Match Day Thread General matchday thread.

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Read this on the BBC this morning, have to agree with what he says...

Andros Townsend says VAR is killing the game after Harry Kane's late goal against Sporting Lisbon was ruled out.

The former Spurs winger told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I’ve looked at different angles trying to pause it, trying to play it. It doesn’t look offside for me but you have to trust the technology. As much as it looks onside we have to trust that it’s right on this occasion.

"The bottom line for me, whether it's offside or onside is irrelevant. I don't like VAR for this reason, as a football fan, you're killing the raw emotion of the game.

"You've seen Conte running on the pitch, injured players are running on the pitch. Harry Kane has gone mad, the fans have gone mad. And then 10 minutes later the goal gets disallowed. This is not what football is about. Football is about raw emotion.

"Slowly VAR is dragging out the raw emotion of the game we love."

I tend to agree with this. But there is also a certain joy in going back and watching Guardiola sink to the floor with his head in his hands as City's last second goal in the CL quarter final was ruled out due to offside.

The emotions of the game work both ways. Ours were more pronounced because we were the home side and Townsend highlights them because he is a Spurs fan. But the relief among the Sporting fans was immense. Why is that emotional reaction any less valid?

For me, the true problems with VAR especially in the PL is that most members of the PGMOL are clowns who can't or won't apply their own rules with consistency, as well as the ludicrously long delays in making decisions. 3 minutes is not a 'clear and obvious error', it's a post match analysis from the comfort of a pundit's couch. There should be a timer of a maximum 60 seconds and if the officials up in the office can't find said 'clear and obvious' reason to overturn the decision of the officials who are actually on the ground, the original decision stands and the likes of Keane and Carragher can then spend 3 minutes bitching about the decision in a studio after the game. Simple.
 
I tend to agree with this. But there is also a certain joy in going back and watching Guardiola sink to the floor with his head in his hands as City's last second goal in the CL quarter final was ruled out due to offside.

The emotion of the game work both ways. Ours were more pronounced because we were the home side. But the relief among the Sporting fans was immense. Why is that emotional reaction any less valid?

For me, the true problems with VAR especially in the PL is that most members of the PGMOL are clowns who can't or won't apply their own rules with consistency, as well as the ludicrously long delays in making decisions. 3 minutes is not a 'clear and obvious error', it's a post match analysis from the comfort of a pundit's couch. There should be a timer of a maximum 60 seconds and if the officials up in the office can't find said 'clear and obvious' reason to overturn the decision of the officials who are actually on the ground, the original decision stands and the likes of Keane and Carragher can then spend 3 minutes bitching about the decision in a studio after the game. Simple.

Fook off I aint reading all that. <ok>
 
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"It doesn’t look offside for me but you have to trust the technology. As much as it looks onside we have to trust that it’s right on this occasion."

Townsend is wrong and extremely naiive to say this.

People treat VAR like it is some sort of objective scientific truth because it has screens and coloured lines and slow motion replays, but at the end of the say it is simply the subjective opinion of three people on the pitch weighed up against the subjective opinion of three people in an office.

Last night's decision was a perfect example of this. Kane was definitely in an offside position. The question was whether the Sporting defender deliberately tried to intercept the header (creating a second phase of play), or if he'd unwittingly deflected the ball into Kane's path (meaning the same phase and offside).

Pitch men said interception.
Office men said deflection.
Townsend says we have to trust.
I say piss off no we don't.
 
I missed her wittering on.
Why doesn't the direction of the ball when it leaves Emerson's head matter?

The Offside Rule. If you're level or behind the ball when it is played you are onside: if you are in an offside position and the ball is played backwards, sideways, vertically, whatever and you retrieve it, or it comes to you inadvertently off an opposition player, you are offside. You're welcome. :emoticon-0148-yes:
 
"It doesn’t look offside for me but you have to trust the technology. As much as it looks onside we have to trust that it’s right on this occasion."

Townsend is wrong and extremely naiive to say this.

People treat VAR like it is some sort of objective scientific truth because it has screens and coloured lines and slow motion replays, but at the end of the say it is simply the subjective opinion of three people on the pitch weighed up against the subjective opinion of three people in an office.

Last night's decision was a perfect example of this. Kane was definitely in an offside position. The question was whether the Sporting defender deliberately tried to intercept the header (creating a second phase of play), or if he'd unwittingly deflected the ball into Kane's path (meaning the same phase and offside).

Pitch men said interception.
Office men said deflection.
Townsend says we have to trust.
I say piss off no we don't.

Yes. Real had one bizarrely chalked off just before halftime in their first attack against us in Paris. It came off the leg Fabinho wasn't attempting to play the ball with - ludicrous and I said so at the time. Also was your pen against us at Anfield a few years ago when donkey Lovren swiped at the ball and missed and it went through to Kane in an otherwise offside position, who was then brought down by the clown Karius. The argument here is that if Lovren allows the ball to go to Kane and he scores and the lino has missed it (it was before VAR) he's crucified for not attempting to cut it out.

Tbf, he should have just been crucified for being ****e, truth be told.

Oh, and Milner in 2018 against City in the CL QF at the Emptyhad - the ball came off his thigh and went to Jesus (iirc?) who slammed it in - overruled as offside as it was deemed Karius flapped the ball onto Milner. Milner definitely moved towards it though, whether by a deliberate or conscious act only he could say. I say you can never overrule a goal in those circumstances, which brings us back to last night: the defender is there trying to intercept the cross, so the intention to play the ball is there by his positioning, IMO.
 
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you can never overrule a goal in those circumstances, which brings us back to last night: the defender is there trying to intercept the cross, so the intention to play the ball is there by his positioning, IMO.

That's a really interesting way to look at it that I hadn't considered <ok>

Even better, it's an approach that doesn't take 3 minutes to work out.
 
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Haven't seen it ... but VAR is not the problem...

VAR provides the officials with a close to perfect opportunity to get a key decision right ... certainly more accurate than the human eye in 'real time' ... if they then still get it wrong, then the blame is solely attributable to the officials, not the technology. <cheers>

TBF Fosse, a number of us said this would be the outcome when it was being introduced. It’s comes down to a person’s subjectivity.
 
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I think people just prefer City to Liverpool. I'd prefer somebody new to win it. It was great when Leicester won the league.
I find that super odd.

Oil state owned abomination ruining football

Vs

footballing institution on merit


Cuckold ****s, hope they all die
 
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