Today's Football

[Derek27]

Market's getting suspended all over the place!

[weemac]

.........Beale will do very well to see in the new year at Ibrox.

He'll do even better to see in Monday morning with the podcasters melting down this evening. His number's up - just a matter of when.

Michael Beale's been sacked today. I wonder if this is the season's first manager sacking?

[wearthefoxhat]

I saw that live and wasn't sure why they didn't even look at it. I mean, that's what VAR is for?

I've always held the view, VAR (Video ASSISTANT Referee), complements the on-pitch referee decisions, along with the linesman.

So, in my view, it was the on-pitch referee's fault for disallowing the goal after taking into account/not taking into account, all the resources available to him.

Is VAR fit for purpose? I think you've identified a training need and how it should be utilised going forward.

[Archangel]

We don’t have to persist with this nonsense - get rid of VAR
The use of a video assistant referee has accomplished exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to achieve.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer ... id-of-var/

[Kai]

There was never more pressure on refs than now with VAR.

Seen some numbers like 13 apologies in 13 months from PGMOL, and many that they didn't apologize for recently.

Like Ange and Klopp said, the game is played in real time but refs judge it in slow motion, which doesn't make any sense. It might only make sense to people that never played football, a lot of challenges will look really bad if you slow it down enough or freeze at the right exact frame. Plus this misconception that VAR was supposed to eliminate human errors, which it can't do since not all are factual.

An absolutely brilliant game of football from both teams and all everyone is talking about are the refs.

That EFL Cup round last week was a refreshing throwback to VARless football, almost felt like something was missing from it and you could feel the refs were a bit nervy with the bigger calls but wouldn't mind going back to that.

[weemac]

It's also not a good look that as the ref approached the screen, he was being shown a freeze frame of what looked like a horrible leg-breaker tackle. The full video then shows a slightly less serious interpretation, but the seed had already been sown that this is a definite red card. It's almost as if the assistants are influencing the ref's decision.

[Kai]

It's also not a good look that as the ref approached the screen, he was being shown a freeze frame of what looked like a horrible leg-breaker tackle. The full video then shows a slightly less serious interpretation, but the seed had already been sown that this is a definite red card. It's almost as if the assistants are influencing the ref's decision.

Yeah, the on field ref got it right the first time with the yellow. And then the VAR idiots made a right meal of things.

They will apparently release the audio from the Diaz offside incident soon so that should be interesting.

[greenmark]

It's also not a good look that as the ref approached the screen, he was being shown a freeze frame of what looked like a horrible leg-breaker tackle. The full video then shows a slightly less serious interpretation, but the seed had already been sown that this is a definite red card. It's almost as if the assistants are influencing the ref's decision.

Yeah, the on field ref got it right the first time with the yellow. And then the VAR idiots made a right meal of things.

They will apparently release the audio from the Diaz offside incident soon so that should be interesting.

My view is the red for Jones was correct. He obviously didn't intend to hurt the Spurs player but he was evidently not in control of his movements.
Going over the ball like that always carries the risk of landing on an incoming opponent. Everyone that's played footy knows that movement. I've been on the end of a few that were deliberate "reducers".
I think we don't want that kind of tackle.
The disallowed Diaz goal deserves a thread of it's own. Incompetent or corrupt? Discuss.

[Michael5482]

The Diaz VAR controversy has completely overshadowed VAR's incompetence for two of the Aston Villa goals to make it 2-0 & 3-0 to them and effectively killing the game off.

One was a player clearly offside obstructing the keepers view and the other a clear foul in the build up to the goal. Brighton have as much right to be aggrieved as Liverpool.

[Derek27]

Here we go again, the worst possible start, repeated three times!

It's almost as trite as a horse not getting up the hill at Cheltenham.

[Derek27]

That was two quick goals at Stamford Bridge.

[greenmark]

The Diaz VAR controversy has completely overshadowed VAR's incompetence for two of the Aston Villa goals to make it 2-0 & 3-0 to them and effectively killing the game off.

One was a player clearly offside obstructing the keepers view and the other a clear foul in the build up to the goal. Brighton have as much right to be aggrieved as Liverpool.

VAR was the "solution" to dodgy decisions. Now we have dodgy VAR decisions after several years of development of the tech and processes (and I'm not limiting that to the Diaz decision at all). It makes me me really wonder about the integrity of football..

[Kai]

It makes me me really wonder about the integrity of football..

It's being questioned no doubt, it's all a big stain on an otherwise fantastic product. There's already more than enough to get the conspiracy theorists going.

Refs admitting to covering for each other, Sky refusing to show replays of the Diaz goal or even talk about it at first.

Those 2 VAR idiots officiating a match less than 48 hours before in the same country where City owners are from.

Even that Tierney incident when Klopp got heavily fined, didn't think much of the anti-Tierney tirades until I saw a compilation that somebody put together of all the times Tierney robbed him of points, some of those were so inexplicable you might as well play the X-Files theme song over it.

[Derek27]

Didn't fully take it in, but I heard there was some confusion as to whether the ref allowed or disallowed the goal, in which case, the VAR refs may have thought they were confirming a goal, rather than confirming the offside.

[Kai]

Didn't fully take it in, but I heard there was some confusion as to whether the ref allowed or disallowed the goal, in which case, the VAR refs may have thought they were confirming a goal, rather than confirming the offside.

Yes, they weren't watching the match close enough. Which I thought was their one and only job