Wurzel

Just wondering, was VAR the reason the PL banned the artistic pitch mowing the likes of us and Leicester tried to outdo each other with every week?. Love to see them trying to judge how to draw the offside lines straight on some of those pitches.

I'd agree, if they couldn't prove original call was wrong then they had to back it. But they drew 2 lines on screen. Bartley's(if he's the guy nearest the camera) foot and Vesterfard's foot. So offside. I'm sure someone in the VAR booth is watching Sky as well and realises after play has resumed, "Shit we lined up with the wrong player's foot" and quickly made up some nonesense about obscured body views to pass on to the commentary team and get themselves out of a self-dug hole.

That was so blatantly wrong it was laughable. The two forwards even had different colour boots there was no excuse, yet they managed to come up with not being able to get an angle that showed the goal scorers body 🤣

Think you're right. First half especially we seemed to hold our formation well, rarely did I look at the defense/midfield and wonder where one of them had gone. It's just that WBA were ghosting past them as if they weren't there. Apart from one excellent chasing back tackle by Bertrand I can hardly remember a challenge being made. Then when we did get the ball I can't remember seeing so many underhit passes. They sat on the lead after HT so Vestergaard spent most of his time pushing up into midfield but there was still too many passes going nowhere, no-one making the incisive runs to enable a defernce splitting pass. Hopefully Adams can start in the semi, really don't think we can accomodate Theo and Redmond in the same team. (assuming Mimimimo cup-tied?)

Saints have been drawn against Leicester (City or Fosse) in the FA Cup 6 times before today. In one of those amazing FA Cup coincidences, Leicester have also previously drawn us 6 times .

For about the last 15 minutes I kept looking for him thinking maybe I'd missed a substitution, wherever I expected him to be Djnepo appeared, but Bertrand wasn't covering for him either. Then I kept spotting him in or around the edge of their area. Unsure if he was told to try out some new tactic or simply deserted his defensive duties due to being bored shitless with nothing to do back there.

I think you're getting confused with the fact that Sholing's ground is in Portsmouth Rd.😂😂😂

Lunchtime kick off. Everyone has gone straight down the pub to celebrate. Oh 😥

I quickly stuck a fiver on us to win at 15/1 yesterday when we were 2-1 down with half an hour to play. I just thought the way we had been playing was deliberately conserving our energy for a late onslaught should it be needed, and with Brighton having gone ahead we were about to step up two gears and overwhelm them with an all out attack for the last half hour just as they started tiring. How wrong I was. 😠

Yep, on paper I'd pick our player against one of theirs in every position yet they showed more commitment and better tactics. Ralph was a breath of fresh air when he came here, but football tactics are continuously evolving. It seems like 18 months is about the limit that any new style of play can catch teams by surprise, after that everyone has sussed out how to combat it. It seems that RH is still trying to perfect a system that other teams have already realised no longer works.

Yet again opposition manager makes a tactical change at half time, we don't make one at any time in the game.

Looks like even Europa League is unlikely at the moment. At least he'd only have to sit on their bench once a week 🤣😥

Best bit for me? About 8 of our guys surrounding and having a go at theirs after the Fleck foul on Adams. Looked like we've suddenly discovered some fight in the team at last.

He is our nearly man. Nearly times his runs correctly, but never quite there. Nearly scores but it's too wide, too high, deflected, blocked. Nearly takes on his man and beats him but only he or the ball gets past him, rarely both. Nearly gets involved in a rapid fluid attacking move but turns around and goes backwards. Nearly makes a killer pass but underhits or overhits it or picks the wrong man. Nearly breaks up an opposition attack but only manages to jog alongside the player. We used to play the "take it in turns to break up attacks with a middle-of-the-park foul" game, but he hardly ever picks up a yellow so doesn't even manage that. And on the odd occasion tv cameras get him in close op he's nearly always complaining, whether at team mates or the ref we can't be sure. He certainly showed the promise and ability few years back but I can't remember a player of that age regress so badly (apart from injuries). Not sure if it's a total lack of confidence or lack of understanding of what's required of him. With our lack of squad strength it seems like if he's fit he plays at the moment but someone seriously needs to get inside his head and sort him out.

"Going down, going down, going down" The odds, not us. We've done enough to be safe this season, but if you could get those odds now for next season, I - a glass half full eternal optimist - might even consider that a sensible investment. 😨

BIB You don't see cricket umpires or rugby refs fronting up to the media because they don't need to. The outcome of any of their decisions that are referred to their equivalents of VAR are clearly explained at the time to players, spectators and TV audience.

Just taken a look on Oddschecker. Obviously Everton are favourites, but every single bookie on there has them odds against to win. Have none of them watched us recently or do they know something we don't?

I see Lee Mason has been withdrawn from his next fixture Liverpool v Sheffield United due to pulling a muscle late on in the WBA v Brighton debacle Yeah, of course he did. 🙄

And he still walked off unaided. Made of steel that guy. We're gonna miss him though . That's the rest of the season😥

Impact bench !

I've said it in the past but I'd prefer scrap VAR completely, have 4 linesmen (assistant referees) one in each quarter. Every incident then gets 3 view points, one from left touchline, one from right touchline and one from the ref roughly in the centre. If ref is unsure then majorirty decision decides it. They'll still get the odd one wrong (or debatable) but hey ... VAR?. As with all other aspects of the game it can be replicated from the WC Final down to the most basic grass roots level (pros can make decision slightly quicker due to radio contacts but still wouldn't take more than a few seconds anyway without that. Does @Whitey Grandad or any other ex ref think that's workable?

In the process of typing Redmond is a waste of a shirt and he wakes up and plays the killer (against his better nature) forward pass for the goal.

Definitely possible, just depends whether it was actually written into the agreement. https://www.gannons.co.uk/shareholder-rights/minority-shareholders/

I said Bale, but Beckham probably a better shout. Similar on field status but Keegan was probably more like Beckham than Bale off the field as Englands biggest sporting media star at the time - advertising Brut (has that really just has a relaunch?) , hit single, falling off his bike on Superstars etc.