Untold Ref Review: Manchester United 2 – 1 Liverpool

Today’s referee is Phil Dowd – To shake or not to shake that was the question before, during and after the game. But let us over here move our attention to the man in the middle of it.

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Phil Dowd (2012-02-11)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
1	OTHER	Suarez	Ferdinand	NC	Push not given	1
5	OTHER	Enrique	Valencia	C	pulled the shirt	1
8	OTHER	Enrique	Rafael	NC	Push not given	1
9	OTHER	Evra	Kuyt	C	Trip	1
12	OTHER	Henderson	Valencia	C	Trip	1
13	OTHER	Evans	Suarez	C	High foot	1
13	OTHER			C	Ref has a word with Evans to calm down	2
19	OTHER	Rafael	Suarez	NC	trip not given	1
26	OTHER	Gerrard	Rafael	C	push in the face	1
28	OFFSIDE	Liverpool		C	assumed correct	1
32	OTHER	Scholes	Henderson?	NC	Dangerous play not given	1
33	OTHER	Rooney	Spearing	C	Knee in the neck	1
33	OTHER	Kuyt	Carrick	C	trip	1
39	OTHER	Agger	Rooney	C	Nothing wrong with that and the ref gives nothing	1
42	OTHER			NC	A shot deflects in corner but goal kick given for Utd	1
43	OTHER	Valencia	Spearing	C	Jumped in the man	1
44	OTHER	Downing	Rafael	C	Late tackle	1
44	YELLOW	Downing		C	Took the man out	2
45	OTHER	Ferdinand	Suarez	C	Ferdinand touched the ball away and then the foot of Suarez and the knee of Ferdinand made contact unintentional	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
47	GOAL	Utd		C	correct goal	3
49	OFFSIDE	Liverpool		C	assumed correct	1
50	GOAL	Utd		C	correct goal	3
54	OTHER	Valencia	Enrique	C	push	1
55	OTHER	Carrick	Suarez	C	Trip	1
56	OTHER	Skrtel	Rooney	C	Trip	1
58	OTHER	Evans	Spearing	C	Frontal tackle	1
58	YELLOW	Evans		NC	Should have been a yellow at least	2
67	OTHER	Gerrard	Rooney	C	Trip	1
70	OTHER	Suarez	Scholes	NC	Even Scholes looked confused when Dowd gave this free kick.	1
76	OTHER	Carroll	Rafael	C	Push? Dowd has lost his strictness about players moaning this time around	1
78	YELLOW	Adam		NC	Throwing the ball with force to a Utd player, should have been a yellow card	2
80	OTHER	Carrick	Suarez	C	tackle from behind	1
80	YELLOW	Carrick		C	correct card	2
81	GOAL	Liverpool		C	correct goal	3
85	OTHER			NC	a corner for Liverpool not given?	1
85	OTHER	Johnson	Evra	C	Pulled him a bit?	1
87	OFFSIDE	Liverpool		NC	Suarez was level, no offside	1
90	OTHER	Valencia	Enrique	C	Trip	1
91	OTHER	Welbeck	Adam	C	push	1
92	OFFSIDE	Liverpool		C	correct decision	1
93	OTHER	Skrtel	Rooney	C	held him by the arm	1

A very tensed game and in this atmosphere it is not easy to stay calm as a ref.  The ref missed a few things but over all he got most of his decisions correct.

A talking point was the last minute of the first half when Suarez went down in an incident involving Ferdinand. When looking at the replay I saw Ferdinand kicking the ball away with his right foot. Then the foot of Suarez and the left knee of Ferdinand made contact but Ferdinand did not kicked with that leg, it was his standing leg. So the contact looked unintentional to me and Dowd was correct in this decision.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Phil Dowd (2012-02-11)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	12	17	70.59
YELLOW	1	1	100.00
TOTAL	14	19	73.68
WEIGHTED	15	20	75.00
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	3	3	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	3	66.67
OTHER	11	13	84.62
YELLOW	1	3	33.33
TOTAL	17	22	77.27
WEIGHTED	24	31	77.42
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	3	3	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	3	66.67
OFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	23	30	76.67
YELLOW	2	4	50.00
TOTAL	31	41	75.61
WEIGHTED	39	51	76.47

All in all a very even scored over the two halves and so very consistent in this game. Something I like about refs. Not the best score in total but also not a complete disaster.

BIAS SUMMARY – Phil Dowd (2012-02-11)
Period 1	Manchester United	%	Liverpool	%	Total
Correct For	9	60.00	6	40.00	15
Correct For Weighted	10	62.50	6	37.50	16
Incorrect Against	2	40.00	3	60.00	5
Incorrect Against Weighted	2	40.00	3	60.00	5
Fouls Commited	7	46.67	8	53.33	15
Fouls Penalised	5	71.43	6	75.00	11
Period 2	Manchester United	%	Liverpool	%	Total
Correct For	9	52.94	8	47.06	17
Correct For Weighted	13	54.17	11	45.83	24
Incorrect Against	1	20.00	4	80.00	5
Incorrect Against Weighted	2	28.57	5	71.43	7
Fouls Commited	6	42.86	8	57.14	14
Fouls Penalised	6	100.00	7	87.50	13
Totals	Manchester United	%	Liverpool	%	Total
Correct For	18	56.25	14	43.75	32
Correct For Weighted	23	57.50	17	42.50	40
Incorrect Against	3	30.00	7	70.00	10
Incorrect Against Weighted	4	33.33	8	66.67	12
Fouls Commited	13	44.83	16	55.17	29
Fouls Penalised	11	84.62	13	81.25	24

In the wrong calls there was a clear bias in favour of United at the end of the day.  Not much on the major decisions but more on the decisions in general.

People know that I am not a big fan of the PGMOL. Or a big fan of Dowd. But when they make a good decision I will admit it and giving this game to Dowd was maybe a good decision. He was very alert to anything involving Suarez and Evra. The two “Twats” in this game.  The not handshake from Suarez was a bit of twat craftmanship and the way Evra went on after the game trying to provoke a reaction from Suarez when he went jumping up and down in front of Suarez was only evidence that he also knows how to perform some twat craftmanship.

And credit to Dowd for both at half time and at the end when seeing Evra putting up his childish act he was immediately there at the spot and between the players. So there were a few twats on the field but Dowd was not one of them. I want to give credit to Dowd for handling this situation in the way he did. He has a bit of an imposing figure and his presence brought back a bit of calmness.