Gerrard got it wrong in Mancini row

Steven Gerrard got things wrong in the Manchester City players’ tunnel last night. He accused Roberto Mancini of attempting to get Liverpool’s Glen Johnson “into trouble” by highlighting the player’s two-footed challenge on Joleon Lescott in the 88th minute of the clubs’ Carling Cup tie. Mancini was actually highlighting the inconsistency which had seen his captain, Vincent Kompany, dismissed for a similar challenge which took place on virtually the same piece of turf last Sunday. How little sense we get when all the controversy of a game is compacted into a 15-minute window straight afterwards. No-one is talking straight.

But that goes for Mancini, too. First of all, his fury sent his English to pieces. No-one could tell whether he was saying “the walls are coming down” or “the world is coming down” when he left a tunnel exchange with Gerrard for his brief show in the press conference hall. He said this several times. “The world is going down. This is my opinion.” He’s wrong. Kompany might be out for three more games but the end of the world is not nigh.

He’s wrong about two-footed challenges, too. The pace and fury of the English game means that players need to be protected by a defender’s sure knowledge that if he goes in with two feet then he will rapidly be using them to leave the field of play. If it is left to a referee’s discretion, then there will be room for that defender to take a chance. The severity of injury should not dictate the defender’s fate.

The referees need a means of explaining this inalienable fact. The managers have plenty to say. The Football Association have channels to explain their decisions effectively to the world. The referees’ case sometimes arrives in the newspapers via the Premier League, offering pointers for guidance after the event. But more often is given voice by retired match officials in the studio. Their actions are analysed more forensically than most players’. They’re require the means of saying why, in this case, the rules are right.

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• Odysseus

  A captain is captain of the team on the field. When he leaves the field it is not his place to get into an unseemly row in the tunnel with the manager of the opposing team. In fact it would be bad enough for two managers to row in the tunnel.

  Gerrard needs to learn some self-discipline.

• Treebrain

  But he did deserve it!

  The referee saw the tackle and decided upon a red card, subsequent vidoe and phot’s confirmed that Kompany broke Law 12 of the game with his tackle and he has been dealt with accordingly.

• Treebrain

  Perhaps Mancini did not do himself any favours by opining on the Suarez racism issue on the eve of the game?

  It certainly backfired on him as the result showed.

• Treebrain

  So the referees and the FA no nothing about the game?

  What a pity that they set the rules and make the decisions then!

• McQueue

  yes, maybe…. I do recall watching the slow motion of Kompany and it looked more like a red in freeze frame than seeing the live play. I was relieved for Johnson, and didn’t study the shots.

  Truth is, I, like most, will always see both the technicality and the art in play, and the feeling for the art can affect technical judgement, which is why I still wouldn’t say it was a stone cold red for Kompany…. just like all the pundits were until the freeze frames…. and I like it not being black and white.

• Odysseus

  I don’t disagree.

• Treebrain

  Are City really flying?

  Out of the Champions League, out of the FA Cup, and not looking good in the League Cup.

  A narrow lead at the top of the Premier League but with key platers absent on international duty, their captain suspended for four games and manager Mancini involved in ‘red card’ gestures, disagreements with match officials, opining on Suarez and racism and now an incident with Gerrard, he must surely be distracted from his day job.

  Nothing against MCFC in particular or Mancini but ‘flying off the handle’ might best describe them?

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001040764812 Aurelio Horta

  Gerard should have earned a yellow card at least for confusing the ball with the legs of the opponent player, they are well protected, M.City is not going to win anything this season.

• http://www.metafore.com/ wheeliebin

  The right of anyone when they’re asked a question by a reporter.

• http://www.metafore.com/ wheeliebin

  Nope. He’s still team captain off the field.