timeEd32

Finishing ahead of Milan to knock them out entirely would be helpful.

Since Brighton we’ve played 10: 7W, 2D, 1L

Is this randomness or is there a logistical reason?

Holy shit, YES

I hope people can keep a level head if the demands of the last week catch up with us here.

Pardew esque excuses. His days are numbered.

That sums up Man United pretty well. Completely outplayed and almost snagged a point. Would have been awful to not win that to the point I was more relieved than happy at full time. Great effort, we really need some players back.

Yes, 27 v 38 please. Dying for a derby now that Pardew / Carver aren’t involved.

We only paid over the odds according to people who didn’t rate him. He very likely would not have been available in the summer and our recruitment team felt we were getting a bargain for an English player of his age and potential. They were very right.

I still find it incredibly silly that you could feasibly not know which places qualify for the CL until after the season has ended. I really thought when this was introduced that it would be a season in advance (i.e. England would have 5 places this year based on 2022/23).

(It will also be remembered far more fondly two weeks from now if we get to the knockout round)

I think, over time, it will be remembered very fondly. "Remember that time we rocked up to Paris with a bare bones squad and beat their superstars until the refs cheated us?" It may also be one of the main catalysts for either VAR or handball law changes, so we can recall it 10 years from now in between arguing about whether the 2033 squad is deep enough to defend the treble.

That was just the first half - the second half alone they had an xG of 2.12 (though 0.79 of that was the penalty). But Everton's second half xG was 1.04. It was 2.47 for the whole game. Ridiculous that they didn't score.

I mean look at the first half against Everton. They had two shots, one of which resulted in one of the greatest goals in the history of the league. xG of 0.09. Everton had 10 shots, four on target, 2 "big chances," and an xG of 1.43. They were thoroughly outplayed and on just about any other day probably would have trailed at halftime. I want to call it luck but Froggy will argue there's a skill in winning matches and I won't fully argue that. But their method of earning points this season is entirely unsustainable and it's driving me crazy. I hope we smash them this weekend.

It is changing a bit when the new format begins next season. Participation is going up from 25% to 27.5% of the total. Prize money is increasing from 30 to 37.5%. TV Pool and Coefficient are being combined into one grouping that will make up the remaining 35% (which is 10% less than those two combined now). But as far as I know there are no details on how they are breaking this down and if that -10% is largely shifting later round TV money into prize money (which is essentially little change) or if they are actually reducing the financial benefit to a high coefficient, which to me is the most unfair part of the current distribution.

TV money and coefficient are separate. You can add another £3.8m or so for our coefficient amount. That is irrespective of how far you advance so it won't change regardless. There's also a TV pool component, which has two parts. Half is based on where you finished in the league to qualify so we get the lowest of the English teams since we finished 4th. That amounts to ~£8.5m. The other half is dependent on how far you advance. For comparison, City get ~£30M for their coefficient and ~£16m for their initial TV pool payment.

It's almost always there in the back of your mind when a goal goes in now. A good example was Wilson for the third against Brighton last season. I barely reacted as I was certain he'd be ruled offside. Bruno for the 4th was the opposite - pure euphoria like pre-VAR.

I'm guessing VAR has properly fixed many more decisions than it has gotten wrong. The problem is when VAR intervenes and gets it wrong it usually seems so stupid and avoidable. They need to fix the process. (This is ignoring the very valid argument about it tarnishing the best thing about the sport - the goals and ensuing celebrations. I don't know what to do about that.)

I'm wondering how he knows that, but if true that is fucking ridiculous. Honestly the biggest problem with VAR isn't the technology or even the humans involved necessarily. It's that the entire process, or lack thereof, appears to have been slapped together with little thought. The Liverpool error was because there's no defined process. The fact there isn't a clear outline about how many angles (i.e. all available), speeds, etc. need to be shown is ridiculous. The same goes for communication - who is talking and when? what words are being used?

Hope they push it back to Thursday

Yeah, they deserved a draw (or more). But they didn’t deserve that draw.

I was with you until you said Friday Night Lights was tacky. Clear eyes, full hearts...

Ha, I know. Dortmund are saints compared to these other two. But yes, I'd want us to go for it and would relentlessly defend the decision if it ended badly.

If he had brought on some kids to see it out and they scored he'd be getting killed on here for that.