Premier League 2023/24

[The Lusophone]

57 minutes ago, Cymbols said:

Probably this one to be fair.

Then it was correct.

[Colly]

12 hours ago, gunnar hendershow said:

I think the complaint I have here is that above all it creates a gray area on something that is an actual safety concern for players (studs in the chest). I think I heard the ruling was that it wasn't a penalty because both were playing the ball and the contact was "unavoidable".  And while that is a fair interpretation of what happened (since I do agree playing the ball doesn't necessarily require touching the ball first), it seems to me that it rewards a risky, unsafe play by Doku.

It absolutely doesn't do this by the way, as one interpretation of the laws in an isolated English game doesn't set any kind of precedent, in a sport with so many moving parts that something similar may happen tomorrow somewhere in the world or not happen again for months. You could argue the gray area is there already, but football is an inherently risky sport, and if we were going to eliminate all the gray areas where a safety concern potentially existed there wouldn't be much of a sport left. We'd certainly have banned bicycle kicks and any kind of volley years ago, and potentially progressed to walking football. I digress.

We do have laws on dangerous play and serious foul play which will have been considered, but realistically Doku isn't lunging, he's stationary and swinging to clear a ball in the box and has no idea McAllister is there (so no intent). The worst he's going to end up with is a scrape and a bruise, it's as mentioned a long way from a De Jong king fu kick.

[Gazz]

Can't believe Poch has entered the Big Brother house on a game night.

[stokeriño]

With every new Chelsea team sheet I learn the name of a new teenager who has never before appeared on the bench. It's an education.

Just now, Gazz said:

Can't believe Poch has entered the Big Brother house on a game night.

He could probably do less harm from there.

Also somehow I read the line-up twice but didn't twig that Cucurella was back until the hair appeared in front of me.

[stokeriño]

Knew an equaliser would come, but at least it's just before HT rather than immediately after (awaiting a 1-2 score come the 48th minute).

Fascinating game if only in the sense that both teams have been pretty shit in attack and it's a marvel to see anything actually come off.

[Colly]

I basically wrote it off after Gordon got injured, pleasantly surprised so far.

[stokeriño]

The sad part is that Chelsea are only going to play worse after the restart.

[stokeriño]

...Okay, well, I factored without Cole Palmer stepping up.

[Hobo]

Liverpool's former Sporting Director Michael Edwards is set to return to the club as Head of Football (whatever that means).

[METALMAN]

Well, football is  a kind of loss-leading marketing operation used by brands that refer to themselves as “football clubs”. It enables larger and far more important parts of the business, like merchandising and media, to bring in more revenue by boosting brand image. So he’s basically in advertising.

[Hobo]

17 minutes ago, METALMAN said:

Well, football is  a kind of loss-leading marketing operation used by brands that refer to themselves as “football clubs”. It enables larger and far more important parts of the business, like merchandising and media, to bring in more revenue by boosting brand image. So he’s basically in advertising.

In my day, head of football was a thing Naill Quinn did to score goals.

[Szumi]

56 minutes ago, Hobo said:

Liverpool's former Sporting Director Michael Edwards is set to return to the club as Head of Football (whatever that means).

Yeah it's definitely very vague what all he's actually going to do because he didn't want to just be a Sporting Director again, and is why he turned us and other big clubs down over the past 2 years. But having him back in any capacity is still a massive win in my opinion, given how much knowledge he has both of Liverpool and of analyzing data.

It also will coincide with Bournemouth Sporting Director Richard Hughes joining us as well, which isn't a surprise at all considering these two are close friends and have known each other going back to when Hughes played at Portsmouth and Edwards was one of the first performance analysts there. 

[Adam]

From what I read, Edwards turned down the Sporting Director role in January and has come back because Liverpool offered him to be the boss of the Sporting Director instead.

[DavidMarrio]

I think Billy Hogan's job got restructured not long ago which gave people the impression this move was gonna happen. 

Don't know if im reading too much into the job title but suggests FSG might be looking into the multi-club model

[stokeriño]

7 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

Don't know if im reading too much into the job title but suggests FSG might be looking into the multi-club model

They've seen Clearlake leading Strasbourg to possibly-relegation and don't want to miss out on the fun.

[Lineker]

Bournemouth vs. Luton is getting replayed tonight. According to BBC Sport's live page, there's some really special, touching things going on there to mark the occasion.

[Lineker]

What a game!

[Cymbols]

Have to think that is catastrophic for Luton’s survival chances. Talk about a dent to your confidence.

[DavidMarrio]

Makes their next game even bigger given its Forest at home. 

The proverbial six pointer. 

[Bobfoc]

Luton v Forest on Saturday will be massive. If we assume that Forest get a six-point deduction, a win would put them level on points with Luton. A draw would leave them three adrift and a defeat would make the margin six points. There's a good chance it will be the relegation decider.