Life’s never dull on Rob Styles show

Aug 20 2007 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

IT seems a bit odd that Didier Drogba wasn’t booked for his sarcastic applause of Rob Styles at Anfield yesterday. It was, after all, every bit as much a show of dissent as the rant Jermaine Pennant unleashed on the referee that earned him his yellow card in the first half.

And it’s not as if Styles is one of these officials who likes to weigh things up and keep the notebook safely stashed in the pocket, reaching for it only when he absolutely has to.

He was waving the yellows so liberally that Michael Essien at one point thought two were meant for him.

So why none for Drogba? The only explanation is Styles thought the applause was genuine.

A gesture to say ‘thanks for letting us right back into this game, ref’.

Referees come in for a lot of unfair stick. They are over-analysed and over-blamed for the outcome of games, and cynically used by managers to mask their own failings.

Mistakes by players are forgiven almost instantly, but the men in black do the same and they’re branded for life.

They’re sometimes even called ‘cheats’ which implies some ulterior motive for favouring one team over another, an accusation that, without any evidence, you just can’t level at officials. Inept, yes. Corrupt, no.

The problem stems from the feeling, and Styles seems to give this more than most, that they have to be involved.

Jeremy Kyle with a whistle, Styles (during a game at least) thrives in front of the cameras, making sure they home in on him as he chats and lectures, pulling patronising faces instead of just staying out of it and only making decisions when he needs to.

That was his failing yesterday. If Florent Malouda wants to jump over the ball and look rather silly in executing some elaborate dummy, let him. Don’t go searching for something that isn’t there.

Only one man in Anfield was even looking for some kind of decision to be made, and it was such a rotten one that the away end stayed silent not only when Malouda went down, but when Styles pointed to the spot.

It’s at times like those you wonder why referees don’t cotton on to the fact that everyone is curling up in embarrassment for them.

The sheer looks of bemusement on the faces of the Chelsea fans should have been enough to persuade him to think, ‘hang on a minute I really think I’ve made a major whopper here’.

It’s because today’s high-profile referee would rather stick to his guns on a wrong decision and wave everyone away like some jobsworth police officer rather than – in his eyes – appear weak and back down. How that makes him feel worse than he did when he watched a replay after the game and realised he had wrecked Liverpool’s hopes of three points, only he knows.

It’s not as if he would even talk about that penalty incident afterwards, preferring instead to try to clear up the yellow card confusion as if this was the biggest boob he made all day.

Can you imagine if the likes of Styles and his fellow refs had to do a job swap with their rugby league counterparts?

These guys are miked up during a live game and have no room to be making rash and bizarre judgements the like of which riled Rafael Benitez yesterday.

The man in the middle has to make contact with the video referee and broadcast his doubts about incidents. ‘I’m not sure about this, I didn’t quite see that’ he has to tell the video referee and everyone else who happens to be watching. No hiding place, no space for arrogant silences.

It’s a fallibility that you can’t see Styles and the rest admitting to having.

They don’t mind squirming on the settee when Match Of the Day Two play their errors back to them like some recurring nightmare. Nobody sees that.

But admitting you’re wrong in public? That involves a humility absent from a refereeing scene that hasn’t got any less self-indulgent since Graham Poll bowed out of it at the end of last season.

Mistakes can be forgiven if they are honest ones but to be honest you have to have a certain amount of accountability for your actions.

Jose Mourinho is right that it’s a difficult game for a referee – but they don’t half make it difficult for themselves sometimes.