Dandy Man

There was definitely at least an equivalent amount of suspicious activity with some of the bookings Xhaka got at Arsenal and nothing has come of that (yet)

Feel like this lad could be the best footballer there has ever been with the first name Lloyd

2 hours ago, Andy said:

 

I think you could definitely argue significantly increased accuracy on offside decisions (which I'm all for keeping, just make it faster). I'm not so sure about the subjective stuff, particularly fouls leading to goals being disallowed, fouls leading to penalties (or not), and handball decisions. I'm sure there is an increase in accuracy, but it feels like VAR over-scrutinise these incidents and still get it wrong (at least in the opinion of many) on a fairly regular basis, so the trade off isn't worth it to me as a fan. 

 

It also feels like they're often desperate to disallow goals, looking at every aspect of the play from every angle, which is miles away from the "clear and obvious error" element and outright spoils the game. 

 

I'm aware most of this is down to the human using the tool, but the same humans will always be using the tool, and that's where the problem lies. Removing the human/subjective element from VAR is the best way forward for me.  

This is one of my biggest gripes with VAR, it's basically inherently flawed in this respect as it's only applied retroactively after a goal and you can't go reviewing every potentially incorrect decision or soft free kick that gets given that might have prevented a team from otherwise scoring.

We were obviously totally knackered and individual errors cost us badly, but I thought Everton played us relatively well by playing the game on their terms and forcing most our play through the middle of the park and they deserved the win tbf. Nevertheless, if we'd taken some of the chances at 0-0 we would've likely come away with something. It's annoying to capitulate in that manner but we have a crunch Champions League game against AC Milan in the week and you'd have been put in an asylum for thinking such things were possible little over two years ago so I can't be too annoyed either.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2023/1130/1419434-bruce-ireland-job-would-interest-me/

Please god no, can we not just be shite in peace

Imagining Mitro's levels of fitness after a few months living the semi retired life in Saudi and then catapulting him in to Eddie Howe's peak physical condition regimen, maybe I'm a pessimist but not sure it would work out well tbh

Unsurprisingly, a fairly significant proportion of Arsenal fans are doubling/trebling/quadrupling down on this being a disgrace.

VAR and refs in general are on a hiding to nothing these days tbf, fans of nearly every club seem to believe there is some coordinated conspiracy against them any time a decision that is not 100% conclusive does not go in their favour, the players of nearly all teams are increasingly proficient in methods for conning refs and/or influencing decisions and then you get endless gaslighting and moaning from the same managers who have actively encouraged their players to deceive referees.

Parroting what most people have said and stating the obvious pretty much, but we simply don't have a deep enough squad to deal with the current level of fatigue in the team and we have had especially bad variance with regard to injuries. It's not really an excuse, it's just the reality of the situation. Considering we started from a base of being odds on to get relegated this time two years ago and are now competing in the Champions League it's not very surprising. This season could end up looking more like the transition season that last year would have been if we hadn't massively overachieved.

7 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

A poorly judged sliding tackle is putting it lightly, he went in to hurt Longstaff.

Yeah I agree and that's why I said it was much worse than Bruno and he went in with malice, just you never really have any business raising a forearm to another players head whereas strong sliding tackles are generally part of the game so there's more scope for claiming it was unintentional (but not in this instance)

While Havertz is obviously much worse and he definitely went in with some malice, bit easier to plead incompetence with a poorly judged sliding tackle than a forearm to the head

Kind of mad that the review panel found Wolves have been beaten by two incorrect penalty calls in consecutive weeks and it's little more than a footnote in all of this

24 minutes ago, BlazeT44 said:

 

Thanks for the explanation. Couldn't remember the deal with Lampard and if it was similar 

 

Don't think we should go for Neves and give the media/other clubs an easy out. 

 

I'd laugh hard if we're just shaking the tree and laughing, as others suggested.

Definitely think there is an element of 3D chess with this tbh, highly doubt Ashworth would be explicitly and publicly calling out our intentions if we were actually going to persue a sweetheart deal from one of the other PIF owned clubs.

If this is the case and such deals were never in our planning then there is an argument to be made that this ruling will more negatively impact some of our direct rivals who are further down the journey of leveraging relationships with other clubs.

1 minute ago, madras said:

Big motivator ? Without our takeover these rules would not even be considered as they massively benefit certain clubs.

It's second guessing other people's motivations, I think it is almost certainly down to us but football fans are conspiratorial creatures and what do I know.

It's a sound rule for football as a whole and we can still be successful regardless, that's pretty much all there is to it for me.

3 minutes ago, madras said:

It's not  getting the system at all. The system was designed specifically to be used that way and it has been. I'll keep banging on about it, it's like the associated parties stuff, it's only when someone looks like wrecking the  closed shop that the rules that were designed to benefit a few clubs  need changing.

 

Do you seriously think any if these rules would now be in place without our takeover ?

I think our situation has definitely been a big motivator, but ultimately these rules apply to everyone not just us and I think they are positive for preserving (some semblance of) integrity in the game.

We're still only moving in one direction and these rules are not stopping us imo, so let them do what they want.

Just now, jack j said:

Me neither. Mainly cos there's nobody I'd take on a loan from there

But if its because you worry that other teams/ fans say we are cheating etc

They are saying that anyway.

I dunno, if I wouldn't want our direct rivals doing it then I don't want us doing it, it's basically cheating the system and it definitely wouldn't be good for the game if these sort of arrangements are taken to their logical conclusion with basically federations of feeder clubs.

Likes of Arteta and Klopp going to be whinging at every opportunity regardless because it's all about getting any edge possible. Just think it's important to have some integrity in it all.

It's an objectively sensible rule imo, no problem with it whatsoever. They probably didn't need to force it through in middle of season as a petty reaction to our situation but I wouldn't really want us going down that route anyway.

5 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

Can anyone work out what the tactical change was when Pope was “injured”?

Thought Miggy moved more central for a bit? Things were fairly chaotic at that stage so hard to say really

Felt similar to the home game against them tbh. They seemed to have a slight edge in most areas when it really mattered, the way they set up seems to be quite effective at occupying our defensive line and creating space for their attacking threats, they are some way off the best in Europe but are no pushovers and have a good mix of dynamism and experience and their manager is clearly no idiot either. That said, we could/should still have come away with something if we'd taken our chances when they were presented to us but we were also a fair way below our best. Just one of those nights, nothing to be ashamed of and some strong individual efforts in defeat.

His running style when he's accelerating from a stand still is fairly unorthodox isn't it? Almost feel like I'm watching a gif when he's pressing defenders at full pelt

Still hard to believe that this happened to be honest, was fairly certain that nights like this were consigned to history not too long ago, as good as it has got in my lifetime and only the 5-0 against Manure really comes close for pure unbridled euphoria. Unquestionably better than the Barca 3-2 given that was ultimately a small positive while Dalglish was busy setting us on a downward trajectory.

Team of legends to a man, colossal performances across the park. All feels a bit surreal, not sure whether to wank or cry

10 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Can’t believe we didn’t get a pen for the Gordon foul.

Was a mental decision, but it almost felt like the ref didn't want to piss off the home fans anymore given the aggro after the third goal went in. Also think our players did not make as much of a fuss over it as we would have done if it was more consequential.

I'm generally of the sunshine and rainbows/glass half full mentality - I don't really "expect" us to achieve anything and I'm happy to enjoy the ride come what may but something has looked amiss (to me) in our recent performances, I'm not reading anything into as there's a whole shedload of extenuating circumstances but a lot of the things that made us such a hard team to beat last season have not really been there this season (yet), no point obsessing about it but no point pretending it is not the case either