Sportsbet.io's English Premier League Football Pool Discussion Thread

[buwaytress]

VAR. I always said, I'm not anti-tech, just wary of poor implementation as un_rank says, and in interfering with grey areas. Goals are black and white, ball out of play, contact fouls (since fouls are fouls) but we keep forgetting offside is not black and white and officials now need to determine if players gained advantage to call offside. Hence the ridiculousness of armpit calls and finger pointing calls.

Not to mention how opaque and closed-source VAR tech is. You want to outsource tech, fine, but I'd never outsource a service I can't even inspect.

Back to EPL action, all the favourites won tonight, whimper of an end to the night with 0-0 Palace-Forest showing a single card. Good thing no underdog odds were tempting, or I'd have been heartbroken by United =)

[un_rank]

For now yeah but if either Arsenal or City win tomorrow then Tottenham is going to drop to #2. Considering that they lost Kane, they are doing pretty good and I thought they would be struggling abit without Kane but it seems they are far better now without him

I will not say they are better without Kane, but they have definitely done very well without him and no solid replacement. Ange Postecoglou has done a great job with the available resources.

Anyway, McTominay really saved Ten Hag's ass today. Imagine being subbed in on 87' minutes then scored 2 goals to saved his ass, thats literally 10 minutes and he is not even a striker. On the other hand, Onana sucks  

It may be a matter of time before Manchester United sack him, heavily dependent on results at the end of the champions league group stage. Although it is beginning to beg the question, after 5 managers and complete overhaul of players, if they are the problem. The expectation is high based on past results, but a club can only live in the past for so long.

- Jay -

[casperBGD]

~snip

Anyway, McTominay really saved Ten Hag's ass today. Imagine being subbed in on 87' minutes then scored 2 goals to saved his ass, thats literally 10 minutes and he is not even a striker. On the other hand, Onana sucks 

yeah, what a saver, and Brentford was unlucky too
United deserves to struggle a lot this season

on the other side, chances and shots finally paid off at home for Everton, 3:0 against Bournemouth, to catch breath before tougher fixtures that are coming after international break
fun fact, Everton has 2 wins and 7 loses in last 9 EPL fixtures at home, and both wins against Bournemouth (last one in final round last season, to secure survival), not a good position to play

[Igebotz]

VAR is a joke. I think football is better without it in its current form. It wastes far too much time and there's no need to check every goal to see if they can find something and the offsides that they needs to draw digital lines to see if someone was offside by a millimetre are pathetic. Who cares?...

I do not think the problem is VAR but its implementation in the league. VAR is working every where else with no major talking points or contestable decisions. It wastes a lot of time, true, but we cannot stop technology from creeping into everything to eliminate the margins of human error, the problem is it is not eliminating the error due to poor implementation.

Poch explained the VAR situation better yesterday in his pre match conference he said and I quote " I trust in the CAR ( VAR) but not the Driver ( refs). The technology is good but it's just in the wrong hands.

@hilariousandco - I sent you a PM

It may be a matter of time before Manchester United sack him, heavily dependent on results at the end of the champions league group stage. Although it is beginning to beg the question, after 5 managers and complete overhaul of players, if they are the problem. The expectation is high based on past results, but a club can only live in the past for so long.

I'm not sure he's getting sacked anytime soon but his decision to get De Gea sacked to bring In a mid GK ( Onana) will get him into trouble + his bad relationship with his players. He's technically gifted but he's player's management is questionable.

[Joca97]

So far a good round for me got for the first time 6/6 picks. Too bad about Fulham could have got in that match 3 points but late goal killed me. Hopefully sunday will be good for me aswell like today,but so many hard games i think i cannot go for 10/10 but will do my best. Man City match is the most worrying match of all.

[arallmuus]

or I'd have been heartbroken by United =)

As much as most you guys hate United, actually none picked United to lose today which is rare considering that their record was pretty bad so far. 25 players got exact scores from 2-1 United thanks to Super Scott.

It may be a matter of time before Manchester United sack him,

Considering that some players were injured and he is struggling with the rest of the remaining players, I guess he wont be sacked for now. Its going to be a rough season for United but Im still pretty sure that we stand a good chance to get to top 4 again. Its going to be a wild dream to even consider that we are going to win the league so getting to top would be much realistic by this point

[cryptofrka]

I love VAR - I really think it was needed. Too many important decisions have gone the wrong way to 'Uniteds' of their time in the past, it simply isn't possible with VAR and that is something to compliment.

On the other hand, for the love of God, how can you let an incorrect decision stand just because the rules say when you can overrule and when not? I don't know if you have heard the video - I'm linking it here.
This is in my opinion the mistake of English FA, which has been using VAR way worse than all other countries combined since its inception.

Just listen to this, it really is insane.

As a Liverpool fan, this recording makes me go berserk.

[CLS63]

Just listen to this, it really is insane.

As a Liverpool fan, this recording makes me go berserk.

When I listened to the VAR records I became really shocked. I have seen many memes related to this on the internet. The one I liked the most is this one:



It is really very funny that this happened after referees praised each other. When it comes to today I'm waiting for Liverpool to win against Brighton. I made a parlay like this. I hope that it wins:

[swogerino]

I just copied the above bet mate,sounds fun but I am really worried about Napoli form.While for the pool here it looks like they should be 4 money line results that favor the away teams,pretty difficult to come true especially in a league like the Premier League but I have got for that type of prediction in our pool.I was not at all in the top positions now I am just 6 or 7 points away from the 5th place in the pool,it is really funny how super fast things change in this pool.If I don't do well in these remaining games I may as well get to go 20 points down from that 5th place,that's how tight the pool is.

[slaman29]

VAR destroys spirit of game. Other tech does not. This is the main difference!

Considering that some players were injured and he is struggling with the rest of the remaining players, I guess he wont be sacked for now. Its going to be a rough season for United but Im still pretty sure that we stand a good chance to get to top 4 again. Its going to be a wild dream to even consider that we are going to win the league so getting to top would be much realistic by this point

I don't get why you'd get sackked at United wgen it's not your fault, same goes for Chelsea. The club needs a cleanup act first, long bfre they start thinking about manager performance. Wasn't Ten Hag part of the cleanup? His "mistake" was setting expectations by winning a cup last season

[arallmuus]

VAR destroys spirit of game. Other tech does not. This is the main difference!

I guess most people will have different opinions on VAR but VAR is going to stay wether people likes it or not. There has been some controversial decision that was changed because of VAR so I doubt that the league is going to start removing it from the game

-snip

I don't get why you'd get sackked at United wgen it's not your fault, same goes for Chelsea. The club needs a cleanup act first, long bfre they start thinking about manager performance. Wasn't Ten Hag part of the cleanup? His "mistake" was setting expectations by winning a cup last season

His mistake for now is probably getting rid of De Gea for a 'build-up' goalkeeper that turns up to be sucks at goalkeeping  . I gotta give him some credit for that bold decision though but for now Onana sucks but yeah its all part of the clean up and the club must move on from all those glorious past. It takes time but it just feels bad when you see Onana is at the bar not being able to keep any cleansheet whenever the team play

[Igebotz]

I love VAR - I really think it was needed. Too many important decisions have gone the wrong way to 'Uniteds' of their time in the past, it simply isn't possible with VAR and that is something to compliment.

On the other hand, for the love of God, how can you let an incorrect decision stand just because the rules say when you can overrule and when not? I don't know if you have heard the video - I'm linking it here.
This is in my opinion the mistake of English FA, which has been using VAR way worse than all other countries combined since its inception.

Just listen to this, it really is insane.

As a Liverpool fan, this recording makes me go berserk.

Everyone knows that Manchester United and Alex Ferguson's success were built on corrupt officials, and the club hasn't won a major title since he departed in 2013, despite having more than 5 different coaches and billions of dollars spent on players. vAR has also reduced corruption at  Italy (Juventus)and Spain (Barcelona) to a bare minimum.

Isn't it the VAR officials' responsibility to change the score? How could they have missed what was on top of their screen for the full 90 minutes? Shady

Brighton will have a difficult season because they are so awful at closing gaps at the back. Caciodo will be missed greatly.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Brighton 2-2 Liverpool
West Ham 2-2 Newcastle
Wolves 1-1 Aston Villa

It was the day of draws until Arsenal stepped up on landed a big KO on Man City to win 1-0. Very early on but Man City look weaker than last season. They’ve lost back to back PL games for the first time in 5 yesrs.

On we go to the international break.

[swogerino]

Arsenal got a very important victory for their campaign of continuing being in the fight for the title and I think they should be first in the standings right now while Manchester City is once again showing difficulties when playing against a strong team as they lost to Newcastle I think in the cup while only last week they lost to Wolves,they surely are not the super strong team that came back to win the title like they did last year.

What is the most surprising though is the form of Tottenham that I rarely have seen being so stable for such a long time in the Premier League.I don't think they will continue to be this awesome as they rarely are such consistent but let's see,this time the Premier League is becoming more interesting than ever.

[KTChampions]

Brighton 2-2 Liverpool
West Ham 2-2 Newcastle
Wolves 1-1 Aston Villa

It was the day of draws until Arsenal stepped up on landed a big KO on Man City to win 1-0. Very early on but Man City look weaker than last season. They’ve lost back to back PL games for the first time in 5 yesrs.

On we go to the international break.

Maybe the absence of KDB is so important.
I paid attention to this: out of 8 games, City had only two serious ones - with Newcastle and with Arsenal. The result of 3 points can hardly be considered successful. There is a killer series of games ahead with much stronger opponents (Brighton - United - Bournemouth - Chelsea - Liverpool - Tottenham - Aston Villa), there is hope that City's gap from the leaders will only increase after this series of games.
By the way, I was really angry that the referee got scared and didn’t send off Kovacic, who earned 1.5 red cards in the first half.

[ajiz138]

Brighton 2-2 Liverpool
West Ham 2-2 Newcastle
Wolves 1-1 Aston Villa

It was the day of draws until Arsenal stepped up on landed a big KO on Man City to win 1-0. Very early on but Man City look weaker than last season. They’ve lost back to back PL games for the first time in 5 yesrs.

On we go to the international break.

Palace 0 vs 0 Forest

This week there are 4 draw matches and I don't expect a draw in all of them at.

Will Man City's title end? Well, this is the start of the season, maybe Pep's troops can make a comeback.

But Arsenal looks more stable in the PL.

[casperBGD]

-snip
It was the day of draws until Arsenal stepped up on landed a big KO on Man City to win 1-0. Very early on but Man City look weaker than last season. They’ve lost back to back PL games for the first time in 5 yesrs.

On we go to the international break.

big win for Arsenal
it will make championship more interesting and put them into position to fight for it if they continue this way
Liverpool lost important points against Brighton, they should have win this, but now to matches without a win

Aston Villa should never be trusted, always against the odds

[buwaytress]

Never thought I'd fin myself saying this but thank god for Arsenal or this Super Sunday would be an all-draw affair.

Watched most of Liverpool and while their defence once more gave the goal away (pundits seem to blame Macallister but I feel like VVD was not entirely blameless?) I guess I should be happy we were pretty neat against a fast pressing team.

Such a shame the int break is here... would have loved to see City on the ropes.

[KTChampions]

Never thought I'd fin myself saying this but thank god for Arsenal or this Super Sunday would be an all-draw affair.

Quite a strange gratitude, because a draw would have been in favor of Liverpool 

Such a shame the int break is here... would have loved to see City on the ropes.

We can only hope that after the international games the City players will be exhausted and, given the difficult games (as I wrote above), we will see City knocked out.

By the way, let's dream and imagine that Tottenham will take the title. If this happens, Kane's transition will look as comical as possible 

[casperBGD]

-snip

If this happens, Kane's transition will look as comical as possible 

agree, especially if, by some miracle, Leverkusen make this season big, and take title from Bayern, it will be an event to make meme history out of it

back to topic, Arsenal winning over City does look as worst outcome for Liverpool, but in the long run it is more likely to see City entering endless winning strike, than Arsenal to hold on top spot, so this looks as better for City to lose all points