Froggy

We have quality in attack to cause any team in the world problems, but we're a shambles at the back under any sort of pressure, and you will bring pressure. As always, shut down Bruno Fernandes and you will keep us quiet at one end. You'll have no issues at the other. 3-1.

Expected: Onana Wan Bissaka Maguire Lindelof Shaw Mainoo McTominay Garnacho Fernandes Rashford Hojlund What we're hoping for: De Gea Wan Bissaka Maguire Varane Shaw Mainoo McTominay Garnacho Fernandes Antony Hojlund

None of the teams in this group have performed particularly well. We've had a ludicrous amount of chances to kill games and haven't done so and then have given away numerous cheap goals to boot. I'm gutted. I just want Copenhagen to win tonight so I can forget about this shit.

Aye we're shit as well like but fuck me. It must be demoralising watching your keeper throw in goals all season long. Onana will get all the blame as well but Bruno Fernandes is a moron for giving away those two free kicks.

He's lost me after tonight anyway and I can't imagine many more will defend him. He made about 6 howlers tonight and 2 were punished and cost us the game. Should never have drawn this.

A shite game and tired legs. What odds are you on Saturday? Nailed on.

Oh you've no need to worry about that. Win or lose we never make it easy.

Kid Icarus and Froggy redemption arc incoming.

Rashford serving a suspension tonight so fully fit for this. Buzzing.

Aye, but in my opinion the best referees shouldn't give two shits what his assistants or the home crowd feel. It's their job to make the right decision regardless of what might come their way after. As if Pierluigi Collina would be pressurised into making the wrong decision after looking at a monitor.

Don't think you'll find anyone who will argue with you. The Garnacho goal against Arsenal being ruled out completely bummed me out and I don't think I've properly celebrated a goal since.

Oh it was a terrible decision in my opinion. I'm just saying people can have different interpretations of what aren't concrete black and white rules. There's even Newcastle fans on this forum who have stated that it could be the right decision. That referee last night is considered as one of the best of his generation. Herein lies the problem.

But who decides that something is an obvious wrong call? The way the rules are worded, even last nights horrendous call could be explained away by referees.

Aye I said to my mate straight away it's a pen, then saw the replay and noticed it came off the body first and said, "surely there's no way they can give this." Should have known better.

Yes it did. It happened fast and clearly came off the arm. Impossible to see it hit off the chest in real time. Everyone thought it was a pen until the replay.

Why is the assistant referee the one replaced? Ultimately, he wasn't the one who made the decision.

Not sure it even would. Some decisions will never be black and white and it still ultimately comes down to one man's opinion. Slow motion replays of tackles are a disaster in particular. You can make tackles that are soft yellows look like stonewall reds with the way they analyse them.

I feel like I'm old school as well to be honest. I'd prefer refs to just make a decision like they used to without the intervention of technology. If it's wrong it's wrong and so be it. It feels like to me like there's far more controversy now over decisions than there ever was in the 90's and 00's but that could just be recency bias.

It was recommended that the rule was changed so that a pen shouldn't be given if the ball deflected off the players body first. It wasn't implemented though. A pen was given last night on the basis that Livramento intentional made his body unnaturally bigger with his arm. It's beyond harsh, and the game is completely gone with shit like this. It happened with Martinez last season for us where the ball deflected up off his leg and hit his arm and it was given. They scored and we lost which was gutting so can't imagine how this feels.

The funny thing here is that it looked a stonewall penalty in real time and he didn't give it. It's only when you see the replays that you clearly see it come off his abdomen before grazing his elbow. It's never a pen and the ref has bottled it. It's a complete myth that mainland Europe referees are any better than English ones.

We getting that fifth CL spot let's go!

OK is a bit of a push if we're looking at the whole season. it's been poor. It's just trending in the right direction.

What squad disharmony? The only potential disruption at the minute is Varane, which nobody really knows the details of. Ten Hag has had the backing of the squad with every decision previous to this. There's certainly no visible squad disharmony on the pitch apart from individual issues like Rashford being a stroppy fucker. Mount has played a handful of games due to injury, but he's only 24. Not even close to a flop so very silly to write him off as a waste of money. Casemiro remains to be seen, as he was one of our best performers last year despite being sloppy with discipline. He's our second top scorer this season behind Hojlund struggling with injury at the minute though. Still far too early to write him off, given how important he was to a third place finish and trophy last season. Friendly reminder about the amount of injuries/suspensions we've had. You can say what you like about squad depth or how much we've spent, but truth is our backups aren't great. A lot of our backup players have been ridiculed by opposition fans including many on here, so you don't get to turn around use them as an excuse as to why we should still be a top side. Against Everton we rode our luck again for a large period of the first half, but were at least clinical at the other end for the first time in a while. At the same time Onana, Shaw (coming off a three month injury), Fernandes and Rashford were our only starting 11 players. An argument can maybe be made for Maguire but everyone knows Varane and Martinez are our best centre backs. In comparison, Newcastle had Pope, Trippier, Schar, Guimaraes, Joelinton, Gordon and Isak who are normally starters for you. I didn't include Almiron, but he could be one as well. You tell me. We have started to get better, and will only continue to get stronger as players like Casemiro and Martinez return next year and the likes of Hojlund, Wan Bissaka, Shaw, Eriksen and Mount get back to full fitness.

Out of curiosity, who decides what a tier 1, 2, 3 or 4 team is, and is there a list of teams in these tiers?