“Questionable” whistles every week
Angry “Lilien” keeper rages against Bundesliga referees
November 4, 2023, 5:44 a.m
A week after the slap at FC Bayern, newly promoted Darmstadt 98 lost again in the Bundesliga. Goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen is not at all happy with a decision made by referee Marco Fritz. And wants to see the system behind it.
After the defeat against Bochum, Darmstadt goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen complained about what he considered a “clearly wrong decision” by referee Marco Fritz. The angry 30-year-old was referring to a scene in the 1:2 against VfL on Friday evening in which the cautioned guest captain Anthony Losilla did not see the yellow-red card. Losilla shot the ball away after a foul, delaying the game. “Clearly because Losilla has been there for a long time and is a fox,” said Schuhen at DAZN.
The referees in the Bundesliga would disadvantage the Lilies in several ways, criticized Schuhen. “It gets on your nerves, week after week.” In Schuhen’s opinion, a handball should have been whistled before Harry Kane’s dream goal from 55 meters almost a week ago at FC Bayern (0:8). “The most important thing is that we don’t make ourselves smaller than we are,” said the goalkeeper. “It really annoys me. It’s a clear wrong decision for me. Look at all the interviews. I’m very self-critical and have never said anything like that before, but people need to talk about it.”
Bochum’s coach Thomas Letsch understood the hosts’ anger, but also admitted that he would not have agreed with a sending off: “From Darmstadt’s point of view, I understand that they are upset, but we have all known Anthony Losilla for a while now. He is spying the ball away, but if he flies off the pitch for it, then I’ll go crazy. He’s a totally fair player and it was completely okay for me like that.”
Gifts annoy Lieberknecht
His teammate, captain Fabian Holland, was shown a red card against Bochum in the 70th minute for an emergency stop. If VfL had also received a dismissal, “then the fire would burn here,” said Schuhen, referring to the mood of the home fans in the stadium at the Böllenfalltor. Incidentally, he himself was involved in the second goal; his weak shot initiated the attack, which double packer Takuma Asano punished coldly. It is not the first time this season that the newcomer has publicly struggled with the referees’ whistles.
At the end of September, coach Torsten Lieberknecht compared the Bundesliga to a “club vacation.” In a bizarre interview with DAZN, the 50-year-old said after a 1:3 (1:2) defeat at VfB Stuttgart: “For 25, 30 years, the same faces always go to the Robinson Club or I have no idea which club, and then comes Just add a new guest and then we see how they behave, what they wear.” Lieberknecht described the video referee in Cologne as a “bartender who also has an opinion and says: You, pay attention, the new guests are not what we imagine.”
This time, Lieberknecht held back from the controversial scene against Bochum. “We’re giving the Bochum team the win with two individual mistakes and two goals for which Bochum doesn’t have to do anything. That annoys me even more than what I see as the yellow-red card. In addition, for me there’s a penalty situation with Luca Pfeiffer, too which are not being discussed now, but I don’t understand why people aren’t even looking at it,” he said. “But I’m sticking with us. We controlled the game in the first few minutes. Then there was a phase in which Bochum gave us a pass. In the second half there were gifts for the opponent again.”