MarcusX

Still bloody moved it to Sunday though for some reason

I believe the system is a set of cameras, so in theory yes they should all have the same number of cameras, same location etc. They even went as far as clearing up the offside situation saying the balls have chips in them so they know the precise moment they are kicked and the lines are drawn in seconds apparently - all automatic (I swear some people think a person in a studio "draws" the lines on themselves!) In practice - is every stadium the same size with the same availability for position cameras? No, but I assume there must be some calibration to ensure uniformity? For me big issues with VAR is - it's still down to opinion of the person in charge, it's better now that the refs get to view a screen (this didnt initially happen in the Prem I dont think?) so it can ultimately be their call, but you will get 2 very similar incidents receive different punishments across games and officials. On top of that, it's the communication back to the viewer, especially in the stadium. The fans need to know what's being reviewed and given some update. I've been to a couple of games now in real life where VAR has been used. Leicester v Chelsea FA Cup final with Chelsea's late equaliser, that was an awful fan experience as it took so long and England v Germany recently when no one had a clue what was happening. Luckily had enough signal to message friends and understand what they were looking at.

But VAR is there to over rule only when obviously wrong. VAR doesn’t give the decision as such, it tells the ref if they’ve missed something or made a clear mistake (at least supposedly, every competition seems to implement it differently) This excludes offsides as that’s generally absolute not opinion based.

I've always thought this. I think Arsenal fans did love him, but he always seemed to be under-rated and not talked about as highly as other great strikers

He should have been taken off sooner to protect him! Apparently Sterling and Trippier missed training too

I could be wrong, and on further viewing I might be! It looked to me like they removed the keeper to show the player - because from the tv cameras it's not actually obvious there is TWO players there I was giving them benefit of the doubt that we can't see the lines properly due to angle and perspective, but I've watched it again from the video that @Bazooka Joeshared and it's just odd. Lack of communication is one of VARs biggest downfalls, along with transparency. Also not helped that each organisation / league / competition uses it differently, doesn't seem to be any uniform application. Also, further contradicting my earlier view, it appears that there was a mistake in the Argentina game?

Do you really think it's possible that a VAR official is unaware of the offside at such an obvious level? I think it's as I said above, they took the keeper away simply to show viewers the front of the player and where the line is drawn. The angle of the TV presentation cannot show it accurately and if the line was drawn on with the keeper infront it would look wrong (due to perception and angles) Basically the fundamental flaw with VAR - it's still down to individual opinion on the day so one day it's a foul, next it's not. VAR got it wrong on Maguire yesterday, I believe if the on-field ref got a second look he'd have given it. It could even be that off the back of the incident yesterday, VAR have been briefed that should be a foul - give future ones. A bit more transparency wouldn't go a miss with VAR, especially for people in the stadium.

Maguire was absolutely just trying to get past his man and free himself from the holding. I'd also say he gets close to the ball if he's not held back. Fouls don't matter how far you are from the ball - else you could just trip someone up who runs past you! The keeper was removed for visability that's all... it was just a visual animation of why the player is offside - it would still have been compared against the keeper for the terms of offside. The problem for the fans will always be getting their head around angles and perception. You have to forget what your eyes tell you and trust the geometric lines (though they didn't share them with the viewers). The angle of those screenshots make it impossible to tell how far beyond the keeper the Ecuador player actually was

Why would VAR not be for disallowing a goal that came from an offside? I suppose you could argue how far back does it go to review. Always found it odd that a goal could be disallowed for an offside in the build up (or foul) but if someone scored directly from a corner that was incorrectly given, VAR doesn't overrule it

So do we support the Saudi's now? Can't keep up

I saw some of this, and I remembered him being asked to do the work, didn't realise they'd agreed on something else I wonder if that's the main reason Wilson pulled it back for him? At 5-1 no one would have begrudged him a shot there

It makes sense, I think I like it... wait til we're on the receiving end of a critical 99th minute goal though

Same for the England game wasn't it? 45,344 in a stadium that according to the official world cup site holds 40,000 Infact, same for every game so far apparently ?

Sometimes what managers achieve are beyond the simple X number of trophies / promotions and Y win % I believe we'd agree that Pearson is doing a decent job at City despite a very poor win percentage and looking at the table right now, not much tangible improvement What Pearson has done is bring through plenty of youth, given us a team we can be proud of watching (more often than not, despite some poor performances) and massively reduced our wage bill whilst keeping us somewhat competitive in this league. Southgate has turned a very devisive England camp into one of unity, one that the players look forward to going to. He's given us a team to be proud of, he's avoided any off-pitch controversy and where his players have been involved in trouble I feel he's handled it very well. A World Cup semi final is more than I'd seen in my lifetime prior, a Euro final even more so. Given the previous years saw us either not qualify, get thumped by Germany, crash out of the group stages or be embarrased by Iceland. He's been there and seen failure at the highest level, he's used that to help manage his players and mentor them. There was some serious apathy about the England side after Euro 2016, Southgate has turned that around

Yea that was first half and was 14 minutes Subs is a fair point, still never seen a total of 24 minutes added to a game before I don't think - except where there has been someone on the pitch or trouble or something

I wouldn't know, the idiot landlord at the pub I was in delibaretely muted the anthem ?

Thought it was bizarre so much time was being added I don't remember there being much "time wasting" in the England game though? Maguire's injury probably lost a few minutes but 10?

What’s that got to do with a referee and giving one decision but not the other?

Everything online suggests the capacity of the Khalifa stadium is only 40-45k? Admittedlt the Dutch game looks poor, although commentators said it’s now about 75% full

Ah them, thought meant Maguire - his wasn’t a concussion sub

Five? Umm why would they? Both pens or both not IMO That’s a bit racist isn’t it?

What was dodgy yesterday? It was offside

As we often see on a Saturday, a lot of people proven wrong. Not perfect, and Iran were awful, but that’s the games we didn’t win (or certainly not comfortably) pre Southgate

Maddison and Walker are both injured, Saka’ in the team (according to reports)

He may be right on most levels, but the goal was rightly disallowed. Let’s not let thoughts about Qatar in general cloud our judgement of every decision!