Something that has always bothered me about the way matches are refereed is the way Refs seem to treat a FOUL outside the box differently to a FOUL inside the box. Just tonight I was watching Man City V Real Madrid and Sterling was clearly pushed in the back but nothing was given, even the commentators just shrugged it off and basically said it was not much of a shove and left it at that. However, IMO as sure as eggs are eggs had that same shove happened in the centre circle rather than the penalty box a free kick would have been given. It seems to me that for some reason a foul in the box apparently has to be far more serious than one committed anywhere else on the pitch for a penalty to be awarded by the referee. Whereas outside the box the refs stick a lot more strictly to the laws of the game and penalise players even if the laws are only slightly infringed. The referees must grow some balls, they should apply the laws and punish infringements inside the box in the same way they do on the rest of the pitch.
You are right the same judgement should be made in all parts of the pitch and at any time during the game. Where I may differ from your point is that less should be give outside the box as there are far to many fouls give where players throw themselves to the ground for the slightest touch, and get a free kick.
Was this when they said he tripped over his own feet or another incident ? But yes you are right - there has to be consistency.
Yup, a key thing I use when coming up with corner routines is blocking - it's technically a foul but no ref will ever give it provided you do it right (aka just grab them for a second or 2 and then let go) - VAR doesn't pick up on it either oddly. https://gfycat.com/safeofficialchafer - keep an eye on Stones (#5) and Ashley Young on the edge of the area. Young grabs Stones marker just for a second and then lets go - it's about 2 feet away from the ref and he lets it go. Mad how every team isn't doing this as you essentially get a free run to a target area.
That's exactly what I mean, because outside the box you see it given all the time, in fact players are often booked for doing it especially if a player would have been clear through had it not been done. However, as you say a similar thing is done in the box all the time, but not only do they not get booked they get away with it completely
Yeah but this isn’t a modern phenomenon is it? Not sure when it started but I’ve been going since the 90s and it’s been obvious since then.
While many more types of physical contact are considered fouls than used to be years ago, the truth is that refs don’t have the nerve to give them in the area because they think they will be criticised for giving 8 or 9 penalties in a game. The result is that something like shirt-pulling and wrestling at corners is hugely more prevalent than it used to be. The defenders usually get away with it, so the attackers have to do it too so that they’re not disadvantaged. The whole thing is now dismissed with a shrug as “six of one and half a dozen of the other”. What should happen is refs should start giving lots of penalties, managers would soon tell their defenders to stop doing it and attackers would have to as well or be penalised themselves.
I remember seeing Panama against us at the World Cup get penalised for being physical at set pieces (they were quite rough, although it's the stuff they were getting away with before), thinking that it was gonna become a more regular thing where set piece fouls would become more of a thing and teams would either win penalties from corners and free kicks, or take advantage of less physical marking and score from set piece headers, but it hasn't really happened, not noticeably anyway. Mind you, I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing, rather see teams go for goals from open play rather than cynically play for set-pieces (not that it matters **** all from a Watford perspective with our record from set pieces lol)
