DiR Designs

Specialised in Custom Helmet Painting & Design. #yourfastestidentity [phone] DiRdesig[email protected]

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge Last night was not taking chances.

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge Shouldn’t matter to you as you destroy him every week

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge @David_Ornstein @TheAthleticFC Walk away far to much

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge That’s your two biggest issues. Maybe they came 3rd/4th for armorim

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge Just cause not your priority doesn’t mean it’s not Ruben’s priority.

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@Manutd_addicts @random_ftbl2 Absolute dog 💩. Saying this freaks 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@Manutd_addicts Talk so much BS

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@sgisking1 @Manutd_addicts He has none. Makes it up

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@Manutd_addicts No one believes you. You don’t defence a source and you won’t have that info 😂😂 give it a rest

[Mark Goldbridge @markgoldbridge]

Actually feel sorry for Delap. Will be expected to score hit the ground running when it's clear he's likely to be another project that may or may not work.

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge Some would say that’s toxic tweet from you

[The Swedish Rumble 🔰 @SwedishRumble]

Some thoughts on a very serious discussion that must be had, why there should be protests and why people should consider cancelling @SkySportsPL

A lot of focus around #MUFC right now on the January transfer window -- RKM, Nuno Mendes, Rashford, Casemiro, Antony and so forth.

🔺But does it even matter? Because when PGMOL treats United the way it does -- regardless how a team plays, you can't expect it to compete, right?

Take Michael Oliver as an example. He has worked 10 games with Manchester United the last 3 seasons (not 100%, stats for referees on VAR is a bit hard to come by, but as far as I can tell), during those 10 games he has awarded 5 penalties against Manchester United, non for them, and 1 red card to MUFC, and non to its opponent. Of all penalties he has awarded during 3 seasons, 25% are against United and 0% to United, red cards are around 18% to United. In perspective, with the benchmark being "5%" (1 in 20) -- that is a statistical deviation of 500% and and 360% respectively.

The -- two -- VAR interventions for penalties he has made against United are both absurd, and not even remotely close to the standard 'clear and obvious error', with Rasmus soft pull on Rodri's shoulder during a corner being the other besides the one against West Ham which must be the most absurd one in the history of the PL. Meanwhile, he has on almost a handful of occasions been behind completely absurd non-calls that would have given a penalty for United, its not just the Romero one.

Looking at yellow cards given for dissent -- he had when I checked in February 2024 given more than 70% of all yellow cards he had given to protesting players in all games reffed -- to United players. That is a statistical deviation of 1,400%. Oliver gave Amad another yellow for "dissent" on Saturday, when Amad after Martinez had scored kicked the ball bouncing towards him from the netting, back towards the goal. A yellow card? Sure, you could argue that, but this is a ref that don't give yellow cards for these things (or to be fair, didn't when I checked the 23/24 season, it takes a lot of work to follow up on this since you must check all event logs from the games he worked, and on the occasions the reason for a caution is not listed in the event log, you must check the actual game).

Over the course of a season, this cost United what, 10-15 pts? That is an absurd amount of pts.

🔺 In addition to the above, the referee in question carries the piquant attribute that he didn't see a problem in accepting very well paid side-gig from an owner of another PL team, Manchester City, so he did just that.

So that -- in combination with the referee displaying what must be perhaps the most undeniable and clear bias from a referee on the pitch in the PL ever -- surely must create a dream situation for the media covering the league who loves juicy stories? Nope, the Athletic, the Guardian and a bunch of others briefly covered the issue of Oliver working for City's owner, but I haven't seen a word mentioned about that since it happened.

🔺And this is surely the root of the issue. Because when Arsenal or Liverpool or Newcastle get a questionable call against them -- it is covered by the media for ages.

The journalists tied to the club covers the call from a club friendly perspective, and main stream media picks it up. Just check for yourself, take a controversial situation, like Pope's red card, Arsenal's all situations -- and check what the local correspondents of BBC or the Athletic or Sky or any of the newspapers are writing. And there are endless articles on it with a clear message criticizing the call. Besides the West Ham call -- do the same with United, and you can barely find a word written about them.

When a questionable call is made against United -- you are happy to get a replay, and on most occasions you don't even get that.

Above, there is a lot of focus on Oliver. But its not just him, when you check stats for penalties awarded for and against per touches in the penalty area (perhaps the most consistent stat/litmus test for refereeing) United is in the bottom for pens awarded and at the top for penalties given against a team (i.e. among the worst in both). Looking at the outcome of "VAR reviews" is very questionable since it seems completely arbitrary what gets reviewed or not -- but United is of course at the top for goals called off the last 3 years, penalties awarded against the club, etc.

Why? It never costs a referee a thing to make a controversial call against United. There will be no headlines. And to be brutally honest, not even the "fan base" cares. We know before a game is played that a referee will step in and decide it, it happens, and what does the fan do? A few angry tweets?

🔺And Sky is the worst, they not only systematically sweep these calls under the carpet, when its too obvious even for them to ignore, they bring on a hired hand to -- without exception -- justify the referee's call. Its clearly systematical and done with intent. You know you get "clicks"/viewings.

Note that the reason Sky can do this -- the reason Sky owns the PL rights and can assign so many journalists to cover it -- is your money. In fact, with United having the biggest fan base and drawing the highest viewership numbers -- nobody funds Sky's sabotage of United more than fans of United.

Could you even talk about this sabotage by Sky being criminal? In practice, its of course absurd, but in theory, it is clear that both situations would be blatantly criminal, with the only difference really lying in that one of them typically would be very easy to prove with CCTV footage etc and the other probably being practically impossible to prove. You can't willfully completely misrepresent something in public -- which we all know that Sky is doing -- knowing that it will damage someone else, just because it draws more clicks. Just like you can't smash someone else's window for whatever reason.

What can United fans do? If Sky covered these things fairly -- you would for example not see Oliver working United's games. I can't see why any Manchester United fan has any moral obligation to subscribe to Sky. Cancel it. Regardless what the club does on and off the pitch -- you can't compete in the PL being as tight as it is, if you are minus 15 pts or whatever in the table each season before it even starts.

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge @ThatsFootballTV Look to the right

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge It’s a second booking…

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge Clear booking mate t o be fair

[Mark Goldbridge @markgoldbridge]

Mountain to climb for Arsenal now

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge Hypocrite with de gea lover lol

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@MENnewsdesk You @samuelluckhurst do not speak on behalf of fans with questions. You are a poison that the United fan base are happy to be banned from the press conferences. Leave the player was manger to sort it out in future. You posting scripted BS doesn’t help anyone involved in club!!

[Mark Goldbridge @markgoldbridge]

1-1!

[DiR Designs @DiRdesigns]

@markgoldbridge It Luton….