Wullie

Amazing how much attitudes can change. I used to completely loathe Solskjaer, he's now one of my favourite footballing comedy characters. The gift that keeps on giving. Please keep him in that job forever.

Just seen the Sokratis handball

Every year there's a furore when a Spanish player appears in a "blacking up" photo at Christmas as one of the wise men as is customary in Spain. Last Christmas it was Iniesta. It is quite interesting which cultures the English speaking world decide are acceptable and which aren't. We have certainly decided we are the arbiters of the issue though, which some might say is quite racist in itself.

Thank fuck for Atalanta.

Oh and Wolves scoring in the 96th minute did me for £40 off 50p ffs.

That yellow cost me £89. Now Atalanta not scoring is costing me £87.

Can't fucking believe that, especially as the whole Arsenal squad got booked or sent off. What a great slip.

Having kittens here.

Chopey's cards going ok, first 2 games done.

Last week I was one goal away on so many slips. This week I basically never even got close on anything. Not sure which is worse. I did get a Dunk/Manquillo card double up at the death for a bit back.

I can't get over the crowd, looks like a reserve game.

One of wuh own Can see why Bruce likes him, cut from the same cloth.

Hero's welcome for a turncoat and a cheat like Carroll, give me fucking strength.

But the law means these decisions have to be right. There's no grey area. When you're checking every goal, it shouldn't make a difference if it's 1mm like Son, or half a metre like Ayoze. It's the law that has to change. If those ridiculous lines that they draw on had been the other way round, nobody would have said "Those lines are in the wrong place!" - it's completely arbitrary. It looks like me having a go with MS Paint, "yeah that looks about right, whatever" Might as well rule out goal line technology too then? If it’s 1mm touching the line should we just give it even if the images say no goal? The goal line tech is orders of magnitude more accurate. It only has two things to worry about - the ball and the line, and one of those is a fixed point. Really easy for a few cameras to follow and get right with a high degree of accuracy and no human needed to make the decision. Even for a simple offside decision, you've got to worry about the passer's foot, the ball, the defender's knee, the defender's shoulder, the speed the defender is moving, the attacker's foot, etc etc etc. For an offside decision in a crowded penalty area, you've got potentially many dozens of moving parts. Then a human decides when to freeze frame, then a human draws lines on it. You're comparing apples and oranges. One is objectively accurate, the other is not.

So weird.

It's not though. That’s weird, are you sure? Assumed the software would draw a line on the back of the defenders. Ah well, anyway, if you’re going to use it for offside then a line is going to have to be drawn. Which will lead to loads of ‘mm offside’ type decisions. The TV shows them trying to line it up with shoulder/knee/armpit. As neesy says, it's also dependent on the frame. It's guesswork basically.

How is this any less accurate? https://twitter.com/BallsBurgess/status/1175398011381473280

It's not though.

But the law means these decisions have to be right. There's no grey area. Other countries with VAR aren't going to this length though in checking this closely from what I've seen. The law needs changing but the PL are making a ridiculous hash of it, just like they aren't intervening enough when there's blatant pens etc. But this is a blatant offside according to the rules whether it's just offside or miles offside. Penalties and fouls, there's still that element of interpretation (even if the Lascelles one last week and on Kane recently looked like pens to me) Blatant Technology showed it’s offside. The referee can’t view that then say, nah, I’m ignoring that. How did technology show it was offside? It was a bloke drawing (very thick) lines on a paused frame. It's not AI.

But the law means these decisions have to be right. There's no grey area. When you're checking every goal, it shouldn't make a difference if it's 1mm like Son, or half a metre like Ayoze. It's the law that has to change. If those ridiculous lines that they draw on had been the other way round, nobody would have said "Those lines are in the wrong place!" - it's completely arbitrary. It looks like me having a go with MS Paint, "yeah that looks about right, whatever"

Pack football up and go home.

0 shots all second half. Imagine how that would be talked about if their manager wasn’t Eddie Howe. :lol: Hold the back page!

One less thing for anyone to win would not be a good thing in the long run. The domestic competitions feel pointless enough as it is. France getting rid will surely be very unpopular - Strasbourg won it last year, what hope for Strasbourg or even Lyon in their one horse race league?