I thought the second half was pretty boring, but still a marked improvement in their recent form and their first win in six games. Their recent game against City was embarrassing to watch.  They seemed like a different team.


I guess I didn't do too bad this week relatively speaking. Surprised Arsenal comfortably beat Man United but United are playing so inconsistent lately I guess you can't expect anything from them. Only 20% of us backed the home win and surprisingly 54% went for the United win.  I didn't think there was much between either team and they would probably cancel each other out hence why I went for the draw again.

Anyone expecting anything other than a comfortable win from Liverpool tonight?

Yeah, the freedom of being able to do them whenever you want can't be overstated. It's what I like about being a mod as well. There's absolutely no expectation or requirement for you to handle x amount of reports or be online 9-5 or whatever hours are expected of you. If I wake up at 4AM and fancy doing some posts or reports I can do. If I want to spend most of my day doing something else I can do that also. I don't need to get time off to go on holiday and don't need to call in sick. If I want to sleep in or do nothing that day then I can.


It's fairly easy for people like us with high-ranking accounts but the earning opportunities for a newbie are not like they used to be. Back in the day anyone could sign up and start posting on campaigns like PrimeDice straight away. Now it is very very difficult to get an account ranked up to a decent member-ship level with earning potential and will take you years to achieve that, and that's not even including the merit requirements which for an average poster are going to be very difficult to achieve.


But you still need to be skilled in those things. I can't do any sort of designing or programming but it's fairly easy to post about whatever you fancy and all it requires is a bit of time effort and that's why its so appealing to many people. If people could earn decent money elsewhere then they likely would already be doing so, but for many they don't really have a choice or haven't discovered a better alternative yet.

Well I know but there's not many other options when you can't split the teams. Nobody backed Aston Villa to win today and I was only one goal away from a correct score there. At least I got two of the 1-1s today. Shame about Everton grabbing a goal to ruin my perfect score there. Gone for another 1-1 on the Arsenal/Man U game in play now but the Gunners are 2-0 up and seem to be dominating so I doubt I'll get the points from the draw. If United can get an early goal in the second half it will probably change the game though.


There's no consistency to the handball rule and its left up to pure opinion. Sometimes they're given for minor things and then blatant ones they're not. I think they should change the rule and either just give them for any contact in the pen area (maybe as long as it's not pointblank) or only give them if it's a blatant handball on purpose (which hardly ever happens). It's annoying seeing defenders with their hands behind their back because they're petrified of the ball accidentally hitting them. Half of the time this makes them off balance and the attacker just breezes past them anyway.

I've got a feeling this is going to be another disastrous wooden spoon round for me. I've mostly gone for draws as I can't split most of these games except for the Liverpool and Man City matches which I've gone with obvious home wins. Gone for both 1-1s in the games currently playing now and Aston Villa are currently 2-0 up away and Chelsea 1-0 up away. Hopefully Brighton will equalise in the Chelsea game and that one will come in for me but I doubt it. Only game I'll bother watching today is the Arsenal / Man U game which I've gone for another draw. There's the huge West Bromwich Albion - Leeds United game in the Championship as well which will decide 1st position. Hoping Leeds get promoted this year as they've been out of the Prem League for far too long and it's looking pretty strong with 9 points between the automatic promotion places as it stands.

Well you can certainly make a case for that, but I've always had an issue with the off-side rule. It's meant to stop goal hanging, not miss-timed runs by millimetres or a split-second. My main issue though is it slowing down the game and drastically so. The governing bodies know there's a huge issue with the amount of time the ball is actually in play and they're currently looking at ways to prevent that, but VAR is the biggest waste of time now. I can't see them ever changing the off side rule, but they can stop looking at every goal and just go to an appeal system. I think that would speed things up. I don't have a problem with VAR but just use it when it's needed or called for by the players and everything will run a lot smoother.


I think this would all be going overkill really. I'd rather have VAR scrapped than having sensors in boots and stuff. I think it would be very hard to implement as well. It's pretty easy to do with stationery goalposts but not so much players. The only way you can effectively police offside is with more cameras and better cam technology. Maybe instead of cameras running up and down the pitch they can use some sort of overhead one but it would have to keep in line with the action unless they can develop ones that can view the entire pitch at once. Maybe they'll be using CIA satellites next to zoom in on the action from above  .

I would think a good majority of the people who are from developing countries and are sig campaigning rely on it to some extent. If you can earn more here than from a regular job then you'd be silly not to try capitalise on that, but remember some people also don't have much of a choice. Campaigns do come and go and they're not as plentiful as they used to be but there's usually always one you can join even if it's a shitcoin campaign, but if you were on a high paying one and that suddenly disappeared then I'm guessing a lot of people would be in bad positions but I'm sure they move on.


If you earn from it and are perhaps dependant on that money then for many it will just be like a regular job. Do you want to have to go to work? Are you happy with where you work? Many aren't but they do it out of necessity, but that's life. If this forum or any job is negatively effecting your life then you should probably look at trying to find something you enjoy doing. Life isn't that much fun if you spend it all working yourself into an early grave and sacrificed doing things you actually enjoy (but again, not everyone has that luxury of living the life they truly want).

As I've said before, I would have no option but to kill myself even if Chipmixer signature campaign merely shut down as I am a broke bum and cannot afford to live without my Chipmixer dregs so the forum shutting down would be disastrous for me. I would probably have to find a way to kill myself twice if that happened.

The forum somehow ceasing to exist or even bitcoin going completely tits up and being replaced by something else is something I've thought about and that happening would leave a pretty big gap in my life as sad as that may sound. Both bitcoin and this forum have consumed my life since I joined in with them both in 2013 and there's been a lot of ups and downs during that time. I can live on very little and am wise with my money so it wouldn't be the end of the world but I'm incredibly gratefully for the coins I earn via the forum and it's basically going to ensure that I don't ever need to get a mortgage for a house and can buy - or preferably build - one with my savings and that was always one of my goals when I got involved with bitcoin as I absolutely hated the thought of taking out extortionate loans and paying for something several times over. The fact that you can essentially earn from anywhere in the world as long as you've got an internet connection is also a pretty huge plus and another goal of mine was to have a bit of money left over to go travelling so I'll probably try take advantage of that next year and do some globe-trotting whilst still being active on the forum. I'd much rather be sat by a pool or beach somewhere with a laptop than sat in front of my PC in shitty old rainy England  .

It would also be pretty sad for everybody else around the world who rely on the income from this forum. I know it's changed a lot of lives of people from developing nations and for many people they earn more from here than they do from their regular jobs if they're even lucky enough to have one at all. I wonder how many people would be plunged into poverty or even worse if the forum disappeared or just their ability to earn via signatures went. Sad to think about really.

Here's to next year and the upcoming bitcoin halving which is at least one thing to be optimistic about.

Liverpool have a game in hand as well don't forget. Of course it's possible that Liverpool could slip up but to throw essentially 5 games away at this point is hard to envision unless there's some major injuries. Don't forget that City and Leicester would also need to win all their games as well during this bad patch to catch up.  Liverpool only lost one game last season but drew seven times and it was those draws that cost them in the end as City lost four matches and only drew the two. Both Man City and Leicester have just been far too shakey recently and I think they'll both drop more points (Leicester more so than City). I think Liverpool will end up with some more draws though. They've been very lucky in a few of their last games to come away with the full three points.


Really? Why would they do that? I can understand them not accepting any more bets on Liverpool to win but are they paying out the full amount or letting people take an early cash-out of a lower amount? I could understand the partial cash out as they try to cut their losses from what likely is an inevitability but the season is far from over and there's nothing in it for the bookies to give a full cash out right now. The bookies desperately did this when Leicester were on to win the league as they were going to take massive losses if that came in, which was looking very likely, so they were desperately offering partial cash outs to try soften the blow.

Fans are bound to whinge when things don't go their way but I'm a neutral so the outcomes don't really effect me but the time-wasting in games due to VAR and goals being disallowed over other minor things is annoying to watch. I don't think there's much they can do to improve VAR directly unless they have the cameras running up and down the pitch with the action but it's the other rules and regulations that need to be changed really and how they're enforced with VAR. My main gripe is them checking every goal needlessly and the pedantic examining of offsides. Don't check for everything and give the teams three appeals only. This will speed the game up and likely lead to only the right or at least most important calls being asked to be examined. Even the Ifab general secretary has said that VAR isn't really being used how it was intended:


https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-var-wrong-offside-review-ifab-goals-replays-a9264306.html


Maybe, but I'd really love to see an image of the above without the hand and from an angle that is looking straight down the line. That knee could be playing him on but regardless these sorts of calls in my opinion should go under clear and obvious, which this obviously isn't. There's also the Van Dijk handball:

https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/29/referee-var-not-give-virgil-van-dijk-handball-liverpool-vs-wolves-11973534/?ito=cbshare


I'm not sure how far back something counts but I've seen games pulled back by ridiculous amounts to give a decision that disallowed a goal. Can't think of any specific examples off the top of my head in the Premier League but the one in the Portugal game was a shocker and there's been a fair few in the Champion's League but I know those aren't relevant to this argument as the PL implements VAR differently.


I don't know why they even brought that change in. It just slows things down. If it hits the ref then it hits the ref. Just play on. Players know where the ref is or at the very least just adapt to it if it accidentally hits him. What if the ball hits a tuft of grass or a divot on the field that sends the ball to the opposite player? Drop ball for that as well? Shit happens. The governing bodies know that there's a huge problem with the flow of the game and the issue of the ball being out of play along with players time wasting and yet the changes they've made have only added to that considerably.

They do have it there as far as I'm aware, but I think they only consult it when it's deemed absolutely necessary, which is seemingly hardly ever. It seemed to happen a lot more in the EUROs and World Cup as the refs were trotting to the sidelines quite a lot in the games I remember watching. I would argue the opposite though and I think checking it is a waste of time and just adds to the farce. There's already a handful of officials viewing it and if they can't make their mind up then that should tell you everything. Let them make the decisions to speed things up. The ref will already have his view/opinion from what he saw but VAR is there to try make up for things the officials miss, which can be quite a lot as they can't see everything but that's just a part of the game and at this point I'd prefer it if most things were just left to them. There's already a huge issue in football with the ball being out of play almost as much as it's in and when we're having to take time out for VAR decisions it's just adding to that and even more so if we're having the refs run over to the sideline to watch ten replays.

It's probably not just VAR but the offside rule which needs changing.



If you had a camera looking straight down the line in my opinion there's a chance that might not even be offside but you can't tell 100% from than skewed angle. As I said above, change the rule so that only a part of your body needs to be onside so that goal would have stood. Give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team and don't go all forensic trying to find some reason to disallow it. Personally I think attacking players should be given even more leeway on what is and isn't offside but I haven't thought of or seen a decent suggestion to how to allow or accommodate for that (and I don't want VAR to have to still take 5 minutes out of the game to try decide if it's still offside or not).


That's when it gets silly to me. We have the 'clear and obvious rule' so if it's not clear and obvious then don't go all CSI trying to look for evidence of a minor technicality to punish the team. I've joked that I'm just waiting for the time a player's swinging dick bulging through his shorts gets a goal disallowed  .


I don't think it is consistent though. Sure, they seem to be disallowing a lot of goals for the same thing, but there was one instance a while back where a goal was deemed offside but it actually wasn't. From the VAR angles it looked like it was offside but from some of the pitch-side cameras that weren't available during the game it was shown to be onside. I can't remember what game it was but I've talked about it in this thread and there's picture proof of it. There was also another game where the ball was deemed to have gone out of play but the wrong decision was given (think that might have been in the Champion's League though. Think I also commented on that in whichever tournament thread it happened in).


Sure, it would have been great to rule out Maradona's Hand of God back in the day but many seem to think that ruling goals offside for millimetres is overkill and unnecessary. I think you can look at it the other way as well. What happens if VAR disallows a trophy or title winning goal for the tiniest of things or maybe even gets it wrong and disallows something incorrectly. VAR is almost certainly here to stay but I think most people think it needs tweaking or streamlining and it's clearly not a perfect system. Goal-line technology seems to have got it right and its instantaneous. The ball goes over the line and the ref gets a buzz to alert him straight away. If it doesn't go over the ref knows and the game continues without any stoppages. VAR takes 2/3/5 minutes to forensically analyse whether someone is a pube-hair offside and it's just killing the game. I really think it's going to get to the point where there's silence in the stadiums after a goal and nobody dare's celebrate because they look like an idiot when it's disallowed.

I had 1-1 and another late goal cost me the points. Even with the correct score on the City game I end up with the wooden spoon  .


I really hope they change some things at the end of the season. As I've said before, don't go looking for things to cancel goals out. It takes far too much time out of the game and half of the time you'll be able to find something like a player pulling on a shirt or some other shit. Give each team three appeals each and that's it. Then they will use them wisely. As for the offsides, I think they should change the rule to make it so that only a part of your body has to be onside. VAR can't even currently 100% call out offsides effectively unless there's cameras running up and down the length of the pitch with the action because the cameras they use are always at an angle and you need to see straight down the line like the linesman can to be truly effective. I think one of the commentators said 22 goals have been ruled offside this season merely by centimetres alone. That's not including all the other disallowed goals.


I went from 7th all the way down to 16th in one round. I had a lot of results I was only goal off but I went for a load of draws as I couldn't split the teams and I guess it didn't pay off.


I didn't watch the game but I watched the highlights and I can't even make out where the Wolves offside was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG1lIIj9_fU

Where is it? Liverpool didn't even seem to be claiming for it either.

There was also another controversy in the City game as the ball hit the ref and City scored from it. Personally I think they should just play on but they changed the rules at the beginning of this season about giving a drop ball when that happens and I've seen it done multiple times this season but in this game it wasn't given even after a var check: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UHPAAzJVX4

Far too much inconsistency in how rules are applied.

I know things can change pretty fast but you can also go down the table pretty fast. My issue is I'm either doing pretty bad or below average and I'm not that confident about the games that are coming up and the rounds that have been played recently. Too many too close to call games mixed in with a fair few upsets.


Might make things exiting if Liverpool start losing  . I suppose there's the possibility of them going unbeaten all season. I think they could also still go for highest points achieved in the league as well right? Think they've only drawn two games this season so they should still be in the running for that record which if so is definitely do-able the way they're playing.

Just treading water in the pool with these average scores now but I'll probably start to move down if I don't step up as the people below me are crawling up. Was going to watch the game last night but decided against it and regretting it now. Looked a very eventful game. City are just falling to pieces at the moment. No idea why players still insist on running into the penalty area before the penalty is taken. Not hard to wait for the split second after he kicks it. With VAR now half of penalties that are saved are likely to be ordered to be retaken because there's always an eager player or the keeper coming off their line.


Yeah. Skip straight to the Champions League to see who wins that. I've always thought it was a bit boring when some team has essentially already won the tournament as they're so far ahead. Glad it's Liverpool though and not one of the usual others. Liverpool surely can't throw this away now. 13 points clear of Leicester. Are Liverpool going to lose four games without Leicester or City also dropping any more points? Just can't see that happening. I think Leicester will be up and down but I'm not sure I'd expect City to lose many now, though I'm sure they will drop some points eventually.


I was going to go for a 1-1 or 2-2 draw but thought City would be too strong for them so went for the City win.

Can't say there's many games I'm interested in or confident about today. Lots of tough calls. Burley vs Man U might be interesting. A home win wouldn't surprise me but not sure I'd back it as both teams are unpredictable. Burley used to be very strong at home and would often turn over big teams there but not really this season.

One late goal in two matches cost me a perfect score and that's all it takes to screw up a potentially decent round. Of course the opposite is also true and late goals can get you the perfect score but it stings more with the losses. Even worse is when you would have been the only person to get the score right and that happened this week twice with the 0-0 I went with on Bournemouth/Burnley game and Rodriguez went and scored in the 88th minute to take all the points away and then the same in the Brighton/Sheff United game but that was an early goal. tomahawk9 also went for the 0-0 on that one but missing out on six points would have made that round a pretty decent one for me.


Yeah. Mattle40 is shooting up the table and got the yellow cap this week. Up six places and only 10.5 points behind the fifth place position now after being quite low down on the table for most of the season. When people have bad weeks like a lot of us did it's a lot easier for people to climb the table very fast.

There's no doubt that they're on different levels, but Flamengo & Monterrey both gave Liverpool good games and I think it would be good exposure for the lesser known leagues. Almost seems unfair that some of the best players in the world come from places like Brazil and Argentina but nobody really cares about their domestic leagues. It would be interesting if they did it as a one off tournament at some point as a trial. I don't think it's that much different from the Euros or World Cups either in terms of classes of teams. It's always one of the big boys that win it and nobody really has a chance outside of the big four or five teams but I don't really think that detracts from it. It's always nice to cheer on the underdogs as well and you never know there might even be some surprises.


I went for the 1-1 draw. United losing 2-0 is a joke. Spurs currently 2-0 down as well and playing very poorly. Went for the 1-1 draw on this game as well but I can see Chelsea scoring more.


The last two rounds have been very unpredictable. I've barely got any points from them both.

Didn't watch the Everton/Arsenal game but it just ended 0-0. Seems most people went for the Everton win as did I. 30% got the draw right but no correct score which isn't uncommon with no goal games.


I really think the governing bodies and team managements need to have discussions about the scheduling of some games or tournaments, especial when they're playing them one or two days apart. They should maybe even think about playing some of the tournaments out of season, especially if clashes like this are going to keep happening. It's pretty boring when the seasons over for months and professional footballers are not school kids who should have months off (and especially the amount of money they earn), but I agree playing three games a week or two in quick succession is too much. I've always thought they should do some sort of club world cup where all the best teams from all around the world play. Do it in the summer every four years or something in between the EUROs and World Cups when nothing is on. I'm surprised they haven't tried to do this already really because it would be like a mix between the World Cup and Champions league and would be huge in terms of revenue.


Well maybe this is your chance to go against the grain and potentially pick up some points. This is one of those games where anything could happen, but Leicester are still the underdogs and I don't think they're strong enough to beat City at home. I've also got a feeling their form is going to drop drastically at some point and maybe the draw to Norwich last week was the turning point. Maybe another draw is on the cards. Either way, it should be a good game to watch and is probably the only one I'll bother with today, though I hope they don't cancel each other out and something like a bore draw happens.


I can't see him going there. He's too good for them even at his age. I'd like to see him back in the PL though.

As panjul07 said, I don't think you're out yet. I know it looks a long way but the tables can turn quite easy, especially with consistent results. Happened last year with Mattle40 being in the second half of the table for most of the season until he gradually kept climbing up to take a 5th place position by the end of the tournament. I've got a feeling I'm going to keep slipping down the table from being in the top few for most of it so far. This weekend will probably be disastrous for me. Having trouble calling most of the games. Lots of teams I can't split so will probably go for draws but that's always risky. I'm sure some will come in but most likely won't. The 3 o'clock kicks offs are pretty dire this round. Basically the shittest teams are all playing each other. The opening game or Everton vs Arsenal is also going to be a tough one. Arsenal are playing shit and it's the first game with Arteta in charge. Who know's what's going to happen.

The PL is pretty much in the bag at this point as long as they don't do something crazy and there's no CL for a while either so I feel like he could have afforded to put decent teams out for a couple of games in the CC. Just seems silly to me to get all the way to the quarters then just throw it all away as they could have easily won this tournament. Leicester are arguably the only team left with a title shot but they seemed to take it serious. If the only thing Liverpool win this year is the PL I can't help but feel it will be a little underwhelming. Not to take anything away from that as it's a huge achievement in itself, but big clubs should be proving their worth by winning multiple trophies and it'll probably be either Leicester or one of the Manchester teams that wins it now. If City go on to win one of the other domestic trophies and maybe even to win the CL that will probably trump Liverpool's seasons IMO. City did the domestic treble last year so I feel like Liverpool should also be aiming for it especially with the PL essentially already won. I feel like Klopp could have really pressed to reschedule the game, especially when the alternative is fielding an inexperienced team of kids. They could have even just flat out refused to play and I'm sure they would have rescheduled it then.

Leicester have done well but I think it's only a matter of time before their form turns. They already dropped points to Norwich and I'd be surprised if they can get more than a point from the City/Liverpool games. Probably doesn't really matter much because I can't see either City or Leicester being viable title contenders at this point. As I said before, it would be really interesting if they can get six points from those two games though. Might make Liverpool sweat a bit.


Turned it off after half time. Complete joke. They should have postponed it like they did with their PL game but for some reason Klopp doesn't seem to care that much about the cup. Not sure why because Liverpool should be trying to win as much silverware as possible and they could have gone for the domestic double or even treble which is no easy feat. Putting out teams of kids makes tournaments a joke. Doubt it would be allowed in the Premier League. Don't you have to state your squads at the beginning of the tournaments? Not sure how they got away with fielding an entire team of kids nobody had ever heard of before. They should have just split their team in two and half go to play the UEFA Cup oro whatever it is and the other half plays the CC. What's the point in that anyway. It's only a couple of games isn't it? They should be playing these sorts of things after the PL and CL have finished. There's already too many games and tournaments to worry about and now we're getting kids playing in place of their main teams because of it. I'd be pretty pissed if I was a Liverpool fan and paid good money to see a Sunday league game.