Seems like West Brom will get a points deduction though. Which seems mental given the time it’s taken for every other club to get a punishment. The EFL seem hell bent on getting this done by the end of the season even though charge has just been made and West Brom are contesting it.
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Sheffield Wednesday play West Brom and Oxford in their next two games. If they lose both, I don't think anything can save Leicester.
Leicester and playing Millwall and Hull at home, both fighting promotion/play off battles, and Portsmouth and Blackburn away, both looking at their Leicester game as a means to confirming safety from relegation. I don't see Leicester getting six points from that.
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Tottenham are in relegation trouble because they've signed runners and not passers, so says ESPN.
One for those interested in the data metrics.
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That article highlights the importance of key metrics. Not all of the tertiary data that is environmental rather than individual (xG, assists, etc) - for me much of that is to provide a measurement for those who don't know what they are looking at. Think the graph to measure poetry in dead poets society.
Can run? Determines the level that they can play at. Can kick? Determines what they can do.
Much of the rest is dependent on the team blend and dynamics, and where the coach asks them to run and kick.
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It's a funny old game, ain't it.
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Fully agree with this. It just needs a bit of simple clarity and then implementation to enforce the point.
A shoulder to shoulder is fine, but a shoulder to back isn't. For some reason players always seem to think they can just run into people and that's a shoulder barge.
Any grabbing is a foul. There seems to be an assumption amongst commentators and pundits that if you grab for a short time and then let go that's okay, it isn't. Using your hands, or arms, to hold onto an opponent is a foul.
The same should go for obstructing a goalkeeper. If you are leaning against the goalkeeper to pin him in place it's a foul, so is jostling. Wrestling in the penalty area is not being expert at set pieces, it's cheating. Attacking players are given far too much leeway at set pieces which is causing defensive players to commit infringements as a result.
Offside on the other hand has gone against the attacking player due to VAR that was never in the original rules. I heard a pundit the other day saying that's why we have VAR, to an offside decision that was extremely marginal. That's crazy and is an indictment of VAR, not a reason for it. Offside was never about that level of "accuracy", especially given that it is spurious accuracy anyway. It was always about a visible call with the advantage given to the the attacking player.
While we're at it, I think we've gone far too strong on abolishing tackles as well and there needs to be some corrective for a slightly mistimed sliding tackle.
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Start punishing obstruction as well. A defender is shielding the ball out of play - fine if it's within playable distance, but not when it's five yards away. That's obstruction, not good defending.
Likewise moving deliberately in the way of a defender, so a team-mate can get a free run at a set-piece. That's obstruction. -
I'm a bit more Lutheran about this. If the defender plays the ball, they can then shield the ball while they are in control of it. If they don't play it (or obviously attempt to) it's obstruction.
I don't have a problem with this. Players are entitled to take up positions on the pitch. If they obstruct movement towards the ball (as opposed to a player) without attempting to play it, then foul (see above). If they use their hands to hold, pull or push that's a foul (even if the ball is dead, to solve the current problems).
There are, in my view, a bunch of simple amendments to the laws that would make the game easier to officiate, keep the ball in play more (No, you can't have five minutes to set up for a free kick...it's a free kick, not an NFL play. Get the ball back in play in 8 seconds, or lose the free kick), and enhance the spectacle. For some reason they appear to want to go in the other direction.
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Gives folks time to place their bets?
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Percy's given a WBA update. Says the Football League plans to hold the hearing by the end of the month, and any points deduction would be applied this season.
Astonishing how quickly these financial breaches can be charged, heard and sanctioned when you're not Manchester City, eh?
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The championship is an odd division. Sheff Weds drew at Coventry on Saturday and Portsmouth beat Ipswich last night. As far as Leicester are concerned I’m taking the Guru approach and adding waiting for any disciplinary/appeals to be fully concluded.
