Villas-Boas submits ref complaint

[PloKoon13]

http://news.bbc.co.u...ll/14992738.stm

Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has complained to referees chief Mike Riley about the performance of the officials during his side's 3-1 loss at Manchester United on Sunday.

Replays showed United's first two goals were both scored by players who had been in offside positions.

Villas-Boas said: "I'm very unhappy with a poor display from the referees that had a decisive role in the result.

"I don't take it very lightly. You expect the linesman to do his job."

The former Porto manager, 33, added: "I already went further ahead with the situation by speaking to the correct people.

"We all feel very, very down when the referee [Phil Dowd] had such an impact on the result.""

This is justified in that there is an argument to be made that we might not have lost had the referee or linesman made the correct call 100% of the time. However ultimately I doubt there has ever been a match where the referee has been correct in 100% of his calls, and this won't change anything so I'm not sure what the utility of this is, unless AVB is looking to take some of the responsibility for the defeat off the shoulders of the players.

What do you all think?

 

[dkw]

Not overly happy about this, I dont like it when our manager comes out and has a go at a ref.

 

[PloKoon13]

I guess he might also be trying to shift some of the media attention away from the Ashley Cole tackle and the Torres miss?

 

[Tallchris]

Not overly happy about this, I dont like it when our manager comes out and has a go at a ref.

True but he's not done it in a Fergie/Wenger manner, he has just said he was unhappy and has submitted a complain.

 

[The Moos]

I don't like it. I would expect it from Ferguson and Wenger, but usually Chelsea managers don't do this. Make him seem a bit whiney.

I could have accepted it if there was huge mistakes in the game, like in that infamous game against Barcelona, but even though I didn't think the ref was great, the two offside goals was very difficult to spot. We're talking about inches during game play. It's not fun when we get goals like that against us, but the refs are only human and to get those decisions spot on every time is damn near impossible.

Then it was perhaps a bigger mistake not to send Cole off or atleast give a penalty to ManU.

No, let Ferguson scream until his face turns red (more than usual) and let's not sink to that level. Accept that the refs can't be perfect and that we lost because we didn't score enough goals and let in some weak ones.

 

[loz]

In my opinion it is a ridiculous complaint. yes both decisions were wrong but there were both very tight calls rather than 'yards offside'. Concentrate on your priorities and don't get involved in this sort of nonsense. If he is playing the mind games malarky then he is out of his league just now when it comes to taking on Fergie and shouldn't be wasting his time on it.

 

[TheWestwayWonder]

I dont disagree with him doing it, but I think its premature despite what happened on sunday. After a year or two in charge, then I would expect him to do stuff like this.

But if its his strategy to take the pressure off the players, then by all means.

 

[bluedeano]

Oh dear, not a good move. Why not just move on and concentrate on the things his team did wrong, not the officials.

Thought the man had bit more class, he'd better get used to those sort of decisions, especially in BIG games, just wait till the latter stages of the Champs League !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Backbiter]

Just to let you all know that the guy to whom we have complained - well-known Manure fan and now refs supremo Mike Riley - was at the game on Sunday. Sitting in the Old Trafford Directors box.

 

[evissy]

I don't think this is a knee-jerk response from AVB. Him and Roberto obviously watched the game afterwards from video and decided that if they are ever going talk to chief of referees you need to start it from the first time you feel decisions went wrong. From now on you need to talk about them even after games you win not to look like a fool.

I didn't feel decisions went wrong watching the game. I wasn't unhappy about the ref as much as our defending.

I just feel whatever AVB does he has an idea behind it. Could be wrong though.

 

[Lane]

I think it is the right thing to do. There were some obvious, game changing slip ups from the refs and that cant be denied. So it is a good way to put pressure on the refs in the future chelsea matches.

Theres a good chance the refs will be overly cautious not to make future bad calls against chelsea.

 

[Tim]

Don't really have a problem with this. He's simply stating a fact, and doing so in a measured way. If he was ranting and raving about it, it would be a bit OTT, but both decisions, and the penalty, were wrong, and did have a huge impact on the result, so he and we have every right to make that point.

 

[Scooby Blue]

I can't say I am that pleased that he has bothered to make a complaint, but he is well within his rights to do so and if it takes the pressure off our lads a little bit and winds up a few people in the way that fungus does then so be it.

I picked up the Mail's story before reading this. Some of the comments made me chuckle.

the failure to mark Smalling,

To be fair we should have picked him up and there wouldn't have been an issue, but he was errr, offside.

So I guess he did not mind the challenge by Ashley Cole not getting a penalty or a red card. The ref made mistakes both ways. The better team still won.

Dermot Gallagher and Jeff Winter have both confirmed that Dowd made the right decision in not giving a penalty because the ball was out of play. A fact I made whilst unfortunately watching the game surrounded by people grunting in red shirts

http://www.sportingp...2/11120704.php?

Smalling was offside for the first goal, Nani for the second but Fergie did not mention those incidents. Phil Dowd has matured into one of our strongest and best officials and between himself and his assistant, was spot on in cautioning Ashley Cole but not awarding a penalty. As my former colleague Dermott Gallagher explained on SSN, if the ball is not in play it is not a penna.

 

[Backbiter]

Dowd really does seem to have it in for us. He was the one who gave that non-pen at Spuds the other day when the ball hit JT on the torso. The position he was standing in made it impossible to have seen any contact with the arm even if there had been any. He later sent JT off. The previous season he sent JT off up at Everton - his only ever straight red, I think (apart from the one from Halsey at City which was later rescinded).

 

[bluedeano]

what good can come from making the complaint ?

I really cant think of anything positive for our club, it will just be seen as whinging, why cant we leave that to our rivals.

One good thing about Ancellotti was his reluctance to blame the officials, i much prefer this stance.

 

[icecoolguy22]

It's not going to do us anything, but AVB has every rights to do it. Carlo was a real gentlement, but I don't expect every manager to behave like that. After all, when was the last time Fergi didn't complain when things went against them?

 

[Barn]

I think he's done it to highlight the fact that despite what red nose constantly says manu do get favourable decisions, especially at home. Maybe one step towards levelling the playing field?

 

[Zola's Love Child]

I'm fine with it. He didn't go shouting after the game - he went through the proper measures, and lodged the complaint.

I'm sure nothing will come of it - but I respect him for doing it in the right way, rather than going on a 'silence strike' against the Beeb or moaning continually during the post-match interview.

 

[ozboy]

Just to make the obvious point that its not the ref that makes the offside calls. Soccer is a big money professional game where a lot hangs on the decisions of officials who clearly will make mistakes fairly often and some of those mistakes will be expensive. You just hope that over time the mistakes average out and that there is no bias involved.

For all of us who watch professional Rugby or Gridiron or Cricket or Tennis its very clear that soccer should make more use of the review technology. Managers could be given 2 challenges per half decided by video evidence for offside and hand ball decisions.

AVB is being professional.