So how did Chelsea not get a penalty when Maguire was MMA grappling the Chelsea player? VAR is a joke. I've seen VAR give them when a player is holding a fibre of the attackers shirt yet Maguire is practically throttling the player holding him down and no penalty given. If he hadn't done that the Chelsea player likely would have got his head to it.
This really needs to change. VAR just makes all those calls which fall into ref judgement area very exposed and we need to have clear rules what is penalty and what isn't. Foul situations will always be a grey area but I am totally pissed with hand balls. That one should be regulated without any doubt. Either make it in way that every hand ball is the penalty or make it that it is penalty only if there is clear intention to play with the hand. This way everybody feels like they are getting worse treatment.
The question everybody asks when they watch EPL. In La Liga at least, even if I disagreed that the VAR penalty on Ramos was correct (he even somehow dived the wrong way of the direction his shirt was tugged!), at least I can say the decisions, although wrong, were reviewed, and were quite consistent. Pulling shirt is a foul whether or not the guy fell or dived, for example.
But in EPL? Var or no VAR, the decisions are so inconsistent. Whether or not the Chelsea player felt it, or fell, or whatever, Maguire obviously fouled no question, arms around a player, and nobody on earth can understant these things.
It was a penalty, but he did exaggerate it also which is what players tend to do. It's the same as when a player is fouled but he remains upright and carries on the foul isn't given, yet if he dives and throws himself on the floor the ref will give it so that's what they usually do. It's getting annoying to me now when players start rolling around on the floor acting like they've been mortally wounded looking for the foul or a card.
So how did Chelsea not get a penalty when Maguire was MMA grappling the Chelsea player? VAR is a joke. I've seen VAR give them when a player is holding a fibre of the attackers shirt yet Maguire is practically throttling the player holding him down and no penalty given. If he hadn't done that the Chelsea player likely would have got his head to it.
Yup, it's unbelievable this was not given. You can give all the technology to them, but if the referees aren't good enough you did not really help them - you're probably just making things worse.
Bottom line - I think they should bring in referees from other countries. The PL is already considered as an early version of the Super League that's in the making and it sets really high standards in almost all areas - except for refereeing where it's borderline tolerable at best.
I don't think it's about foreign referees. Refs get briefed about how to implement rules by their own governing bodies so it's something that needs to change at the top.
Feeling good with 15 points, and that lifted me up 20 positions... just a reminder to everyone how a week of good results can propel you proper.
Been a while since I got 2 exact scores in a row. Let's see how shit I do next week;)
I moved up from last place all the way to joint 24th last round so it shows you how easy it is to move up as that's half the table. Just need to keep up the pace now to make up ground.
I had Wolves to win 2:1 and then changed all today games to draws and chose 1:1 for the Wolves. I am playing Wolves 0:0 first half for the rest of season. It is happening almost every game.