Can’t believe I’m defending Martin fecking Atkinson but wasn’t there some guidance that they only stop play for a head injury?
1
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Clean sheets
- 10
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 0
- Status
Can’t believe I’m defending Martin fecking Atkinson but wasn’t there some guidance that they only stop play for a head injury?
Agreed. Sometimes he's been fouled from corners but goals have been allowed to stand, so I think his lesson was to milk the contact instead of quietly stumbling. Unfortunately, the contact came from Fred...
Also don't think the referee had an option there. Unless he blew early, but then Fred and the others should have been screaming about it.
For the saves, other than the obvious Aubameyang one, there was another about 10 minutes earlier, low shot which he saved, quite routine, but I love how he hangs on to the ball. No rebound to the poacher who came running in (and same with the Auba one)
Why didn’t he just hold his fecking head 
Fred was screaming at the ref in fairness. He was trying to get his attention. It seemed like Fred was the only person that knew De Gea had gone down. None of our other players reacted.
Generally goalkeepers get treated differently.
Imagine the the goal hadn't been scored straight away but instead had been passed around by Arsenal for a few minutes. The ref isn't going to leave play continue all that time while De Gea is crumpled on the ground and all the United players are screaming at him just because it isn't a head injury. It isn't an actual rule that play has to stop when goalkeepers are down injured but that's what refs are taught to do in terms of game management as it can become a farce if they let the game run on in that situation.
Ideally Atkinson would have stopped play straight away and there'd have been no real complaints, because people expect play to be stopped when a goalkeeper is down like that. But in this case he was too slow to do so, the goal was scored and then he couldn't overturn it even though he wanted to.
It was pretty pathetic from DdG. You can’t do that when the ball is live and we’re defending a corner. I said it before, he’s been a great servant but I’m looking forward to him moving on.
There are a lot of manly men here, clearly never gotten a ball to the groin/guts when playing and winded for a few minutes, or holding a stamped ankle for a while before continuing with the game.
Lying down was exaggerated playacting, but if he was really hurt at that moment it was a better course of action than merely trying to hold his ankle or hobbled on until he gets the ref attention.
Lying down was exaggerated playacting, but if he was really hurt at that moment it was a better course of action than merely trying to hold his ankle or hobbled on until he gets the ref attention.
Genuinely cannot comprehend the amount of people defending him on that first goal, really makes me thinks fans just defend their favourites regardless.
Blame the ref, Arsenal, Fred or whoever - That was an absolute embarrassment. Getting studs raked down your Achilles hurts. It absolutely does not cause you to turn your back to the play and go into the fetal position. To do that when he did was just negligence beyond belief - Even if he didn't know it was Fred and was expecting a foul you still play to the fecking whistle. The ball was bouncing around the edge of the box, there's bodies everywhere - Expecting the ref to bail you out of that situation is just unbelievably stupid. Do your job, see off the danger and then get whatever treatment you need.
Arsenal were completely right to score and celebrate. People can say Atkinson should have stopped it but unless it's a head injury it's at the referee's discretion whether or not to do so and at the end of the day he wasn't injured. He was standing seconds later. Had that been blown up and gone against us I'd be raging and 90% of this forum would be too. Keepers can't have play stopped just because they fall over. I shouldn't have to explain why that would be a pretty ridiculous rule.
The sad part is it wasn't even surprising. He's soft and always has been. I wish Keane had been on punditry because he deserved a skewering for that stuff.
Blame the ref, Arsenal, Fred or whoever - That was an absolute embarrassment. Getting studs raked down your Achilles hurts. It absolutely does not cause you to turn your back to the play and go into the fetal position. To do that when he did was just negligence beyond belief - Even if he didn't know it was Fred and was expecting a foul you still play to the fecking whistle. The ball was bouncing around the edge of the box, there's bodies everywhere - Expecting the ref to bail you out of that situation is just unbelievably stupid. Do your job, see off the danger and then get whatever treatment you need.
Arsenal were completely right to score and celebrate. People can say Atkinson should have stopped it but unless it's a head injury it's at the referee's discretion whether or not to do so and at the end of the day he wasn't injured. He was standing seconds later. Had that been blown up and gone against us I'd be raging and 90% of this forum would be too. Keepers can't have play stopped just because they fall over. I shouldn't have to explain why that would be a pretty ridiculous rule.
The sad part is it wasn't even surprising. He's soft and always has been. I wish Keane had been on punditry because he deserved a skewering for that stuff.
Well if anyone should’ve known it would’ve been Fred.
It's depend on the situation and if there is a dangerous attack ongoing. Otherwise every GK will fall down when he see a dangerous attack that may lead to goal. So what the referee should stop the game all the time then ?
It was a clear gamesmanship from De Gea. If you going to do this, be 100% sure it's the opponent player, not your teammate. That was very bad situation for him, but the good thing is we didn't lost point because of it.
Pure stupidity and cowardice for their first goal. If your ankle hurts, fecking hop on the other one until play is stopped or the danger has past. Don’t just lie down when the opposition are still attacking!
First goal really is all on DDG, though he did make a few good saves later in the game. At least it didn't cost us the game, and we can laugh about it now.
Culpable for the first goal, but I’m sure he genuinely believed that an Arsenal player stamped him, in which case milking what would have been a foul and disallowed goal made perfect sense. But how was he to know that his teammate was the one who stamped him?
His play acting BS finally caught up to him.
foot today, shoulder on the weekend, do the players not realize they look like idiots when they do this?
the open hand brushes to the face where they act like they’ve been hit by Mike Tyson is my favourite
foot today, shoulder on the weekend, do the players not realize they look like idiots when they do this?
the open hand brushes to the face where they act like they’ve been hit by Mike Tyson is my favourite
My issue with that is that he curled up into the fetal position and disengaged from he game whilst Arsenal scored with a soft volley from the edge of the box. I was sure for that physical reaction that he was going to have to be replaced so was surprised when he was OK. Made some decent saves thereafter.
How did Atkinson know it wasn't a head injury?
He should have least been facing play. If he saw that shot coming even with a broken leg he could have stopped it.
fecking hell. Every moron on here criticizing him for the first goal. Yes we get it. He went down to easily. How about the rest of the game. It's amazing no one is talking about that. I swear you guys just love to bitch and moan. That's all I'm ever going to talk about it.
So anyway, he made some great fecking saves tonight. The 2 Saka open chance's and that corner save was some insane reflexes. Also the aubameyang save close range was good too. Even though he was a bit offside.
So anyway, he made some great fecking saves tonight. The 2 Saka open chance's and that corner save was some insane reflexes. Also the aubameyang save close range was good too. Even though he was a bit offside.
Last edited:
I thought live that the referee had maybe got lucky, completely missing that De Gea was “hurt”, and was unable to blow the whistle in time when the shot was taken.
Watching the replays at home he gets it absolutely spot on. It’s genuinely one of the best bits of refereeing you’ll see all season. Neither the referee nor the linesman see any reason for De Gea to go down and they have no suspicion of a head injury. Atkinson even pauses blowing the whistle until the ball hits the back of the net to allow the goal to potentially stand should there be no foul.
I’m so done with De Gea by now. He owes his career to confirmation bias at this point. People keep banging on about how his shot stopping is bailing us out, but that isn’t even true. He’s not even offering good performance on the shot stopping metrics. Every routine or fairly basic save is hyped up, as if the alternative is a carrier bag in goal. See Exhibit A:
I’ll know which of our future managers is serious when he makes the ruthless decision to cull De Gea regardless of the size of his contract and his seniority at the club.
his inconsistency at his age is a worry
id love a kasper schmeichel 7/10 week in week out
id love a kasper schmeichel 7/10 week in week out
I don't think that's right.
He didn't stop play before the goal was scored but then he tried to disallow the goal because of the De Gea injury anyway. The VAR check wasn't to see if there was a foul, it was to see if he had blown the whistle before the ball crossed the line. He hadn't, so the goal had to stand.
In other words rather than being excellent refereeing he instead screwed it in both directions and accidentally arrived at the correct result. First by not stopping play before the goal (which is what would normally happen and what he presumably thought he should have done given he wanted to disallow it) and then by actually going to disallow what was then a legit goal. If it wasn't for VAR he would have screwed Arsenal out of a fair goal because he was in a muddle.
Odd criticism of De Gea this season, he’s basically been 7/10 each week, kept us in a lot of games including last night and Chelsea.
I've been happy to see de gea performing so so well this season, he's looking really sharp. However I think there are zero excuses for him crying it out on the floor during Arsenals 0-1 goal. My opinion is that this team really need some tough management adressing stuff like that face to face with the players. One does not have to be Roy Keane to tell a 30 year old man to do his job properly over 90 minutes. He could have ruined the game for us, and we cannot afford to have loosers that caves in like that all of a sudden. It seem like Van Gaal was that type of Manager and I hope that our coming Manager will be of similar character.
It is not about making a mistake, it's just plain stupid.
It is not about making a mistake, it's just plain stupid.
Strange I can think of several occasions of the top of my head where every poor keeping has directly led to goals
I’ve seen some others say that live on Twitter, but if you watch the replays Atkinson puts the whistle to his mouth and delays blowing. Even if VAR is indeed checking the timing of the whistle, the referee seems to make a deliberate action to not blow it before the ball ends up in the net, which is the correct thing to do.
He does but then that's obviously a mistake from his POV as he actually wants to disallow the goal, which he then can't do because he delayed blowing the whistle. At that point you can see him telling and gesturing to the United players that the goal will be disallowed, which is why they're relatively calm at that point and then suddenly react once VAR decide the goal has to stand.
So if letting the goal be scored was the right thing then he did it in spite of himself, as immediately afterwards he wanted to disallow the goal which is only possible if he hadn't let the goal be scored. At that point he wanted to have stopped play before the goal was scored. So he was either too slow in doing what he wanted to do, or didn't understand that he couldn't disallow the goal once it had been scored, or changed his mind about whether the goal should stand immediately after allowing it to be scored.
Last edited:
The referee redeemed himself by giving a penalty. It's all fair now given CR7 scored.
In fairness to David, keepers are babied and I can see how he expects the status quo to take care of him in that situation.
That was mental last night, I get that goalkeepers are usually a protected species for refs but you don't throw yourself to the floor in the middle of a set piece and hope for the ref to blow his whistle.
The amount of claimable balls in our 6 yard area and he's rooted to his line like usual. Weak as shit for the first goal as well.
How was it a better course of action? It cost us a goal.
I mean what course of action would have produced an even worse result?
Can we delete you from the forums as you blame De Gea on any of what happened yesterday? That's awful and it was a freak show case, where you can't blame David at all. He was stepped on and went down cause of it and play should have been stopped, point.
Kasper is 5/10 week in week out, ask the Leicester fans here and you won't hear glowing reviews of his form the last couple of years.
We need a better and more well-rounder keeper than De Gea though, there's no doubt about that.
Tbf 99% of time it would have worked. Play normally gets stopped when a goalkeeper goes down like that, the referee actually wanted to disallow the goal but couldn't because of when he blew the whistle and because it was Fred who studded him rather than an opponent (which I'm assuming De Gea didn't realise) there was no chance of it being reviewed as a foul either.
I thought it was playacting/gamesmanship on De Gea's part and deserved to be punished with a goal but it was a fluke that it actually was.
I just think Atkinson made the right decision, but then immediately doubted himself under pressure and showed zero conviction. The replays showed there is no reason at all for the game to have been stopped, and the referees suspected that in real time.
I’ll be interested to see if the PGMO briefs anything on it.
Schmeichel is possibly the worst keeper in the league at this stage. There’s a reason why nobody has ever shown serious interest in taking him from Leicester.
Nope this is 100% on De Gea - he tried to be clever by going down and paid the price.
To fall flat on your back for over a minute facing the wrong way after someone stepped on your foot is embarrassing. You play to the whistle and then kick it out of play - basic stuff.
It was fantastic refereeing for someone trying to cheat or buy a cheap foul imo.
Yep, I could buy that he initially called it correctly but then folded. I just refuse to say he did good refereeing.
Such a wuss.
- Status