A&H

Liverpool v Chelsea dropped ball

M

Mr Dean

RefChat Addict
Was gonna post this earlier but forgot about it because it's quite insignificant in the context of the match.

Liverpool with the ball near to the Chelsea penalty area. Liverpool player attempts a pass but the ball strikes referee Andre Marinner and Liverpool lose possession. This results in a dropped ball to Liverpool right on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area. This is a very contentious place to have a dropped ball but Marriner deals with it by instructing* Mane to play the ball backwards towards his own goal from the dropped ball.

Is the referee allowed to do this?

*Marinner clearly gestures to Mane to play the ball towards his own goal; I assume it was an instruction.
 
The Referee Store
Simple answer, no. But we don't know what else happened, it could for example be that Klopp or van Dyke had shouted that they would go backwards and Marriner just reminding Mane of that. It did look very strange though.
 
I noted this as well. Dre obviously “managed” the drop ball.

I presume that every season in pre-season, someone in the SG1 group asks the chief “is it still OK to manage drop balls” and the answer is, of course, yes. No surprises. Smart refereeing.

Now, Dre’s positioning at the time is another matter!
 
santa sangria said:
I presume that every season in pre-season, someone in the SG1 group asks the chief “is it still OK to manage drop balls” and the answer, of course, yes. This is Premier league not some lowly grassroots league. We can do whatever we like.
Click to expand...
There, I fixed it for you. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kes
If we want to be fair to Marriner, we don't know what that conversation was. It's possible that Mane asked him a question and the gesture was part of the answer. Agree however that without that context, it does look a lot like a managed drop ball.

I'm far from convinced that there was ever a good reason to ban the management of drop balls, but that's a different topic...
 
GraemeS said:
If we want to be fair to Marriner, we don't know what that conversation was. It's possible that Mane asked him a question and the gesture was part of the answer. Agree however that without that context, it does look a lot like a managed drop ball.

I'm far from convinced that there was ever a good reason to ban the management of drop balls, but that's a different topic...
Click to expand...
It was always banned wasn't it. The law Change was brought in to be in line with what pretty much everyone was doing anyway but they wanted to speed the game up, not drop the ball have it launched 70 metres down field, possibly out of play for another restart equalling more time lost.
I think the solution would be to reduce the number of restarts in this manner, for example, trainer could come and assess injury whilst the game continues.. Might perhaps reduce the number rof stoppages for players who aren't injured
 
JamesL said:
It was always banned wasn't it. The law Change was brought in to be in line with what pretty much everyone was doing anyway but they wanted to speed the game up, not drop the ball have it launched 70 metres down field, possibly out of play for another restart equalling more time lost.
I think the solution would be to reduce the number of restarts in this manner, for example, trainer could come and assess injury whilst the game continues.. Might perhaps reduce the number rof stoppages for players who aren't injured
Click to expand...
One of us (I think you, but it's early and I haven't had my coffee yet so it might be me) is getting mixed up. I think you're talking about the new drop ball law last season where I was referring to the banning of managed drop balls a few seasons earlier.

I actually think the newest change causes even more conflict with the "no managing" principal. We're actually now required to manage the drop ball quite heavily (must drop it to a specific team/player, must keep all opponents a certain distance away etc.), but we have to do so without at any point hinting to them which way they might want to play it?
 
GraemeS said:
One of us (I think you, but it's early and I haven't had my coffee yet so it might be me) is getting mixed up. I think you're talking about the new drop ball law last season where I was referring to the banning of managed drop balls a few seasons earlier.

I actually think the newest change causes even more conflict with the "no managing" principal. We're actually now required to manage the drop ball quite heavily (must drop it to a specific team/player, must keep all opponents a certain distance away etc.), but we have to do so without at any point hinting to them which way they might want to play it?
Click to expand...
No, it is me. I thought you were talking about the whole round the world changes.
The referee not manufacturing outcome of dropped ball has been around as long as I can remember.
 
I treat "managed" drop balls like I treated the captains discussing a situation last Monday where one team was short a player and asked the other team's captain and me whether the other team could play short to even the teams. My response to the captains was, "I cannot make you play even. If you agree to it, I have no problem with you both playing down. I just can't force you to do it."

Same thing with a dropped ball. If the teams want to manage it, I won't stop them. However, I won't dictate an outcome myself. In this case, Marriner might have been answering a question Mane had where Mane said something to the effect of, "Can we just kick it back to them?". In the case of a dropped ball, I'm going to make sure it's dropped to a team and that players are the required distance away. The teams can do whatever they want after that. It isn't my place to dictate anything.
 
GraemeS said:
but we have to do so without at any point hinting to them which way they might want to play it?
Click to expand...

With the new DB rule, why should we hint anything. For better or worse (I think worse, but that isn't relevant), the Law was adopted to move past the long tradition of sporting restarts. So why should we interject anything?

On old DBs, IMO the challenge was the difference between a "hint" and a "directive." As referees we never had (and don't now) any authority to direct what a team did (does) with the DB, or even enforce an agreement. But that didn't mean in doing youth games that I couldn't tell players that soccer tradition would be to play it back to the other team (amazing how effective "that's what the pros do," is to a player's decision-making). But I couldn't do anything if they chose not to--in hundreds of games, that happened exactly once with a hot-headed high school age boy.
 
Ive not seen the incident so cant comment accurately, was Mane maybe asking Marriner could he have a shot from the drop ?

A lot of players still unsure over the DB rules and regs i think.

Bit of a side issue here, if a ball is dropped say 20 yards from goal maybe similar to this and a player shoots, if a goalkeeper gets a hand to it then its a goal right ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top