‘Awful’ Man Utd let down by the ‘usual suspects’ as ‘Spursy vibes’ return to Tottenham

Are Tottenham going all Spursy? Or does it just show their lack of squad depth? Plus, ‘awful’ Manchester United, f**king VAR, Jose Mourinho to Newcastle and more…

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…

Spursy vibes
Well, this all feels very familiar.

Same issue with Chelsea post Son’s goal that never was. Composure went again. Mistakes, giving the ball away, couldn’t cope with Wolves pressure.

Wasn’t even a consequence of Ange ball shenanigans, just highlights how shallow our squad is. Thank god for an international break…never thought I’d say that.
Jon (it’s all fine, right?), Lincoln

There’ll be plenty of Spurs fans phoning in sick on Monday after spending the whole weekend celebrating their latest defeat.
Matthew, Belfast

The tide comes in, the tide goes out
I think we all read that email about Spurs and the Invincibles and knew what was about to happen, but it’s still a hell of a thing to watch.
VARmesh

You say it best…

Since Barry Fox’s email, mentioning spurs could go invincible, they’ve lost two of their next three, Maddison and Van Der Ven out until January and Romero still banned for a couple of games, which include Aston Villa and Man City.

Sometimes it’s best not to say these things ‘mate’
Jbrusty

Spurs V Wolves
Dear F365,

Spurs fan here. Before the “Spursy” crowd go to town, I’d like to say that I congratulate Wolves on a fine performance. We looked pretty much equally matched on Saturday. A draw would have been a fair result but they snatched it fair and square. It wasn’t a “Spursy” result, it was a close game won tightly by one good team against another.
Kind regards
SE

Rambling mess
Today I’m having a really bad day. I had the misfortune of punishing myself by watching the Utd Luton game to see if it would help.  Being honest, I don’t even know why I write in half the time, heck, they even get published, which means either it’s good or they need some column fillers. I suspect the latter. The game was awful, we were awful, apparently Lindelof got MOTM, which kinda sums up how awful we were considering it was Luton. I have no words about it today,  I’ve been sat here for 2 hours writing this, legs twitching, drinking copious amounts of coffee which normally sorts me out.

I must apologise to the many who have the unfortunate experience to read or probably skip (I don’t blame you) my musings or rather ramblings which have become more frequent recently. 19 months ago I was diagnosed with chronic ADHD, I used to laugh it off when I heard people have it. Don’t do that, It sucks, it’s unbearable and gets worse as winter comes closer. Anyway, I don’t want this to be some Dawson’s Creek episode, only us older ones will understand that. I have found writing in to various forums helpful, F365 in particular helps to control my mental wiring even if it’s just for 2 hours a day.

So yeah, Utd were awful today, more on the sick table, usual suspects did nothing, subs did nothing, created nothing of note and needed a scrappy goal from bloody centre back. Luton fans were louder and singing “He’s gonna cry in a minute” at Rashford as he did look like he was gonna cry when a throw went against him.
See feckin rambling again.

That’s it, see ya
Hugo

F**king VAR
Here’s a few thoughts on VAR.

Firstly, let’s not forget that goal line technology is an improvement on the game. Secondly, offside decisions are way better than they used to be. You can bemoan the odd controversial close call but we used to have blatant wrong decisions every weekend. Offside is definitely improved.

But that is about where it ends. We used to have subjective decisions on red cards and penalties deciding the big games and fans arguing over them for days. That hasn’t gone. VARs biggest mistake is in trying to turn subjective decisions into an exact science and in doing so they are reinventing or re-interpretting rules to try and fit the technology.

As much as we’ve all sworn at a refs decision, we know they have a damn hard job to do and a hell of a lot going on that it is hard to see everything. VAR also hasn’t taken the heat off refs where it could easily have done and should have. VAR says they are not trying to re-referee the game but that is exactly what they are doing. When the ref gets called to the monitor we all know he is being called over to apply the decision VAR has made over slow mo replays and freeze frames. So why is he called over? It just wastes another minute or two and makes it look like the ref is making the new call. Has a ref ever looked at the VAR monitor and decision and said, “No mate, I’m still right”. Seriously question, is the ref even allowed to stick with his original decision?

VAR is imparted in many sports, football seems to be the one where it has been applied the worst. I think it is definitely to do with how subjective a lot of decisions are but also that those in charge seem to be doubling down on poor decisions on how the technology is being applied rather than having a rethink.

Tennis and Cricket both have the review system where players get to review decisions. Give one each to the captian and the coach per half, 30 seconds to appeal a decision and the VAR team upstairs gets to make a call. No appeal, no stupid VAR penalty check.

Rugby allows the ref to refer a call. Let the ref be able to refer something. Maybe the ref isn’t sure about a penalty and wants VAR to check sufficient contact. VAR should be there to help the ref, not to undermine him. Maybe the ref isn’t sure about a tackle being a yellow or red, refer it but the game can continue while the nerds upstairs make a decision. And the flipping handballs for penalities, still no-one knows the rule. One minute it’s to do with your arms being in a natural position, the next it’s to do with how far away the kicker was. Maybe it is the punishment that needs to change. Why not allow an indirect free kick for certain offences like handballs that resulted from a cross where a penalty is too harsh. Similarly, the penalties given for offences in the box where the attacker may not have even got to the ball let alone score. That’s an indirect free kick, not a penalty. Penalties should be given for preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity IMO.

But if you’d rather have a conspiracy theory that I don’t believe. How about realising that the clicks and comments and media coverage caused by the continued controversy needs VAR. The discussions just on VAR, debates, outrage and TV time dedicated to it alone are bigger than any other sport. All this damn arguing about decisions takes us from one Saturday to the next with barely enough time to get angry at another sport.

Fucking VAR, we’re stuck with this version of it it aren’t we.
Jon, Cape Town (the worst thing is that anyone with half a brain can see multiple ways to try and improve it but football just has to be different)

Perhaps the most annoying aspect of VAR is the fact that even with a fairly straightforward goal like United 1-0 Luton, we still have to pause while middle aged men sit in a dark room poring over the footage trying to find a teensy tiny reason to piss on the heads of 70,000+ peeps celebrating with glee…
Melvoe Adams in Nairobi Kenya 

VAR pusher
Deja vu

Bukayo Saka adjudged to have pushed his defender at the far post in the 26th minute. Discuss.
Simon, Norf London Gooner 

Will Ford / Arteta
I thought this story was dead in the water until your very own Will Ford decided to revive this.

How many articles would he have written about Fergie or any other manager doing what Arteta did? Ten Hag literally says after every single loss “they allowed goals that shouldn’t have been allowed” when they clearly should have actually been allowed. What is the difference? And which is a more stupid criticism of refs and VAR – that or than anything Arteta said?

Criticise him for the “maths” rant or claiming to play 427 different formations in the same game (seriously, that’s not even a thing unless your Pep or Arteta) but not this.
MAW, LA Gooner (To be fair, btw, the Rashford red is more than debatable. No one should be falling on either side of the line of this with conviction – it’s complicated. How do you balance intent on the ball vs. reckless action? That being said, according to this guy – definite red.)

Jose Mourinho to Newcastle…
The people talking about Mourinho at NUFC can f*ck directly off. We’ve got enough villains associated with our club. That is all.
Chris C, Toon Army DC

Reply to Howard
In reply to Howard (Liverpool… back to normal?):

Tsimikas got a new deal for the same reason all these other past-it players have gotten new deals: because Klopp’s major weakness is being buddies with all his players, regardless of short- or long-term form.

See Henderson, Fabinho, Matip, Gomez, etc.
Scott, LFC Toronto

Boo Hoo Roo
I know this is usually about the Premier League/Champions League but can we just quickly mention how poorly Wayne Rooney is doing since becoming Birmingham manager?

When he took over, they were 6th, and at the time of writing they’re 17th. 4 losses and a draw in his first 5 matches.

Will he be the next manager to be sacked?
Matt.

Punishment for injuring your own player…
Rashford’s red card has got me thinking. If the people in charge decide that his dismissal was the correct decision, have we got to a stage where a player could be sent off for injuring his own player? If the punishment is determined by the outcome – if the fouled player is injured, intentionally or not, then it’s always a red card – then why should accidentally injuring your own player be refereed any differently? What difference does it make who you injure if intent is not taken into consideration? That’s where were heading. The law of unintended consequences and all that.
G Thomas, Breda

Douglas Luiz
The only thing that you have correct about this nonsense article is that Luiz will not leave Villa that’s a certainty, the club would not entertain selling him and the figure of North of £50m is garbage even if a sale were considered which it definitely won’t be your talking north of £100 m.  So just leave it out all of your facts are garbage and it isn’t needed , maybe you could go try to sell another Villa player but at the end of the day as we all know it’s just click bait from you journos you like to stir things up but it’s the club that have the say and it ain’t going to happen.
Colin Owen