If you’re still bloated, you’re not alone. Refereeing was terrible at Tottenham and while red cards and offsides grabbed the headlines, fans noticed more wrong decisions.
Darwin Nunez has already shouted that “we stand together and against everyone”, a sentiment that is easily overlooked after the events of Saturday night.
We’ve already seen the PGMOL issue a statement admitting “significant human error”, the VAR operators sacked and the head of referees Howard Webb apologize to Liverpool.
Referee Simon Hooper, sacked after Man United’s opening day farce, made one baffling decision after another – Diogo Jota’s first yellow card anyone? It was lackluster and not up to the standards of a high-profile match, but the headliners weren’t the only decisions at issue, as fans pointed out.
Where is the yellow to request a booking?
A card against another player certainly resulted in a yellow, as Liverpool saw for Alexis Mac Allister at Chelsea.
Destiny Udogie was naturally blinded. He offered a card gesture to Jota, who received a letter from the Spurs man for tripping over him. We know what happened to Liverpool’s number 20 moments later, but Udogie was already on a yellow card when he did that – shouldn’t he have been shown a second and sent off?
Obviously not for Hooper. And Richarlison received the same grace. Continuity, right?
No penalty for Gomez?
Joe Gomez bursts onto the pitch and settles down as he approaches the ball and makes contact as Micky van de Ven comes through him.
Sounds a bit similar and we don’t have to look far to Alexander Isak at Newcastle with Virgil van Dijk. It is almost a replica of what we see here.
Van Dijk was immediately red carded but it was like you here for the Reds.
You’d expect at least a VAR review, but it was decidedly optimistic from what I learned later!
How was that mistake by Mo? Â
Mohamed Salah can be dragged to the floor by his neck week after week and the official won’t chirp. However, when the opposition make a mistake and the winger rushes in, the linesman waves the flag and Hooper wins a free-kick for Tottenham.
The No.11 was free in the box and his obvious frustration at the call earned him a yellow card.
At the end of the second half, Robertson challenged Pedro Porro for the ball on the wing – the Liverpool left-back only had eyes on the ball.
His elbow was high, but there was nothing unusual about jumping. Porro used up most of it and Hooper got hook, line and sinker. Robertson was shown in yellow.
Porro, on the other hand, clearly only looked at Robertson during the challenge and showed intent to only trouble the man, not the ball.
Too hard for the referee to notice.Â
You could probably go through the match with a fine tooth comb and make more jokes, but it shows the need for reform and change – officials can’t decide matches that often.
