Except as fans we also will worry about how the premier league is refereed. We worry about it as referees when aspects of the laws are blatantly ignored, and we worry about it as fans when decisions seem more random than fair.
And of course what happens at that level affects everybody else. Players mob the referee every decision without repercussion, so they'll do the same thing on a Sunday arvo. Players encroach several yards at a penalty without problem, then what the hell are you doing when you order a retake?
And of course the frustration also lies in the fact that if presenting the game is more important than refereeing it, then it implies that everything we're actually taught is incorrect if you have any ambition.
He didn't try to play the ball. He watched it, turned as it connected with Benteke's and it hit the back of the net.
I think Andy Gray would call it a beauty.
Well, at least one person finally answered. The way I see it, he started to approach it then realised that if he challenged the ball he was going to lose teeth. I still feel like anywhere else on the field, that would have been a foul.
Good discussion btw, but I would say you ARE saying an attacker can't play high ball in the area, because a defender would always want to challenge an attacker in the pen area.
Same applies to a GK - when they come flying out to claim a high ball, it could nearly always be construed as literally playing in a a dangerous manner but GK is hardly ever penalised for this offence - hence my "it doesn't feel right" comment.
That's not saying he can't play the high ball - it's just saying that if he's in heavy traffic, that's going to limit his options. And that's no different to any other area with high traffic. But plenty of high kicks can occur in the PA because the attacker has found space and nobody is challenging him - but he shouldn't be allowed to play in a manner that's so dangerous that nobody wants to challenge him lest they wind up seriously injured, penalty area or not. The fact that the penalty area is more likely to be crowded doesn't negate the player's responsibility to play in a safe manner.
It's a bit like when players complain about being penalised when they go for a lunging dangerous slide tackle, they sometimes respond saying that they're allowed to play the ball and they had no other way of reaching him. But under the laws, if you can't challenge safely then you don't challenge. You don't suddenly have the right to challenge unsafely because there's no safe way to do it. You just have to find another way of doing it. And if that means you lose an opportunity, then so be it. There's no exemption in the laws for that.
Don't really agree with the GK point, but I feel that there are so many ways they come out that it's more likely to cloud the issue than find common ground
