Pep calls out Scudamore

Sounds like the new PL chief is doubling down. Liverpool have increased TV audiences this season according to him.

The PL strategy 4 titles in a row it is then...
 
Bazzmand Show said:
Do people in here genuinely believe that there is some league wide conspiracy theory to derail us this year?

We've not been fucking good enough, end of discussion.
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We've not been good enough, I agree. However, we've also been fucked over by officials in every single game, not always the big game changing decisions but always systemic cheating in an to attempt to manipulate the results and disadvantage us over the entire season.
 
As I understand it:
City win the Premier breaking all records
The Premier League owner says it isnt good for the league for City to win like that
LFC then go on to have a record breaking season with less controversial VAR decisions than any other team, least number of pens awarded against them, least number of yellows against them, least number of "fouls" committed, extremely poor reffing of their game against their closest rival. Anything else?

I am not a conspiracy nut but that sounds really fkin dodgy to me. Nonetheless, LFC have played well, they may be helped by the general media and total luck but I do think this season will be looked back on as well dodgy
 
Kenward Garg said:
Brilliant. You’ve elucidated on an aspect of City’s season that is rarely discussed yet to me: is the crucial difference.
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Some fellow posters on the thread are calling conspiracy theories and others discrediting them.

But without falling into either of those camps, I feel that in team sports where subjectivity around rules/laws is a huge part, fine margins can be manipulated and a preferred outcome achieved.

For example, in a 100m sprint, there’s no one calling fouls and the fastest man reaching the 100m mark wins. Difficult to manipulate that. You can use any individual sport with hard fast rules, it’s difficult to manipulate. I’d use basketball as a team sport example (although I might be wrong and can be corrected) but it’s hard to manipulate with hard fast rules.

But when subjectivity is huge around rules, it’s easy to manipulate decisions.

I’d use the example of politics and say half truths are repeated and people start to believe them (sadly not everyone can see the half truths for what they are, sometimes including myself so not thinking I am above anyone).

The same thing is applied to sport especially given the high stakes involved.

And on top of that, slight manipulation of subjective decisions (subjective is used as an umbrella for manipulation) can have huge impact in fine margins.

Given the audience in question is tribal already, it’s easy to manipulate them, using confirmation bias as a weakness.

when you look at all those in play in combination, it’s easy to see what is going on.

The caveat is that these things can Only play a role in fine margins and not night and day difference. Those fine margins are inflated when combined with psychological impact of self doubt, pressure and acceptance.

People might think why it didn’t happen last year. Well I think it did but we were able to overcome it all because we weren’t ahead of others by only fine margins but more than that.

This year, the lack of perfect recruitment, the age factor of some key players and the injuries have coupled together and reduced the advantage we had over other teams to only fine margins. And the fine margins have been mostly against us this year (just like last year) and the impact is inflated with psychological factors (lack of
Confidence) creeping in players.

In my view, this is showing in the performance and points difference. Otherwise, in no way we are 22 points worse of Liverpool over 25 games.
 
arbabarshad said:
Some fellow posters on the thread are calling conspiracy theories and others discrediting them.

But without falling into either of those camps, I feel that in team sports where subjectivity around rules/laws is a huge part, fine margins can be manipulated and a preferred outcome achieved.

For example, in a 100m sprint, there’s no one calling fouls and the fastest man reaching the 100m mark wins. Difficult to manipulate that. You can use any individual sport with hard fast rules, it’s difficult to manipulate. I’d use basketball as a team sport example (although I might be wrong and can be corrected) but it’s hard to manipulate with hard fast rules.

But when subjectivity is huge around rules, it’s easy to manipulate decisions.

I’d use the example of politics and say half truths are repeated and people start to believe them (sadly not everyone can see the half truths for what they are, sometimes including myself so not thinking I am above anyone).

The same thing is applied to sport especially given the high stakes involved.

And on top of that, slight manipulation of subjective decisions (subjective is used as an umbrella for manipulation) can have huge impact in fine margins.

Given the audience in question is tribal already, it’s easy to manipulate them, using confirmation bias as a weakness.

when you look at all those in play in combination, it’s easy to see what is going on.

The caveat is that these things can Only play a role in fine margins and not night and day difference. Those fine margins are inflated when combined with psychological impact of self doubt, pressure and acceptance.

People might think why it didn’t happen last year. Well I think it did but we were able to overcome it all because we weren’t ahead of others by only fine margins but more than that.

This year, the lack of perfect recruitment, the age factor of some key players and the injuries have coupled together and reduced the advantage we had over other teams to only fine margins. And the fine margins have been mostly against us this year (just like last year) and the impact is inflated with psychological factors (lack of
Confidence) creeping in players.

In my view, this is showing in the performance and points difference. Otherwise, in no way we are 22 points worse of Liverpool over 25 games.
Click to expand...

Liverpol were at one stage last seasons 10 points in front and were then getting the most beneficial refereeing decisions. We did cope a lot better with the injuries last season and we did have Kompany to help out at the tail end.
 
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arbabarshad said:
Professional sport at the highest level has very fine margins. It's said and heard all the time. It could not be more true. And it's mostly Psychpological this season in my view.

Big decisions in important games (against big teams) aside:

- the tactical fouling tag
- the freekicks given against us for small or sometimes imaginary infringements (especially around our penalty area)
- the lack of free kicks given for us for 50/50s or even definitive fouls

all of the above causes loss of momentum in games.

Ruling out sterlings goal in 2nd game injury time causing city to lose points and be behind liverpool so early on means affecting the mindset of the players from literally almost the start of the season.

Getting unfair treatment in most games when your main competitors get beneficial treatment sits in anyones mind, players and manager included regardless of how mentally tough they are.

It would dishearten anyone knowing they are being handicapped.

So a combination of:

- Tactical fouling tag (creating doubt in players mind about tackling anyone, anywhere on the pitch, at any point of the game)
- Pressure of being behind liverpool most season from the very beginning
- Feeling disheartened by getting unfair treatment against every team, including your main competitors and all the while Livarpool getting the helping hands - (accepting that maybe its not their season)

You can fight all these psychological effects in one game or over a short period of time but over a longer period, it takes its toll and players who are misfiring are low on confidence due to all those things.

Then the injuries and loss of a strong leader have their own impact. But in my opinion, these would be negated if the players did not lose their confidence as above. Instead, the effect is multiplied.

On the opposite end, the opposition like Livarpool have had favourable treatment, favourable decisions and helping hands to keep winning, keep ahead of the competition which again psychologically makes you very confident and makes you think you are invincible. This would normally be followed by complacency which has crept in their game more recently but with the helping hands, they are just about overcoming it.

The fine margins that usually make all the difference are making all the difference. Next season, everyone starts from 0 again and with some luck with injuries and good recruitment, fine margins might not matter so much to us (here's hoping).
Click to expand...
excellent post!
 
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