I want this bit. VAR is great for picking up foul play/handball/offside etc but if a ref blows like in this situation the game should stop.
Ref was right anyway A goalkeeper is considered to be in control of the ball with the hand(s) when: the ball is between the hands or between the hand and any surface (e.g. ground, own body) or by touching it with any part of the hands or arms except if the ball rebounds from the goalkeeper or the goalkeeper has made a save holding the ball in the outstretched open hand bouncing it on the ground or throwing it in the air A goalkeeper cannot be challenged by an opponent when in control of the ball with the hand(s).
This is about common sense. Common sense says villa didnt lose the cl beasue of a ref. They lost cl because they.were 9th and had to go on a massive run just together involved They lost cl because their keeper decided to assault onoe of the worst ever man itd forwards rather than force him wide and rush him into shooting off his wrong foot etc. They lost cl because they didn't track runner they coughed up a huge chance to utd who scored If they want an easy excuse when circumstances say that others lost so they only needed a point but failed then thr ref is the perfect patsy. He got the red card right so others can comment on his general performance. We've seen plenty of big time refs blow up too soon on various occasions
Since they were in the Championship, Villa have spent heavily and gambled on success to avoid PSR problems. So far it's worked and they've been ok, but this may cause them issues. In which case it might good to blame the refs and distract from the owners if they have to start selling.
Only he wasn’t in control of the ball. The video replays clearly show daylight between the ball and his hands when the Villa player touches it
he has had some outstanding moments with us over his career at Liverpool, but his performances this year in my opinion do not warrant him being in any premier league team of the season
The problem is what performance? He missed half the season, had hardly any impact. However let's think of another right full. Hhhmmmmm not Ben white anyway, not walker. I can see why deeper was lost. Livaramento and williams could be two full back shouts even if both filled in on the left at times.
TAA is now the best rb in the world according to Diego, despite fact last 3 years he’s said the guy is useless and can’t defend . Wonder if something has changed which has changed that opinion
Funny thing is, I don’t remember villa making a complaint when they got away with an equaliser against sheff United when ball clearly went over the line and kept them in the prem rather than relegating them… I wonder why that was? Swings and roundabouts isn’t it.
Thing is, Deeney - like Garth before him - doesn't watch all the games and makes his choices through a combination of highlights and statistics for most of them. Tbf, I wouldn't expect anyone to watch 15+ hours of football in a couple of days, and the whole TotW thing is a bit of meaningless fluff and a waste of licence payers' money (as is almost all punditry imo). He might be a better judge if he had 4 or 5 days to watch all the games and the announcement came later in the week. Only fans really know how well their players have performed overall, because we watch them all the time. For me, Trent might make a TotW occasionally would never make a TotS, because of his indifferent attitude towards his defensive responsibilities.
Thing is there is so much out there on social media, forums, fan sites etc that if you really wanted to you could gauge fan opinion on their own players. I think if you asked majority I don’t think many would put TAA up there this year, partly because he’s been injured and when not injured been indifferent. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes poor. Prob asking a bit much for someone who is paid to provide their opinion to do a bit of research though.
Like I suggested, he could just watch all the games spread over a few days. He could then draw his own conclusions rather than rely on others - it's an opinion piece, after all - and in the process he'd actually get to learn more about the current state of the game and its players. 16 hours of play max, a few hours to write up his guff - let's be generous and say 20 hours in total. I don't know how much he gets paid, but I'm fairly sure most people would be ecstatic to get it for a 20 hour week. Want to be deemed an expert, you have to work to gain the expertise.
I'm not paid but also try not to be biased. Vvd Macallister Salah. That's my sole candidates for a team of the season from lfc. Gravenberch faded. It's fine for young player but not to take a midfield berth. Gakpo was good but not for long enough. Alisson injured again. Konate injured and then poor on return.
That as it may be. He won a trophy. Spurs first in the lifetime of soms Spurs fans. Finishing 2nd and nothing to show for it, is arguably worse than getting a Trophy, even if finished 17th; both qualify for Champions League next year. Spurs unlikely to be as fortunate for a long time to come.
I haven't watched many other teams other than games we played against them so can't accurately say this year or TAA deserves to be in it or not. I will say TAA for large parts of the season was a shadow of what he has been capable of. He started the season playing well, and he had his moments where he showed the brilliance we know he's capable of... But he was anonymous, or worse, a liability for much of the season. This was not his best season. Even at Liverpool I would have said Connor Bradley was definitely more consistently good. TAA being in team of year is journalistic laziness basing it off previous seasons and name recognition rather than his actual contributions...
