I'll be watching MOTD tonight but it just doesn't feel right. If these results had happened during a normal season, in front of crowds, they'd be sensational. As it is you can see some players seem distracted and half hearted. I wonder how Everton supporters would feel winning the title in a fan-less season ... ... and will some people dismiss it as a fake win?
Aye, it’s all a bit surreal. The players should be fully focussed though? Some random league winners this season though?
I think this weekend at the elite level I have witnessed players just get on with it, no abuse from the sidelines, the noise pumping in has been largely out of context aswell, old Trafford still chanting “united” 1-6 down, it is what is is, would Everton take it, damn right they would
If we were there and we won it I’d be over the moon!!! Obviously I’d rather be there but if we win it it’d soften that blow!!
Kind of feels like half a real season. It all seems pretty legit and the players look they're used to it now but there's still a heavily surreal cloud hanging over it. It'd help a lot if fans were allowed back in. It's fairly inexplicable that they aren't, outdoor events with distancing are very low risk.
I'm so detached at this point. The news over here is making it sound incredibly grim in Europe and the US. If they're not just doom mongering, it sounds like it's a matter of time before it's all stopped. Shame. Because the premier league is off to an utter cracker.
The way I think about it is that this virus and the situation we find ourselves in has affected everyone to some degree,depending on their circumstances,some in a large,fundamental way,some not so large. People sometimes aren't aware of it.Footballers will have been affected by it too.....they have wives and girlfriends,children,parents and grandparents, their privilege and wealth doesn't exclude them from some of the effects. I've no idea,but it could explain some of these bizarre performances.....we may all tend to behave differently when we're wandering around in the unknown and nothing is the same as it was.
I cant help feeling that some of these 'silly' results we're seeing are down to the fact there are no fans on the ground. Elite well-honed players just need to drop their game by a small % and imo this is how we're having craziness.
Yes. A match with a false crowd is ludicrous and distracting. A match with no crowd feels like a friendly. Method I've settled on is check the line up, do something else while it's being played, then look at the final score, as if I'd been at work or summat. Not perfect but closest I've got to taking it seriously.
Doom mongering is par for the course. Most people are at work, cases are rising, fatalities are rising very slowly. Life will go on, as it has to. A virus can't be stopped until there is a vaccine. This could be years or forever away so we'll have to live with it. I think Aus have had a very low amount of infections so far? As with NZ however, it hasn't gone away and it won't; you cant get the bubbles back in the bottle. As for the footy, yes it definitely feels false to me. Like a reserve game. If the crowds aren't in by the end of the season, then football as a whole is looking over a precipice.
Australia has still had less than 1000 deaths. Victoria, the problem state which has had me locked in my flat for the last 6 months is now getting about 10 cases a day. I dread to think what the economy will look like on the other side of this. They're already fiddling with figures to cover the unemployment rates.
That's the thing. Politicians all over the world are desperate not to be " blamed" for every covid death, which is absurd. Far more people, here it is about 99% , die of other things. It is time a more adult approach was taken. However, that would mean not just politicians, but here the BBC particularly and including others, trying to report properly instead of engaging in daily pathetic gotcha hunts and vox pops. Such journalism is almost dead now though, certainly in TV . Whether we like it or not we have to live with it, as we have had to live with other threats down the ages.
In a way Stewart Donald did me a favour killing safc with his lame duck ownership, an international epidemic isn’t much of a problem compared to that
dunno about fake but really surreal...the lack of fans seems to be proving that the big players NEED that reaction, need to hear their names, the applause, the rest who normally would not get all those headlines are just getting on with playing the game, i think it will settle in time and the 2nd half of the season we will see normal service resumed but will it be too late by then? could lead to a few surprises yet and maybe shock champions, my own thoughts are that it could be a very tight season, especially in the premier...i mean, the mags...1 attempt at goal (penalty) in 3 or 4 games and still in the top half.
Football has been gradually losing its hold on me for years. The result of this pandemic has meant it has further loosened its grip.
Having no crowd there and some of the crazy results gives everything a pre season friendly flavour. I've noticed I don't have quite the same feeling either as I didn't get any sort of nerves after Flanno got sent off on Saturday. Any other time my nails would have been savaged in that last 15 minute period.
There's the constant, if so far distant, threat that the season won't finish. When you see idiotic PL players partying, while others are testing positive, it makes you wonder.
Know exactly what you mean mate quite surreal watching the Liverpool and Man U games From our point of view though I think the lack of crowds is actually helping us. For me its showing up the awful quality of the teams in this league Most games we played last two seasons has been like a cup match for the opposition But with no crowds And no big game atmosphere teams are showing how ****e they really are. Sick and tired over the last 2 years of watching poor teams play their socks off and over perform at the SOL I know its ****e not being at the game and watching empty stadiums on a laptop is a bit soul destroying But I've a feeling we will actually benefit from it (famous last words)
I agree with all that mate. It's now up to the referees to stop favouring the 'underdogs' ... ... the ref on Saturday was disgraceful tbh.
He was mind. Almost as bad a Grahams finishing. But the standard of refereeing in this league is poor to say the least. I'm hopeful though that with no crowds they wont be playing up to get their 15 mins of fame Probably a good topic to revisit in the new year. If the leagues still going then.
