Cowshed

VAR has improved efficiency. There has to be less error. and there is. That serves a purpose. I made a prediction on here, which wasn’t really that clever, that what was called formerly technology assistance would undermine referees and officials. It does, and has to because its nature focusses minds on error, and failing. Technology assistance will never work with complete efficiency in a fast-paced game with subjective rules, I also wrote that once the genie is out of the bag VAR becomes entrenched its an industry. The VAR itself as prdicted becomes a topic of debate, and the inevitable inefficiency feeds controversy. It a cyclic nature. The pundits and media feed off the new technological; controversies, as entertainment and the media love those juicy VAR and refs are bad lines. The benefit? I didn’t think the undermining of respect for refs and the game, and the consequences of undermining officialdom are worth the improved efficiency, in a game that is seeing a crisis in ref recruitment – VAR is part of that culture that is creating that crisis.

So has VAR made decisions worse? Has VAR helped referees? Are they respected more? Decisions made with VAR cannot be instant because of the nature of football rules e.g. A ball hitting the arm/hand leads to the question of is it a penalty.

No. I am qualified to coach keepers but do not. What I provided is from the FA who run courses for Managers/ coaches and players each season on rules changes. In regards to goal keepers what we see are common misapprehensions. We can see a lot of misapprehensions from TV pundits and from Managers. The FA and the PMGO can highlight that ref efficiency has improved and VAR has improved efficiency, there are less errors. What TV pundits and Managers should recognise is that error is part of football, and so are its subjective rules. The game will never and cannot be perfect. Managers of pro sides feel they are exempt from responsibility to the game. A game that in the future could have serious ref recruitment problems because at the bottom of the development ref pyramid the game is losing refs faster than it recruits them. The disrespect shown to officialdom, the abusing and criticising of refs at the top manifests itself at the bottom. Football is haemorrhaging referees.

The keeper has to be protected more. A keeper raising their arms is at more risk and more prone to injury hence why the keeper has more protection. The jump together is less relevant than hand v feet position. Players jump with keepers when they have no opportunity to get their head in playable distance of the ball, that is a foul. Challenging the keeper for a ball a player cannot get in playable distance of is careless/reckless play.

Why? If a player is not in a playable distance of the ball they should not challenge for it.

As Manager after Manager criticised refs and VAR the game is experiencing a unprecedented drop of numbers coming into football. The numbers of refs in football is at a record low. Football is losing refs faster than it is recruiting them. The primary reason is abuse of officials.

Its a small thing but kids cant sign for academies till nine. Bristol Citys academy is performing reasonably well. If we do a cost based analysis another West Country academy is doing better - Exeter. Including players 16+ in a academy performance review skews the figures. Clubs post 16 are signing players in what is the pro development stage. The % of players in the pro development stage is massively increased by its nature, the players are not one age, their U17 - U23 (now U21) and signed to varying forms of pro contracts.

1. The post and formation I was responding to doesn’t have wing backs. 2. I would disagree about good. The players have limitations. Carrying the ball forward inviting pressure and creating 2v1 is not something that springs to mind with Citys options. Hence adding a fourth player increases passing options and security v the idea posted. This might increase the fluidity of City passing forward into midfield - City have a tendancy to get stuck in u passing patterns from 3 cb's. 3. Not exactly. A player to distribute would be the key skill in the 4-3-3. The formation I was referring to was very dynamic and it would need a more defensively minded mobile player in front of its three cb's. 4. Effect on Weimann as the 10. One formation had no ten and a sort of ten . The ideas were to increase the collective intensity. A high pressing intense style would require players of high defensive tactical intensity and squad rotation. The squad has personell that can pl;ay higher and in press in units. This was the musing about agile high pressing front three and intensity. There are skills within the squad to go out on the front foot versus the counter atttack that has been seen.

I'm being theoretical and hypothetical. With Conway and Scott developing and kicking on there is something there. Energy and intensity. Formations to myself are intent. The intent would be to put that intensity on the pitch. The theoretical and hypothetical would be do they keep the ball well? And what happens when they lose it? City are not high possession and a player like Massengo can be wayward getting into a defensive shape. Remedy? 4-3-3. Having a back four and a holding player CDM covers the pitch easier, cuts down on defensive variables so providing cover for the intensity.

Its not the same set up or exactly the same players. The intent is similar. 4-3-3 is really five with a mobile energetic five in front of it. 3-1-3-3 the intent is similar but dropping a player back is more pragmatic and easier to cover space down sides so a 5/5 v 4/6.

There is a 4-3-3 lurking there. Four and a pivot and five beyond it in the second and third with energy in and out of possession.

You may want to seperate what was the centre of excellence to todays academy. The centre of excellence was originally ran on pennies and trained in car parks and for some reason was used to knock the FC as a drain on resources. The academy of the 90's wasn't close to what Southampton were doing, and the further improved academy of now isnt on the same planet v Southampton. Southampton are a academy of International standing. Bristol City are improving and now ranked top thirty in England for productivity. Your figure of £1 -2 m there is uneven with respect., The elite player programme was introduced in 2012. A CAT 2 academy then cost a season circa £800k, which was part of EPP spending criteria to gain CAT 2 level. £2m was CAT 1.

Yes. 10% lower. 25 -10%. I didnt see the game, but the primary reason could be the movement in midfield. Passes (entry passes) increased into midfiield.

If every fourth pass is long whats the intent? Its not to keep it and rest in possession. Bristol City invited pressure by being direct, and it was very direct in this game. A choice is made to concede possession because that has to be the consequence of playing the ball forward to where it will not stick. There with respect isn't a Man City clone in the division. No team comes close to their intent. There are not leagues of teams attempting what they do. Principle one there is dominate possession with positional play. Man City are unique in England.

I simply made a statement. Bristol City are direct. Bristol City yesterday played 91 long balls out of 362 passes. A lot of long balls v low possession. The highest proportion in the division? Its very direct football.

Bristol City are direct. Playing the ball long every 3/4 passes is not possession football.

Going backwards isn't negative = The EPL's top back passers will be playing in the Champions league. The possession is positional and purposeful. The flaw for BCFC is players are not moving off the trigger (the back pass) into relational distances quickly enough. It becomes possession football in one zone that is inefficient positional play that is nullified.

The 63% for females. I formerly had a job running football sessions for Bristol schools at a sport centre for boys because the schools had no facilities to play on. The schoools were going to take part in the EFL trust tournament. Many of the boys at ten and eleven had not played any organised football. I have also ran sesssion for kids with disabilities, who again had played no organised football. Point here is lack of opportunity is not restricted to one sex etc.

There are womens leagues in Bristol with teams with no toilets and changing rooms. This includes one if not Bristols biggest female club, and its not their fault, its the Councils and Mr Rees ignoring whats happening. We can see these poor standards across the nation. 4G pitches in Bristol can cost £100 an hour for a game. Council run pitches! The daft FA charge services for a FA accreditation stating this faciilty = this FA standard. The cost gets handed to consumers, grass roots clubs end up paying more as the businesses then charge more for the accreditation standards. And on this goes limiting not maximising opportunity to play the game. Investing in more facilities and making the game cheaper and accessible should be the legacy.

I would not say its likely, it inevitable because its already happened. The WSL is a reflection of home and European and frequently antipodean recruitment - Its seems half the Matildas squad are playing in England. Responses to that challenge for the game ? There will no quotas so increasing the standards of homegrown players, and our structure from the grass roots up for the wider benefit of football can and should be the response. That facilities x structure x coaching increases the talent pool for pro clubs.

Yes. Which is reflective of the status of the womens game. That wage still fills multiplen WSL squads with International players. Which reflects the environment. Man City signed Alanna Kennedy a Australian international. She won't be on that astrononomicasl sum. She will be paid what the womens market and the signing club thinks her worth is in the womens game.

Which is why foreign players are attracted to the WSL. The wages are high., even the lower end is high hence so many Internatioinal players play here. Bristol City at the bottom end of the pay scale can sign Australian Internationals like Chloe Logarzo. The numbers of homegrown players in squads since the inception of the WSL has dropped as wages increase.

I dont understand your post. Wages in the WSL can be up to 250k in a league with attendances that are not high. The WSL attracts so many foreigjn players because of its high wages. The WSL has up to 50% of its players coming from abroad. Paying higher wages means clubs look abroad. Small time Bristol City women have signed Australian internationals. Football isn't a realistic carear prospect for kids. I say thas as a I hope a responsible coach and parent of a kid in the academy system. Waht we should be doing is concentrate on grass roots footall ensuring that this experience is the best it can be and opportunity is to create the exceptional talents, that will progress. That means that kids get to play football in school. In an affluent City like Bristol many don't, the schools dont have pitches. That means that in girls football they have a pitch, and have changing rooms, that have a female toilet . In an affluent City like Bristol we are not managing that, grounds like the Imperial supporting scores of girls teams has had NO changing rooms and toilets for YEARS. Where do girls go to toilet there? Bushes? Periods? The useless Mayor knows about this. The facility thing there is a national standard. Facilities and coaching. Thats where success should be pursued. More 4G pitches, better toilets, more coaches, because the game has grown at grass roots as we learned that success starts from the bottom. England started mirroring performance culture with its future games, blue prints for football the coaching and performance models of foreign FA's over a decade ago. Get more in at the grass root level, make that experience better, coach them more skillfully and we produce more exceptional talents for pro clubs to feed off, and they will feed.

Its not a just how. Its the FA reacting to the challenges of female football. The structure is very different to the male game and has to be. You appear there to want cash to build professional clubs,which would take money away from grass rooots football and focus on elites.

Football for females is not an elite sport. Far more females play football at grass roots level than elite level. Female football isnt built from the top down. A girl will start out in grass roots football and then if she is good enough will play and train at a regional development centre, her local County FA and then she might if exceptional attract the interest of a pro club. That is the FA and its regional FA's controlling football. The top the pro clubs control the top = WSL league teams look after what is a small % of football.