mike jones

Any contact (or lack of it) is irrelevant
If he jumped in with both feet off the floor like he appeared to do from the TV footage then it should have been a sending off
He got lucky – not that I’m complaining like, but it was very late & dangerous

I didn’t say it looked like he went in 2 footed, I said it looked like he jumped in with both feet off the floor – even with one foot leading & the other tucked underneath him then it should have been a sending off for dangerous play combined with being late & with excessive force.
I wasn’t there on Saturday so didn’t see what was going on from the Blackburn players but again that’s irrelevant just as if you get chopped down & turn round & smack the guy you still get sent off for violent conduct.
The challenge might look different from a different angle but from the one on shown on the BBC I’d agree with the Blackburn manager that he should have been sent off

Any chance that you can put the photo from instagram up on here so I can have a shufty?
Like I said, it doesn’t matter whether he touched him or not – If he’s jumped into the challenge with both feet off the floor (& again it doesn’t matter if he went into the challenge with 2 feet or not) then it is classed as dangerous, not reckless, as they class the player as having no control over the challenge at that point (i.e. he can’t stop or slow the challenge) & should by the laws have been a red.
Certainly from the TV angle that’s what it looks like he did
Also, I’m not saying that this is what happened but contact may have been avoided as the player saw McClean coming & stopped his movement/withdrew his body

Whether the Blackburn guy play acted or not doesn’t matter when deciding whether McClean should have walked or not, although if he did you could caution him for simulation

Not sure what the Rovers fan means by everything happens after this picture. Unless James goes back in time at some point. Why would he not scream at a player for trying to get him sent off? As for Grant Hanley’s response…..well.

He did put it on.

Gary Bowyer is using that incident to deflect away from a piss poor performance from his side imo.

No it isn’t – Going in 2 footed means just that i.e. both feet are going in to the challenge at roughly the same time
Going in with both feet off the floor can be used to describe the above but can also be used to describe a challenge whereby a player goes in to the challenge with one foot but the trailing foot/leg is also off the floor. And I don’t mean a centimetre or inch but caused by the player deliberately jumping in to the challenge as the TV footage appeared to show (although the photo doesn’t).
What makes it dangerous in the eyes of the FA & co is that once a player is in mid air he has no control over the rest of that challenge if it turns out he’s misjudged it
That makes it every bit a sending off as someone who jumps in with both feet towards the ball.

The photo appears to show McClean’s trailing leg was on the floor but that it catches the player after he’s released the ball so the ref got it bob on – free kick & caution for a reckless (didn’t get the ball & the challenge was late) challenge

I can also imagine that due to the speed McClean was travelling at that, that when his trailing leg clatters the Blackburn players kicking foot that it might have smarted a bit & knocked him on his @r$e. Not saying he didn’t make the most of it but to say there was no contact & he put it all on isn’t true in my opinion

Didn’t see the other challenge to be able to give an opinion on it but from your description the difference quite clearly is that the opponent won the ball – McClean didn’t get anywhere near the ball & clattered in to him (relatively) long after it had gone
It was a foul any day of the week

2 flaws with your edited part – intent is subjective & there’s no way to decide or prove whether most fouls were deliberate
Secondly the way you described the challenge is almost the definition of reckless. He’s gone in in such a way that if he doesn’t make contact with the ball with his intended foot he has no way of withdrawing from the challenge or from clattering him with a different part of his body after the ball has gone. You could see early on that he wouldn’t make it in time but he still went into the challenge. It was a foul & it was reckless.
To say it shouldn’t even have been a foul coz he didn’t clatter him with his intended tackling foot is bizarre

Football is a contact sport. Always has been & always will be & whilst I don’t like the way some of the more physical side of football has been ruled out of the game, some forms of contact have always been against the laws of the game & that type of challenge is one of them.
If you went with your example you’d just have players clattering each other after the ball & claiming it was alright coz they’d gone into the challenge with the other leg

And Callum McManaman was genuinely going for the ball when he pole axed that Geordie fella a couple of seasons back, but it was still mistimed & the manner he executed the tackle was dangerous so if the ref had seen it properly he’d have walked
Likewise I don’t doubt McClean was genuinely going for the ball but he was never going to get it & his challenge was ill judged and poorly timed & having made no contact with the ball he was not going to be able to pull out of the challenge & his follow through caught the player.
Hence it was a foul & a caution for reckless play

The punishment for being reckless is meant to get players to use their judgement & know when they’re going to be able to get to the ball & to not challenge if they are unlikely to. In this occasion McCleans judgement was poor