General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

Easy to say that when he has nothing to complain about, if anything he should be thanking the refs for not sending off udogie and romero earlier on.

Every offside goal was also meticulously scrutinised also. VAR were obviously worried about stealing the headlights for offside goals last night.

yeah, not being a prick but let's wait and see when he has a game changing error against him.

Hugely likeable guy tho and a breath of fresh air

The naked eye is the standard when it comes to the linesman - he doesn't have lines to guide him if/when he raises his flag. One of things that annoys me about VAR is the phrase "clear and obvious error" - if you need lines drawn on the pitch then it's gone beyond "clear and obvious".

That said, I think they got all the offside decisions correct lats night, so that's a stop forward. Now if we could just start identify the clear and obvious red cards that crop up every weekend, we'd be going in the right direction.

Exactly. Clear and obvious only relates to issues where the VAR team are interjecting to overrule the refs decisions - stuff like red cards or pen shouts. For offsides they always do a full check and give the theoretically objective outcome based on the lines, entirely irrespective of the call on the field.

Easy to say when Spurs actually got away with a load of decisions last night. Could have had 2 reds in the first half. Quite the performance from their manager though, some of the most ridiculous tactics I've ever seen. Chelsea were toothless, if Spurs sit back at 1-1 they probably get a draw.

It was surprisingly marginal - Dier was way offside when compared to the defenders close to him (which is where your naked eye will naturally be drawn to). However it was quite tight against a defender on the other side of the penalty box, really wasn't a naked eye thing imo. Clearly they are erring on the side of caution at the moment, and taking the time to get it correct. Doubtless they'll be put under pressure to quicken it up, and this will lead to another mistake, at which stage they'll go into slow-it-down mode again.

gas

And this point is barely being made? That it’s the clubs fault they haven’t got automated offside.

love Ange.

but it's clear he will have a ceiling if that's his attitude to those kinds of games. the players were far too over-hyped, and once it settled down and Chelsea got a foothold (even a minor one), they just lost it with some of their challenges. they were really wound up for some reason. they need to learn to control things, rather than go on pure emotion.

secondly, even Pep's teams sit in when they have to. you have to be sensible. if that is his attitude no matter what, then Spurs fans are going to adore him no doubt, and he may well get a trophy, and he may even get top 4 somehow. and that might be good enough. but the shine will ultimately wear off if he doesn't get cuter. his Celtic team was pilloried for similar tactics in Europe - that time will come for Spurs.

but he is a breath of fresh air, his team plays extremely entertaining football and Spurs fans should be delighted with the feeling around the place.

It’s more expensive than the already paid for VAR checks. That could be the reason but I’m not sure. I’m think the athletic did an article on it but I didn’t read it at the time and their search function is garbage or I can’t use it properly.

I liked Merson the player, admired/ identified with his alcohol struggles - but he is a shocking pundit, seams to have been given a bigger mouthpiece now that the great Soccer Satuday team of Jeff Steling has broken up, its actually now become quite dreadful

I can see why Spurs fan love the style of play and at the moment they are on a completely freeroll given pre-season expectations so it must be great fun. It will be interesting to see if the team and fans still have the same principal towards the end of the season when the consequences of success, and more importantly, failure are much obvious.

Similar enough if over the next few games they play a highline and lose then the gloss will likely be taken off.

In this case it was checking who actually got the last touch

Yeah but if Chelsea player was only one to touch it and mate crap of it, not a deflection. Although didn't look lke that scenario really but can be only explanation I'd give for it taking that long

A good example of where a clean up of the rules would benefit the game long term.

Instead of spending 3 minutes looking at did the Spurs player touch the ball the question should be did the Spurs player take part in that attack - yes or no.

If yes then offside.

A quick 5 second check. No drama. No trying to find if it flicked a hair on a players head etc..

My understanding is that it really has to be a chance to control the ball and gain possession, so anything in the air isn't going to be deemed deliberate. It would have to be some kind of ball along the ground that a player tries to intercept and has a decent chance of controlling.

With the current rules, I don't think there's any way a Chelsea player touching it would have changed the ruling. If a Spurs player headed it, then it was offside.

Not PL related but VAR related. Utd get a penalty tonight for an handball and the exact same thing happened in a game at the weekend and no penalty. I don’t think either of them are penalties, but that’s the issue with VAR, the officials aren’t consistent.

That might be less about VAR and more on UEFA's interpretation of the hand ball rule, they seem to always give soft ones in Euro competition.

Yeah. But that in itself is also a problem - different interpretations.

Anyway, saw the red as well last night and thought it was an extremely unlucky one to get.

Looks like Maddison could be out until the New Year. That would be about 10 PL matches he’d miss if true.

Not really about the Premier League, but there's an interesting piece on BBC website( sorry, can't link) about Girona being top of La Liga. Girona area tiny club with nearly no top flight experience. But are 2 points clear at the top of La Liga after 10 games. And it's not as if Barcelona or Real are having bad starts.

What's most interesting about Girona, is that their owned by Manchester City's parent company and are benefitting from loans and cheap deals as part of that group.

This is where the City ownership model will start to erode the normal hierarchy of football clubs.

No problem with smaller clubs building themselves to challenge for trophies, CL places etc ( ala Brentford, Brighton) but Citys paymasters are undermining the sport and will destroy it as a spectator sport.

I think the thing people would be more concerned about is the bigger picture - that football could become like baseball in the US, where every small team in lower leagues is just a subsidiary of a Major League team... no small teams can exist as their own thing anymore. Would be a shame for the same thing to happen in football, for all these small teams to lose their autonomy and just become functions of larger teams parking players, getting players gametime, or casting off rejects. Definitely something that's becoming more and more prevalent, at an ever increasing rate.

Absolutely.

All about control. If the City group own the players, then they can control how and where they play. If a good player is owned by say Brentford, he can develop there and may give City a bloody nose in the EPL once or twice, but if he's in Girona then he won't - he'll be out of sight and they can control how and where he plays.

All about control.