OMT: Mighty Spurs vs Forest

[Mrs Vert]

The ref had a terrible game, and once again, his failure to address the game early on led to a series of awful decisions (Yeates should've been sent off by HT). But of all the awful decisions today, the failure to give a penalty when Son was wrestled to the ground was the worst. 'Mutual contact' or some such horsebrick; I have not seen a clearer wrestle all season. Michael Olliver in the VAR room failed miserably.

Oliver is not a fan and I knew he wouldn't give it. Utter foolishness. And Carragher being just as idiotic by saying he let go just in time.

And I know it's miles away. But we will get Oliver for Pool match and get nothing

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I may have missed it but cos I thought the ref was a macaron I'm guessing it was a weak yellow? And again the opposition only begins to get cards with 10min to go despite kicking us to bits. It wasn't funny at beginning of season and less funny now as we are running out of players

It was a shoulder barge but not a yellow
I think the guy was offside too
Hard to tell because they don’t put the f€$king flag up now

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Mutual holding, I think. Ridiculous decision. It was clear as day to see that Son was held back when he tried to make a run behind the defender. Son wrestled to get free, that's a huge difference.

It's the kind of situations you can forgive the ref for not spotting, but that's why you have VAR, isn't it. For a so called professional referee to review that situation and call it "mutual holding" is baffling.

I don’t agree
Refs can see that but I’ve only seen one given this season (city game)
Holding and grabbing like that is worse than a lot of tackles as you stop the player completely
Son wasn’t holding him. He was trying to get him off….

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

It was a shoulder barge but not a yellow
I think the guy was offside too
Hard to tell because they don’t put the f€$king flag up now

Yep that’s the way I saw it too. The linesman doesn’t put his flag up and we end up getting a soft yellow and lose a player again.

 

[Robbo]

I don’t agree
Refs can see that but I’ve only seen one given this season (city game)
Holding and grabbing like that is worse than a lot of tackles as you stop the player completely
Son wasn’t holding him. He was trying to get him off….

Depends on where the ref is positioned and where his focus is, though. If he has a clear view, it's spottable, but this is also a kind of dark art perfected by defenders for years, to not make it look like the clear foul it is.

It's a perfect example of situations where VAR could have an impact, if only the VAR referees grew some balls. Proper and consistent handling of these incidents would go a long way to erradicate a behaviour I'm sure most football fans are furious about from time to time.

Bortom line is this is a foul. Referees who see it, should blow the whistle. If they don't see it, VAR referees should interfere and call the foul.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Depends on where the ref is positioned and where his focus is, though. If he has a clear view, it's spottable, but this is also a kind of dark art perfected by defenders for years, to not make it look like the clear foul it is.

It's a perfect example of situations where VAR could have an impact, if only the VAR referees grew some balls. Proper and consistent handling of these incidents would go a long way to erradicate a behaviour I'm sure most football fans are furious about from time to time.

Bortom line is this is a foul. Referees who see it, should blow the whistle. If they don't see it, VAR referees should interfere and call the foul.

The refs are normally… normally staring at it
They are right in front of it and can use their other officials to help with the basics
Their sole purpose is to look for foul play in reality
They don’t though. They bottle it
And it’s not a dark art. It’s foul play and cheating

 

[braineclipse]

A case of "done, on to the next one" tonight. Solid if unremarkable performance, two or three stand out performances one of which created one and scored another. The sort of game we should win, given the gulf in quality between the teams. We were resolute and with the exception of biss kept our heads as we went toe to toe with them.

Biss needs to stop believing his own press and get back to what he was doing early doors. He was inspiring, now he's all bluster and a yard off his own pace.

General comment is that with a thin squad we need discipline, and some of the senior players are really not getting that clear. We have 14 odd players capable of playing Ange ball at the moment, we can't have three of them suspended every other week.

Agreed. Decent performance, job done. Far from our best game. No Maddison, no Lo Celso. But also they were very physical and disciplined defensively. Haven't watched them this season, but seems to me they put out a very reactive team and made it difficult for us. That will happen.

Two or three standout performances, but a lot of good to solid performances.

 

[alekaras]

It was a shoulder barge but not a yellow
I think the guy was offside too
Hard to tell because they don’t put the f€$king flag up now

I think he did pull his shirt a wee bit, but it's one the ref can decide not to book and no one would complain. Now if he had committed a few fouls leading up to this one, then yeah, a yellow would make sense. But this was his first foul and really borderline yellow.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Thought Romero was imperious in the first quarter of the game. I know Davies was widely praised and indeed he played well (apart from missing a free header to score), but Romero's svelt display went a little under the radar, which isn't a bad thing. He kept out of trouble, is so comfortable on the ball in build ups, and also snuffs out opposition attacks.

A bit like Romero for his red the other day, Bissouma got a freeze-frame red. Slow it down and watch it over and over and its a red, but there isn't much contact and in real time a yellow seems right, which is what the ref gave initially. VAR meant to correct CLEAR errors. That wasn't.

Thankfully Forest were woeful at using their many set pieces, and despite us having some relatively short defenders, we are quite good at defending set pieces. Wonder if that has something to do with Ange having played in defence himself.

Kulu a phenomenon. Son also worked hard. If there is one side of his game he could improve it is the speed of his shot. Quite often the touch before shooting lets him down.

You do get the impression that to take on the very best teams who will score from the types of openings Forest created, we need to bag 3 goals. In that sense we are not scoring enough, and arguably adding firepower could be more important than a CB. Royal, Davies and even Dier in the wings are not bad backups.

 

[Robbo]

The refs are normally… normally staring at it
They are right in front of it and can use their other officials to help with the basics
Their sole purpose is to look for foul play in reality
They don’t though. They bottle it
And it’s not a dark art. It’s foul play and cheating

Don't disagree about the point about referees. They are, or at least should be, trained to spot this, but things happen at fast pace and there's normally 3-4-5 parallell duels in the box, players running in the way, etc. It can be difficult, which is where VAR in theory should be helpful.

This is obviously foul play and cheating, but it's also dark arts for some; those defenders who have perfected a way to conceal their fouling and cheating.

 

[Daisuk]

Veliz with a great cameo

I kind of feel for him only getting a couple of minutes here and there. Scrappy game last night, we're lucky to have escaped without any serious injuries. Kulu immense as always, pure determination getting that 2-0 goal. Vic was great in goal, what a player he is. Good win in a topsy turvy game with a terrible ref.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I went to the game, journey to and from the ground was pretty straight forward. One more ground ticked off. Seen all the current PL grounds except for Bournemouth, Brentford, Saudi Sportswashing Machine and WHU. As for the game, was more of a grind than a vintage Ange performance. We’ve played much better this season. Not sure what to say about Bissouma. Excellent player but he needs to sort out his recklessness. Romero, Davies and Kulu were the standouts for me. Vicario looked solid as usual.

 

[markysimmo]

Mutual holding, I think. Ridiculous decision. It was clear as day to see that Son was held back when he tried to make a run behind the defender. Son wrestled to get free, that's a huge difference.

It's the kind of situations you can forgive the ref for not spotting, but that's why you have VAR, isn't it. For a so called professional referee to review that situation and call it "mutual holding" is baffling.

Michael Oliver, enough said