RandoEFC

Not really. It's more just general observations that were prompted by this thread. For you specifically, I'd just say that I don't see how a non-story like this prompts the reaction "we might as well not do anything anymore". Maybe it's silly to get offended by a database but for me it's equally or more silly to let that bother you even a little bit. It's remarkably easy to let people with nothing better to do fight these battles and ignore them while you carry on with your life unimpeded.

There was a thing earlier in the season where people wanted Henderson to get the Player of the Season award but for me it's Kevin De Bruyne absolutely nailed on. If you want the Player of the Season award to be a tribute to the team that won the league instead of an individual then by all means give it to Jordan Henderson but if you want to give it to the player who has been the actual best individual player in the league this season then it's De Bruyne, no contest.

You lot played Everton after you won the league though so you were always going to be 3-0 up at half time.

Liverpool started well too. Penalty shifted the momentum and Liverpool's defence have lost concentration. This is quite a common outcome for a dead rubber between the team who have won the league and the team they beat to it. City also have the added incentive of keeping sharp for the Champions League finals. This is pre-season for Liverpool effectively.

You're usually pretty impartial but I can't see it here. Gomez gave Sterling about 4 opportunities to go down there. Salah has won half a dozen softer penalties than that since joining Liverpool by going down when he's being fouled in a manner where it doesn't actually make him fall over but he has to because referees oddly need to see it happen to give the penalty. Gomez full on fondled Sterling's genitals there though. Bringing a new meaning to kiss and make up after their little set to in the reverse fixture.

My only contribution here is that no matter how "ridiculous" and "political correctness gone mad" this sort of thing is, if you're more bothered by attempts to challenge potential racism, even the silly ones, than you are by actual racism, then you need to reassess your priorities. I mean, how much is it really affecting your life if someone thinks that a game's made up algorithms might be guilty of perpetuating racial stereotypes? If FM generates black or African players that have a better chance of being fast or strong than their white, European counterparts, am I going to lose sleep over that? No. If someone points it out, am I going to lose sleep over it? Also no. It's funny when you step back and observe this recent resurgence in people getting offended by other people being offended. I know this is more of a discussion than anyone really being arsed, but I'm making a wider point. Nobody has used the word in this thread, but if you think someone is being a snowflake because they don't like something like the algorithms in a game's database, do you become the snowflake if you're bothered enough about it to go on an internet forum and start a thread about how ridiculous it is that someone you've never met is offended by a glorified spreadsheet?

All you need is a human in charge that doesn't expect other humans to be physically capable of ejecting their arms from their body on demand to prevent them from handling the ball when they can't do anything else about it. I'll do it ffs.

Again, it's not the technology, it's the handling of its implementation by people who have been getting away with doing their admittedly very difficult jobs to a mediocre standard having only been held properly to account by their current or former colleagues for as long as I can remember. I still haven't completely flushed down the toilet my conspiracy theory that they don't want more technology in the game as it exposes their on pitch errors so they're deliberately making a complete farce of VAR so that it gets taken away after a season or two and they don't have to worry about it for a decade.

Just remember that the referee's union will meet up and discuss decisions like that one and the Soucek disallowed goal yesterday and convince themselves that somehow justice has been done and a prominent former referee will come on BT or Sky tomorrow and explain to us how that's always been the rule and we just don't understand the rules well enough and "as you can clearly see wibble wibble wibble leaving the referee no other option wibble wibble wibble arrived at the correct decision wibble wibble wibble 97% correct decisions since the technology was introduced". Every football fan up and down the country can see these decisions aren't making games more fair and that's all that matters. PGMOL need the equivalent of Supernanny to come in and get them to sort their shit out. While I accept they get a lot of unfair criticism at times and don't want to be undermined further, they've reached a point now where they just double down on everything and seem to think if they admit they get the odd thing wrong instead of maintaining this false aura of infallibility then players will soon be allowed to knock them out on the pitch with impunity. What are they so scared of that they can't admit some of these decisions are unfairly altering results?

Again, how can anyone take that decision seriously?

I didn't think it was possible but so few people care about this that it's probably an even more pointless thread than one of @Mpache's "Who was the best female Peruvian left back of the 2007-8 season?" threads.

Seems like this might become big enough to warrant its own thread. For all I've learned about politics in the last few years, I'm still pretty ignorant on foreign affairs like this. It strikes me that the general idea behind China's new security law relating to Hong Kong amounts to them throwing their weight around and trying to exercise greater control over the population there against their will. It seems to me that the UK government is totally right to offer the citizens of Hong Kong a route to potential citizenship over here in response to this, but China are now publicly signalling opposition to this plan. Something pretty nasty seems to be brewing here with the Huawei story and Covid-19 virus originating in China acting as a pretty volatile backdrop. Is anyone a bit more of an expert on this than I am that can offer a bit more in-depth information?

Saturday 4th July, 2020 Chelsea 2-0 Watford, 20.00 Leicester 1-0 Crystal Palace Man Utd 4-0 Bournemouth Norwich 1-2 Brighton, 12.30 Wolves 2-1 Arsenal, 17.30 Sunday 5th July, 2020 Burnley 0-0 Sheff Utd, 12.00 Liverpool 2-1 Aston Villa, 16.30 Newcastle 1-1 West Ham, 14.15 Southampton 2-2 Man City, 19.00 Monday 6th July, 2020 Tottenham 2-1 Everton, 20.00

To be fair to Lampard, let's not forget about the transfer ban and it's been evident since Conte's second season that Chelsea need to address their recruitment in defence.

What did non-Everton fans think of Anthony Gordon? I thought he played well today and he's getting a lot of love on Everton Twitter but it's hard to get a impartial impression on a teenage Scouse lad breaking into the first team from Everton fans.