Lads, it's the Premier League thread - EPL 2019/20

I know Liverpool are playing rope-a-dope to some extent but we've never not been in this

this is true. even the goal was just unfortunate

large man, traore

Two teams ekeing out their resources. Bit gutting to get nothing but good performance really.

Lol

yeah, I'm proud of the boys. there were some huffed opportunities but I never expected them to be in the game that long (not due to Wolves' deficiencies but just how good Liverpool is).

convinced Wolves can hang with anybody now. and Boly is back soon.

never expected three points from these two matches and being within a goal of 'Pool.

Watford in three days. wonder if Nuno is gonna go young for FA Cup match.

can't wait for revenge on 1/23 possibly

oh look all the united fans are suddenly being very quiet about var

Kinda meant it, if we equalise before half time it's a different game from both sides. Fucking robbed yeah but still.

totally. hard to not feel hard done by that, but it's what it is I guess.

hope they take out their frustration on Watford and win 11-0

oh look all the united fans are suddenly being very quiet about var

― imago, Sunday, December 29, 2019 6:33 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

fucksake i literally thought city were united, lol

but maybe it works in that utd fans might still hope city can catch pool idk

hard not to look back at sissoko cl final and vvd there tbh

more chance of us catching City tbh

lol the ref is literally playing for City!

Moyes in :/

Nothing rubs the salt in the wound more than just after you've been done by one of these micro offsides and the halfwit commentator/pundit glibly says "it was the correct decision".

darragh just calls them as he seems them tbf

otm

Lol I can see the air quotes when darragh says it

darragher

For LBI:

Llegó a Monterrey para el Apertura 2019 y ahora puede presumir que es CAMPEÓN con el Club de Futbol Monterrey. El primer EUROPEO en toda la historia en ser campeón con la institución. Vincent Petrus Anna Sebastiaan Janssen. HISTÓRICO. pic.twitter.com/S4RYyRWZGI

— DLPTLV (@dlptlv) December 30, 2019

For all the talk of ‘looking at VAR over the summer’ idk what they can really change apart from the handball rules, which haven’t been much of a problem.

bless 'im. love that they tweeted his full name.

They just need to do away with the bullshit lines they draw when reviewing offsides. If they can't tell if someone is offside by looking at the screen sans digitally imposed lines then the player is onside. Simple enough. Do they use the lines in the MLS because I thought not?

hard not to look back at sissoko cl final and vvd there tbh

― Banáná hÉireann (darraghmac), Sunday, December 29, 2019 6:51 PM

Absolutely insane take given that the ball didn't hit Van Dijk's arm and Sissoko swatted the ball out of the air after it had hit him in the chest.

VAR for offsides was always going to be like this. You can bring in video technology and then decry its precision.

*can't instead of can there

the people decrying its "precision" - and there's an entire argument to be had about meaningful levels of precision and bloody-minded interpretations of the offside law - aren't the ones who brought in the technology.

almost uniformly football pundits having been calling for referees getting video assistance for most of the last decade. now they have it and they don't like it.

re: the precision, it's always going to be the same no matter where you draw the margin, whether it's boots or GPS units. some point you pick will always be right beside the point you say isn't offside in a way that isn't nakedly perceptible to the human eye, and blerts like henry winter will say "it's not football anymore" and tut about Mike Riley but really it's just the essence of video refereeing.

to be clear, i was staunchly against VAR. football doesn't need it and i don't think it has any real potential to improve the sport

sorry to have misread your point there, but actually the ones who brought in the technology (IFAB) are now decrying its precision:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/dec/30/var-should-only-be-used-for-clear-and-obvious-offside-errors-say-law-makers

VAR for offsides should only be used for "clear and obvious cases", so you can subjectively be a little bit offside but as long as it feels alright you can get away with it. that sounds like a great system. oh no wait it sounds like an even bigger fucking disaster.

to be clear: the biggest refereeing injustices of the last round of games weren't Jonny getting caught minimally offside, they were Craig Pawson not sending off Jorginho (bottling it basically having lost control of the game) and Chris Kavanagh's gegenpressing against Sheffield Utd before Aguero's goal... both outside the remit of VAR.

some point you pick will always be right beside the point you say isn't offside in a way that isn't nakedly perceptible to the human eye

this is the point about a significant degree of precision tho. yes any definition will involve an absolute point where a player is or isn't offside (incidentally i'm not sure the cameras are such yet that an absolutely decisive picture always exists showing the precise position of the offside player at the precise moment that the passer's foot contacts the ball, how infinitely ridiculous could this kind of precision get?) but if it's unclear to the human eye even after stopping the game for minutes to look at it then it's difficult to argue that the offside player gained advantage from his position, and if the law isn't about unfair advantage then it's pointless

you're right that these offsides aren't the most shocking failing of this implementation of VAR, and i'm not exercised specifically because of times it's worked against Wolves. i was also always against it, and if it must exist it should be for people blatantly getting fouled outside of the ref's line of sight and not for differences of opinion about hair-width fouls/offsides

and it shouldn't end up destroying the flow of the game or the experience of fans in the stadium

but arguing this is mostly pissing in the wind

I don't think it is pissing in the wind tho

The tech is gonna stay, the implementation will be tinkered with in the summer but I don't have any faith in the FA or UEFA or FIFA not to consistently find ways of making football worse

The way I see it, there's two options: get rid of it or get used to it. There's no better tech solution without a radically different offside law.

ref: any clear and obvious reason to overrule my decision there frank

frank: nope

done

well Lampard would say that

I don't have any faith in the FA or UEFA or FIFA not to consistently find ways of making football worse

OTM.

the weird thing about it is, VAR as currently implemented is biased towards producing fewer goals from open play and more goals from the penalty spot

which makes for a pretty shit 'product'

I wonder how the FAI suing FIFA over the Henry handball plays into the thinking. If there is a principle that the governing body is responsible for errors (it was settled, so no legal precedent, as such) idk how easy it would be for them to let errors of fact, as opposed to interpretation, slip through when they have the technology to stop them.

everything is interpretation. trying to behave as if otherwise is the issue

I think there's only two or three managers with a better Premier League win record. That's what I do, I win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKx4gNFx9FU

var fuckery screwing villa

The finest margins!

VAR rules out Jack Grealish's opener 📏#BTAllDayer pic.twitter.com/ocaMTwyW7h

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 1, 2020

Ugh

oh ffs!

Burnley are so awful. They’ve had 19 shots, none on target.

Of course saying that, they score.

Jahanbakhsh overhead kick for Brighton!

WHAT A GOAL 😱😱😱

Take a bow, Alireza Jahanbakhsh 🙌#BTAllDayer pic.twitter.com/YfZeoKRNUF

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 1, 2020

wow, brits only content itt

i expected better from you of em all sv

Haha the amazed kids at the end of the clip <3

What a goal