Mike Dean's Manchester Delight and Joey Barton's Juvenile Brutality Part 2

This post follows on from Mike Dean's Manchester Delight and Joey Barton's Juvenile Brutality Part 1.

Incident Two: Good Advantage

In the 48', QPR winger Shaun Wright-Philips (red) is fouled. Mike Dean sees this and, as the ball is coming down toward Man City defender Joeloen Lescott (blue), he puts his whistle to his mouth because the ball is falling into the possession of the opposing team. However, Mike Dean delays his call as Lescott miscontrols the ball and allows QPR striker Djibrille Cisse (red) to score. Here are the freeze frames:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 QPR (red) score the equalizer to make it 1—1

Here are the freeze frames from another camera angle:

 

Incident Three: AR2 good positioning

In the 52', from a Man City corner kick, the ball comes out past the D and is drilled back into the penalty area from outside the D. AR2 Andy Garratt is well positioned to decide whether or not there are any offside calls to be made. Here are the freeze frames: 

 

 Man City (blue) drill the ball in from outside the D

 

 

 

 The ball ricochets off a Man City player (blue) and some QPR players (red) are naturally calling for offside, even though they are wrong

Incident Four: Violent Conduct and Good Teamwork

In the 54', Mike Dean and this thoroughly absorbing match are both progressing along nicely when play is stopped because Manchester City player Carlos Tevez is down with his hands in his face. Here are the freeze frames:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside or Outside the Penalty Area?

 

 

 

 

 

 

AR2 Andy Garratt signals a foul

 

Mike Dean is keeping calm and is telling players to remain calm so that he can sort what's what

Here's another look:

 

 

From this, it appears Joey Barton (red) makes contact with Carlos Tevez (blue) as both players are standing on the 18 yard line. Notice that AR2 is also in line with the 18 yard line.
From the movement of Barton, and the reaction of Tevez, Barton's right arm or elbow must apparently be swinging backward into Tevez. 

ARs should succinctly state the facts and perhaps give a recommendation

Mike Dean takes action from the facts given to him by AR2 Andy Garratt. Here are the freeze frames:

 

 

 

 Sorry mate, you have to go

 

 

Not clever Joey … and right in front of the Referee too

 

 

 

 

Mike Dean is calm and professional and does not get involved in the fracas (unlike fellow Referee Howard Webb, who seems to regard it as a 'duty' to man-handle players)

AR1 supporting Mike Dean

 

 Good communication and good use of team captains

Restart

For Consideration

Question 1: Considering AR2 was at least 40 yards away plus the fact that Barton was positioned more or less facing toward AR2 as he swung with his right elbow back at Tevez who was behind him, what did AR2 actually see?

Question 2: Also, did AR1 (or the 4thO or anyone else) see what happened?

Question 3: Did AR1 (or the 4thO or anyone else) see what happened before Barton's elbow on Tevez? That is, what happened before that provoked Barton's elbow on Tevez?

Question 4: Did this act of violent conduct occur outside or inside the penalty area?

Question 5: For the restart, could AR1 or the 4thO have helped with the correct position of the direct free kick? The incident occurred along the 18 yard line, but closer toward the corner of the penalty area rather than closer to the D.



My Take

In particular, when considering Questions 1 and 4, just imagine the pressure experienced by AR2 Andy Garratt. He was bold enough to call the foul (from over 40 yards away), but was he bold enough by calling it outside the penalty area? Did the incident occur right on or slightly off the 18 yard line?

Perhaps Mike Dean's assistants (ARs and 4thO) could have helped him out better.

For Question 3, it can be seen that as soon as Tevez released the ball to his team-mate and continued forward toward the penalty area, Barton was diligently performing his defensive duties by running alongside Tevez to mark him. Some may even say that Barton tried to body check Tevez. Physical off-the-ball incidents are part and parcel of the game, particularly in places like England, and match officials tend to either miss them or turn a blind eye; and when it gets too much, it can get ugly (see here). Barton was doing what normal English defensive players do (i.e. marking Tevez out of the game, which is really impeding so technically it is an offense punishable by an indirect free kick but which is almost always never awarded) and what Tevez did was a childish reaction to this. With no one apparently looking, Tevez lashed out at Barton, which is why Barton did what he did to Tevez. What Barton did to Aguero and others in the aftermath is inexcusable too.

If there is enough video evidence to show that Carlos Tevez struck Joey Barton, perhaps the FA can consider taking retrospective action against Tevez for his act of violent conduct? The FA did this with Branislav Ivanovic, so if a sense of justice is to be conveyed then the FA should also take retrospective action on Tevez and continue to send a message to all players that violent conduct will not be tolerated.


Next up, Part 3 of Mike Dean's Manchester Delight and Joey Barton's Juvenile Brutality. See Part 1 here.