Luton Outlaws - Independent Message Board for Luton Town FC

Quite happy to see referees book players for both diving or time wasting.

The issue is that at this level the referees don’t have the power to book the top players for being theatrical. They can’t dish out similar punishment to e.g. Salah or Son because of the reaction of the top managers, global fan bases and TV broadcaster figures should they end up being suspended. I would be amazed if we see a single booking dished out for diving (outside the box at least) against us this year.

Same with Kaminski’s booking in first half. Not a problem, but how can a referee give Leno repeated let offs for exactly the same thing in the 2nd half.

And lastly, it’s difficult to see past the introduction this season of actually adding on the correct added time rather than what was obviously guesswork that used to take place. On the face of it this is a good thing, but coupled with the 5 subs (from a bench of 9 now) this is just another tool to protect the elite. The PL needs to ensure the right clubs qualify for the champions league each season to prevent more talks of a breakaway league. These top owners need to see a return on their ever increasing investment. And this plus VAR can be used to dictate results however they please. Genuinely makes it very difficult to see us holding on to many results at this level given the gulf in class others can bring off the bench and how long they now have to impact the game.

Spurs vs Sheffield United - 12 mins added on with Blades winning 1-0 but you can be sure if the scores were reversed there would be nowhere near as much time allowed.

Take our game yesterday, we’re chasing the game. 4 minutes added on despite 10 substitutions and a pretty lengthy goal celebration. We were obviously still using the old method of guesswork, or we witnessed 41 minutes of non-stop
Football. Certainly didn’t feel like it.

Still maybe if we could finish our dinner and stop giving shite goals away this wouldn’t bite us on the arse so much.