English football 2022-23

[Gingerfinch]

Talk of the ref adding on extra time for time wasting. I've only seen the highlights so cannot comment! Tough loss though, especially considering you had a goal ruled out for a very close offside call.

[Durhamfootman]

It's not as if every week teams don't run down the clock when hanging on for a draw. If there's 5 mins added on and the ref adds on another 5 mins that suggests that Newcastle must have wasted every second of the 5 mins, which feels unlikely to me

I think the fans anger and the manager's frustratration has more to do with the awful start their team has made to the season than anything Newcastle did. If Liverpool had scored in the 89th minute instead of the 99th, they'd have taken time out of the 5 minutes too. When Mary Earps plucked high balls out of the air and fell to the floor to take extra seconds out of the final against Germany, no Liverpool fans will have accused her of time wasting. The reality is that had Newcastle hung on, Liverpool would have been 9 points adrift of the top and that's where the frustration stems from. It isn't Newcastle's job to play the way Liverpool want them to

the offside was about as marginal as it gets, but no-one can argue it wasn't offside. I'm hugely encouraged by the way Isak put both chances away. Newcastle have slotted those sorts of balls through all season, but when Wilson isn't playing there's been no-one to bury them. He's going to make a real difference I think. Very impressive start given that he had to be thrown in with no time to train and no time to get used to things. Bodes well

[Durhamfootman]

Haarland looks as though he is going to score as many goals on his own this season as some teams will score in their entirety

[bigfluffylemon]

It's not as if every week teams don't run down the clock when hanging on for a draw. If there's 5 mins added on and the ref adds on another 5 mins that suggests that Newcastle must have wasted every second of the 5 mins, which feels unlikely to me

I didn't see the game, I did hear mutterings about timewasting and feigning injury, but you're absolutely right, 9 minutes of added time after 5 were advertised is ridiculous unless play was actually stopped for all of stoppage time, which it clearly wasn't.

I'm fairly sure it has been proved that 'big' teams playing at home get extra stoppage time over and above what was advertised.

Yet another area where football seems weirdly reluctant to adopt modern approaches. Most other field sports (rugby, American football, Australian rules) have fixed rules for added time, usually stopping the clock when the ball is out of play in some conditions. In football, the official guidance seems to be that the ref eyeballs it. There have been various studies that indicate that the amount of time added on at the end of a football game bears very little correlation to the actual amount of time the ball spent out of play.

I think I read somewhere that the actual amount of 'live' play in a football game averages somewhere around 59 minutes, so one solution would be to actually play 60 minutes on the clock, and stop every time the ball goes out of play. Presumably that would be a totally unacceptable break from the traditions of the game. The alternative might be that you only stop the clock for injuries, goals and substitutions, but then do away with the concept of added time, and make sure refs police timewasting better by carding offenders.

[sussexpob]

When Newcastle won the ball in the 95th minute and had a potential breakaway, the referee went to put his whistle to his mouth ready to blow. Liverpool won the ball back, and he played 4-5 extra minutes while they attacked. Its quite clear what his intentions were, and it absolutely stinks. The PL need to explain why this game went on for so frigging long - Pope went down injured, but for a minute. 96 minutes was explainable.... he blew inside the 100th minute.

On the flip, last year at SJP the ref gave 4 extra minutes in a game with a long VAR stoppage and virtually no play in the last 15 minutes while Liverpool time wasted at 1-0 up. And thats before we get to Mane getting off with a studs up challenge to the upper thigh of a goalkeeper going to claim the ball. VAR decided that was a booking....

Honestly, I think if you brought in non-English refs for Liverpool games, they'd finish 4th in the league.... no other team gets away with things quite like them. Last year alone Mane elbowed three players in the air, and each were yellow cards. Two of them were in the first seconds of a match ... the one on Tierney was especially bad and was explained away because it was literally in the first 15 seconds (cant send a player off that early the press screamed).... can you not? Its a frigging elbow in the air...

Fabinho and Van Dijk must amass about 17 yellow card challenges a game, and often arent even booked. They are masters of the niggly foul on the break, knowing the ref gives them a tolerance not afford to other people. Milner too just impedes opponents all the time. Those ones that usually are a booking, but are just on the edge.... just all match. It gives them the ability to shut down the break so much better.

[Durhamfootman]

Ancelotti said after the CL final that that game was the easiest of the ko matches to negotiate because, as he put it, Liverpool have a strong playing identity. In layman's speak, they play the same way in every game, so it made countering that very simple. Klopp complained bitterly about the way Madrid played in that game and complained bitterly about the 1-1 with Spurs that handed the initiative to Man C in the title race. He really does seem to think that all opposition should play the way Liverpool want them to, and if they don't, it's either cheating or bad for football. On Wednesday night I particularly didn't like the way he pronounced that refs should wave yellow cards very early on at players who try to slow the game down to disrupt Liverpool's rhythm. I presume that's to maximise the chances of players getting sent off late on and make Liverpool's life a bit easier

[Gingerfinch]

Looks like Chelsea and Man City were two of the big six to be thankful to bad officiating yesterday.

[Durhamfootman]

Not so, for Newcastle

Talk about getting away with it, for the Palace defender

[sussexpob]

Looks like Chelsea and Man City were two of the big six to be thankful to bad officiating yesterday.

I think its laughable that Gerrard is complaining about that being a disallowed goal. The referee blew his whistle, the two defending players marking Coutinho stopped, and then Coutinho whacks one past a keeper not really concentrating on the ball while other players are moving into position for the free kick given.... if the referee didnt get the offside, Mahrez is making sure Coutinho has no space for the shot, so no.... the idea that the referee not playing on stopped a legitimate goal is nonsense.

[sussexpob]

I agree the West Ham goal at Chelsea was ridiculous.

And how the hell has the Palace defender got away with the most blatant push on Willock in that Newcastle goal is just beyond me. If the defender doesnt shove him, its 1-0 to Newcastle and the keeper isnt getting whacked. But just as hes jumping up the player gets a push onto him, he loses control of his jump, and hits the keeper.... its a foul on Newcastle, advantage played, 1-0.... Was the VAR referee the only man in the world who thought different.

That sort of goal really annoys me too, because the keeper is jumping forward at Willock. Why is the offending player the fouler in that instance always? Keepers can jump into attackers, no foul... always the opposite for attackers.

[Durhamfootman]

Ah well, maybe this weekend has proved to be a bit of a nadir for VAR. The Premier League have announced a review into the VAR operation with the refs association as a matter of priority

It's been coming, I think. It was promised that VAR would offer minimal interference for maximum benefit, yet the number of ludicrous decisions is on the rise, as is their frequency, and often when the correct decision is reached, it takes an age to reach it. The whole process of when and if a VAR check is warranted needs to be simplified and clarified, because it baffles the hell out of me half the time

Whether a review will make a ha'peth of difference is another matter entirely, of course

[Gingerfinch]

Looks like Chelsea and Man City were two of the big six to be thankful to bad officiating yesterday.

I think its laughable that Gerrard is complaining about that being a disallowed goal. The referee blew his whistle, the two defending players marking Coutinho stopped, and then Coutinho whacks one past a keeper not really concentrating on the ball while other players are moving into position for the free kick given.... if the referee didnt get the offside, Mahrez is making sure Coutinho has no space for the shot, so no.... the idea that the referee not playing on stopped a legitimate goal is nonsense.

The off-side decision was a bad one though but of course he may not have scored it for the reasons you gave.

[Durhamfootman]

Brighton continue their very impressive start to the season

[Durhamfootman]

The Premier League have announced a review into the VAR operation with the refs association as a matter of priority

although, despite the 'breaking news' strapline on the BBC, it seems this might just be the routine review undertaken every week this season by the PL and a representative of the refs assoc

[Durhamfootman]

Refs assoc has accepted that mistakes were made with VAR decisions against West Ham and Newcastle, will cooperate fully with the PL and will use the outcomes of these two decisions as part of it's development of VAR officials going forward

so that's nice

do Newcastle get their extra 2 points and W Ham their 1? Will Palace lose their point and Chelsea hand back their 2?

thought not