And don't forget we were denied a penalty for an arm pull more forceful than Ben White's last season that saw our goal disallowed.
These non-calls, especially in the box, have become one of my biggest pet peeves and officiating. Why don’t they just set the bar at: * if the action is not a generally allowable, fair-play action, and it impedes the opponent’s natural movement or gait, then it’s a foul. Regardless, of where it takes place on the pitch.
What annoys me the most, and as I've mentioned many times before, it's the "follow through" variety of foul that's the worst. Anywhere else on the pitch, play gets whistled and often results in a card when a defender follows through after a clearance or pass has been made and makes contact late. In the box after a shot has been taken (especially when it's a bad shot that goes out of play) and a defender clears out the attacker . . . play on, nothing to see, balls already gone so no big deal. It drives me insane.
Nice game but highlighted the need for an actual striker I like gabby and he was involved in both goals which is great. But Nketiah is not the one to back him up
Thats in the rules, the issue is that the officials don't want to make the hard call and award penalties. Really they should, and VAR should be then used to see if it was a legitimate penalty or if it was exaggeration/diving. Whats worse was the commentary on my feed said sure, he was holding his arm illegally, but DO WE REALLY WANT TO BE GIVING PENALTIES FOR THAT? And the answer is YES, YES WE DO.
Exactly. And when I said "set the bar" I meant set the current "interpretation" or "enforcement" of the laws, the letter of which I was very confident would support them choosing to do this.
Martin Ødegaard completed 17 line-breaking passes in the opposition half for Arsenal at the weekend - the most by a player in a Premier League match in 2023/24 pic.twitter.com/tumNQJ3h9U— StatsBomb (@StatsBomb) December 4, 2023 This is what I want to see more of from him. If he can be a complete CM and give us this chance creation, we may start rocketing upward.
He’s just been injured this season, looked way off it. Upon watching the replay the difference for him since the international break is apparent
He has to go on a 10/12 game streak of these performances. That is what it will take to hold off the other teams. The thing about this Klopp/Pep era is that those guys put so much pressure on other teams to keep up, last year may have implanted in the team what it takes. BTW What's up with Partey is he alive?
He played deeper on Saturday and looked like a superstar eight. Player X been partying in Accra and hopefully not up to other stunts, but who knows with that monster.
Maybe. But I think without Partey, he's having to drop deeper to get the ball. Rice is fantastic at nearly everything he does, but playing those Partey-style line breaking passes from mid and/or deep positions is still something he's learning----although I feel like we're starting to see it.
maybe, but he never really sparkled deep before. If this is a new leaf for him, I am looking forward to it because the guy on Saturday is what I envisioned him becoming. I think the problem earlier was he wasn't dropping deep
Ode is a world class player he’s been off this season due to the lack of Partey imo sharing the creative load once he is back, if he ever is, I feel like he and rice will compliment ode well
Not sure it's fair to say he "is" already world class. Personally I feel like he's got that potential, but in order to use the verb "is" I'd want to see more consistency from Ode when he actually plays, kinda like we see with Saka, Rice & Saliba who are arguably more clearly at or close to world class at this moment.