RandoEFC

Had a quick look at the numbers. Pedro does have a better goal record than Barkley. Willian is similar to Barkley. Giroud's record at Arsenal is better but he's only got 9 league goals in two seasons at Chelsea. It's probably not a true claim then but it also isn't outrageous.

I think that's his point. If Barkley even gets about 7 goals then that's more than Kovacic, Jorginho, Kante are going to score and could easily be more than Pedro, Willian, Abraham, Mount. I don't know much about how many goals Pulisic has in his game and you'd expect Giroud to get more than that if he plays regularly.

I do wonder with Twitter how many of these accounts are genuine, and how many of them are internet banter-lords who make fake Chelsea accounts to add more mass to the probably very small amount of genuine stupidity on there.

This has been doing my head in as well. I agree with the concept of keeping the flag down if you're only 60% sure it's offside but sometimes it's visible in real time on TV and the linesman keeps their flag down when they have just a tiny doubt that it was offside.

Pedro has looked revitalised the last two games. Leicester have a lot of energy but no quality yet.

@Fairy In Boots @TomTsportresearcher

https://www.racefans.net/2019/08/18/poll-should-formula-1-scrap-drs-in-2021/ What do we think? Like the author of the article, I've always been against DRS, even without the regulation change. It creates overtaking for the sake of it, not overtaking which requires skill. On some tracks it is far too powerful. At the last race, with Hamilton chasing Verstappen, it was sort of exciting, but you knew Hamilton was going to get through. Same at Austria, where Verstappen was just one second behind Leclerc with 4 laps to go, this was the point you knew Max had won the race because DRS makes it impossible to defend. Overtaking is only exciting when there is excitement and doubt over who will come out on top. What do we think?

Scott Dann just clearly told the referee to fuck off presumably for giving Baldock a yellow instead of a red. Good job he didn't punch the floor in frustration like Schneiderlin last week instead of swearing at the referee or he would have been booked for dissent.

Tapping up if that's true.

Lol.

I do think it's mad to disallow that goal from a fairness perspective but I see what they're trying to do with the rule they've introduced, removing any grey areas and interpretation from decisions which is something football desperately needs and I've been advocating for a long time. You either keep the new rule and move into a new world of more consistent refereeing which is more fair all around but is also going to lead to a lot of harsh handball decisions like this one which you have to say isn't really in the spirit of the game. It was unintentional in every way. The alternative is to go back to the old rules where the referee was allowed to use a bit of common sense but in this world of 17 replay angles and every match being televised and analysed to the nth degree, pundits and fans commenting on the inconsistencies between different referees, and even the same referees in different scenarios, because they have left it open to interpretation. And let's not forget that small margins like being on the wrong side of a call that the referee has interpreted one way when it could have been another, potentially make the difference between title winners and runners up, or survival and relegation, which has massive financial and competitive implications, partly depending on one guy's common sense. Bottom line is, neither way is perfect. I'm going to be that guy again on this one and say give it time and see how it goes once we've gotten a bit more used to it.

I like it. If tactics are your focus I think it's a lot better to dedicate the majority of your post to that sort of thing.

About to sneak in episode 1 before bed.

Nothing serious apparently, but not definite that.

He has clearly instilled some confidence into Keane and Mina after both had a less than straightforward start at the club. It was always going to take some time to adapt. The first half of last season looked like groundhog day at times with us conceding the same goals repeatedly. My belief wavered at times but it was always going to take some time for the team to transition from Allardyce's route one clearances and traditional man marking into using the back four to keep possession and move on the pitch while starting with zonal marking at set pieces as well. Still work to be done. Palace had two great chances last week which Pickford had to save, and Watford had one today as well. Keane and Mina have made a good start together but you can't coach pace and we're likely to be exploited when we come up against the Rashfords and Salahs of the league if we don't adapt our tactics to sit deeper. This is where we lose out by not having Zouma or another similar player as another option.