Kobbie Mainoo compared to Xavi after ‘bossing’ Man City midfield
Of course we have loads more on Manchester United and VAR, but first we have an ode to Kobbie Mainoo.
Kobbie Mainoo the best player on the pitch in derby Lots had been said about the refereeing, but I want to talk about Kobbie Mainoo. Your 16 Conclusions was, frankly, batshit in its summary: “Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans (Tielemainoo?) were a conspicuous and distant second best to Fernandez and Anderson”.
Sorry, what? Were your journalists actually at Old Trafford? I was, and what I saw was Kobbie absolutely bossing the midfield for large periods of the game. The only thing that was conspicuous was the fact that, in the second half, he absolutely took the piss out of Anderson at least four times, dribbling around him comfortably, without losing the ball, and in one of them he twisted Anderson around so much that he left him on his arse.
Yes, United lost. Yes, they seemed to have few ideas as ever against a low block. Yes, they didn’t move the ball quickly enough. Yes, Sesko should have started: a front three of Rashford, Mbuemo and Cunha cannot work and they need a proper focal point. But it was a tight game against a really good side playing deep that was settled by fine margins. There’s no need to panic.
They kept the ball well for long periods, and Tielemans actually had another tidy performance where he looked pretty comfortable for long periods. From where we were sitting, Anderson was anonymous for long periods, definitely not worth £130m, and nowhere near as creative or clever or skilful as Mainoo.
Anyway, I can’t help but think that those 16 Conclusions were clouded a bit by the fact that City “won” a cagey game when neither side was especially good. It’s the same outcome bias that forces pundits to always pick a player from the winning side as man of the match. Let’s say Rashford’s free kick had snuck in, the City goal was rightly disallowed, then Donnarumma didn’t pull out one of the saves of the season and it ended 2-0 to United. It’s a result that would have flattered them, but it could easily have been the outcome.
Then say Ashley Maitland-Niles hadn’t scored the goal of his life last week and United were now sitting on 9 points. Nothing would really have been different, but you would have been totally unable to write that nonsense line about the midfield battle yesterday.
I realise I sound like an Arsenal fan in saying all of this. But the point is a simple one really: football is a game of very fine margins, and yesterday was especially so. United weren’t great, but neither were City. A nil-nil draw would have been fair; either side could have nicked it and City did, unfairly.
But Kobbie Mainoo was the best player on the pitch, and is destined to become England’s best central midfielder while being totally under-appreciated for it in a way that he would never be in Spain, which, incidentally, is why England will never win anything as long as mangers keep prizing all-action Roy of the Rovers-type midfielders over Scholes/Iniesta/Xavi types. Matt, Sheffield
READ: How Michael Carrick’s Man Utd utterly failed to break down 10-man Man City
No jury would convict…
No foul, play on. Jeremy Aves
…I think many would agree and love it if just for once someone at some point in situations like yesterday – and preferably involving Fernandes – would – once he’s got up from his obviously agonising altercation – just took one for the team – a la Cantona/Keane – and lamped him one as hard as he could – took the red and the 6 months suspension – asked him on the way off it that one did actually hurt – and we’d all feel a great sense of calm and relief that football has in some way balanced itself back out – no-one will ever feign injury ever again and we can all just get on with it like actual normal men/women/humans. And yes I am encouraging physical violence in this isolated case. Get over it. Shunt LFC
VAR is football’s version of smoking
I’m a Hammer, who has had to put up with VAR since its introduction and am now enjoying VAR-less football in the Championship.
When we got relegated, we pretended that VAR-less football was something to look forward to in a vain attempt to find a positive, any positive, to going down. But to all of those who are losing their minds this morning: YOU HAVE NO IDEA JUST HOW GOOD IT IS WITHOUT VAR!
Seriously, it’s like when you quit smoking. While you’re in it, you cannot ever imagine what it’s like without. The fag after dinner, the fag with a pint, the fag after a legover, there’s nothing better right? Wrong. Once you’ve actually quit, you wonder what the hell you were doing all those years.
Celebrating when a goal goes in, knowing it’s actually going to stand, is like a forgotten dream from your childhood. It’s so utterly refreshing and pure. Until you quit the VAR-fags, you just don’t realise. Phil The Hammer, Norway (West Ham are massive, everywhere we go in the Championship)
An Arsenal fan suggests the police may be called…
I think this is one of the most deeply troubling decisions we’ve had in the Premier League for a long while, and I also wonder aloud how many more of these, of this ilk, will be required until the Police get involved. Genuinely. The Police. I don’t want to ramble on too much as I suspect there will be a lot of email traffic in the mailbox about this, but I want to just summarise in a few hopefully small paragraphs.
Was Haaland offside? To be completely fair, it was by a gnat’s arse but… he was on. Just. Probably. To the naked eye he was a yard offside but this is what we have the technology for, and the technology seems to prove that he was on. Fine.
Was Enzo offside? Yes of course he was. He was offside when Gvardiol(?) attempted the cross and he was offside when he attempted the diving header, and he was interfering with play when he missed that diving header. The finish from Haaland was elite. The linesman flagged for offside. What we don’t know is what the linesman flagged for – was it Haaland or was it Enzo? Apologies if this has been revealed since I typed this. If the linesman flagged for Haaland it allows ProRef to apply human interpretation to the Enzo factor. If the linesman flagged for Enzo, then VAR need to make a call on whether the linesman made a clear and obvious error. This makes me think that, if there was radio contact between all parties, the linesman flagged for Haaland, which would have been an error because the technology proved so.
So what we’re left with here are the facts proving Haaland was onside and the almost convenient and snuggly part is that ProRef can now make a human decision on Enzo.
During the decision-making process Gary Neville caught wind that the goal was going to be given and made the comment, (paraphrasing), “they’re going to give it, and this will be a decision that they can apologise for after the match”, and this is exactly what happened. So then you start delving in to the murky waters of whether that goal HAD TO be awarded. 10 man Man City somehow get the ball in to the back of the net, with a player clearly offside, and you have Gary Neville stating factually and accurately that this goal will be given and will be apologised for after the match… oh crumbs that doesn’t sit well. It really doesn’t.
And just to then taper the scrutiny away from this awful display of ProRef judgement, Sky (and the wider media) try to manufacture controversy over Phil Foden’s red card for kicking Bruno Fernandes in the stomach. That was a clear red card, but the plot worked. For every complaint about the goal, I see a rebuttal about the Foden red.
Maybe I am just a full-time member of the tinfoil hat brigade, but I don’t think it can be underestimated how concerning this whole Haaland goal issue is. Dale May, Swindon Wengerite
The incompetence is off the scale
The Hermes to Evri alignment to PGMOL rebranding was absolutely nail on head.
Nothing will change, no amount of technology or rule clarifications or utterly pointless apologies will change the issue until there are meaningful changes to the people involved. The technology itself isn’t the problem.
We’ve covered Mike Dean already, and we know it will never have been just him or just one time. When this kind of rot sets in, especially when demonstrated from the top, it spreads. And with VAR, those people can also have a fat thumb in more games than before, either protecting their mates or overruling their juniors or just being inept.
I don’t want to believe there’s real corruption involved, other than likely some club or player biases, but it does depend how deep the rot has gotten. It’s likely just incompetence. The kind of incompetence where in a normal job you’d get a first verbal, a second written/final warning and then be sacked. Yet year after year the same guys make the same “errors of judgement”.
And bear in mind there are only 38 league matches plus cups a year. This isn’t some 260 day a year ting where we have to avoid sending files containing personal details to the wrong people or telling colleagues to eff off.
So, finally onto the City vs United match. Rather than sidetrack into the actual football, I’ll stick with the theme. I actually don’t think Oliver did too bad. Relatively, for Oliver anyway. He was right on both the big calls, although Bruno should have had a yellow as well for his part.
However, the VAR guy was Matt Donohue. Who tf, you might ask, is that? Well, he’s a guy who it seems referees in the Championship mostly and is very card happy. He’s also the guy that lied about what he claimed to have heard to get Maguire banned. He’s also a guy who was funded in his previous job by City for 8 years.
That’s the guy they picked to VAR a major PL derby match, and who ended up making a decision (both himself and to not advice review by Oliver) that caused Ref Pro to send an apology to Man United (you may think the wording was barely an apology, and you’d be right, but it’s still an admission of a mistake).
So, what’s the amazing Badwolf solution I don’t hear you ask? Hand VAR to referees or ex-referees from other top leagues. It’s behind a screen after all, they aren’t limited by location. Whatever required to provide a separation between referee and VAR, between club/player bias and outcomes. And stop giving important jobs to the bloody junior from accounts.
And since there’s a lot of retro chat recently, put Pierluigi Collina in charge. Badwolf
Why are we using referees for VAR at all?
Always wondered why referees populate the VAR booth – they will not/are not judging their colleagues’ mistakes properly (see recent ref comments on not applying the rules to save their mates).
There is absolutely no reason to have ‘experienced’ match officials, not in VAR, VAr and live reffing are very different – we should have a completely different team of match officials for VAR that never ref a game live (or at least in the top leagues – and are solely employed to know the rules and employ VAR correctly – not to protect their buddies, not to hold the PGMOL reputation up – but to be an independent verification service.
You’re not a match ref, you are a VAR ref – surely that would ensure more balanced and fair outcomes as they would apply the letter of the law and not what makes their mates look less incompetent – what do you think? Londongooner in Oz (RHT/xt or whatever it is – please stop – you’re just vibing Stewie, not healthy!)
Who’s holding who?
Is there a journalistic definition of who holds who a draw?
Is it based on position in the table, home territory, underdog status, media bias?
Some examples…
Everton held Spurs to a draw – Unbeaten Toffees versus… well Spurs
Hull hold Chelsea to a draw – Top of the table clash with the Tigers mauling many an opponent on their travels
Bournemouth (15th) held to a draw by Brentford (5th)
Home advantage seems to be the key, but even then, there’s an article:
Hull City (3rd and at home) hold Aston Villa (19th and away) to a draw. Andy (Please Hold), Wales
A proper sack race
Nothing to do with that properly bizarre junior school idea to go alongside the egg & spoon race but what got a lot of column inches pre season was all these new managers.
Now to the fat-frank and imposter Arbeloa can be added Carrick and Iraola.
Seemingly safe are Maresca, 0’Neil and Alonso.
Not even sure of the coach’s name at Palace but he’s in the shit as well. Peter, Andalucia
