GWT: PL Matchweek 24/25

[hatterson]

Loaning Clyne looks pretty poor while watching Milner get torched by good wide players.

Clyne got absolutely torched this weekend too, so I'm not sure they missed much.

 

[Machinehead]

If they had played well and dropped points because "oh well, that's football" I would sign up for being 3 points up.

But they were awful, and have been awful.

Yes, City has the better team on paper and always did, but that doesn't change the fact that Liverpool should be WAY ahead and have been playing horrendous football ever since that opportunity opened up, as is typical for Liverpool in title races.

 

[Chimaera]

You can disagree with selling Wilson, but I think it more likely than no.

Liverpool can’t do this the easy way.

 

[S E P H]

I don't get the Liverpool fans here, spent like 300 million Euros or something like that and are still complaining about depth.

 

[Burner Account]

You can disagree with selling Wilson, but I think it more likely than no.

Liverpool can’t do this the easy way.

They were never going to win every game. I’m taking a deep breath.

I’m actually happy they didn’t lose against Palace or West Ham with James Milner matched against Zaha and Anderson.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Spurs are still in the race with their rather mediocre play, no signings and a horrendous injury record. Like for christ sake, Kieran Trippier is still our starting RB. Up your game Liverpool/City.

 

[Cassano]

They've been cheating all season.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Spurs are still in the race with their rather mediocre play, no signings and a horrendous injury record. Christ.

They have their best record ever at this point in a season as the sky falls around them.

 

[Cassano]

Spurs are still in the race with their rather mediocre play, no signings and a horrendous injury record. Like for christ sake, Kieran Trippier is still our starting RB. Up your game Liverpool/City.

They still gotta go to Etihad, Stamford Bridge and Anfield. They're gonna drop a lot of points there.

Still very impressive, nonetheless.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

They still gotta go to Etihad, Stamford Bridge and Anfield. They're gonna drop a lot of points there.

Still very impressive, nonetheless.

Yeah, I know. Hardly have high hopes.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

They've been cheating all season.

Did Liverpool instruct the linesmen to go blind?

Andy gray is still spewing his verbal diarrhoea to the masses? I feel bad for the entire "kingdom".

 

[Savant]

Clyne got absolutely torched this weekend too, so I'm not sure they missed much.

This is wrong. Their is a ripple effect. If Clyne is at RB, then Milner is in the midfield. Which makes LFC stronger.

They refused to add in January, and now can only cover their injuries by making other third of their team worse.

And I have no problem with them letting Clyne go if he didnt eant to be there. The problem is he wasn't replaced

 

[Chimaera]

Liverpool’s net spend is way less than 300.

They also didn’t get Fekir or a like part this summer when most of us wanted something done. It isn’t about spending or not overall. They’ve spent a decent outlay of late and money is there. Unlike some clubs they have funds, and they did actually have players to sell to recoup spending. Let me know which Arsenal player will bring a Coutinho fee.

It’s about the fact that I think they gambled in the Winter Window that they didn’t need to spend and that players were going to be healthy.

I just subscribe to the adding a player is a statement of intent. I don’t know how much they kicked the tires on guys, and I do know it’s much harder to get something done in the January window. I also know that Klopp is likely to back his guys more so than going out for a player. But there’s something to say about we just need one more part for the run, something extra to get us over, and I think they didn’t do it.

That’s not why they will win or not win the title. But I think there’s a purpose to doing it. I just know that Edwards and the transfer committee, plus Klopp, would rather wait and get a bang on starter instead of a part to keep things running.

 

[Savant]

Liverpool’s net spend is way less than 300.

They also didn’t get Fekir or a like part this summer when most of us wanted something done. It isn’t about spending or not overall. They’ve spent a decent outlay of late and money is there. Unlike some clubs they have funds, and they did actually have players to sell to recoup spending. Let me know which Arsenal player will bring a Coutinho fee.

It’s about the fact that I think they gambled in the Winter Window that they didn’t need to spend and that players were going to be healthy.

I just subscribe to the adding a player is a statement of intent. I don’t know how much they kicked the tires on guys, and I do know it’s much harder to get something done in the January window. I also know that Klopp is likely to back his guys more so than going out for a player. But there’s something to say about we just need one more part for the run, something extra to get us over, and I think they didn’t do it.

That’s not why they will win or not win the title. But I think there’s a purpose to doing it. I just know that Edwards and the transfer committee, plus Klopp, would rather wait and get a bang on starter instead of a part to keep things running.

The thing though is there were available minutes to be had this season.

Klavan was let go because Nat Phillips was deemed ready. Phillips got hurt, no emergency CB. That's a hole.

Fekir wasn't signed, no one else was either. That's a hole.

Liverpool didn't sign a forward because they didn't want to block a returning-from-injury Brewster; Brewster has a setback and is out for the season. That's a hole.

Sturridge and Origi - those are holes, that Liverpool know they have to replace in the summer and chose not to get ahead of it.

Not doing anything in January was negligent. The only way they can plug holes is to weaken their midfield, and knowingly left themselves a team with no margin for error. Even after an 11 day break, the two games following it has the looking tired and uninspired. Both draws came from them dropping points from winning scorelines.

This is a very big problem that could have been avoided. I am not going to get into it then not capitalizing on City dropping points was a mental blow, but would it surprise anyone?

 

[les Habs]

Liverpool clearly missing Coutinho. They can get him back this Summer for only 223 million.

 

[Jussi]

Did Liverpool instruct the linesmen to go blind?

Andy gray is still spewing his verbal diarrhoea to the masses? I feel bad for the entire "kingdom".

Bein Sports is based in Qatar. Doesn't operate in the UK.

 

[Evilo]

Bein Sports is based in Qatar. Doesn't operate in the UK.

You think he doesn't work in the UK? You think the rest of the world is getting that BIS?

Heck, you think the United team is operating in the US? You know, since United's owner is based in the US...

 

[Corto]

I think the whole FA can breathe a collective sigh of relief because Origi messed that chance up at the end.

Imagine the gap now being 5 instead of 3 points, and because of such a massive error from the linesman.

I mean, I'd rather have Liverpool win the title than Man City and their money.

While waiting for West Ham to win it, of course. That's the end game.

 

[Havre]

Absolutely. Usually I think linesmen/women in the PL are very good at offside-decisions, but that was two shockingly poor ones. The first I can understand due to it being so close to him (still a very poor decision of course), but the second one is almost inexcusable. Can't be long though before you have some sort of "goal line technology" for offsides. So that all calls will be correct live all the time. My guess we will get that with tackles as well (monitors picking up impact and the force), but that is probably quite a few years away.

Huge couple of weeks coming up for Liverpool. Bournemouth is no walk-over. Away to Utd will be a complete war. Play like they did yesterday and they will be out of the CL and out of contention for the title come end February (well - the PL they could probably still win - possibly). Not that I'm expecting more performances like yesterday. So I still think they will win the league, but yesterday was surprisingly poor. The result is one thing, but the team just looked off. Not something you see very often from Liverpool these days.

 

[maclean]

Can't be long though before you have some sort of "goal line technology" for offsides. So that all calls will be correct live all the time.

I mean, you do kind of have that in leagues with VAR. The Lyon-PSG game on the weekend a player was offside on a play and within ten seconds the ref had been informed in his earpiece that there was a missed offside call. Didn't have to waste time going to look at the screen, just said OK and blew his whistle.

 

[Havre]

I mean, you do kind of have that in leagues with VAR. The Lyon-PSG game on the weekend a player was offside on a play and within ten seconds the ref had been informed in his earpiece that there was a missed offside call. Didn't have to waste time going to look at the screen, just said OK and blew his whistle.

Correct, but I'm assuming that is still based on someone looking at the pictures?

 

[maclean]

Correct, but I'm assuming that is still based on someone looking at the pictures?

Yes of course, but I think it's sufficient (and a step that the PL has yet to get to) and honestly I wouldn't much want a computer judging offside, the offsides that sometimes get called in FIFA I find myself wondering whether the game is actually trying to imitate inept linesmen.

 

[Havre]

Really no different than judging if a ball has crossed the line or not. Just a bit more dynamic (biggest issue I would guess would be when is the pass released).

I don't want people looking at pictures for minutes to evaluate if someone was offside or not. The two in the Liverpool game are easy - many are not.

 

[hatterson]

Really no different than judging if a ball has crossed the line or not. Just a bit more dynamic (biggest issue I would guess would be when is the pass released).

I don't want people looking at pictures for minutes to evaluate if someone was offside or not. The two in the Liverpool game are easy - many are not.

From an automation standpoint, offside is orders of magnitude more complicated than goal line technology.

I think the easiest solution is similar to the easy solution in hockey, go back to the spirit of the rule in close cases. The point of offside is to prevent cherry picking, it's not to prevent an attacker from being a millimeter ahead of the last defender. If, on review, you can't tell within 10 seconds if a play is offside or not then it's too close to materially affect the play and shouldn't be overturned with VAR.

As long as you set the expectations and are up front about it, I think people will accept it.

Maybe down the road when machine learning has improved more and PL sides want to install a bunch more cameras then you can automate it, but for now I think that lets you use VAR to address the big issues (like yesterday) while not destroying the pace of the game while a guy spends 10 minutes analyzing if Fellaini's afro is actually behind the defenders cleet stud by a millimeter or not.

 

[Havre]

I appreciate that it is more complicated (which is why we haven't already got it). My point is if you trust a computer to make the right decision on the goal line it isn't to me any different than trusting a computer when it comes to offsides (as soon as you got the technology ready to account for the added complexity).

I am 100% for VAR. I believe in the future games can be fully ref'd by computers. But right now it feels like they are pushing something before it is ready. The first version of VAR in England was a complete joke. How can anyone even think that was ready for anything?