After my last post, where I said I won’t be posting a pre-Bournemouth piece due to a holiday; I just felt I had the time to ‘stick a late one out’, despite arriving home head-long into news of family illness / hospitalisation.
VAR and the duel handball rule.
I promised myself I wouldn’t give VAR any ‘air
time’…or as little as possible. Why? Well to be blunt, I think it’s taken the
enjoyment out of football.
Yes, we’d all like decisions to be the
right ones and yes, most of us did scream at the TV before flippin’ VAR
whenever we thought the officials got something wildly wrong. And…YES, perhaps things
will ‘equal themselves out’ for most over the season and, in fact, I was going
to keep a score from the start of the season of “for” and “against” VAR decisions
but, to be honest, from ‘match 1’ I’ve already been sent into a head spin. I’m sure other people will be
collating stats and will release the results at various times…
But the VAR system failed miserably for me
in our last game in that it seemingly failed to see – or at least give the
obviously correct decision for – the manhandling of Rodri
in their penalty area; where he was grabbed and shoved to the floor for all in
the stadium, at least, to see! Yet…that same system managed to spot the ball
grazing the hairs on Aymeric Laporte’s arm
and the cross came in for Gabriel Jesus to
brilliantly control and find the back of the Spurs’ net; only for it to be
disallowed of course. It
was deja VAR all over again…
So, we were all told of the handball rule
change before the season started and having seen it in action a week ago
yesterday, how stupid is it?! Even worse still, having watched the whole game
live whilst on holiday and then again, the following morning, watching the
highlights; my wife asked me what would it mean if it had grazed the arm of a
defending player. I had to admit, I just don’t know [anymore].
Well since then, I’ve learnt that the farce
gets even more, well…farcical! I just about managed to catch some football chat
on the radio where that very topic was being discussed and, unless I misheard,
apparently the “same” rule doesn’t apply in that case! Instead, for the
defending side the old “intentional or not” rule still applies which, for me,
should be the case for the attacking team too. THAT makes far more sense to
most, I would suggest.
It’s
just all…hufffff…
v AFC Bournemouth.
With less
than 3 hours to go before KO, here’s a quick finishing off of this article – with hyperlinks
to be completed later / probably after the match (now complete)…
 |
| Vitality Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct
from starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).
Fluid 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Aguero____________________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
_____________Laporte________Otamendi___________
____________________Ederson____________________
Ederson
in net.
Having
recovered from cramp / exhaustion after the Spurs game, Alex likely to take up
the left-wing back slot. Kyle likely to retain the opposite flank of the
defence with Aymeric & Nicholas in-between.
Rodders
to run the space ahead of those with the more-attacking quartet likely to be
Raheem, rotated David, Kevin & rotated Riyad.
I’m
expecting angry, angry Sergio to have a cracker this afternoon ahead of all of
those!
Claudio
the back-up stopper, Joao and possibly Eric the defensive choices form
the side. Phil, Ilkay, Barnardo and Gabriel are the rather impressive, more
creative / attacking options on the bench.
Notable
absences:
- Benjamin Mendy – Back in training and
getting his fitness ‘up to speed’ in preparation for ‘take 3’ since he signed
over 2 years ago.
- John Stones – Injured for just a
short time, hopefully, with a muscle strain. Continuing
niggles with John are a concern for me.
- Fernandinho – Fit to take part, I
would think, but Foden likely to given the nod ahead of the Brazilian who might
be-being given as much preparation time while the fixtures are light.
- Leroy Sane – Expected to be ready around
February / March 2020 after surgery was complete in August 2019.
No probs there.
Result?
I think we’ll most definitely ‘have our tails up’ for this one and although our
hosts are a dogged side with a high work rate and players who can get behind
you; I expect us to bombard their red & black wall until it cracks a few
times.
An away win.
Last season’s,
corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Win
