Pata

Absolutely mad looking table in expected points considering the circumstances, finished fourth ahead of Chelsea. N-O darling Emery 10 points behind, media darling Ange 8 points behind. Not even going to mention Erik the fraud, hope he gets another season. Eddie is a magician.

It's a bit ironic when people whine that he should have been playing earlier when Hall himself has said he needed to do better. Eddie put him into the best possible place to succeed like he has done with so many others, him getting any stick for it is a bit mad.

I don't think this is fair. It would be really hard even for Pep or Klopp to win trophies with this squad when the competition is so tough unless we get a favourable run of cup ties like in LC last season. Just have to stay patient and keep improving the squad.

I honestly think he's a unicorn. You just can't find players with his physical presence who also have a great touch and decent eye for a pass. Hope he can still get better in tight spaces in midfield and his willingness to invite contact at CM isn't always optimal when a quick one touch pass would be the better option. He's massively important now but I believe there's still room for growth as it's easy to forget he's played this position for only a couple of years.

We still need a quality RW and I'm not a fan of moving our POTY from his best position. After the season we've had it's wild to see suggestions that we go to the next season with unproven Minteh and Murphy as the only backups at right, Joelinton at left (and he's probably needed elsewhere). Just one injury to Gordon/Barnes/Isak and we would have a reshuffled forward line and be struggling again with fatigue really quickly.

Have you ever watched him play?

Not going to bother with the rest but Salah is a RW.

Yet we are now eight points ahead of Villa in expected points, in a season with an unprecedented injury crisis. Eddie has been dealt a bad hand in so many different ways this season.

That was a pen.

Which is ridiculous considering the respect the on-field decision gets from VAR.

I want them to come up because Newcastle-Leeds always feels like a big fixture. All the other teams in the playoffs are firmly in the meh-category.

I've written this same post hundreds of times but here we go again. VAR could be easily fixed but the current process is flawed. On-field ref should have all the power to make all the calls. Video ASSISTANT referee is there to point the ref to the screen if he spots something he thinks might have been a wrong decision or contact was soft. On-field referee goes to the screen and makes the decision based on what he sees which should lead to consistency. On-field referees also have to be humble enough to admit if they didn't see something and just guessed the original decision so to the video screen he goes to confirm (like the Gordon-Amrabat incident). Get rid of all the clear and obvious bullshit, it's a completely unnecessary element that just muddies the waters. On-field referee makes the decisions based on replays. Would probably take less time if the ref just jogs to the screen instantly without VAR guessing what the ref might have seen. Would also get rid of the slightest of contacts being awarded as pens when it's not VAR that undermines the original decision. I actually wouldn't mind if the on-field ref checked every penalty and red card decision from the screen as they are humongous decisions that affect the result massively. Offsides are not subjective and the line has to be drawn somewhere. Daylight or margin of error doesn't really change anything, the line has to be drawn somewhere and there will always be cases where the attacker is offside by 1 cm. Semi-automated offsides should have been there at the first possibility, happy it's coming now even if it is late. I'm available if PGMOL needs help and reads this thread.

I think they saw Gordon as a 50/50 LW/RW in the summer. Problem is that he's been so good at left this season that moving him to the other side is simply out of question. I'm certain the hole at RW gets solved this summer, could even be a new purple and Minted in the squad while Almiron and Murphy both get moved on.

What's your point?

What the fuck?

That’s a pen.

What’s Trippier doing?

Trippier just jogging back?

Anything but non-incident, fucking shocking by the lino and especially the ref who has done UCL and World Cup finals.

Marciniak whistled instantly when the flag went up. In Shelvey's goal ref never whistled as he knew better than the 'world's best referee' and basically overruled his lino to let VAR decide.

What a fucking mess by both the lino and the Polish fraud.

Previous season the extra spot would've gone to Eredivisie which don't have that many teams in European competitions, I don't think having extra team is an edge at all like you said.

The coefficient gets divided by the number of the teams in competitions.

The wages are the big problem and a never-ending cycle. Nee one good unless really young is willing to accept lower wages when Rashford gets 300k and Mount 250k just as an example. Also means it's impossible to move failures as most players are not willing cut their wages in half on a new club. Might also affect their motivation and will to keep improving. These players think they've made it now and know they will never get a better contract at any other club.