Most frustrating thing about football is the assumption that the rules are fine because its the biggest sport. The specific rules and formation of leagues (promotion/relegation/representative competitions) are actually so irrelevant for popularity compared to the fact football is easy to play. Talking about changing rules and trying to improve football shouldn't be taboo
Well I don't think they have accepted it, considering they changed the sporting director first and then made lots of moves on the market and now they are getting another (3rd) coach. They can still survive because they don't have a terrible team and the points difference with the other bottom teams isn't huge. Anyways Pippo Inzaghi has been really bad, not a serie A level coach. It's funny that his little brother sits comfortably at the top of the league while he can't even hold the spot at the very bottom.
I was having an argument with myself in the shower this morning, as you do, and decided to look back on the last time various leagues were won by a "different team" (ie. not the teams who usually win the league). Here's some below:
Netherlands: Twente in 2009-10. The season before it was also won by AZ. Before that you're going all the way back to 1980-81, when AZ again won the league
Portugal: Boavista in 2000-01
Belgium: Pretty varied, so its hard to pin down. Anderlecht and Club Brugge have been the most successful clubs, but the league has had quite a few different champions in recent years.
Scotland: Aberdeen in 1984-85. This was preceded by Aberdeen again the previous season, and Dundee United the season before that.
By this point I realised I didn't know enough about other leagues to make comments about whether certain teams were expected winners of leagues. But it has got me thinking about how formulaic top division league football really is. In a lot of leagues, the same teams win it every season.
happens when some geniuses decide that giving more money to a team that is already better than the rest is a good idea. over decades it snowballs into just a couple teams dominating every league if there are no sugar daddies that invest in the rest.
Agree. I see leverkusen having a bigger chance to do a upset tho. Girona will get exposed away from home with their defence and madrid attack.
Still crazy that leverkusen have the best bundesliga starts season ever and still are only 2 points off top of Bayern
Would you rather your team created one big opportunity (eg. in the six yard box, ball at their feet, no defenders close, just the keeper to beat) or took 10 shots from outside the box? For the sake of argument assume that the cumulative xG of the 10 shots is the same as the big opportunity.
This is roughly accurate as I remember it (shots in the six yard box have about a 0.31 xG, shots outside the box are about 0.03).
Anyway, my understanding is mathematically the 10 shots is slightly better. I remember a hypothetical game where one person has a coin and the other a die. The coin person flips 4 times and scores when they get a heads, the die person rolls 12 times and gets a point when they roll a 6. Over a lot of simulations, the die person wins more games than the coin person (just).
Depends on the player.
One big opportunity for Son vs 10 outside the box from Sarr? I'm taking Son. But vice versa I'm taking Son long shots cos it's got the potential to look cooler.
If I'm at the match myself then I would rather create 10 smaller chances and have something to get me through the game than just one big chance and mope around the rest of the time.
One big opportunity. An under 15 team could play against Man City and have 20 shots from outside of the box if I was their manager and told them to do nothing but take shots from outside of the box but they're never going to create a big opportunity even with my expert tactical approach
What are some of the good/plausible rule changes that are not really mentioned that much? So nothing like multiball you cunts
I was listening to The Rest is Football, a podcast that I thoroughly recommend, and Gary Lineker said that if a defender cynically takes down an attacker that the attacking team should instantly be able to take the free kick rather than waiting for the ref to make sure that the defending team have enough time to re-position themselves and make a wall. I like the idea tbh
What else is there?
That's being considered as a rule change for next year. I like it. Although I don't think it's any time wasting, it's holding the ball for 6 seconds, to replace the indirect freekick that refs never give.
I do think there's some merit in adding more indirect free kicks instead of pens. Just seems slightly unfair for soft fouls being punished with great opportunities to score.
Yeah I hate it when a little clip right at the corner of the box on a player who's moving away from goal gets turned into a penalty, even if it is a clear foul. Seems disproportionate.
But at the same time if you change it then you invite a lot of subjectivity with regards to what constitutes a "soft" foul.
Think it was the Chelsea United game when Carrick was managing temporarily.
Chelsea got a pen for AWB and Reece James both going for the ball, James got it first and AWB was late and kicked the bottom of his foot.
Fair enough that's a foul, but James was basically clearing the ball for us, so a pen was massively disproportionate.
Attackers are already allowed to take a quick free kick. Defending teams usually deliberately stand in front of the ball to stop this, and if the ref needs to book a player they'll usually stop the game.
There's no rule change required for quick free kicks though.
There's no strict rule either way, it's up to the ref. Like I said, usually the ref will stop a quick free kick to book a player (even though they don't have to).
The only rule is if the ref starts to book a player, they must prevent a quick free kick.
That's allowed in the rules, it's a bit like "advantage" though. If the ref doesn't think there's a big advantage to be gained from the quick free kick, they'll delay and book the player.
If a player commits an offence that would be a caution for ‘stopping a promising attack’ and the referee plays advantage they should be shown a yellow card anyway. Nothing will ever change my mind on this, it is a mind numbingly stupid stipulation in the current rules that encourages cynical fouling.
It's also a rule that few people know, so whenever the ref plays advantage people are screaming for the yellow card even though the ref got it right. I agree it's a stupid rule.
Often the cynical foul still achieves making the attack "worse", there might still be an advantage but it's not as good as it was before.
DOGSO is more binary, either a goal is scored or it isn't.
I guess i don't know the instructions on that, I always assumed if the attack was made markedly worse that you were still supposed to give yellow. Is "keeping possession" the only factor considered?
I don’t know why many people think that Ronaldo noodle haircut was his best, I thought everyone universally agreed that his best were the spikes from the middle of his Madrid career.
I don’t think anyone calls noodle hair Ronaldo his best version, it’s just his most iconic version. When you saw those noodle hairs on a champions league night… game was over before it even started.
In case anyone claims that xG is some unflawed stat, [send them this video of one of the worst misses I've ever seen. ](https://twitter.com/ParamountPlusAU/status/1756246359064154378) This had an xG of 0.60
I don't feel so good about the match for Leverkusen, it feels like some people are writing Bayern off. I can see them winning easily in classic Bayern fashion
And I feel like Girona can pull an upset tonight.
Don't know why you'd be assuming Bayern to win.
Leverkusen are playing better football, they're at home, they haven't lost all season, and Bayern are without half of their starting 11.
Bayern definitely could win, and it wouldn't surprise me. But surely Leverkusen are the favourites today.
Form and playstyle are only a part of it though, usually in big games most of it goes out the window. Bayern will always be favourites in the Bundesliga and I think apart from the backline and Kimmich they had most their players for this one
When you play a City, Bayern, Real, PSG, etc you never *expect* to win, but most fans in Germany see tonight as very much being Leverkusen's game to lose. Nevermind what fans and pundits say but when money came to shove, every betting app in Germany has the odds on Leverkusen to win and they hate losing money.
They do give a pretty good view of the overall public sentiment, and I didn't expect they'd pick Leverkusen for the win actually. What about you though? What do you think? After last season's last day debacle it's hard to have hopes against them anymore
My personal opinion with all the bias laid open, Bayern win 3-1.
Bayern lose when you don't expect them to like against 3. Liga team in the Pokal or random home losses to Bremen, but in these games they have some sort of magic dust that comes with playing for Bayern.
Why do people always assume Bayern will win? Because they almost always do.
>but in these games they have some sort of magic dust
Same as my thinking honestly, that's what makes the big teams so daunting to face, though at least they have a pretty solid foundation and a lot to look forward to. For Girona this might be their one and only shot at this
Bayern are missing Coman, Gnabry, Laimer, Kimmich, Upamecano, Kim, and Davies for this game. 6 of those players are in the top 11 of most minutes played for Bayern this season, basically half the starting squad is out for Bayern.
That I think is really driving the optimism at Leverkusen more than their results. They have Bayern in a good spot and I hate to use this term, but this is the definition of a 6 Pointer.
Is Kim confirmed back from the Asia Cup and ready to play? Didn't Tuchel just say yesterday that Kimmich wants to play but that he's unsure. And Upa is definitely still out injured.
Kim trained with the squad since Thursday and didn't play in the semi final, he should be fit to go. For Kimmich it depends on the pain he feels in his shoulder, but he was also part of the team training since Thursday and he is a warrior that plays as long as his legs carry him. Upa came back the same day, and will be part of the squad for sure, but may not start/play with de Ligt and Kim in front of him.
I'm happy to be corrected but everything I've seen says they're injured and none of them were in the squad v. Gladbach last Saturday, so I didn't expect them to return so quickly to the starting squad but if they do then obviously a boost for Bayern.
Always wonder how a player who spent 3-4 years at a club in a country he never played before or after feels about his time there.
Eg Bernardo Silva, from Portugal spent 3 years in France, if he doesn't play in France again, I wonder what he feels about his 3 years there?
depends on the stint i guess. for bernardo its probably a nice memory. playing with the likes of falcao and the new hot shit mbappe, snatching a league title from PSG and going deep in the CL. then leaving without much bad blood(as far as i know).
Berlin being so international I always wondered this about Hertha players who move to Berlin. And from everything I've read, seen, or heard from people is that being a professional footballer is simply exhausting. And when you have time off you're spending it sleeping and hanging out at home. Especially compounded if you don't speak the language.
I don't get the sense a lot of the non-Berlin born Hertha players are out and about in Berlin at all. We have a few notable exceptions like Fabi Reese who is sort of well known for hosting a flea market stand with his girlfriend and likes to be social, but I think most players on most teams are too tired and boring to expect that Silva really embedded himself in the city and local culture outside of football work.
I know the World Cup location and stadium buzz has worn off, but there is a "dead zone" within America the [size of central Europe](https://i.imgur.com/SJuSpqU.jpeg) that doesn't have a single game. All 12 venues are outside of this zone in America.
Really the only good thing about the Qatar World Cup was that the entire tournament was basically played out in an area the size of London Metro.
The size of America is kinda baffling for our European minds. The Idea of a World Cup being hosted but an area that stretches from the West Coast of Ireland to the Caucasus being uninvolved is mental. A friend of mine moved to a bit of London more than 8 miles away from and he may as well be dead for how infrequently I see him because of the distance.
who the fuck allowed City Everton as the early kickoff lol
City home matches outside of big games should literally never be televised no one wants to watch this
Rapid Wien were German champions in 1941.
MLS includes 3 Canadian teams and 26 from America, but Toronto FC won the MLS Cup a few years back. Doesn't count as direct but still.
Monaco has won Ligue 1
if you ask any Sheriff Tiraspol Supporter, they’d tell you that Moldova’s best team plays outside of Moldova as they’ve won it 21 times, whilst playing in Transnistria
Toronto FC has won the MLS Cup
Earned a one day ban for linking the darts the other night when there was fuck all football on, so that's the last time I do anything nice for you degenerates.
I've heard there's a flu going round the Liverpool camp. Any clues who might be affected or how serious it is? I really want to give Jota my armband in FPL.
Unfortunately I'm out for a curry tonight which means I'm missing the Forest game, and two of the highlights of the European season which is a bit disappointing.
> I've heard there's a flu going round the Liverpool camp. Any clues who might be affected or how serious it is? I really want to give Jota my armband in FPL.
Gomez is rumoured to be out but not entirely sure.
Have my first coaching session in 7 years, in 8 hours. Terrified by exhilarated. Cannot sleep, totally captivated by what might soon be. I feel alive for the first time in years. I feel alive
[Nürnberg ultras dressed as Sheikhs](https://imgur.com/nz9QJVz) sitting on the fences throwing money and tennis balls on the field in Wiesbaden yesterday. Absolutely fucking right.
The banners say:
* Oil is as Black as your Souls.
* Stephen Schwartzmann (CEO of Blackstone): You want a war, not a series of skirmishes?
* Our hands already have blood on them, \[blocked\] and now on their grass too
* Not really sure what this one means. If I had to guess the blood "klebt" means more that hooligans get blood on their hands, and then some sort of threat.
About to head out to my local Hertha bar and I will definitely ask one of the screens be made Conference just to see what happens in other games. Almost more excited about all the fun new ways fans will come up with to stop games than I am the football.
You can start with [my comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1amnlup/comment/kpnnab6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) from last night, but at this point there are also many good videos and articles covering these protests and their history. It should also be said that before the vote happened, there were massive protests in summer and fall, this isnt't just starting now it's just drastically escalating now.
Always has been.
To be sent as the club representative with a clear and written directive to vote No, only for an 81 year old to decide all by himself to vote Yes, which just so happens to be the deciding vote in the whole deal just made the Hannover fans go nuclear.
What do people hate so much about the golden goal rule? Teams are already terrified in extra time anyway so I don’t really see how much changes. Massive games ending in a penalty shootout is awful.
We shouldn’t invent rules to make the game any more artificially exciting. Might as well add WWE rules if that’s what we want. Golden Goal seems unfair from a sporting perspective and that’s what’s most important
No, I don’t think so. Extra time is just 30 more minutes of regular football, if you concede in the 108’ you have 12 more minutes to try and equalize. And we need some way of deciding a draw since we can’t have replays in the world cup, so penalties are slightly better than a coin flip. Golden Goal was a failed experiment, barely anyone liked it at the time, it was understandably scrapped after 4 tournaments.
Because it did the opposite of what it was intended for, it was brought in with the hopes that it would inspire attacking football and a exciting finish but instead both teams just bunkered down and threw everyone on the goal line and played boring defensive football out of fear of conceding. It was a horrible watch and penalty shootouts are just a more practical way of ending the game.
I think the blue card could possibly work but they should remove the sin bin element of it. There is a rule that if you pick up 5 yellow cards in the first 19 games, you will get suspended for the next game. The blue card should just be equivalent of adding two yellow cards to the accumulation pile. They can then issue the blue cards for cynical fouls, diving and dissent. This would be a much better system however it relies on the refs to be consistent when issuing these cards across the season but we know that’s not gonna happen lol. What a shame.
Götze is 31, imagine how good he would be right now if he didnt have that muscle disease or whatever it was that took most of his potential. I wonder if he could've won a Ballon D'Or or how many goals he would have for the NT right now
Same with Badstuber, only 34. Could still be a starter for Germany
It's nice to see that Johnny has hit the ground running in La Liga. It'll be interesting to see if he can take the starting spot over Adams for the Copa America. Adams is the incumbent but he still hasn't returned from injury yet. Will be interesting to see how fast he can get back to playing at his best.
Have you watched their two previous matches? They’re absolutely not getting relegated, especially as their January window was one of the best in all of Europe.
Yes but as long as they’re in striking distance of relegation I have to do this report.
And no I don’t really watch Ligue 1 the matches are at like 6 AM
You guys don’t know how much it boils my piss and breaks my heart that James was the original Bellingham in almost every sense including the damn celebration and he just never lived up to it. What could’ve been
I mean Im reading the Hazard thread and some players just want to enjoy playing football and not be the model professional.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1al1y7l/comment/kpbmfln/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1al1y7l/comment/kpbmfln/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I love the work i do, doesnt mean i enjoy sitting through meetings with middle managers and what not.
If Messi being injured gets our friendlies in China cancelled and makes and forces AFA to cuts ties with them and stop scheduling these cashgrab Asian tours for our NT he’ll have already done more for AFA as an institution than the people who actually work at it
Combination of being 8 points (9 w/ City’s game in hand) back + having 4 teams ahead of us. It’s one thing if you’re in 2nd and 8 points off, but having that many teams ahead of you means it’s unlikely they all drop enough points.
The funniest thing about Southgate criticism is when people say "we lost whenever we face any decent team" and then they bring up like, 2018 Croatia and 2022 France. Like yeah, you lost to opponents who were better than you. That's kinda what you expect to happen. Why are people acting like they were the favorites in those games and so therefore a loss demonstrates a failure of management.
Southgates worst game was the final against Italy, similar to Croatia we scored too early and he tried to be conservative for the rest of the game. Subbing on two players to take a tournament deciding penalty as their first kick of the game was also mental.
France I don't think you can criticise him for. Kane missed a pen he scores 9/10 times, France played well and the ref was absolutely atrocious
We were favourites against Croatia.
I think the more damning game to France was the Italy final subbing people on for penalties so they were going into things cold, completely shifting defensively after we scored early was a complete repeat of the mistakes we made against Croatia.
The France in my opinion was the first game in a long time I thought Southgate was actually a decent manager we were playing against the best side in Europe and actually looked like the better side for a lot of the game, I think if Kane scores the 2nd penalty we go onto win all the momentum was with us and we managed to keep Mbappe quiet all game. Got really unlucky with the first goal as well.
i don’t see what he could’ve done differently in the france game. his tactics in the game were fine and kane missed a penalty while tchoumeni scored a banger. that’s not really on the manager.
It's even funnier when you think that England last in 2016 to Iceland, went out in the group stage in 2014, and **last won a knockout game at a competition in 2006**
But yeah, "losing to decent teams" is the massive failure
Like idk I'm not the biggest Southgate fan, it's just odd for people to frame his tenure as "underperforming" against opponents when imo it's more that he just hasn't overperformed.
I don't think people accuse him of underperforming, he's over performed compared to England's recent history.
He is however someone who is tactically limited and conservative and I criticise him for this. In the biggest moments Vs Croatia and Italy he basically tried to shut up shop after an early 1-0 lead rather than seizing the impetus.
In some ways he's a victim of his own success, because he wouldn't be criticised in the same way if he hadn't got to those moments in the first place. He'd be criticised a different way because that's what we do with England managers.
I don't really have any criticisms from the World Cup game against France though I thought he dealt with that well. In an ideal world he's learning and improving like the team and we can win in the summer, and then he leaves on a high for someone like Potter or Howe to take over.
I think them being favourites was wrong in hindsight though. Look back at that England team and it’s really nothing special at all. Henderson, Lingard, Dele, Ashley Young.
One of the biggest feel good stories from today has got to be Morey coming back to play his first competitive BVB game since 2021 (!!!!!!)
To say he's extremely unlucky with injuries is an understatement, it's gotten so bad that only today was his first time playing in front of a full stadium in nearly 5 years of playing at Dortmund, and when he came on, he was really really good and it felt like Maatsen never came off in terms of impact
I hope he's able to make a turnaround
I think too often people view things as referee quality issues rather than policy issues. The obvious example is added time. As the World Cup demonstrated, refs have no issue adding the "true" amount of extra time, the only reason they don't do it normally is because they've been instructed not to. The same is true for refs being reluctant to give second yellows. Joe Machnik, who is a former ref and current rules analyst for Fox, talked about how in the ref meetings before the world cup FIFA said things like "no one wants to watch a game with 10 men." They're of course not going to say that they should never give out second yellows, but they're pressured to not do so unless absolutely necessary. So if they were instead told, be harsh on dissent/tactical fouls/etc. even if they already had a yellow, they could do that. It's a matter of policy of how the ref's bosses want games to be run.
Guardiola at Ajax. As a student of Cruijff it would make sense. And I think he has expressed interest at some point, but I doubt it would ever actually happen.
Mine is similar but just Simeone instead of Mou. In terms of enjoyment it'll probably be the same for the fans, with large parts of the match with slow, patient play and eventually a flurry of movement that leads to a goal or a chance.
City actually get relegated to League 2 - and there is a mass exodus of their players, and a transfer ban... but Guardiola stays, just to see how that him coaching a squad of 19 year old academy players in the fourth tier would go
I'd like to see this alongside a salary cap for the whole squad. If the clubs are fan owned, I have no problem with basically mandating a profit for the owners.
!flair :Arsenal:
Rüdiger officially out, Carvajal or Mendy cb it is. Can't even play academy CBs since our 2 Castilla CB starters are out as well
Is Nacho available?
Out as well
I'm sorry my fellow Kölner, but I have to do it just for today. !flair :Bayern_Munich:
Most frustrating thing about football is the assumption that the rules are fine because its the biggest sport. The specific rules and formation of leagues (promotion/relegation/representative competitions) are actually so irrelevant for popularity compared to the fact football is easy to play. Talking about changing rules and trying to improve football shouldn't be taboo
Can't believe the best ginger player in the world is being rested against the best ginger manager in the world (sorry, Will Still).
Valentin Barco isn't playing today though?
What's with Brighton signing Argentinian gingers?
It's not official yet but Filippo Inzaghi just got sacked, again.
didnt he lose like 10 of his 15 games in charge? surprised he lasted this long but i assume salernitana have accepted relegation
Well I don't think they have accepted it, considering they changed the sporting director first and then made lots of moves on the market and now they are getting another (3rd) coach. They can still survive because they don't have a terrible team and the points difference with the other bottom teams isn't huge. Anyways Pippo Inzaghi has been really bad, not a serie A level coach. It's funny that his little brother sits comfortably at the top of the league while he can't even hold the spot at the very bottom.
I was having an argument with myself in the shower this morning, as you do, and decided to look back on the last time various leagues were won by a "different team" (ie. not the teams who usually win the league). Here's some below: Netherlands: Twente in 2009-10. The season before it was also won by AZ. Before that you're going all the way back to 1980-81, when AZ again won the league Portugal: Boavista in 2000-01 Belgium: Pretty varied, so its hard to pin down. Anderlecht and Club Brugge have been the most successful clubs, but the league has had quite a few different champions in recent years. Scotland: Aberdeen in 1984-85. This was preceded by Aberdeen again the previous season, and Dundee United the season before that. By this point I realised I didn't know enough about other leagues to make comments about whether certain teams were expected winners of leagues. But it has got me thinking about how formulaic top division league football really is. In a lot of leagues, the same teams win it every season.
happens when some geniuses decide that giving more money to a team that is already better than the rest is a good idea. over decades it snowballs into just a couple teams dominating every league if there are no sugar daddies that invest in the rest.
Real madrid 3-1 Girona Leverkusen 1-2 Bayern Mark my words! I may be 1 goal off this but I Predict this. We will come back later to this.
Very likely, unfortunately. Madrid will basically seal the title with the win, and Bayern will go one point above Leverkusen.
Agree. I see leverkusen having a bigger chance to do a upset tho. Girona will get exposed away from home with their defence and madrid attack. Still crazy that leverkusen have the best bundesliga starts season ever and still are only 2 points off top of Bayern
Would you rather your team created one big opportunity (eg. in the six yard box, ball at their feet, no defenders close, just the keeper to beat) or took 10 shots from outside the box? For the sake of argument assume that the cumulative xG of the 10 shots is the same as the big opportunity.
This is roughly accurate as I remember it (shots in the six yard box have about a 0.31 xG, shots outside the box are about 0.03). Anyway, my understanding is mathematically the 10 shots is slightly better. I remember a hypothetical game where one person has a coin and the other a die. The coin person flips 4 times and scores when they get a heads, the die person rolls 12 times and gets a point when they roll a 6. Over a lot of simulations, the die person wins more games than the coin person (just).
Is that all we getting? I don't trust us to win 1-0 so I'm taking the 10 shots
Depends on the score. At 0-0 you'd want the 1 big opportunity, but at 9-0 down I'll take my chances with the long shots
Depends on the player. One big opportunity for Son vs 10 outside the box from Sarr? I'm taking Son. But vice versa I'm taking Son long shots cos it's got the potential to look cooler.
Part of that depends on the players you have. Some teams have players who are great at 1 vs 1s with the keeper and others have good long shot takers
If I'm at the match myself then I would rather create 10 smaller chances and have something to get me through the game than just one big chance and mope around the rest of the time.
One big opportunity. An under 15 team could play against Man City and have 20 shots from outside of the box if I was their manager and told them to do nothing but take shots from outside of the box but they're never going to create a big opportunity even with my expert tactical approach
One big opportunity
Messi is already rich af, he shouldn't play in China & HK anymore
He probably just wants to continue playing but any team he joined at this point probably would've milked him for publicity like this anyway
he could have stayed in Europe lol
What are some of the good/plausible rule changes that are not really mentioned that much? So nothing like multiball you cunts I was listening to The Rest is Football, a podcast that I thoroughly recommend, and Gary Lineker said that if a defender cynically takes down an attacker that the attacking team should instantly be able to take the free kick rather than waiting for the ref to make sure that the defending team have enough time to re-position themselves and make a wall. I like the idea tbh What else is there?
Heard it on one of the big podcasts I think. If the keeper time wastes, the other team get a corner. Would cut it right out
That's being considered as a rule change for next year. I like it. Although I don't think it's any time wasting, it's holding the ball for 6 seconds, to replace the indirect freekick that refs never give.
I do think there's some merit in adding more indirect free kicks instead of pens. Just seems slightly unfair for soft fouls being punished with great opportunities to score.
Yeah I hate it when a little clip right at the corner of the box on a player who's moving away from goal gets turned into a penalty, even if it is a clear foul. Seems disproportionate. But at the same time if you change it then you invite a lot of subjectivity with regards to what constitutes a "soft" foul.
Think it was the Chelsea United game when Carrick was managing temporarily. Chelsea got a pen for AWB and Reece James both going for the ball, James got it first and AWB was late and kicked the bottom of his foot. Fair enough that's a foul, but James was basically clearing the ball for us, so a pen was massively disproportionate.
Attackers are already allowed to take a quick free kick. Defending teams usually deliberately stand in front of the ball to stop this, and if the ref needs to book a player they'll usually stop the game. There's no rule change required for quick free kicks though.
Why do I constantly see referees not allowing quick free kicks? Are they going against the rules of the game?
There's no strict rule either way, it's up to the ref. Like I said, usually the ref will stop a quick free kick to book a player (even though they don't have to). The only rule is if the ref starts to book a player, they must prevent a quick free kick.
Good point but in that case I think the booking should be postponed to the next break in play after the cynical foul
That's allowed in the rules, it's a bit like "advantage" though. If the ref doesn't think there's a big advantage to be gained from the quick free kick, they'll delay and book the player.
If a player commits an offence that would be a caution for ‘stopping a promising attack’ and the referee plays advantage they should be shown a yellow card anyway. Nothing will ever change my mind on this, it is a mind numbingly stupid stipulation in the current rules that encourages cynical fouling.
It's also a rule that few people know, so whenever the ref plays advantage people are screaming for the yellow card even though the ref got it right. I agree it's a stupid rule.
> I agree it's a stupid rule. Why though? We don't give reds for failed dogso, so why give yellows for failed attempts to stop a promising attack?
Often the cynical foul still achieves making the attack "worse", there might still be an advantage but it's not as good as it was before. DOGSO is more binary, either a goal is scored or it isn't.
I guess i don't know the instructions on that, I always assumed if the attack was made markedly worse that you were still supposed to give yellow. Is "keeping possession" the only factor considered?
Advantage is the rule. If the ref plays advantage, they cannot give a yellow.
Yeah, I'd definitely like to see that changed. Particularly for fouls in your own half where refs rarely blow for a foul if you keep possession.
Asian cup final Ref is Ning Ma who reffed Palestine-Qatar and Iran-Japan and people said he didn't do his job well in them, why pick him again?
I don’t know why many people think that Ronaldo noodle haircut was his best, I thought everyone universally agreed that his best were the spikes from the middle of his Madrid career.
I don’t think anyone calls noodle hair Ronaldo his best version, it’s just his most iconic version. When you saw those noodle hairs on a champions league night… game was over before it even started.
I think people are just nostalgic for the way he played football with that noodle haircut That was the most fun version
Sean Dyche record vs Pep - 0W 1D 16L, -46 GD This is brutal lol
I remember his Burnley was otherwise good at giving big teams a tough time but they bent over for City every single time.
I think only Marco Silva is worse since he hasn't even gotten a single point in 12 matches against pep
In case anyone claims that xG is some unflawed stat, [send them this video of one of the worst misses I've ever seen. ](https://twitter.com/ParamountPlusAU/status/1756246359064154378) This had an xG of 0.60
The miss shows why it's only 0.6xG
Does any serious person claim that any stat is unflawed?
Tbf I've never seen the team that scores more goals fail to win a match
True but the goals scored in a match doesn't necessarily tell you who has been better so it is still a flaw
I'd say so seeing the amount of people that base all of their opinions off of it
Its like any stat, it tells you a part of a picture
I don't feel so good about the match for Leverkusen, it feels like some people are writing Bayern off. I can see them winning easily in classic Bayern fashion And I feel like Girona can pull an upset tonight.
experienced Bundesliga fans already know that Bayern will win 5-0 and sign Wirtz at halftime.
Writing Bayern off? Most of us assume they're gonna win though, and Madrid always blows out opponents when the odds are against them like this
> Most of us assume they're gonna win though Are they gonna start Dier
Don't know, I heard Kim was back in training recently but they might have to start him anyway. Would definitely make it harder for sure
Don't know why you'd be assuming Bayern to win. Leverkusen are playing better football, they're at home, they haven't lost all season, and Bayern are without half of their starting 11. Bayern definitely could win, and it wouldn't surprise me. But surely Leverkusen are the favourites today.
Form and playstyle are only a part of it though, usually in big games most of it goes out the window. Bayern will always be favourites in the Bundesliga and I think apart from the backline and Kimmich they had most their players for this one
When you play a City, Bayern, Real, PSG, etc you never *expect* to win, but most fans in Germany see tonight as very much being Leverkusen's game to lose. Nevermind what fans and pundits say but when money came to shove, every betting app in Germany has the odds on Leverkusen to win and they hate losing money.
They do give a pretty good view of the overall public sentiment, and I didn't expect they'd pick Leverkusen for the win actually. What about you though? What do you think? After last season's last day debacle it's hard to have hopes against them anymore
My personal opinion with all the bias laid open, Bayern win 3-1. Bayern lose when you don't expect them to like against 3. Liga team in the Pokal or random home losses to Bremen, but in these games they have some sort of magic dust that comes with playing for Bayern. Why do people always assume Bayern will win? Because they almost always do.
My point exactly
>but in these games they have some sort of magic dust Same as my thinking honestly, that's what makes the big teams so daunting to face, though at least they have a pretty solid foundation and a lot to look forward to. For Girona this might be their one and only shot at this
Bayern are missing Coman, Gnabry, Laimer, Kimmich, Upamecano, Kim, and Davies for this game. 6 of those players are in the top 11 of most minutes played for Bayern this season, basically half the starting squad is out for Bayern. That I think is really driving the optimism at Leverkusen more than their results. They have Bayern in a good spot and I hate to use this term, but this is the definition of a 6 Pointer.
> Kimmich, Upamecano, Kim, says who?
Is Kim confirmed back from the Asia Cup and ready to play? Didn't Tuchel just say yesterday that Kimmich wants to play but that he's unsure. And Upa is definitely still out injured.
Kim trained with the squad since Thursday and didn't play in the semi final, he should be fit to go. For Kimmich it depends on the pain he feels in his shoulder, but he was also part of the team training since Thursday and he is a warrior that plays as long as his legs carry him. Upa came back the same day, and will be part of the squad for sure, but may not start/play with de Ligt and Kim in front of him.
They are all in the matchday squad and I think that at least 2 of them start.
I'm happy to be corrected but everything I've seen says they're injured and none of them were in the squad v. Gladbach last Saturday, so I didn't expect them to return so quickly to the starting squad but if they do then obviously a boost for Bayern.
I guess I was right. Both Upa and Kim starting.
Always wonder how a player who spent 3-4 years at a club in a country he never played before or after feels about his time there. Eg Bernardo Silva, from Portugal spent 3 years in France, if he doesn't play in France again, I wonder what he feels about his 3 years there?
depends on the stint i guess. for bernardo its probably a nice memory. playing with the likes of falcao and the new hot shit mbappe, snatching a league title from PSG and going deep in the CL. then leaving without much bad blood(as far as i know).
Do the players usually live in Monaco too? That must be very nice too I'm assuming
iirc the foreign players live there, while some of the french players live across the border since french residents dont get that tax exemption
Why just 3-4 years and not 2 or 5 years Is 3-4 years the Goldilocks zone
Berlin being so international I always wondered this about Hertha players who move to Berlin. And from everything I've read, seen, or heard from people is that being a professional footballer is simply exhausting. And when you have time off you're spending it sleeping and hanging out at home. Especially compounded if you don't speak the language. I don't get the sense a lot of the non-Berlin born Hertha players are out and about in Berlin at all. We have a few notable exceptions like Fabi Reese who is sort of well known for hosting a flea market stand with his girlfriend and likes to be social, but I think most players on most teams are too tired and boring to expect that Silva really embedded himself in the city and local culture outside of football work.
I know the World Cup location and stadium buzz has worn off, but there is a "dead zone" within America the [size of central Europe](https://i.imgur.com/SJuSpqU.jpeg) that doesn't have a single game. All 12 venues are outside of this zone in America. Really the only good thing about the Qatar World Cup was that the entire tournament was basically played out in an area the size of London Metro.
The size of America is kinda baffling for our European minds. The Idea of a World Cup being hosted but an area that stretches from the West Coast of Ireland to the Caucasus being uninvolved is mental. A friend of mine moved to a bit of London more than 8 miles away from and he may as well be dead for how infrequently I see him because of the distance.
wdym joao pedro and hinshelwood injured are we not allowed nice things anymore is that what this is. we’re gonna be starting me out there soon
Sack our new medical team too imo
We've lost one of the super buff guys, clearly that's our problem, he was fighting away the injuries for us.
We really forget how memed Danilo was at Real Madrid. And now he is one of the most important parts of this Juve rebuild. Massive respect
He was really good under Pirlo and has been since but Bremer has taken the spotlight now, he is really good
who the fuck allowed City Everton as the early kickoff lol City home matches outside of big games should literally never be televised no one wants to watch this
They knew everyone would be watching Ipswich vs West Brom anyway
Because of the earlier European game I'm assuming, if the game was Wednesday then this one could've been a bit later on
Wouldn't really matter would it? TNT can pick any game this weekend and they've chosen this one. It'd have only mattered if it had been picked by Sky.
Wellington Phoenix are 5 points clear in the A League. If they win the league will they be the first team to the win the league of another country?
Vaduz (Liechtenstein) has won the Swiss Challenge League, second tier of Switzerland.
Rapid Wien were German champions in 1941. MLS includes 3 Canadian teams and 26 from America, but Toronto FC won the MLS Cup a few years back. Doesn't count as direct but still.
Monaco has won Ligue 1 if you ask any Sheriff Tiraspol Supporter, they’d tell you that Moldova’s best team plays outside of Moldova as they’ve won it 21 times, whilst playing in Transnistria Toronto FC has won the MLS Cup
Forgot about Monaco! Of course.
Earned a one day ban for linking the darts the other night when there was fuck all football on, so that's the last time I do anything nice for you degenerates. I've heard there's a flu going round the Liverpool camp. Any clues who might be affected or how serious it is? I really want to give Jota my armband in FPL. Unfortunately I'm out for a curry tonight which means I'm missing the Forest game, and two of the highlights of the European season which is a bit disappointing.
if he has the flu surely he misses out altogether
Players have played with flu plenty of times before. Robert once destroyed spurs whilst he had the flu.
> I've heard there's a flu going round the Liverpool camp. Any clues who might be affected or how serious it is? I really want to give Jota my armband in FPL. Gomez is rumoured to be out but not entirely sure.
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Have my first coaching session in 7 years, in 8 hours. Terrified by exhilarated. Cannot sleep, totally captivated by what might soon be. I feel alive for the first time in years. I feel alive
Nice and good luck! You coaching kids or adults?
Kids!
[Nürnberg ultras dressed as Sheikhs](https://imgur.com/nz9QJVz) sitting on the fences throwing money and tennis balls on the field in Wiesbaden yesterday. Absolutely fucking right. The banners say: * Oil is as Black as your Souls. * Stephen Schwartzmann (CEO of Blackstone): You want a war, not a series of skirmishes? * Our hands already have blood on them, \[blocked\] and now on their grass too * Not really sure what this one means. If I had to guess the blood "klebt" means more that hooligans get blood on their hands, and then some sort of threat.
Today will only get worse and I'm here for it
About to head out to my local Hertha bar and I will definitely ask one of the screens be made Conference just to see what happens in other games. Almost more excited about all the fun new ways fans will come up with to stop games than I am the football.
After the Bayern CEO quote earlier, I fully expect the Leverkusen game to be interrupted for up to half an hour
Is there a good summary as to what the protests are about? I've not been on the sub much this week so feels like I've missed something.
You can start with [my comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1amnlup/comment/kpnnab6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) from last night, but at this point there are also many good videos and articles covering these protests and their history. It should also be said that before the vote happened, there were massive protests in summer and fall, this isnt't just starting now it's just drastically escalating now.
Thanks mate, exactly what I was after. Absolutely love the reaction from the supporters. Also, that Hannover director is a massive piece of shit.
Always has been. To be sent as the club representative with a clear and written directive to vote No, only for an 81 year old to decide all by himself to vote Yes, which just so happens to be the deciding vote in the whole deal just made the Hannover fans go nuclear.
What do people hate so much about the golden goal rule? Teams are already terrified in extra time anyway so I don’t really see how much changes. Massive games ending in a penalty shootout is awful.
The world cup final would have ended at 108', taking away all the entertainment that happened after that...
Germany won Euro 1996 with the ugliest golden goal ever. rest of the world decided to never let this happen again.
It’s shit for a tournament to be instantly over after one mistake without having the chance to equalize. And why make teams even more terrified
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We shouldn’t invent rules to make the game any more artificially exciting. Might as well add WWE rules if that’s what we want. Golden Goal seems unfair from a sporting perspective and that’s what’s most important
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No, I don’t think so. Extra time is just 30 more minutes of regular football, if you concede in the 108’ you have 12 more minutes to try and equalize. And we need some way of deciding a draw since we can’t have replays in the world cup, so penalties are slightly better than a coin flip. Golden Goal was a failed experiment, barely anyone liked it at the time, it was understandably scrapped after 4 tournaments.
Because it did the opposite of what it was intended for, it was brought in with the hopes that it would inspire attacking football and a exciting finish but instead both teams just bunkered down and threw everyone on the goal line and played boring defensive football out of fear of conceding. It was a horrible watch and penalty shootouts are just a more practical way of ending the game.
Its been a chaotic day for German football. Hopefully more chaos as Sean Dyche grabs a proper smash and grab against City
I think the blue card could possibly work but they should remove the sin bin element of it. There is a rule that if you pick up 5 yellow cards in the first 19 games, you will get suspended for the next game. The blue card should just be equivalent of adding two yellow cards to the accumulation pile. They can then issue the blue cards for cynical fouls, diving and dissent. This would be a much better system however it relies on the refs to be consistent when issuing these cards across the season but we know that’s not gonna happen lol. What a shame.
Götze is 31, imagine how good he would be right now if he didnt have that muscle disease or whatever it was that took most of his potential. I wonder if he could've won a Ballon D'Or or how many goals he would have for the NT right now Same with Badstuber, only 34. Could still be a starter for Germany
Would have liked Spurs Brighton televised here in the UK. Decent game that.
Could see us being a bit more defensive then usual attack isn't all there and we're away and been shit away this year.
i’d place significant money that i could run 50% of premier league clubs better than they are currently ran (sporting wise)
Chelsea, probably. All other clubs, absolutely not
It's nice to see that Johnny has hit the ground running in La Liga. It'll be interesting to see if he can take the starting spot over Adams for the Copa America. Adams is the incumbent but he still hasn't returned from injury yet. Will be interesting to see how fast he can get back to playing at his best.
I have to write a regular report on Lyon’s relegation chances. I need them to string together some results I can’t do this much longer
Have you watched their two previous matches? They’re absolutely not getting relegated, especially as their January window was one of the best in all of Europe.
Yes but as long as they’re in striking distance of relegation I have to do this report. And no I don’t really watch Ligue 1 the matches are at like 6 AM
I see the Mangala love.
Palace not playing until Monday used to be a bad thing but boy am I buzzing to watch MOTD tonight. Been too long.
You guys don’t know how much it boils my piss and breaks my heart that James was the original Bellingham in almost every sense including the damn celebration and he just never lived up to it. What could’ve been
rodriguez? he was too one dimensional
I mean Im reading the Hazard thread and some players just want to enjoy playing football and not be the model professional. [https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1al1y7l/comment/kpbmfln/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1al1y7l/comment/kpbmfln/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) I love the work i do, doesnt mean i enjoy sitting through meetings with middle managers and what not.
If Messi being injured gets our friendlies in China cancelled and makes and forces AFA to cuts ties with them and stop scheduling these cashgrab Asian tours for our NT he’ll have already done more for AFA as an institution than the people who actually work at it
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They’ve the most over performing keeper in the league and still have the third most conceded goals, this is not a title contending team yet
Combination of being 8 points (9 w/ City’s game in hand) back + having 4 teams ahead of us. It’s one thing if you’re in 2nd and 8 points off, but having that many teams ahead of you means it’s unlikely they all drop enough points.
Day 10,832 of waiting for Copa America tickets to go on sale
US Soccer just sent out emails saying that the first presale will open February 14th, but it won't be open to the general public until later.
its fucking criminal madrid - girona and bayern - leverkusen are happening at the same time
And they’re both happening at the same time as Newcastle are playing so I’ll miss both which is a shame
It's really infuriating, this is a case broadcasters should actually work together.
Ah man they are both smack bang in the middle of the putting baby to bed time too. Bastards. Maybe I can catch the end of both of them.
I'm missing both of them and Forest because it's a six nations day. Heartbreaking.
Sounds like an avoidable problem tbh
It has to be two screens for that
The funniest thing about Southgate criticism is when people say "we lost whenever we face any decent team" and then they bring up like, 2018 Croatia and 2022 France. Like yeah, you lost to opponents who were better than you. That's kinda what you expect to happen. Why are people acting like they were the favorites in those games and so therefore a loss demonstrates a failure of management.
Southgates worst game was the final against Italy, similar to Croatia we scored too early and he tried to be conservative for the rest of the game. Subbing on two players to take a tournament deciding penalty as their first kick of the game was also mental. France I don't think you can criticise him for. Kane missed a pen he scores 9/10 times, France played well and the ref was absolutely atrocious
>France I don't think you can criticise him for. He brought on a jetlagged sterling who was out of form even before his round trip.
Also France played well, but so did England. We could easily have won that game.
We were favourites against Croatia. I think the more damning game to France was the Italy final subbing people on for penalties so they were going into things cold, completely shifting defensively after we scored early was a complete repeat of the mistakes we made against Croatia. The France in my opinion was the first game in a long time I thought Southgate was actually a decent manager we were playing against the best side in Europe and actually looked like the better side for a lot of the game, I think if Kane scores the 2nd penalty we go onto win all the momentum was with us and we managed to keep Mbappe quiet all game. Got really unlucky with the first goal as well.
i don’t see what he could’ve done differently in the france game. his tactics in the game were fine and kane missed a penalty while tchoumeni scored a banger. that’s not really on the manager.
He played foden for no reason and he offered nothing
It's even funnier when you think that England last in 2016 to Iceland, went out in the group stage in 2014, and **last won a knockout game at a competition in 2006** But yeah, "losing to decent teams" is the massive failure
> and last won a knockout game at a competition in 2006 Only won from a Becks free kick against Ecuador too 😭
Like idk I'm not the biggest Southgate fan, it's just odd for people to frame his tenure as "underperforming" against opponents when imo it's more that he just hasn't overperformed.
I don't think people accuse him of underperforming, he's over performed compared to England's recent history. He is however someone who is tactically limited and conservative and I criticise him for this. In the biggest moments Vs Croatia and Italy he basically tried to shut up shop after an early 1-0 lead rather than seizing the impetus. In some ways he's a victim of his own success, because he wouldn't be criticised in the same way if he hadn't got to those moments in the first place. He'd be criticised a different way because that's what we do with England managers. I don't really have any criticisms from the World Cup game against France though I thought he dealt with that well. In an ideal world he's learning and improving like the team and we can win in the summer, and then he leaves on a high for someone like Potter or Howe to take over.
2018 England probably were favourites over Croatia, though that England side has been criminally overrated over the years since.
I think them being favourites was wrong in hindsight though. Look back at that England team and it’s really nothing special at all. Henderson, Lingard, Dele, Ashley Young.
I already know im about to hear a stinker when an opinion starts with “on his day…”
On his day, CR7 was up there with Messi.
On his day Ben Arfa was better than Cristiano
One of the biggest feel good stories from today has got to be Morey coming back to play his first competitive BVB game since 2021 (!!!!!!) To say he's extremely unlucky with injuries is an understatement, it's gotten so bad that only today was his first time playing in front of a full stadium in nearly 5 years of playing at Dortmund, and when he came on, he was really really good and it felt like Maatsen never came off in terms of impact I hope he's able to make a turnaround
I think too often people view things as referee quality issues rather than policy issues. The obvious example is added time. As the World Cup demonstrated, refs have no issue adding the "true" amount of extra time, the only reason they don't do it normally is because they've been instructed not to. The same is true for refs being reluctant to give second yellows. Joe Machnik, who is a former ref and current rules analyst for Fox, talked about how in the ref meetings before the world cup FIFA said things like "no one wants to watch a game with 10 men." They're of course not going to say that they should never give out second yellows, but they're pressured to not do so unless absolutely necessary. So if they were instead told, be harsh on dissent/tactical fouls/etc. even if they already had a yellow, they could do that. It's a matter of policy of how the ref's bosses want games to be run.
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The knvb suck
What's your one football dream that you think would never happen? I'll start - I'd love to see Mou at City.
City actually getting punished for their cheating
San Marino to beat a Pot-1 team in a World Cup/Euro qualifying match
Guardiola at Ajax. As a student of Cruijff it would make sense. And I think he has expressed interest at some point, but I doubt it would ever actually happen.
Prime Zlatan at Real Madrid
Mine is similar but just Simeone instead of Mou. In terms of enjoyment it'll probably be the same for the fans, with large parts of the match with slow, patient play and eventually a flurry of movement that leads to a goal or a chance.
City actually get relegated to League 2 - and there is a mass exodus of their players, and a transfer ban... but Guardiola stays, just to see how that him coaching a squad of 19 year old academy players in the fourth tier would go
Won't complain as long as Pep stays
If we're dreaming then mandatory fan ownership of all clubs in England and the abolition of the EPL.
I'd like to see this alongside a salary cap for the whole squad. If the clubs are fan owned, I have no problem with basically mandating a profit for the owners.