Nerf

In fairness that video clips out the 5 or so seconds beforehand where Ritchie is chomping at his heels and pulling his shirt. Is it it a dive? Yeah. But he goes down because he's backed into a corner after Ritchie is all over him. I don't think the lino gives the foul for the actual dive, it's the moments preceding it.

Episode thoughts

Never mind us winning the league or not. It's highly likely he wins the Golden Boot again and still doesn't make the TOTY. Silly.

We don't know whether the Arya scene is going to be a plot point or not yet...

The thing is we literally have a direct point of comparison. This is a show in which we've seen a woman we can safely assume is in her mid 20s try to manipulate and coerce a boy that is in the range of 11-14 into sex for the sake of political gain. Guess what? Nobody cared.

On the Arya discussion:

FIFA is basically unplayable offline without sliders now. The gameplay has somehow got worse over time.

That's what I'm thinking. Spurs (and arguably England) just seem to play more coherently when he isn't the focal point. I don't think it's a coincidence that they've gone from challenging the top 2 to fighting for anywhere between 3rd-6th since he returned from injury. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they pushed on from here.

The most damning indictment of Spurs is that 3 months ago United were thirteen points behind them, and now they're level. I think at some point a conversation needs to be had about their progress. Either the players or the manager just aren't as good as they're purported to be. I'm not sure which it is.

Because Pickford's got little arms.

This is a bizarre take. It's like saying Chelsea fluked their way to 90+ points with a million lucky 1-0 wins. At some point, it stops being luck and starts being the will to win. 19 goals in the last 15 minutes of games this season does not indicate luck, but the ability to force wins in crucial moments, which is exactly what City did last year. Not to mention City have had their fair share of dodgy decisions go their way, and we've had them go against us. That happens. You can't single out one (or two, since I'm guessing you're lumping Divock 90+6 in to force this narrative) example of a last minute winner and write off an entire season to "good fortune." This is a team that has scored 72 goals and conceded a mere 19 with six left to play, and is well on pace for 90 odd points. I don't want to hear anything about bottle jobs or flukes, no matter what happens come May. What City and Liverpool are both doing is historically good, and the fact they're both doing it in the same season should not undermine either team. The only thing "luck" comes into is that whoever finishes second will be desperately unlucky to do so.

Give it Heskeh til end uh season.

Isn't this, like, general consensus?

Isn't this kind of exactly what happened under Guardiola and Klopp, though? Pep had some absolutely shocking results in his first season, and their league position simply wasn't good enough for the calibre of player they had. Likewise, Liverpool demonstrated moments in Klopp's first few seasons, and those moments became increasingly regular as the years wore on. Repetition is vastly underrated in coaches that have such a distinct playing style, and City and Liverpool (and, to a lesser extent, Spurs) have/are reaping the benefits of sticking with their formulas even when things aren't going well. Chelsea and Arsenal should look to do the same. A change of manager shouldn't even be entering conscious thought until at least the end of their second seasons, and even then, only if thing are particularly dire.

Really? Had a few deflected shots go in myself and the original shooter was credited.

For the love of fuck please do not patch the life out of this. It plays great for the first time since like '14.

So, is it worth picking this up on PS4 when it comes out tomorrow (UK) or should I wait until patches/DLC/whatever fixes some of the shit you guys are talking about? I'm keeping in mind that tomorrow is also FIFA day so it could prove costly if I get both.

Their Adam Cole model is literally worse than the CAWs of him from last year's game. That's hilariously bad.

My favourite bit is his complaint of "Liverpool First Team vs. Man United Kids." Y'know, despite the average age of United's team being a year older than Liverpool's last night.

The man has lost the plot. Third season unraveling incoming?

Liverpool's member sale is a joke every single year. Luckily I managed to get sorted for Brighton, Cardiff, Fulham and Newcastle after 2+ hours in the queue, but my mate didn't get a single ticket in today's sale or yesterday's. Can't wait to endure it all again in November.

Liverpool have had a second bid of £66m accepted by Roma for Alisson. Seems they got spooked by Chelsea's interest and moved quickly to get it done.

Literally nobody said that. The closest was "don't write him off too quickly, look at how DDG turned it around." He was given his chance, it didn't work out.

Liverpool have FINALLY made an actual bid for Alisson. £62m.

Try telling the toffees that. Everton Twitter is legitimately using this as evidence they're finishing top 4.