Pata

Great atmosphere in Roma.

What a shite thread, Rory.

Even if you give Liverpool a 70% chance of a win in all their remaining games (which is too high), it would only happen 4 times out 100. They have done something similar before but it's still very unlikely and this team isn't as good due to worse midfield and defence.

I mean people are not demanding a lot, just a smile and saying hello which would take no extra time at all.

Amazing that someone in Arsenal thought this is a good look for them.

He fucking started the counter by getting possession due to a handball, what the fuck?

I have no idea what a handball is if that’s fine, TAA even moved his arm towards the ball.

This has been boring.

I don't see why not. He's 29 and our upturn has raised his profile. Promoted team or a struggling team could easily roll the dice on him just for his experience and leadership and £14m is nothing in 2023.

https://theathletic.com/4395427/2023/04/11/pep-guardiola-tactical-evolution/ Just read this amazing article and you are probably spot on. Didn't realise they had conceded more than usual playing with a pure 9 and also not on pace to score as many as they usually do, same happened when Lewa had his best season in Bayern under Pep. Haaland just has that x-factor for CL where he can be unstoppable especially when he has all that talent playing the throughballs, even if as a whole they are worse team with him in the lineup.

Pep has no need to innovate while coaching the best team in the world but he suddenly decided that fullbacks are not needed anymore and started to play four centrebacks, moving one of them to midfield when in possession of the ball. And Cancelo had been instrumental to them in previous seasons. I know he has a habit of tinkering too much but it just boggles my mind. As we are piling on them, would Lampard or Gerrard find it necessary to come up with new formations while coaching the best team in the world? Maybe he knows they are so much better than anyone else that he tries to lower the variance on set pieces against them by having four CBs defending them, who knows.

Ridiculous penalty for Roma, ball going 2 metres wide for a goal kick from a point blank header and VAR turns it into a penalty. Handball rule has to be fixed by FIFA.

I don't believe in corruption either but it's easier to subconsciously make decisions that favour the big team and it's a problem when VAR has a high bar in changing the on field decision in subjective calls. I don't think it's accidental that Brighton have been the biggest victim on bad decisions when they are such a small club. If all of those had gone against Liverpool or Man United there would be hell and the press would slaughter the referees.

I don't really see how that's relevant at all. It's all down to luck when for example a linesman raises his flag and when he doesn't on a tight offside but it gets categorised as VAR decision for or against someone.

That's more pen than the one Arsenal got ffs when it doesn't hit anything after being kicked.

They give probabilities to every match and then simulate the data thousands of times. Outliers obviously can happen and some teams can go on massive really unlikely runs. IMO they are far from useless and much more likely to get things right than you or me just looking at the table.

I've said this before but bookies have a pretty good idea what's going to happen in a small market like top 4 which isn't pulling that much money in. If I need to get an idea how likely something is I always check the bookies as it's their job to get that right to not lose money.

I don't think that's penalty when the shot comes from so close to Antonio, incredibly harsh.

Paqueta falls down nicely but Gabriel still catches his ankle first, don't think the contact was down to Paqueta.

Kamara being out might have been an accidental good thing for them, doubt Emery puts that extra man (that seemed to win them the game) in midfield if Kamara would have been available. @brummie can shoot me down if I'm clueless. Edit. I'm wrong, didn't realise Kamara had been out for few games and they still played 4-4-2 in those with Bailey up top. Just an Emery master class replacing Bailey with another midfielder and changing the formation.

I doubt he's playing football now either tbh.

He made an error in judgment, trying to pull out when he realises that doesn't mean it's not a foul.

It's soft and I hate soft penalties but I think that's a stonewall penalty in any case. Gabriel fucked up and I don't really see how that could go unpunished, it's not exactly accidental contact even when he tries to pull out of it.

I haven't really seen much of Diaby but I'm a bit hesitant spending at least £60m on a player from Bundesliga. So many players have flopped recently coming from there and Leon Bailey had similar numbers to him in Leverkusen.

I don't think there's too much wrong with his defending even now, it often looks awkward but he's no liability and talented wingers will always go past fullbacks at times. The bigger problem IMO is that he's not getting as much time on the ball and is really struggling in possession. I have full faith in Howe, if he thinks what Burn brings to the team outweighs the negatives I trust he's right.