The red doesn't have to do one or the other but that was a cast iron dive and he should have gone. United should have had a couple of penalties at the other end. I can think of another club in red who got penalties on multiple occasions last week for lesser infringements

And that is the common sense approach, yes. But I think that the positioning of the linesman means he could easily have assisted the ref in making his decision

You think it was a dive, I don't, the pundits and experts also disagree. So what is wrong with the ref, if he is unsure letting play continue as he did?

He voluntarily threw himself to the ground. That's the definition of a dive. Nothing wrong with playing on but the ref and linesman should have been able to make a decision between them

I think the fans who get most upset by decisions like this are those that either mainly or totally only watch games on T.V.

If you actually attend games you will know how hard it is to clearly judge things with a single view in real time.

I've had a season ticket for a long time and I've seen some poor refs. But only once in 20 odd years have I left a game believing a ref was genuinely biased.

There was contact though, but anyway that's not my point, my point is if the officials were unsure that not punishing either team was the best decision they could take.

comment by Sane (U19841)
posted 1 minute ago
I think the fans who get most upset by decisions like this are those that either mainly or totally only watch games on T.V.

If you actually attend games you will know how hard it is to clearly judge things with a single view in real time.

I've had a season ticket for a long time and I've seen some poor refs. But only once in 20 odd years have I left a game believing a ref was genuinely biased.
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The ref isn't sat in the stands watching the game. He is 20 yards away with a clear view. It wasn't a pen and a clear red all day long

Contact is irrelevant, he needs to be impeded. He wasn't

I think he felt the contact and went down too easily.
Wasn't a penalty and was lucky not to get a second yellow for simulation. You can get booked for simulation even if you have been touched.

The Noble hack on lingard is more my gripe. The ref misses that completely when he's 5yds away then books feline for his retaliatory challenge.

If he was in a Liverpool shirt bang it's a penalty

You have a cat playing?

As I say though if you do a head count of the responses to the incident from the various pundits, but my rough count about 60% believe it was a penalty.

comment by Sane (U19841)
posted 5 seconds ago
You have a cat playing?
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I was going to auto correct but thought id leave it at that. He is one really with that mane

Those 60% don't know the rules. He wasn't impeded in any way, shape or form

Genuinely didn't see the Noble challenge, I was having to look after my 2 year old while watching and missed the first 20mins entirely. I'll watch the whole thing back later and give an opinion then.

I will say though that Noble did learn a few tricks from Kevin Nolan over the last few years, so it's possible he has learnt how to foul and get away with it.

The Noble one was laughable. Clear foul and yellow card yet nothing given then he books fellaini seconds later.
I actually though Reid should have been given a yellow also when he took out Martial.

Thought the ref was shocking if i am honest

Noble and Payet should have been sent off for play acting and diving

How grown men behave like this is embarrassing


Who do they think they are? Liverpool?

Sane
You're a wum.
Payet was on the way to ground before he was touched by the wind.
It was as embarassing as Ashley youngs dives for us.
Then to top it off 2 mins later he dived for a free kick and scored
Ok there was more contact but he still dived

comment by Manc Python (U17527)
posted 18 seconds ago
The Noble one was laughable. Clear foul and yellow card yet nothing given then he books fellaini seconds later.
I actually though Reid should have been given a yellow also when he took out Martial.

Thought the ref was shocking if i am honest
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He probably let him off as it was so early in the match but that was a reckless tackle nonetheless

comment by Greg- (U1192)
posted 3 seconds ago
Sane
You're a wum.
Payet was on the way to ground before he was touched by the wind.
It was as embarassing as Ashley youngs dives for us.
Then to top it off 2 mins later he dived for a free kick and scored
Ok there was more contact but he still dived
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Though he did go down easily, i thought he played it brilliantly because that's his shooting zone from free kicks. We should be aware that he will look for something in that area of the pitch. Blind gave the ref a reason to give the freekick.

Think the ref got it right. If he is reffing in the Prem next week so do the assessors.

Greg

Not wumming, my point in the original article was that the penalty incident is one of those that is sometimes given and sometimes not, with even the experts having rewatched many times split. So I have no problem with the ref deciding to take no action either way.

Genuinely baffling that people think it was a pen, he was halfway down before Rojo even got near him.

Surely the ref didn't give the penalty as he thought payet dived though?
So he tried to cheat to gain a penalty, that is a yellow card no?
Who cares what the pundits say, the referee makes the decisions.

You can pretty much guarantee when atkinson refs our vames he will make some huge decisions and get them wrong.
Our goal for example should have been a FK for you lot.
Then again in my opinión you should have ended the game with 9 men after that guy and his two footed lunge..
Oh well, it's done now.

The problem with Atkinson is his lack of consistency, what he considers a booking changes moment by moment.

In his defence however he is an equal opportunity incompetent, if he does end up favouring one team I don't think it's ever deliberately.