The Smith-Rowe strike that gave Arsenal the lead. Correct decision?

Hansi Fick

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Keepers get the benefit of the doubt 100 percent of the time when they go down. This is just being super analysed because the ref fecked it up. It wasn’t take advantage of before and it wouldn’t be taken advantage of from now on. Remember, David didn’t dive or anything here, he wasn’t feigning contact
Yeah, guess you're right. As for the bolded bit, I wouldn't blame De Gea either, he thought he got stood on by an Arsenal player. Fred on the other hand, what the feck is he doing..
 

antohan

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Yeah, guess you're right. As for the bolded bit, I wouldn't blame De Gea either, he thought he got stood on by an Arsenal player. Fred on the other hand, what the feck is he doing..
The worst part isn't even the stamp but standing in no-man's land waving his arms. He could do all that hand-waving defending the goal. In fact, it's more likely he would get spotted than ambling around behind far taller players.

It's bizarre how poor our defensive instincts are. Rashford, Fred, Lindelof, absolutely no idea what they were doing there. Even with De Gea in position Arsenal could have easily scored that.
 

SirScholes

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Technically correct. Ref had no choice. However very unsporting from Arsenal. It is not like they had clear chance of scoring and David went down to negate their advantage.
I hope we’d do the same
Fine margins. It was our mistake and Arsenal punished it
He should be bollocked for it
Even if it was a arsenal player that stood on him, he should protect the goal until it’s out of play
 

cyril C

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If it had been a head injury, regardless of who caused it, would it be a valid stoppage and goal rule out? I think so.

As the injury was not as serious as it seemed, then DDG was wrong to fell down like this, even though he might not be at 100% to stop the shot thereafter.
 

Verward

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If we were in place of Arsenal, what would you say?
would you say, its not in spirit of sportsmanship and let's award arsenal equalizer? I doubt, we'd do that.
From corner delivery to goal time period was around 5-7sec even while watching was wondering what degea doing on ground? So bit unfair to say Arsenal players knew he was on ground.everyone was ball watching.
So technically it was a proper goal IMO.
 

redrobed

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Is this even a question? We have a GK that doesn’t even care enough to get up and defend the shot when there’s clearly nothing wrong with him. That’s the real problem. You don’t have to collapse in a heap everytime someone’s in a 6 yard radius of you.
 

Tarrou

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Is this even a question? We have a GK that doesn’t even care enough to get up and defend the shot when there’s clearly nothing wrong with him. That’s the real problem. You don’t have to collapse in a heap everytime someone’s in a 6 yard radius of you.
I mean this obviously isn't what happened

He was wrong to stay down but he went down expecting the ref to blow

It was a mistake but he didn't do it because he doesn't care that's just silly
 

NK86

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Yes? You don't stop the game in a dangerous position when a team hurts its own player. It's not arsenals fault that Fred stepped on De gea, their chance for a goal shouldn't be stopped because of something that they didn't cause.
Then why does a ref stop play when a player lies on the ground without any contact from any player? Has happened many times and it is left at the ref's discretion it seems. There's no way to say it's the right decision when it is applied ad hoc in many cases.

Issue is this is a GK. If the GK is injured, you have to stop the play. It's silly to suggest that then "every goalie would start doing it". Goalkeepers are already a protected species and they still don't keep rolling around. A lot of stupid hypotheticals being thrown around to justify an even stupider referring decision. Worse was Atkinson was about to blow before ESR shot but for some reason delayed it. Atkinson is a cnut.
 

NK86

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The FA rules state ‘Play is allowed to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in their opinion, only slightly injured’, but it also states ‘Exceptions to this ruling are made only for: Injury to a goalkeeper’.

So shouldn’t play have been stopped as soon as the goalkeeper went down injured, regardless whether it was our player or an arsenal player that caused the injury?

Atkinson should’ve noticed De Gea was down injured and stopped play immediately.
Exactly this. People suddenly saying that this doesn't happen already is insane.
 

lawliet354

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If De Gea was actually seriously injured to the point he had to be substituted I'd expect even Arsenal would give the goal back. But they saw that his injury is not serious and he actually ran to the referee to protest so the goal stands is fair and correct decision
 

OneUnited24

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The FA rules state ‘Play is allowed to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in their opinion, only slightly injured’, but it also states ‘Exceptions to this ruling are made only for: Injury to a goalkeeper’.

So shouldn’t play have been stopped as soon as the goalkeeper went down injured, regardless whether it was our player or an arsenal player that caused the injury?

Atkinson should’ve noticed De Gea was down injured and stopped play immediately.
Amazing that this hasn't been brought up. There are countless times where a keeper goes down and the ref blows up immediently. Atkinson was even about to blow but decided not to for some reason.

And to people who are saying this sets a dangerson presidant because keepers will go down whenever they feel impeded or slight contact... well... what game have you been watching for the past 20 years - they all do that!
 

MalaysianRed7

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Correct decision, but you try having your achilles suddenly trodden on while playing football if you’re criticising DDG. It doesn’t have to been a serious injury for it to have awfully hurt for a minute or two. Would it have made you more at ease with the goal if he was actually injured rather than in momentary pain?
 

Kostov

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Except the rules specifically say Atkinson did do something wrong. That is immediately stop play when the goalkeeper is injured regardless of how he got hurt!

If De Gea had hurt himself on the woodwork instead of Fred the game should still be stopped.
Very true.
 

Kostov

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Alright so I guess every corner/set piece/attack a goalkeeper can pretend to roll his ankle, go down and just stop play right? Otherwise it's "unsporting". Get out of here. It's a legit goal and should always be a legit goal and the opposing team gets 0 blame here, because they did nothing wrong and did what every team should do. Play to the whistle. It's taught at every level of football.
Well it’s been like this for ages, GK are protected and favored in every situation, and no they don’t roll their ankles all the time. GK can go and smack himself in the poll, does the game not stop just because it’s not the opposition?
 

InfiniteBoredom

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There’s a simple way to solve this debate, anybody who says De Gea is a fanny, go play GK, get a 150 pound guy to rake his boots on your Achilles when you are unaware, and try to stay on your feet and save a shot.

Decision was correct by the letter of the law, but it was only because Atkinson already fecked up by not stopping play earlier.
 

Galactic

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Correct decision. But when if:
1. DDG was really hurt. It’s not definitely painless when someone stepped on the back of your ankle.
2. Fred was pushed by one of the Arsenal players towards DDG.

We still won the game. So it was the correct decision :)
 

SATA

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Correct decision in the end but I thought we should have walked off the pitch after the referee and var awarded the goal. I was absolutely seething when it happened
 

DRJosh

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DDG was punished for his cowardice and rightly so. Nothing unsporting about Arsenal taking advantage. We would have done the same.
 

RedCurry

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It was correct to give it but only in the context that if we are ever in a position to score a goal like that the ref doesn’t stop the play. Fairness is sometimes just about consistency. If every time a keeper is down the game should be allowed to continue or it should always be stopped. Pick a lane.
 

Nordmore

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Imo the criticism on DDG here is a bit too much. Guess none has ever played football when it's that cold. If someone steps on your achilles with football boots when it's that cold it'll hurt like hell.

As a professional footballer when it hurts the first thing to do is to lay down and wait for medical care because you have no idea how bad the actual injury is. Keep on playing would potentially make the injury a lot worse than initially.

For a GK to keep on playing when you're hurt in your achilles is actually really stupid because you won't be able to jump. A GK can't jump is equal to no GK. Plus if you keep on playing when there's a goal, even if you're injured and because of that you can't save it the ref will have to accept it since the play was not stopped. So that's why all GKs will lay down even on the most minor contacts. And refs always stop the play whenever that happen.

What's wrong here was on the ref. He should have blown when he noticed DDG was down. You gotta blow when a GK is down. He hesitated and then when the goal came in he knew he was wrong that's why he tried to cancel the goal. But since there's no whistle, the play was not stopped so the goal was legal.
 
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Longshanks

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Technically there is no reason to disallow the goal, thats why it stood. I don't think the ref sees de gea is injured till the ball goes in the net either. So doesn't stop the game.

Smith-rowe knows de gea is down injured though no doubt about that, his actions are unsporting as are Arsenals in general but its no great surprise as the song goes 'same old arsenal, always cheating.
 

Chicharo

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People really allow themselves to say anything these days,from him being a coward up to the point that he doesn't give a damn... Like I said, when he leaves DDG will be remembered as a failure by some fans, insults have already been present for some time...
What cowardice? Afraid of what? And if he doesn't care why did he make a couple of very important saves later?
As some of you stated, it doesn't have to be a season-ending injury, it's it enough to be painful for a 10 seconds.
As for Smith-Rowe he most probably wouldnt've scored if he hadn't had an empty goal to shoot at.They got what they deserved
 

Jeppers7

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For me correct decision in terms of goal but only because the referee didn’t stop the game before the ball hit the net. DeGea was on the ground long before the Arsenal player took the shot. It’s a freak occurrence because refs always immediately stop the game when a keeper is down, and we know that most often said goalkeeper goes on to continue the game.

So one of two things happened/should happen :-

1.The referee saw the incident and decided to screw us over having no idea how or why DeGea was on the floor. Given the FA guidelines around goalkeepers being injured he should be retrained and we should receive an apology, since at some point in the future we will be in an attacking position with a keeper injured and the game will be stopped.

2. The referee didn’t know DeGea was down until after the shot had been taken and didn’t blow the whistle in time to stop the game before the ball hit the net. In which case he should ask the Arsenal players to allow us to walk the ball into the net. This I feel is what the Arsenal players should have done in any case, not celebrating a goal.

I’d also question the general narrative of the media to this type of goal if United scored it in the last minute of a game against the likes of Burnley or Brentford. I doubt they would be saying that it was the ‘correct’ decision or if so they’d certainly be calling us unsporting and saying it’s a disgrace and we should allow them to equalise. I wouldn’t disagree to be fair but it’s poor that the narrative is different when the shoes on the other foot.
 

DevTheRed

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Amazing that this hasn't been brought up. There are countless times where a keeper goes down and the ref blows up immediently. Atkinson was even about to blow but decided not to for some reason.

And to people who are saying this sets a dangerson presidant because keepers will go down whenever they feel impeded or slight contact... well... what game have you been watching for the past 20 years - they all do that!
Exactly my thinking, the whistle is always blown when the keeper goes down.. either the referee or the assistant notices and stops play immediately. In my opinion it was the referees mistake not to stop play which VAR should’ve seen as an obvious error, goal should’ve been ruled out and play should’ve continued with the ball in Arsenals possession.
 

el3mel

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100% legit goal. I don't know why people are even discussing it.

Stupid yes, but a legit goal.
 

el3mel

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Technically correct. Ref had no choice. However very unsporting from Arsenal. It is not like they had clear chance of scoring and David went down to negate their advantage.
Who cares about sportsmanship. If we are in the same situation I would like us to do the same. The game is about taking advantage of the opponents' stupid mistakes. De Gea falling down was our own mistake, Fred was the one who stepped on him, not an Arsenal player. Why should they care?
 

Bestofthebest

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If players were a bit more honest then the decision would have been taken out of refs hands. I remember Paula di Canio catching a cross in his hands against Everton. This after Everton keeper ran to edge of box and strained a muscle (no foul), ball fell to West Ham player who crossed to di Canio who just caught the ball as if it was the most natural thing to do. A true
gentleman and excellent player, even if some of he team mates thought he should have scored and let the ref sort it out.
 

lemmiwink

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Ref should have blown the whistle, so an error in that regard, but since he didn't the decision was correct.
 

RedRonaldo

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Correct decision from the ref, but unsporting move by Arsenal.
 

phelans shorts

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If players were a bit more honest then the decision would have been taken out of refs hands. I remember Paula di Canio catching a cross in his hands against Everton. This after Everton keeper ran to edge of box and strained a muscle (no foul), ball fell to West Ham player who crossed to di Canio who just caught the ball as if it was the most natural thing to do. A true
gentleman and excellent player, even if some of he team mates thought he should have scored and let the ref sort it out.
“a true gentleman”

He’s a literal bleeding nazi
 

Nordmore

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Who cares about sportsmanship. If we are in the same situation I would like us to do the same. The game is about taking advantage of the opponents' stupid mistakes. De Gea falling down was our own mistake, Fred was the one who stepped on him, not an Arsenal player. Why should they care?
I do. I don't want our players to do that. It's ugly and unsportsmanlike. We're better than Arsenal in this regard I hope.
 

Tony247

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Who cares about sportsmanship. If we are in the same situation I would like us to do the same. The game is about taking advantage of the opponents' stupid mistakes. De Gea falling down was our own mistake, Fred was the one who stepped on him, not an Arsenal player. Why should they care?
It is just a sports for entertainment, not a war you must win by hook or crook. Sportsmanship does count. I wouldn't want the team I support to cross that moral line.
 

Drainy

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Yeah what a weakling not getting back up after being hurt. He should only stay on the ground if his ankle was snapped, not someone raking his achilles tendon, thats nothing.

Pain is temporary, defeat is forever.
 

el3mel

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It is just a sports for entertainment, not a war you must win by hook or crook. Sportsmanship does count. I wouldn't want the team I support to cross that moral line.
For entertainment for you and fans maybe, for players and managers no it's not, it's their job that's on the line.
 

Tony247

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For entertainment for you and fans maybe, for players and managers no it's not, it's their job that's on the line.
No it is not. No club will terminate the contract of player because he/she demonstrate sportsmanship. There are certain ethos that are valued in the society we live in and people who uphold those are appreciated, not fired. If that is not the case in the community that you live in then you need to instrospect.
 

el3mel

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No it is not. No club will terminate the contract of player because he/she demonstrate sportsmanship. There are certain ethos that are valued in the society we live in and people who uphold those are appreciated, not fired. If that is not the case in the community that you live in then you need to instrospect.
Their job is to score goals and win the games. They play like shit they will get sold, lose and the manager will get sacked. It's their job to benefit from the opponent's mistakes.

Instead of blaming them for doing their job, we should blame our players for being stupid and stepping on each other.
 

Oranges038

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Can't believe this is still a debate.

He didn't have to go off injured, didn't require any major on field treatment, no bandaging, not even a magic sponge in sight, he was up chasing the ref a few moments later and then started hobbling again after that.

There was feck all wrong with him and he lay down like a baby trying to con the ref and he conceded a goal. All his fault, the goal was rightly given.