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Agree that Sheffield United have exceeded all expectations this year, been great to see.
Never mind the Championship, League 1 is pretty mental as well. Especially if you're a tractor boy!
Loving the championship. 13 points separate top to halfway in 12th! With 16 to play. Leeds lose at home to relegation threatened Wigan to let Fulham within 3 points of 2nd. And the Baggies win to go top again. It’s all mad. 😀
And yes, fair play to Sheffield Utd - they’ve been quality this season. Wolves probably disappointed with an away draw to a dreary mid-table side.
6 points separate 5th to 14th, still all to play for in that mid table tussle, could go from a European position to looking over your shoulder at the relegation battle very quickly and vice versa.
I said when Leeds were god knows how many points clear how wonderful it would be if they let it slip again. It's on 😂
🙄 Could do MSP, nothing guaranteed yet, we all know that. Highest points total needed for many years has been 42 and it's usually mid 30's. It's a strange old season though, but I'm quietly confident that there are three worse teams than us. Survival was this season's objective
Yep, looks like Leeds are up for bottling it again!
Hope Leicester clinch a Champions League spot - Vardy’s back now so they should kick on again. Should have beaten Chelsea yesterday, who I hope get caught for fourth by one of Sheff Utd or Wolves.
Definite bravo to Sheffield Utd plus Watford & Southampton!
West Ham look in a bit of bother, especially with their run of fixtures coming up. Good job they’ve got a specialist in winning in charge 😂
Well that was all a bit bonkers! That was some finish from the new kid!
That 4th place spot is going to get interesting. The Spurs v Chelski March in a couple of weeks should be a bit tasty
Who’s hoping Southampton win their fa cup replay ? 😉
It's done, isn't it - after that loss? (well, it was done before really)
City have 13 games left, if they go perfect from here they can get to 90 points.
Liverpool are on 73, also 13 to play, but 6 wins out of 13 gets them to 91.
I'm more concerned now that 106 is in danger.... Liverpool could get 112
(and we played 46 games.....)
I reckon City’s priorities now are Champions League (no chance with their defence) and ensuring Liverpool don’t go unbeaten. For what it’s worth I don’t think they’ll go unbeaten - Klopp will give Virgil and some of the front three a rest if they progress on the Champions League. Lovren screamer of an own goal to end the run?!
The goals have really dried up for Sterling - he was scoring for fun a few months ago.
The goals have really dried up for Sterling – he was scoring for fun a few months ago.
And like the rest of the City squad, he has become very spikey hasn’t he? Lucky to stay on the pitch today. I hope referees start giving other players the protection from City tactical fouling that Pep has always demanded for his. 😀 Some proper comedy moments in that game today.
Missed the highlights on MOTD2 as was caught out by the earlier than usual start tonight. Had 5live on earlier and Robbie Savage was going on about them needing to renew the team, 5 or so new players needed. Thought that was ridiculous but he’s maybe not far off - D Silva’s off, Sane too apparently, and the full backs aren’t as good as Liverpool’s. Fernandinho’s winding down and Rodri doesn’t look to me a replacement for him. Poor Pep!
Poor Pep!
IT's times like this you find out the real grit of the managers, not when it's going well. Barca he inherited the best squad the world has seen arguably.... Bayern again he got a wonderful team when he went there... City, they were pretty decent and he had a massive budget... This year though it's all gone a bit wrong, so will be interesting to see how he/they recover and what they can do to fix the issues over summer etc.
Poor Pep! Doubt he’ll hang around if City fail to overturn the ban.
The keep Ole at United scheme is working brilliantly isn’t it? Let them scrape 5th and Ole gets the glory of qualifying for the Champions League and keeps his job!
I wonder if this is the reason there wasn't much spending in the window from anyone? They knew this may be coming.
Might explain Pep’s mood recently too. Although being so far off the pace is more likely.
Haven’t worked it out, and just picked it from twitter, but if City’s ban stands, Liverpool have qualified for the champions league. In February. Although, from what I can see, the most Sheffield can achieve is 75 - 39 with 12 to play. Liverpool already have 76. So I’m not sure it matters whether City are in or out? Anyway, it’s nice to have top four secured. 😀
City’s appeal will take two years , cost lots of money , someone in Fifa will get a new holiday home and all will be well when the court of arbitration for sport(sic)rules in favour of manC.
Oh you cynic, you! Spot on though.
😬
Will Liverpool cantering to the Premiership, all the fun is watching the Championship this year - more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing on a Waltzer. At Christmas you would have put lots of money on West Brom and Leeds being promoted (well, perhaps not Leeds given what happened last season). Then suddenly Forest, Fulham and Brentford came strong, now everyone is dropping silly points (and often at the death). Fulham being beaten 0-3 to the bottom club, Leeds giving a three goal lead away and drawing 3-3 recently. Bonkers.
all the fun is
Liverpool cantering to the Premiership
VAR Playing a blinder tonight🙄
VAR is consistently inconsistent- the one thing it was meant to rule out. Get rid. It’s not worked!
It’s still got a subjective element in the guy in the bunker at Stockley Park. Ref should have more say if he’s alerted to possible doubts.
Well Ole's 2 new signings looked good last night. Bruno Fernandes and Anthony Taylor. 😀
When slabhead hoofed Batshuayi in the slats and it went to VAR, I thought he was off for sure.
It's looking like another repeat of last season, where that 4th (or now 5th) Champions League spot is going to go to the team that is slightly less rubbish than those around them.
I did enjoy the United away fans latest slightly modified version of their well known City chant
This is how it feels to be City,
This is how it feels to be small,
This is how it feels when your passport's back in the drawer
VAR is amazing...just a shame no-one thought they might need to review the rules or how those rules are implemented by the poor sods in the middle of the green bit before getting all tech-jiggy. That's progress for you I suppose.
OGS - classic Fergie-channelling - it was never a foul...hahahaha - retrospective action possible for Maguire given that VAR said no red card and ref gave nothing???
Bloody VAR shambolic shambles. Premier league refereeing really couldn’t be any worse.
Premier league refereeing really couldn’t be any worse.
It has been. Frequently.
I'm of the opinion that VAR is not the issue, it's a valid tool that is being used in a poor fashion.
I’m of the opinion that VAR is not the issue, it’s a valid tool that is being used in a poor fashion.
I want to give it the benefit of the doubt but sadly it seems to be doing it’s best to be awful..
“It” isn’t doing “its” best or worst to be anything.
As ever, it's the human element that's lacking.
This is how it feels to be City,
This is how it feels to be small,
This is how it feels when your passport’s back in the drawer
Is this the same City who are playing at the Bernabéu next week? 🙂
Would be amusing if Utd got fifth and missed out because the punishment is suspended while the appeal to the CAS is ongoing!
It's the lack of consistency thats the issue. So in that respect its exactly the same problem as pre-VAR. The fact that everyone is sat around waiting for a decision, which could still be just as wrong as the original (like last night), just amplifies it
So Maguire got away with no sanction last night, yet Son was shown a straight red for an identical foul a few weeks ago. I thought it was a straight red before the VAR replays (there may well have been some swearyness about the daft **** getting himself sent off for something so stupid), more so afterwards, yet the decision to not even give a yellow stood.
Would be amusing if Utd got fifth and missed out because the punishment is suspended while the appeal to the CAS is ongoing!
There's that, but the way its looking at the moment, with everyone looking so inconsistent and fifth place now being in play, I'm more intrigued to see if Sheffield United end up in the Champions League next season.
It’s the lack of consistency thats the issue. So in that respect its exactly the same problem as pre-VAR. The fact that everyone is sat around waiting for a decision, which could still be just as wrong as the original (like last night), just amplifies it
So Maguire got away with no sanction last night, yet Son was shown a straight red for an identical foul a few weeks ago. I thought it was a straight red before the VAR replays (there may well have been some swearyness about the daft **** getting himself sent off for something so stupid), more so afterwards, yet the decision to not even give a yellow stood.
So - long story short.....it’s made things worse.....& VAR was supposed to make things better.
The implementation of it has failed. It really should be withdrawn & rethought.
The implementation of it has failed.
What are your criteria for “has failed” compared to previous seasons where it hasn’t been used? E.g. are you happy for goals where there is offside in the scoring or build-up to stand?
“Long story short” might allow you to simplify a complicated issue, but are you really happy to dump video assistance which has helped loads of other sports enormously? What happens when* it’s re-implemented after your arbitrary period of withdrawal and investigation. Is it to be re-withdrawn as soon as Chris Sutton starts whinging about it again on 606?
*I say “when” because I’m convinced it’s not going away. It might even lead to some rule changes on offsides, handball etc. But hey, HOORAY! rules can be changed. It’s happened in other sports post video introduction. Although, I must say, I miss my team being able to waste time by passing back to the keeper for the last twenty minutes of a game.
Besides all the inconsistency in the Premier league VAR's use in the FA Cup is a joke. If you're playing at a Premier league stadium then it's used, if you're not it isn't.
That's a competition that now has 2 sets of rules. Ridiculous.
That’s a competition that now has 2 sets of rules. Ridiculous
No it doesn't, all cup ties have the same rules, but lower league grounds have drawbacks, as they always have done, lack of undersoil heating, less cameras, shit pitches, more exposed etc.
The magic of the cup. 😊
That’s a competition that now has 2 sets of rules.
Other than “we’ll use VAR if it’s available,” what other rules differ in these two “sets?”
The use of VAR - it's pot luck if you have it or not, that's not a level playing field in my eyes.
You wouldn't be saying that if your strikers eyebrow had strayed offside?
Or, as it turns out, if he'd walloped someone full-on in the cobblers with his studs up 😀
it’s pot luck if you have it or not
It most certainly isn’t. Premier league grounds have it. Others don’t.
that’s not a level playing field in my eyes.
In any game (in the cup), both teams are playing either with or without VAR. What’s not level about that? It’s not like the premier league team gets everything checked and the lower league team doesn’t.
binners, a debate like this requires participants with a grasp on facts and not entering the early stages of dementia in their fifties. Could you just go away and rant about Rebecca-Long-Bailey or something?
Its a fair cop Bravissimo
*Wanders off to wind up the communists.....*
Oh, before I go, did you notice that Roy Keane's withering disdain for Jamie Carragher seemed to scale even further heights last night while they were punditting?
Carragher: "Liverpool will get more points than the Man Utd Treble Team this season"
Keane (utterly contemptuously): "When you win a Premier League medal Jamie you get one medal, you don't turn it over and it says how many points you got"
😂
Living in the past binners, like yourself.
Good win for City! Is there a finer sight than Real getting beat and Ramos getting sent off?
Phenomenal result for Gerrards Rangers team tonight, the first team to get to the last 16 of the europa cup having been in it since qualifying round 1.
Hopefully Celtic can get through tomorrow, and cement Scotland getting 2 champions league places in 2021. 👏🏻
Good team Braga, IIRC they knocked wolves out?.
Wolves are still in but Braga took 4 out of 6 points against them in the group stages. 9
Was at Ibrox for the home game against Braga last week and the atmosphere was incredible. I'm almost hoping they get someone like Arsenal or Man Utd in the next round, just to see if they can step it up again.
IIRC the SPL already has two Champions League places for next season now so I wouldn't be too upset to see Copenhagen win tomorrow.. 😉
Not this season nobeer, Wolves are going great guns in the Europa League. 4-0 up on Espanyol from the first leg. They’ll be a tougher opponent than Arsenal or Man U!
Absolutely, I'd rather have Man United than Wolves!.
Big George Edmundson, a lad we picked up from Oldham, was imperious last night, what a unit of a man he is!.
Arsenal were very Arsenal like last night! And Celtic reverted back to their usual European performance after a couple of better results.
Are United fans singing that bloody Oles at the wheel song again yet?
A few outlets speculating on a coronavirus-shortened season today. Probably on account of Switzerland cancelling all games this weekend.
Would be quite a turnup if Liverpool didn't win the league, but most reds I know are level-headed, fair minded sorts who would take things in their stride - the public health issue at large is clearly of a different magnitude, that puts everything in perspective.
Relegation would be a thorny one to resolve.
Would be quite a turnup if Liverpool didn’t win the league
I think they'd sneak it under the Duckworth Lewis Rule.
They need to win 4 more games! I think they’ll want to get it done! Denied by a virus originating in a meat market in the middle of China might hurt even more than Stevie G’s slip.
Well, all good things must come to an end, I suppose...
Looks like we can share that consecutive wins record for a bit.
It’s been coming - some of the performances in the last few weeks didn’t really merit a win. I’m pleased it wasn’t any of the “big” sides (or ManU or Everton) - fair play to Watford. They’ll love this one. Don’t think it’s any coincidence that Henderson being out has resulted in a big dip in their level. To be honest, they must be mentally fatigued at this stage.
Ooooof!! Well played Watford. The relegation battle is going to be brutal!
Get what you’re saying DD and there’s been plenty of games Liverpool perhaps shouldn’t have won this season, maybe Sheff Utd away, Wolves home and away, Villa away. But you don’t end up 22 points clear via luck, repeatedly winning tight matches can’t be a fluke.
Norwich beat Leicester
Watford beat Liverpool
Might put a tenner on Villa winning the trophy tomorrow....🤔
repeatedly winning tight matches can’t be a fluke.
It absolutely isn’t. Unless you’re a Liverpool fan watching Utd do it through the 90/00s until they became the mediocre shite they’ve been for the last few years. Which is why you get clueless muppets like binners posting the same bollocks these days.
Remember season 95/96 pretty well, when Kev Keegan so nearly loved it. United won loads of games in the run in 1-0, mainly Cantona scoring.
VAR has to go. It's just adding another level of inconsistency on top of inconsistency. Noise + Noise = more noise.
Jose is not going to last the season at this rate.
I couldn't at the time, and still can't believe, that Spurs appointed him.
He's yesterday's man, Poch must still be shaking his head.
Yep, agree. The implosion will be by November I think as he’s already started on the players in public. He should retire to the Sky studio.
I’m getting that Deja Vu thing. He’s compressing the timescale quite considerably though.
1. Dire unwatchable sideways/sideways/backwards anti-football.
2. Slagging players off to the press to distract from your own shortcomings and other petulant nonsense
3. Lose the dressing room.
4. Gone
5. Repeat to fade....
I was amazed Spuds appointed him. Did they somehow miss the usual routine at Old Trafford
All set for one of those famous Anfield European nights Binners?
Have to say I think Atletico will squeeze through, away goals maybe. Although whether the competition will finish is another matter.
You can’t beat a bit of ‘European night’ champions league self-mythologising 😉
Should be a belter of a match though. I can see the same result as the first leg.
Just had a look and the odds on an Athletico win are 6/1. That’s mental! That’s got to be worth a fiver on it?
Yeah, that’s generous. Liverpool are off the boil for sure and Atletico have a few players back from injury.
I reckon Liverpool will be well up for it, it’s about time they returned to firm.
I certainly hope they find that bit of a spark tonight that's been missing in the last few weeks, it's hard to sit and complain when 25 points clear but it's not quite been 'there'.
Lets see what happens 🙂
Erm.. That was an unexpected result
Could have gone either way and it did.
Yep, difficult to see Atletico winning it until Adrian’s howler though. Liverpool should have got it done in normal time really with the possession and chances they had.
Oh well, they can focus on the premiership now...
That should have been as easy a win as you'll ever see in Europe. If their keeper hadn't been so absolutely bloody brilliant and Adrian so absolutely awful.
We've seen some absolute goalkeeping howlers recently (De Gea against Everton? Ederson against United?), but am I right in thinking that they scored with every shot they had on target? And that Adrian got an assist for one of them?
At the other end a goalkeeping (and defensive) masterclass was going on. How many shots did Oblak stop? I see Simeone has referred to him as 'the Messi of goalkeepers'. On last nights display I'd say that was fair comment. That was some performance. Some of the reflex, point-blank saves were gobsmacking
Great match though. Looks like the final stages of the Champions League could be shaping up to be as bonkers as last years
