It's very easy to feel hard done by when a decision goes against you. When that decision was erroneous, it's even harder. You would think that over the course of the season it's swings and roundabouts but looking at the VAR table from last season shows that some teams are benefiting far more and some are being penalised far more. Oddly enough, Brighton were top last season by +8 and are currently top with +3. Other than man utd last season on +7, all the other teams at the top of the VAR table - which amounts to a favourable decision table - were the 'lesser ' teams. The same is true so far this season. (We are currently on -7, well adrift.). That looks like good old British favouring the underdog behaviour.
We'd probably need data gathered over a longer period to accurately analyse that, tbh. Favouritism isn't really the issue for me, it's just that any marginal advantages the system may offer are far outweighed by the disadvantages.
They're just doing what they've been told to do; let the move play out before flagging. I didn't react to or celebrate either of the two rules out "goals", I suspected they were offside initially. But I've had goals this season were I've done that and they've been goals
Well that all happened very quickly and there was no way Pickford was going to know that the game had stopped (that doesn't absolve him of course, the challenge was reckless under any circumstances) - I'm thinking more of occasions where there's a few seconds between the offside incident and the resolution of the move. It also seems to me that sometimes a corner is won when an offside flag would have precluded it. If a goal results from the corner then that's a clear injustice. The fact is that the system, and the constant rule tinkering to desperately try to make it work, are a complete dog's dinner and my experience of the game has dramatically worsened for it.
I agree but you can only work with what you've got and currently, although as you say not much data, there is a pattern emerging. I don't think there's a conspiracy against us specifically but looking at what's happening there is a clear advantage being given to the underdog. The only anomaly is man utd, who'd have thought
VAR is not perfect but other countries seem to be using a whole lot better than the PL is. If there is one 'positive' out of VAR, is that it really does highlight how incompetent the refs are. Before VAR, you could defend refs and say that they're only humans for making mistakes.
As I said at the time; if the ref had put his flag up the incident still happens, it was immediately after the offside.
Getting rid of the drawn on lines for an offside decision would immediately improve that part of VAR. If the distance is too close to be seen without drawing lines and getting it mm perfect then it should just favour the attacker. Did anybody ever imagine they'd be talking about the length of a player's sleeve being the deciding factor in whether his goal stood or not?
I like that idea of no lines, they get the still images but have to judge it from that. Problem being when they inevitably judge one wrong and people complain
As I keep banging on, it's shown Oliver has feet of clay. The problem is, nobody seems to want to pull him up. It's as if Trump had VAR installed on his golf course.
Banning the use of lines will lead to court cases of discrimination against visually impaired VARs who suffer from astigmatism and therefore not be sure of their straight lines...
In all the talk about the game, did anyone mention the fact that Lallana managed to get in 8 minutes? I do genuinely feel sorry for him.
Are there any updates on him? He legged it down the tunnel, I thought he may have had a bathroom emergency.
That was my first thought as well, but he'd only been on 5 minutes - must have hyperactive bowels. "Oh Adam, you should have gone before you came out!"