Well, we don't deserve that.
Well, we don't deserve that.
I don't even know how.
Because you’re fucking jammy cunts.
Mentality monsters.
Someone about BOTTLING IT!!!
It feels like the end of the Invincibles season where they were limping home with 1-1s. Christmas is going to be interesting. We've got Bournemouth and Villa next. Decisive.
Jorginho's pass for our goal is a joke. What a hero he has become.
I hate VAR. The sport is in danger of losing its greatest quality: the joy/excitement of a goal being scored. Even as a neutral watching Real Madrid v Betis just now, the game is somewhat ruined.
Big win for us today. Next 4 games are really tough.
What % of balls in the net are being checked and how many are being disallowed?
I don't know but it feels like it's wiping off a hell of a lot more goals than it's allowing. Referees being too cavalier in allowing goals wasn't the problem it was brought in to solve, I don't think.
My issues prior to it being introduced were that it would lead to pauses where you had to wait to celebrate a goal and the refs would become too reliant on it thus exacerbating the first problem.
Is that what's happening?
This also wasn't what the offside rule was brought in to prevent:
An official Premier League tweet read: “Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino was flagged offside before putting the ball in the net against Aston Villa and the decision was confirmed by VAR.
“The red line signifies Firmino and was aligned to his armpit, which was marginally ahead of the last Villa defender.”
That is the same problem I have with it: even if the final decision is correct, you can't celebrate a goal, and there is literally no reason to watch football other than being able to celebrate a goal.
It has to change and can go down one of two routes, which I would dub the rugby and the cricket route:
The rugby route: the on field referee has to set clear parameters for each referral. E.g. 'Is there any reason that the goal cannot stand', or 'Goal - yes or no'. In rugby they seem not to just default to the latter, easier question which takes all the pressure off them, though in football I fear they might.
The cricket routie: you take all referral power away from the on field referee, and hand it to the teams (probably managers in this case), with a set limit of how many challenges you have - one per half, perhaps.
In either case, the on field referee has to be mic'd up and we have to hear the conversation between him and the VAR referee. If this isn't acceptable to the authorities because players are going to swear into the referee's mic, then the sport should probably no longer be played anyway and that would solve the problem too.
I started to type a long post out to explain how I'd like to see it work, but then I reminded myself while doing so that it'll never work long term in football due to the offside rule.
Just get rid of it. Things weren't that bad before.
Saint-Maximum has a touch of the Sammy Ameobi's about him. Sets off full pelt and then loses control of his legs when it's time to shoot.
EDIT: Time to compare Bruce and Rafa's results:
Rafa (2018 - after 11 league games)
Won: 1 (v Watford) 3/11/18
Drawn: 3 (v Cardiff, Palace, Southampton, all goalless)
Lost: 8 (v Spurs, Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, Leicester, Man Utd, Brighton)
For: 7
Against: 14
Position: 17th
Top scorer: Joselu (2)
Bruce (2019 - after 11 league games)
Won: 3 (v Spurs, Man Utd, West Ham)
Drawn: 3 (v Brighton, Watford, Wolves)
Lost: 6 (v Arsenal, Norwich, Liverpool, Leicester, Chelsea)
For: 9
Against: 17
Position: 15th
Top scorer: Shelvey (2)
Rafa would equal Bruce's point's tally after two more games (wins against Bournemouth and Burnley)
Last edited by Shindig; 03-11-2019 at 09:45 AM.
Not sure this Arsenal season could get more depressing but think hiring Jose Mourinho would deffo be the icing on the cake.
The easiest way to fix it is instead of flagging any playable part of the body as offside, make it so the whole playable body has to be offisde. Like how the ball has to go all the way over the line.
Nobody thinks that a player being offside because he has size 13s and the defender has size 7s is interesting play.
Yeah, I was thinking after I posted that that the logic used in the long jump (i.e. you have only jumped as far as the furthest back part of your body) should be used to determine where the attacker is located.
I saw one guy get flagged who was jogging back onside, facing the opposite way to the defender, and he managed to turn around and still beat the defender to the ball and got flagged off because his ankle was offside. It's a joke.
The rule has been wank for years. This is before VAR even came in.
Toggle Spoiler
That's offside
That was flagged because the linesman thought it was offside, not because an ankle or whatever. What the exact rule is only matters to the incessant analysis of every single thing that happens. During the game the linesman has to basically be able to look at two places at the same time, so the whole thing will always be inexact. Make it full body, part of the body, playing part of the body, whatever, it will always be the same. Except for VAR, which will always make things worse no matter which specific body part is arbitrarily chosen as the limit.
I was watching a Sunday league game this morning, and someone was given offside (he looked about five yards off to me). The attacking team's goalkeeper, fully 80 yards away and at the worst possible angle, shouted: REF YOU'RE A FUCKING DISGRACE ARE YOU FUCKING BLIND HE WAS MILES ON.
The moral of the story is that football is set up to fail.
Wish now that I'd just took the shitty tickets and went to the cup final. There's been many good solid players here over the years but you could put Jack Byrne in most premier league teams and he'd do very well. Gifted and better than he's ever been.
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Last edited by Giggles; 03-11-2019 at 03:33 PM.
Here just copy and paste this @Ian
Top European Goalscorers (As of 1 NOV)
1. Robert Lewandowski - Bayern - 13
2. Ciro Immobile - Lazio - 10
3. Jamie Vardy - Leicester - 9
3t. Wissam Ben Yedder - Monaco - 9
4. Sergio Aguero - Man City - 8
4t. Luis Muriel - Atalanta - 8
4t. Tammy Abraham - Chelsea - 8
League Leaders (As of 3 NOV)
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Notable Fixtures
link to list of all fixtures
3 NOV
Everton v Spurs (Premier League)
AC Milan v Lazio (Serie A)
Rangers v Hearts (Scottish Cup)
5 NOV
Chelsea v Ajax (Champions League)
Dortmund v Inter (Champions League)
6 NOV
Leverkusen v Atletico (Champions League)
Real Madrid v Galatasaray (Champions League)
Guimaraes v Arsenal (Europa League)
7 NOV
Lazio v Celtic (Europa League)
M'gladbach v Roma (Europa League)
Man Utd v Partizan (Europa League)
Rangers v Porto (Europa League)
Wolves v Slovan Bratislava (Europa League)
M'Gladbach v Roma (Europa League)
9 NOV
Chelsea v Palace (Premier League)
Burnley v West Ham (Premier League)
Newcastle v Bournemouth (Premier League)
Spurs v Sheff Utd (Premier League)
Southampton v Everton (Premier League)
Leicester v Arsenal (Premier League)
Bayern v Dortmund (Bundesliga)
10 NOV
Man Utd v Brighton (Premier League)
Wolves v Villa (Premier League)
Liverpool v Man City (Premier League)
Juve v AC Milan (Serie A)
Celtic v Motherwell (Scottish Prem)
Livingston v Rangers (Scottish Prem)
14 NOV
England v Montenegro (Euro 2020)
Brazil v Argentina (Friendly)
Rep of Ireland v New Zealand (Friendly)
16 NOV
Cyprus v Scotland (Euro 2020)
Azerbaijan v Wales (Euro 2020)
Northern Ireland v Netherlands (Euro 2020)
17 NOV
Kosovo v England (Euro 2020)
18 NOV
Gibraltar v Switzerland (Euro 2020)
Rep of Ireland v Denmark (Euro 2020)
18 NOV
Germany v Northern Ireland (Euro 2020)
Wales v Hungary (Euro 2020)
23 NOV
West Ham v Spurs (Premier League)
Bournemouth v Wolves (Premier League)
Arsenal v Southampton (Premier League)
Brighton v Leicester (Premier League)
Palace v Liverpool (Premier League)
Everton v Norwich (Premier League)
Watford v Burnley (Premier League)
Man City v Chelsea (Premier League)
24 NOV
Sheff Utd v Man Utd (Premier League)
Milan v Napoli (Serie A)
Atalanta v Juve (Serie A)
Real Madrid v Real Sociedad
25 NOV
Villa v Newcastle (Premier League)
26 NOV
Juventus v Atletico (Champions League)
Real Madrid v PSG (Champions League)
Spurs v Olympiacos (Champions League)
27 NOV
Valencia v Chelsea (Champions League)
Barcelona v Dortmund (Champions League)
Liverpool v Napoli (Champions League)
28 NOV
Astana v Man Utd (Europa League)
Feyenoord v Rangers (Europa League)
Braga v Wolves (Europa League)
Arsenal v Entracht Frankfurt (Europa League)
Celtic v Rennes (Europa League)
Sporting v PSV (Europa League)
30 NOV
Newcastle v Man City (Premier League)
Burnley v Palace (Premier League)
Chelsea v West Ham (Premier League)
Liverpool v Brighton (Premier League)
Spurs v Bournemouth (Premier League)
Southampton v Watford (Premier League)
Bayern v Leverkusen (Bundesliga)
Monaco v PSG (Ligue 1)
Finally had the chance to watch Utd at home considering we've been pushed to Sunday or Monday I feel almost like every week this season and low and behold we drop yet another stinker ffs.
If you're going to include the SPL in the notable games portion Bruh, which you probably shouldn't, you should be including it in the goalscorers portion too. Defoe has ten league goals so far, and both Edouard and Morelos are on eight.
Look at him coming in and trying to hijack this top, top thread.
We are a very good football team. Vardy is a transcendent icon.
Eriksen going down the Mesut Ozil career path
This is something that I noticed yesterday, and its a crying shame that it has taken Andy Fucking Gray to point it out.
It's because they can't say it was Martin Atkinsons fault, because he's fucking shite.
If Richarlison spent half as much energy on holding the ball up than he does throwing himself on the floor - he'd be a decent player.
lol at him saying 'we're disallowing goals' like he's still part of the Best League in the World.
This VAR check is taking fucking ages. Just give it or don't, there's no right answer
That looks a broken leg.
How on earth has he given a red card to Son for that. He was away to give him a yellow until he seen his leg hanging off
All the players showing genuine concern for the player, and Digne is running and shouting at the ref to get Son sent off. Stay classy, Digne.
Anyone long on added minutes?
Should be about 15 but it'll only be 6 or 7
I'll go with 9.
Pennos
Was gonna say 12, but bottled it.
Easy for Rovers in the shootout. Sickening seeing Mannus the filthy hun as the hero.
Ballotelli racially abused at Verona. When he attempted to walk off the pitch, rather than his teammates supporting him, they just pleaded for him to carry on playing (and presumable ignore it). How depressing..