Southampton 1-0 Liverpool

Only saw highlights last night, but City looked pretty good, with 3 great goals. It’s wide open making it exciting for the neutrals for a change.
 
Magnificent defensive display from the Saints. Still think Liverpool and maybe City will pull away.
 
I'm rooting for Jose's totteringham just cos he'll irk the purists.

I don't really care but I like Jose as at least he's good craic with his panto villain shtick.
 
I only take a passing interest in the Prem if I'm honest but this one is shaping up to be a bizarre one.

Will be more interesting than the usual City/Liverpool 20 points clear of everyone else at least!
 
I also like the idea of tottenham who for years have been some kind of purist footballing cult actually winning something by getting men behind the ball then lumping it to Kane and Son. (No, I know it's more than that, I'm painting in broad strokes here, not fine detail)

Bit like how Everyone are all 'we're the school of science' but the only thing they've won for years was when Joe Royle made them a better version of Oldham.
 
United are in their good spell and every credit to them. BUT I think they'll have another bad spell. Which is what Liverpool are having at the moment.
Totally - the majority of recent wins have been teetering on the brink of another influx of #OllieOut tweets!
 
See Klopp is moaning again about the ref and two penalties his team should have had. As well as a dig at ManU, probably rightly so.

To be fair to him , I don't understand why the foul on Mane wasn't given. It was pretty clear and obvious and for me one the VAR ref should have intervened in. The handball one was ridiculous by Klopp to suggest it was a penalty.
 
Their games since their drubbing of Palace have been surprisingly similar to ours, lots of possession, lots of crosses in to the box to no one, very few actual chances created and even fewer goals.

Maybe Critch and Klopp need to get together and have a little re-think.
 
See Klopp is moaning again about the ref and two penalties his team should have had. As well as a dig at ManU, probably rightly so.

To be fair to him , I don't understand why the foul on Mane wasn't given. It was pretty clear and obvious and for me one the VAR ref should have intervened in. The handball one was ridiculous by Klopp to suggest it was a penalty.
Having just seen the two incidents I agree with you.

VAR fails again
 
I'm not a fan of Spurs, but Son is probably the best striker in the country at present.
Son makes terrific runs into open spaces, and usually manages to score.
Apparently many strikers mistakenly think he plays for them as they keep shouting 'on my head, son' when running into the box.
 
as long as manure dont win it im fine its been a poor standard premier this season the winners points tally will probably be 15 points less than the last couple of seasons.
 
They are causing so many problems and as long as they are blinded to it and defended by ex refs like Dermot Gallagher then sadly the problem is here to stay
It's the reluctance to overrule and seemingly undermine the officials that causes the issue. It's one big referee clique. If VAR was operated by non referees it might be easier to get to the right decision as they wouldn't have a vested interest in defending their mates/colleagues
 
It's the reluctance to overrule and seemingly undermine the officials that causes the issue. It's one big referee clique. If VAR was operated by non referees it might be easier to get to the right decision as they wouldn't have a vested interest in defending their mates/colleagues
Interesting concept but if it were to be non refs -ex players - for instance - then the refs would most definitely be saying it undermines their job. And to be fair, they would probably be right.
 
Interesting concept but if it were to be non refs -ex players - for instance - then the refs would most definitely be saying it undermines their job. And to be fair, they would probably be right.
So how do you solve the issue of refs judging refs?
 
So how do you solve the issue of refs judging refs?
Well firstly I think there's important rule changes to be made with regards to offside and handball. And then there needs to be a chief referee of sorts who needs to sit down with former players such as Neville and Carragher plus others and they need to try and iron out a solution by going over the many crazy incidents of VAR refs ballsing things up. Chief ref then needs to take responsibility to get all officials into a situation of what is clearly right an clearly wrong. And then we go from there. Of course it can never be guaranteed to be 100% successful as so many incidents in the penalty area can be subjective but it's a starting point and I think a lot of these blatantly bad decisions can be eliminated.
 
Well firstly I think there's important rule changes to be made with regards to offside and handball. And then there needs to be a chief referee of sorts who needs to sit down with former players such as Neville and Carragher plus others and they need to try and iron out a solution by going over the many crazy incidents of VAR refs ballsing things up. Chief ref then needs to take responsibility to get all officials into a situation of what is clearly right an clearly wrong. And then we go from there. Of course it can never be guaranteed to be 100% successful as so many incidents in the penalty area can be subjective but it's a starting point and I think a lot of these blatantly bad decisions can be eliminated.
Without VAR, offside is where there is clear daylight between the attacker and the defender. With VAR, the margin is reduced to a toenail, or worse, an armpit. There needs to be consistency in the standard, then there's less of an issue. Clear separation seems to be the obvious way forward.

Handball is more problematic, because with VAR, there are different rules depending if you're an attacker or defender. Accidental doesn't seem to apply to attackers, the goal is ruled out, whereas, with defenders, there has to be movement towards the ball and the ball has to have travelled an indeterminate distance, which is never clarified, which allows the defender to use the 'I didn't have time to get out of the way' rule.

Get those sorted and I wouldn't have an issue with it.

Oh, and make timekeeping an independent official's job.
 
Without VAR, offside is where there is clear daylight between the attacker and the defender. With VAR, the margin is reduced to a toenail, or worse, an armpit. There needs to be consistency in the standard, then there's less of an issue. Clear separation seems to be the obvious way forward.

Handball is more problematic, because with VAR, there are different rules depending if you're an attacker or defender. Accidental doesn't seem to apply to attackers, the goal is ruled out, whereas, with defenders, there has to be movement towards the ball and the ball has to have travelled an indeterminate distance, which is never clarified, which allows the defender to use the 'I didn't have time to get out of the way' rule.

Get those sorted and I wouldn't have an issue with it.

Oh, and make timekeeping an independent official's job.
Yep, I do think they've softened their stance on what is handball somewhat. As said in commentary last night, the handball rightly not given last night would have been a few months ago.
 
Alexander Arnold giving the ball away 38 times didn't help. A new Prem record he won't want.😁
 
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