Checko

1. Plenty of abused partners stay with their partners 2. The main issue with Greenwood vs other cases is that pretty damning evidence [phone calls] ended up in the public domain that suggests he did actually do it.

Thought the gameplan was solid today and on another day we might have snuck it.

If only he'd not estranged his wife by ignoring xG.

He's outperformed his xG every year he's in the premier league, he's a perfectly decent finisher. Just need to give it time for things to average out.

Anyway, on topic, thought Ramsey was good again. Though i thought of him as an 8 or 10, finding pockets of space higher up, I really like him playing deeper. He's good at taking and holding the ball under pressure and moving it on.

Think @Shearergol was agreeing with you, the 'he's' there referred to astroblack, unless I'm mistaken

Yeah that's the subjective bit. Was he? Even if Haaland wasn't there i don't think Thiaw has a hope of getting to the ball. But perhaps if Haaland wasn't pushing him out of the way the whole time he would have? Who knows.

Because being in an offside position isn't an offence. It's when you're in an offside position and do one of the naughty things, like stopping someone being able to play the ball, that it becomes an offence.

I agree that would be a bad change. At the end of the day lots of the problems people have with these laws (handball in particular) is that they inevitably have some subjectivity. And we're all super-biased football supporters.

Not sure I agree that's what the rule says tbh. Think it's one of these three, offside if: challenging an opponent for the ball or clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball Looks like the third one is the relevant one to me, but if the defender has no ability to play the ball because he's too far from it, how can an attacker impact his ability to play it?

Fair enough, though I don't see how Thiaw is prevented from playing the ball, he's just not getting there.

Yeah that's the issue - from where Thiaw was he had no ability to play the ball IMO. But he was where he was because Haaland had his shirt and was pushing him.

This is the actual law here: "2. Offside offence A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by: interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate or interfering with an opponent by: preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or challenging an opponent for the ball or clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball *The first point of contact of the ‘play’ or ‘touch’ of the ball should be used; however, when the ball is thrown by the goalkeeper, the last point of contact should be used." - https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-11---offside I'm not sure if it is offside based on that, purely because Haaland's fouling Thiaw for the whole passage of play meaning that he's not in position to be able to play the ball.

Just to correct you a tad - he was in an offside position objectively.

Our MOTM today for me.

How many times over the course of the game did one of our players give the ball to city?

In terms of good chances etc I thought it was fairly even overall. Was a pretty good performace, especially considering they have better players and basically had a training game midweek. They took their couple of chances, we missed ours. Kind of the opposite to last year.

Moral of the story: don't block defenders from an offside position

Guess he has to decide if he's impacting Thiaw

Haaland's clearly beyond Pope. So blatant work visas should be revoked here.

Not great defending by Barnes there tbh.

Bum

Ah man. Feel like these woodworks are the things that need to go for us.

Wonder how he might be on the RW.