On Wednesday night, an in-form Aston Villa side travelled to Stamford Bridge to take on title favourites, Chelsea. Villa gave Jose Mourinho’s men a run for their money, but conceded a late Branislav Ivanovic header, which turned out to be the winner. Earlier on in that game, Villa felt Ivanovic should have been dismissed by referee Kevin Friend for an elbow in the face of Christian Benteke, but only a yellow card was issued. Villa also felt aggrieved about a late John Terry handball in the penalty area which wasn’t awarded as a penalty.
Villa boss Paul Lambert made his feelings about the decisions quite clear by engaging in angry touchline exchanges with Jose Mourinho at every available opportunity. An irate Lambert confronted referee Kevin Friend at the final whistle, then again in the officials dressing room, before berating him in a post match interview. He also later made an official complaint about Friend to head of referees Mike Riley. Unsurprisingly, his opposite number Mourinho didn’t think Ivanovic should’ve been dismissed and also thought his team should’ve been awarded a free kick just before Terry handled.
Kevin Friend chose not to dismiss Branislav Ivanovic. The reason Ivanovic scored was because Villa failed to deal with his presence in the air, that isn’t the referee’s fault. As for the handball, it was similar to that of Pablo Zabaleta in Man City’s pre season friendly against Bayern Munich. That one was given, but opinion was divided with some pundits labeling it ‘harsh’. Like fans and pundits, all referees are different and interpret incidents differently. Managers need to accept the decision and move on, regardless of how ‘wrong’ they deem it to be.
It was a similar story on Saturday, with several managers seemingly unhappy with the refereeing of their game. Norwich boss Chris Hughton was one of them and was quick to criticize the penalty awarded against his team during his post match interview. He had a lot to say about that, but very little about the dismal display of his team and their failure to find the back of the net against ten man newly promoted opposition.
Managers regularly divert the attention off their teams poor performance and onto the officials and their decisions. The referee isn’t going to go back and change his decision because of an unhappy manager. They need to accept the decisions and move on, regardless of how aggrieved they may feel. If managers showed officials more respect instead of heaping enormous amounts of pressure on them, we might see more consistent (and more accurate) decisions. But it isn’t going to happen as the man in the middle is an easy target.
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