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

Just watching the Fulham Wolves game as a total neutral observer - and I really have to wonder if they need to give a good revision to the rules and punishments to actually reflect the original intent of those rules?

Fulham just got and scored a pen - fair pen, there was a foul just inside the corner of the box, no issue. But with the bar for what rightfully earns a penalty being so low, and the impact of its result being so high, does there need to be a rebalance? Should there be tiers of punishment for fouls in the box depending on where it is? Like, should there be a new extra box within the box maybe? So maybe a foul in the 'outer' one results in a penalty-style free shot at goal from the point of the foul, without other players allowed in the box? Meanwhile fouls within the new inner box stay as normal. Then to tidy up the flagrant exceptions, anything that's ruled a denial of clear goalscoring opportunity - as that rule already stands - even in the outer box is a regular pen. For simplicity, it could be done by just slightly expanding the size of the keepers area lines.

Just a thought, but it seems so weird that so many games turn entirely on really innocuous little moments in positions of little to no danger.

And we just had our 3rd penalty of the game, and it was another one where the attacker (Wilson) hadn't a hope in hell of scoring from where he picked up the ball, running towards the edge of the box away from goal. The punishment is just so high for passages of play that were never likely to result in goals. Whatever the solution, it just feels like the balance is wrong now.

oneill might muse on his subs ceding territory to Fulham.

Doyle for cunha didn’t work

Yeah it’s a good idea. Handball rule will be changed eventually aswell. I’d suggest

ball to hand in pen area- indirect free kick

hand to ball in the pen area - penalty

any handball stopping a goal- decision ; goal (like a penalty try in rugby)

Yeah, handball and offside rules both need work I think. Handballs are just a mess and right now nobody knows what is or isn't a handball, while offside currently ignores a fundamental part of how the rule was constructed in the first place - that you can actually see the advantage gained. Sounds like that inverted version of offside is at least being trialed soon though, where the attacker has to be fully beyond the defender to be offside, which feels like a better balance anyway. An attacker still has so much more to do, so it feels wrong to be killing attacks at the earliest opportunity without an advantage you can actually see with the naked eye. Players could then go back to just focusing on being level as the line, the way they'll have played at all levels since they were kids

I think tonights game reinforces my point. Penalties are being given for nothing and VAR is the primary culprit.

Thank you, I think that is the most underrated goal in PL history, it doesn’t look as good as Rooney’s or Garnachos but technically it’s more difficult.

To complete a hattrick as well, that was incredible

Wolves robbed again imo

That penalty decision was terrible. Wolves have had a few very bad calls against them this year. All late in the game to affect the result too.

42 penalties in 130 games, so 0.32 penalties per game.

Premier League - Penalties received | Transfermarkt

Is that unusual?

Picking some years at random pre-var, maybe someone can do a deeper dive.

2016/17 Premier League - Penalties received | Transfermarkt 106/380 = 0.28.

2012/13 Premier League - Penalties received | Transfermarkt 85/380 = 0.22.

2009/10 Premier League - Penalties received | Transfermarkt 109/380 = 0.29.

So it looks higher than previous years, but maybe not excessively so and there is still time for it to regress to the long term mean (or to get more out of line).

One standout is that the current conversion rate appears off the scale compared to those earlier years. Only 3 of this years 42 have been missed (Haaland, Salah (scored rebound) and someone from Chelsea?). So more penalties combined with an unprecedented conversion rate means penalties having a larger influence on results.

League (EPL/UEFA/FIFA) want goals.

Makey up goals are OK, so long as the numbers are up. They can till out stats that player x is the greatest ever because he's scored more goals than player Y back in 1989.

All built on smoke and mirrors. Teams should be allowed to defend, but that is being banned almost now.

Arsenal playing some serious stuff here

..

Nothing too wild, being the 4th biggest spender over the past 5 years behind Chelsea, United and City with a few million over Spurs who are in 5th.

**** his confidence

Yeah. But when he had it last year, he was flying.

What the hell did AWB think was gonna happen in the situation? Brutal player.

A sorry sight to see a lot of these fellas out there phoning it in and a manager showing no sign of learning and looking more and more lost at sea.

To be fair to Maguire, he has been giving his all any time I've seen him this season. Solid yellow for his troubles there.

A well coached team versus a not-so-well coached team.

We can't get out of our half 😂