"Napoli are held - Liverpool top the group." (BBC Football Live commentary) Tune in to White and Sawyer tomorrow, on TalkSpurt, and you will be able to hear Jim White rubbing himself raw.
I have been someone that was pro-VAR, but I am beginning to turn against it because it isn't being implemented in the right way or for the right reasons. Azpilicueta was offside for the 2nd goal Chelsea scored. They check the decision with VAR and it somehow is still given. Although Blind's challenge was stupid considering he was on a yellow, there was a foul on an Ajax player in that passage of play which the ref didn't spot. Had he done that, or had he checked VAR for that passage, the sequence of events that followed wouldn't have. Veltman's 'handball' for the penalty should not have been a handball. His hands were low and he tried to move his hands away from the ball. I don't know if he got a second yellow card for protesting too much or for the penalty decision, but either way, he (and Ajax) got massively screwed over. To be fair to the Chavs, Azpilicueta's second goal to make it 5-4 should have stood too. The initial shot from whichever Chelsea player it was hit Abraham's arm...when it was by his side and the ball was struck with such ferocity that he couldn't have moved it out the way. The ball rebounds to Azpilicueta who smashes it in. Looking at that incident in isolation, I would be very annoyed if Arsenal scored a goal like that and it was disallowed. There's simply no common sense being applied. Surely, they need to change/clarify these rules because it is causing more hassle than it was supposed to.
I really hate the concept of handball these days. It's ridiculous that factors such as distance from the ball/man aren't considered or the speed of a shot vs. reaction time of a person. Even when you jump to stop a cross, you don't instinctively jump with your hands by your side or behind your back. You jump using your arms to give you more momentum/height. That should be natural. Yet if the ball does hit any part of your arm in these scenarios, it's now deemed handball. Making a mockery of the game.
It shouldn’t have been hard to wheel VAR out in stages and learn as they go - starting with decisions that are absolutes. Offsides for example are absolute - all that is needed is to build in an allowance to account for frame rate on the footage with the benefit of the doubt being given to the attacking player within a certain margin. I’m also a strong advocate of broadcasting the audio feed of the ref all game, including his conversations with VAR, and giving them defined parameters for a conversation with the VAR in the same way rugby does with the TMO - “is there any reason why I cannot award the try” being a classic example of a different question to “try, yes or no”. It defines for the audience whether the ref has made a decision on field he is comfortable with and simply wants verification, or importantly it gives the ref a way of saying that actually they don’t know what happened because they were unsighted or whatever and don’t want to just guess, which I feel like football refs still are despite having VAR - maybe they don’t feel comfortable admitting they can’t draw a conclusion, and this might give them the structure they need to do it. Finally it seems absurd that VAR don’t seem to have access to all camera angles, this should surely be a reasonably easy fix.
We are rapidly approaching "touch football". Any player to player contact or ball to body contact (other than the foot) is being outlawed. When that happens, the game will be a kicking version of basketball. The officials/administrators need to get back to recognising that football is a physical, contact sport. There will be contact between players, the ball will be deflected on to players' arms from time to time - it is and always has been part of the game. Analysing footage of incidents frame by frame fails to recognise how events happen in real time where the game is played at speed and contact between players and with the ball can happen in the blink of an eye. No leeway is being given and the result is that games are being decided by this analysis after the event and by the subjective interpretation of an official with the benefit of hindsight and by reference to some artificial standard of perfection. This is football's unique problem. Every other major sport has managed to use technology to enhance the game whilst largely leaving it unchanged. Football is ruining it - tearing it limb from limb.
Can somebody please find and share the Ajax free kick that hits the post and goes in off the keepers face
I have never been less interested in watching football than I am now, us being rubbish is partly to blame, but our games are now the only ones I am really watching. In the past I would almost watch any match that was on and that is mainly due to the game I love slowly disappearing. When you see tackles like the Watford one on Saturday punished with a booking (and I only saw that on social media), then you get VAR constantly stopping and holding up our match on Sunday and they still get the decisions wrong, the law makers and VAR are ruining the sport that I love. Football is a simple game and should remain so, its the peoples game for a reason and one of those reasons is because the game that is played in the park on a Sunday morning by people like me (with very little talent), is virtually just a low grade version of the game played by the professionals, but new laws and VAR are changing that. I am not completely against technology, goal line tech is fantastic and now that the it exists it should be able to be introduced at every football league ground with no expense to the clubs. Other factual matters like offside can also be judged by VAR just as long as the law is changed to allow for level to be onside (that's any part of the body being in line with the last defender). Unfortunately I don't see that VAR is improving anything its current guise and it is supporters who are being short changed as always - We should be the lifeblood of the game and our voice should be heard - but TV rules the football world and VAR is giving them something new to talk about and that now seems more important than the game itself, eventually if it carries on then TV will finally kill off the beautiful game and we will be left with a the sterile non contact sport that seems to be their aim.
I'm quite sympathetic to goals not standing if they were assisted by accidental use of the hand. So for symmetry I suppose it ought to be a penalty if you accidentally prevent a goal with a hand. But that isn't how they have formulated the law....they need to rethink it.
I'm still expecting the Chelsea bubble to burst.They have been playing some average teams and getting away with it.
I mostly agree with this. But I would add that deliberate fouls should be much more harshly punished. For tackles and 50:50s the best outcome is that players can go in hard for the ball, with the safety of the other player being the main criterion for a foul. But pulling a player back or pulling a shirt are cheating pure and simple and should not give an advantage to the perpetrator.
Had a 26 Mill release clause this Summer gone but signed a new contract minus the release clause Like Levy is paying more
Arsenal should "break the bank" to bring Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers to the club, says former Gunners player Paul Merson. (Sky Sports) The knives are being sharpened. Quite a few Arsenal legends have voiced a lack of confidence in Emery, including the likes of Martin Keown and David Seaman.
"...with that spirit we can go places." (Frank Lampard speaking after the game with Ajax) You only got the draw because you were playing against 9 men!
