2020/21 Soccer Thread: Messxit?

Prederick wrote:

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDS!

Yeah boy!

David Luiz has earned his fair share of red cards.

Just now though he got the double whammy red card PK for getting kicked.

I'll be honest trying to sort out what's clear cut VAR and not is still confusing as hell.

I thought incidental contact was grey area? For him to lose on VAR review is kinda comical. Especially for it to be a red. It wasn't even a yellow.

Edit: the Guardian live commentary feed confirmed what I thought.

Leno off now for comical hand ball outside the box.

Why'd it have to be nine?

That red card on Luiz was absurd. I do not know what the VAR ref was watching because it was not the replay.

LilCodger wrote:

Why'd it have to be nine?

My condolences.

bigred wrote:

That red card on Luiz was absurd. I do not know what the VAR ref was watching because it was not the replay.

It's stuff like that pulls me out of being able to enjoy the silly distraction which is sport. Before VAR I would of shrugged and said if they have replay they would of reversed that. But now we do have VAR and it's tedious and then misses obvious ones like this. Ugh.

Southampton have ‘requested’ that Mike Dean no longer officiates their games - not Lee Mason either. That’s never going to happen or everyone except Man United will ask for the same thing.

The Bednarek sending off was a travesty to be honest, as was the ‘offside’ against Che Adams. Mind you it’s not like we haven’t seen them before either.

In some American college football leagues, replay calls are made by referees in a central location.

The problems with VAR are mainly sh*tty referees, including refs who don't want to reverse themselves. It's hard for people who have been jogging for 70 minutes, getting yelled at and yelling in turn, to make dispassionate, wholly rational decisions.

One thing that I think would help referees would be having some training about how impossible it is to make the right calls with the naked eye. If they repeatedly hear about how their jobs can't be done well without VAR, maybe they'll start seeing VAR as a tool for improving their craft.

Well, another chunk of the issue is just how it's implemented. Southampton actually managed to score against ManU, but had it ruled out because the player's pinky was three molecules offside.

And let's not even discuss handballs.

Prederick wrote:

Well, another chunk of the issue is just how it's implemented. Southampton actually managed to score against ManU, but had it ruled out because the player's pinky was three molecules offside.

And let's not even discuss handballs.

I'm over the offside rule.

Make it like hockey in the sense you can drag a leg. More breakaways more scoring. Sport might need it actually and if anything it solves the problem of anal off side nit picking.

Is there daylight between the attacker and defender? No? Onside.

Doesn't matter if you increase the offside tolerance. You'll still have the same problem.

In other news, yeah, Fulham's going down.

Well that's Liverpool's title challenge done this year. Disappointing but the owners took far too long to sort out the defensive injury crisis and one or two of the key players - TAA in particular - clearly need to go away and get their heads back in the right space. However right right now we need a plan B when up against team with 10 men behind the ball and more than happen to wait for their opportunity. It's probably not quite as bad as it looks, especially when we keep coming up against bottom half teams that decide to have their "game of the season" at Anfield. It's incredibly irritating to be honest, but we have got to learn how to power through 2 banks of 5 defenders.

Yeah, just because you win against Spurs doesn't mean you're out of a crisis. Damn, this was hard to write.

@_Zeets wrote:

The Mourinho cycle is wonderful because you always see fans buying into the idea that he'll be different at the same stage of each run before it all unravels again

Hey, Mourinho didn't give away nor award any pens today.

Grumble grumble.

Sorbicol wrote:

Well that's Liverpool's title challenge done this year. Disappointing but the owners took far too long to sort out the defensive injury crisis and one or two of the key players - TAA in particular - clearly need to go away and get their heads back in the right space. However right right now we need a plan B when up against team with 10 men behind the ball and more than happen to wait for their opportunity. It's probably not quite as bad as it looks, especially when we keep coming up against bottom half teams that decide to have their "game of the season" at Anfield. It's incredibly irritating to be honest, but we have got to learn how to power through 2 banks of 5 defenders.

Explanation?

That’s a good video and covers the salient points I think. I think might also have mentioned the mental fatigue as well - I still don’t think a lot of the team have really got their mental state right since winning the league. The emotional expenditure of winning that for the first title for 30 years and all the baggage that came with it, couple to all the angst about how last season was going to get - if - completed problem exacerbated the whole situation too. Given the early injury to VVD and the impact it was clearly going to have, and then all the other injuries - they did OK for a while but without the time to rest, recuperate and absorb the enormity (for Liverpool) of getting that title win behind them I think they have just all mentally run themselves into the ground now and it’s really showing. The press is off, the intensity isn’t there right now and some player clearly need a lengthy break they just aren’t going to get.

I really hope that Davies and Kabak can help there. Gomez & Matip are great players but just made out of glass. It’s a real shame for them.

Germany's covid rules mean Liverpool will not be allowed to travel to Leipzig for their Champions League tie on Feb 16.

There's a chance the teams can reverse the tie and have Liverpool play at home first, but if that doesn't work out the onus shifts to RB Leipzig to find a solution - maybe moving to the home of RB Salzburg as a neutral venue, or pushing the game back.

If the first leg did move to Anfield Leipzig's players would have to quarantine on returning to Germany.

If no solution is found, Leipzig would forfeit the game 0:3.

VAR strikes again in the Fulham-West Ham game.

West Ham down to ten men in... let's say one of the weaker decisions I've seen.

Mitro was literally telling the ref it was nothing.

Anyway, yet another draw. The good news is that we are absolutely better at not losing compared to 2018/19. The bad news is that we are much, much worse at actually winning.

Scoring the equalizer at Old Trafford, deep into Fergie Time - that may have been the highest laughs-to-points ratio a game has had for me in quite some time.

Especially as the French commentary I saw mentioned "Le Fergie Time" while Everton were lining up the free kick that led to the goal.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtpE7YgXYAElAUZ?format=jpg&name=small)

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtpFAFlWYAgoYiI?format=jpg&name=small)

(It was a pen, but still.)

Apparently Alisson has money on Man City.

I look away for ten minutes. Jesus.

So that's the fork in Liverpool then?

Prederick wrote:

I look away for ten minutes. Jesus.

So that's the fork in Liverpool then?

Yup. We need to concentrate on top four now.

They mentioned this in the Guardian MbM, but Thiago's got a bit of the Juan Sebastien Veron in him atm, doesn't he?

Prederick wrote:

They mentioned this in the Guardian MbM, but Thiago's got a bit of the Juan Sebastien Veron in him atm, doesn't he?

He strikes me as someone who needs to be doing the busy work beside him Midfield. That would normally be Henderson, but he’s in defence so.....

Word on the street is that Wijnaldum isn’t going to sign a new contract, so it’s probably time for Kabak to come in, stick Hendo back in midfield, use Jones instead of Wijnaldum and restructure the midfield accordingly. Jones is more than good enough to be a regular starter now. If Gini wants to go then fair enough but he should be out of the team now.

Sorbicol wrote:
Prederick wrote:

They mentioned this in the Guardian MbM, but Thiago's got a bit of the Juan Sebastien Veron in him atm, doesn't he?

He strikes me as someone who needs to be doing the busy work beside him Midfield. That would normally be Henderson, but he’s in defence so.....

Thiago's had so many injuries they've probably really done a number on his athleticism, which is a shame.

Not that I've watched him, or much of any soccer, this season so I really don't know what I'm talking about...

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Germany's covid rules mean Liverpool will not be allowed to travel to Leipzig for their Champions League tie on Feb 16.

The game has been moved to Budapest.