Jonathan YeomansMy observations for this report is for the Brentford game & Rotherham game. I would call this a tale of 2 managers.
For Brentford there are some talking points for discussion.
- There was a lot of needle in this game with both sets of players going down easily & making a drama of every challenge.
I don’t like players doing this & it becomes hard to ref.
2:-Kyle Naughton:- Brought down player through on goal.
In my opinion he got very, very lucky. The nearest Swans player was 5 yards in front of him and he was last man. I think he just got away with it at was just past the halfway line. You could tell by his body language that he knew he was in trouble. After getting away with that he had to be whiter than white with every challenge.
When he made the challenge for 2nd yellow.
The Brentford player certainly made a meal of it.
3:- The ref gave us 5 yellow cards (2 to Naughton) yet none to them. I don’t see how this could be.
4:- I honestly thought to give the goal was brave & correct decision, as it seemed the keeper got it wrong. The defender from Brentford seemed to push Swans player into the keeper. Also the keeper seemed to catch Fulton’s arm.
Most ref’s would have automatically given the free kick to defending team.
What I really didn’t like was Thomas Frank’s remarks about VAR.
It’s poor management and no class. It was nothing but sour grapes.
Onto the Rotherham game.
There was very little to talk about in regards to decisions. The ref was for certain consistent by letting the game flow & not give any yellows to either side. Yet the game did seem quite physical, especially with the use of the long ball by Rotherham.
What I did notice was the amount of fouls Matt Grimes made. It seemed he got away with a lot.
However, what impressed me most was the Rotherham manager’s remarks by being gracious in defeat. It’s a refreshing change to hear this from a manager. As many times that I’ve mentioned before. Manager’s will hide behind a ref’s decision than on the performance of their team.
You can watch the Swansea goal against Brentford at 1/10 speed with vlc, and the sequence is clear. The goalkeeper gets the flight of the ball wrong and is too far forward, he starts shuffling back. The Swansea player sees a gap and runs into it, he then launches himself to head the ball. At that moment the goalkeeper realizes he is still too far forward and takes another step back into the path of the Swansea player. The Swansea player, unable to avoid hitting the goalkeeper twists away from him as best he can and the impact is hip to hip.
Most referees would have incorrectly disallowed the goal, but the ref got it right.