Kid in the Riot

Meanwhile Inter secure the scudetto in this evenings Milan derby.

Amazing Banksy inspired tifo from Milan though...

5 hours ago, DaveInSA said:

There was an interesting LinkedIn post I came across the other day, which I will summarise as : DATA is making the world more boring.

They cited several examples, but a couple stood out. In the NBA, nearly ALL of the teams play the same way, points are scored from very specific areas of the court and it’s become dull and predictable as a result. The second was the music industry, within a given genre (pop, country etc) the diversity of music has decreased, there is less innovation and music is working to a “formula”.

What does this mean for football. Well, probably something similar isn’t it? Football is becoming dull. I’m sure that there is a multitude of reasons why, but definitely a cause will be the statistics around “most likely methods to score from” - I think that is called xG for or something.

What I’ve seen with my eyes is something completely alien to me at times. It’s structured. Ponderous. Boring. My enjoyment of football comes from chaos, a lack of structure and being able to thrive in the midst of all of this. I like passion. I like both teams going at it.

I like rugby more than football now as a spectacle. 

I like rugby too, though at this point it's probably even more data driven than football. 

Data and AI will have a big impact on football going forward. I'd imagine AI will determine a teams tactics, and they'll be less need for coaches as AI formulates bespoke training sessions that best suits players' fitness and can be tailored dependent on who their next opponent is. I expect it's already being used or trialled at some of the bigger clubs. 

9 minutes ago, kmpowell said:

My understanding is Nige wasn't put on Gardening Leave until the end of his contract, he was sacked. So, in employment law, if you sack somebody then the terms of their original contract are null & void because there isn't an employment contract bind.

Any 'notice period' payment Nige currently has will highly likely be part of a brand new compromise/settlement agreement. A compromise/settlement agreement fully supersedes any original contract of employment. It is also likely that there will be other financial benefits in return for his 'silence', although it won't be explicitly stated in that way.

Apparently he was offered a severence payment initially (post Leeds away) thought to be six months pay. But he turned it down knowing when sacked he'd get an extra month or twos pay on top of that. 

Also, is it true that Ben's mum is called Tracey, or has someone been on the wind-up? 

1 hour ago, petehinton said:

Think the latter is already planning on going back to Guernsey. 

Yes, Acey will be leaving 

Zac Bell and Ben Acey playing for Taunton last week. Another two that I doubt will make it in the pro game, certainly not Bell.

2 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Il wait to see whether we get 64 points (very unlikely as that would be two wins) before commenting on regression or otherwise

Looking quite likely we'll finish 12th. That is progress, is it not?

Ultimately a league table reflects how good you are versus other clubs. 

Can't be ideal (or cheap) contracting it out, but can't be any worse than the previous regime, or the one before that. 

1 minute ago, LondonBristolian said:

Obviously not. You're making the exact point I made in my original post. But my point in my second post is that it becomes even more ridiculous when it is a player who has never played with VAR before.

The line needs to be drawn somewhere but it needs to be drawn somewhere where players can know they are in the wrong and avoid it in the future. If it was "whole body" or "most of body" in front of a player then a player could reasonably do their best to avoid having their whole body or most of their body in front of an opposition player but it is clearly unreasonable to expect a player to be wholly certain that no single aspect of their body is closer to the goal than the last opposition defender. Hence the current law becomes ridiculous and unfair once VAR is applied to it.

It's ridiculous to expect a player to know for certain whether they are in an offside position, or not, period.

For clarity, where would you draw the line? 

21 minutes ago, BCFCGav said:

Has a team in Europe’s ‘big 5’ leagues ever had an unbeaten season in every competition before? Or in any league for that matter. If they do a treble with 0 losses… wow. Just defies imagination. 

Celtic 16-17 under Brendan Rodgers were unbeaten in all domestic competitions completing the treble.

Other than that can't think of any recent examples. 

19 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

It's not about "intent" but "ability to learn and avoid".

Generally in any situation where there are rules - be it a sport, the workplace or the legal system - you can only be penalised for infringing a rule if you could have reasonably taken steps to avoid doing so. That might mean you broke it on purpose but it might also mean you were careless or negligent. Either way, you being penalised is a corrective step to discourage the rule-breaking and to encourage you to be careful and follow the rules in the future. 

If you take a foul, for example, a player might not always mean to foul a player but a player who commits a foul will always have made an error in the timing or speed of a challenge, which they can learn from in the future. Historically this has bene the case with offside too. A kid playing as a forward for the first time will regularly find themselves offside until they learn to time their runs and part of the joy of watching a quick forward - such as Michael Owen or Ian Wright - was their ability to time their run to get ahead of the defender without being offside. In training, a player would work on their timing and work out the exact moment to get forward.

However, a player on a training pitch does not have access to VAR. In fact, I'm pretty sure Haji Wright's entire experience of playing with VAR in his career before today has been one start and three sub appearances at the last World Cup and the FA Cup Quarter Final at Wolves. Whilst Wright has undoubtedly - like any other forward - worked on timing his runs in training, I do not see how he could possibly have been able to learn how to avoid being offside to the degree of fractionality that VAR picks up on. Without the ability to learn from an error, or avoid it in the future, I don't see how it is fair to penalise someone for an infringement. 

You think that by playing with VAR a player can time their movement so as to avoid being offside by a margin of a matter of centimetres? Come on. 

Again, the line needs to be drawn somewhere, doesn't it? 

I don't think "he hasn't played in games with VAR so he doesn't know if he's going to be off" really cuts the mustard as an excuse. 

This said, I'm still not a big fan of VAR. However it's here to stay so the rules and implementation of it need to improve. 

28 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

For me, it's the fact that VAR allows for a level of fussiness you (rightly) could not get with the naked eye.

Offside was ultimately created to stop players gaining an advantage by just hanging around the goal waiting to score. Pre-VAR,  a player needed to be far enough offside to gain an advantage in order for a decision to be correctly given. Otherwise the referee or assistant simply could not possibly see it, and there was a clear rule the attacking team was given the benefit of the doubt if it was not obvious.

Now you've got several minutes of studying camera angles to establish a player was marginally ahead in a way that

a) could not possibly confer an advantage to the attacking player

b) an attacking player could not be expected to notice and correct themselves against. 

 

I agree that, by the letter of the law, Haji Wright was offside. I do not believe anyone could possibly argue that Wright gained any kind of advantage by being offside or that, had he been onside, the goal would not have bene scored. I also don't think anyone could claim Wright was at fault for being offside to such a fractional degree that he could not possibly have noticed and corrected without the aid of a replay and video cameras. So what you get in practice is a player who has made no correctable error and gained no possible advantage getting penalised for an infraction that nobody could have been expected to notice without watching multiple replays of the decision.

By the letter of the law, it's the correct decision but I don't see how anyone could argue it's a decision that makes football better or a fairer game. I think the whole "a play is offside if his right testicle is fractionally ahead of the defender" is a nonsensical law, especially once you apply cameras and slow things down to check the testicular configurations. To my mind, the only way to make offside and VAR compatible with the spirit of the game is either to

a) only correct decisions that the Assistant or Referee could reasonably have spotted

b) change the law so a player's whole body needs to be ahead of the defender for an offside to occur. 

Agree with some of what you say, however a line has to be drawn somewhere regards the offside rule. 

You are bringing things like interpretation of intent by the forwards into the equation. You seem to be suggesting that if a forward tried to be onside, but then accidentally finds himself in an offside position, then that would be a reason to not be offside? That's going to create even more uncertainty and suspicion amongst fans. 

For the record, I think the offside rule should go back to there being "clean air" between defender and attacker. 

Maybe even "limbs" being offside should not count as offside. Take the line from feet. 

5 minutes ago, Henry said:

You been on a Sunday sess, Henry? 

1 minute ago, Ronnie Sinclair said:

Is there a bigger guttersnipe in football than Bruno Fernandes? 

Would absolutely love to let my hands go on him tbh 

1 minute ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

Oh joy. A Man Utd - Man City final. I can hardly wait.

Two detestable clubs. 

It was the correct decision?! How is that ruining football? 

Wow, sounds like it could have easily been 100 points as well... 

Up to fourth. 

1 hour ago, Lordofthebling said:

Why am I so nervous????

No need to have been! Easy work.

AND Sale currently beating Quins

31 minutes ago, Carey 6 said:

Also, not sure if mentioned but Portishead got promoted to the Western League Prem yesterday. 

Their striker Ethan Feltham has scored over 50 goals this season. 

Saw them at AEK Boco back in September and they looked a very decent side, clearly too good for that level. 

12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I’ll die in a ditch that Birmingham wasn’t a bad performance, despite what some say.  But I’ll live with that difference of opinion.

But Stoke?

That just smacks of being purely basing on results.

Was it 2 home wins in our opening 7 of the Championship season, Dave?

On 19/04/2024 at 19:52, slartibartfast said:

Pleased to hear that Thornbury has survived (my birth place). Do they still play at the Munday playing fields ? 

Not surprised to hear Worc brought a load down, they outnumbered Mangos earlier in the year.............they truly must be the Gash of the Hellenic !

Yep still at the Mundys. And now have three stands with a total capacity of 300 seating/standing. FA regs have really lifted the requirements 

2 hours ago, phantom said:

I can remember the days when Weston getting more than 250 at a game was a big thing 

Never thought I would see the day with an average over 1000.

Likewise for Taunton. I know it's padded by away followings, but still. 

48 minutes ago, mozo said:

I'm not doubting any of the sources, but how exactly would that conversation leak out of the club? Was Scotty Murray spying through the keyhole?

I don't think it's possible. 

There's only one person that would have known about that and leaked it - Brian Tinnion. 

Just now, Rebounder said:

Last goal Murray scored for us. He was still class in those last couple of years. 

Thanks, didn't know that

2 hours ago, eardun said:

It would be good to see a goal like this one from Trundle! 
 

 

Good memories. I remember the Murray and Trundle goals so vividly, both right in front of the away end. 

6 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

Might be a more significant loss to the Welsh speaking Argentinians.

(Pretty sure for a while Welsh was the second or third language of Argentina, with I have a feeling was something that occurred in the early 1900s).

I think it's an overblown myth. I think there's about a couple of thousand Welsh speakers left in Patagonia, mostly for tourism purposes.