Can’t speak for anyone else of course . I today am full of confidence that if we can carry on like this we WILL be ok . Nothing is ever guaranteed , but I am very optimistic. And trust me , that’s not like me at all
As l wrote yesterday FLT, Richard Keys said to Andy Gray on Bien Sports; if it had been at the other end of the pitch and it was Bertie challenging Young a penalty would have been given. Gray agreed.
Fran, VAR is needed to get some honesty back into the game and to support officials because the game is now played at such a high tempo. Yesterday, had VAR be used properly and effectively (the issue for the present is not the principle but the application) then we could have been 3 goals up at half time. If ever there was a case for VAR; it was yesterday.
That would have been soft imo. You could argue that would have been given against us, but that doesn’t make it right. The first was more straightforward, and I can see why Saints fans felt cheated. Still not sure it’s a penalty though; I haven’t accepted that players are “entitled to go down” at the slightest contact.
Anyone who thinks VAR will lead to better decision making needs to review Morata’s disallowed goal for Atletico vs Juve the other night. Literally the worst decision I have seen for years, given after the ref reviewed the video evidence
Serious question for you Fats; when you were playing (back in the days of curlie perms and super-short shorts), was your first instinct, when your shirt was tugged or you felt a hand on your back in the box, to go down and claim a pen? Or did you accept a bit of contact, even when plainly deliberate, as part of the game, and concentrate on trying to score?
Every club in the prem need to start practicing penalties in preparation for next season. There's going to be at least three in every game!
When I was younger, If there was a chance of a goal, I’d do all I could do get to the ball. Later, towards the end of my playing days, I would go down if there was a firm contact.
Watching the lads of BT sport screaming that the player should 'take the contact' and go go down, well it makes me wonder why they don't just go the next step and open a dive school for conning the refs. Might as well, if we are going to chastise a player for actually staying on his feet.
Understand why the first one was not given, the ref had no view of the shirt tug and I didn’t see it watching on tv at the time. The only reason I thought it was a pen was a faith that Bertrand would not dive when through for a goal scoring opportunity and thankfully that faith was earned. The 2nd one Bertrand was not going to get the ball and went down a bit easily with a case of the why nots. Even the penalty that was given was very soft imo, but I’d still prefer to watch football where you’re allowed contact
As we all would. But the debate seems to be, the big club get the decisions, and we frankly don't. Had it been the other way round, he would have blown.
I don't have that much to say that's different, but here's a few things. Difference between Arsenal and this match is that Arsenal scored their easy chances in the first 20 minutes. So were we unlucky or lucky? Depends which bits you want to count. All 5 goals were a little bit weird so it's hard to judge based on that. I thought we pressed 10 times better after Austin went off, but he's been praised more on here so maybe I'm wrong about that. Overall they had the first 20 minutes of each half but we were better afterwards. Prowse could barely walk at the end, I would have put Moi or HeskethSlattery on at 2-2. Maybe that's the price of playing 3 CMs. But we didn't drop back as some people always like to say, it was just a slightly fortunate bounce for their only open play half-chance to win. I'm bored of reading about the refs again, which is a good sign that you're all going on too much about it. (actually I could bang on forever, but come on guys) I didn't sell my spare ticket to a tourist unlike everyone else, so all the glory to me. I wonder if the club might get a strongly worded letter about that. I know it's touristy but I don't care, it was a really good day. There are still Redmond haters around. Mentalists.
Kept writing long posts, but computer refused to upload them. Turned it off to start again, but can't be arsed to write them again. Let's just say they were intelligent, well argued and researched. Yep, let's go with that.
