Man City midfielder Rodri lamented the inconsistent performance of Premier League referees.
In Man City’s recent match against Newcastle, Rodri was given a yellow card in the 45+4 minute after a foul on Bruno Guimaraes. Immediately afterwards, the Spanish midfielder reacted to referee Chris Kavanagh. At the end of the match, Rodri and Bernardo Silva went to question the referee team about the inconsistency between the decisions in the match.
Apparently still not satisfied, Rodri recently participated in an interview where he complained that he struggled to understand the rules in the Premier League at the moment. The 27-year-old midfielder said: “Honestly, the referee in the Newcastle match worked in an extremely negative way.
We don’t understand much of what happened. We also felt the referee’s decisions were unsatisfactory in some situations. It’s hard to stay calm. The referee didn’t help much, but we didn’t need help either. What we need is fairness for both sides. And I think last Saturday’s match did not do it.
This season, I received 7 yellow cards. 2-3 cards are due to tackles. As for the rest, I don’t know why I was punished. But that’s how the referees control the game.”
This season, Rodri has been suspended twice. The first time was due to a direct red card in the Nottingham match, and the second time was because he “accumulated” 5 yellow cards and was suspended from playing in the Aston Villa match. After the match against Aston Villa, the former Atletico Madrid star received 2 more yellow cards, so he only has 3 more cards left and will be banned again.
Also in the interview, Rodri expressed frustration with Ederson’s injury situation. Specifically, in that phase, a Newcastle player was offside but the referee did not blow the whistle, causing the Brazilian goalkeeper to rush out to tackle and eventually get injured.
“We suffered a loss because of this offside situation. I think that’s ridiculous. Things could have been worse, but fortunately it was just a kick,” Rodri said.