The report talked of a "scare", although I am not sure what game they were watching. That was probably one of our hardest games of the season, in the sense we have had such a good week that it was always going to be difficult to get the team up for this match, especially with CL duty coming up this week.
On that basis I think we did very well and I was impressed with A.J.'s attitude when he came on and I think he is beginning to see what Mancini requires of his wide men.
I too was appalled by the ref's performance, with his very inconsistent application of the rules. How can he pull up Dzeko for simply jumping to head the ball but do nothing when Steadman basically pins Dzeko to the ground by wrapping his arms around his neck? How can he not book Henry for what was basically a rugby tackle at the end of the game?
Now we are on the subject of refs, when are we going to see the rules around penalties applied properly. Every time we have to watch them, and its pretty much worldwide, go through the nonsense of warning the players to stay out of the box yet do nothing when they all pile into the box anyway. We saw it today with Adam for Liverpool where Henderson was pretty much stood next to him when he took the kick. In the Bayern - Napoli game there were four Napoli players in the box when Bayern missed their pen and it was the same in the Shaktar game. These are supposedly the best officials in Europe yet still this simple rule cannot be applied?
A couple of years ago Mike Dean allowed virtually the whole Stoke team to run into the box when Wigan missed a pen. He got pulled in by the authorities and in his next game made Lampard take a pen three times before awarding the goal! That along with the ridiculous routine for most corners of warning people but doing nothing are points football should address.
On that basis I think we did very well and I was impressed with A.J.'s attitude when he came on and I think he is beginning to see what Mancini requires of his wide men.
I too was appalled by the ref's performance, with his very inconsistent application of the rules. How can he pull up Dzeko for simply jumping to head the ball but do nothing when Steadman basically pins Dzeko to the ground by wrapping his arms around his neck? How can he not book Henry for what was basically a rugby tackle at the end of the game?
Now we are on the subject of refs, when are we going to see the rules around penalties applied properly. Every time we have to watch them, and its pretty much worldwide, go through the nonsense of warning the players to stay out of the box yet do nothing when they all pile into the box anyway. We saw it today with Adam for Liverpool where Henderson was pretty much stood next to him when he took the kick. In the Bayern - Napoli game there were four Napoli players in the box when Bayern missed their pen and it was the same in the Shaktar game. These are supposedly the best officials in Europe yet still this simple rule cannot be applied?
A couple of years ago Mike Dean allowed virtually the whole Stoke team to run into the box when Wigan missed a pen. He got pulled in by the authorities and in his next game made Lampard take a pen three times before awarding the goal! That along with the ridiculous routine for most corners of warning people but doing nothing are points football should address.