Martin Atkinson

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Thought it was a decent performance. Refs are generally shit when they don't give us favorable calls and are otherwise anonymous when they do their jobs.
 

Randall Flagg

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Any you can think of? There were none last night, that's for damn sure.

Last night aside, the most recent really bad call he gave against us was when Luiz went in with his studs into Fellaini's thigh in the game against Chelsea. That was a terrible miss, for which he got rightfully slated by - among others - Keith Hackett.
to be honest most generally remember the bad calls against your own side

All, Im saying is there is no big conspiracy against Utd. And reading the caf these days many seem to think the refs, the crossbar, opposition goalkeepers, the media, Gary Neville all have it in for us.


It reminds me of….every other football fan.
 

Smoking_Owl

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Many posters resort to the 'oh, all football fans think somebody is out to get their team' line of thinking far too easily and refuse to engage in even considering that Atkinson may have a disliking for us.

Yes, I agree that type of behaviour happens a lot in football circles.

But, you know, just on occasion there might just be something in it.

Most have not even commented on the strong suggestions that he's a Leeds fan, which should be enough to worry anybody. Again, maybe posters are showing their age. Leeds haven't been in the same league as us in over a decade so the bitterness of the rivalry (on the part of Leeds fans at least) is probably lost on them.
 

Annihilate Now!

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Many posters resort to the 'oh, all football fans think somebody is out to get their team' line of thinking far too easily and refuse to engage in even considering that Atkinson may have a disliking for us.

Yes, I agree that type of behaviour happens a lot in football circles.

But, you know, just on occasion there might just be something in it.

Most have not even commented on the strong suggestions that he's a Leeds fan, which should be enough to worry anybody. Again, maybe posters are showing their age. Leeds haven't been in the same league as us in over a decade so the bitterness of the rivalry (on the part of Leeds fans at least) is probably lost on them.
As someone who livse in West Yorkshire and is surrounded by Leeds fans, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it isn't.
 

Pogue Mahone

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to be honest most generally remember the bad calls against your own side

All, Im saying is there is no big conspiracy against Utd. And reading the caf these days many seem to think the refs, the crossbar, opposition goalkeepers, the media, Gary Neville all have it in for us.


It reminds me of….every other football fan.
Fair point. There's no conspiracy. I just think Atkinson is a weak ref who gets easily influenced by home crowds and has fecked us over in a bunch of big games. Last night wasn't a very good example of this, mind you.
 

Minimalist

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Didn't think he was biased against either side yesterday. He just let a lot of blatant fouls go and with our injuries I was getting pissed off thinking we were going to see more without any punishment.

I know it's a derby but he definitely should have had a few cards out early on.
 

Fracture90

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Last night he refused to call some very obvious fouls on Rashford and Martial. This old geezer definitely has some agenda going on.
 

SachinJ22

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He let City players commit fouls on our players without doing anything but he booked Fellaini for his first foul.
 

MemphisDepay

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He let City players commit fouls on our players without doing anything but he booked Fellaini for his first foul.
Don't get me wrong I agree with your overall point but the Fellaini foul on it's own merit was a booking, doesn't really matter if it's a first foul or not.
 

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That added on time was legit, shit stirrer.
Yeah but he played 3 more minutes than what went up on the board for no apparent reason which did us a huge favour that day when we were pressing for the winner and City were clingin on. A biased official presumably wouldnt have played as much added time.

My point is really just to provide a bit of perspective. He doesnt always shaft us even though it feels like he does.
 

Skills

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Yeah but he played 3 more minutes than what went up on the board for no apparent reason which did us a huge favour that day when we were pressing for the winner and City were clingin on. A biased official presumably wouldnt have played as much added time.

My point is really just to provide a bit of perspective. He doesnt always shaft us even though it feels like he does.
That was because they also scored in injury time to level the game, and then celebrated like bellends.

There were given 4 minutes of extra time, and we scored in the 5th. He also then gave them another minute to level the game after we scored the winner.
 

PieCrust

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Atkinson was fine yesterday. People are just upset because they feel Rashford and Mhiki should have been protected a bit more. But that has more to do with the frustration of Jose's tactics that failed to produce any attacking intent, so when a marginal decision goes against us, people freak out and then the confirmation bias takes over.
 

Cutch

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That was because they also scored in injury time to level the game, and then celebrated like bellends.

There were given 4 minutes of extra time, and we scored in the 5th. He also then gave them another minute to level the game after we scored the winner.
He didnt have to play 95:28 for us to score, and there was general uproar about it at the time, maybe to the point that he tried to make up for it in the future by shafting us, much in the same way as Howard Webb seemed to do after all the stick that he used to get about favouring United. The next few times Atkinson had us he literally wouldn't play a second longer of added time than what went up on the board
 

Cutch

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Atkinson was fine yesterday. People are just upset because they feel Rashford and Mhiki should have been protected a bit more. But that has more to do with the frustration of Jose's tactics that failed to produce any attacking intent, so when a marginal decision goes against us, people freak out and then the confirmation bias takes over.
I thought both players were weak as feck. Its a derby game thats going to be physical and after Atkinson showed early on that he was going to allow it to be physical and let the game flow we should have man'd up a bit and not lay on the floor at every opportunity.
 

SachinJ22

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Don't get me wrong I agree with your overall point but the Fellaini foul on it's own merit was a booking, doesn't really matter if it's a first foul or not.
I agree it might have been a deserved booking but the ref gave more leeway to the City players and allowed them to commit fouls constantly.
 

SachinJ22

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Atkinson was fine yesterday. People are just upset because they feel Rashford and Mhiki should have been protected a bit more. But that has more to do with the frustration of Jose's tactics that failed to produce any attacking intent, so when a marginal decision goes against us, people freak out and then the confirmation bias takes over.
The referees protect players like Hazard and others, but they shouldn't protect players like Mkhi, Martial and Rashford? The attacking intent was there but the plan was to counter attack, the City players played physically and troubled our front 3. No he wasn't fine IMO.
 

#07

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The referees protect players like Hazard and others, but they shouldn't protect players like Mkhi, Martial and Rashford? The attacking intent was there but the plan was to counter attack, the City players played physically and troubled our front 3. No he wasn't fine IMO.
This.

Herrera got sent off for fewer tackles on Hazard than Kompany and Otamendi put in on Rashford. Atkinson is up there with Michael Oliver and Mike Dean as a ref I hate to see taking United games.
 

zeekey

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The incident with Herrera in the first half I felt came about because Toure was all over him and had Atkinson blown up sooner Fernandinho wouldn't have come through the back of Ander. That's without the fouls he missed on Rashford and Martial. Pretty certain it's more incompetence though.
 

tomaldinho1

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I think he's just a crap ref. The worst for me was Fernandinho leading with his forearm into two challenges (one after the whistle right in front of Atkinson).

I agree he likes the idea of being a ref that lets the game flow which leads him to ignoring blatant fouls and then looking like a plum, which gets his back up, and creates more shit decisions.
 

1974_Fergie_Time

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Waited 80 odd minutes to book anyone so City players took liberty to kick our players

he then wanted the limelight as he was pissed off he didnt get the cup final

took centre stage to make the game more about him and left Aguero off scott free from his play acting antics
 

bucky

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I have no idea what he did wrong yesterday. He's definitely not biased against us, bar when we are playing Chelsea.
Otamendi's tactical foul on Rashford is as obvious as it gets for a yellow.
 

Strats

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Have premier league referees ever had to explain questionable decisions in live interviews after the game?

This happens once in a while in swedish top leagues in both football(even Jonas Eriksson does, who has been in charge of several big games in europe) and ice hockey where the referees don't seem to have a problem to do so and admit their mistakes.

It's also noticable that there seems to be more communication between the players and the referees than in the premiership whereas premier league referees act like arrogant twats on the pitch. Doesn't take away the fact that the referees can still be shit, but at least they stand up and explain their decisions.

Would have been glorious to see Atkinson shit himself while not being able to explain himself.
 

strangeways

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I think he's just a crap ref. The worst for me was Fernandinho leading with his forearm into two challenges (one after the whistle right in front of Atkinson).

I agree he likes the idea of being a ref that lets the game flow which leads him to ignoring blatant fouls and then looking like a plum, which gets his back up, and creates more shit decisions.
Yes but we must improve our dialogue with the ref Carrick is too laid back and herrera incoherent. If the ref has chosen to let things go then we need to capitalise and ruff things up too. Also if a game is going away from us we should be picking up more tactical yellows and breaking play up with confrontations.
 

Fridge chutney

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This.

Herrera got sent off for fewer tackles on Hazard than Kompany and Otamendi put in on Rashford. Atkinson is up there with Michael Oliver and Mike Dean as a ref I hate to see taking United games.
Don't forget Mark Clattenburg. Oh wait, we can forget him because he's fecking off to somewhere far away.
 

#07

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Don't forget Mark Clattenburg. Oh wait, we can forget him because he's fecking off to somewhere far away.
Mate, I don't know where they find these superstar refs. I mean Michael Oliver, Joe Hart actually pushed his head into his face and he did nothing. Then sends off Di Maria for touching him. Just unbelievable.
 

Utdstar01

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He's just a dreadful referee, he's made some terrible decisions against us in the past.
 

PieCrust

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The referees protect players like Hazard and others, but they shouldn't protect players like Mkhi, Martial and Rashford? The attacking intent was there but the plan was to counter attack, the City players played physically and troubled our front 3. No he wasn't fine IMO.
As much as the cafe wants to believe, our front players weren't really treated unfairly by City's defense hardly at all. As @Cutch mentioned, it was a derby game. It's going to be a little physical. When Bailly makes those kinds of challenges, we get posts about how chuffed everyone is that he doesn't back down and makes tough tackles. City did that all day quite well on our counter attempts. Fair play to them for that. Even as you mentioned, City troubled our attackers quite well; that doesn't mean it was unfair. Blaming the ref in this case is just poor form and a weak excuse.

Again the frustration was because United had ZERO intent to score a goal, so on the handful of times a counter was initiated, a few of those got stopped by some tough defending by City. Then everyone continues to get frustrated and starts to blame the ref for lack of opportunity. Then they see the name "Atkinson" and the confirmation bias goes overboard. The bottom line is City did an excellent job in killing almost every single United counter attack and we just gave up on any kind of attack at all in the second half. That's on Jose, not the officials.

And outside of that, of course players like Hazard get some preferntial treatment. The best players typically do, regardless of the league. That's not something new to football.
 

montpelier

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As much as the cafe wants to believe, our front players weren't really treated unfairly by City's defense hardly at all. As @Cutch mentioned, it was a derby game. It's going to be a little physical. When Bailly makes those kinds of challenges, we get posts about how chuffed everyone is that he doesn't back down and makes tough tackles. City did that all day quite well on our counter attempts. Fair play to them for that. Even as you mentioned, City troubled our attackers quite well; that doesn't mean it was unfair. Blaming the ref in this case is just poor form and a weak excuse.

Again the frustration was because United had ZERO intent to score a goal, so on the handful of times a counter was initiated, a few of those got stopped by some tough defending by City. Then everyone continues to get frustrated and starts to blame the ref for lack of opportunity. Then they see the name "Atkinson" and the confirmation bias goes overboard. The bottom line is City did an excellent job in killing almost every single United counter attack and we just gave up on any kind of attack at all in the second half. That's on Jose, not the officials.

And outside of that, of course players like Hazard get some preferntial treatment. The best players typically do, regardless of the league. That's not something new to football.
Otamendi was clogging Rashford all round the park without attracting a yellow card for doing it.
 

Chorley1974

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Absolute cnut, how he steals a living as a ref makes me slightly envious. If I was so shit at my job I'd have been sacked years ago. PL please put him out to pasture.
 

Utdstar01

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Foul started outside of the box but you can't complain if it's called as it carried on until Bamford went down. Either way it's a red and Middlesbrough are well in with a chance of getting something out of the game.

Atkinson is just chronically shit.
 

Catt

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I'm going to say it: he will be the center of attention after saturday's game.