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Football: dropping clangers and scoring bangers


polishgenius

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26 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

It's been a thing pretty much as long as I can remember watching and playing football.

it definitely wasn't around when I was playing football, having said that I stopped cold turkey 25 years ago (reached 18 and went from playing 5-6 days a week to not at all).

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On 10/27/2019 at 9:40 PM, Raja said:

Not every piece of contact is a foul. I don't know in what world that is a foul. In addition, thus far, VAR has refused to give penalties for challenges that are much more clear cut than that, but gives one for that. There is zero consistency because the PL hasn't figured out the right way to implement VAR. It has denied *much* more stonewall penalties than those.

If you think that is a foul, good for you. I don't think that's a penalty at all & neither is it a foul.

I agree not every piece of contact is a foul.  Stepping on someone's foot is always a foul if seen.  Just like studs up into the player always is, and just as kicking always is.  Black and white.  Connolly was going for the ball in the penalty box when his trailing foot he'd be about to lift up was stepped on.  A penalty every day of the week if seen (and the commentators as soon as they saw the replay said "that's a penalty").  

Now, it is certainly true that the English have decided to implement VAR like they have Brexit, with a huge amount of ceremony, reliance on tradition, and not a lick of common sense.  Many, many obvious overturns have been ignored because the sovereignty of the umpire is deemed so important.  However, the fact that they've been making a farce of the system so far doesn't mean the penalty shouldn't be awarded.  It most definitely was there, and most definitely should have been awarded.

Hopefully they wise up and realise that the TV is much superior to the on-field umpire, and start turning them over an awful lot more.  And for that matter, extend it to yellow cards and corners, and free kicks in dangerous areas.  You can check them all pretty damn quickly if you need to, and they all have an outsized chance of distorting the result.  

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10 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Probably because he will be leaving in December. Eriksen in, Pogba out?

Possible but still very unlikely that Pogba is sold in January. United aren't going to lower their valuation and I don't think Perez wants to pay that much for Pogba. There's also the Raiola issue - Perez does not like dealing with him. According to various reports, Mbappe is the player who Perez really wants and is prepared to invest heavily in. Ornstein also wrote an article in The Athletic saying that Spurs received no offers for Eriksen - United were interested briefly but Eriksen himself is only interested in joining either Barca or Real. 

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18 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Probably because he will be leaving in December. Eriksen in, Pogba out?

Eriksen? Rumour is United are scrapping money together for Havertz and Thomas Müller. No, idea what they would do with Müller, but desperate times.

Havertz would be interesting. Young emerging top talent, who is also pretty mature for his age - characterwise. The one big flaw that's still in his game, is his defensive positioning/workrate.

While I didn't think he would've worked as a signing for Liverpool (again the defensive workrate/positioning), and him being smart enough to value playing time over an early payday as rotation option at this stage of his career, I think the United move might be more tempting for him. He gets a move to a bigger club, he would more or less walk into that team (either as forward or attacking midfielder) and the big payday.

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13 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Eriksen? Rumour is United are scrapping money together for Havertz and Thomas Müller.

 

We're Manchester United. Rumour is we're throwing money at anyone even vaguely linked with moving away from their club anywhere in the world. Boukabary Soumare, Erling Haaland, that Italian dude...

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If you haven’t seen it yet, Liverpool fans have been playing with an #Mbappe2020 meme for months now as an explanation for our lack of spending this past summer.  Anytime there’s any tenuous fuel for this fire, e.g. Liverpool switching to Nike shirts or Mbappe liking any Twitter or Instagram content from Liverpool players, then it gets added to the meme.

It’s 99% self-mocking banter, 1% quiet hope.  But pretty funny overall. 

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10 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

Yeah it’s super weird to see a large portion of the Arsenal fan base clamoring for him to start again. Iirc he was bashed pretty regularly for his lazy ness and being a passenger on the pitch. Idk

It wouldn't be the first time that fans want to have it both ways.

I guess the case for Ozil starting is that we're paying him huge wages anyway, and our goalscoring and creativity isn't exactly through the roof. Despite Aubameyang's contributions, we've still only scored 15 goals in 10 league games, which is a pretty mediocre return for an Arsenal side that has such quality strikers. There's no doubt that Arsenal still need something more in attack and I guess some supporters think Ozil can provide that.

On the other hand, Ozil's form has always been pretty patchy, and he offers nothing in terms of midfield control or defending, which is already a major issue for this Arsenal team. He's essentially a luxury player - with a hardworking midfield shielding an effective defence, he would be ideal, but in the absence of either of those it's simply too dangerous to play him.

The simplest solution to this conundrum would be to sell. Forget about getting any fee, it's his wages that they need to get off the books, or at least partially off the books if they can persuade someone to take him. He's an excellent player, but he just doesn't fit the team (or the team isn't good enough to fit him) and at 31 years old, it's too late to fix that problem.

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On 10/29/2019 at 12:51 PM, Consigliere said:
Spoiler

Right hand side of the cartoon. With that Emery Out sign. Same row as Sideshow Bob.

Personally I like the Poldi Kebab shop in the background. Given that he actually owns at least one in Cologne.

 

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1 hour ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Nice to see the kids getting game time.

 

Hoever is at the U-17 World Cup, which is why he’s missing.  And it’s tough on Jones to drop to the bench after being MotM in the last round.  But I’m glad the youngsters are getting game time. 

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