The only thing I noticed about our boys during this pre-season, is that the squad is lacking a ‘group personality’, which is only to be expected with the incoming and outgoing turnover of players.
Can expect this camaraderie to improve week by week though.
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https://x.com/hltco/status/1955571050080571802?s=61&t=VxX1vHU3NOwwNhlbyICG-g
Sam is at the bar drinking a pint of wine
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Your poor, poor bank.
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I think this, and you will also see us a little disjointed on the pitch. It’s a bit like when you get an international squad together, and they are clearly good players but they don’t have that group intelligence that tells them they know exactly where their teammates are going to be and what they are doing.
You will see this more on the defensive side of the game. I’m expecting a few daft goals conceded in the early games.
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Nah..that sort of stuff doesn’t bother me at all…
To be honest I haven’t even noticed it.
If you look for things to get annoyed about then you will always find them..
No wonder with all the changes this summer… but yeah, let’s hope that a new team spirit will emerge as the season goes on.
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He really is a master bullshitter, isn’t he? Starts off by saying that they changed one of the rules because they couldn’t be bothered to enforce it, and then comes out with this nonsense about 50:50 decisions.
Anyway, I looked at the new rules. The 8 second goalkeeper rule applies when the keeper has hold of the ball and is unchallenged. The biggest change is the clear signal from the ref to the keeper, and it is a very good idea. Very much on par with the innovation of using the shaving foam to mark out the 10 yard line at free kicks: simple and effective.
Only the captain being able to speak with the ref should stop them being surrounded, but I bet this is applied unevenly. I can also guarentee that one of our players will be booked because they ask the ref where a free kick is supposed to be taken from, or some other simple query.
The retaking of double kick penalties seemed to be a solution looking for a problem, but this actually happened in the Women’s Euro final.
Drop balls can be awarded to a team if they clearly would have gained possession (seems fair enough).
An indirect free kick will be awarded if the ball hits a coach, substitute or other player when it would have gone out. I can’t honestly think of an occasion that this happened, but I suppose it’s possible that they were on for a medical emergency.
The last one is about offsides where it will be judged on goalkeepers last point of contact. (I’m not sure I understand that one either.)
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This change is a direct response to it happening to Alvarez in the CL and effectively KOing Atletico. For something as unusual as that it is incredibly strange for it to have then happened again in other high profile game so soon afterwards.
I am torn on the 8 seconds thing. The rule is already in place. It is frustrating that time wasting is such a salient issue and refs ignore this tool that is already available to them and the authorities have to make a decision to collectively start applying it. But if a tweek to the rule makes it easier for the refs to do it then so be it lets see how it plays out. I suspect it will be done with an understandable level of inconsistency and so will be subjected to howling complaints by fans who feel they were done in by an unevenly metered out punishment.
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It’s gone from 6 to 8 seconds. I suppose starting a countdown after 1 second is a bit extreme. But the clear signal from the ref is the real innovation, and probably why it was never enforced before.
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I’m loathed to listen to his video, but I havent seen anything reported about rule changes that would relate to this so I’m struggling to identify what its supposed to be addressing. There is nothing in this piece from Dale Johnson that seems to relate
Responding to Dale’s article the first section on holding on set pieces is interesting/concerning. It says refs have been directed to pay more attention to it, but there is no change in the criteria for what constitutes enough holding to be a foul so Im not sure what exactly refs are expected to do differently. It all adds up to them starting off giving what seem like random penalties up to the point that everyone complains the refs have gone mad and we return to the status quo.
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Well, straight from the horses mouth:
Law 11 – Offside
- When the goalkeeper throws the ball, the last point of contact should be used for the purpose of determining an offside position.
Actually, that does make sense, because a throw isn’t a single point in time. Having said that, it would have to be one hell of a throw to find a player in an offside position.
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Some unusual predictions here - Chris Waddle!
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And will it take into account the flop on the floor after taking a routine catch, Ali, showed what a pisstake that is copying T-rex, brilliantly done IMHO
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New EPL Season New Innovations and Rules.
● Touchline interviews with substituted players and cameras inside the dressing room will feature as part of the Premier League’s new £6.7billion TV deal with Sky Sports and TNT Sports, as broadcasters try to make their coverage more American.
● In another new innovation for the 2025-26 season, footage of goal celebrations will now look more like something from a video game as camera operators will be permitted to take to the pitch to get close-up shots of the players as they jump all over each other with joy.
● Semi-automated offside technology will be in operation from the start of this season, having featured in the final seven weeks of the last campaign.
● Referees will get their own spotlight as from this season, they will announce the reasoning for VAR decisions to crowds.
● Goalkeepers are no longer going to be able to run down the clock following a significant change to the law, which means they now have just eight seconds to release the ball. If they do not, then the referee will award the opposition a corner - and they could also be booked
● This season the Premier League will use a ball not made by Nike, with the two severing ties at the end of the 2024-25 campaign. Instead, the Puma ‘Orbita Ultimate’ will debut as the league’s official match ball when Liverpool host Bournemouth.
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The Americanisation of the of the coverage is dreadful. I can see the cameras on the pitch turning into some sort of Gonzo journalism thing.
Sports coverage should be done like nature documentaries, with the cameras hidden in a camouflaged hide.
Then again, I don’t want David Attenborough commenting on the mating habits of footballers. Scratch that.
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Sure John Terry will volunteer to do it ?
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See my post above re Keepers!