Monday 1 October 2012 12:38, UK
Does Fergie have a point on timing? Should Demba Ba have held his hands up? Kammy has his say...
There's been a lot of stuff in the press about how Andre Villas-Boas had lost the dressing room at Tottenham, but when you saw the jubilation at Old Trafford and the embrace with Gareth Bale you could see that isn't true. It seems people have been stirring that up for their own reasons. I thought Bale was special and I also think the role Jermain Defoe plays in front of their five-man midfield is essential to the formation. It's a new role for him because everyone has always said he needs to play with a partner to score goals, but he's showing his maturity by playing up-front on his own. He didn't get on the scoresheet, but I was impressed with his work-rate and how well he occupied the defenders.
I'm still not convinced Manchester United need a holding midfield player
Everybody was telling me after the Tottenham game that's what Man United need because their back four was exposed. But they haven't needed a holding midfielder for the last two years, so why would they want one now? It was just one of those games where they conceded early on and couldn't turn it around. If it happens again in the Champions League and against Newcastle then maybe they need to look at that. You can make a case for all sorts of things when you lose a game that you expected to win, but let's give credit to Tottenham who showed they aren't a bad team.
I agree with Sir Alex Ferguson to some extent over the issue of timing
I had to laugh when I heard Sir Alex Ferguson's comments about injury time. "Fergie time" has always been an issue, but occasionally it works against him. I do agree that timing should be taken away from the refs, though. When it comes to injuries and substitutions, the stop-watch should be put on by the fourth official - who doesn't have a lot else to do - and that would give you a more accurate representation of how long was taken. You see some games when you get seven or eight minutes and other games when there's been lots of time lost, but you just get the standard four minutes. There is an issue there.
I'm one of those people who believes Luis Suarez IS a goalscorer
I know the jury's out on him and a lot of people say he's not a natural finisher because he sometimes fails to finish when he goes through one-on-one, but I don't agree. He played fantastically well against Norwich as he earned his hat-trick and he led the line very well. He was also more than unlucky not to get a penalty when he was fouled by Leon Barnett. There was no way Mike Jones was going to give him a penalty - and the assistant should have been flagging because he could see it clearly - and you have to question it because you're unlikely to see a more blatant penalty. There was also no way John Arne Riise should have been given a penalty for Fulham. In other weeks those incidents would have been the other way around.
Jordi Gomez was another victim of the inconsistency of referees
There was a strange one in Wigan's game with Sunderland when Howard Webb sent off Jordi Gomez for jumping in on the ball. He was going for the ball and it so happened that Danny Rose skipped in as well and there was contact. Last week we saw a similar thing with Jonjo Shelvey against Manchester United - and the players have been told they can't leave the ground so technically they should be sent off. But then you see Seb Larsson in the same game make a worse challenge and Howard Webb didn't even show a yellow card. How could he differentiate between those two? When they have their meetings on a Thursday, he should have to stand up in front of the other refs and explain it and admit that he got it wrong. You can see why Roberto Martinez thinks the world is against them.
It's up to the ref to spot Demba Ba's handball, not up to the player to own up
It would be very hard for any player to tell a referee not to give his team a goal. I know Miroslav Klose did it in Italy this week, but it's hard to do. Remember, Demba Ba didn't deliberately control the ball with his hand like Thierry Henry against Republic of Ireland. He genuinely tried to head it, but missed it and it hit his hand and went in. I can't see many players going up and telling the referee it was handball in that situation. Maybe he would have done so if Newcastle had been winning 5-0, but that was an equaliser. I was in the office with Brian McDermott and Alan Pardew after the game and they were both talking about it and saying it's the job of the referee to see it. Andre Marriner was in a fantastic position, but you can't expect them to see everything. However, it shouldn't have been a goal.
