Pilko

Nobody watches Champions League Aye that'll be because viewers around the world were scrambling to find live coverage of Sunlin's win against the mighty Watford instead. Championship gets better viewing figures than Champions League marra, simple mackematics.

I don't like the music afterwards, wouldn't mind so much if they waited 5 minutes and allowed some natural post-game atmos first. Southampton at home in the cup semi was the worst, the ref had barely raised the whistle to his lips and we had Doris fucking Day blaring out with the volume turned up to 11, proper shite.

Think that latest squad is me officially moving my flagpole out of the Southgate camp. What a fucking dullard man.

He's had basically 2 years away from playing, I'm sure he doesn't want a rest just yet like.

Gallagher, Henderson, Phillips, Maguire. Fuck off Southgate you boring cunt.

Really hope Wilson can put in half an hour or so as a minimum here cos Isak ran himself into the ground last night as well as his bump on the noggin (not caused by bad babysitting). Would imagine Murph comes in for Gordon or maybe Anderson plays wide? Not sure. Sounds a bit negative but after the exertions of last night a point would be fine here. A win would be golden. I suppose they'll have played in Europe too so they could be even more tired than us with a day's less recovery to boot.

He's obviously class and that but last night, my god, some of his first touches to control a ball fizzed into his feet to spin and turn away from opposing players and get us on the attack were just ridiculous. Seems to be back to his best, that was right up there in terms of overall performance since he got here.

Thought he did really well tonight, showed his pedigree and kept nicking the ball back for us. Did seem to tire though and was correctly replaced by Anderson.

Love that he got our first CL goal in twenty odd year. Grafted his nads off and did well, although for the 10-15 mins after he scored he must have give the ball away about 5 times

Best away fans I've seen and best I've ever heard the home atmosphere. Was absolutely banging other than the 10 mins after their goal where people got a little nervy. The crowd reacted to every tackle and every block and the groans when we lost the ball on occasion seemed to disappear tonight.

What a way to cap the night. Defended like an absolute demon too.

Showed some unbelievable skill tonight. Mark of his progress too that nobody was even slightly worried when he came on for Tonali. He's a first team player proper now and showing it every week.

He's just an absolute dynamo this lad. Even when he's not having the greatest time with the ball the yards he puts in are phenomenal. Tonight however was not one of those nights! He was excellent from start to finish and to cap it with a goal... stuff dreams are made of. What a comeback from being the "false 10" scapegoat and out of the squad only a couple of years ago.

Not sure how to sum that up other than the whole thing was both sublime and ridiculous. To make PSG look that ordinary and to absolutely take the piss out of them....wow. A special team and a special staff we have.

I wouldn't worry, the rate he's going his name won't be getting referred to so frequently for much longer.

Yeah I think former refs or former players would be ideal for this. As long as they are absolute experts at understanding the laws of the game and also how the technology works it fixes a lot of the problems.

I think a large part of the problem is the refs themselves flitting between VAR and on the field. Leave the current lot on the field, yes I think they're largely shite by the way. There should be a dedicated VAR team who are intensively trained on the technology, regularly tested on it with practical examples etc, who purely perform the VAR duties and the referees purely perform refereeing/fourth official etc.

Just because you're dismissing the effect it has on fans and "don't care" about football clubs making money doesn't mean technology will simply go away. We need to find a way to embrace it; some of the things I suggested above will be flawed in practice but there will be a way to make it much better, as it is in other sports which proves it's not an impossibility to do so.

These are basically multi-million pound decisions they're making that have an adverse effect on millions of people. If they haven't got the arsehole to front up when they do get it wrong then they shouldn't be in the job in the first place.

We need to keep VAR and we need much more competent people using it and running the show. I saw a post on Instagram of the list of PGMOL apologies since early 2022 and fuck me, they've said "Sorry" more times than Ronnie Corbett. Years and years of watching us on the wrong end of shit decisions that everyone in the stadium and at home could see were wrong other than the three useless tossers on the pitch was awful and I wouldn't want that back. Surely you have a dedicated VAR team who all day and all night utilise the VAR technology and are regularly and constantly subjected to both written and practical examinations around the correct usage of the system and application of the games laws, rather than the same idiots with the whistle on rotation; one week bungling things on the pitch and the next in the comfy chair making an arse of the video side. You also improve transparency of the live decision-making process much like cricket or dare I say it rugby. The only thing that's good about rugby is the transparency of the on-field and video refereeing. Next, you make the sanctions (and rewards tbf) for these VAR officials much greater. Never mind a paid week off if they make a huge bungle like the Diaz one, they should be fined or banned for a longer period, re-educated and made to apologise publically themselves rather than hiding behind a PGMOL statement. Similarly they should be compensated via bonuses for correct and good application of the law over nominated time periods. Sadly, the only way we'll ever seen any real progress or reform in this area is when damage is done to "the product" of the Premier League. I've said it more times than I care to remember but until a manager walks his team off the pitch in the event of the next aberration and refuses to continue a match, we'll see no discernible change and more posturing from that limp dick Webb on Sky Sports etc when Neville and Carra etc go in for a cosy chat. That or PL managers all refuse to do interviews for TV until there's a proper review or something. It'll need to be drastic, unfortunately. We need to embrace technology and move with the developments but a massive review of the personnel utilising and managing the thing needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Bournemouth look crap under this new forrin fella. I can almost hear Merson asking why they got rid of Gary O'Neil cos he knows the league and the club and this guy he don't know the Premier League. Early days I suppose but if they get beat off Everton next week it looks canny bleak for them.

Ollie Watkins can fuck off, did absolutely nowt for 6 weeks, took him out before last weekend - 4 in 2 and an assist the cunt.

Palace fans will be even more annoyed I reckon.

Aye. Always said this when they pushed the "Respect the ref" stuff - they are so consistently incompetently bad that they fully deserve all the shit they get from fans, managers and players.