FFS, we all said at the time it looked close. In fact, in the first picture Sky showed it looked like his whole foot was off, but, as with Mo in Bobby's first against Brighton, you accept the word. Did think it was odd they never drew a line though. That said, it was deffo more offside than Mane's elbow was in the build-up to Hendo's last-gasp 'winner' against the ****e that was disallowed by VAR in the Oliver ****show derby. And knobends on the prem Board still belch out that 'LiVARpool' drivel...
VAR unable to check possible Bukayo Saka offside before Arsenal goal vs Liverpool due to technical error - Liverpool Echo
It's funny that during the game, the people with multiple screens and cameras can't seem to get an image of the pitch showing Saka clearly offside that's readily available after the game.
I said at the time that looked very close to offside. Saka back leg was pointing out and looked closer to the cut of the grass than the last defender, however given they were showing it, I assumed at the time must have just been the angle of the camera giving false view.
Tbh he looked what I’d call pre-var ‘level’ so no huge issue with it being allowed. Would be pissed if was flagged offside and not like gained huge advantage given he was running back towards own goal, no defender was near him and he then ran 30 yards with the ball with our defence goal side. Wouldn’t say he gained an advantage.
I've never understood the "running back from an offside position" thing anyway. If you're onside when receiving the ball and running away from the goal then you're not gaining an advantage. Perhaps I'm missing something.
There are very specific scenarios where I would say you are gaining an advantage. If you’re behind someone and ball is played and your offside but then come back infront of them to get the ball then you’ve gained an advantage. But agree, in most scenarios you don’t really gain an advantage. In same way if your shoukder is offside and you score with your foot, not sure how you’ve gained an advantage. does seem over years and since var, def lost the meaning of what offside was brought in for.
the running back thing was something toyed with in the past where a player facing away from goal could be ignored as being involved in play. at this point its totally redundant as the rules is so radically messed with that if a ball goes towards nunez and his market kicks it bt he doesn't try then nunez is NOT offside yet his marker only acted cos the player was there. its all messed up imo the whole thing about offside is that it can be boiled down to the simple parts of the rule. "Are you ahead of the ball and second to last defender when the ball is kicked." its is only then the clarifying crap comes in. thats where all these cases of did you run after the ball or not, did you get in someone's eye line and so forth. theres so many clarifications that the simplicity of the rule is lost. BUT most clarifications benefit the attacker!
You are, in this case. Offside was originally brought in back in the days of yore, primarily to deter goal-hangers as you'd get in the playground. If players just lingered outside the box and rushed back to meet a punt upfield before a defender got back it would force defences to hang back with them. You can't be offside from a goal kick - note how further back the line is compared to a goalie kicking it out of their hands.
Why can't forcing a defence to stay back not be a legitimate tactic? No different from a high defensive line forcing an attacker to stay back.
I think there's also a benefit to be had when a player is offside by a long way but out wide and not interfering with play and then the play catches up with him, he's no longer offside, receives a pass and goes through to score or assist.
For the good of the game. Imagine you have 2 forwards stuck not moving from 18 yard line. means you’d need 4 defenders to be back there with them as can’t leave them on their own. So then your midfield have the whole rest of pitch to cover. Would be totally pointless game.
Sorry maybe I misunderstood. I thought you were suggesting it to be fine for forwards to stand behind the defence and not be classed as offside, as a legitimate tactic to force defenders to defend deeper?
He was alluding to the original purpose of outside being introduced; to not gain an unfair advantage... aka goal hang. If you're slightly offside and running towards your own half, you've not gained an advantage on terms of the original intention of the rule.
Hm in my view you can still gain an advantage though. Saka I don’t think gained an advantage. He was level with the last defender, but not like he snuck up on a defender from behind. He had 40 yards of space! However, imagine player is behind the defender in the box. Ball gets played forward, defender is about to clear it and guy runs from behind defender (from offside to onside) gets there before the defender who ends up kicking him as didn’t know was there and it’s a penalty. the attacker has clearly gained an advantage by behind behind the defender and out of his vision.
Yes, you misunderstood my point - but I thought you were in on the conversation early enough to understand what I meant. In your example above you have a point, but the same scenario could happen when the attacker comes from behind from an onside position - so maybe it's up to the defender to be aware of what's around him, and if caught out he gets punished. Still, it's a debatable point and your view is valid. This is all nit-picking a bit though, I was thinking of broader scenarios where an attacker who is slow to get back onside when his side launch a ball forward manages to get back on to receive it before a defender. There are a number of situations where it might give an advantage, I suppose it depends on what one considers to be an "unfair" advantage. I still think offside unfair in that a central attacker can be offside with a CB almost next to him, but another time played on by an FB 20 or more yards away near touch who has no chance of intercepting him. It's a purely arbitrary rule introduced to prevent blatant goal-hanging and the precision judgements required these days are neither practical or particularly desirable, imo.
