Yep, and Oscar Bobb looks a great talent who looked on the verge of breaking out until a freak training injury.
Maresca just needs to work on his salt n pepper stubble and Chelsea will be complete. great game to watch and finally city are interesting. Boot it long and run off the striker.
I think the game is cyclic and once players stop believing in a system the system collapses. You could see city were nervous when pressed and surprise surprise the biggest strongest best finishing striker in the world can hold up a long ball and be an outlet. Apparently Pep has been saying things about the ‘modern direct approach’ or something similar. Tongue in cheek of course but city have the quality to play every conceivable way and still be the best at it.
I thought the bottom end of the PL last season was particularly poor. But looking back at it, after 23 games last season, 17th place had 20 points (which was Luton). And it would have been even more than that, if it wasn't for Everton's points deduction (which bumped Luton up from 18th to 17th). This season, depending on what Leicester do tomorrow, we're looking at 17th being on either 16 or 17 points after 23 games. So last season was still very poor, but this season is so far managing to be even worse.
I think Miles-Skelly's red card yesterday was probably the most ludicrous non-VAR intervention I've ever seen. I can see why a red was given live as it looked a nasty challenge in real time but replays showed it was a clear yellow card. The inconsistency from game to game is maddening so we may as well get rid of VAR and actually enjoy the match experience and accept the errors that are made live.
I found myself watching the build-up to Luton-Millwall yesterday (before heading to SMS), and I couldn't believe how poor the Luton team looked on paper. I can understand why they're struggling this season, if yesterday's XI was anywhere near their best XI (which I don't know). I understand, given their past, that they want to be extra cautious when it comes to spending money. But they must have some of the best finances in the Championship, and they might want to take advantage of that very, very quickly.
Just seen the Arsenal red card.. wtf?! I don’t particularly like Arsenal, but I’m starting to think there is some corruption going on. How can you be sent off for that? They’ve had a few ridiculous ones go against them
Think a report on the BBC recently stated that VAR gets the decisions correct 84% of the time, whereas referees before VAR got decisions right 76% of the time. It's an increase therefore, but only 8%. So the argument has to be, is that 8% improvement worth the lengthy disruptions and the impact on the fans' experience? It would be a resounding 'no' from almost every football fan.
My answer subjectively is a resounding NO The stats clearly support that objectively The added consideration is that you have to accept the possibility of mistakes live but lengthy waits and involvement of more people and tech raises expectations and it’s not clearly not justified Goal line tech is perfect, objective and instant, the rest is bollocks and ruins the live experience
The fact is, that games are not being decided by two teams playing football with a team of officials providing fair play any more, they are being decided by people who aren't actually at the match. "It's not football any more" is a fair chant from the fans at the game and surely this cannot be right?
As I've said before I've never liked the idea of talking about how often it gets things 'right' as almost every rule outside of pitch markings is subjective.
Been a while since I said this but it's almost as if I was right all along? It'll never go though, game's gone forever. Buzzing for next season.
Any credence to the thought the VAR officials were too scared of questioning Oliviers decision (being the #1 Ref)? I recall similar question raised on TSP regarding our goal at Wolves. Any credence to the thought the VAR officials were too scared of questioning Oliver’s decision (being the #1 Ref)? I recall similar question raised on TSP regarding our goal at Wolves, albeit in reverse? A newbie type Ref that day, gave the goal, VAR (Oliver) “disallowed” (asked the Ref to check) & there was no way in a million years was he going to make the decision to stand by his original, even tho I think it was widely accepted it was very contentious? (think I’ve explained correctly? Hope you get my gist?)
In addition, the ref’s use VAR as a “get out of jail” card all the time now & it’s definitely affecting their decision making. #scrapvar
Well this would explain a lot. Lee Mason, who in case you've forgotten, was removed as a VAR official after making a complete howler. He was also one of the worst referees to ever officiate in the PL.
Offside isn’t always subjective, but it’s an impossible challenge to judge even the objective occurrences scientifically and therefore immediately like the goal line tech ie. Fernandes was either on or off when Macca hit the ball, but the Tech needs to judge instantly… The exact time of Maccas contact? How far beyond the defender Fernandes has to be? Which bits of his body or clothing exactly are included? Then there’s interfering with play to deal with for other cases
