trousers

Alaska

With a username like yours, how on earth would you know that...?

We can get quite nasty when we're *really* angry... https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/saints-fans-protest-white-hankies-greet-mauricio-pochettino-8458816.html

😟

My memory may be a tad sketchy, but I'm pretty sure there have been worse times than spending most of the first half of the season in the top half of the top division (and a significant proportion of that in the top 6) followed by a mid-season dip in form, which is quite common place for us...?

Ralph has said on numerous occasions that injury recovery times have been extended due to certain recovery facilities being out of bounds at Staplewood due to Covid restrictions. Surely Staplewood is a place of work and therefore should be allowed to operate 'normally', albeit with extra covid safety measures in place? I don't hear managers of other teams complaining about lack of access to such facilities. Could this be a case of Saints applying the rules too ridgedly when we don't need to? Or maybe our facilities are less condusive to applying covid secure measures compared to other clubs? Surely it can't be right that players are being denied access to facilities and thus potentially jeopardising their welfare? In what other walk-of-life would an injury not be treated in the most appropriate/effective way possibly? Or maybe this is just the club/Ralph citing the lack of access to facilities as a convenient excuse for a dip in form? (The least likely explanation I'd have thought given how honest Ralph comes across) It just seems bizarre that we don't have access to some critical tools of the trade. The PL is either open for business or it isn't. Thoughts?

Depends if you assume the officials would have made the same on-the-spot decisions if VAR didn't exist. i.e. we don't know how much referee/lino decisions are influenced (subconsciously or otherwise) when they know VAR is available. For example, with the handball, the ref might well have blown for the penalty (given it was an obvious handball to the human eye in real time) rather than having the luxury to think: "hmm, I think that's handball but let's leave it to VAR rather than point to the spot")

I'm not sure changing our tried and tested system, which has stood us in good stead for the majority of the first half of the season, will necessarily help matters. The fringe players will have been drilled to play the same system, so changing things could unsettle the likes of Jankewitz more than he might already be by having to start a game in such a daunting venue. (Dunno, I'm no psychologist, so who knows)

WTF??!!

There's no way the human eye could have judged that as a certain offside, so he was wrong to flag it as such. There's no way he could have been *sure* it was offside. He was on an ego trip, pure and simple. (IMO) Anyway, you appear to be skirting over the overriding issue which is that the VAR used the incorrect snapshot..

I don't see anyone be doing that to be fair. We were poor and the officials were poor. Both influenced the result.

How can it confirm the Lino's decision if the wrong snapshot of the incident is used? And who's to say the lino would have given it if, in the back of his mind, he knew that VAR wasn't being used? He *may* have given the benefit of the doubt to the attacker in that scenario. Truth is, we'll never know, but either way, the whole thing is thrown into disrepute when the incorrect snapshot is used by VAR.

I can think of a more fitting couple of words...

I'd be inclined to agree with you if they hadn't used a video still from after the ball had been kicked to do their line drawing...

Maybe the officials in the stadium have their decisions influenced, (subconsciously or otherwise) by knowing that they've got VAR to back them up or correct them if they make the wrong decision. In other words, maybe the ref would have given the penalty if he knew it wasn't going to be scrutinized and maybe the lino wouldn't have given the offside if he knew VAR wasn't lurking in the background. Yes, I know that can work both ways but it would surprise me if officials in the stadium aren't influenced into potentially making different decision when they know VAR is lurking.

Why do the likes of Mourhino, Klopp and Nuno do it then?

Didn't Romeu go off because he got a knock of some kind?

Well, he wanted his chance to start and he may now have it. Could work in our favour if he's as good as he's touted to be and uses the Utd game to make a point and play a blinder. Blessings in disguise and all that.

Yep. Also said Jankewitz might have to start next game...

Ralph: "Maybe Jankewitz will have to start against Man Utd"

"Football's a bit unfair at the moment" is as angry as he got...

I keep saying it but we're too nice. Several dodgy decisions and not one player booked for dissent...

He'll be Mr Nice Guy rather than fume at the officials

So, let me get this handball law straight... If the ball is heading towards the back of the net, a defender is allowed to punch the ball off the line as long as it grazes his thigh first...?

Without a crystal ball, how do you know it didn't matter?