Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 385

If Messi leaves Barcelona, it’ll be to play with Ronaldo at Miami for Becks.

 

I feel like Jose is trying to change the mentality at Spurs but I don’t know if it’ll work. His comments yesterday about big clubs having great players on the bench but at Spurs if a great player is on the bench it’s drama. Then today he ripped the team for losing focus after the VAR ruling.

I don’t know if his strategy of going public with these things will work, but he speaks truth. This is the stuff that has held us back for years.

 

That VAR decision in the Spurs game last night really was a stinker. I'm not so convinced Moura was fouled, but how can you give handball for a player nailing the ball into him as he falls, from like 6 inches away? It really does feel at times like the VAR officials are intentionally not using any common sense to show up flaws in the system.

 

The ball touched his hand before the Sheffield United player kicked it, no?

 

I'm not defending the decision at all in the slightest, but from reading Twitter last night, it sounds like VAR applied the rules of the game correctly, but it's the rules of the game that are fucked and VAR kinda had no option. Something about how it wasn't able to look at the foul and that the rules now state any hand and it has to be called back regardless. Same with City's handball last night too. It's still a stupid stupid rule to not be able to take any sort of intent or circumstance into the handball rule though. I'm absolutely not an expert either though, that's just mostly what I got from a few people ranting about it haha.

 

I think he always used to say he would like to go back to play for his first club, Newell's Old Boys in Argentina, which would be cool as hell. I wouldn't like to see him at any other clubs I don't think, would be weird!

 

can't wait to see Messi with a big NOB on his chest...

 

I've said this before but I think this particular issue is more to do with the use of VAR than the basic idea itself.

Before the rule was officially put up in writing, referees were already pulling up attacks for handball even if there was no intent. Clearly that was to do with the spirit of the game; if the ball clearly strikes the hand of an attacker it somehow feels 'unjust' if a goal is subsequently scored, even if there was no deliberate intent on the part of the attacker.

The problem now is that in officially making it a part of the rules, and allowing VAR to check for it, they've destroyed the spirit of that law. The consistent, 'unofficial' practice of stopping an attack for handball has been replaced with a nitpicking, that leaves no one satisfied, upsets the flow of the game and rules out goals for even a slight, unintentional brush of the ball with the hand. Essentially, the letter of the law over the spirit of the law.

Again, this comes back to the inadequacy of VAR. The interpretation of clear infringements or obvious disruptions to the spirit of the game works largely on the premise of the referee making decisions within the flow of the game. Introducing VAR changes what becomes 'clear' and, as I say, ends up prioritising letter over spirit.

The whole thing's a mess.

 

It's kinda weird how much positivity there is around us at the moment. It's been a minute since there was this much positivity. Can't wait till the season ends and we don't sign anyone for two weeks and everyone goes back to being crazy.

 

I have no real issue with handballs being called if the ball touches an arm or hand and gives a player an advantage. BUT I think the player must be in control. A ball ricocheting a yard away and hitting the arm shouldn't count.

But then you get into the business of opinion. If that doesn't count why should others count. It being one rule for attackers and another for defenders is awkward. Maybe make all handballs unless intentional indirect free kicks? It's a really tough rule to enforce without going to the letter of the law, because defining it based on opinion opens it up for inconsistency.

 

Thinking of starting a new save on FM20 but not sure what team I should start with. I've never really been into starting with a lower league team and winning the Champions League with them, might try a new country though.

 

Germany is fun. the last game I did I started in Ireland, and my goal was to end up managing a team in a top 5 league. I really struggle with really shit teams though. I can do Championship and above, but fuck me it's hard playing as a League 2 side. League of Ireland is generally fine for me as I know a lot of the players.

 

Inter seemingly want to purchase Sanchez for €20m. That would be amazing.

€20m, Sanchez off the books, and top 4. If all of those happen we should be in a very strong position for the transfer window.

 

Liverpool supposedly very close to signing Thiago from Bayern now, around £30-35 million.

 

Everton's new training kit looks lush. The home kit ain't too bad either.

 

no point in even watching next season

 

Thiago and Fabinho in the same midfield is unfair

 

We’re over trying to shake down Southampton for Hojbjerg to close the gap between us and the top of the league. They laugh at us and add one of the best mids in the world.

Fuck going for the league title lol just try to win a stupid cup.

 

I was really hoping Liverpool would make the mistake Chelsea and City have been making for years - win the league then don't reinforce, just rest on your laurels. But no, they have to go and upgrade one of their weakest positions with a world class player. Fuck.

 

Since I'm also a baseball fan, I enjoy different takes on team and individual stats that challenge tradition stat measures. Here's an article taking a look at someof Dortmund's player stats, but some key observations made.

- Hockey style assists should absolutely be a thing.

- Saves and Cleans Sheets aren't the best metrics for keeper quality.

Borussia Dortmund’s Season in Stats

There are other somewhat interesting but seemingly inconsequential stats as well. I'd be interested in yall's thoughts.

 

What are you referring to? Thiago?

Edit: NVM. Just catching up.

 

What this says to me is Sancho is excellent

I like Hockey assists as well to be fair. Although I think assist metrics are overrated in general. AWB got an assist against Brighton for Greenwoods goal, but there wasn't really much to it. That was more a solo Greenwood goal than an AWB assist. Whereas Matic's pass to Greenwood for Bruno's second was much more influential in that goal than AWB's pass.

 

Yeah. The weakest spot in their starting 11 right now is probably either Van Dijks partner, Gini's spot in the midfield, or possibly Firmino (although that discounts what he does for the team out of possession, which is probably more important than anything to do with goals scored or finishing ability).

Their strongest midfield 3 at the minute is probably Fabinho, Henderson and Gini. I know Thiago is often injured, but his quality when fit is undeniable. The one thing really missing from this Liverpool team is a bit of creativity in midfield and ball carrying ability - both things Thiago is excellent at. I haven't really been impressed by Keita since he arrived, but I guess it depends on how much Klopp trusts him to develop into being a starter.

 

Would Thiago bring what Gini brings though? Thiago is obviously a fantastic player but does he have the work rate to fit in that midfield?


Also FUCK moyes. We had him. We had a deal agreed with him and Barca and Moyes said no for some reason.

 

Fit and on form, the best midfield three would probably be Gini-Fabinho-Thiago.