chinapig

I suppose there's a non-zero but vanishingly small chance that referees have talked about our complaints and agreed they are going to double down on refusing us penalties because they don't like being criticised but I agree, not a conspiracy. You can't rule out certain clubs being favoured but again can't prove it and naturally referees would deny. In Preston's case they were just masters of all kinds of cheating as everybody could see except match officials who in general are remarkably naive about that stuff. So I return to my earlier suggestion that we should present PGMOL with a systematic analysis and ask them to explain. Otherwise they will just hide behind their version of VAR, i.e. a review of the incidents that happens 2 weeks after the game, and no consequences for the officials concerned.

Also that they are not good with maths. Has it occurred to them that the lower their home gates get, if their away support remains constant the ratio goes up? Effectively celebrating those shite home gates then.

John Galley had a broken ankle when we signed him!

Maybe but Antoine Semenyo is.?

Wilson is my preference but Tanner is fine by me too. Not Scott though!

Einstein showed that time was relative. In doing so he proved that in football a week is 8 days. I'd explain further but the equations are a bit complicated.?

None of which supports your argument that you should never change a winning team, arguably the opposite. Your more general point is interesting though and is often made. I'm not mad keen on nation states owning clubs but we are where we are so: How many people were saying that KDB (rejected by Chelsea and playing for Wolfsburg) was one of the best players in the world when City signed him? What about Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo and Ilkay Gundogan when they were signed? Aymeric Laporte (who couldn't get into the France squad and eventually chose Spain)? How many English fans knew much about Ruben Dias? Is Kyle Walker even the best English right back? Haaland will likely become world class, Alvarez (their only other striker as the ones from the academy don't get much of a look in) is highly rated but untested. So the best team but not necessarily all the best individuals perhaps. Meanwhile Man Utd have spent more than anybody since Ferguson retired so perhaps the quality of the manager is important after all?

The question is will he get there before Andi??

Ctrl+C Ctrl+V ?

He also scores goals and runs around. Such a versatile player.

Still looks better than the Mem though.

Mere details, stop quibbling. ?

Unfair, on a good week on Match of the Day he is remarkably, um, dull and uninformative. A master of stating the bleeding obvious in fact. Only a true expert could come up with insight like "He should have scored there Gary."

Pep has made it pretty clear he isn't much bothered if a player thinks he should be playing - ask Raheem Sterling. He doesn't select a side to keep particular players happy. Though he seems to over think selection in Champions League at times! But following your logic if they win he shouldn't change the team. But he rotates anyway, which may depend on the opposition, what players are looking good or not in training, what each player's physical stats might be showing and so on. Unless there are so many injuries Nigel can only pick certain players he does and will rotate, as managers commonly do these days. Though allowing for the above factors I reckon he just might go for an unchanged team for Cardiff.

Shall I tell Pep he's getting it wrong or will you??

Yet again an 'expert' commenting with no actual knowledge. Ex-players get employed because they are ex-players not because they are knowledgable. It's extraordinary how many of them seem to have learned nothing from their career or are incapable of communicating what they have learned. Of course doing research on the club you are talking about is too much like hard work as well.

The idea of a first eleven is less and less the case these days, more so now with 5 subs available. Try predicting Man City's starting team for their next game for instance! It may become more like Rugby Union with starters and finishers being equally important. The best we can say might be that certain players are key to Nigel: Naismith, Scott, Weimann for instance but who else starts will depend on a variety of factors. I tend not to comment when the team is announced as I don't know what those factors are and will likely end up with egg on my face! He might even choose a terribly weak midfield as he did last night.?

He's getting mixed up between Total Football and Total Bollocks I think.

Which should be a given on here but sadly sometimes isn't. For what it's worth I value your knowledge and contribution whether or not I agree with any given post of yours. I suspect and hope the majority would say the same.

Exactly. I doubt Murphy has seen any our games this season or last. It's not the Premier League so why would he? I doubt he could name 3 of our players if challenged. The punditocracy is full of ex-players who appear to know little or nothing about the teams they are talking about. Which guarantees you work at Talk Sport.

Except that clubs were told that this season contact had to be significant and have genuine consequences. In this case the contact was slight and the consequence was a player taking 2 steps then falling down. So right from day one a referee reneged on the deal, as they usually do with the changes they announce (think the clampdown on holding in the area that is still never enforced, as per Rob Atkinson being dragged to the ground in the same game). The subsequent apology proves the point but is no consolation, leads to no accountability and does not change referees' behaviour. Conspiracy, no. Continual incompetence, yes.

"I picked the wrong team. That first half, the way we defended, it was unacceptable. We tried taking shortcuts and we didn't do the basics well and it cost us the game. "That's as poor a performance as we've had in a long time*. We were second best all over and that doesn't normally happen to us. "We've got a lot of injuries and some players are still bedding into the team. But we were just really, really poor. We couldn't have got any worse." *Last week against Newport was their worst performance ever according to him (though mysteriously also all down to one unnamed player). So not really the worst in a long time then Nathan.

You may have stumbled on the solution. Put Jackie Weaver in charge of referees. Nobody would question her authority. ?

To be fair Wael has given them a new stadium. At least 3 times so far.

Probability statistics is a complex field but perhaps we should contract a professional statistician to calculate the probability of us getting so few penalties over such a long period, present the findings and ask for a response? Though referees can barely calculate added time so perhaps not.