Regaining Match Control

[YorkieRef]

Question: How do you regain match control when you notice it has taken a massive hit throughout the game?

I know I've certainly been in the situation before where I've felt a game is getting away from me but I've never been fully sure on how to get it back and the best way to do so. I was wondering if anyone had any tips for people when they know things are getting bad, to help them regain control of the match.

 

[markref]

The first thing is to slow the game down. Give free kicks when you may normally be tempted to play on, and don't be tempted to play advantage unless it's a really good one with the player about to roll the ball into the goal. The players need to understand you're in charge so you need to get them to work this out for yourself.

When there's a free kick don't let it be a quick one - I call players over and talk to them a lot if this is happening.

I always start the game off harder for a few minutes, giving every free kick so they get the point I'm in charge before easing off. Then if I need to raise my game again it's not a surprise. I also talk to players who moan about my giving "soft" free kicks to tell them that "when you can behave yourselves then I'll let you play!"

 

[one]

1. Dont lose control in the first place
2. Don't lose it
3. Know the tell tail signs of when have lost it
4. Recognise you have lost it as early as possible
5. Figure out the root cause ( giving too many fouls, ignoring too many fouls, inconsistent on the fouls, ignoring dissent...)
6. Mitigate the root cause. This is not easy if the ability is not there yet (eg as a new referee it takes practice to be consistent in foul recognition).
7. Whatever you do, be confidant in doing it.

 

[socal lurker]

Control is much harder to regain than it is to maintain. (hence @one's 1 and 2) It often helps to start the game and the first half with stronger control, feel the game, and release as much as the particular game can handle. It takes experience to get that feel to be able to do it well.

Often (but not always) lack of control comes from not calling the fouls that players expect. This can be particularly challenging when moving up to a higher level of play. Take cues from the players to understand what fouls they are expecting or not expecting. This isn't "letting the players call the game," but reading the game to understand the tolerance and find the right foul threshold.

And whatever the reason, I agree with @markref that it helps to take the air out of the game by slowing it down as he describes.

I'd add to the list: Smile. You may be able to defuse tension by having a friendly chat or two with the right players. Who are the leaders (may or may not be the captains--the players who seem to want to actually play the game and seem respected by their teammates). A quiet word can enlist they're help in managing their team.

 

[jofusref]

give a few more free kick hard blasts on the whistle shout more not directly at the players
and remember you have got nice coloured cards in your pocket

 

[RustyRef]

This sounds a bit critical, which isn't really the intention, but once you have lost control it is extremely difficult to get it back. You need to react as soon as you start to feel that you might not have full control, even losing just 10% of control needs immediate action.

As others have said, slow the game down, lower your tolerance for what constitutes a fair challenge, don't play any advantage unless someone is about to score, and be harsher than normal on any dissent. If that works and you feel the control remaining then you can start to gradually remove these restrictions (it almost sounds a little bit like the coronavirus infection rate and restrictions ... )

 

[lincs22]

I was always told "strangle the life out of the game". Others have said, slow the game down but I would go further.
1. Give every free kick, no advantage
2. Free kicks and thrown ins are blade of grass accurate
3. Slow all restarts down, talk with players about their offences/attitude

Players will moan you are ruining their games, but once they realise that you have got control (and therefore managing the players safety), you can start to release once you have got control.

 

[GraemeS]

To ever so slightly disagree with the previous posters, I would be wary of doing too much of the above too quickly. There will be games where some of this is required - but don't let a bad experience here or there fool you into going too hardline when you don't need to.

Some games need tight control and a strict referee. Some games will genuinely consist of two teams trying to play football. And what both teams want in those games is a referee who's happy to drift into the background, call the obvious fouls everyone expects and broadly let them get on with it. If you turn up automatically assuming that the 22 players on the pitch are your enemy, then that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy - because nothing winds up a team trying to play expansive, quick and intelligent football more than a referee that gets in the way of that by insisting on every FK is a 30 second ceremony from the exact correct blade of grass and every minor foul results in a lecture.

If you need to respond to a bit of frustration by slowing the game down and being picky then do. But that's the key word: respond. And it works both ways - if players are in a good mood and playing in a sporting manner, it's important to respond in a positive manner at the right times as well.

 

[one]

Tend to agree with @GraemeS for some cases. Slowing the game down is not the silver bullet. If early on players are getting frustrated because you keep stopping the game for small fouls, then that frustration is an early sign. The answer is not to call even more fouls. The key is to understand the issue and figure out a way to mitigate it for that game. The same solution may not work for every game. You need to use you experience to figure out what works.

For example if dissent has crept in and you suddenly realise you should have handle it much earlier but it is kind of out of control now. It's mainly from one team who is being outplayed. It may be too late but there are a number of possible ways try and regain control but which ones to use totally depends on your personality, your experience, the two specific teams and that specific game. A few ways I can think of, one or more of which you can choose for this scenario.
- slow the game down. Pros: dissent if often caused by by high adrenaline, lowering it could reduce dissent. Cons: players generally want to play. This can bring further frustration especially for the winning team who has been quiet.
- talk to senior players from the losing team. Pros: they may have a level head, take responsibility and work with the team. Cons: it can backfire the senior players put the blame on you with further dissent during the talk. Does your personally and level of experience back up effectiveness of this approach?
I'll make the rest short
- start giving cautions /bin for even small dissent
- give a few more free kicks to to losing team for the small 5-50 fouls
- speed up restarts (less chance to complain at stoppage)
- keeper a distance from hot zones or problem players
- threaten to abandon
There may be a few more but the point is, there is no easy answer.

 

[markref]

To ever so slightly disagree with the previous posters, I would be wary of doing too much of the above too quickly. There will be games where some of this is required - but don't let a bad experience here or there fool you into going too hardline when you don't need to.

Some games need tight control and a strict referee. Some games will genuinely consist of two teams trying to play football. And what both teams want in those games is a referee who's happy to drift into the background, call the obvious fouls everyone expects and broadly let them get on with it. If you turn up automatically assuming that the 22 players on the pitch are your enemy, then that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy - because nothing winds up a team trying to play expansive, quick and intelligent football more than a referee that gets in the way of that by insisting on every FK is a 30 second ceremony from the exact correct blade of grass and every minor foul results in a lecture.

If you need to respond to a bit of frustration by slowing the game down and being picky then do. But that's the key word: respond. And it works both ways - if players are in a good mood and playing in a sporting manner, it's important to respond in a positive manner at the right times as well.

My take on the OP was that he was asking what to do in exactly those games where both teams are already at it. If one team is “trying to play expansive, quick and intelligent football” then you haven’t lost control yet but you could if you don’t deal with the other team if they are misbehaving. That’s a different problem.

If one team is kicking lumps out of the other team who are trying to play football then deal with them. If you don’t you will lose control because the other team will join in.

If you’re strangling the game before it goes south then you have to wonder why, because if teams want to play football then you should let them. If this happens a lot then you need to reevaluate your game plan because you may be part of the problem.

The sure fire way to regain control in a match where you’ve lost it is not to lose it in the first place! If you have already lost it then you need to get it back quickly by showing them you’re in charge.

 

[Justylove]

When you start to lose control, it’s easy for you to withdraw into your shell a little bit, becoming more tentative in decision making and body language.

Every referee has had games where control has slipped away.

For me my coping measures are as follows:

1) put any previous decisions out of your mind, park them until post match when you can analyse them
2) take a big deep breath and stand up straight and tall, you want to be portraying yourself as being super confident, even if you feel like you are a quivering wreck inside
3) be more assertive with your talking to players and whistle tone. You want to let the players know it’s you calling the shots, not them.

Post game it’s worth analysing why you lost control. Personally I found that the number of cautions I issued for dissent dropped quite a lot once I got really self critical and realised that quite a few came from player frustration due to my foul recognition, which was driven by my movement, fitness and positioning not being quite right.

So I worked to improve my fitness and positioning, got into better and more credible positions, was therefore better equipped to recognise fouls which meant my dissent cautions dropped and my overall match control improved.

 

[GraemeS]

My take on the OP was that he was asking what to do in exactly those games where both teams are already at it. If one team is “trying to play expansive, quick and intelligent football” then you haven’t lost control yet but you could if you don’t deal with the other team if they are misbehaving. That’s a different problem.

If one team is kicking lumps out of the other team who are trying to play football then deal with them. If you don’t you will lose control because the other team will join in.

If you’re strangling the game before it goes south then you have to wonder why, because if teams want to play football then you should let them. If this happens a lot then you need to reevaluate your game plan because you may be part of the problem.

The sure fire way to regain control in a match where you’ve lost it is not to lose it in the first place! If you have already lost it then you need to get it back quickly by showing them you’re in charge.

This 3rd paragraph is the main reason I wanted to chime in with a slightly dissenting view. It's always important to treat a match on it's merits and a thread full of people saying "Strangle it!" risks then leading to the assumption that you should start with that approach - which is not where I think any ref should end up.

 

[Big Cat]

I'd really like to contribute to this thread; alas I've no experience of losing MC so I've no idea how it could be regained
So I'll rely on the theoretical :}
I'd image poor foul recognition playing a part in its loss. Rather than further compounding the problem by redefining careless/reckless/dangerous, I'd want to really focus on getting the very next decision correct. Then the next and then the next. Maintain self-belief, regain concentration, work hard to get into the right positions and shut out the noise (or sin bin it) to get back on track. Easy!

 

[RustyRef]

This 3rd paragraph is the main reason I wanted to chime in with a slightly dissenting view. It's always important to treat a match on it's merits and a thread full of people saying "Strangle it!" risks then leading to the assumption that you should start with that approach - which is not where I think any ref should end up.

I would very rarely advise referees to "strangle it" from the off, the only exception might be if there has been serious problems between the teams before. I did a contrib game that was rearranged having been abandoned previously due to a bad challenge leading to a broken leg and an all out fight, that game was absolutely strangled for the first 15 minutes until I was completely sure the players were going to behave. But this type of situation should be very rare.

Generally I would say that the players get a chance to prove they are going to behave themselves. If they behave well the reigns stay off, if they don't they get put on and only come back off once the players have started to behave again.

 

[RustyRef]

I'd really like to contribute to this thread; alas I've no experience of losing MC so I've no idea how it could be regained
So I'll rely on the theoretical :}
I'd image poor foul recognition playing a part in its loss. Rather than further compounding the problem by redefining careless/reckless/dangerous, I'd want to really focus on getting the very next decision correct. Then the next and then the next. Maintain self-belief, regain concentration, work hard to get into the right positions and shut out the noise (or sin bin it) to get back on track. Easy!

There are all kinds of things that can challenge control, certainly far more than problems with foul recognition. Comments that you can't hear, VC behind your back, behaviour in the technical areas, a bad tackle, etc, I would say all of these rank higher in the causes of lack of match control than poor foul detection.

 

[Big Cat]

There are all kinds of things that can challenge control, certainly far more than problems with foul recognition. Comments that you can't hear, VC behind your back, behaviour in the technical areas, a bad tackle, etc, I would say all of these rank higher in the causes of lack of match control than poor foul detection.

Noted.

I was commentating on the difficulty associated with recovering from self-inflicted pain. Has to be the most challenging path back to serenity

 

[one]

I'd really like to contribute to this thread; alas I've no experience of losing MC so I've no idea how it could be regained
So I'll rely on the theoretical :}
I'd image poor foul recognition playing a part in its loss. Rather than further compounding the problem by redefining careless/reckless/dangerous, I'd want to really focus on getting the very next decision correct. Then the next and then the next. Maintain self-belief, regain concentration, work hard to get into the right positions and shut out the noise (or sin bin it) to get back on track. Easy!

Port foul recognition is a lack of skill. Not something one can change because they have lost match control. And trust me, if you have been there, the chances are, your foul recognition would get worse after losing match control because of all the things that are going on in your head. If players lose faith in your foul recognition they would complains even if you get them right. NOT easy.

 

[one]

Another thing I'd like to point out is the difference between losing match control and having a tough game. I have not lost match control in quite a while but I have had many a tough games. You lose match control in games that are going well but go south because of how you manage/referee it. But some teams are just very difficult to referee and you'd have a tough time throughout the game. It's not you, it's them. Hope this makes sense.

 

[Kes]

I think the term "match control" is rather ambiguous and often used to describe a situation where the players have just decided to be a bunch of %&£!'s but want to make it somebody else's fault. The referee has no "control" over individuals whether collectively or otherwise. You're there to watch, listen and blow your whistle accordingly. Everything else is about the other 22 people out there.

 

[Big Cat]

It's difficult to know on forums when to take posts literally. But it's not at all uncommon that my contributions aren't entirely for real
Irony is never far away. Following bullish claims yesterday, I was knackered for this morning's game and put in a rubbish display by my own standards. Fatigue, poor concentration, shoddy awareness and some inevitable mistakes. We're all immersed in that situation from time to time. Honestly, it's been an infrequent thing for me, but for one reason or another, we're not always at the top of our game. The important thing, is to show strength of character, accept the situation, don't panic and focus on damage limitation to get the game done with minimal fallout