General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

Yes, if you ignore the decisions listed that went to clubs outside the top 4, all the remaining decisions went to top 4 clubs.

Must be a conspiracy

I keep reading that Arteta made a mess of his subs. In my opinion he was just reacting to the clever sub of Fred by Ten Hag. After only 5 mins on the pitch Arteta could see that Fred was occupying those spaces where Arsenal were getting joy through Zinchenko and Odegaard. It was a very clever tweak by ETH and Arteta was just trying to wrestle back the upper hand.

I'd say he knew full well of the risks of leaving United man for man up front.

Also, whilst I agree with others that there are similarities between Ole's team and that of ETH, there are also some key differences. We are definitely organised better in our press and we want to control games more but I think the Stamina isn't there yet. It takes considerable time to build up the level of fitness required to play that way and a shortened preseason didn't help. See Klopp when he took over at Liverpool. It will be bit by bit that ETH gets United playing more to his preferred way but there are green shoots. The first goal yesterday is as good a team goal you will see. We also haven't got a keeper to sustain possession or a striker to keep it until Martial is fit.

That is where the linesmen are bad some hold the flag down for certain times until either the ball is won, goes out of play or a goal is scored and some put it up right away. They need to be

Reports this evening that it will cost Leicester close to £10m to sack Rodgers and to pay him off.

No wonder he has been doing his best in the media over the last few weeks trying to get fired instead of quitting.

However Rodgers is laying some great foundations there for the next manager.

Swansea won the league cup after he left, Liverpool won everything after he left and Celtic are winning again.

number 4 was VAR doing its job if that's how we were told VAR would be applied.

it did still show inconsistency.

it was soft. Odegaard barely touched him. Eriksen fell over. a foul is normally given, but if it's not given, what we'd previously been told is, that it has to be a clear and obvious error to be overturned. that was not clear and obvious. there is room there for it to be too soft to be a foul.

if the directive is to 're-referee the incident', then that's fine. but i don't think that's what it's supposed to be.

it's a weird one, because I think the ref got the decision right when he re-refereed it. but i don't think they're supposed to be re-refereeing these incidents.

i wish they'd just be consistent on everything.

I don't know why they still use the "clear and obvious" tag line when it comes to VAR interventions, as it clearly intervenes in all on field incidents!

I think the majority of the frustration with VAR decisions is down to various interpretations and implementations across various refs. As an example nobody knows how much time play should go on for before a goal is disallowed by VAR over a foul earlier in the play.

Arsenal's goal was disallowed on Sunday and yes anyone can offer a logical explanation as to why the decision was made. Yet the same logic can't be applied to similar incidents that have already taken place. In a game a couple of seasons ago involving Liverpool and Utd, Utd scored after a foul on Mane earlier in the buildup. Iirc there were 2 passees between the foul and the ball ending in the back of the net. The goal was not disallowed and I recall Dermot Gallagher and others try to explain it by saying the foul occurred too far back in the buildup. But there are no clear rules on this in terms of how far back you can take it. It leads to these inconsistencies which is ultimately where fan frustrations lie.

Imo VAR should only be employed to correct clear cut decisions the onfield ref gets wrong. Things such as offside and whether a foul occurs inside / outside the box, handballs and whether a foul is a red card or not. Simplify it until they can consistently get that right then review it and see what they can add.

Don't think offside is open to interpretation. The only aspect of it is whether a player standing in an offside position is interfering with play. There will always be an element of ref interpretation on that one. They would have to change the offside rule itself to eliminate that one.

I mean't in the basic sense of lines drawn across the pitch. I should have elaborated to be clearer. No need to be a smart ass about it.

I get Leicester selling Fofana , and having ther budget tied by FFP, but what I dont' get is selling Schmichael, he was a leader , and organised the now shambolic defense - should have kept him for one more season given financial predicment - Rodgers is no longer the man to fix where they are - Sean Dyche might help sort out ther defense.