Great write up as always Dunge.

Couple of challenges:

Kasper 7. Did little wrong for me and cane and caught what he needed to to take the pressure off at times.

Gray 3. Came on and nearly got sent off immediately. What an immensely stupid tackle to put in and nearly cost us a win. If he and Maddison has been effectively out of the game we’d be out. I thought VAR was going to intervene then.

As for the offside for Spurs, that was never in a million years offside. Ours was harsh and I’m assuming it was given for the playing being in the eyeline of the keeper?

As per my post on the other thread, I felt we were way too open today and had Spurs not been sonwasteful in the final 3rd they could have hurt us. Going forward though we had lots more about us and could have taken Spurs apart if we hadn’t been wasteful in the final 3rd.

All in all, evidence that we can challenge for the top 6, but also evidence that there is more work to do on the training field.

... also worth totally agreeing on Pérez. He looked like he’d gone all Iheanacho today. Devoid of confidence and impact. Awful.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

I thought toby was good for us today

Verts looked very creaky in the first half though

comment by Greatteamswinit4times- a terrible enemy (U6008)
posted 8 minutes ago
Where's Arro?
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Quietly laughing to myself all smug 😂

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

"Stop dragging the soul of football through technological torment."

D M, this is one of the best football quotes I have seen for a long time!

Dunge, unless you want to go back to some of the awful decision making that at times promoted and relegated teams then you have to have technology as part of the game. There’s nothing else you can possibly do than to check the goal after it’s scored. Absolutely no other way of utilising it during goal situations.

What you’re seeing is the game changing, because like all change, it’s inevitable. You either accept it or not - and some fans will turn away from football over it. Personally, looking like an idiot is nothing compared to being robbed by Jon Moss.

Hate Moss for sending Vardy off against West Ham!

Black Starr - It’s all about opinions, but give me awful decisions every day with this as the alternative. Let us celebrate, let us wave fists, let us see a flowing, living game. Football should be about the heart, not the head.

My heart and my head hate Jon ‘incompetent’ Moss!!

I know we have to critique but lets not forget Spurs have finished 3rd, 2nd and 3rd in the last 3 Seasons.

Unless they have a massively disastrous Season they'll finish top 6 this Season, I'm finding it hard to criticise any player in a hard fought game against one of the top sides.

Top 6, won one, lost one and drawn one with potentially chances to have done better in two of them, in the first 6 games I'll take that thanks.

Good bouncing back by Brendan. The formation was brilliant. The only way you beat a team like Spurs is to take the game to them.

Way better this time around from Soyuncu ...Btw Evans is becoming a bit of an unsung hero for you lot. He's solid in def. and never looks rushed.

comment by ☼ Great_Red_Shark ☼ (U1711)
posted 13 minutes ago
Good bouncing back by Brendan. The formation was brilliant. The only way you beat a team like Spurs is to take the game to them.

Way better this time around from Soyuncu ...Btw Evans is becoming a bit of an unsung hero for you lot. He's solid in def. and never looks rushed.
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Evans is Mr Reliable. Just quietly goes about defending brilliantly. Top player.

Evans is absolute quality. Can’t comprehend how we only had to pay 3million for him.

comment by ☼ Great_Red_Shark ☼ (U1711)
posted 1 hour, 13 minutes ago
Good bouncing back by Brendan. The formation was brilliant. The only way you beat a team like Spurs is to take the game to them.

Way better this time around from Soyuncu ...Btw Evans is becoming a bit of an unsung hero for you lot. He's solid in def. and never looks rushed.
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That's the side that should have played against United, if we'd played like that I think we would have beaten you lot as well but if nothing else it taught Rodgers that that's not the way to get the best out of our attacking players and win games.

Evans has been outstanding for us and Soyuncu will be disappointed about last week but atoned today with an excellent display. He's got a very bright future ahead of him, wouldn't be surprised to see you in for him at the end of the season 😂

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 3 hours, 57 minutes ago
Black Starr - It’s all about opinions, but give me awful decisions every day with this as the alternative. Let us celebrate, let us wave fists, let us see a flowing, living game. Football should be about the heart, not the head.
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Not for me. You might as well not bother having rules that teams have to abide by in that case. The hand of God, Henry’s handball, Lampards goal against Germany that was a foot over the line. That’s not football. That’s just too much power in the hands of one man

And let’s not forget the fact that VAR can ADD to the drama. Look at the CL semi final, Spurs vs City - it was a classic because of VAR. We’ll get used to it and it will become a part of us and the game. It’s how it evolves

Teams have always had to abide by rules, and there have always been classic games without VAR. I appreciate it’s been brought in to remove howlers from the game and that they have angered many people over the years. But VAR brings too many of its own problems and will never eliminate controversy because things happen in blurred lines and continuums. We will never be able to work out exactly what the definition “clear and obvious” means because there are so many permutations. There will always be a debate over how offside should be offside if you make allowances for the likes of Spurs’ goal today, and in some cases whether a player is interfering with play. The only thing in VAR’s favour that I can see is to eliminate controversy, and it will never, ever achieve that. It might reduce it a little, granted. But it takes away so much, killing the joy of the moment.

Life is imperfect. So is football. So are referees. I’m happy living with that, even if it means we got relegated to League 1 through Patrick Kisnorbo getting sent off twice for great tackles. Once you accept that, VAR is only a negative.

comment by Black Starr (U12353)
posted 3 hours, 48 minutes ago
And let’s not forget the fact that VAR can ADD to the drama. Look at the CL semi final, Spurs vs City - it was a classic because of VAR. We’ll get used to it and it will become a part of us and the game. It’s how it evolves
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Totally agree BS. It’s just all so new and alien to everyone. We will have joy and frustration with VAR decisions. It’s here to stay.

VAR will improve the game with time, but right now it can be frustrating as it is overturning some decisions and not others.

If we are to keep VAR for me we need a couple of rule changes:
1. The handball rule in the build up to a goal
2. The offside rule
3. When VAR is used!!

Say what you like about yesterday but that Spurs second goal was onside. The rule is you have to be in line with the last defender of which Son was. Fans want to see goals and the rule of “any benefit of doubt goes to the attacking player” seems to have been scrapped with VAR.

Also, the rule of “don’t overturn unless it’s a clear and obvious mistake” from the ref is also frustrating.

For me, VAR will improve the game. I understand the argument that it’s hard to celebrate a goal any more, but we still do. That doesn’t mean to say it’s perfect now, there is lots to improve.

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 7 hours, 49 minutes ago
Teams have always had to abide by rules, and there have always been classic games without VAR. I appreciate it’s been brought in to remove howlers from the game and that they have angered many people over the years. But VAR brings too many of its own problems and will never eliminate controversy because things happen in blurred lines and continuums. We will never be able to work out exactly what the definition “clear and obvious” means because there are so many permutations. There will always be a debate over how offside should be offside if you make allowances for the likes of Spurs’ goal today, and in some cases whether a player is interfering with play. The only thing in VAR’s favour that I can see is to eliminate controversy, and it will never, ever achieve that. It might reduce it a little, granted. But it takes away so much, killing the joy of the moment.

Life is imperfect. So is football. So are referees. I’m happy living with that, even if it means we got relegated to League 1 through Patrick Kisnorbo getting sent off twice for great tackles. Once you accept that, VAR is only a negative.
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Then I would say football is no longer for you

Life is imperfect
=======
life is imperfect only to the extent that involves things we can't control.

Anything mankind can control or has developed the ability to control is has been perfected.

It is the nature of man to perfect what he can to his best abiity and VAR is a natural, logical move that we cannot resist now that it's possible.

VAR isn't even 2 months old in the prem. Making a quick decision is always stupid.

Last but not least, you can't blame VAR for the incompetent implementation. We have stupid people running the game, we know the FA is a joke.

Implementation of VAR is a joke so far. Its almost sabotage.

Don’t mean to sound churlish there Dunge, but realistically, it’s not going away. If anything it’s the start of a total change in the game.

VAR isn’t perfect right now. It’s going to take years to get it working better. And I accept it can’t remove every single error from the game - but that’s no reason not to try. Look at the difference goal line technology has made. I remember there were people (including Platini) arguing against it for years

You’ll never eliminate every grey area in football it’s impossible - but equally it’s become absolutely clear that the pace of the game has overtaken referees. They need help. They can’t get the big decisions consistently right. VAR helps with that, but it needs improvement in how it’s applied.

comment by Klopptimus Prime - Die Unerträglichen (U1282)
posted 5 minutes ago
Life is imperfect
=======
life is imperfect only to the extent that involves things we can't control.

Anything mankind can control or has developed the ability to control is has been perfected.

It is the nature of man to perfect what he can to his best abiity and VAR is a natural, logical move that we cannot resist now that it's possible.

VAR isn't even 2 months old in the prem. Making a quick decision is always stupid.

Last but not least, you can't blame VAR for the incompetent implementation. We have stupid people running the game, we know the FA is a joke.

Implementation of VAR is a joke so far. Its almost sabotage.
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This. Totally this.