Segun Oluwaniyi

Something about Manchester City has always rubbed me the wrong way, even compared to Chelsea and PSG. Chelsea happened when I was a young teen and were pretty much always a big club in my understanding of the league from far away, and PSG were always a a dormant giant in Ligue 1 with great support. Manchester City were one of the most nondescript clubs in the league and then were essentially turned into an advertising extension of the UAE government overnight and were buying Robinho immediately. It never seemed real to me, and frankly diminished the league for me. At least Abramovich was someone that I could identify in the crowd on the broadcast and treat as a villain. Man City were just a non-entity that were suddenly dominant because of some shadowy figure that doesn't even bother showing up to matches or seem to be interested at all. I will always be against them in their current format, tbh.

To play this way against weaker or equivalent sides at home, you need genuine threat from one of the 2 midfielders or the wingbacks and right now there is neither. This is a very blunt side that relies on the physicality of Rondon and the energy/opportunism of the two other attackers to create most of the chances.

Same handball from the World Cup Final.

This Man City are more efficient than any side I have seen in making the last 60 minutes of a match against a rubbish side an exercise in tedium. It is a credit to them, I suppose.

I had always thought of McClaren as an average (maybe slightly above average) and perfectly acceptable manager in England before he came to Newcastle. It is still odd to me that his career has essentially fallen apart since this time. IIRC, Derby were near the top and fighting for promotion when the club were first linked, and once the press starting mentioning his name with this club, Derby's season collapsed and the jobs he has taken since have been a disaster.

This is five or so consecutive matches I have watched with match-altering decisions I have strongly disagreed with. Strange times for officials. He is lucky he did not get Jermaine O'Neal'd

Remember when Tiote (R.I.P.) scored a wonder goal against Manchester City and the referee decided to overrule the linesman and call offside because Gouffran was in Hart's "vision".

Much like the red card decision in the Newcastle match, that isn't really anything to do with the rule. The law has been applied incorrectly. It is incompetent officiating.

Surely Sterling is interfering with play if he is a millisecond from tapping the ball in. The decision is completely nonsensical.

Nah. Perez is off when Yedlin plays it and maybe when Hayden does, but not when Rondon plays it. Three or four players, including Rondon, were offside from the initial ball. It is blatantly offside, but I do not care.

Spurs will finish 6th.

Pickford is rubbish.

Why are Newcastle consistently at the end of ridiculous decisions? The ball is nowhere near Pickford and he tackles the striker like Ed Reed when he is shaping to tap it in. It isn't the sort of thing that should require VAR, just a basic understanding of how the sport works.

My order of preference: Nigeria win World Cup Newcastle win Champions League Newcastle win Premier League Newcastle win FA Cup Newcastle win Europa League Nigeria win African Cup of Nations and/or Olympics (Less interest in these, as they have happened three times in my lifetime, twice that I can remember) Newcastle win League Cup (This competition doesn't seem to interest anyone until the semi-finals at the earliest) 1: You are given a 1-0 this season, which game do you chose to win? (Has to be a league game): Looking at the remaining fixtures, probably Brighton Away. Frankly, beating both Southampton and Brighton would be safety. 2: You are given 1 club to be relegated from the Premier League, who do you chose?: In a perfect world, Manchester United. In the real world, Burnley. 3: You are given one club to win the Champions League, who do you chose? (Club has to be in the Champions League or Champions League regular): I also support Olympique de Marseille, who are fairly regular in the CL, so them. For this season, any club other than Manchester United. 4: Would you rather win the Europa Leauge or the FA Cup?: FA Cup 5: One club to be promoted from the Championship?: Boro because of Mikel and something of a derby that is not Sunderland. 6: Who would you prefer to win the SPL, Celtic or Rangers?: This is irrelevant. 7: You are asked for 1 manager to be sacked?: Unai Emery, I dislike him. 8: A club other than the club you support to win their respective league?: For this season, Dortmund and/or Philadelphia Union.

~90% of handball penalties that are awared with VAR are not penalties and this is affecting the game at the highest level. The one in the World Cup final was not a penalty, nor was the one tonight. This was already the most nonsensical and arbitrary part of football and VAR has made it substantially worse. It is ludicrous and a scourge upon the game to for the biggest matches in football to be decided by this rubbish.

Yep. His arm’s in an unnatural decision and it hits it. People will use it as a reason to have another pop at VAR but it’s the correct decision. Where is his arm meant to be when jumping? The ball didn't even hit his arm directly, it was already blocked by his thigh!

VAR is a disgrace.

I feel that for the first time in a while (maybe since Heynckes side at Bayern or Mourinho's at Inter) the best teams in Europe are not in Spain. Barcelona might still win because Messi is Messi, but Man City, Liverpool, Juventus, and Paris are better football sides than the top Spanish teams, imo. They will rectify this by spending Niger's GDP in the summer, but it is still interesting.

Dropped £30mil on Anguissa too and he's been awful this season Seri is a good player that has blown hot and cold in England as a lot of players do in their first season there, see Keita as an example. He was brilliant against Brighton, and will be good if he stays in the country, not with relegated Fulham of course. Anguissa was a waste of money and was never going to be anything else. He is a good athlete, but was nothing more than an average player in Ligue 1 and for Cameroon. Cairney and Johansen are better players. Anyway, Fulham score enough so it is kind of silly to focus on their wingers and forward-thinking midfield players. I cannot remember a Premier League side that defends as individually poorly as Fulham this season. Raineri has dropped the expansive play for a pragmatic, organised approach but they still look ready to concede whenever someone runs at their defence or puts a ball in the box. There are constant mistakes and rubbish play from whoever they have tried there.

I've always enjoyed the away goals rule, tbh. It has interesting tactical implications and incentives at certain scores when you are home or away. It also limits the amount of extra-tima and penalties when we have already seen 180 minutes between the two sides. I don't think it will make any tangible difference to the general style of play in two-legged ties, so I will miss that part of it.

Qatar 2-0 up against Japan in the Asian Cup final just before halftime.

The shift from the club failing to complete simple loan deals and purchases from relagated clubs to breaking the transfer record is far too immediate and drastic for me to believe. I expect to be disappointed. The only logical reason I can think for this transfer to actually occur is Rafa stating that he will leave Thursday rather than at the end of the season, and the deal being used to placate him. Attempting to avoid a 2008, Keegan leaving and Guthrie breaking Fagan's leg type of scenario at the next home match would seem to make sense, but I am not sure Ashley and hierarchy of the club even care about this.

I have the same injury (other foot) from October last year, and if his is anything like mine (lower in the bone, Jones fracture), I would be surprised if plays again this season. It is a rubbish injury. No real pain outside of the ankle/foot twist when it happens, but a very slow recovery process with or without surgery, usually several months and easy to reinjure. Exactly. Almost like clockwork every year Huge talent, but awful to watch. No sympathy for him. When? Last year he barely made it back for the world cup after his injury and that's the only time an injury has put him out of a big CL game iirc Didn't he get injured in the 14 world cup also? Meh, I'm keeping my fake narrative regardless. Really dislike the guy. Tbf, he was injured because Zuniga decided to purposefully knee him in the spine. My secondary memory of this is Luiz holding his shirt aloft during the anthem, as though Neymar had died, and then proceeding to directly cost his team five goals when they played Germany.

I understand the romantic sentiments regarding the "spirit" of the offsides rule, but what exactly are people suggesting the rule should be? It is fine to play by the rule of " Don't hang near the goal or we will smack you/no longer play with you" in a casual game, but this is not realistic for serious football. By definition, the offside rule will refer to a certain absolute point (based on the position of defenders) that your body or certain parts of your body will not be allowed to cross. It will inevitably be a matter of a heel or a nose being 1 cm in a certain direction unless you are asking the linesman and referees to make even more difficult judgement decisions than those they are already tasked with. The rule is perfect as it is, and if VAR is going to become the standard, the issue is how we apply VAR. We have seen this issue seriously hurt NFL, a sport that brought video review in decades ago. The standard has to be that there is a decision made by the linesman/referee (or an egregious incident missed) that VAR can demonstrably prove to be an error. If we are just looking to VAR to actually be the arbiter for any difficult decision where the differences are microscopic and difficult for the bare eye to see, the sport will be seriously damaged and the officiating badly compromised, as in the NFL. edit: Essentially I agree with DJ_NUFC

Newcastle this season are the most boring side I have ever seen in any professional athletic event. It is almost universally a serious chore to watch this rubbish.