ponsaelius

Albiol has low key had an underrated career. Still class at 36.

Villarreal score

They got a leg up from the Championship to established top half in the PL as a direct result of the connections established through Mendes and the advantages that brought through player recruitment. This advantage has now become a bit of a limitation as the players in that pool are less likely to make as much of an impact and now cost more. Ultimately that's the deal with the devil that they've made. Bit like Watford fans whinging about the Pozzos for their scattergun transfer policy and hiring/firing of managers. Ultimately it turned them from a bottom half Championship club to one that will probably continually have spells in the PL and challenging for promotion.

It's a vicious cycle though. I'd rather strip it back then continue on this road.

The other thing I disagree with is the constant clamour for 'transparency'. Refereeing discretion has gone completely out of the window as a result of paranoia and pursuit of perfection. A rugby-esque need for everything to be explained and visualised in the immediacy after it has happened is what leads to lines being drawn on a screen and the flow of the game lost. Let VAR look at the offside as soon as the goal goes but make it a quick look, if it looks more-or-less in line, decision stays with the on-pitch. Move on quickly and get it kicked off again. Transparency for refereeing after the game, explaining decisions, fine. During the game - nah, fuck off.

If they are absolutely insistant on using VAR for offsides I would just get rid of the lines and the pursuit of perfection which is not possible. Get VAR to let the ref look at a replay if it's clearly miles offside. Otherwise the immediate interpretation at face value should be accepted as fine - with benefit of the doubt given to the attacker. This would get rid of most of these ludicrous MSPaint endeavours which waste minutes of the game. Most of the dubious fingernail offsides should simple be onside. Everybody has lost the plot IMO but the genie is probably out of the bottle now.

Saying that offsides can't be judged by human eyes ignores that: 1. They have been for 100+ years 2. The offside rule was never, ever intended to be measured to the Nth degree The point of the offside rule was to stop players goalhanging. Changes to the rule over time have always been to do with adjusting that basic principle (three player to two, own half not offside etc) based on the game as it has evolved. If an attacker is broadly level with a defensive line then that should be absolutely fine. If it's close enough that the video needs pausing and lines drawn on a frame to measure then in my opinion it is not a clear advantage and should be allowed. Chasing perfection is a disingenuous and incorrect interpretation of the rule that has only came about owing to the existence of universal TV coverage and HD cameras.

Always feel with DoFs, Chief Scouts, Head of Recruitments etc it's never as easy as them just moving clubs and once again succeeding elsewhere. There's always more circumstances than just themselves that makes them successful at a club. Usually the wider structure at the club and the way they fit into things. Monchi was notoriously awful at Roma being a key example - yet just slotted straight back in again at Sevilla. While tbh I'm not sure Sevilla really missed a beat while he was gone. Makes it clear that we'll obviously need to do a lot more than simply plucking Ashworth to be successful.

Yeah but all those teams who they overhauled also obviously got points too. I am hypothesizing a final total that they could theoretically reach - and underlining that we may still need another 2-3 points to be safe. Which we should obviously achieve.

Exactly. I said outside chance. It's still unlikely. But their run in is poor enough that it's possible.

I still think there's an outside chance Burnley could get to 36 points, so not quite safe yet. Just need to get 3 points from our remaining games.

6 after those 3pms

Back up to a 5 after that Everton result

If Burnley had lost tonight we probably only needed 3 points to stay up. Now it's more like 6-7 imo.

Change the title.

Puts the pressure on big style for the upcoming games.

First away game since Rochdale pre-Covid for me and overall was a largely dispiriting experience. The match very much felt like a peak Mike Ashley era matchday, which I guess it to be expected when the team and club is basically still that right now. Never really offered much at all in the game and were comprehensively taken apart by a team on a whole other level. Atmosphere in the away end was really poor. As with many bowl-like grounds the noise seems to just disappear into the air and therefore it's hard to get noise going - but even so other than briefly after the goal there was barely a single time in the game where the whole away end was chanting the same song. Finally - there is definitely an ever increasing percentage of our away support who don't seem to know how to tactfully tread the line between acceptable away day fun and outright antisocial behaviour. I don't really understand how so many are able to fund coke fuelled days out in the current economic climate. I've really struggled to get the buzz back since the takeover and very little about yesterday helped with that. The entire club still needs a complete re-set from top to bottom. Wish we could just fast forward to the summer at this point.

I'd rather live in Blyth or Shields than Darras Hall any day of the week.

Like the links to Brennan Johnson mind. He looks ace.

All part of the game IMO.

Yeah I can still play either way

Aye I can play

It's a total disaster but it's deserved the way they've finished qualifying. Looked absolutely toothless in every game since the Euros, but rigidly stuck to the system even though it had clearly stopped working.

This was what happened with Michael Carrick.

No travelling though tbf - it's all in Doha.