21 Oct 2024 12:20:12
I've watched Refwatch with Stephen Warnock explaining that Silva backing into Jose Sa to move him back/putting him off balance is legal within the laws of the game. I've now read the following: A foul should only be called when a player from the opposing team illegally prevents the goalkeeper from touching the ball or blatantly impedes their movement, either by pushing, grabbing or running into them. Now I don't profess to be an expert on the laws of the game but I would suggest Warnock is talking out of his ar%!

1.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 13:44:52
Sa should have fell to the floor when Silva backed into him.
Wonder what VAT would have made of it if he had.
City are a good team.A team of winners but they use every trick in the book and when they also get all the 50-50 decisions it’s no wonder they have a long unbeaten run.

2.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 13:59:25
Every team should employ this tactic. See how long it remains legal.
Just have a forward bump onto the goalie a second before the ball reaches the box.

3.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 14:32:32
Arsenal are notorious for this tactic against keepers. No prizes for guessing where Arteta picked up the idea! At his previous club! Out and out dirty tricks from the big boys, but only they get away with it.

4.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 14:38:53
VAT ?

5.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 14:42:19
Jesus! Sa is 6.4 and Silva is 5.8! Sa should of smashed him out the way, we failed to defend a corner (and not for the first time this season!)which was a well drilled set piece, something our coaching staff seem to be lacking!

6.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 15:14:38
OOTD. Sa should have smashed Silva out of the way? Against the likes of City that's a yellow card and a penalty all day long. They're the Untouchables. Anyway, height has nothing to do with it.

7.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 16:17:31
I wonder what Howard Webbs views are. He explained the rule last season when Kilmans header was disallowed so what has changed since then?

8.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 16:49:38
Watching the replay it's hard to disagree OOTD. Silva was on Sa for every corner and Sa didn't make his presence felt on any of those occasions.

9.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 17:05:13
And if Sa had smashed him out of the way it would have been a pen. GON is absolutely right, there is a VERY blatant subconscious bias in the Prem and it's one of the many reason I am falling out of love with footy! It's one rule for the top four and another for everyone else! ?

10.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 17:40:42
If there is subconscious bias, why did Saliba get sent off against Bournemouth, surely Arsenal are big hitters ( no disrespect to Bournemouth). Let's Stop clutching a straws, at 1 point in the game Sa even pulls the ear of his Portugal team mate and has a laugh about it! Use your size and presence and defend your area!

11.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 17:58:47
White does exactly the same for Arsenal at every corner time it was stopped or keepers going down to get a foul. Cheat the cheaters!

12.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 19:03:14
Let's remember the ref did disallow it for offside, var overuled because silva was crouching away, so not in Sa's eyeline. No arguments there as such, but if VAR are doing they're job correctly they've reviewed the 'infringement' of silver butting into Sa and ok'd it. I still believe it to have been foul play in preventing our keeper preparing. They don't tolerate a lot of pushing and grabbing of shirts before corners/free kicks and I thought keepers were supposed to be protected. Nah, they missed it and simply looked at off side, it was too late when it was finally seen. No conspiracy but another case of now hurried decisions and inadequacy, and, lack of consistency.

13.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 19:53:05
Abbey, the issue isn't with the technology VAR works, the issue is with the subjectivity of those who operate, there is no bias or subconscious decisions, without VAR at all on Sunday the goal would have stood, play the game, defend set pieces, don't concede possession and score goals!

VAR is here to stay the best league in the world (premier) are not going to get rid of something that FIFA and EUFA are operating and the club executives showed their complete and utter niavity last year by bringing the motion to the AGM.

Lets stop bemoaning it and using it as an excuse for bad defending!

I said it earlier, nearly a quarter of the season has gone, we are bottom with 1 point, and not even the nice words from Jack Grealish make a shred of difference, something needs to happen and it needs to happen now!

14.) 21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 21:13:57
OOTD if you read my comments yesterday you'd know I wasn't bemoaned VAR as a tool, but the operators who form the decisions. It has been proven to to be fallible from that point of view, and not in wolves games either.
I merely refer to what I would deem an infringement on the keeper, yesterday it was Sa, which hinder them from assuming a fair position for the cross that is foul play. I don't think the VAR review was looked at further than the header and positions at that time, and when it may of been realised it was too late.
We know the position we're in, we know how poorly we've defended, read some posts from the Brentford game, but one week a decision goes one way the next the other, its complacency that's lacking and interpretations by said VAR reviewers that give rise to conspiracies. It's not hard to see why. No excuses OOTD but I don't enjoy being defeated under a question mark, you seem to be overly pleased to pour salt on things?.

15.) 22 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024 22:26:24
OOTD, the obvious decisions will always be made such as the Saliba red cards. The subconscious decisions that GON is referring to is the 50/50 ones that are sometimes given and sometimes aren't.

For instance, Kilmans goal against West Ham last season. It wasn't given and Howard Webb said on the TV it was because Chirewa was stood in front of the GK therefore impeding his view and not offside.

So what was the difference to yesterday's goal? Silva wasn't offside but he did push Sa backwards as the ball was crossed in therefore impeding play.

16.) 22 Oct 2024
22 Oct 2024 05:33:11
OOTD, the goal would not have stood. The onfield decision was to disallow it. Therefore if there's no VAR goal stands.

17.) 22 Oct 2024
22 Oct 2024 11:23:42
Fair enough OOTD, that's your opinion. My opinion is that the subconscious bias in football is pretty blatant and if our own manager is even calling it out when it's likely to land him in trouble then he clearly thinks so as well. Hang on though, it can't land him in trouble can it? Cause we all know that Arteta has previously accused refs of cheating and Pool have even threatened to not play a game because of decisions agaisnt them and in both cases no action was taken agaisnt there managers. So if there's no bias then we can expect no further action on Grays comments, right?! Haha let's just see how that plays out shall we and I will be happy to discuss bias with you again AFTER we've been fined! ?
I don't know why people act like this is a new thing, it became a running joke in the 90s that playing at Old Trafford meant playing the ref as well. Was it because the refs supported United, of course not! It's because Ferguson would spend the whole week BEFORE a big match talking about the refs decisions and how important they were. In short he ensured that every time a ref blew his whistle at United he would be terrified not to upset Alex and get scolded after. And it worked incredibly well, so well in fact that Jose (and others have always adopted a similar approach). It's worked for years and isn't a new thing, so not entirely sure why anyone is acting like they've never heard of this before?! ?

18.) 22 Oct 2024
22 Oct 2024 13:28:06
Bully, I agree with you on the fergie time, we all remember that. But fergie and arteta, pep, klop, mourinho, and countless more are empowered strong individuals who are backed by strong clubs that want to be winners and will use everything at their disposal to achieve that aim!

VAR is open to the fact, that humans are by their very nature subjective
and will be swayed, but that's not going to change!

We can argue that the game was lost in the last 20 seconds by an undefended header or a dodgy VAR decision, or we failed at a set piece yet again, we had limited possession, we gave the ball away to easy and we didn't create enough chances!

I am not trying to rub salt in the wounds as abbey has said, it's quite obvious at the moment the team isn't good enough! We have played Liverpool, city, vile, nufc, chelski, who were all under par Arsenal were just above average and we couldn't take advantage, Brentford was a shambles and we were lucky at forest!

What will the excuse be next week, the ball was to round, the grass to green, the lines to white, the pitch to rectangular or the seats in the dugout had no heating in them and that's really unfair because our coaching staff keep their football brains in their arse!

19.) 23 Oct 2024
23 Oct 2024 08:10:28
OOTD, I'm not making any excuses, we are what we are, but we also need a fair crack of the whip, a consistent approach. The VAR decisions aren't exclusive to wolves, the mistakes occur regularly, and its human interpretation of human written rules that cause problems. Offside fore example, 'not interfering with play', 'not obstructing an eye line', who decides? Not the ref on the pitch seeing and hearing in real time close/r to the action. No a detached observer in slow motion freeze frame silence. The benefit of doubt will be given in a way which must have some level of 'weight'.
No matter how badly we've played, defended, naive we've been it's no excuse to expect to be treated fairly. I will reiterate my comments of the infringement on Sa, the FA have not mentioned that aspect in the VAR decision, only stating the offside/eyeline factors.
VAR as a technology can work but as normal its human 'choice' that causes problems. I ask you this, do you think there would be this uproar about the incident if the goal had indeed been disallowed? I don't think so because it would not have been regarded so contentious.

20.) 23 Oct 2024
23 Oct 2024 08:32:41
Ps, meant to add, although pepe would have been moaning with little if any question or action from the FA.
Forget the football skill side of things OOTD, do you personally think wolves have been subject to questionable VAR operators choices?

21.) 23 Oct 2024
23 Oct 2024 09:39:00
Abbey, I think all teams have been subjected to questionable VAR decisions, as I said that's not going to change because of the human factor, we just have to suck up it and get on with it!

But what can be changed is the fight on the pitch, we concede at will, we struggle to hold possession and when we do it's sideways and backwards, we take the lead and don't have the fitness to close a game out, we don't close down the opposition, we don't stay with runners, we don't prevent crosses! But do we address this No we moan about a decision that's out of our control!
Let's start by controlling the controlables! Because if we don't keep our eye on the here and now, we are going down ?!

22.) 23 Oct 2024
23 Oct 2024 11:18:43
Yes OOTD, on pitch problems are ours and GON etc now seem to recognise that. There's never been a question over that.
VAR however is a different beast, so let's see how the FA address the problem.
Instead of staunchly jumping on the back of 'interpreted' laws why don't they make them clear and obvious, uncontentionable so that VAR can help the ref not intervene unless they've missed an off the ball situation, maybe like silva's push back? As I said before they'll spot shirt tugs and arms in the area.
VAR is not the magic some would have it be, a picture speaks a thousand words as seen from different viewers.
No I'm not making excuses for our form, but some people, for whatever reasons, want to excuse VAR.
At the end of the day VARs decision can cost money, possibly status. We lose by our short comings, I'm not happy when it can appear that it's being taken out of our hands.