If spurs hold on they have done us a right favour. Fulham have been camped in the spurs half for the entire 2nd 45.
This is no comment on his coaching because I don't know enough about them but so refreshing listening to Parker talk about his team Vs a Bruce post match interview.
You got the results you wanted last night courtesy of VAR. In the world of VAR the decisions were correct however, within the spirit of the game, they were not! It cannot be right that most goals have to be scrutinised by the officials at Stockley Park using a convoluted algorithm devised by Mike Riley and his cohorts. What was a simple game to referee in the past has now become a minefield. When I started to follow the game the offside rule was clear. Attacker the last man - offside Defender the last man - onside. Similar to the handball rule. Hand to ball - foul. Ball to hand no foul, yet last night the ball was smashed into Lemina who was struck on the arm, there was no attempt to play the ball and under the old ball to hand rule the subsequent goal would have stood. Similarly - before VAR it was agreed that , in the event of tight offside decisions the decision should go to the attacking side. Last night did WBA gain a material advantage by being offside by the length of a well smoked ***? I don't think so! One final point. Why is it that if a defender accidentally handles the ball it is ok yet, If an attacker accidentally handles the ball it is not ok? Can someone supply a definitive answer?
If, in a relegation fight, it happens against your team it’s wrong but if it happens against one of the other teams in that relegation fight then it seems perfectly okay to me.
I conceded that the decisions against Fulham and WBA were correct under the current VAR protocol, but that it was against the spirit of the game. That said I do not believe that VAR discriminates against teams fighting relegation, only last night Chelsea were denied a goal that was marginal - so marginal that no benefit accrued and, later in the game Liverpool were denied a penalty when Kante's arm was at 90 degrees when the ball struck him. It seemed a blatant penalty yet VAR was not consulted- I believe that it was hand to ball, yet when the ball struck Lamena ,who had no chance of avoidance the following goal was disallowed. That it is ok for defenders to handle the ball and it is not ok for attackers to handle the ball is clearly wrong. There is a meeting of referees to address several VAR issues including hand ball. I hope common sense prevails.
Only VAR didn’t make the decision on the offside goal by WBA last night, the linesman flagged and VAR merely confirmed his decision was correct.
https://www.theifab.com/news/annual-general-meeting-2021 read this - do you think we can have our point back?
Haven't seen the WBA one but apparently correct, offside is offside. The Lemina one is difficult, seen all the angles and it is super unlucky that Sanchez hammers the ball at him, it hits his arm down by his side (couldn't be more out of the way) - what I did see though was once the ball hits his arm, he moves his arm forwards - purely and innocently to get it out the way imho - but which to my view generates the movement of the ball differently to how it would have been if it had hit his side. Exceptionally harsh on Fulham, completely undeserved but.... I ****ING LOVE IT
But then again when did common sense prevail on any previous issues? The biggest issue in recent years is the move away from referees having the ability to use discretion and common sense and for them to simply follow the written laws. This was all on the basis of consistency. Now that we do that we all want discretion and common sense to return as we don’t like the written law. For what it’s worth I prefer discretion and common sense but with the support of VAR. Change VAR so that it only gets involved if one of the teams use an appeal of which they each have 2 or 3 per half a la American Football to be exercised within say 20 seconds of the relevant incident and considered when the ball next going dead and the referee does not involve VAR on his/her/it’s/their initiative. That would be a much more workable system than what’s currently on offer.
