Burning Gold

This is the answer. Things might be messy there at the moment, but they have a better foundation for success than Tottenham or Leicester, and probably Dortmund as well (as we're talking about Kane, Maddison and Sancho). Those teams can all make an argument they've been more successful than Man United in recent years, but you have to ask what's in the future. Tottenham look like they're on shaky ground, Leicester finished below Man United last season, and Dortmund look destined to live in Bayern's shadow. If I'm Kane or Maddison, I absolutely believe that Manchester United with me in the side (plus whoever else they bring in with their considerable wealth) are better than my current team. If I'm Sancho, it's a bit closer, but they're not far off at worst. On top of that, Manchester United are so massive that you'll go down in history if you bring them back to the top. Can you say that about the other three? Of course the choice doesn't necessarily have to be between United and their current club. There's absolutely no doubt Sancho will have other offers, and very good ones, but I wouldn't be surprised if Manchester United were the best offer on the table for Kane and Maddison.

Anyway, thought Lallana had a good game today. I've been critical of him in the past for not making enough of a tangible impact, but he was threatening and constantly involved when he came on. Really pleased for him that he got himself on the scoresheet. Feels like that could be "the" moment people look back fondly on when they think about his time at Liverpool.

What's your obsession with the word agenda? I haven't used it once. I'm not laughing off the facts you've put forward, I'm dismissing them because, as I explained, they become irrelevant when considered in context. If you have anything else, I'm all ears

If they're going to pretend people don't celebrate goals anymore, then yes...

Irrelevant, same as the 5% thing. It doesn't matter how many times officials give a throw in to the other team when a defender hoofs it out, or give a goal when their watch literally tells them to. How often do they get the big, difficult decisions correct?

I think it's fair to say he's struggled to settle. Injuries haven't helped, and he looked good when he finally got a run of games together towards the end of last season, but largely he's failed to reproduce what he was achieving in Germany. He's still very much in the picture and I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd started today were it not for another injury which meant today was his first appearance of the season.

I'm not saying you're lying, but I've literally never seen this happen, so I don't think it's a widespread thing. It seems incredibly unlikely to me that fans of a team would not celebrate a goal, to be honest. Who's "we"? The problem with your 5% thing is that it's bollocks. It completely ignores the fact that VAR is only used for big, difficult decisions, so the impact of that 5% is actually much bigger than that number suggests. I think VAR's been pretty poor in the Premier League this season, but I just don't think it's unfixable, and I'm yet to see a solid argument otherwise. Just the same baseless nonsense from people who made up their minds a long time ago.

Thought we were poor overall today despite how much ball we had. Toothless in attack and I think ultimately Origi isn't good enough to be first reserve for the whole front 3, but it's not all on him. Can't figure out why we were crossing from deep so much with Firmino and Mane, who (I'm not looking it up) can't average more than 6ft between them against essentially 3 CBs. Mane's good in the air for his height, but he has to get free to win a header, and that wasn't happening at all today. On the VAR stuff: I don't think it's a foul on Orig - he's felt the contact and gone down, which will never be a foul for me. That said, it is a foul Manchester United were getting every time. Atkinson should've given it, but I can definitely see why VAR didn't. Then, I suspect Mane's hand (although accidental) did help him control the ball, so again I'm honestly fine with it. Atkinson was an absolute disgrace today, but I'm not sure what you want VAR to do. I'm still yet to witness a goal not being celebrated, by the way. Really feels like the anti-VAR lot have decided on this criticism in advance and are now just refusing to let it go

I don't actually think Choudhury did much wrong. Have to make that foul to stop Salah and had to make sure he brought him down. It is what is. Shouldn't be allowed though. Not sure if the red card shouts are aimed at me or if someone else has said it, but: I don't think it's a red at all, but I'm so sick of seeing blatantly deliberate "tactical fouls" and don't think they should be tolerated. If it's deliberate, it shouldn't matter if you're the last man or not, your intention is the same and you should walk

Has to win at least one trophy before Madrid come calling surely? He's done well everywhere he's been and got his teams performing above expectations, but taking on a giant and winning things is a different beast

It's a Michael Owen penalty. Contact + he goes down = foul. Not a pen for me, but I've seen far more egregious simulation After some of the shit VAR has let go, I would've been absolutely raging if that'd been taken away

Clumsy? He knew exactly what he was doing. I've always thought those fouls should be reds. Not only are you deliberately preventing a goal with a foul, it's also pretty dangerous because you're always going to be more reckless when your only intention is to bring the player down. Hopefully there's no lasting damage to Salah Relieved to win though. Was worried about this one so not too concerned about the performance that brought three points. I wouldn't be surprised to see Leicester in or around the Champions League spots this year

Can't believe what I'm reading. There's a massive difference between mostly spending what you raise from sales vs. pumping money into the squad year on year. A good manager should be able to raise their players' levels to where they can be sold for a profit to be reinvested. They should then be able to target that reinvestment by identifying players on the market who can fill gaps in the squad. Both of those things require skill. It takes zero skill to go cap in hand to the owners, especially when you know there's plenty more where that came from, so it's no big deal if this signing doesn't pan out. It's silly to pretend we're not big spenders (although I think the two 2018 windows gave unrealistic expectations of what we can spend) but it's downright moronic to pretend we're in the same ballpark as the Man Citys of the world.

That wasn't even a close offside. It's almost all of him and he's standing still. I'd be fucking fuming if that was allowed to stand for some sort of "umpire's call"/margin of error bs

It's already clear. A goal can be disallowed for any contact with the hand or arm; for anything else, the other criteria apply. You might not like it, but it's quite clear