Napoli (H) | CL | Post Match Thread

Arsenal will be a bigger test. I do think the team is getting better but are we as good as the top teams?
The defence is much better. Rodri is improving. Foden looks great. Docu and Haaland too.
Yeah, I think we're still a bit off the level of Arsenal and Liverpool but I can see us getting better as the season goes on. It might not be enough to win the league this season but hopefully we'll have gelled enough to have a serious tilt at the title next season
 
Khusanov is very good defensively but he playing it very safe going forward making easy sideways passes.

There will come a time when we are not in control of a game and we need a right back to make an overlapping run. I think Khusanov is a good right back too but his defensive game is much stronger than his attacking game.
Totally agree.
Incidentally, Damien Delaney may have been journeyman footballer (Hull, Ipswich, Palace etc) but on Irish TV last night (and unlike some stellar names on eye-watering retainers), he was the first pundit I have heard predict a bright future for Khusanov.
 
I thought the same from the north stand but having now seen it on MOTD, there was an angle that it looked like he got a touch and that more or less coincided with the ref’s view. VAR did exactly what it was supposed to do and corrected the mistake.
Getting a touch is irrelevant, that's a commentators dumbing down of the rules along the same lines of "He's the last man so he's got to go".
Getting a touch only matters if the ball is knocked far enough away from the attacker that they no longer have control of the ball before the action of knocking the ball loose brings the attacker down.
Unfortunately, because the commentators go on about a player 'getting a touch' everyone expects referees to look for the slightest brush of a foot against a ball but this isn’t mentioned anywhere in IFAB's The Laws of the Game.
We're at the point now that referees seem to referee the game according to what the pundits think the rules are as opposed to the actual rules, it does my head in.
It was a clear direct free kick and shouldn't have needed forensic VAR intervention, as the defender "impedes an opponent with contact" and was then correctly shown a red card for an obvious denial of a goal scoring opportunity, it should have been a simple decision.
The whole getting a touch thing is up there with commentators insisting "there's contact so he's entitled to go down" as one of the most irritating ways they've changed the way the game is played and referee'd.
 
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Getting a touch is irrelevant, that's a commentators dumbing down of the rules along the same lines of "He's the last man so he's got to go".
Getting a touch only matters if the ball is knocked far enough away from the attacker that they no longer have control of the ball before the action of knocking the ball loose brimgs the attacker down.
Unfortunately, because the commentators go on about a player 'getting a touch' everyone expects referees to look for the slightest brush of a foot against a ball but this isn’t mentioned anywhere in IFAB's The Laws of the Game.
We're at the point now that referees seem to referee the game according to what the pundits think the rules are as opposed to the actual rules, it does my head in.
It was a clear indirect free kick and shouldn't have needed forensic VAR intervention, as the defender "impedes an opponent with contact" and was then correctly shown a red card for an obvious denial of a goal scoring opportunity, it should have been a simple decision.
The whole getting a touch thing is up there with commentators insisting "there's contact so he's entitled to go down" as one of the most irritating ways they've changed the way the game is played and referee'd.
Very well explained , I salute you.
And agree.
 
This has probably been answered already but: wasn’t the future Golden Balloon supposed to be playing last night or was he substituted at the same time as Kev?
 
What I thought was very obvious is that the coaches have been working with Khus on how he should move going forward in the RB role.

The positional changes with Bernie were pure Pep positional play.

Our Kid couldn’t go to the game so I took a very good friend who is a West Ham fan and last time he came along, he was critical of Khus. He knows his stuff and even has some coaching badges. Last night, he impressed and saying you don’t need a right back…. I still think we do because we need at least one proven specialist RB. However, if Kodir enjoys playing RB, he could develop into a very good one, but I think he will likely always have a defensive orientation i.e. I don’t see him being a wing back or a central mid.
Good insight that .
 
It is too early in the season to get carried away positively or negatively. However, you can make performance judgements regardless of the opposition or circumstances. E.g. Phil played two world class and crucial passes that would have been such against any team. Doku tore through and Italian defence and scored a brilliant goal. We know Phil can perform consistently but we are not sure about Doku; however, if Doku can perform consistently as he has done in the last two games, he create havoc for a lot of teams.
I’ll settle for one of those ‘jinky’ runs from Doku per game…..provided they all end in a goal.
 

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