The Football Thread 2019/20: Barcelona will have 2-8 till next season to avenge this embarrassment

[Captain Kinopio]

Draw probably a fair result.

We were sat more or less in the Stretford End. Good and noisy in the first half, very subdued in the second. Can’t really blame them though as United were pretty embarrassing. That I didn’t think we would equalise either. Was a pretty dreary game from where I was watching, a lot like earlier in the year. strawberry floating gooseberry fool loads of time wasting in the second half from United, they seemed very content to try and see out a 1-0 win, which I’m not sure if is a bad sign for the state of the club or just Ole being realistic. At least the defence was solid. Origi was dump, ref was shite, VAR was clear enough from in the stadium and United fans don’t like Souness

[Photek]

Having slept on it, and despite a Draw possibly being the correct result, I am livid about that VAR decision for Manu's goal, BUT, we got a VAR decision in our favour against Leicester.

I really think the FA need to rethink the refs not checking the on pitch monitors and the bizarre rules of not over turning their on field decisions.

[Lotus]

Another shitshow from VAR this weekend - it's such a mess.

Still, it didn't screw Villa over for once, and other good win.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I’ve always been against VAR and I still am. It’s being used completely incorrectly as many feared it would be. My biggest gripe with it is offside and handball calls. The pictures are not clear enough to be able to say for certain when a ball was released by the attacker, if you can’t judge the exact frame when it was played then what is the point. On handballs if the angle is not there then you can’t tell which part of the body the ball is actually touching.

Football also has too many rules that are judgements and interpretation, and not factual.

[Photek]

I'm all for VAR but it's being implemented terribly.

[Captain Kinopio]

Just watched MOTD2.

Good lord VAR had an absolute howler this weekend, yesterdays game I think was more or less fine. The Spurs game though That was as stone wall a penalty as Ive seen this season, and the clearest case of a decision needing to be overturned Ive seen since VAR was introduced. Then the strawberry float up later in the game Also the Leicester Burnley game was in with the disallowed goal. That should never have been overturned.

It’s an awful system if you ask me. While I think its perfectly clear what is happening from in the stadium (unless you get a strawberry float up like in the Spurs game) it definitely has an impact on crowd celebrations and generally makes them more muted as it feels like you cant properly celebrate until its been checked. I was never for it since seeing it first in action at World Cups and the bloody gooseberry fool show we’ve had this season only shows why. Goal line technology is great, a system for checking offsides also seems fine anything more than that I dont think is necessary at all.

I think a review system could work if called for from the touch line. But I’d be worried about that being used tactically to slow the game down. 1 review a match which you get to keep if the decision goes in your favour I’d say is all that’s needed. When its called for the ref can come over to the side look at it again in slow motion and make his decision. I think that could work well. Yesterday for example, Liverpool could have reviewed the United goal and then whichever way the ref decides you’ve got to say fair enough (I personally wouldn’t complain much either way). United would have used their review for the Mane goal and that would have been ruled out so they could keep their review.

[Jenuall]

Yeah VAR has the capacity to be a good addition to the sport but it's just being handled terribly at this point - there need to be serious improvements both from the technical side of the implementation and the policy. Also feedback is terrible, it should not take this long or hold the game up in uncertainty anywhere near as much as it does currently.

But as Lotus says as a Villa fan it was nice to have a week where we weren't the ones getting screwed by VAR!

[Photek]

I didn't celebrate when Lallana scored incase he was offside...

Martin Tyler seemed crest fallen that Liverpool scored.

[Tomous]

People need to accept we’re in a transition period with technology in football. VAR is far from perfect but it’s making steps in the right direction. Rugby uses the TMO exceptionally well but it has constantly involved since its’ introduction. It’s taken constant tweaks and adjustments to get where it is now. They need to make major improvements to VAR but hopefully that will come with time and experience.

[Jenuall]

I don't think anybody is objecting to that, but acknowledging that the system is in a transition period doesn't mean we should stop pointing out issues with it!

Part of the difficulty is also that football had waited so long to introduce technology but hasn't seemingly learned much from any other sport that has been doing it for years. It was never going to be perfect from day 1 but they could have got it much better than this just by paying more attention to how other sports evolved in their use of such technology.

[darksideby182]

Arsenal looking dreadful tonight, I'd like to see the stats for backwards and sidewards passes.

[Ploiper]

its very frustrating supporting Arsenal at times. though at one point during the game I started batting a balloon around instead of watching it, so that was fun.

[pjbetman]

Peter Crisp asking why MotD isn't on at 8.30pm is absolutely classic Peter Crisp and I can't get enough of it .

[Robbo-92]

Sounds cliche but like Wilder I’m just taking this season one game at a time, delighted with the result against Arsenal after narrowly missing out on a point against Liverpool. For a first season back in the Premier League I couldn’t really ask for more, top half after 9 games doubt we’ll end the year in the top half but still a cracking start.

[Captain Kinopio]

Another cracking MNF post show. Patrice Evra speaks really well about his experiences. I’ve laughed in the past about old United players tweeting their support for mucking in at the club and sorting things out. But with Evra it seems like they could do a lot worse in terms of having one of the old guard around.

[Moggy]

Another cracking MNF post show. Patrice Evra speaks really well about his experiences. I’ve laughed in the past about old United players tweeting their support for mucking in at the club and sorting things out. But with Evra it seems like they could do a lot worse in terms of having one of the old guard around.

Probably best not to put him in charge of the anti-homophobia department of the club though...

[Curls]

Everyone has pros and cons hey? Evra isn't racist but may be homophobic.
Suarez is racist but loves to have a bite of other men.

[Photek]

Cracking.

[gamerforever]

I think var has ruined the premier league and is the reason why its so crap this year. The system is ridiculous and makes the referees look useless. Go back to basics and pay referees more, and train them more to be better. Var does not work for football.

[Photek]

I think var has ruined the premier league and is the reason why its so crap this year.

I’m quite enjoying it tbh.