James Milner seemed to have license to kick any Palace player within kicking distance.

I'm loving the more lenient, less interventionist refereeing. If there is blame to be dished out regarding incorrect decisions, I’d allocate it in three places in order of importance:

1. The honesty of the players
2. The expectation that no errors ever be made
3. Referees to a limited extent, and VAR to a slightly larger one

Players are highly competitive animals under enormous pressure to succeed, and will seek out any advantage until the rules are implemented in a way that prevents it. In the 80s hatchet men went through the back of forwards, so the tackle from behind was banned. In the 90s tough tacklers went over the top in midfield, so excessive force was banned. In the last ten years forwards have increasingly aimed to 'win' poxy, technically correct but morally dubious free kicks, a practise made even worse by the advent of VAR, because in super slow motion every contact loses context and looks worse. Now, hopefully, these threats to the spirit of the game are being addressed, just like serious foul play was.

Take Sterlings dive in the Euros semi final. Outrageous. Our national team cheated their way past a more deserving opponent, yet his actions generated no serious condemnation from his cheerleaders at the BBC, particularly Shearer who, some ten or so years ago gave the greatest insight to the mind of a competitive player when he coined the phrase 'The forward has the right to go down in that situation'. It is hugely damaging to place winning at all costs above the credibility of the game itself. Once again, football needed saving from footballers. Or perhaps more accurately, the sport needed saving from the professional industry.

If you paid money to watch a boxing match and one of them went over when he could have stayed up, you’d call it fraud, yet we have grown to accept it in football. Arseholes like Salah, Mane, Son, Vardy, Alli and particularly Kane throw themselves on the floor with absolutely no shame whatsoever at the slightest contact in the knowledge they will at best be rewarded and at worst not punished. And yes, Zaha goes in that category too. It kills the game, and threatens the whole point of even playing it.

The solution? If in doubt, don’t give the foul. Players have proven they can’t be trusted, so don’t trust them.

It's great that referees are giving less soft free-kicks. It instantly leads to far better games, and to football having a chance to once again be a sport rather than a fraud-show. If that means the odd foul in our favour being missed, it's a price worth paying. It would have been nice to get a penalty at Anfield, but it's far better that Zaha runs at full backs with the aim of beating them rather than of going to ground as soon as he feels contact. The shift in culture is noticeable already.

Why did the ref not give the penalty at Liverpool? Because in normal time he didn’t see it clearly enough. Why did VAR not see the foul on Benteke? Christ knows. Same reason it didn’t see the very clear foul on Ronaldo at West Ham towards the end of the game. Perhaps they are so concerned with not killing the speed and emotion of the game that they are interfering less. Fine by me. I have no expectation whatsoever that every decision be correct, and the process for trying to achieve it is so awful that I’m far happier with the alternative.

As far as I'm concerned, I hope the refs will keep up the (generally) good work.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (20 Sep 2021 5.39pm)

A terrific post from you BTP. My sentiments entirely, I just don’t have the patience to type so much. But, well said.

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

Yes, but why?

Man Utd could have had several this weekend, yet got none and conceded one.

Going back a while, we had loads, and some were generous. Back in 2005 we had loads too.

All too often they find themselves in positions where they can do no right. The level of respect shown towards refs is near zero when compared to rugby for instance. I struggle to understand why anyone would even want the job.

Maybe mic the refs up so we can hear what their decisions are and why then it could stop the dissent and trying to influence the officials easily which players do and must make the refs uncertain.