VectisSaint

Would like to know what Andy Sparkes said or did to wind up Mourinho. Whatever it was can I just say, well done, couldn't have happened to a bigger ****.

Agreed, but as backup along with Yoshida and Danso we would be silly to try to get someone else in. We need to strengthen here but not till the summer. Not forgetting we still have Hoedt, who knows he could be transformed like (according to some on here) Stephens. The likelihood of finding someone better than the current CB pairing in the January window is slim. Our record in the past couple of seasons is there for all to see in this position, why would this month be any better?

Doubt he would come back, but if fit would be a good option given that he can play on both wings.

Only if Vestegaard does go, and apparently the deal is off. Otherwise its a must for next window. FB, MF and striker should be the priority for this window. We have no cover in MF, look at our bench today, 3 strikers, 2 CBs and OR.

Gesundheit

Kitzbichler

Richard Kitzbichler? Appointed end August, took some time to have an impact. Doesn't mean its all down to him, but simply having a trusted associate acting as a sounding board and taking some of the responsibility from Ralph's shoulders makes a lot of difference.

Great result and performance. Having a generally settled side seems to be working a treat, maybe its also the Kitsbichler effect. Clean sheet at home, Ings with another, penalty wrongly overturned. To thin one more point to equal Fulham 19th place total last season, and only 9 to equal Cardiff's 18th, and with 17 games to go. Getting a nose bleed looking at the table. For probably first time in my life hoping for a ManU win, rather like being above Arsenal.

Mourinho acting like Mourinho. He is a tit.

Arrived months ago. But its quite likely he started to influence things a few weeks ago. Something changed. We started to look organised, especially in defence.

Stephens instrumental with a fine assist according to my scores app.

Are there? Like who? Just because someone is on huge wages doesn't mean necessarily that they have to be paid those wages to go somewhere else. You know some people are prepared to take a cut to get theur career back on course. Only mentioned Morgan because he is a far better option than Vic. Top player who lost his way after big move to Man United. It was only a suggestion anyway, no idea whether its got any legs. Now get off your high horse and calm down. Wish some ppl on here would get a sense of humour and perspective and stop being ****s. Happy new Year to you.

Any chance we could get Morgan back? Much better option, needs a new start.

Boufal beats players but doesn't create many opportunities for others, basic problem, as before he went on loan, he does not look up and thus cannot regularly pick out a team mate. He is certainly skilful, full of tricks, but then so was the guy from the Brazilian Soccer School or whatever it was called. All the ball skills in the world but not a footballer which is a team sport. Occassionally gets lucky, hence his assists, but it is seldom due to his vision. Very good defensively as well (certainly compared to Redmond or Tadic when all three were here a season or two back). If someone can coach his head down running blind way of playing out of him then we would have a top player on our hands, but so far no one has managed to do it.

Adams out on loan. You cannot be serious.

Not neccessarily. The "measurable" part was only introduced in 1990 when they changed the offside law to be based on the attacking player being level. At the time this was fair enough, before technology was introduced a linesman could make a judgement based on line of sight to determine whether a player was level or not. The issue is that you cannot say accurately that a palyer (i.e. a rather nebulous blob) is "level" or not. A player is not a line so linesmen used to make a judgement based on whether the attacking player was gaining an advantage by being noticeably (to the human eye) in front of the defender. OK, they got it wrong sometimes, but apparently reviews have shown they got it right 95%+ of the time. Remove the "mathematical" definition and then remove the need for VAR to review it. The law should be along the lines of the attacking player is offside if he is clearly gaining an advantage by being ahead of the defensive player (I am not a law maker, but something along those lines). the offisde law was never meant to be about pinpoint accuracy (something which VAR cannot cope with anyway), it was about preventing an attacking player gaining an unfair advantage, effectively stopping the attacker "goal hanging". The IFAB need to go back to first principles and reflect on what the offside law is for, and not try to make the law more precisely worded. We have to get back to ensuring that goals are scored through skilful play, and not being prevented by some ridiculous attempt at millimetre accuracy. The suggestion by Souness on Saturday is another way of doing this, and has some merits, he is about the only pundit so far that has appreciated the problem is not VAR but the current offside law. Only problem for me is that any revised law needs to take into account all levels of the game, whether they have VAR or not, I hate the idea of having different rules for some games and not others.

I would think if we test Gazza a few times we will score at least once.

Don't think you meant pedant but hey ho. Think actually it's very likely that Cedric will go in January, he's going at the end of the season anyway, so from the Club's point of view getting rid in Jan is better business as they might still get a small fee (maybe). He has said himself he is just giving it his all until his contract expires. Think we probably have a replacement lined up, probably the guy from Genk or Gent or whatever (some Belgian team). I like Cedric, some of what is written on here is total nonsense, but think his time with us is nearly up.

The Leeds ayer is hardly going to walk away from them to us at the moment. The last thing we need are inexperienced CBs, we have enough already, seriously doubt we will sign a CB, Stephens and Bednarek are forging a decent partnership and we have Yoshida as backup, even if Vesta goes. The RB we have been linked with before, he wouldn't surprise me, think Cedric may depart in Jan rather than waiting for his contract to expire. The Celtic forward could be interesting, but doubt they will do business when they have a battle on for the SPL, unless it is as a make weight for a permanent deal for Forster.

No it doesn't, it means that an attacking player would be less likely to be penalised for gaining an advantage. At the moment players are penalised for gaining an advantage that does not exist. To make things better they should also scrap the use of VAR for offside and make it up to the linesman like it should be. Offside should not be a scientific decision, because it should be about gaining an unfair advantage. The whole problem here is not VAR, but about the definition of the offside law in the modern game. The law was changed in 1990 and needs to be changed again as a result of other changes. Fully support VAR in other aspects, but the offside part is ruining the spectacle and reducing the number of goals. Time before last they changed the offside law it was because the number of goals being scored had been reduced, the change immediately resulted in a very significant increase in goals scored. Laws can be changed and it is urgent that IFAB change them soon.

But it does because that's what the authorities want. It shouldn't be as complicated because VAR should not be involved in offsides if the offside rule was rewritten to reflect the need for it to address 'the advantage' rather than whether it is 'mathematically' level or not. Sourness today had a sensible solution, that is to change so that the attacking player is onside if any part of his body is in an onside position, makes a lot more sense than the current law.

It's not easy at all. Needs to take into account moment ball is kicked and multiple players, and players are rather nebulously shaped compared to a sphere (ball) or a straight line. Then the nebulous shape only has parts that count (legal goal scoring parts), the pitch is not flat and then the frame length of a TV camera has to be considered. The answer should be to remove the need for VAR for offside by easing the definition of offside to focus more on the 'gaining an unfair advantage' rather than trying to precisely measure something that is imprecise by definition.

Just bear in mind that Adams is 23. How many other strikers are regularly banging in goals in their late teens/very early 20s in the Championship or PL?

But that's the problem, it is not as simple as that. The VAR tools are not completely accurate, and it is impossible to determine exactly when the ball was kicked. The real problem is that VAR is trying to accurately measure something that is immeasurable and should not be measured in the first place. The whole point of the offside rule is to prevent an attacking player gaining an unfair advantage. The law was changed only back in 1990 to bring in the concept of the attacking player being level with the 2nd last defender. It was introduced in the days before the technology, and was a judgement call, it was thought that this was easier to determine and from the point of view of a linesman's eye it was. But "level" was never meant to be a scientific factor. There is no advantage of having the width of your toenail in front of a defender, or your nose or your armpit. The IFA need to change the offside law so that it is based more on "gaining an advantage", and allow the linesmen to do their job and make the judgement call without the use of VAR. No problem with VAR for other parts of the game, but to use it for offside using the current offside rule is stupid. Not even convinced VAR got it right yesterday with the Zaha incident, think we got lucky there. Cannot see what part of Zaha they considered was in front of what part of Stephens, but that's a different argument. As Danny Mills said on MOTD 3 good goals were wiped off yesterday in the PL, we should be encouraging more goals not taking them away, none of the three were scored due to any tangible unfair advantage to the attacking player.

This. The offside rule should be changed such that use of VAR would not be appropriate. "Being level" is not how offside shoulbe judged, its about having an advantage, and an armpit or a toenail is not an advantage.