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By Walter Broeckx, the ref
When I heard the news that Mike Dean would be our ref I got a bad feeling. But on the other hand this was a chance for me to see how he would do when I don’t have to see the game on TV and I could be my own director and could follow him the 90 minutes whenever I wanted. And thank goodness I was there as I really have seen something special, as a ref.
As from former articles like this one, you will know I have a special bond with Mr. Bean, sorry Mr. Dean.
15 minutes played the keeper takes 30 seconds for a goal kick.
CARD: Clichy gets a booking and nothing to argue about that. 1/1
28 minutes played Newcastle take 47 seconds to take a free kick. And no there was no treatment required.
A minute later another 45 seconds is lost with a free kick.
CARD : Tiote gets a booking. It was a foul but not that he was pulling his shirt out for some meters, just a short pull and a foul, so this wasn’t a booking in my eyes. 0/1
40 minutes played the keeper takes 37 seconds for a goal kick.
OTHER: Dean is seeing a foul from an invisible Arsenal player in the 42nd minute. He makes all kind of gestures to cover up his mistake. Even the Newcastle player thinks it’s a great joke. And they are laughing aloud. If it would be with two pub teams it would be rather funny. 0/1
GOAL: Carroll scores and this wasn’t Deans foul. 1/1
Krul claims an easy cross and keeps the ball some 12 seconds in his hands.
CARD: Yellow card for Fabregas. He lost control as he had a few times and brought the Newcastle player down. You could have seen this coming. 1/1
Krul is taking all the time in the world to take goal kicks. The Arsenal players appeal to the ref to do something. The ref looks at his watch. And he does another thing which I will come back to in a moment.
CARD: A Newcastle player gets a late booking for a tackle on Cesc. The ref allowed advantage but gave him the card a bit later when he handed his last card. 1/1
CARD Red for Koscielny. He was the last man and Squillaci was not behind him when he brought the Newcastle player down. So a correct decision. 1/1
So this was his last decision of the game and I could stop it here if it wouldn’t have been that I was in the Emirates yesterday. And the score would have been:
CARDS: 5/6
PENALTY: no
GOAL: 1/1
OTHER: 0/1
Total score:6/8 (75%)
But I really cannot stop here as I have seen something that really, really made my jaw drop on to my feet.
But before I tell you what I must go back a few years and to my own career or better said the start of it. When I did my course the teachers drew our attention to how to make gestures, about our body language and so forth, and they also told us a few poses you never must do on a field as a ref. Like “the farmer on his land-pose” where a ref is standing with his both hands in his pockets. Or like the “phew I too tired to run anymore-pose” where you stand with your hands in your hips bent over like a marathon runner after a marathon.
And finally the ‘I don’t know what I can do about it-pose’ which is being done by showing the palms of your hands forward a bit to the side of your hips and being completed with a pull up from the shoulders and looking rather dumb. I think I have seen Mr. Bean, sorry once again, Mr. Dean do this on a few times. Every time Newcastle was wasting time and the Arsenal players asked Mr. Bean (oh why not) to do something about it, he replied with the I don’t know what I can do about it pose.
If you act like that on an amateur field in Belgium and you have someone who is coming to check you, you can forget about any promotion for the next months if not forever. Not only the pose in itself is so depressingly wrong but most of all: You can do something about it as a ref.
And if you are reading this Mr. Bean this is what you can do about it:
- Blow your whistle from a distance and make the gesture to get it on. You know like the policeman who is telling you on a crossroad to speed it up a bit.
- After that you tell him when you are in his neighbourhood you will book him if the keeps on doing it (at a corner or so –Arsenal had 7 corners in the first half so time enough to do it you know)
- Actually book him if he keeps doing it. (Now what do you think of that for a change)
- Actually book other players who are time wasting (maybe this is to much for you but keep trying)
- Add more than just 0 minute for time wasting (3 minutes for the changes + 1 minute for the injury of the keeper was given) and that after I have seen you looking at your watch more times than a hurried person when he is waiting for his bus. Or did you want to show off with your new watch?
This is how you suppose to act and as I have followed the course twice (when I started and when my 2 sons started their career as I thought it would be a wise thing to do the whole course again as could only learn from it) on both occasions they told me this about the poses and the way to punish time wasting.
So when I see a ref live in the EPL taking those ‘forbidden’ poses as a ref I really cannot let this go without some kind of punishment in his points. This is such a disgraceful behaving that I as a ref was so shocked about it I even told Tony about it before we said hello after the game when we met. And to think that if I been at home watching on TV I wouldn’t have noticed it at all. Because they show all kind of replays and I cannot see the ref during those replays.
So for the fact of posing his so called helplessness and for the fact that he was making everyone believe that he was taking care of the time wasting by looking at his watch but in reality just was laughing at our players I must act and give hem a 0/2 in the category others. And then we get a final result of:
CARDS: 5/6
PENALTY: no
GOAL: 1/1
OTHER: 0/3
Total score:6/10 (60%)
And this because I was in the stadium and I was watching you Mr. Bean.
And what first started as a mistyping thing where I unconscious wrote a B instead of a D when typing his name, I do start to wonder if Rowan Atkinson had someone in mind when he invented his Mr. Bean?
The Untold Index. Life. The Universe. Mr Bean
Read the book, it’s better than life.
Hi Walter
I agree with your comments except the red card – it has nothing do do with last man – the law states ‘an obvious goal scoring opportunity’ – and a player that far out, near the touchline I would not say it was.
Regards
Paul (a referee)
Indeed, a ridiculous red card. But I doubt that Arsenal will appeal – they never seem to these days. It would make sense if they are storing up favours for some time in the future but they don’t seem to get any.
And I see that nice Mr. Pulis is complaining that the refs are against his nice clean and law abiding Stoke team. What a disgrace to humanity that man is.
From Twitter: @Koscielny6 club appealed,wait tomorow for decision.
Thanks for your thoughts Walter. Arsenal have announced they’re appealing the red. I myself wasn’t sure, so I’ll be interested to see the outcome. Perhaps it was too far wide to be considered an obvious goalscoring chance?
Walter, I so wished it was Carol foul on Fabianski, and hoped you will at last comfort me … 🙂
I watched the referee closely when their ‘keeper was wasting time. At one point Fabregas was pointing at the goalie to show the obvious time wasting. Mike Dean shrugged his shoulders and gestured his arm in an “I couldn’t care less” manner.
I haven’t been this angry about a match in ages, not because of the performance, but because I think the referee ruined the game. I honestly think the goalkeeper could have been booked 20 times. This is not hyperbole. Alone, he wasted at least 15 minutes of the game – grossly unfair on those that pay/travel to watch the match.
I don’t blame Krul at all. He gradually pushed his luck and took longer and longer as the game progressed – something that could have been stopped by a stern word from Dean in the first 5 minutes.
Armin I’m sorry but Carrol just was a fraction earlier in the air before Fabianski. He had to make a small step to adjust himself and in this step he lost the battle (and yesterdays war)
Perry, yes you are right. That is why I used in my ref review the seconds and I have timed them and they did happen. And the ref just did nothing at all. I even had been thinking of timing all the wasted time but then I would have to see the whole game again and I’m not that massochist.
I really thought we would see a lot of extra time. Dean was constantly looking at his watch as if to indicate: I’m keeping an eye on it. Well he was keeping an eye on it but not on the time wasting. In the second half we had 6 substitutions and 2 injuries: Krul was 1 minute and Wilshere also took that long. I don’t ask the ref to give all the injury time at the end but he gave half the thime so in total 4 minutes and thus totaly neglecting the time wasting.
I actually didnt think the time-wasting was too bad at all from Newcastle. I have seen far, far worse. There were even a couple of times when Krul kicked the ball long before I expected him to. We’ve got to be realistic about things. Of course the opposition are not going to hurry up about things when in the lead. Why should they? And while the score is 0-0 the referee is never going to book someone for time-wasting so all this “Krul should have been booked in the first 5 minutes” stuff is ridiculous. In the 2nd half he was slow, but not ridiculously so. Not once did I think he stepped over the line.
We lost. End of story. Newcastle deserved to win.
Paul, at first I thought Squilacci was nearer and could have counted but after seeing it again on the moment the striker was brought down he looked very far of the incident. If he would have got past Koscielny it would have been a striker on his way to goal with just the keeper before him.
So how much I would like disagree with every decision from Dean I really can understand his decision this time.
People sometimes tell me that I’m to biased as an Arsenal supporter (and maybe I am) but I think if it would have happened on my field I also would have given a red card. I really try to look at it without trying to see the colours of the teams (how difficult that is in reality).
You cannot defend that performance mate. That was a joke display from a team who put on these lethargic, predictable displays half a dozen times every season since the invincible side, no guts,no pride no determination except from wilshere and song, and watching wenger and rice with the now all too familiar ‘deer in headlights’ expressions just makes your blood boil…..you know when newcastle come to ours they can only hurt you in one department so any manager worth his salt should tell the players ‘no needless concession of frees or corners’ and ‘mark their big men tightly, in their shorts if needs be for setplays’…..but no!!!!! Wenger thinks that the way we play should prevail every time and that another team shouldnt have the cheek to execute a gameplan of their own..not just that but he never changes our style to out match the opposition and our team ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH to dictate their style in every game like barcelona…….Fabianskis a clown. had he stayed on his line their was no danger, but where was the GOALSIDE ‘defender’ blocking the run or getting himself between carroll and the ball??? it was hardly a beckham whipped delivery, it was a harmless almost aimless punt into an area they KNEW arsenal are weak in…pathethic and if it wasnt too common at this stage i wouldnt be as angry but only wenger cant see it…..all these ‘lesser’ managers and players can see it but our great manager cant so what does this mean??????Look at liverpool yesterday at home after been on the floor a month ago, look how the manager got them to raise their game for chelsea and the APPLICATION of the liverpool players….hats off they got stuck in and deserved their win, the margin could have been more.Whats with this fascination with 4-5-1??????????????? half the world is doing it now and the other half are set up to counter-act it….wheres the variety, the plan b????We used to be trend setters and different from our rivals, now it seems to me we are plucking ideas from both united and chelsea in a desperate attempt to catch up whilst scrounging and skimping along the way……..summer signings of Chamakh, Koscielny and Squillachi…..are you f£$king serious dude??
Fouls committed – Arsenal 15, NU 12
Most blatant bias was giving a foul against Chamakh in the second half (53 mins) when he was likely to be in on goal. It was a ridiculous foul to give, and if that was a foul then there would be 80 every game. Dean at least is consistent. Not sure who pays him, but one must just factor in that you are likely to need to win convincingly to get over his bias.
The Swiss ref warned and booked Shakhtar last week for time wasting. EPL is becoming a joke over time-wasting and inability to deal with foul play. Thankfully foul play was not an issue yesterday and Arsenal probably would still have lost with more time played. But it rankles that the argument against technology is that it will slow down the game. When throw ins, free kicks, goals kicks take 30 sec plus consistently from early in the game it is a complete joke.
Time-wasting, ahh, is the new black… I saw the whole game with my girlfriend and she made me realize how fast it felt like the game ended… I didnt even notice it til she told me… About 15 minutes of the game was in hands of the Newcastle players during goalkick and throw-ins… What…! The media and Newcastle was damn bragging about match possession stats of 51% to 49% for Newcastle… That bloody 15 minutes was part of that 51%… Dont these people have any shame or integrity or are they trying to insult our intellegence…? The dumb thingz some people do just to overcome Arsenal… Desperados…
This is no excuse for the loss though…
Walter, I looked at the red card incident several times in super slo-mo and did not see a foul. Have you reviewed this aspect?
Cape Gooner, both players were hanging in to each other. As a defender you can eather back out and let the striker run or keep on hanging in to each other and battling the physical battle.
Koscielny had no option because if he would have backed off he would have let the striker have a free run on goal. If the striker goes down when contact is being made in a situation like that, and the striker felt the contact was enough to bring him down you cannot complain I think.
As a defender you have to make the choice, try to stopp the striker and get a possible red card or let him run and get no card but maybe a goal.
oh, you don’t know how hard it is to defend a Dean decision but in this case I can only stay in line with how I think it was and how the instructions are. Well in my country and on the Uefa/Fifa DVD that we have been seeing at the start of the season