Liverpool’s Salah lucky, Manchester City’s Sterling unlucky in Mark Halsey’s Ref Review

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey returns this week to browse another eventful weekend of officiating. It started off with a manager sent off for celebrating his team winning, before diving and simulation once again became the main talking point…

 

Chris Kavanagh (Wolves vs Leicester City)

There’s nothing wrong with the winning goal for Wolves. It’s judged as the second phase of play and the officials are absolutely spot on to award the goal.

What we could argue is the law is difficult at the moment and it needs simplifying out there. But, on this occasion the officials were correct.

With Nuno sent to the stands, I think sometimes we have to show a little bit of empathy. It wasn’t like Jurgen Klopp who ran straight into the middle of the pitch. Nuno has run down the touchline, celebrated with his players and come back off.

Chris Kavanagh was also the referee with Klopp in the Merseyside derby and didn’t do anything. Just issue Nuno with a warning and be done with it, it starts to look like referees are favouring the bigger teams. If we’re going to send off Nuno we have to send off others too.

It was a fantastic match, end to end and then a last-minute winner. We’re in the entertainment business, I think we need to show a bit of empathy.

 

Jon Moss (Liverpool vs Crystal Palace)

Why didn’t Jon caution Mo Salah? I speak every week about this and we’ve got to do something about it. The law has got to change, it has to be an automatic red card because it’s a disease in the game and we need to sort this out.

Jon’s got the Milner red card spot on and another referee might have even sent him off for the first challenge. What was the difference between that and Boly’s red card last week? But there can be no complaints about the red card overall and Jon’s got that right.

 

Paul Tierney (Manchester United vs Brighton & Hove Albion)

I thought it was a clumsy challenge on Pogba and Brighton can have no complaints about that penalty. Paul was right on the spot, in a good position and judged it correctly, unlike a few weeks ago at Southampton.

 

Michael Oliver (Watford vs Burnley)

You can’t blame Michael Olivier for the offside goal, you have to look at the experienced assistant, Simon Bennett. He’s an international assistant referee, one of the best we’ve got but Chris Wood was never, ever offside.

Why has the flag gone up? It wasn’t a difficult decision and Sean Dyche must be ruing some of the officials this season.

 

Anthony Taylor (Arsenal vs Chelsea)

You have to manage these games and the players, he let a few cautions go and a few challenges go but in a game like this nobody is talking about Anthony Taylor and after a big game that’s exactly what you want as an official.

 

Andre Marriner (Huddersfield Town vs Manchester City)

Andre is one of our most experienced referees but his movement and positioning is not what it should be for a referee of his calibre.

Whether he’s carrying an injury, I don’t know, but he was too central and it’s a clear penalty on Sterling. The ball doesn’t move, the defender didn’t get the ball. The assistant doesn’t come in because Andre cuts him out by signalling not a penalty immediately. No assistant in the land is going to come in when a referee does that and only Andre can tell us why he’s not seen that as a penalty.

 

Craig Pawson (Fulham vs Tottenham Hotspur)

There wasn’t enough in the Fulham penalty appeal for me. Both players were at it inside the box and you’re not going to give a penalty for that.

The disallowed goal was absolutely correct and a brilliant decision by the assistant but Craig Pawson was once again cut off from play in certain situations.

If you look at the caution he gave to Danny Rose in the second half, it’s a clear foul. Llorente then goes down like a sack of spuds and he does nothing. The assistant has done well but Craig has to do better in getting closer to play and dealing with certain situations.

 

Jarred Gillett refereeing in England next season

From what I can gather some officials aren’t happy. He’s coming into the Championship and they’ll use him for the VAR. I feel a bit for the referees from League One and Two because what chance do they have if they’re bringing referees in from abroad?

The Australian FA will have been in touch with our FA and Mike Riley but it’s a big step for him. The Championship is a tough league and I haven’t seen enough Australian football to make a judgement on the difference but the standard of officials and refereeing now is considerably lower than usual so let’s hope he does well.

 

You can follow Mark on Twitter at @RefereeHalsey