ThunderPower_14

I just don't get why they don't hire a couple more people to stand in the VAR box to say "Hey Steve you didn't draw the offside lines mate". Billions of pounds flying around the league and VAR, where a decision could change the course of seasons and careers, is left to one guy who occasionally just missed something.

I absolutely love him and i'd prefer to keep him, but if we get a massive offer and he wants to go to a Champions League club, it might be a good bit of business for us. If he leaves in the summer for 60mil, his time here could only be described as a win/win.

Jesus Christ, 2 unforgivable errors from VAR in one day, one of which could decide the title. Sack everyone and start again.

His best is absolutely good enough to come off of our bench and we've seen everyone improve out of sight under Emery. Sensible move given he's already on our books. Might bump up any potential value we get for him if he does end up leaving in the summer as well.

We used the loan system to incredible effect in the promotion season, Mings, Tammy and El Ghazi all absolutely crucial. In the prem, Milner was good the year we had him on loan.

I have a couple of good mates who are Arsenal fans who are wonderful. I'm basing most of my opinion on going out to an event for the FA Cup final and having the Arsenal supporters, who greatly outnumbered us, treating the small cohort of Villa fans like absolute shit. It was to the point where my mate didn't really celebrate their win and was very apologetic. Not being league relevant for a decade and falling behind has made them quite bitter IMO. There aren't enough Spurs fans in Adelaide for me to form an opinion on them.

Arsenal fans are arrogant small time bellends who don't deserve this, but it's better for football if Arsenal win the league.

I will get behind my hometown team Adelaide United if they're having a good season but ultimately feel nothing if they lose.

Agree! We were just on the nose because of our awful form. If the squad was being picked today, I think Mings probably goes despite Southgate.

Zero surprises that he's back to his best under the right Manager. Just wish Gerrard torpedoing the side didn't cost him and possibly a few of his teammates a WC spot.

I know it's a bit of a sunk cost fallacy and he's probably on some massive wages but i'd rather keep him for 10mil. I'd feel very differently if we had an established natural goalscorer. Hopefully we buy someone or Archer gets a good run.

As others have said, Benteke was this. Basically single handedly kept us up for a couple of seasons where it would have almost been better for us to go down, our squad and culture was so shot. Could do everything.

It's beyond comical now. They may as well just drop the offside rule if they're going to adjudicate it like this. Hard to feel sorry for Man City but it's absolutely shocking for the game.

Leeds are such a chaotic team to play against because they press so high and hard but don't seem to have the quality to take advantage of the chances they create. We couldn't deal with it all between the 2nd and 60th minute marks. Just kept giving it straight back to them. We settled in the last half an hour a bit but it wasn't a great performance. Kamara was outstanding. What a player! How did we get him? There isn't a team in the world where he'd look out of his depth. I thought Moreno had a brilliant game to debut after being in the country a couple of days in a chaotic game like that. Settled really well. Ashley Young is ageless. He seems to be getting better and better. Incredible professional.

Leeds are pressing so high and hard, we just need a bit of composure as we move the ball out and we'll have some excellent counter attacking opportunities, but we're just hoofing the ball out.

That's an interpretation though. It's one way of reading the rules. Another interpretation is employing this clause which says a player in an offside position has committed the offside offence when they are: "clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent" Salah has undoubtedly done this by trying to run onto the pass, which made the defender throw his head at the ball. The flag should already be up at that point because the elements of the offence have been fulfilled. Which means he's already committed the offside offence before he receives the ball, and his receiving the ball shortly after is incidental. He's made the player play at the ball and been offside before he's touched it, not much different to a player who is offside because they're standing in the way of the goalkeeper. You don't have to touch the ball to commit the offside offence and Salah had already committed the offence before the ball fell to him. But again, this is just another interpretation that referees can use when it suits them. The rules are likely intentionally vague.

Yeah I think that part of the rule has been misapplied. Surely the spirit of the part you've quoted here is designed for say, a defender intentionally passing the ball back to his keeper and having it picked off by a striker in an offside position. It's all a grey area regarding what "deliberately play the ball" means and whether that can cancel out every other aspect of an offside. I think with the rule being applied correctly, Salah is offside before the defender even heads the ball because he's undoubtedly interfering with play from an offside position and I think you could easily interpret the existing rules to call him offside. I agree that the rule is written poorly which allows for this grey area, but they weren't envisaging situations like that when they wrote the rule.

I feel like it's another one of those ones where the rules as written are up for interpretation and surprise surprise, a sky 6 club are the beneficiaries. The offside law says it's offside if the player in an offside position is: "clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent" Salah is clearly trying to run onto the pass, and it's impacted on the opponent to the point where he's made a desperation header. No way does the defender attempt the header if there aren't any Liverpool players around, he just lets it run through to the keeper. VAR just gives the officials a second crack at making an arguably 50/50 decision in a big team's favour.

The rules are absolute garbage then. As far as i'm concerned, it should be offside the second the ball is played, Salah is in an offside position and doesn't take specific action to avoid the play. It should be offside before the defender has headed the ball and the defender "playing the ball" should be irrelevant. I can't believe it's gotten to the point where the rules allow this and it should be immediately remedied. It would be better to go back to ignoring whether an offside player is in play or not and just calling the offside every time than to have goals like that conceded. I think Mings was as bad. The same principle really. If you're in an offside position and you're moving towards the play, you should be considered in play and therefore immediately offside. Rodri's handball was just more proof that VAR has pickled their brains of the PGMOL.

The Salah goal is one of the most horrific onside calls i've ever seen. He was marginally onside and the defender couldn't have been sure of that, so defended. At that point, Salah is inarguably already interfering with the play. Disgusting. The clearcut worst VAR decision I can think of, apart from maybe Rodri's arms out wide handball for Man City against Everton.

I've been a Villa fan since I was a little kid, but i've only got an educated opinion on this since the early 2000s so we'll cut off there. Young Benteke Martinez Grealish Laursen Incidentally they'd make a delicious 5-a-side team. Unlucky: Barry, Milner.

I was so worried about any potential new manager bounce being cancelled out by the difficulty of our fixtures, and he's gone and won 3 of the first 4 against top 7 opponents. Amazing to think just a couple of months ago things could feel this positive

Every single player looks more confident and assured both with and without the ball. We were able to adjust how we were playing during the game in response to what was unfolding. It's like night and day.

Fair play to him, very assured performance

Stunning performance. Incredibly disciplined defensive performance and we were creative and dangerous going forward. Away against a Sky 6 team sitting 5th on the table. Luiz was brilliant. Just brilliant. We completely bossed the midfield. Start to finish the better team and probably unlucky not to have grabbed one or two more.