I'd have congratulated him on having a job with such a small brain. Though I'm not sure sports hack actually qualifies as a job.
So, Spurs game. Should that be a free-kick or offside right at the end? Fulham plays a slow ball forward, gets fouled but the player he's passing to gets flagged offside. Taylor appears to blow for a foul then changes his mind to offside. However, the foul occurs before the offside player touches the ball so the free should stand imo.
honestly the way they have butchered the rule you.could interpret it any way you like. the player is offside at the point the ball is played forward, not where he touched the ball. the rule has so many provisos and clarifications now that while the player might be in an offside position but has not interfered so has committed no offense. therfore this comes down to absolutely entirely the refs interpretation of whether the foul was committed prior to the other player offending. in this case did the linesman fall too quickly? remember trent was called offside by moving to take a throw in after the ball went out as he should have stood still until the ball went out according to that "clearly unbiased prick" ref you don't need to touch it to be offside. the ref can basically decide anyway he chooses
Spurs go top. If we had drawn with spurs without that last minute own goal. All 4 teams at the top would be on 21 points. Stupidly close after 9 games. Some interesting games coming up Arsenal - sheff H, Newcastle A, Burnley H. Should be minimum 6 points liverpool - forest H, Luton A, Brentford H. Should be 9. City - United A. Burnley H. Chelsea A. Honestly could be anything there but minimum 6. Spurs - palace a, chelsea H, wolves away. 2 potential tricky ones. Could be anything there as well but you’d expect minimum 6
the only hard game in that for a title challenger is newcastle away. city should get 9 spurs should get 9 we certainly should get 9 arsenal have the only game where dropped points are acceptable on the ground of tip 4 rival away from home.
A player is offside when the ball is kicked of course, but he is only penalised when he plays the ball or is deemed to be interfering in some sort of action. If a player is in an offside position and doesn't touch the ball or interfere we never see them given offside do we? To me, the first incident is the important one, that's how it seems to work in every other type of play, so from the moment the player is fouled any further technical violation is void, surely? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't get it.
Why is Garth Crooks so bitter towards Liverpool? In his team of the Week (had to wait till Monday night till Spurs played of course to publish, seen it done on Sunday before when other clubs are playing Mon) he picked Virgil and Salah, but barely writes about how these two actually played. Instead he takes a pop at other Liverpool players, the officials and the 'injustice' for Everton. "Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool): Was Everton's Ashley Young's sending off for a second bookable offence really necessary? If it was then Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate had to go. Young's tackle was a genuine one to try and win the ball. Konate's challenge on Beto was cynical and crude and what the yellow card was designed for but the Liverpool defender didn't receive one for the challenge in question. Fortunately for Liverpool they have Virgil Van Dijk in defence who is slowly coming back to some kind of form" "Mohamed Salah (Liverpool): Referee Craig Pawson's inability to show some discretion in the Merseyside derby exposed him once he failed to exercise any consistency. Neither was it helped by Luiz Diaz who rolled over at least five times for dramatic effect after Young had fouled him. Meanwhile Mo Salah is back to his brilliant, unselfish and supportive best and has erased the sort of antics now effecting Luiz Diaz. It's time Salah had a word with Diaz." To me this kind of writing is appalling from someone who is supposed to be picking an impartial best of the week and shouting the virtues of those who played well over the weekend. And just to compare with others he picked. "James Maddison (Tottenham): This player was made for this club. Not since Christian Eriksen have Spurs had a real football technician in midfield. He scored his first goal at home for the club against Fulham but this is a player who should be scoring on a far more regular basis. He does however have the ability to carve open the opposition almost at will and create openings for others to put the ball in the back of the net. He's a lovely footballer and has Spurs playing proper football again" "Erling Haaland (Manchester City): If scoring goals means as much to Erling Haaland as it clearly showed when he put Manchester City 2-0 up against Brighton then I think their recent difficult period may be over. The Norway striker seems to have recovered his appetite for goals again with a glimpse of the kind of ruthlessness that has made him one of the most feared strikers in the world. City face BSC Young Boys in the Champions League in midweek and it is a chance for him to add to his goal tally. I'm convinced that Haaland needs the constant flow of goals and without them he's like a fish out of water" So what does Crooks have against us?
He's a prick - as if he watches all the games anyway. Even his praise of Virgil is mealy-mouthed: "Fortunately for Liverpool they have Virgil Van Dijk in defence who is slowly coming back to some kind of form" And he doesn't know the difference between effect and affect so I'd give him a kicking just for that.
I stopped reading anything by Garth Crooks 15 years ago, and stopped watching him on final score as soon as I could afford Sky/bt.
I look at his TotW sometimes just to see if he's managed to include anyone that didn't score a goal, but I rarely read his accompanying drivel. It's just a bit of space-filler, I doubt anyone cares what he thinks.
I half expect him to turn up with a monocle one day and go the whole hog on the Chris Ewbank tribute act.
There was the anomaly last season, maybe one before, when one of ours (not Salah) was called offside from an Alisson spectacular goal kick. Something that VAR doesn't look at.
Flagged by lino, referee blew the whistle and opposition got a free kick. (I'm looking for the video, unsuccessfully so far).
No. It was a European game, I think. Alisson does one of his long goal kicks to one of ours in acres of space. I remember thinking at the time - do the European referees not know that you can't be offside from a goal kick. The whistle went immediately so there was no goal and therefore no VAR.
Ah, I know what you mean now. I didn't know you couldn't be offside from a goal kick until it happened, not something that happened very often.
