Rival watch

Conceding goals, however, means that you can lose

It doesn't matter if you can score three at one end if you concede four at the other, as nobody apparently explained to Kevin Keegan - because a flat track bully can blitz the naive teams all day long, but they always run out of naive opposition a lot sooner than they hope

 

VAR will change football as have all the other rule changes and red and yellow cards etc. Television is the money provider and they love fouls, penaltys, offsides in fact all the things that can produce drama and disagreement. Never mind good football what's important is good television. You heard it during the commentary, 'VAR is here to stay' of course because TV want's it. The presenter at the end of the City game (USA TV) 'Never mind the football what about the VAR.'

All the bullshit arguments about getting the decisions right do not wash with me, many of the decisions they are already using it for come down to matters of opinion, we just have more people involved in those decisions.
A player scores and the ref waits for the decision, goodbye to the quick kick off from the team chasing the game, and so on.

VAR is a game changer for sure especially for TV.

 

Arsenal will be without Woezil and Kolasinac for their game against the Toon.

They might actually stand a chance, now.

 

Arsenal without Ozil?

Is it an away game?

 

You are either offside or you ain't...it makes no difference if it's a mm, a cm or a metre apart from the last one is careless by the attacker and the other two are a little unlucky.

Its like complaining that a goal is given cos its only a mm over.

The rule might need changing but offside is offside otherwise you get decisions favouring certain teams.

 

I think the complaint is that you cant even tell if hes offside or not. The cameras obviously arent directly in line. Theres no technology that defines exactly when the ball is kicked etc

 

Fair enough

 

Just seen City on MOTD - they look very sharp indeed. A serious test next weekend

 

Yeah, about that...

 

And I'd seriously question some of the footage we've seen them use, where the ball's clearly already been kicked and it's very marginal.

 

"Every time that we tried to arrive to their box, they committed 13 fouls." - Manuel Pellegrini on Man City.

Everyone knows that they do this, but the pundits all complete ignore it so that they can bang on about how great Guardiola is.
His teams play very attactive, attacking football, but they make extremely cynical fouls whenever they're caught out.
Teams break when they're overcommitted, they take someone out and the ref just gives a free-kick and no card.

 

I don’t know if it gets ignored totally by the pundits, on MOTD last night they did a piece on Rodri and one of the things they specifically highlighted was his willingness to make those tactical fouls. The pundits are certainly wising up to it at any rate, even if they haven’t made enough of it in the past. It’s always been a feature of Pep’s teams, and arguable every successful team ever has had one player who knows the ‘dark arts’.

I agree it’s definitely underpunished by the refs though, although in all fairness if several players make one or two in a game rather than one player making 5 or 6 then its harder to book for cumulative offences.

 

Just like Steptonho's teams - which was equally overlooked by pundits, by and large

 

The pundits are saying Man U v Chelsea will be America's match of the year with the buying of a certain American player.Really> Who cares?

 

Shouldn't it be Fulham Vs Stoke, as that'll be Tim Ream and Cameron Carter-Vickers looking to prove who the daddy of Yankee centre backs is?

 

It’s not like we don’t have our own set of ****houses and I for one bloody love them! Like anything in this vein though, we all love those players when they wear a Spurs shirt

 

I wonder what Steve Bruce will bring to Newcastle? A stronger defensive attitude? Well that might keep them up.
I thought Carroll was " finished" according to Hammer fans.....but you never know!

 

Difference is ours are players first ****ehouses second, Steptonho prefers them to be ****ehouses only

 

Could be but they aren't on the telly……?

 

Why are there two 2pm games today? Seems rather pointless.