MOT View: Coote to referee Leeds v Fulham, fans not happy

Dave is a huge Leeds fan and ardent disciple of Bielsa ball. A career in print magazines that included editing PC Zone, launching PokerPlayer and redesigning The Big Issue has finally led Dave to writing about the love of his life, Leeds United. It’s been a tough 2020 but the single scariest moment was the first quarter of the game against Man City. Rodrigo will be the saviour this season.

Published on:

17 Mar 2021, 1:40 am

David Coote has been announced as the referee for the Leeds United game against Fulham on Friday night and some fans are already fearing the worst.

The news was relayed by BBC journalist Adam Pope and the string of replies leave it very clear what the Leeds fans think about Coote.

David Coote will ref the Fulham v #lufc match pic.twitter.com/fjvIjiMOVk
— Adam Pope (@apopey) March 16, 2021

At the time of writing, there were over 50 replies to the news and none of them were good.

This one sums up what the Leeds fans think.

5 conceded, 0 for 🙄

Zero confidence he'll allow anything our way, especially after the sheer stupidity of some his decision making in the wolves and spurs games.
8 defeats and 1 win in his last 9 games as ref doesn't bode well for an evenly balanced affair 👎
— (P)ablo 💙💛🤍🏆 (@WhinmoorWhite) March 16, 2021

It's not a surprise.

Coote made the headlines for all the wrong reasons earlier in the season when he failed to take any action against Jordan Pickford for a horror tackle that saw Virgil van Dijk ruled out for the season.

Danny Murphy claimed that Coote had "bottled it" and said that he should be pulled from his next game.

Coote refereed and Leeds lost 1-0 to Wolves. We also lost both other games that Coote has taken charge of this season – 3-0 against Spurs and another 1-0 against Wolves.

Coote didn't have a good game in any of these in our opinion, missing lots of incidents in the Spurs game and the reverse fixture against Wolves.

It wasn't just Leeds fans who were angry with Coote after, with Wolves fans livid about an incident involving Tyler Roberts.

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey was talking about Coote after the Pickford incident before going on to say, "I hate to criticise fellow colleagues but over the last six to seven years the standard is dropping alarmingly, at all levels." [Liverpool Echo]

Leeds fans feel that we've been harshly treated this season, with a penalty given against Robin Koch in the first game of the season that wouldn't be handball now.

We've also had two goals really harshly ruled out for offside, both from Patrick Bamford.

Coote might be seen as preferable by Leeds fans to Mike Dean, but there's a weary air of resignation among the supporters after he was announced.

We've already got the London curse to deal with on Friday and now we've got Coote to contend with, too.

Hopefully, he won't be making the headlines again after this game.

In other Leeds United news, View: Bielsa to make huge change after big injury setback – Predicted Leeds starting XI v Fulham

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david coote