Snowflake RoyalNamelessSnowflake Royal Last defender is an irrelevance.
For me, Joao was never beating the keeper to the ball, which makes it not a clear goalscoring opportunity, which makes it not a red.
I think what tipped the ref into the red is that there had already been one challenge taking down a player (Olise) trying to break through on goal (but who had absolutely no chance of getting to the ball first), so given this was closer and he'd already got a hard time from us on the first one he took the slightly easier option.
Also think it's hard to say the second was an arm in an unnatural position, but the game was already done by that point.
Being the last defender is certainly not an irrelevance.
It’s not in itself a reason to give a red but the position of other defenders is very much a factor and therefore if you are the last defender you don’t have the mitigating factor of another defender being able to make a legitimAte challenge.
Whether the keeper would have got there first is a tough one, he was well out of his area and I reckon there would have been every chance the end result could have actually been worse for Barnsley - if the defender had not pulled Joao back it could easily have been the keeper committing the foul. When you have a deliberate foul stopping a 50:50 between a striker and the keeper you are always going to consider that a goalscoring opportunity
Interesting to note the ref indicates the card was not for trip but for holding Joao back, hard to get a good view of that from the camera angle
Definite pull back (which Joao made the most of - legitimately).
The key is whether it's a clear goalscoring opportunity, the number of defenders around is not referenced in the law and it's not really helpful to talk about 'last defender's because it leads to a lot of misunderstanding about what should be red.
Defender fouls him, so the only consideration after that is who is favourite to get the ball. Keeper or striker. Fair enough if you think it's a 50/50, that would just about getting there for the red, but has nothing to do with the defender. I don't think it was close to 50/50 and the keeper was always clearing the ball.
From the FA Laws of the game, Law 12 Fouks and Misconduct. Referring to factors to be considered when awarding a red card for adenial of goalscoring opportunity offence :
The following must be considered:
- distance between the offence and the goal
- general direction of the play
- likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball
- location and number of defenders
It’s entirely relevant to talk about ‘last defender’, because as explained it makes it more likely that a red card offence has been committed, although other factors may mean it hasn’t.
The defenderclearly disagrees with you. If thekeepers was always going to clear the ball there would be no reason to have committted a foul with such a high risk of a red card. Sometimes I think it is quite right to penalise the intent. The defender intended to stop Joao having a goalscoring opportunity. If the defender misjudged the likelihood of their being an opportunity then that’s his error, he thought Joao was through on goal.....
In general I would rather the referee erred on the side of the attacking side when assessing how likely it was a player would have a goal scoring opportunity. Defenders committing a foul in order to prevent an opportunity should believe they are more, not less likely to be sent off.