Poor refereeing all around as Southampton, Manchester United & Liverpool hard done by in Mark Halsey’s Ref Review

In a bumper fortnight which saw several rounds of Premier League action, some big midweek games, two FA Cup semi-finals and two Champions League semi-finals, we definitely need youaretheref.com‘s Mark Halsey to talk us through the latest round of controversy…

 

Mike Dean (Southampton vs Chelsea)

It was an important part of the game and an important decision was missed. Mike was in an excellent position and hasn’t recognised the velocity of the challenge from Marcos Alonso. I was pleased to see Alonso was charged by the FA with violent conduct because we can’t allow that and it’s possibly cost Mark Hughes and Southampton what would have been a very important three points.

 

Jon Moss (Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City)

Jon’s in a great position to spot the penalty and in real time it might look inside and the assistant is just out of line which hasn’t helped. It’s a long way away for the assistant to get involved, Jon looked sluggish throughout and his performance was a bit lax.

He needed to be 5 or 10 yards further forward, but having said that it happened so quick it probably looked inside to him. He correctly cautioned Lloris for a reckless challenge but he was inconsistent throughout, he missed Trippier’s early foul.

The Ben Davies challenge was awful, his recognition was poor and the last time he refereed Man City he missed the poor challenge by Puncheon on De Bruyne. This was a definite red card but Jon chose to show a yellow – wrongly in my opinion.

 

Paul Tierney (Manchester United vs West Brom)

Without a shadow of a doubt United should have had a penalty. Paul’s another one who looked lethargic and wasn’t up to the pace of the game. His positioning for the penalty was poor, what’s he going to see out wide? He needs to be more central because it’s a clear, clear penalty and he’s missed it.

 

Michael Oliver (West Ham United vs Stoke City)

All goals were correctly disallowed and the officials have done well. Michael’s done very well given the week he had so he’d have been glad to be out there and get another game under his belt.

Michael’s been given the FA Cup final and he’s the correct appointment. It’s a massive game between two massive teams and you always want your best referee available and he’s the best available for this game. It will be a tough, tough game but the players know him and they’ll respect him. He’s not arrogant or big headed and just goes about his business and everybody likes him. He’s proven his credentials over the last few weeks and the last few seasons, he’s brave and he’s got courage

 

Stuart Attwell (West Brom vs Liverpool)

Stuart missed one on Mahrez the other week and I gave him the benefit of the doubt because it was a long ball up field but he’s right there on this one and it’s a clear penalty on Danny Ings. He’s missed that and the assistant missed it too.

I don’t understand how Stuart and Jon Moss between them haven’t seen Hegazi punching Ings. The laws of the game say an act of violent conduct, striking or attempting to strike an opponent, is a red card offence. It doesn’t say how hard it has to be, a punch is a punch. I can’t understand how the three-man panel haven’t come to a unanimous decision on that. It’s about consistency, Ashley Young served a three-match ban for a little elbow earlier in the season so let’s have some consistency.

 

Chris Kavanagh (Watford vs Crystal Palace)

Zaha has built up this reputation now of going down easy and he’s been guilty on occasion but you have to treat each incident on its merit. I thought Chris was correct in not giving the first penalty, but why do other players have to get involved? Just get on with the game.

It was a tough game for Chris because he’s new to the Premier League. He gave 8 cautions and 1 of them was wrong because Zaha didn’t deceive the referee, it’s a clear penalty. Mariappa has run the risk and fortunately for him Chris saw it as simulation. You could see by the defender’s body language he knew he’d got away with it and Chris hasn’t recognised it.

 

Anthony Taylor (Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur)

Anthony was a little bit inconsistent with his recognition of careless and reckless. I thought Valencia’s challenge was a red card, he was out of control and endangered the player’s safety with excessive force and/or brutality.

There were challenges that went unpunished, he didn’t even give a free-kick against Trippier on Alexis and that’s a clear caution. Valencia then doesn’t get a clear caution for holding back a counter attack and that’s beyond me. Anthony was inconsistent.

 

Martin Atkinson (Chelsea vs Southampton)

It’s about whether Caballero had the ball under control and in my opinion he didn’t, Charlie Austin has done nothing wrong. It’s subjective and it’s an opinion so Martin may have been refereeing safe and given the free-kick. I was amazed BT’s ex-referee pundit coming on and saying the goalkeeper is protected under the laws of the game within his six-yard box when his feet are in the air, but there’s no such law.

What it does say is once the goalkeeper has the ball under his control he can’t be challenged but he didn’t have control of that ball.

 

Champions League semi-finals

Two very consistent referees and Collina went for experience because it paid dividends in both games. They had respect from both teams in both games and both refereed the games very well, their control was never in doubt and they managed the players very, very well.

Perhaps the Roma penalty was a bit soft, it’s very subjective and it was coming at pace. I didn’t think it was a penalty and the laws of the game say it has to deliberate and only Milner will know if he has deliberately handled that ball. Handball is very subjective but the rest of the game he did very well.

 

You can follow Mark on Twitter at @RefereeHalsey