Topic: Sportsbet.io's English Premier League Football Pool Discussion Thread - page 307. (Read 140914 times)

a lot can happen in just 24h so placing the freebet today still sounds very risky, imo...Personally i'll wait until the games (2pm kick-off) have the starting lineups confirmed, that'll give me like an hour to choose a match and decide what to add to the betbuilder. For now West Ham v Saints looks like the only one with decent odds

Damn icopress, looks like you already wasted your freebet. We should all have been like Welsh, waiting for today at least to place our bets (I don't know why I have to put freebets down as soon as I see them appear, some kind of compulsion).

@casperBGD Nah nothing about Covid-proof. You need the other team as well to be, since Wolves are 100% vaccinated (the only EPL team to be so) and still their game was called off because of the other team.

Also, Everton actually got a successful request for postponement due to injury rather than Covid, or at least, it was a case of both (as even with Covid they were okay to play until training injury left them with only 9 players).

Not going to be a fun Boxing Day without Liverpool but as long as Chelsea and/or City lose I'll be happy I guess heh.

Even if Chelsea win they have already showed that they are not capable for fighting for the title this year.They had some bad results at home against weaker teams and also away the same thing as of lately.The team fighting for the title should not do more than one or two false steps but with bigger distance in games and not in consecutive games.For me the title is going to Manchester City or Liverpool depending who make less errors during this tight schedule we are having at this time.

yeah, postponed, and two other matches as well postponed
nevertheless, Arsenal is still playing, they are obviously covid-proof

City has a good chance against Leicester to improve their difference on the top, Chelsea is also playing, but Villa could a harsh team to swallow, but Chelsea should score against Villa, their defense is pretty meshy

I was going to say you should have waited until the game day of some hours before the game kicks off before using your freebet as you'd lose the freebet should the game gets postponed, but my fear has happened as I just saw that the match between Everton and Burnley have also been postponed.

I probably wouldn't have fancy history in this case, since Everton have been literally shit themselves lately. I would have gone for a draw, perhaps scoreless one for that matter.

Sad news, especially for those who participate in the FPL, but personally I decided to use my free bet to hedge my prediction in the pool and did not find a more suitable match for Betbuilder than the match with Burnley and Everton. I really don’t understand why the odds providers give such high odds at Everton, since the Toffees have only two main players in the infirmary, (also, according to statistics, Everton has not lost a single match on Boxing Day). 

Its a catch 22. Basically, the players get a little bit more rest after playing recently, although we rested players in the last cup game with this game in mind. Then, Robertson now is suspended for more important games, he wouldn't have been a massive miss against Leeds, with Kostas being a decent enough replacement, and would have probably enjoyed that game against Leeds. I believe he misses the Chelsea game now which could be crucial if we want to challenge for the title.

Though, judging by their recent form I think it'll be between Liverpool, and Manchester City depending on the injuries, and Covid. What I don't get is one of the teams on boxing day apparently have 5 players out because of Covid, but were rejected their request to postpone the game, which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me considering several others have been postponed.

I can't for the life of me remember what team it was though.

I really hope this is it for postponements. Love my boxing day football and I could not take more bad news Not to mention what will happen to my Premier League Fantasy team if for instance City does not play the match.

Too bad for Liverpool, they are in wicked form and they could have used a couple more matches before Salah and Mane go away for AFCON.

I'm waiting until an hour before most kick off, since I expect more matches on boxing day will be postponed. Annoying that it happened, since I quite fancied us against Leeds considering their run of form right now, might have been able to stat pad, and get some nice bonuses by going for Liverpool at half time, and at the end of the match without conceding. I actually quite fancied Wolves that also got postponed too.

Quite confident against Leicester after watching most of our first time out, and still beating them on pens. Obviously, wasn't pretty at times, but I thought when the more experienced players came on we looked much better. Specifically, Konate really shored up the defense.

Damn I just found out about Liverpool-Leeds! That means I'm going to have a crapload of accas and singles voided... only found out now trying to use my Betbuilder (the free weekend one we all got) and didn't see the Leeds-Liverpool game getting called off.

Klopp is going to have a headache now, we were saving up our guns for this match, but I guess now our next match is going to have very fresh legs... and it's a Leicester rematch.

The thing is with VAR its not new, at least in other sports. Rugby has been using it successfully for years, and their implementation on it is much better than the ones in Football. In fact, I would argue that VAR is fundamentally flawed in its current implementation, and its not just the people that are using it.

I'm also not a big fan of the recent changes to handballs, for example Salah the other day handballed it in the build up, however because he didn't score off the handball, and wasn't looking to handle it intentionally, the goal was given because a team mate scored off of his pass. Now, I'm not a big fan of that, personally I think a handball is a handball even if unintentional, if it changes the direction of the ball, I think that should be called. If it brushes the hand, or doesn't really effect the projection of the ball, then leave it go. However, I do think that handball slightly played into our benefit on the day. Obviously, I wasn't complaining at the time as I wanted the goal to stand, but on review it probably shouldn't have if it wasn't for this new rule, which I don't agree with at all.

Anyway, I say we bring in a similar implementation to rugby, especially giving the refs mics, broadcasting the decision making process to the fans, and having clear, and decisive rules because currently what we're having is instances where as a fan I don't actually know what will be called, and judging by the commentators they don't either. I get that its the interpretation of the refs, but the problem is their decisions significantly effect teams in the league, and not just that particular game.

Two matches have been canceled so far on boxing day in the premier league and i think there will be at least 2-3 more matches that will be canceled do to covid. Hopefully not some big names get canceled on sunday so we can watch and bet on some good football

Couple more games have been cancelled:


https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1540492/premier-league-boxing-day-fixtures-cancelled-evg

Figured as much. I'm sure some teams are taking advantage of this or will claim there's positive covid tests when in reality there might not be. Several managers have already voiced their displeasure about the busy and packed xmas/new year period and this is the perfect get out clause. Leeds could certainly do with a break whilst their injuries recover. The game against Liverpool probably wasn't going to be pretty.

a bit off-topic

https://twitter.com/realbedford/status/1473059502995951624

are we going to see Bedford FC in ten years in Premier league, bought with BTC by Peter McCormack?
from tenth division to Premier league is nine years, but they foreseen one season without promotion 

interesting play

There looks to be alot of matches as it should be for boxing day in the EPL.
Here is the schedule as it stands before the holiday break:

Don't see any of the above getting postponed any further or they might be facing issues with scheduling as other leagues are with reshuffling in theirs.

The problem isn’t VAR, the problem is the idiots using it. PL officials are some of the most incompetent in European football, certainly in the top European leagues. You never see this many bad decisions in the CL. If we can see our clubs buy the best players then why can’t the FA/PL employ the best referees in the world? I’m sick of English officials ruining games. Titles can be decided by small margins, teams can be relegated by small margins, these idiots have VAR to ensure the rules are properly applied. Mistakes by referees should be minimal due to having VAR to help.

Any way enough ranting, let’s look to the Boxing Day games boys.

And for TV it would be chance to make commercial break . Football is one of rare sports which can't be interrupted for 45 minutes at least and I think it's way too long for TV.
But in general, I don't see problems about VAR. It works well in all leagues except EPL. Maybe coach challenge isn't bad idea, but I think one challenger per game would be enough.

It will disrupt the flow of the game and at the same time it will make it even more interesting. For example, It could be used to cool down the pressure when the game is getting to intense so some players will have few minutes of rest while the decision is being reviewed but yeah I think the game will be interesting if somehow this is implemented. Probably not going to be anytime soon though


It was a close one between you and shipley


Exactly which is why I think its better to have each team to call for the challenges review if needed instead of the refs

Yeah, agree with all points above for VAR and I think on this thread alone, a few ideas around VAR challenges (review call) that are all similar where each team's manager (or maybe even captain) can call for a couple, maybe 3 reviews. It's done in tennis, and even in demonstrations of sportsmanship (where a player believes his opponent was wrongly penalised and uses his challenge to review)... it's happened often enough where players plead with ref not to send off an opponent when he believes there was no call for a red.

I know I was fully against VAR the way EPL implemented and credit due, they've found a way to make it less intrusive now BUT if we already know refs can call for a review, then the disruption is already there, and indeed, better to have a more consistent way for these reviews.

Just when I thought VAR was getting to tolerable levels. Anyway. Boxing day games. I'm waiting til early Sunday to put picks in.

it is most probably total closeness, since shipley foreseen four goal on Tottenham, but not their scorers (one less for Tottenham, one more for Liverpool)
we had shared yellow caps before, and I not sure that they had all scores the same, you can check that out?

nevertheless, it is as Superbru puts it in the end, we can just try to unfold it, congrats on City 0:4 pick