Kaizero

Seems to be OTT by a mile, checked out on Arsenal's website what a day looks like for an official mascot. Mascots walk out with the players, join them on the pitch for the warm up, picture/question opportunities with some requested players and more Arsenal media team just decided that posting the worst looking part of that girl's dream day was the one to go with

I'm not comparing the status of the jobs or how well they pay, I'm comparing the repetitiveness and mundaneness of it for the ones involved. For them this is just a part of their job that the do multiple times per day, every day, for 15+ years. However, if this is from when they arrive - meaning this is their first official part of work on the day - I'd agree they could be more amped up. That said, if it's at the end of the day or after a match is complete, I'd make the complaint that Arsenal are bad at scheduling things like this rather than diss the players.

People seem to be thinking that they don't sign tons of shirts and see tons of people on any given day. Yeah, she's a young kid, so obviously be nicer than to some random 50 year old autograph collector. Doesn't change the fact they'll likely be dead tired of doing things like that and just wanting to get on with their day, for them it's just as mundane and repetitive a thing to do as stacking shelves with Dolmio sauces is for a Lidl employee - yet those employees are expected to smile at all customers as well. As long as they're not actively rude or dismissive towards anyone I feel people are overreacting. The girl got her shirt signed, she got to get up close and personal with her heroes - let's talk shit about them for not being super happy and smiling when doing one of the most boring and repetitive tasks in their profession

If you saw my post re: first matches using VAR in Norway, I just saw a comment from another of the ref's involved in one of the matches using VAR, and... wow "I called it the second I saw the first replay. That wasn't anymore clear and obvious on video than it was to me on the pitch. I'm not gonna disrupt play watching it over and over for five minutes only to get insecure and end up taking a guess. It was clear to me that the on field decison I made should stand." An actual beautiful application of the rules and beautiful application of VAR at the same time? What even is this?

People raging in the comments and the poor guy just went:

Fully agree. It's extremely idiotic that there's no common agreed consensus amongst all PL referees on how to apply VAR and in what situations to do so. Also, the refs being held above accountability. In my opinion an elite referee is an elite athlete within their own "sport". They should be available for post-match interviews on the same level as the players and have to answer the same dumb journo questions.

VAR was used for the first time in the Norwegian Premier Division today. The referees have agreed unanimously how to apply it and in what situations. Also, our refs face the media post-match. The first major VAR overturn was a yellow card changed to a red card, a goal was also overturned for a microscopic offside. Following the match the ref said: "In honesty it's a bit of a classic midfield situation. It happens unexpectedly so my attention isn't fully on the incident at the momet it occurs. I assume the opinion of everyone seeing it happen real time without focusing on that exact part of the pitch matches what my own opinion on the pitch was; that it was a yellow card challenge. But then I get called to review the incident on the VAR screen, where at first I got to review photos of the challenge - after which I still thought I made the right decision. But once I saw the video footage I knew I had made the wrong decision, because that was a red card challenge any day of the week. The force the player enters the challenge with is a red card offense and no referee would have caught that on the pitch. The overturned goal due to offside however is us following the laws of the game by utilizing the technology available to us. Without VAR there is no way a linesman could see that was offside and I am sure people at home will argue that it was unecessary to overturn a goal due based on such small margins. That is the reality however, the player was undeniably in an offside position so the goal gets overturned. I have to apply the rules of the game and I can't ignore evidence. If it should be the law that when a player happens to be offside by such extremely small margins that only camers with ultra high frame rates is able to catch it is not up to me or for me to have an opinion on, I just enfore the rules as they are at any given time." If the PL had the same type of openness about referee decisions and the referees actually agreed on how to apply VAR and no to apply VAR, I think VAR in the PL would work a lot better.

With regards to the statements people are making regarding which teams are "benefitting" from VAR, yes. Other than that, no. Some of the most popular statements being made on here concerns VAR absolutely fucking us over all the time and showing preference for the "top six", which is false. I've already made my opinion quite clear on the subject, the standard of refereeing and there not being a unanimous decision reached amongst PL refs on how to use VAR is an absolute shitshow. If there was a set of rules all VAR refs had agreed to follow, as well as the standard of referees being much higher, VAR wouldn't be an issue. The reality at the moment however is that the referees are shit and there are no set rules for how they are to use VAR, which makes VAR absolute shit in action for the Premier League. The standard of referees being absolute shit in the PL has been an issue for years, though. They're not elite athletes, they have inflated egos and they can't handle criticism. Referees at the top level need to be at least close to par fitness wise as the players they are meant to control. The PL refs all seeming to share the same narcissistic tendencies doesn't help either when you're meant to be impartial.

Oh, not saying that there's not some teams that are destined for the drop. But we all know that a few sometimes pull off a "great escape", those clubs are the potential banana skins. We might cruise through the lot, just saying I'd feel more certain we'd not slip up if the teams we were facing were already on holiday mentally and had nothing to lose or win going into our fixture. If we're lucky, none of the teams we play are on some great escape shit when we face them.

The best possible set of fixtures at this stage of the season would've always been mid-table teams just waiting to go on holiday. Teams with something to play for (trying to avoid relegation/European Qualification) are all much larger potential banana skins.

VAR - NET SCORE - 2022/2023 Brentford +5 Fulham +5 Liverpool +5 Aston Villa +2 Newcastle +2 Nottm Forest +2 West Ham +2 Leicester City 0 Manchester United 0 Arsenal -1 Chelsea -1 Crystal Palace -1 Everton -1 Southampton -1 Wolves -1 Bournemouth -2 Leeds -2 Tottenham -3 Manchester City -4 Brighton & Hove Albion -6 ^ Current net total of positive/negative decisions going for/against PL teams by VAR. Doesn't take into consideration if a decision is "wrong" or not, it just shows how much VAR has "helped" a team or not.

Also, I am of the opinion that Brentford have been really good at shutting our style of play down more than we've just outright been shit. Credit where credit is due, I'm not a fan of just saying "we've been shit", when in reality, we've been made to look shit by someone else playing well.

We're third place on a ranking of the teams that have benefitted the most from VAR decisions this season IIRC, so not really. The standard of refereeing in the PL is the issue, not VAR itself. The refs in the PL couldn't unanimously agree on a set definition of rules for application of VAR, so the rule is that it's up to the individual ref in any given match to interpret how to use VAR. That's why it's so massively inconsistent in the PL and you get situations like this. The standard of refereeing needs to be higher, the quality of players in the PL is so high the current crop of referees honestly can't keep up. A top level referee is meant to be a top level athlete, this fucking lot aren't even close.

"Midfield is getting bossed, better remove a player from midfield."

I think one of the admins a while ago said the forum has been able to ever since that "massive" upgrade a while back, just that they'd been continuing "tradition" anyway and kept restarting. If I am recalling correctly, I'd assume theyr're now just not following tradition?

I'm not sure we really disagree, because I mean, over the course of a season the results you get are the results you get But it could be flipped around as well, we are the team with the third best point haul away from home this season, Brentford arethe 7th best home side going by points haul. If we are to believe the saying that away games are tougher, that fact should in theory mean that we, as a stronger side away going by results so far this season than they are as a home side, would mean we should win if applying your core concept? Just think there's a lot more relevant ways of looking at if a match will be "hard" or not than the results any given side, previously, have had either at home or away.

For some reason I absolutely hate "form" logic when applied on a seasonal basis like this. Recent form (3-4 last matches), sure, it can be somewhat of a pointer how things might turn out if one team is on fire in a good way and the opponent on fire in a bad way. However, when the ball is kicked after the first whistle, like fuck does it matter if the opponent has lost once at home before this match or not. If teams are evenly matched I'm sure it could have a minor effect mentally for the opponent to know the home side rarely loses. Even then, that comes down to the professionalism of the players if they let something like that affect them mentally. If the teams aren't evenly matched, I'm fairly certain the better side go into the match thinking they'll win regardless of whether or not the opponent has lost once at home this season or not. The home side could naturally gain more confidence from rarely losing at home, but against a better side they'll, most times, lose even if their stadium is a "fortress". I acknowledge ths is a dumb hill to choose dying on, but here we are

Until the end of the season it makes sense for the reasons you mention. Could give a much needed boost, The issue (for them) is if he does well though as he clearly should not be a permanent option and the only reason for hiring him would be the chance it gives a short term boost, is if they can't handle the heat an initial good run would bring with regards to public pressure. "He's earned a chance" et al. His qualifications aren't good enough, he's earned shit, a good run of form means nothing long term. Would be very fun if the new manager boost he'd (likely) bring managed to get him the job long term though

I will never forget you just straight up eating the snus

may or may not already be drop shipping ?

Nail on head. Play the players that are the most in-form in their preferred positions, it's not hard logic to follow. Remember when he thought the best option available to start was (I can't remember the exact player and position off the top of my head) a player that hadn't played a first team match for his club for six months, defending it with "wanting continuity in the squad" - this rather than playing a younger player that was on fire for his club? Then, at like 70 minutes, he subbed off the shit out-of-form player for the in-form player and suddenly we were dangerous on that side of the pitch instead of leaking goals? He's clinically insane.

I thought the Bayern sacking actually had more to do with the players disliking Nagelsmann for his Ted Lasso-esque antics, as well as them feeling they no longer could communicate openly given that his girlfriend is one of the leading sports journos in Germany - rather than him being sacked due "bad results"?

Solbakken is such a shit manager it's insane he's not been sacked yet after the abysmal showings in the other qualifiations. He's wasting a genuinely good generation of players by forcing them to play his shit boring style of football that went out of style in the fucking 90s.

This is per literal definition a major trophy: