Cf

This is all some elaborately made up ruse, surely? Hangxiety? Completely made up. The planting of a MEN article to sell it was a nice touch. Real dedication to the bit.

It's the fact they spent a minute reviewing the footage. And clear and obvious being so subjective. Don't get me wrong I'd happily bin the whole thing.

I guess the issue is that by the time you've spent a minute reviewing the footage you want the right decision to be made irrespective of what the on field call was. In this instance wouldn't take much for the VAR to just go "bit soft this one, they've got hold of each other and Haaland pulls him to get in front in the first place. Go and have a quick look to see if you want to stick to your decision or not".

They're fucked though. Fatigue affects you mentally as well as physically. Joelinton after injury was obviously not fully match fit yet has been playing non stop since. We desperately need this break.

Yeah. But also our injury list is ridiculous. Anyone but city would be struggling with this. We've had Ritchie on most of the game FFS.

I mean if you're gonna take Trippier and Wilson from us just take Livramento and Gordon instead surely? The former two are running on fumes plain as day. Give the young un's a run out. I still maintain from a footballing perspective Southgate has achieved the bare minimum acceptable level. Taken into account the wealth of talent available and the very favourable fixtures I don't think he's been impressive at all and we've generally failed the first time we've faced decent opposition.

Southgate

Ban

This is delicious.

Often the difference between a dive and falling over is the player turning around and claiming a penalty, or how they fall, etc. Body language can give a lot away. For those looking for a foul or initiate contact incidents there's not necessarily punishment required but if the sentence "he was looking for that" is in any way applicable then benefit of doubt to the defender. I'm not saying every instance needs punishment, nor that every foul that's not means deception has taken place. Just that if referees were more proactive with it, and that reds were available for the most egregious examples, it would soon stop. And we accept that there's situations where refs would get it wrong. The same they do for anything else on the pitch.

I feel similar really. Something off about entering it as losers of the proper thing.

Haha that's ridiculous.

Argh. That needed to be back across. He went for the wrong header.

I've been impressed with Lascelles but 90% of his passes are to Schar whilst missing someone else that's open.

An interesting take I read that I agree with is as much as we complain about VAR one of the issues we have is players trying to deceive refs. And I agree with that and maybe it should be the next clampdown. Some easy fixes: Make simulation red cardable, and be much more willing to yellow card when you suspect simulation. Sterling I think it was last night should easily have been booked for trying to buy a penalty (Check complete - on field decision stands - no penalty - suggest booking for simulation). Blatant cases where they're looking for the foul and contact isn't even made should be a red with a 3 match suspension. Going down clutching your face such as when Bruno made contact with the chest and the various other flavours of going down theatrically should be punishable by a yellow too. Would we end up with a few yellows that possibly aren't? Sure, but we get that for legitimate tackles anyway. And the number would reduce when players realised what was happening and they stop doing it. The games the game and players try to take what edge they can. I get that. But the above examples are going into cheating territory for me and for all the talk of improving the standards of officiating we could start with improving the standards of playing.

Given the clampdown on players showing dissent this year (which I agree with but it could still be handled better) they really need to apply the same attitude to managers and clubs. You should be able to express disagreements and grievances, but Arteta, Arsenal, and even Liverpool should be facing punishment. The statements from both clubs are worthy of sporting sanctions to me. We're trying to set a better example of players respecting referees etc but here's two examples of at the very top clubs not doing the same.

If anything spurs just drawing attention to how to play against them here. This ridiculous high line isn't due to being at 9.

Does their goalkeeper have to go off for 30 seconds because he's received treatment?

Chelsea not even taking corners now. Just holding on against 9 men.

Fucking hell.

Ah FFS.

Pahahahahaha

It'd go under the curved corner. Rubbish!

This is awful by Chelsea. Should be getting double digits here the way Spurs are playing.

I wonder how sky's graphic copes with more than 3 reds.