The Football Thread 2021/22: England thrown to Hungary lions

[Tomous]

We got knocked out the FA Cup by Man City in QFs a few years ago after being 2-1 up thanks to a dodgy penalty and an offside goal.

VAR wasn't used because of the rule it could only be used at PL clubs at home, even though our stadium is equipped and set up to use it. Utterly bonkers and I will forever be bitter about being robbed of day out at Wembley.

[Photek]

Yeah that did seem like a lot of what suddenly turned out to be false positives

Why would LFC get investigated if an 'independent' lab did the testing?

[Cuttooth]

Yeah that did seem like a lot of what suddenly turned out to be false positives

Why would LFC get investigated if an 'independent' lab did the testing?

Good point. Throw them out the competition!

[Photek]

Yeah that did seem like a lot of what suddenly turned out to be false positives

Why would LFC get investigated if an 'independent' lab did the testing?

Good point. Throw them out the competition!

Honestly wouldn't really care if they got thrown out but for the salt I kind of want to kick Arsenal out now because the fallout would be delicious.

[Tomous]

Yeah that did seem like a lot of what suddenly turned out to be false positives

Why would LFC get investigated if an 'independent' lab did the testing?

Because Liverpool are still involved in the process. It seems there is a question mark around when they received the negative results and I'm not saying they necessarily did anything wrong but the EFL should clarify the situation, especially when lots of clubs were refused postponements.

[Cuttooth]

Yeah that did seem like a lot of what suddenly turned out to be false positives

Why would LFC get investigated if an 'independent' lab did the testing?

Good point. Throw them out the competition!

Honestly wouldn't really care if they got thrown out but for the salt I kind of want to kick Arsenal out now because the fallout would be delicious.

[Jenuall]

[Lotus]

It's unbelievably stupid that it is down to the luck of the draw if VAR is in play or not.

Agree with this. Not having a consistent approach across the competition is laughable.

Talking of laughable, the game last night. Or, more specifically, the dodgy decisions
They were absolutely desperate to find a reason to rule that goal out. I'm amazed Man U didn't get their standard penalty against us as well, just to make sure.

[Captain Kinopio]

I can understand the annoyance at the inconsistent way VAR is applied, but having seen it a couple of times it seems to me that ruling that goal out was absolutely the right decision for offside reasons.

[Preezy]

Lots of problems at United currently, here's what I think the club should do with the various players (spoilered because I know not everyone cares, especially Photek who definitely isn't obsessed with United alright )

De Gea - best player this season which says a lot about how the team is playing. Keep
Henderson - was supposed to be the next big thing but now seems to be leaking his unhappiness at being no2. Bin
Wan-Bissaka - best one-on-one defender in world football (come at me), but is incredibly limited in with left foot and doesn't offer much going forward. Keep for now
Dalot - decent squad player and a perfectly acceptable backup at RB. Keep
Shaw - it depresses me that he's still not achieved his potential and has only had a couple of good seasons for all his time at the club. Time to move on. Bin
Telles - decent squad player and a perfectly acceptable backup at LB. Keep
Maguire - possibly our worst regular player and he's not captain material. REally starting to dislike him which is never a good sign. Bin
Lindelof - decent squad player and a perfectly acceptable backup at CB. Keep
Varane - only just joined and has struggled with injury, but his reputation is outstanding so willing to give him time. Keep
Bailly - injured more than he's not, and reckless when he does play. Fun/terrifying to watch, but he needs to go. Bin
Jones - great to see him manage to come back from a serious injury, but he's not the answer and never was. Bin
Pogba - he doesn't want to be here and has missed 2 whole seasons worth of games through injury. It hasn't worked out. Bin
Mata - lovely human being, but he should have gone 2 or 3 years ago and has wasted the twilight of his career on the bench (if he's lucky). Bin, but with sadness
Lingard - why is he still at the club? Should have gone to West Ham in the summer, there' no room for him now. Bin
Fred - decent squad player and a perfectly acceptable backup in midfield, but he shouldn't be starting the majority of games. Keep
McTominay - decent squad player and a perfectly acceptable backup in midfield, but he shouldn't be starting the majority of games. Keep
Matic - far too old and slow to have any impact on games now, should have gone in the summer. Bin
van de Beek - the dream has become the nightmare. Must be gooseberry fool in training as 3 managers haven't fancied him. Bin
Fernandes - having a poor season by his standards, but his quality is undoubted and he would be my pick for captain. Keep
Matrial - seemingly on his way out, and nothing of value was lost. Bin
Rashford - seems to have already peaked and has completely lost confidence or love for the game, very sad to see as he used to be United's most devastating player. Keep for another season, but he's on thin ice
Greenwood - a generational talent that will become a superstar, either at United or another European superclub. Keep
Sancho - first season so will give him a pass, but needs to produce more to be considered a starter. Keep
Cavani - a classy workhorse but he's not the future, let him go in the summer. Bin
Ronaldo - raises standards (which is probably why all those chancers are unhappy) and scores goals, but he's not the future. Keep for 1 more season

Ralf Rangnick - jury is still out and he's having to deal with a bunch of wanky crybabies that think they're better than they are so he has my support. Would like to see him appoint Ten Hag in the summer though and move upstairs to really flex his club-fixing muscles.

tl:dr - of the 25 players in the main squad, I'd keep 13 and put the rest in the bin. Great success!

[Tomous]

tl:dr - of the 25 players in the main squad, I'd keep 13 and put the rest in the bin. Great success!

Most expensive squad in the world

[Photek]

Wan-Bissaka - best one-on-one defender in world football (come at me)

Most expensive squad in the world

[Tomous]

Wan-Bissaka is excellent at tackling to be fair, it's just a shame he's rubbish at everything else.

[Photek]

Wan-Bissaka is excellent at tackling to be fair, it's just a shame he's rubbish at everything else.

His positioning generally means he has to be good at last ditch tacking, I'd argue if a player is running one on one against Wan-Bissaka or big Virgil, I think he'd take Bissaka every time.

[Benzin]

It's unbelievably stupid that it is down to the luck of the draw if VAR is in play or not.

Agree with this. Not having a consistent approach across the competition is laughable.

Talking of laughable, the game last night. Or, more specifically, the dodgy decisions
They were absolutely desperate to find a reason to rule that goal out. I'm amazed Man U didn't get their standard penalty against us as well, just to make sure.

It did take forever (or at least seemed to), but the guy was not only in an offside position but also obstructed Cavani to boot.

Because there were a number of things to check resulted in the time frame. They always work backwards.


Also United ruining another Palace youth

[Captain Kinopio]

I can’t believe you’d want to bin half the players from a squad who came 2nd last season with a pretty poor manager.

[Ecno]

I really don't get this lack of fairness of using VAR at some games but not at others. It affects both teams playing the same to have it or not, and it doesn't matter if it's being used at other games as it has no impact at yours.

If you think VAR is bad and shouldn't be used at all and you'd at least like some respite by not having it in the FA Cup, that's a coherent argument to make but anything based on fairness is wrong.

[Buffalo]

Keeping Fred?!

[Preezy]

Keeping Fred?!

As a high-energy squad player? Sure. The trouble is that he's currently first-choice, but he's completely fine as a backup.

[Tomous]

Fred has been decent this season, to be fair