This match was tougher than Everton, but the lads escaped with a 1-0 victory making it 3 consecutive wins and a 4 point lead on 18th place. This is also the highest ranked club we've beaten this year. It was by the barest of margins, as an equalizer was ruled offside after a lengthy VAR review. I'm not sure if they're following their own rules here, because it was barely discernible, not an obvious error. On the other hand, the linesmen seem to not call close margins, leaving it to VAR. So, in many cases they are not really overturning the judgement of the official. Regardless, it was quite fortunate as Krafth had recently come on and was not quite up to speed yet. I've quite enjoyed entertaining Lampard and Gerrard at St. James'. Let's hope they always have a tough time there.
Just so you know, in England, "obvious error" isn't applied to offside. It simply positioning. If you have any body part capable of playing the ball beyond the second last defender, you are considered offside regardless of how much of a difference there is. As such, AR's are instructed to leave their flag down unless the offside is glaringly obvious.
It's frustrating to see Bruno still only getting less than 10 minutes in each game since we got him. What is going on?
According to this, looks like he was seen as a long term investment, not short term as he's having a difficult time adjusting to the English game.
I guess I understand the rationale of not experimenting with the lineup (which has been solid so far) in winnable games as we're fighting for survival. Looking at the fixture, March 13 is the first opportunity to unleash him since we're playing Chelsea away, which is most likely a game that we will lose.