O/T- Them over the river having a meltdown over a couple of inches

[magpie_mania]

Agree about VAR only being used for those purposes.

There's another way things can change that would have a huge impact on decision making. Players could stop cheating.

Agree. Made it worse to move the foam then claimed he was allowed to move it as long as it was less than a yard!

Couldn't agree with Brentford making him captain - what message was that sending about betting?

[magpie_mania]

Actually, after reading an article in the Athletic (paywall), I've changed my mind. The author (Matt Pyzdrowski) is a former keeper, coach and analyst) and he's written a really interesting article about roles and responsibilities and challenges about defending free kicks. We can normally rely on the 'goalkeepers' union' to defend goalkeepers, but if he says that a correctly positioned wall would have made the moving the ball irrelevant, that's good enough for me.

Can't see how that works. Surely a better angle, however small, is an advantage? If it is irrelevant, why move it, and why go to the bother of moving the marking? And why do keepers move the wall by tiny distances? Surely as long as they have the wall about right it will do.

[ancientpie]

Before VAR managers called for VAR. Once it arrived they complain about VAR. I think they, as a group, lost a lot of credibility, so to try and give their complaints more weight they make an official complaint. I think we will see more of this, particularly from clubs struggling to stay up and struggling to stay with Man City, as it creates the illusion of being hard done by. The truth of the matter is they should have defended the free kick better.

I think that managers & fans were conned into VAR by the narrative that it would only be used for clear & obvious mistakes & to help punish cheating neither of which are happening, when it takes more than a couple of replays & then is only a matter of opinion it should be left as the referees verdict & players should be heavily punished for attempting to con refs. As for the Brentford free kick many players move the ball but it was made to look much worse by also moving the line, I very much doubt that it would have stood against one of the "big" clubs & I would have been as mad as hell if it was against us. Very funny though COYP

[Old_pie]

Did you see the shambles of a wall they tried to set up? was an absolute joke That's the reason he scored, not moving the ball a couple of inches. Who is their keeper anyway, never heard of him?

The end player of the wall moved to his right as the ball came towards him creating more of a gap. There was a player to his left who seemed to be taking no part in defence. I'm not sure what the point of the shaving cream is though it doesn't appear that Toney moved the ball outside of the sprayed area.

There were worse officiating decisions over the weekend, but nonetheless too many.

[crazyfists]

I don't like VAR and Maupeys goal didn't even hit his arm so that's a strange one. The ball moved though should be 100% disallowed. I'm sick of all the cheating (or as they like to call it gaining an advantage) Moving the ball and the foam is cheating plain and simple, same with throw in being released 20 yards up the line from where it went out of play. I'm sick of it all, cheating and cheating and cheating. The result now is so important due to money per position that people have lost sight of the fact that alot of people are acting like complete tw@ts.

[Moreton_Pie]

Poor old Forest always hard done by.
1989 Forest v Man City. Check that bit of cheating out by Gary Crosbie. Didn't hear of Foest writing to anyone on that goal. What goes around comes around.

[Kent Magpie]

I think that managers & fans were conned into VAR by the narrative that it would only be used for clear & obvious mistakes & to help punish cheating neither of which are happening, when it takes more than a couple of replays & then is only a matter of opinion it should be left as the referees verdict & players should be heavily punished for attempting to con refs. As for the Brentford free kick many players move the ball but it was made to look much worse by also moving the line, I very much doubt that it would have stood against one of the "big" clubs & I would have been as mad as hell if it was against us. Very funny though COYP

I think managers in particular brought or hastened VAR by complaining about every single decision that went against them. There was a period, just before VAR came in when I swear the ref won every game for the winning side, and the losers were the innocent victims. I think eventually it was brought in to protect the refs... which it largely does, as VAR is now the reason teams don't win. I don't think they were conned, I think they brought it upon themselves.. unintended consequences and all that.

[legs77]

Toney took advantage of ref turning his back I dont think ive ever seen VAR order a retake.

ALL TEAMS/PLAYERS cheat with moving ball and pinching 10 yards on throw ins.

As Dawson said the wall was a shambles and not set up correctly.

[Smigpie]

If he’d of missed not a word or complaint would be heard, get over it. Good job they are not at our level with our officials, wouldn’t cope.

[sinophile]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...onathan-wilson