Pata

Has to be a pen, so much grabbing and feet contact even on the box.

Great goal by Yamal.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S146902922100131X Some light bed reading.

I have no idea how you could even find concrete evidence for something like this outside the results. At least NFL has the easily tangible thing of not being able to communicate on offense like you would at home which results in false starts, players not hearing the right play call, blown coverages in o-line and inability to audible as easily. Feels weird they don't mention it at all. I obviously can't prove anything but I firmly believe crowd is a bigger factor in home advantage than referee bias. There was research done during the covid empty stadiums period and iirc home advantage wasn't a thing anymore. Also means there wasn't crowd pressure on the referee though. But at least I can say that it’s the crowd that’s the main reason for potential referee bias for the home team.

That's class, always wonder why more footballers don't go for these experiences at the end of their careers. World is full of amazing places.

They really don’t want VAR to work with these artificial boundaries. The respect the on-field decision gets is insane when you consider why VAR is a thing.

LeBron of soccer, nice goal.

Hazy memory too but remember same and thought he looked more comfortable in possession back then. Now he's basically just a runner both ways and even his shooting was IMO much better then.

Doesn't change anything from last season though when the abuse was just as bad with no other options. Tonali is guaranteed to start the next match in any case and will be first choice going forward, patience.

The games I saw live last season, it was pretty clear who the scapegoats were and it's 100% guaranteed the players can feel it on the pitch. The tiniest mistake or pass backwards and massive parts of SJP sigh loudly and some stand up shouting abuse. There was one instance last season where Longstaff clearly reacted to it raising his arms after his pass was deemed too unambitious by SJP. Burn was getting this too but on a lesser scale. I really feel bad for Longstaff, this should be his dream but the over the top reactions will be on his mind constantly and just build up pressure when he's not the most confident lad in the squad. And all this current drama feels so unnecessary. Everyone knows Sandro is the starter moving forward, have some patience.

I think one reason for Guehi was that both him and Fab can play on the left too so he wouldn't be just a clear replacement for Schär. Our CB's would have been pretty versatile in case Botman isn't ready for a while and we would've finally had two good RCB's. Schär's fitness record has been huge for us in the past two seasons, knocks on wood.

Nice, thanks!

I don’t think anyone wants to replace Schär. He’s just getting older and his main back ups are Krafth and injured Lascelles. Missing out on Guehi might be a blessing if we instead go for someone with a lesser profile and cheaper price to maximise the last years of Schär. He better stay fit though.

Just noticed that UCL is now Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday which is a bit shite. Takes away the shine from Europa League and Conference League and feels like too much football with the added day per gameweek and two additional gameweeks. That's 48 matches for group stage if you watch the earlier slot too. I could always not watch but meh, I want the old system back.

I love the confidence in stating these when you yourself said you had missed the first 15-20. I haven't watched it again but I felt like they scored from pretty much their first chance. We were dominating possession until the goal and were in complete control of the match without creating that much.

Hang on, we are playing our player of the season on the wrong side of the pitch?

11 months is soon?

These are the kind of decisions Bunce was brought in to help with. If anyone seriously thinks Eddie prefers playing Longstaff over Tonali (who he paid a lot of money for) in a vacuum, get help.

Tonali could easily play this but we are trying to avoid a similar injury crisis to last season WHICH WAS ALL HOWE'S FAULT FOR NOT ROTATING ENOUGH.

Because it was completely different iirc. Crystal Palace had played a cup game during our break and just seemed sharper. Managers have to talk a lot and some of it could be bullshit, no need to cling on to one comment.

He played 90 on Friday and 90 on Monday. I would obviously prefer to see Tonali over Longstaff but I can see why Longstaff starts today.

Give over man.

Nah.

I worded it badly, I'm not saying Tonali is fatigued but he has played a lot of football in a short time after a ten month break. This could easily be a Bunce suggestion too, we don't want Sandro to get injured when his body probably isn't used to playing a lot yet.

How do you explain Hall over Kelly then?