Untold Ref Review: Manchester United 4 – 4 Everton

This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches.

Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have it.    All the earlier ref reviews plus analyses of the errors made by refs, and articles relating to our campaign to have the body which organises referees activities reformed, plus an analysis of the background to this campaign, can be found on:

• Untold Ref Reviews …
• Untold Corruption …

Although this is a site built for Arsenal supporters we welcome comments from fans of other teams, although we tend not to publish comments which are simply abusive or which are completely off topic.

 

Today’s referee is Michael Jones –

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Michael Jones (2012-04-22)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
3	OFFSIDE	MU		C	assumed correct	1
12	OTHER	Welbeck	Heitinga	NC	push not given	1
13	OTHER	Rafael	Pienaar	C	pus, advantage given, ball lost, came back, excellent work	1
16	OTHER	Fellaini	Carrick	NC	Carrick went to the ground when he realised he lost the ball	1
18	OTHER	Rafael		NC	Handball given, not correct	1
25	OTHER	Rooney	Jagielka	C	assumed correct	1
29	OTHER	Fellaini	Carrick	C	Holding assistant gave it	1
29	OTHER	Fellaini	Ferdinand	C	assumed correct	1
33	GOAL	Everton		C	correct goal	3
35	OTHER	Pienaar	Rafael	C	holding	1
36	OTHER	Osman	Evans	NC	Frontal tackle not given	1
36	YELLOW	Osman		NC	Caught him on the ankle, should have been a card	2
38	OTHER	?	Rafael	NC	Hit him on the calf, not given	1
40	OTHER	Evans	Felaini	NC	Holding not given	1
41	GOAL	MU		C	correct goal	3
42	OTHER	Valencia	Fellaini	C	push	1
47	OTHER	Distin	Valencia	C	Little push	1
47	YELLOW	Distin		NC	This must have been the softest yellow card for the softest push in the PL this season	2
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
46	OTHER	Evra	Jelavic	C	Deliberate trip	1
46	YELLOW	Evra		C	no chance of playing the ball	2
53	OTHER	Jelavic		C	handball	1
53	OTHER	Rooney	Hibbert	C	push	1
54	OTHER	Scholes	Howard	C	push	1
55	OTHER	Ferdinanc	Neville	C	trip	1
57	GOAL	MU		C	correct goal	3
59	OTHER	Neville	Welbeck	C	frontal tackle	1
59	YELLOW	Neville		C	Dangerous tackle	2
61	GOAL	MU		C	correct goal	3
63	OTHER	Scholes	Pienaar	C	trip	1
64	OTHER	Pienaar	Rafael	C	clattered with the defender	1
64	OTHER	Evans	Fellaini	NC	push not given	1
64	OTHER	Pienaar	Rafael	NC	it was the other way round ref	1
65	OTHER	Heitinga	Welbeck	C	pull, advantage given the schot goes over	1
67	GOAL	Everton		C	correct goal	3
69	GOAL	MU		C	correct goal	3
73	OFFSIDE	MU		C	assumed correct	1
77	OFFSIDE	Everton		C	assumed correct	1
83	GOAL	Everton		C	correct goal	3
85	GOAL	Everton		C	correct goal	3
88	OTHER	Rafael	Pienaar	NC	Not given trip	1
89	OTHER	Fellaini	Rafael	C	push	1
92	OTHER	Pienaar	Nani	C	trip	1
95	OTHER	McFadden	Evra	C	trip	1

I think this is one of the games where United will look back afterwards and realize they lost the title this year.

Ref Jones had a rather poor first half and missed a lot of fouls. But it was equally shared for both teams.

In the second half 6 goals were scored and as we know now this is always a good thing for the final score of the ref when the goals are correctly awarded. I cannot take anything away from the goals. But also for the rest a good second half from the ref.  A few missed fouls in the middle of the park against Everton but that was it. On one occasion a good advantage for Manchester United but they missed the chance.

A nice moment was when SAF had a great laugh with the 4th ref (Probert I think?) It was in the 73th minute and United looked to have won the game. I don’t know why but I had the feeling that it looked like two friends in a pub who support the same team and who think the job is done and start laughing and joking and pushing each other a bit in that ‘we have won the game-attitude” that I think most of us know from watching a game with friends in the pub.  In short: it looked inappropriate.

Later on when the 90 minutes were up there was another manager standing next to the 4th ref. Not smiling or laughing. It was Moyes who couldn’t believe that there would be 5 minutes of extra time.  It looked a lot with only one stoppage for an injury as far as I can remember in the second half. 4 minutes extra looked the maximum for me but it is down to the ref to decide  and the 4th ref to show it to the audience.  But they talk with each other on how much extra time will be given. And then you remember the image of the joking SAF with the 4th ref…  I think if United would have scored in that last extra minute the word Fergie time would have been used.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Michael Jones (2012-04-22)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	7	13	53.85
YELLOW	0	2	0.00
TOTAL	10	18	55.56
WEIGHTED	14	24	58.33
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	6	6	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	2	100.00
OTHER	12	15	80.00
YELLOW	2	2	100.00
TOTAL	22	25	88.00
WEIGHTED	36	39	92.31
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	8	8	100.00
OFFSIDE	3	3	100.00
OTHER	19	28	67.86
YELLOW	2	4	50.00
TOTAL	32	43	74.42
WEIGHTED	50	63	79.37

Thanks to a rather good second half and because of a lot of goals the ref got a good final score from this game.

BIAS SUMMARY – Michael Jones (2012-04-22)
Period 1	Manchester United	%	Everton	%	Total
Correct For	5	50.00	5	50.00	10
Correct For Weighted	7	50.00	7	50.00	14
Incorrect Against	4	50.00	4	50.00	8
Incorrect Against Weighted	5	50.00	5	50.00	10
Fouls Commited	7	58.33	5	41.67	12
Fouls Penalised	4	57.14	3	60.00	7
Period 2	Manchester United	%	Everton	%	Total
Correct For	12	54.55	10	45.45	22
Correct For Weighted	19	52.78	17	47.22	36
Incorrect Against	0	0.00	3	100.00	3
Incorrect Against Weighted	0	0.00	3	100.00	3
Fouls Commited	9	52.94	8	47.06	17
Fouls Penalised	6	66.67	8	100.00	14
Totals	Manchester United	%	Everton	%	Total
Correct For	17	53.13	15	46.88	32
Correct For Weighted	26	52.00	24	48.00	50
Incorrect Against	4	36.36	7	63.64	11
Incorrect Against Weighted	5	38.46	8	61.54	13
Fouls Commited	16	55.17	13	44.83	29
Fouls Penalised	10	62.50	11	84.62	21

 

The bias index favoured United in this game but it isn’t miles away from what you can expect with the home/away bias. Bias that doesn’t exist according to M. Riley of course…

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