Match Day Thread General Match Thread

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Spurf said:
That completely misses the point. We are talking about fouls, physical fouls, not offsides or goal line decisions they can be absolute. Fouls have to be observed by the ref and he has to decide who did what to who and the severity of it. Even try to decide things like intent. This will always be a judgement and we have relied on the good faith of referees to make these judgements just as well as they can.
The simplest of these fouls, in theory, is handball. We could simply have a rule that the ball must not touch your hand and arm, but of course if you did that players would simply try to kick the ball onto an opponents arm. Judgement must be used to try to make the game fair. You cannot film intent. VAR just slows that process. We have to do what we have always done, trust that the ref is honest and abide by his decision.

And all of this is because the media loves to create controversy, it makes good tv. Fans will always doubt the ref when a decision goes against their team. They should be reminded that the game is impossible without the referee and just accept his good faith. Of course there will have been corruption, I think it's fair to say that most of that comes from the players, so if we go down the road of mistrusting refs we will lose the game.
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Well said again.
VAR doesn’t add anything to many decisions; it makes the process more tortuous and sucks the enjoyment out of key moments in the game.
Technology has its place with purely non subjective decisions - did the ball cross the line, was the foul in or out of the box etc, but for many of the issues it it used for, it adds another layer of uncertainty and controversy.
Even offsides aren’t clear because it depends on exactly where the “offside” player was when the ball was played - a fraction of a second wrong can make the difference - or a subjective decision about being “active” etc.
Most spectators want the game to flow, goals to be enjoyed in the moment and players being able to commit to all aspects of a physical game without fear of repercussions from what are frequently very marginal calls made in a climate of zero tolerance.
Football is meant to be exciting; VAR has made it tedious at times.
 
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littleDinosaurLuke said:
Well said again.
VAR doesn’t add anything to many decisions; it makes the process more tortuous and sucks the enjoyment out of key moments in the game.
Technology has its place with purely non subjective decisions - did the ball cross the line, was the foul in or out of the box etc, but for many of the issues it it used for, it adds another layer of uncertainty and controversy.
Even offsides aren’t clear because it depends on exactly where the “offside” player was when the ball was played - a fraction of a second wrong can make the difference - or a subjective decision about being “active” etc.
Most spectators want the game to flow, goals to be enjoyed in the moment and players being able to commit to all aspects of a physical game without fear of repercussions from what are frequently very marginal calls made in a climate of zero tolerance.
Football is meant to be exciting; VAR has made it tedious at times.
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VAR was the wrong solution to the right problem.

It only came about because modern technology was increasingly capable of drawing attention to the decreasing standards of officiating.

The grave mistake was locating the solution in the same place as the problem: through technology.

Like stopping a forest fire by bulldozing acres of trees. It works, but it ain't pretty and takes years to restore.

The real solution from day one was to massively increase funding to upskill the officials, increase transparency and accountability for poor decisions, and massively increase the consequences for players or managers who seek to use pressure to influence decisions.
 
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humanbeingincroydon said:
Genuine question: when was the last time anyone on here watched Football Focus?
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Couldn’t even tell you. If I’m in the house on a Saturday lunchtime I’m watching a game.

Not sure if they tried to make it relevant to a younger audience but that demographic would barely know the program exists anyway. People will point to it going ‘woke’ but magazine shows like that just aren’t relevant anymore as there’s loads of different avenues now to get football news, interviews, opinion at the click of a button. Football is literally everywhere now whether it’s online, social media, one of the millions of podcasts out there or one of the many tv channels now available.

Couldn’t tell you when I last watched match of the day either (although that’s probably more to do with I can never watch it when spurs lose).
 
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Citizen Kane. said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqj85lrgv70o

The panel can get in the bin, along with every PGMOL official in the country.

The number of errors Jones is responsible for is staggering.
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Like I said at the time, it’s insane to me that this was even questioned as an error. Brobbey gained nothing from the push and the circumstances made it extremely dangerous. It could never be anything other than unnecessarily reckless.
 
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Citizen Kane. said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqj85lrgv70o

The panel can get in the bin, along with every PGMOL official in the country.

The number of errors Jones is responsible for is staggering.
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You guys have already got your own back on Brobbey

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3 on the panel thought it was a red. 2 didn’t.

The ref and VAR officials also didn’t think it was a red. So still more people thought it not to be a red than people for it.
 
We already knew it, but De Zerbi has confirmed that Kulu will miss the rest of the season. Sounds like the world cup will also be a doubt for him. Incredible that what was initially described as a 'knock' wound up with him injured for more than a year.

Maddison unavailable as he 'felt pain'.

Vicario still unavailable. Funny how the announcements at the time indicated that he would be back right after the break. I'm not devastated that he isn't, I'm more worried about this pattern of unexpectedly long absence that seems to accompany every type of injury our players get.

Can anyone else recall a time when there were so many setbacks, delays and recurring problems?
 
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BinghamSpur said:
Hopefully he will not ref us again this season. Staggering really but why didn't VAR intervene?

Answers on a postcard please.
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That's the other part about VAR. No matter how "scientific" the system pretends to be, there seems to be a completely random factor over when it actually intervenes (other than when obliged to). For example I'm sure that there would be times when the Brobbey incident would have resulted in intervention (I make no claim about bias, only about incompetence). While our one and only chance of a pen this season was overturned, VAR did intervene, when I suspect the same incident in a different match it might not have. Plus if they had not intervened I bet that the pundits would have looked at the replays and said that there wasn't enough to overturn it. This idea of "clear and obvious error" is most certainly *not* how they approach things!
 
The Huddlefro said:
Like I said at the time, it’s insane to me that this was even questioned as an error. Brobbey gained nothing from the push and the circumstances made it extremely dangerous. It could never be anything other than unnecessarily reckless.
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I've posted it on the Mackem board and they've responded like wasps at a jam picnic.
 
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Saf said:
You guys have already got your own back on Brobbey

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3 on the panel thought it was a red. 2 didn’t.

The ref and VAR officials also didn’t think it was a red. So still more people thought it not to be a red than people for it.
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I think the panel thought it was a second yellow. The VAR doesn't give any opinion on that so your maths is wrong.
 
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