Daniel Podence wasn’t a happy man judging by his Instagram story following Wolves’ defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Mike Dean booked nine different players during the Midlands derby, including sending off Villa’s defensive rock Douglas Luiz and Wolves’ experienced orchestrator, Joao Moutinho.
On his Instagram story, Podence first showed two clips of the on-field referee giving a foul against Podence when he adjudged that he brought down Tyrone Mings, who was trying to stop the Wolves man from hitting Villa on the counter-attack – he simply added a one-word caption to that clip: ‘Lol’.
He then showed a clip of Adama Traore claiming for a penalty in the second half when the Wolves man thought he was brought down by Jack Grealish.
The final clip Podence showed was of Moutinho being shown a second yellow card for his foul on Jacob Ramsey with the caption – “Respect, please. We are not playing for fun’.”
Whilst the showman Mike Dean got a number of decisions wrong on the day, it’s interesting how Podence, who joined Wolves for £16.6 million in the summer [BBC Sport], failed to mention the Roman Saiss handball in the first half.
The ball hit the Wolves defender in the ‘red zone’ of his arm, which is deemed a penalty, but VAR opted against giving a spot-kick, which was one of a number of controversial decisions made on the day.
But this is just the norm in today’s game, and with the games coming thick and fast during this festive period, the likes of Wolves and Villa will find themselves on the back end of more ridiculous calls.
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