Andy

Really annoying how flat we've been considering how fragile these are. Get Joelinton and Barnes on asap. Get Trippier off set pieces too. Can't understand that at all considering how much better they've been lately.

Aye, like they did for the last 100 years of football

Aye except we wouldn't have wasted 2 minutes getting to the same wrong decision

Good thing we've got VAR to overturn obvious errors that shaft us eh lads?

I dunno, I've been watching football a long time as I'm sure you have too, and it doesn't feel much different to me in terms of how often we're complaining about decisions. It just takes longer to reach those decisions and takes away the joy of scoring a goal, if there's an increase in accuracy it really isn't worth the trade off IMO.

I feel like we complain about a VAR decision in our office almost daily. Refs make mistakes too of course, but for me football was fine like that for 30+ years of my life. Aye you got shafted every now and then, but now when it happens it feels almost deliberate due to how long it takes to still reach the decision that shafts us.

It always will be though, that's the problem. The same people are still making the decisions and getting them wrong, they're just taking longer over it and being more aggressive with it than if it was a single ref.

See it feels the opposite to me, I feel like there's a dodgy decision almost every single game of football I watch. Aye it's nice when it goes in your favour, but even then I'm not sure it's worth it.

I don't believe anyone can watch a game of football and find it more enjoyable with VAR than without, and that's the crux of the issue really. There are so many issues with it that stand in the way of spectacle - not being able to celebrate goals, play being stopped for minutes on end while they go to the far end of a fart to try to find a reason to overturn something, and most importantly, blatantly incorrect decisions still being made at the end of it all anyway. The human elements will never be removed for the majority of decisions. I'd rather the human element just be "referee or linesman fuck up", at least then you can say "well they only seen it once". It's far more annoying when they still fuck up having watched an incident 99 times over, which seems to happen not just every week, but multiple times a week. Things like the pantomime of sending the ref to the screen, and the shit in-stadium communication make it even worse. If automated offside is fast and works well, then use that. Everything else, put in the bin.

Partially agree, but I think VAR is still problematic in itself. The first bullet point in Wolves' letter is the one for me. Hate that feeling of not being able to enjoy a goal once it goes in, even with worldies you still have an element of doubt. I think limiting VAR to objective decisions (semi-automated offside, basically) is probably the best way forward.

Yeah they already made a lot of chances, but they've been far more clinical since the turn of the year. Their massively shit start, and a couple of games in hand they had, has allowed their form in 2024 to fly under the radar a bit.

They've been decent for a while tbf, they're 4th in form over the last 18 games.

Frustrating that, we never got going and made some really poor decisions in the final third. Need maximum points from the last two games, I can see Chelsea winning all their remaining fixtures.

Barnes took too long to release it, Miggy tried to hold his run

Glad to see the Ange hype-train well and truly dying a death after the ridiculous over reaction to their good start to the season. Bloke is tactically one dimensional and false as fuck in interviews.

Not really sure why he was brought on today tbh, at 4-0 up I'd rather give White or Murphy some minutes

Hopefully that will do Longstaff's confidence some good. Good team goal.

That's never a pen man

We've been shite away from home for ages tbf though. 4 isn't a terrible shout based on our form across the season.

I'm not totally convinced by the "playing through injury" excuse like. Obviously it might limit his work rate, but I'm not sure that it restricts his capability to pass the ball 10 yards, stay on his feet under pressure, or react at the speed of other players. I think he's a big confidence player, and when he isn't confident he hides off the ball and struggles on it, which is what we're seeing at the moment.

Not really a massive surprise that the first half was difficult given it was their last stand, but we were rank bad too and gave them something to bite in to. Longstaff and Murphy were rotten in particular. Second half was better, but 5-1 definitely flattered us. Feels weird to be negative after such a scoreline, but we need to be much better next week as Burnley have been grinding out some results

At least he's keeping it simple to get his confidence back and not wastefully surrendering possession by trying elaborate and unnecessary back heels

He has some good attributes, but he seems to not have a clue what to do once he gets in the final third. His passing falls to pieces, he rarely looks like scoring. It's difficult to tell what his best position is tbh. He's strong and good at breaking up play, but he doesn't look like a natural DM, and he doesn't have the end product for a box to box or attacking midfielder. He's approaching 40 appearances for us now, you'd expect at least a little bit of output at this point.

The energy levels were definitely the most annoying aspect tonight. You can forgive us being a bit sloppy when we have some pretty average footballers plugging holes, but they were first to every ball and looked more hungry. This has been the case over and over again this season away from home, from the very start.

Literally put anyone in midfield instead of Longstaff. He is clearly shot for confidence and hiding. Honestly think you could put Dan Burn in there and he'd offer more.