't get me wrong, Chelsea were not in the game, United played very well and deserve to be through but, would they have gone through if the ref (and VAR) had done their jobs properly?

---

MA agree with all that The ref has a very poor game He seemed determined not to dismiss Matic for his numerous fouls But Man U were really impressive Talk about player power though they never put that much effort in for Mariniho

I watched the game and I hope our midfield did too. As soon as defence got the ball, a midfielder came to collect, and immediately turned, or played the ball and moved into a position to receive it back. All the while, other midfielders made themselves available for the 2nd / 3rd ball. The defenders simply had to; defend.

It was almost like watching a different sport.

It's simple football the way it was always meant to be played. I was taught as a kid...... when not in possession, get in position.

Basically, when your team has the ball, move into space so that you are in a position to receive a pass. When the opposition has the ball, get back behind the ball and mark "your man" or in modern football speak, mark a zone.