Tonight's relegation tussle

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Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

None of that answers my question, though.

Apologies, but this has been a bugbear of mine for years. I just don't get it at all. It's my kick-off, but it's apparently fine for you to wrestle the ball off me and run away with it. Utter nonsense.

:hehe:

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Can’t understand your beef here. Team pulls one back with very little time to go. Player of team that just scored want’s the game restarted pronto, opposing player holds onto ball as long as he can, All of a sudden we have a chuckle brothers to you to me sketch. All so avoidable.
If a ref can book a keeper for holding onto the ball, and time wasting, then he should book a defender for doing the same.
As i said earlier, this is easy to avoid, by making the Ref the only person on the pitch, allowed to retrieve the ball after a goal has been scored.
Players are petulant, so the opportunity for them to be must be minimised.

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Originally Posted by Ivortheengine

If both teams were out my back garden ,I’d draw the curtains

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Bet you wouldn’t.

That was a decent watch. Liverpool are struggling and they miss Mane badly but they still have Thiago, Darwin and Jota to come back.

Could be the most open prem for years, I’m all for it.

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Originally Posted by BlueArmy 86

That was a decent watch. Liverpool are struggling and they miss Mane badly but they still have Thiago, Darwin and Jota to come back.

Could be the most open prem for years, I’m all for it.

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yeah it was an entertaining game

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Originally Posted by William Treseder

Can’t understand your beef here. Team pulls one back with very little time to go. Player of team that just scored want’s the game restarted pronto, opposing player holds onto ball as long as he can, All of a sudden we have a chuckle brothers to you to me sketch. All so avoidable.
If a ref can book a keeper for holding onto the ball, and time wasting, then he should book a defender for doing the same.
As i said earlier, this is easy to avoid, by making the Ref the only person on the pitch, allowed to retrieve the ball after a goal has been scored.
Players are petulant, so the opportunity for them to be must be minimised.

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Isn't all of this redundant though? Even if Salah had run off and placed the ball on the centre spot, the kick-off can only take place when the referee 'gives the signal'.

Reading Law 8 on thefa.com the wording is kind of weird though.

The law states that 'the ball is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves'. This is after the referee has signalled to kick-off. So what happens if the referee signals, and nobody puts the ball 'play'? What provisions in the laws are there for dealing with that? There must be some otherwise, you could just watch 22 players standing around doing nothing for 90 minutes (not that dissimilar to our performance against Bristol City).

Edit: hugely dissimilar in fact because we only had 11 on the park (I think). It's late.

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Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

I couldn't disagree more. It's Man Utd's kick-off, so why should he give the ball to any of Liverpool's players? Never understood that nonsense at all. No idea why refs seem to side with the team who have just scored. It's not their ball, plain and simple.

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Christ i agree with you :ayatollah:

Utd are not the same without Best ,Charlton and Law

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Originally Posted by stan butler

Christ i agree with you :ayatollah:

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So should the ref book a player from the side that’s losing if he runs and retrieves a ball for a goal kick that the defending side, who are winning, refuse to go and get? After all by your logic, it’s not his side’s ball.

Players very often get booked for time wasting for delaying a restart and that was blatant delaying last night. Perhaps refs should just stand there, stop their watch and just prior to the restart an announcement should be made, “Due to blatant time wasting, a minimum of an additional two minutes will be added on”. We’re paying to watch the ball in play, not a mini rugby match in the six yard box.

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Originally Posted by splott parker

So should the ref book a player from the side that’s losing if he runs and retrieves a ball for a goal kick that the defending side, who are winning, refuse to go and get? After all by your logic, it’s not his side’s ball.

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No, obviously not. He’s not manhandling his opponent, so he’s doing nothing wrong. He’s merely retrieving a dead ball. Different situation altogether to wrestling the ball away from an opponent.

You say Bruno Fernandes was blatantly delaying the restart last night, but that’s nonsense. He didn’t have any time to do that as Salah and Co were trying to wrestle the ball away from him within a couple of seconds of the goal being scored.

Enjoyable game. Fernandes should have had a second yellow and off.....
Nice to see the obsession with ALWAYS playing out from the back was seemingly dropped......There is a time a place for it, but not obsessionally ALWAYS. always....

Anyone else think Klopp may not last the season? Dortmund's demise in his final season with them was dramatic and I wonder if his methods grow stale somewhat after a while.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Anyone else think Klopp may not last the season? Dortmund's demise in his final season with them was dramatic and I wonder if his methods grow stale somewhat after a while.

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I’d say there’s next to no chance of that happening. He has enough credit in the bank to go well past this season. Can’t see them finishing outside the top 4 anyway.

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Originally Posted by William Treseder

I’d say there’s next to no chance of that happening. He has enough credit in the bank to go well past this season. Can’t see them finishing outside the top 4 anyway.

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No, I'm not talking about the sack, I was thinking more of a genuine by mutual consent departure - Klopp's an intelligent man and I wonder if he thinks there's a need for quite a major rebuild not too far away. That stat about them going 1-0 down in seven straight games I think it is now is a concerning one and the way his teams play could mean players get burned out quicker than you'd expect.

Alarm bells may be ringing at 'Pool.
The defence has looked suspect for a few games. The full backs are frequently caught out of position and the centre back pairing is constantly changing. Milner had some right 'goes' at Van Dyke during the game. If 'Pool are attacked they will leak goals.
It may be a little early to react to what's happened in the first three games - it wasn't long ago that they beat Man City at Wembley.
They have serious injury problems but I think that if Nunez had played yesterday, the result would have been different.

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Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

No, obviously not. He’s not manhandling his opponent, so he’s doing nothing wrong. He’s merely retrieving a dead ball. Different situation altogether to wrestling the ball away from an opponent.

You say Bruno Fernandes was blatantly delaying the restart last night, but that’s nonsense. He didn’t have any time to do that as Salah and Co were trying to wrestle the ball away from him within a couple of seconds of the goal being scored.

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Dave, he even dropped to the floor feigning a head injury after he lost the battle for the ball, which, thankfully for him the ref totally ignored because he had most probably had to issue a second yellow. Not one other Manchester player came to his aid, they most probably thought, ‘What a knob’. Perhaps a red card would have stopped his gallop in future incidents.

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Originally Posted by splott parker

Dave, he even dropped to the floor feigning a head injury after he lost the battle for the ball, which, thankfully for him the ref totally ignored because he had most probably had to issue a second yellow. Not one other Manchester player came to his aid, they most probably thought, ‘What a knob’. Perhaps a red card would have stopped his gallop in future incidents.

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I know, I saw it, but that’s not the issue I’m talking about. I couldn’t care less about Fernandes. What irritates me is the general notion that any player has a licence to manhandle an opponent and wrestle the ball away from him if a goal is scored late in a game. It’s a nonsense.

In the unlikely event that City were leading 2-0 against the Jacks and Swansea scored a late goal, I’d love to see the reaction if Piroe or Obafemi attempted to wrestle the ball away from Ng or Allsop.

I’d also like to see the reaction if a player did this in the first couple of minutes of a game as opposed to the last couple of minutes.

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Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

I know, I saw it, but that’s not the issue I’m talking about. I couldn’t care less about Fernandes. What irritates me is the general notion that any player has a licence to manhandle an opponent and wrestle the ball away from him if a goal is scored late in a game. It’s a nonsense.

In the unlikely event that City were leading 2-0 against the Jacks and Swansea scored a late goal, I’d love to see the reaction if Piroe or Obafemi attempted to wrestle the ball away from Ng or Allsop.

I’d also like to see the reaction if a player did this in the first couple of minutes of a game as opposed to the last couple of minutes.

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Him dropping to the floor holding his head feigning injury was the result of him losing the ‘grab the ball’ battle. Had he not grabbed the ball that wouldn’t have occurred, it was all linked to his ridiculous actions. Time wasting, which was his aim, should be clamped down on and the minutes publicly added on. Yes, it was his team’s ball to restart but as is the case when goalkeepers get booked for taking an age over a goal kick, even though it’s their team’s ball to restart, it’s time wasting. A bookable offence which if the same criteria was applied would have seen him sent off. It was a ridiculous instance in a decent game.

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Originally Posted by splott parker

Him dropping to the floor holding his head feigning injury was the result of him losing the ‘grab the ball’ battle. Had he not grabbed the ball that wouldn’t have occurred, it was all linked to his ridiculous actions. Time wasting, which was his aim, should be clamped down on and the minutes publicly added on. Yes, it was his team’s ball to restart but as is the case when goalkeepers get booked for taking an age over a goal kick, even though it’s their team’s ball to restart, it’s time wasting. A bookable offence which if the same criteria was applied would have seen him sent off. It was a ridiculous instance in a decent game.

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I'd drop him if I was the manager, he is an embarrassment to himself and the team.

Why FIFA haven't clamped down on time wasting is baffling. Would like to know how many players are booked through out the season for time wasting. They have to bring in stop the clock.