The Premier League Thread

I just admit, we benefitted from it this weekend (though on goals on Sunday they agreed it was offside), offside needs to be sorted.

I know it is black and white - on or off, but VAR is making it grey.

 

Must have missed that ... how random

 

Its dumb, you can never get the angle exactly accounted for, or the exact millisecond it takes to kick the ball.

Just make it clear and obvious errors, like it was intended. Not spending minutes analysing it to the most stupid degree

 

I like Souness's idea of if part of your body is onside rather than off then it goes in your favour.

 

Gary Lineker being a complete knob over VAR. He was vocal calling for it last season and now he's vocal in wanting it scrapped because it's not perfect. There was always going to be a season of confusion and inconsistency. VAR needs work but it will be a good thing. Everyone just needs to accept this season as an experiment. In the summer I believe they will tell referees to use the pitchside monitors more and offsides will be looked at.

 

In theory, yes.

But actually, is that not just changing where the attacking line gets drawn?

Sure, it will lead to more goals standing and a greater advantage to the attacking team (which is good). But it will still lead to instances where we looking at just millimetres as to whether the attacker is offside - and ultimately that is the biggest issue.

 

Bloody right. Stop the bringing it back, stuff in the buildup etc etc.

I know we may've benefited on Sat (though I think it looked more offside in realtime and the linesman would've flagged in previous seasons but now is suffering from terminal var-itus) but it's turning footy into some stupid stop-start game. How long before they insert ads into the var breaks.

 

Yep I rarely agree with him, but I do on this occasion.

 

Putting VAR aside from one moment, this illustrates the point I have been making for years. Namely that rather than people who constantly ask for consistent decisions, should actually be asking for correct decisions. But by masking it as wanting "consistency", it sounds like what they are asking for isn't that much to ask for.

Well we are now getting consistency. And people hate it.

 

I'm perfectly fine with the people who never wanted VAR wanting it scrapped. I get that. But for those who have been calling for it for years have got to like it or lump it quite frankly.

 

I think let's just get VAR done.

Oh wrong thread.

 

The offside rule was intended to stop goal hanging.

How much advantage to the team gain from having a shoulder a hairs width in front of the last man?

There has to be a better way

 

And there absolutely is. Bring in a clear and obvious aspect to VAR too, as you mentioned earlier.

Just because the PL might have technology to judge an offside to the nearest mm (and even that is exceptionally arguable, to be honest), doesn't mean they have to use it. They can use VAR however they want to use VAR. They choose not to use VAR for second yellow cards. They choose not to use VAR for throw-ins. They don't have to use VAR to judge an offside decision to the absolute margin. They are choosing to, but they can - and they should - change their mind.

Ditch the lines. Have a look a replay. Maybe two replays. If the decision from the linesman is clearly wrong, then overturn. If not, then stick with it.

I'm not going to get too worked up about it now, because we're in season one. As I've said before, I fully expect it to take at least three years to perfect VAR. So I'm very open to issues arising along the way (and it is right to highlight them). I would envisage changes being made every season. But if in, say, five years time I'm still seeing us waiting around two minutes whilst VAR tries to work out if an armpit is offside or not, then I won't be a happy bunny.

 

For me having an element of 'Umpire's Call' would be the way forward.

With these ultra-close offsides, stick with on-field decision if it can't be clearly and obviously overturned in e.g. under 30 seconds

 

I would make offsides naked eye only, we don't need all the lines across the pitch gimmicks, especially as it's not good enough to be 100% accurate at present

If a huge error has been made then it will only take one or two replays to see so. If it's not clear from two replays then stick with the onfield decision.

Yeah you might get the odd really tight one go against you, but I think most match going fans would accept that as it would never take longer than 30 seconds.





Well actually I'd lob var in a skip but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

Should have read ahead...

 

Completely disagree with that. Just need to apply more common sense to VAR offsides.

 

Care to elaborate on that? Do you mean leaving it down to the official to decide whether it's clear enough?

 

I mean you should be able to tell looking at one replay whether it's offside.

 

That'd pretty much what I said, except I said two replays?