The Football Season 2019-20.

[Dod101]

How long does any Man U supporter think that Solskjaer will last? I know it is not his fault but either he will go or the Glazers will. They will surely find it difficult to get another manager though so maybe Solskjaer is safe.

Dod

[dionaeamuscipula]

They will surely find it difficult to get another manager though so maybe Solskjaer is safe.

Dod

Its one of the most high profile and profitable posts in football, and there are countless unemployed managers. They will have no difficulty finding a manager with a strong track record. I suspect that Benitez would be there in a second, for example. And Big Sam is free.

DM

[Dod101]

Yes I know but who would actually want it? I suppose someone who would like a few million might take it on but it is surely a poisoned chalice so long as the Glazers are there. Sorry more musings that anything else because of course Solskjaer is in situ and they may just leave him there but the record this year is dreadful, almost shameful for Man U.

Dod

[BobbyD]

Yes I know but who would actually want it? I suppose someone who would like a few million might take it on but it is surely a poisoned chalice so long as the Glazers are there. Sorry more musings that anything else because of course Solskjaer is in situ and they may just leave him there but the record this year is dreadful, almost shameful for Man U.

Dod

Anybody taking it as anything other than a final top up of their pension fund is insane, but it's not the Glazers who are the problem. About the only thing not wrong with that club at the moment is the amount of money it's owners have allowed to be spent chasing former glories. It's been spent by the wrong man, on the wrong players, at the wrong price and on the wrong contract, who've been bought in to a footballing setup which has been systematically stripping players of their ability and confidence for years now. From Woodward on down the club is rotten, but you can't say that the owners haven't coughed up. Now you could argue that united would have been better with less money, forced to consider each purchase more carefully rather than piling it all in to large wheelbarrows in pursuit of the next statement purchase designed to imply that despite the fact that they are no longer any good at football they are still 'relevant', but that's not normally the argument being made when people criticise club owners.

They're not John Henry and FSG, but then thankfully no one else is.

[Dod101]

Yes I know but who would actually want it? I suppose someone who would like a few million might take it on but it is surely a poisoned chalice so long as the Glazers are there. Sorry more musings that anything else because of course Solskjaer is in situ and they may just leave him there but the record this year is dreadful, almost shameful for Man U.

Dod

Anybody taking it as anything other than a final top up of their pension fund is insane, but it's not the Glazers who are the problem. About the only thing not wrong with that club at the moment is the amount of money it's owners have allowed to be spent chasing former glories. It's been spent by the wrong man, on the wrong players, at the wrong price and on the wrong contract, who've been bought in to a footballing setup which has been systematically stripping players of their ability and confidence for years now. From Woodward on down the club is rotten, but you can't say that the owners haven't coughed up. Now you could argue that united would have been better with less money, forced to consider each purchase more carefully rather than piling it all in to large wheelbarrows in pursuit of the next statement purchase designed to imply that despite the fact that they are no longer any good at football they are still 'relevant', but that's not normally the argument being made when people criticise club owners.

They're not John Henry and FSG, but then thankfully no one else is.

Well I don't quite agree with that assessment particularly after they had a good win last evening and showed what they are capable of. I think the Glazers are the problem all right. Fergie had the strength of character to keep them at bay but it is a bit like investing in companies, the culture is all and that was lost when Fergie and David Gill retired at the same time. Obviously, Woodward is the Glazer's man and so reflects their values.

Dod

[BobbyD]

Well I don't quite agree with that assessment particularly after they had a good win last evening and showed what they are capable of. I think the Glazers are the problem all right. Fergie had the strength of character to keep them at bay but it is a bit like investing in companies, the culture is all and that was lost when Fergie and David Gill retired at the same time. Obviously, Woodward is the Glazer's man and so reflects their values.

Dod

Fergie was the beginning of the problem, he stopped renewing the squad with an eye on the long term and started looking for one more good season. The squad he left compared to the squads he had had previously was poor, not one player in their 2014 model would get near a best of Fergie United 2nd XI.

Woodward is I am convinced a Scouser! Gill was probably the biggest loss.

A good win? A single match? In a mid-table derby? Compared to six years of turning half a billion pounds worth of respectable professional footballers in to cloggers? Look at the expectation of the players they signed and the performances they got out of them. Look at how as soon as they leave they get better... United has sick club syndrome. It would be quicker to burn the footballing side of the business to the ground and start fresh.

[BobbyD]

The Football Season 2019-20

Why has everybody stopped playing?

[Stan]

The Football Season 2019-20

Why has everybody stopped playing?

Do you mean stopped posting on here.

[BobbyD]

The Football Season 2019-20

Why has everybody stopped playing?

Do you mean stopped posting on here.

No I mean why has everybody else stopped playing. There's only one team which looks like it wants to win it! Judging by today's game City have already mentally conceded.

[kiloran]

For the casual / part time watcher of televised football (i.e. doing something else while the game is on in the background), this VAR is becoming a pain in the ass.

That's two games in a row I've watched where I've suddenly realised the score isn't what I thought it was because a 'goal' had been disallowed for whatever reason.

Point in case is today's Liverpool game where i've just discovered it's not 1 goal each, sometime after the apparent VAR decision.

It's high time it was banned.

VAR is fine. We just need a VAR to monitor the VAR to correct any obvious errors

--kiloran

[BobbyD]

For the casual / part time watcher of televised football (i.e. doing something else while the game is on in the background), this VAR is becoming a pain in the ass.

That's two games in a row I've watched where I've suddenly realised the score isn't what I thought it was because a 'goal' had been disallowed for whatever reason.

Point in case is today's Liverpool game where i've just discovered it's not 1 goal each, sometime after the apparent VAR decision.

It's high time it was banned.

VAR is fine. We just need a VAR to monitor the VAR to correct any obvious errors

--kiloran

No, God forbid people who aren't paying any attention should lose track of the score. That's the killer argument we've been waiting for. Things like getting the decisions right are obviously a secondary consideration.

[Howyoudoin]

For the casual / part time watcher of televised football (i.e. doing something else while the game is on in the background), this VAR is becoming a pain in the ass.

That's two games in a row I've watched where I've suddenly realised the score isn't what I thought it was because a 'goal' had been disallowed for whatever reason.

Point in case is today's Liverpool game where i've just discovered it's not 1 goal each, sometime after the apparent VAR decision.

It's high time it was banned.

VAR is fine. We just need a VAR to monitor the VAR to correct any obvious errors

--kiloran

Indeed.

I was one of those calling for it's implementation but it's spoiling the game for me now. You just don't know whether to celebrate a goal anymore.

Suspect we'll see wholesale changes to its use next season or I think people will start voting with their feet.

HYD

[Lootman]

For the casual / part time watcher of televised football (i.e. doing something else while the game is on in the background), this VAR is becoming a pain in the ass.

That's two games in a row I've watched where I've suddenly realised the score isn't what I thought it was because a 'goal' had been disallowed for whatever reason.

Point in case is today's Liverpool game where i've just discovered it's not 1 goal each, sometime after the apparent VAR decision.

It's high time it was banned.

VAR is fine. We just need a VAR to monitor the VAR to correct any obvious errors

I was one of those calling for it's implementation but it's spoiling the game for me now. You just don't know whether to celebrate a goal anymore.

Suspect we'll see wholesale changes to its use next season or I think people will start voting with their feet.

The problem is the time delay. If the decision could be made near instantaenously, as it is with goal-line technology, then it would be fine. After all we are getting more accurate decisions.

The concept works well with cricket and American football, but then regular delays are more a part of those sports anyway. It just needs to be much quicker - ideally with technology that is immediately available to the referee and linesmen. That should be possible for offside decisions anyway. Fouls, handballs and penalties require interpretation rather than just measurement, and so will continue to cause a delay.

[simoan]

The problem is the time delay. If the decision could be made near instantaenously, as it is with goal-line technology, then it would be fine. After all we are getting more accurate decisions.

The time delay doesn't help but it's not the worst aspect. I guess you've never been in a stadium when VAR has been used? If you have, you'd know that the last people to know what's going on are those that actually get off their [expletive deleted] and go to the games. For me, these are the most important people in football because it's not much fun watching a match on TV played in an empty and eerily quiet stadium. It's no wonder there is a common song amongst fans every time VAR is used, because they are right, "it's not football anymore".

The problem is the way VAR is being used in the Premier League, and not the technology itself. Part of the trouble is the people controlling VAR are changing the rules as they go along. During the Wolves v City match Dermot Gallagher admitted that after an incident earlier in the season they had changed the rules to award a penalty where a defender accidentally stands on an attackers foot. Michael Owen then made a very good point, asking how much of the foot you need to stand on before it's a penalty? Would just the little toe be enough?

This is the real issue, many of the judgments being made are still highly subjective, something the use of VAR was meant to remove - it seems the original "clear and obvious error" mandate for correcting the on-field referee's decision has gone out the window and the referee is being completely undermined by VAR. Some of the offside decisions I've seen this weekend alone are a total joke. Who cares if someones armpit or big toe is offside? Is the system even accurate enough to measure to this degree of accuracy? As an engineer, I very much doubt it. Besides anything else, what happened to giving the attacker the benefit of the doubt when things are that close?

VAR is ruining the Premier League the way it is being deployed currently.

All the best, Si

[Howyoudoin]

If you're on Twitter, you should follow Richard Osman, of Pointless fame.

Very very intelligent and witty guy. Like a straight (?) Stephen Fry.

After the games yesterday, he tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/richardosman/status ... 42209?s=20

"The next General Election will be won by the party who promises to scrap VAR."

HYD

[BobbyD]

I was one of those calling for it's implementation but it's spoiling the game for me now. You just don't know whether to celebrate a goal anymore.

Actually, if you are a Liverpool supporter watching a game refereed by Anthony Taylor, who definitely isn't a united supporter you get to celebrate a goal which was clearly incorrectly disallowed.

Imagine if the actions of Sgt Howard Webb of the South Yorks constabulary had been subject to review by someone who wasn't on secondment from the public body which oversaw the unlawful killing of 96 Liverpool fans in the Hillsborough disaster.

The implementation needs to improve, and it will, but the idea that referees decisions are subject to review and correction is a massive step forwards for the game both in terms of casual bias and organised corruption be it club owners as in the Italian Calciopoli scandal or betting rings. You can not have too much scrutiny in a sport which has been shown to be rotten at every level.

[Stan]

As usual with any new toy instead of using it intelligently the people implementing it get it very wrong.

Just use VAR to detect if the ball is over the goal line or not that way we can all see for ourselves in close up if the whole of the ball is over the line and not for offside.

[Lootman]

The problem is the time delay. If the decision could be made near instantaenously, as it is with goal-line technology, then it would be fine. After all we are getting more accurate decisions.

The time delay doesn't help but it's not the worst aspect. I guess you've never been in a stadium when VAR has been used? If you have, you'd know that the last people to know what's going on are those that actually get off their [expletive deleted] and go to the games. For me, these are the most important people in football

I can see it is confusing and frustrating for the crowd. Although these days, and following the money, the football business would probably consider the most important fans to be the millions watching at home or in pubs, rather than the thousands at the match. And if you are watching at home then, when VAR kicks in, you just go and put the kettle on. By the time you have your cuppa in hand, it's been decided. VAR gives us tea and toilet breaks. Before that we had to wait for an injury.

But again, if the decisions were instant then where is the problem? Maybe the offside rule should change so that it is the most forward foot that counts. That way it would be trivially easy to measure where the players' feet were in much the same was as goal-line measurement happens.

It's not just because I am a Liverpool fan that I agree with Bobby. Absent VAR Liverpool might have lost 1-0 to Wolves on Sunday, and that would have been unjust given that the Wolves goal was rightly disallowed and the Liverpool goal was rightly allowed.

[EssDeeAitch]

Perhaps the offside law needs changing so that the trailing foot must be behind the last outfield player. Under current law and VAR implementation, Louis Suarez, if still playing in England would have been continually offside.

Or at least, his teeth would have been.

[Stan]

'Tis the season to be merry.

Mourinho-ho-ho-ho!

Has he started sulking yet?