Missed the last 20 mins of the game live and just seen MOTD. That offside...Very possibly the worst offside decision I've ever seen. Incredible. But was there time to take the free kick? Was the ball actually put down for it and if so was it put the good couple of yards into our half that the "offence" took place? That would surely be embarrassing for the officials. And on the game: Well we have Lloris and Eriksen to save us in the last few minutes and that's the story of the season so far, isn't it? Funny how I sometimes sort of forget that Eriksen is one of the Magnificent Seven brought in in 2013. He seems like he's been here ages and yet with every other one of them I'm still forgiving their glaring faults cos it seems they've not yet settled. He's the only one so far who I would class as a definite success. After a year and a half I think we have to accept that that is a very poor return.
Chris Kamara on Goals On Sunday programme, has called the offside decision as a candidate for the worst decision he has ever seen.
In a case like that shouldn't there be a panel to convene after the match to add the goal which should have been? We have technologies to overturn cricket umpire's decisions and in rugby so why not. We have panels who replay incidents of violence which refs miss and players are charged after the match so why not a panel to overturn officials' decisions to add the goal thereby seeing fair play has happened?
I think that the MOTD highlights were a little misleading, to be honest, NSIS. We did have a few dodgy moments at the back, but the game wasn't anywhere near as close as the editing suggested. 65/35 possession, 24 shots to 8, 8 on target to 4 and Pantilimon made at least as many good saves as Lloris. Our back line isn't anywhere near as solid as I'd like it to be, but I think that we're experiencing a few problems there at the moment. Dier is our 5th choice centre-half, yet he started, and we've been chopping and changing a lot, due to our fixture list. The congestion has also severely limited any work that we can do on sorting it out, as we've got a game every few days.
Logically, yes the decision should be overturnrd and the goal added to the final,score. However, we are talking about the sport's ruling bodies, so logic is probably the last thing we'll see. It should be overturned for the simple reason that we are not just talking about an officials incorrect decision of an event, but of something that, in the laws of the game, is not open to a decision. You cannot be offside in your own half. Simple as. If that decision had cost us two points, I'd be seriously pissed off.
Thought it was a really dominant performance by us yesterday, had a couple scary moments at the back (as usual!) but on the whole the score line was very sympathetic towards Sunderland and that's excluding the shocking refereeing that ruled out our third. Thought Rose was brilliant, he was up and down that left wing like a maniac and for the most part defended really well, on top of delivering some good crosses which should've been converted, so fair play to him. Thought Stambouli also played well, he had a bit of a stinker against Palace and so he needed a good performance in the League and I think he delivered one. He broke up a good number of attacks and distributed the ball fairly well. Despite being a low profile signing, whom I think it's fair to say none of us really knew much about, he's steadily gone about his business and is arguably now our 3rd choice mid behind Nabs and Mason. It does seem he was a cheap alternative to Schneiderlin but with this being his first season in English football, I think he's done considerably well whenever he's had the chances to play. Hopefully with more time he can become even better and be an important member of the squad. I was surprised at Poch's selection though, I thought Townsend and Paulinho should have started due to their good games against Burnley and found it weird going 4-4-2 with Eriksen RW where he's not been overly effective. Townsend's introduction was something I was crying out for earlier on in the game too as Sunderland were sitting with about 9 behind the ball and time wasting as much as possible, so someone like Townsend who has the pace and trickery would've been ideal to hopefully make them lose shape by drawing multiple players on to him. He done great for the goal, making the run and pass towards Eriksen who finished with another late winner (becoming a trait for him and Spurs). Paulinho should have registered an assist too as it was he that played Vertonghen in for our third, so both he and Andros done themselves no harm in trying to persuade Poch to give them a starting role. On the whole a good performance, should've been 3-1 at the very least but thanks to **** refereeing (again, also becoming a trait for Spurs, especially that **** Foy) the score made it look a much closer affair than what it was.
Defoe is such a Yiddo he sacrificed his scoring on his club debut record so Spurs could win. You can take the restraining leash off now and become Agent Defoe against our top 4 PL rivals.
Wouldn't it be superb if he netted a couple winners against our rivals. Not sure who Sunderland have left to play but here's hoping JD does what he does best (no sarcastic "being offside" comments anyone please ).
Sunderland have 3 such games where Agent Defoe could do that. And of course last game of the season to deny Chelsky a PL title (if it comes to that) .
Imagine if it comes down to goal difference at the end of the season and that one decision decides it
Imagine how the pundits who keep trotting that "Decisions even themselves out over the season" bollocks will be strangely quiet about that particular theory if it does.
1st Half: http://cloudyvideos.com/hwnxr6s5ph2y 2nd Half: http://cloudyvideos.com/w4z3lxy1iatt Wait for the "Continue" link to appear. Press play a few times.
It was a strange decision to go with so many central players when getting width has been a big test for us this year. Good summing up. We really did a good job of getting the ball wide and then into the box, especially in the second half, but time after time the players weren't in the right positions at the right time. I wondered why and started to track the players coming into the box. They all started their runs one half second to one second too late. So it seems to be a timing or trust issue. Analogously, an NFL quarterback needs to release the ball before the receiver changes direction. Too little trust or practice, and he waits to make sure the player actually changes direction, and the pass release comes too late. We had an unusually large number of great opportunities to cut the ball back, and, it seemed, nobody ever made the run they needed to make. I found myself thinking that Paulinho is the man for both jobs. If there's a ball in the box he seems very likely to be in the right spot to knock it in. Our defending is dodgy. Good things are happening overall I think. We're scoring freely and we're scaring more and more teams out of trying to play football with us. The last time one did, it was Chelsea and we spanked them, which is a little remarkable. The downside is that we remain very vulnerable to the counter. Partly it's because players in general, and DMs in particular, need time to improve their decisions regarding pressing and getting back. Partly it's that with the high press the best defence is a good offence/hard press. There's a tendency to relax after a goal. The relaxation translates to a relaxed press, which leads to good chances for the other team. . The other downside is the officiating. Two more pens than any other team in the PL so far. Last time we were in the running for fourth, Chelsea got, in effect, 15 more pens than we did. We got robbed in two of our last five games (though, granted, we got gifted one as well). The worst call of the season, which we suffered yesterday, is part of the grand tradition of ridiculously botched decisions going against Spurs.
Just in case anyone's wondering about this, we've had 6 penalties given against us in the league this season. Man Utd are the team who've given away the next highest total with 4 and they've not got any themselves either, bizarrely. Liverpool, Chelsea, Villa, Southampton and Newcastle combined have conceded less penalties than us.
Withthe goons 2 up with only 20 to play, west ham, liverpool, Southampton and united all winning the eriksen winner has become even more vital!
I shouldnt worry too much about liverpool and west ham. If we dont beat them, we sure as hell wont be beating 2 out of southampton, arsenal and man united
Interesting. There's no doubt LVG hasn't revived Ferguson's ability to turn officials to jelly. From what I've seen, Rooney's doing his best to fill that gap. He tackled Kane because he calculated officials simply wouldn't have the balls to risk his wrath. Still, fair is fair. Man U seem to have gotten screwed the worst on pens this year.
