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Saints v West Ham - Match Thread


St Chalet

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Fundamentally Ralph needs to realise that the players at his disposal have not been bought to play his system and never will be up to it. Ditch the 4-2-2-2 and go back to a 4-3-3 with romeu playing as a holding player and shielding the back line. All of our centre backs are woefully inept so the last thing they need is the chuckle brothers playing to-me to-you in front of them.

 

The players are mostly ****, but Ralph needs to wake up to this and do something different (I'm beginning to think he's a one trick pony) - after all the club aren't going to buy him one decent player in January.

 

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Just in from the game. Where do i begin?

 

I don't mind losing a game of football, my god i'm used to it. But not to turn up, not to put a shift in, not to CARE is not acceptable. Ings aside, not one of the rest of them are fit to wear the shirt. And the manager has lost the plot.

 

As fans we expect and demand more. At the very least, 100% effort.

 

Not sure where we go from here to be honest

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What was Stephens doing at the end. Just had to go for the corner of the net, might get a rebound, nope, passed it back into a melee of players. Had it been us holding on, and Stephens been some player that hasn’t scored since 2014 it would have been drilled confidently into the top corner. It’s like our players lack self belief and confidence as well as talent.

 

Same old ****ing story time and time again.

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Hojbjerg's never been a world beater, but he's never been this **** either. I'm pretty sure he was given the captain's armband from Bertrand because of his effort on the pitch as well as his talking off it. That effort is no longer there and with his lack of ability he's just not a Premier League central midfielder. Strong signs that he believed the hype of top clubs looking at him last season and now has his mind on his next destination.

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Well that again was another disastrous performance, especially that first 45 mins. How can a home team come out so unprepared and so predictable. The big issue for me is the coaching both on the pitch and off it, Ralph stands there and just doesn’t appear to me any interjection from the coaching team. With a coaching team full of goalkeepers what do we expect, which players are improving?

Quick mention to the substitutions tonight.... bar Romeo, wtf.... why wait so long? Long isn’t going to score ever and he gives Adams 4 mins!! Armstrong should have been on for peh about 20 mins earlier. I am starting to worry about Ralph’s tactical nous...he needs help.

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So we had 57% possession.

 

For a big chunk of that the ball was with either Stephens or Bednarek, or on its way from one to the other - unless they decided to add some variety by involving McCarthy.

 

And we wonder why we can't break down opposition defences.

 

Until that changes we're going to watch the same kind of turgid crap we saw for most of today.

 

Hojberg's ability to fill a link role (or any role, really) has disappeared. Meanwhile, Lemina is fart-arsing around in Turkey.

 

Today we must have had ten times the number of passes between our central defenders that West Ham did. Within seconds of breaking our attack down, they were back at our box.

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Went out for some fresh air to help me cool off. Nope, I’m still absolute boiling mad with just how bad we are and continue to be. If it was a case of losing but getting bloody well stuck in, trying to do the right things and going down all guns blazing then it might be palatable but every game we look like a pub team that was just introduced to each other before the game. Passes astray, no communication, no composure, no one on the same wavelength. What on earth do they work on in training?

 

We get all the photos and the sound bites but in reality, the plastic fake wall is out for 3 weeks because Redmond keeps ruining into it. We don’t have any balls to practice with after Cedric was tasked with crossing practice and Long shooting practice and they skied them all over the neighbor’s fence and our powderpuff midfield duo of JWP and Hoj were too timid to go ask for them back.

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So we had 57% possession.

 

For a big chunk of that the ball was with either Stephens or Bednarek, or on its way from one to the other - unless they decided to add some variety by involving McCarthy.

 

And we wonder why we can't break down opposition defences.

 

Until that changes we're going to watch the same kind of turgid crap we saw for most of today.

 

Hojberg's ability to fill a link role (or any role, really) has disappeared. Meanwhile, Lemina is fart-arsing around in Turkey.

 

Today we must have had ten times the number of passes between our central defenders that West Ham did. Within seconds of breaking our attack down, they were back at our box.

There we have it,pretty obvious to all but those who can actually do something about it.

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If anyone ever deems to slap me down with some ****e stats about Hojbjerg having the most interceptions and pass completion bøłlłôCk$, best make sure they lube them up first for when I shove them up their bloody @R$ē! ..........he was carp against Norwich and pants tonight.

 

The bloke is our Captain - I would just about have him Captaining a paddle boat up the Sports Centre - he is not a captain, he does not lead, he along with Redmond are passengers in this team - the only reason I can see him being captain is due to being Danish and having been at Bayern he probably has a good grasp of German so suits RH to have him as a Captain he can communicate with in his first language. Rather bizarrely if you watch both Redmond and PEH when something doesn’t go their way (ok they draw groans from the crowd) they both theatrically chop their hands upwards. The much maligned Jack Stephens was short changed by a PEH pass back to him that was under hit when the best and first option was forwards, at the first moment Jack ripped into PEH - it’s very rare to see a team captain getting........b o l l o c k e d by a team mate (You think JWP is the master back passer our captain outclasses him - actually I don’t think JWP actually trusts passing the ball to him).

The substitution of Redmond was actually the correct decision Just about every attack when the ball came to him just saw the handbrake pulled on.

 

The big factor today was we just got bullied off the ball by West Ham, plus the shocking revelation came in the car from RH on the Solent interview - apparently the long balls were a problem we weren’t prepared for!! WTAF! How many years have our 2 first team coaches been in English football and what style of football is WH’s default setting.

Whilst the recruitment has been woeful over the past few years, Ralph might be a smart chap, but I am beginning to think he might not be smart enough for the Premier League.

I have watched Saints in person since 1978, work and kids have curtailed watching some full seasons, there were some bloody grim walks over Northam bridge as we spiralled down to the bottom of the championship, but jeez these days are running them damn close.

I guess I am getting old and cynical, ****ed off at the stratospheric salaries per week that are the same or greater than what I earn in a year, if I dont do my job properly I get a rocket and possibly end up losing my job, these guys are paid to kick a bag of air about and they struggle to do that.........especially our “Captain”.

 

Highlights of the day getting home before it started raining and receiving my annual scroll calendar from the Chinese down the village.

Edited by John Boy Saint
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Fundamentally Ralph needs to realise that the players at his disposal have not been bought to play his system and never will be up to it. Ditch the 4-2-2-2 and go back to a 4-3-3 with romeu playing as a holding player and shielding the back line. All of our centre backs are woefully inept so the last thing they need is the chuckle brothers playing to-me to-you in front of them.

 

The players are mostly ****, but Ralph needs to wake up to this and do something different (I'm beginning to think he's a one trick pony) - after all the club aren't going to buy him one decent player in January.

 

^^^^^^ This is spot on, West Ham are not a top six side , we should be able to at least draw with them , Home Form will be our downfall

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So we had 57% possession.

 

For a big chunk of that the ball was with either Stephens or Bednarek, or on its way from one to the other - unless they decided to add some variety by involving McCarthy.

 

And we wonder why we can't break down opposition defences.

 

Until that changes we're going to watch the same kind of turgid crap we saw for most of today.

 

Hojberg's ability to fill a link role (or any role, really) has disappeared. Meanwhile, Lemina is fart-arsing around in Turkey.

 

Today we must have had ten times the number of passes between our central defenders that West Ham did. Within seconds of breaking our attack down, they were back at our box.

Down to a total lack of movement by our midfield. McCarthy had the same problem, no one showing for it. Stephens' frustration showed a couple of times when he went forward with some purpose and tried to make things happen. Unfortunately when he does it leaves us horribly exposed because our same midfield cannot do anything to cover. Our midfield today were hopeless, absolutely ****ing hopeless *****il Romeu came on). Until we get some decent midfield players we are well and truly ****ed.

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What was Stephens doing at the end. Just had to go for the corner of the net, might get a rebound, nope, passed it back into a melee of players. Had it been us holding on, and Stephens been some player that hasn’t scored since 2014 it would have been drilled confidently into the top corner. It’s like our players lack self belief and confidence as well as talent.

 

Same old ****ing story time and time again.

 

Remind me again. How much a week do they earn?

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Danny Ings should be out captain.... He is the only player in that pitch consistently putting a shift in and displaying signs of passion.

 

Rest of our players are a bunch of over paid bottlers who's heads drop way to easily... Saw the highlights of the match today and it was terrible no cohesion, no link up play, do we have a midfield capable of string a pass together, Redmond running into players offering nothing... Hoijberg setting up the opposition....

 

Our squad is a joke....

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Danny Ings should be out captain.... He is the only player in that pitch consistently putting a shift in and displaying signs of passion.

 

Rest of our players are a bunch of over paid bottlers who's heads drop way to easily... Saw the highlights of the match today and it was terrible no cohesion, no link up play, do we have a midfield capable of string a pass together, Redmond running into players offering nothing... Hoijberg setting up the opposition....

 

Our squad is a joke....

 

100% agreed. Poor sod had to resort to coming back into midfield to get the ball because our useless gutless plodders couldn’t pick him out with a pass. As soon as it was 1-0 I knew it was game over. We were passing the ball around (ineffectually as usual) just prior to the goal, Hoj couldn’t control the simplest of balls and fouled their player by diving for it. Free kick, 10 seconds later...goal.

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There's plenty of games left for us to turn it around and for others to go into free-fall. Yes, we're very poor at the moment but we've been here many, many times and have only failed to stay in the top flight once in my life time. I'm going to support them and keep the faith until when/if relegation is a mathematical certainty, although I suspect I'll be in the minority

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Down to a total lack of movement by our midfield. McCarthy had the same problem, no one showing for it. Stephens' frustration showed a couple of times when he went forward with some purpose and tried to make things happen. Unfortunately when he does it leaves us horribly exposed because our same midfield cannot do anything to cover. Our midfield today were hopeless, absolutely ****ing hopeless *****il Romeu came on). Until we get some decent midfield players we are well and truly ****ed.

 

Lack of movement is a problem all over the pitch.

 

More than half of our throw-ins are a guaranteed and almost immediate surrender of possession - for that same reason.

 

That's down to two things - sheer laziness on the part of the players, and weak coaching.

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There's plenty of games left for us to turn it around and for others to go into free-fall. Yes, we're very poor at the moment but we've been here many, many times and have only failed to stay in the top flight once in my life time. I'm going to support them and keep the faith until when/if relegation is a mathematical certainty, although I suspect I'll be in the minority
The amount of games left is not the issue. It's the amount of winnable games, and for our lot that is very few. We get into good positions and inevitably bottle it and throw the points away, or we do like tonight, fail to show up for the game. After the first two minutes today you could tell that there was no way we were going to win that game, and that's how it transpired, it was so predictable.

 

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Relative to our positioning as a team (i.e. Premier League club with players on high salaries) i’d find it hard to listen to anyone try and convince me that PEH isn’t the worst player to ever pull on the shirt - complete coward, LAZY ****, and technically atrocious. Regularly costing us points on his own and his attitude stinks. Can’t think of another player who’s made me as angry as he done when I watch us. Complete fraud, get him out, him being captain is an insult to every single fan.

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So stressful being a Southampton fan these last few years.

 

We can all feel a lot better when we beat Aston Villa next week then a cheeky win against Chelsea since all the crap at the bottom of the table seem to be winning against them lately.

 

We'll be back in our rightful 8th place soon enough..

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Relative to our positioning as a team (i.e. Premier League club with players on high salaries) i’d find it hard to listen to anyone try and convince me that PEH isn’t the worst player to ever pull on the shirt - complete coward, LAZY ****, and technically atrocious. Regularly costing us points on his own and his attitude stinks. Can’t think of another player who’s made me as angry as he done when I watch us. Complete fraud, get him out, him being captain is an insult to every single fan.

 

Other teams have cottoned on too. They stand off and let him shoot knowing he’ll spoon it a mile over the bar. If he had an ounce of footballing sense he’d fake a shot and/or play in one of our strikers, nope like a red rag to a bull because once, he smoked one and it actually went in. Fraud!

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Ralph is not up to it... Woeful today ..

He really has no idea what he is doing. Wasn’t prepared, didn’t prepare the team at all and let everyone down today.

Simply not good enough and has to be sacked - that is it for me. Ralph’s fault today - clueless ....

 

Makes me wonder what happened. He came to Saints and got the boys playing well, got in Valery, rejuvenated JWP and then boom, new season and it’s all gone to ****. Cedric now a mainstay, Hoj and JWP as DCMs?? New signings not getting any game time. A talisman in Boufal sitting on the bench. Shane Long starting. Sticking with Redmond even though it’s clear to anyone who watches the game that the lad is woefully short on confidence.

 

Substitutions, Armstrong gets 10 minutes. Adams 8? I’d have started both after the woeful performances of Long and Hoj at Newcastle.

 

McCarthy

Stephens Bednarek Yoshida Bertrand

JWP Romeu Armstrong

Djenepo Ings Adams

 

If Boufal and Valery are fit then get them in instead of Adams and Stephens. Toss up as to Stephens or Bednarek alongside Yosiida. Ralph needs to find a CB pairing that works. No clean sheets at home since Fulham last season. Needs fixing , pronto.

Edited by OttawaSaint
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Step forward PEH best WHU player on the pitch today - if he wasn’t playing towards our goal he was passing it to a WHU player - the most inept captains performance I have ever seen.

 

Yes absolutly woeful and hes the captain...........sub....next . do we have any trust in anyone else Slattery Sims /dunno accademy drying up or dried?....theres no spark and again Redmond and Bertrand dont seem to like each other again?

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This is the fourth manager in a row where the default setting has been this slow, turgid side pass, back pass weird triangle thing the team performs. As already stated these stats are crap, 57% possession and I bet at least 70% of that was the side/back pass shuffle in the defensive third of the pitch.

 

Two quotes from Ralph were particularly worrying, the one about being taken by surprise by the West Ham long ball.....actually that’s more inept than just worrying. How can you not know what the opposition do? Hey Ralph, watch Neville and Carragher on Sky’s MNF, they give you pretty big bloody clues !! The other quote was about “this isn’t a step backwards”.........oh really? What is it then?

 

I hope Redmond getting the hook at half time acts as a kick up his ass. Next step bring back Romeu for Captain Fantastic. If PEH was being looked at by big European teams as was suggested 9 months ago I bet their scouts have saved a bloody fortune on air fares this season.

 

No doubt January’s transfer window will bring the usual sound bites about strengthening and we end up maybe bringing in someone we haven’t heard of on the 31 January, if at all. We won’t bring in two competent central defenders or a right back or a holding midfielder or anyone who will radically improve the team. It will be nothing or more of the same.

 

The team selection against Villa will probably be the same starting eleven as of late, Villa will rub their hands with glee at the chance to pull themselves away from immediate danger, we will perform better cos we do that away, as we slip to an unlucky but all too predictable 2-1 defeat, or 2-0 depending on Ings getting a decent chance. Ralph will bemoan our luck, a player, probably PEH or JWP will sound bite the fkin obvious abd we just stumble on to the next game doing exactly the same things with exactly the same end results etc etc etc....

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I should have gone to the all day gig at the Loft instead.

 

Spent most of my time laughing at how inept we were. I think Ward Prowse's header from 6 yards out when the ball seemed to knock him over was my favourite comedy moment.

 

Special shout outs to Stephens' shot which went for a throw in and Hojbjerg letting the ball roll under his foot when in 20 yards of space in midfield which contributed to their goal.

 

We really are terrible.

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This is the fourth manager in a row where the default setting has been this slow, turgid side pass, back pass weird triangle thing the team performs. As already stated these stats are crap, 57% possession and I bet at least 70% of that was the side/back pass shuffle in the defensive third of the pitch.

 

Two quotes from Ralph were particularly worrying, the one about being taken by surprise by the West Ham long ball.....actually that’s more inept than just worrying. How can you not know what the opposition do? Hey Ralph, watch Neville and Carragher on Sky’s MNF, they give you pretty big bloody clues !! The other quote was about “this isn’t a step backwards”.........oh really? What is it then?

 

I hope Redmond getting the hook at half time acts as a kick up his ass. Next step bring back Romeu for Captain Fantastic. If PEH was being looked at by big European teams as was suggested 9 months ago I bet their scouts have saved a bloody fortune on air fares this season.

 

No doubt January’s transfer window will bring the usual sound bites about strengthening and we end up maybe bringing in someone we haven’t heard of on the 31 January, if at all. We won’t bring in two competent central defenders or a right back or a holding midfielder or anyone who will radically improve the team. It will be nothing or more of the same.

 

The team selection against Villa will probably be the same starting eleven as of late, Villa will rub their hands with glee at the chance to pull themselves away from immediate danger, we will perform better cos we do that away, as we slip to an unlucky but all too predictable 2-1 defeat, or 2-0 depending on Ings getting a decent chance. Ralph will bemoan our luck, a player, probably PEH or JWP will sound bite the fkin obvious abd we just stumble on to the next game doing exactly the same things with exactly the same end results etc etc etc....

 

Totally spot on.

The amount of times the West Ham strikers were carving our defence was embarrassing.

Any manager researching our team will see we over commit when going forward and if we mark Danny Ings and give no silly free kicks away for JWP nobody else can score for Saints.

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Clear illustration of why we are where we are. Free kick gets cleared to a Saints player and those that had advanced into offside positions didn’t even try to get onside for the return ball. Just couldn’t be bothered.

 

And now Hoj misses a sitter. We are just a very poor team. No game breakers apart from Ings.

 

Ings off in January? Could get decent money for him.

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Too angry to post last night. Just a few points because basically we were just poor and wasted a huge opportunity.

 

So sloppy in the first half. Gave the ball away again and again: Redmond, Hojbjerg and Cedric the worst culprits. Cedric is SO slow.

 

We were far too lightweight to cope with Antonio. I can see the idea of a settled defence but I think Yoshida would have done better.

 

Their goal should have been stopped about three times: weak, ineffectual defending.

 

McCarthy saved us from a worse defeat. Ings worked his socks off but things just weren't joined up.

 

Ings was unlucky twice. So close with the shot on the bar (which Long should have put in) and the foul before he "scored" was very soft. We cannot be as wasteful with chances - Long, Hojbjerg, Stephens to name a few.

 

Would have liked to see Armstrong on earlier. Why only ten minutes? What's wrong with Redmond? (And Cedric, Bertrand, Hojbjerg to name a few)

 

We now have to bounce back at Villa. The mini-revival is over.

 

 

 

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I should have gone to the all day gig at the Loft instead.

 

Spent most of my time laughing at how inept we were. I think Ward Prowse's header from 6 yards out when the ball seemed to knock him over was my favourite comedy moment.

 

Special shout outs to Stephens' shot which went for a throw in and Hojbjerg letting the ball roll under his foot when in 20 yards of space in midfield which contributed to their goal.

 

We really are terrible.

 

Don't forget the Long miss after Ings effort hit the bar.

 

I know what you mean about comedy moments, it is so bad it is becoming laughable...... Sadly.

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One thing that stood out for me about Saturdays game is that Romeu is a much better midfielder than PEH or JWP - forget this furphy about pace and mobility - he's just a better midfield player - leaving aside that JWP's set piece delivery adds value to a struggling team.

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Looked like a poor attendance. Says a lot when we can't fill our (relatively small) ground for a crunch relegation game when we're supposed to be finding our form.

 

Tells me the punters know this team just isn't good enough to win games.

 

Ings fantastic, Djenepo dangerous (but can't do anything without the ball), Romeu commanding when he came in, McCarthy actually pretty solid apart from silly kick at the end...whole back line poor today...Hojberg just not good enough, sooooo bad today but can't sub the captain heh...Long pointless...subs way too late...where was Boufal?

 

Keep up

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We're so boring to watch, if you're going to lose at least give us some entertainment doing it. It's static, unimaginative, scared, lazy and inept.

 

I'd start by picking our winners and dumping the losers. Our winners are up front so I'd go for a much more attack oriented team. Our defence is no good so cut it down to 3. It's a gamble and we'll ship goals but we're shipping them anyway and look to be in real danger of the drop so why not try something different.

 

Time for guys like Boufal, Adams and Armstrong to get game time and Cedric, Long and Hojbjerg\JWP to be dropped. Transfer priorities are a central midfielder (can we get Lemina back?) and a central defender.

 

Got to shake this team up, fans are tired.

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This becoming a dog day afternoon scenario. We have a very average team and a manager who seems unable to lift or improve them. One step forward and two steps back = relegation.

The day the rot really started was the day Mané departed and Les Reed tried to convince us Nathan "Thierry Henri" Redmond would be a more than adequate replacement.

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My favourite comedy moment was when our international right back had the West Ham equivalent of Claus Lundekvam skip past him and bang over a cross.

When a central defender runs around you on the outside, perhaps it's time to accept that you are no longer a Premier League defender.

This defeat feels different....and not in a good way.

Reminds me of those Everton and Villa losses and that Middlesbrough debacle back in 04/5.

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I really was hoping the two wins against Watford and Norwich we’re going to be the catalyst for our season, but it feels harder to ignore now that I’m reality we were outplayed by Watford and were hanging on against Norwich. Same old same old against Newcastle.

 

It actually amazes me how dreadful we are at home. The amount of times we go in at half time, damage already done and haven’t even made their keeper make one save. Was the same against Bournemouth, Everton, Leicester, Watford, West Ham. And we’ve still only scored the first goal once at home. How can we ever expect much when all we do is go in at half time losing everyone game?

 

In the last couple seasons I’ve always thought deep down we can get out of it, but with a combination of the sides that were crap last season being much improved, and the teams promoted showing they have something about them, I do think at this stage this could be the year we finally go.

 

There’s still loads of time to turn it around, but no arguments we are the second/third team in the league at this moment in time.

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Does Antonio always score with his hands? VAR is probably why WHU are now struggling. Cheating ********!

 

I'm still not sure whether when Stephens kicked the ball against Antonio's hand, the contact was unavoidable or whether Antonio deliberately put his hand there to stop the Stephens clearance. But with the new VAR rules, any ball to hand contact seems to be given as hand ball. I'm surprised more teams haven't taken advantage by deliberately kicking the ball at a defender's arm in the penalty area.

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