MARK WARBURTON, the Rangers manager, believes better communication could be the key to improving refereeing standards in Scottish football. The performances of our top officials have come under intense scrutiny once again this season and Andrew Dallas found himself at the centre of a storm during Rangers’ Petrofac Training Cup win over Livingston on Tuesday evening.
Dallas took no action against Kieran Gibbons for a late lunge on Nathan Oduwa, the on loan Tottenham Hotspur winger, which saw him require treatment inside the opening minute of the match at Ibrox. Oduwa was substituted at half-time by Warburton after a bruising first 45 minutes of action but is likely to be fit to face St Mirren tomorrow afternoon.
The Rangers manager stated this week that players like Oduwa should be given protection by officials from over-zealous challenges after a ‘frustrating’ game that saw his side emerge 1-0 winners at the end of a tumultuous 90 minutes. Warburton is not the first manager in Scotland to be left bemused by controversial calls from referees and he hopes dialogue between clubs and officials will prove worthwhile.
“It is easy to use you guys to criticise individuals and talk about what could have been better but I think we have got to improve the lines of communication,” he said. “It is not enough for coaches and managers to shout and scream. But, at the same time, standards have to improve.
“That was an incident, but there have been many such incidents. It is not just tackles, which are the obvious ones. It could be time keeping, it could be tunnel discipline, it could be many other aspects that we have got to improve upon. I think the powers at be at keen to do so.”
The use of video technology has long been touted as a potential tool to help referees and ensure that correct calls are made more often than not in difficult situations. The implementation of Hawkeye south of the border has alleviated potentially costly errors regarding goals, while a touchline monitor for managers to view has also been talked about in some quarters.
Warburton and assistant David Weir were spoken to by Dallas for their protests in the dugout on Tuesday night and the former Brentford boss is keen to give officials as much help as they can to ensure more big decisions are being called correctly.
"All sport is getting faster, quicker, stronger,” Warburton said. “Look how hard it is. You watch an incident in a football match and you watch it a dozen times and still half the panel are saying left and half are saying right! How hard is it for these guys when they have half a second to make a decision.
“It's so, so difficult for them. So he or she has got to be given every bit of assistance, it's as simple as that and we have got to find ways of helping these people.
“People who are far brainier than I am could look into it, but we have got to find a way. The demands on the referees are getting ever greater, the game is getting ever quicker and the public are getting more demanding. Admission prices are going through the roof, so it's a combination of events and you need to see improvement where you can."
After emerging victorious on Tuesday night to set up a semi-final meeting with St Mirren, Rangers will face Ian Murray’s side on Championship duty tomorrow aiming to record their eleventh successive win in the second tier.
Warburton is continuing to monitor the progress of former Barcelona and Manchester City midfielder Gai Assulin as he looks to bolster his squad once again. Further discussions will also take place with Arsenal over the future of midfielder Gedion Zelalem, who Warburton is keen to retain until the end of the season.
"We always talk with Arsenal and we talk about how he is progressing,” he said. “They watch him every game. These clubs are very, very professional. They always have representatives watching. They look at every touch the player makes, they look at data, runs made, jumps made. It's a detailed science now. They look at whether their assets are improving and it is up to us to make sure they get the information they need."
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