Your Premier League Leaders (as of right this minute) Southampton! Week 8 game thread

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Apr 15, 2006
8,634
Somers, CT
Liverpool are compensating for their lack of defense by planning to score all of the goals. Feels familiar.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Apr 15, 2006
8,634
Somers, CT
What a fucking dunce. It’s one thing to miss in a shootout. You can’t miss the target as your team’s primary taker.
 

Section30

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Aug 2, 2010
1,260
Portland OR
Defenders can't have arms. Once again, if I were a manager I would have my forwards kick into the torso of the defender every time I was in the box.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Apr 15, 2006
8,634
Somers, CT
We’ve seen two instances today where the referees can’t even interpret the rule correctly. It was reworked for precisely this situation. It cost Wolves points. Liverpool dodged that bullet.

Bad weekend to be orange.
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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Sep 14, 2002
8,401
Halifax, Nova Scotia , Canada
We’ve seen two instances today where the referees can’t even interpret the rule correctly. It was reworked for precisely this situation. It cost Wolves points. Liverpool dodged that bullet.

Bad weekend to be orange.
So the rule now appears to be .. if it hits a defender’s arm/hand it’s a PEN .. regardless of where it is, the proximity of the shot or heaven forbid the intent.
 

teddykgb

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Jul 16, 2005
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They were both dumb awful penalties the game doesn’t need. If that’s Sterling and not Mane the announcers spend the entire half talking about how it was a dive and there’s all kinds of bile about it being a screw job.

And that doesn’t even address how dumb the second penalty is. It absolutely sucks for City to have a really good ball like that stopped by a handball but there’s no intent there and it’s at the very edge of the box. It makes no fucking sense to pretend defenders don’t have arms and then penalize them every time it turns out they do have arms
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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Sep 14, 2002
8,401
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They were both dumb awful penalties the game doesn’t need. If that’s Sterling and not Mane the announcers spend the entire half talking about how it was a dive and there’s all kinds of bile about it being a screw job.

And that doesn’t even address how dumb the second penalty is. It absolutely sucks for City to have a really good ball like that stopped by a handball but there’s no intent there and it’s at the very edge of the box. It makes no fucking sense to pretend defenders don’t have arms and then penalize them every time it turns out they do have arms
The studio hosts - McManaman and Owen both thought Stirling should have gone down at the other end. Basically you have to flop to get a foul. I didn’t think Mane’s was a dive .. but it was soft. They both agreed the handball call was ridiculous.
 

teddykgb

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The studio hosts - McManaman and Owen both thought Stirling should have gone down at the other end. Basically you have to flop to get a foul. I didn’t think Mane’s was a dive .. but it was soft. They both agreed the handball call was ridiculous.
We used to at least try to shame and hold players accountable who chose to go down when feeling contact. I think the lesson being “Sterling should have gone down” is the wrong lesson. I feel like an old man screaming at kids to get off my lawn but it feels like we have all been screwed by these touch penalties that we fall into the trap of “I’ve seen them given” or “there was contact” when this forensic approach ignore the purpose of having a gigantic box with a penalty reward.

For me, we need to start forcing the foul which causes the penalty to be decisive. Defenders need to be able to use their bodies on the box. I don’t expect anything to change but the game is worse right now because instead of dramatic dives refs could often spot attackers have learned to just anticipate inevitable contact. It’s too easy to create it and too easy to use it as an excuse. And this absolutely applies to Sterling who kept his feet today but is a definite offender of playing to contact and falling over
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Apr 15, 2006
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Somers, CT
Teams are going to be trotting out practice squads and coaches by December the way this shit is going.
 

Schnerres

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Apr 28, 2009
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Teams are going to be trotting out practice squads and coaches by December the way this shit is going.
So lets play Pep the DM vs klopp the CB. Pep would be more useful, but he could only play like 50% of the Matches. Klopp would be too Slow, but a nice vocal leader with van Dijk out.
 

PedroSpecialK

Comes at you like a tornado of hair and the NHL sa
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Dec 12, 2004
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Looked like a painful one for Wijnaldum at the end on Walker's challenge, hope he isn't worse for wear.

1-1 likely the fair result, thankful for the KDB penalty miss
 

PedroSpecialK

Comes at you like a tornado of hair and the NHL sa
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Dec 12, 2004
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Villa were frankly dominant. Grealish, Watkins, and Barkley (with occasional help from Trezeguet) never really let Arsenal cleanly out of their own half with buildup play, and McGinn / Luiz disrupted a lot in midfield the times Arsenal did get the ball in Villla's half.

I can count on one hand the amount of times I remember Aubameyang touching the ball - Arsenal didn't look fluid at all, and Partey going off hurt at half-time didn't help, though they could've used a creative outlet like Ceballos in midfield with a back 4 over Holding in a back 5, and pushed Saka up to LW IMO.
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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Sep 14, 2002
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If you can, do yourself a favor and watch Ole's post match interview on BT Sport. Its as pissed and emotional as I've ever seen him, and to be fair he has a point.

United played on Wednesday in Turkey and got back at 4am on Thursday morning. The Premier League refused to move their Saturday lunchtime kickoff. With an international break coming, and no fans in attendance, its not a big ask.

Luke Shaw went off with a hamstring injury and Ole said he's going to be out a while. More worryingly, he said Marcus Rashford's shoulder injury doesn't look good but I'm praying its because he wants him to rest during the international break.

Hopefully this can spur the team on.
Klopp and Pep joining the choir today after AA’s calf injury .. desperately calling for the five subs rule to be reinstated.

Supposedly the PL’s poorer clubs (which means not as fabulously wealthy as its richer brethren) didn’t like it as they viewed as an advantage to the wealthier teams . Which may true .. mind you the fact that the wealthier teams have, by and large European commitments cancels that out IMO. But the simple fact is ((let’s call them Burnley) are not competing with the top six .. so what does it matter? They are , for all intents and purposes in a different league . One assumes their direct competitors (relegation challenged clubs) also can’t afford a decent bench.

The second half of the City/Pool game was nearly unwatchable as both sides were exhausted. This myopic, misguided self interest is destroying the product on the field .
 

wonderland

New Member
Jul 20, 2005
525
I think the season really sets up well for teams that have some quality players but no Europe commitments. Villa and Southampton fall in that category. If Wolves didn’t sell Jota they’d be much more dangerous. The Richarlison injury really hurt because they’ve lost their momentum - this international break comes at a good time for them.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
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I think the season really sets up well for teams that have some quality players but no Europe commitments. Villa and Southampton fall in that category. If Wolves didn’t sell Jota they’d be much more dangerous. The Richarlison injury really hurt because they’ve lost their momentum - this international break comes at a good time for them.
Richarlison has been suspended, not hurt. But several other Everton players have been hurt.

Fixture density and the lack of an offseason are taking their toll. A lot of guys are going to get hurt.
 

fletcherpost

sosh's feckin' poet laureate
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Jul 15, 2005
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Richarlison has been suspended, not hurt. But several other Everton players have been hurt.

Fixture density and the lack of an offseason are taking their toll. A lot of guys are going to get hurt.
It's something that has to be addressed. I think they need to allow more subs. Managers want to pick their best players but I feel for the players who now have to go on international duty, then come straight back to domestic and European matches. As well as physical health we have to be mindful of mental health at times like these as well. The world needs football, yeah maybe, but some of these players need a rest. Do Sky or BT Sport care?
 

wonderland

New Member
Jul 20, 2005
525
Richarlison has been suspended, not hurt. But several other Everton players have been hurt.

Fixture density and the lack of an offseason are taking their toll. A lot of guys are going to get hurt.
With three straight weeks of European matches (I know they don’t count for card purposes in domestic leagues) there have been so many matches, it felt like Richarlison had been out a while.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
It's something that has to be addressed. I think they need to allow more subs. Managers want to pick their best players but I feel for the players who now have to go on international duty, then come straight back to domestic and European matches. As well as physical health we have to be mindful of mental health at times like these as well. The world needs football, yeah maybe, but some of these players need a rest. Do Sky or BT Sport care?
I thought 5 subs was too many, but 4 is fine with me. I also would favor letting the matchday squad be bumped to 19,20, or 21.