GWT: PL Matchday 2

VEGASKING

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Amazing a club like United has such little creative options on the roster. If you move Pogba further up the pitch you're starting two of McTominay, Pereira and Matic as your central mids. Move Rashford inside and now you have a huge hole on the left. If Pogba misses any significant time, yikes. If only Mata was 4 years younger.
 

hatterson

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Amazing a club like United has such little creative options on the roster. If you move Pogba further up the pitch you're starting two of McTominay, Pereira and Matic as your central mids. Move Rashford inside and now you have a huge hole on the left. If Pogba misses any significant time, yikes. If only Mata was 4 years younger.

They’re fine enough on the left as both Rashford and Martial can play there. If you consider LW and ST combined they’re kinda thin with Lukaku gone, but they’ve at least got good starting options and I don’t mind time being given to Greenwood since the goal of this season should basically be “don’t suck too much while developing younger players”

It’s really RW that they’re thin at. James is about the only natural player there and beyond that it’s Mata or Pereira playing a bit out of position.

A solid DM, like Matic was the first ~1.5 years here, would go a long way on this roster as it would free Pogba up much more and let you insulate McTom more while he continues to develop.
 

OhCaptainMyCaptain

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Was listening to XM Radio this morning and a Spurs fan called in saying he didn’t like how they got the point and didn’t like that VAR was used for something like that.

But.. I just don’t understand that. I mean, I get the idea of not wanting replay to overturn minute things like offsides by a toenail, or like in baseball when someone is half a centimeter off the base so they’re technically out. But in this case, the accidental handball completely changed the direction of the ball. It wasn’t like it just scraped his arm. Whether it was on accident or not, it completely changed the play, and that’s exactly what VAR should be used for.
 

hatterson

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Was listening to XM Radio this morning and a Spurs fan called in saying he didn’t like how they got the point and didn’t like that VAR was used for something like that.

But.. I just don’t understand that. I mean, I get the idea of not wanting replay to overturn minute things like offsides by a toenail, or like in baseball when someone is half a centimeter off the base so they’re technically out. But in this case, the accidental handball completely changed the direction of the ball. It wasn’t like it just scraped his arm. Whether it was on accident or not, it completely changed the play, and that’s exactly what VAR should be used for.

It’s exactly the type of situation that VAR *should* fix. It was missed live and is a black and white violation of the rule that had a direct impact on a goal.

You can call it a stupid rule (and I’d agree) but saying VAR shouldn’t be used is basically just saying you’re fine with obviously missed calls changing games. That’s a fine thing to say as long as you’re actually willing to say that when it screws your team too.
 

OhCaptainMyCaptain

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It’s exactly the type of situation that VAR *should* fix. It was missed live and is a black and white violation of the rule that had a direct impact on a goal.

You can call it a stupid rule (and I’d agree) but saying VAR shouldn’t be used is basically just saying you’re fine with obviously missed calls changing games. That’s a fine thing to say as long as you’re actually willing to say that when it screws your team too.

True. I mean, there are some situations where I don’t love replay. Like when a player in hockey is offsides by a quarter of a centimeter. Overturning that kind of feels wrong. But when it’s blatant like it was with that handball, then it was used just fine. Like you said, the only thing that people should feel free to complain about is the rule itself. That I understand. But VAR was used perfectly there, as it was a blatant violation of the rule.
 

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They talked about it briefly, and Rashford didn’t look remotely upset that Pogba was taking it, so it must have been something discussed before.

Yeah. I’m just of the mind that one person should be the PK taker until they hit a rough spot or something. Rashford has been money on the spot lately, why change it imo. Oh well what’s done is done.
 

KJS14

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True. I mean, there are some situations where I don’t love replay. Like when a player in hockey is offsides by a quarter of a centimeter. Overturning that kind of feels wrong. But when it’s blatant like it was with that handball, then it was used just fine. Like you said, the only thing that people should feel free to complain about is the rule itself. That I understand. But VAR was used perfectly there, as it was a blatant violation of the rule.

As you said, VAR isn't necessarily the problem, but the handball rule change is just dumb imo. And it looks even worse when you consider the context of Spurs benefiting from both versions of the rule against City within the last 6 months or so. Still, I agree that VAR didn't make the mistake here.

Also saw an interesting post the other day on VAR use for offside calls, but haven't been able to find the actual tweet. The technology is obviously limited to a certain frames per second and, by rule, the VAR official evaluates the offside position based on the first frame after the ball has been played (i.e. left the passing player's foot). Well in the amount of time lapsed between these frames, Sterling ran another 15cm and was deemed to be approx. 2.5cm offside for that goal against West Ham that was called back. The margin of error using VAR was 6 times greater than the distance that Sterling was deemed to be offside, so it's really not a black and white system.

Edit: and also consider that there's no perfect way for the VAR official to "draw" the attacker and defender's position line. How does one decide where each player's arm starts when it is their futhest-forward ball-playing limb?
 
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JeffreyLFC

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The best thing to happen for all premier league clubs is to see Manchester United not getting Bruno Fernandes.
 

Havre

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Yeah. Really have no idea why Utd didn't buy Fernandes? He is made for that team. As others have pointed out without Pogba they have zero creativity and goalscoring from midfield.

I agree that the situation against City is what VAR should be used for, but the rule is just beyond stupid. No-one I know having played football at a decent level agrees with that rule. Someone might be hit with the arm on their back not knowing where the ball is and it will be given as a handball. Or in the case of City - Spurs two players trying to head the ball and one could argue Skipp slightly holding Laporte is causing the incident.

To me they have just randomized football. Give it some months and players will accept this as "unlucky", but to me you should try to do the opposite - remove that kind of randomness (which is the general idea of VAR of course - removing "random" mistakes by refs).
 

Live in the Now

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They didn’t buy him because the Glazers aren’t going to bail Man United out anymore. Those days are over, and they’re going to get the money they want from now on. They bought the club to be a money factory. Pretty simple.

They could have bought him and others if they sold Pogba, but it’s clear there will be no more spending spree.
 
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Aladyyn

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Yeah. Really have no idea why Utd didn't buy Fernandes? He is made for that team. As others have pointed out without Pogba they have zero creativity and goalscoring from midfield.
Apparently they were concerned because of his low pass completion
 

bluesfan94

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Yeah. Really have no idea why Utd didn't buy Fernandes? He is made for that team. As others have pointed out without Pogba they have zero creativity and goalscoring from midfield.

I agree that the situation against City is what VAR should be used for, but the rule is just beyond stupid. No-one I know having played football at a decent level agrees with that rule. Someone might be hit with the arm on their back not knowing where the ball is and it will be given as a handball. Or in the case of City - Spurs two players trying to head the ball and one could argue Skipp slightly holding Laporte is causing the incident.

To me they have just randomized football. Give it some months and players will accept this as "unlucky", but to me you should try to do the opposite - remove that kind of randomness (which is the general idea of VAR of course - removing "random" mistakes by refs).
I get the intent behind the rule and I agree that this is absolutely the proper use of VAR. The issue isn't the use of VAR to me but rather the handball rule. On the one hand, this seems to open the door to harsh punishments like you mentioned. On the other hand, it takes away some randomness - a handball is a handball is a handball. Is it perfect? No, as we saw here. And it can be tough on defenders, because there's no leniency for clearly accidental handballs. I think the rule will be again adjusted, but it's hard to make a perfect rule.
 
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Havre

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I get the intent behind the rule and I agree that this is absolutely the proper use of VAR. The issue isn't the use of VAR to me but rather the handball rule. On the one hand, this seems to open the door to harsh punishments like you mentioned. On the other hand, it takes away some randomness - a handball is a handball is a handball. Is it perfect? No, as we saw here. And it can be tough on defenders, because there's no leniency for clearly accidental handballs. I think the rule will be again adjusted, but it's hard to make a perfect rule.

Impossible. Unless you get some serious artificial intelligence going at some point.

Same ridiculousness in Spain and the new "tackle from behind" rule. It makes it easier for the refs, but now you end up with random red cards that no player think is a fair punishment for the incident.

It removes randomness in the decision making, I agree, but it adds randomness in terms of teams being punished far beyond what is reasonable (losing a player for more or less an accident, like with Modric, or losing a goal by also an accident, City).
 

hatterson

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Apparently they were concerned because of his low pass completion

Yea that’s what I heard. Their scouting team was concerned he loses possession too much which wouldn’t gel with OGS preferred possession and pressing style.

Not sure how much I believe that or if it’s just nice cover for “we didn’t want to pay that much”
 

Jussi

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Yea that’s what I heard. Their scouting team was concerned he loses possession too much which wouldn’t gel with OGS preferred possession and pressing style.

Not sure how much I believe that or if it’s just nice cover for “we didn’t want to pay that much”

The British reporters mentioned on twitter how the agent was driving up the transfer price with fabricated interest. Basically the price was too high to begin with.

The passing percentage was a glaring fact in his stats though.
 

Jussi

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Yeah. I’m just of the mind that one person should be the PK taker until they hit a rough spot or something. Rashford has been money on the spot lately, why change it imo. Oh well what’s done is done.

According OGS, Rashford and Pogba are the penalty takers and they can talk it between themselves on the pitch who takes it. Something which the football analysts (Neville among others) are not happy with.
 

The Abusement Park

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According OGS, Rashford and Pogba are the penalty takers and they can talk it between themselves on the pitch who takes it. Something which the football analysts (Neville among others) are not happy with.

Yeah I don't agree with that at all. Pick your guy and stick with it until he proves he shouldn't.
 

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