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Newcastle v Man City

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David F

Active Member
Looked like an offside offence to me, with Haaland effectively shielding the ball from the defender - Chris Sutton seems to think otherwise on commentary. Any thoughts?
 
The Ref Stop
There is no way the defender is ever ever stopping that

That said I called it after the first replay, quite how we need 6 mins to decide shows you how bad var is
 
The commentators didn't help, they kept saying that VAR were checking for Haaland interfering with Pope. If he was offside (see below) then I don't really see any argument that he wasn't interfering with Thiaw, he was making physical contact with him and effectively had him pinned.

The problem I have is SAOT has clearly failed again, it just doesn't seem to work if there is any kind of crowd involved, and by crowd I mean more than two players. It does in other countries that use the alternative (and arguably proven) technology, but the one the EPL had developed appears to have a serious flaw. The lines showed on TV were clearly manually drawn as per the old approach, and from the stills shown on the Sky coverage I really couldn't see what part of Haaland was offside.
 
The commentators didn't help, they kept saying that VAR were checking for Haaland interfering with Pope. If he was offside (see below) then I don't really see any argument that he wasn't interfering with Thiaw, he was making physical contact with him and effectively had him pinned.

The problem I have is SAOT has clearly failed again, it just doesn't seem to work if there is any kind of crowd involved, and by crowd I mean more than two players. It does in other countries that use the alternative (and arguably proven) technology, but the one the EPL had developed appears to have a serious flaw. The lines showed on TV were clearly manually drawn as per the old approach, and from the stills shown on the Sky coverage I really couldn't see what part of Haaland was offside.

Pay Temu prices and get a substandard product
 
The commentators didn't help, they kept saying that VAR were checking for Haaland interfering with Pope. If he was offside (see below) then I don't really see any argument that he wasn't interfering with Thiaw, he was making physical contact with him and effectively had him pinned.

The problem I have is SAOT has clearly failed again, it just doesn't seem to work if there is any kind of crowd involved, and by crowd I mean more than two players. It does in other countries that use the alternative (and arguably proven) technology, but the one the EPL had developed appears to have a serious flaw. The lines showed on TV were clearly manually drawn as per the old approach, and from the stills shown on the Sky coverage I really couldn't see what part of Haaland was offside.
It looked like Haaland's foot was closer to the goal-line than either opponent, but then we've had other goals recently that looked clearly offside but (after frame selection and applying a 5cm tolerance) were judged onside. And no sign yet of the SAOT cartoon. I've got to ask what happened to the 5cm tolerance - did it take four minutes to erase it?

Once it was decided that Haaland was in an offside position, the defender certainly would have had a chance to have blocked the shot without the interfering.
 
It looked like Haaland's foot was closer to the goal-line than either opponent, but then we've had other goals recently that looked clearly offside but (after frame selection and applying a 5cm tolerance) were judged onside. And no sign yet of the SAOT cartoon. I've got to ask what happened to the 5cm tolerance - did it take four minutes to erase it?

Once it was decided that Haaland was in an offside position, the defender certainly would have had a chance to have blocked the shot without the interfering.
Before you go down the conspiracy theory route, if you look at the lines they showed the defensive one was thicker than the attacking one, that is the 5cm tolerance. That's how they always did it before semi-automated came in.

They can't show the "SAOT cartoon" as it doesn't work in a crowded situation and they had to resort to the old method. And that is absolutely a shame on PGMO and the EPL as they've implemented a technology that doesn't work properly.
 
It's ridiculous that they have not seemingly sorted out the SAOT in crowded situations, this issue happened last season at Bournemouth and almost a year later it still exists.

However it must be pointed out this is a good VAR intervention because it's correct in law and I will have no doubt either ITV or Sky would of picked up Haaland potentially interfering with play and potentially go down as a VAR controversial missed incident if the VAR did not get involved. We can't criticize the officials just because pundits/fans may not of recognised the infringement.
 
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Farcical scenes
Agreed, but I don’t think those who are critical of VAR should be pointing the finger at Attwell as many are on social media. The semi automatic offsides failed (again), so he was between a rock & hard place & I suspect followed protocol. Whether protocol should change & indeed whether clear & obvious needs to be introduced for offsides is a matter for PL & PGMOL to discuss. However, the problem all stems from the different technology used here as opposed to Europe. In any event, even if spectators/clubs consider introducing clear & obvious, I suspect clubs/England would not want a two tier system for European/England matches, whereby as far as I am aware UEFA/FIFA have a fully functional semi automated system for toe nail offsides (perhaps with some level of technology tolerance).
 
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Despite all the justified hoo ha from last night, I think the best that can be expected is that semi automatic offsides is taken off line for the remainder of the season (& replaced by the previous system) to see if they can eradicate the crowded area issue, because currently it is not fit for purpose. Any other discussions I think should be left to the end of the season so that there is some sort/level of continuity.
 
Despite all the justified hoo ha from last night, I think the best that can be expected is that semi automatic offsides is taken off line for the remainder of the season (& replaced by the previous system) to see if they can eradicate the crowded area issue, because currently it is not fit for purpose. Any other discussions I think should be left to the end of the season so that there is some sort/level of continuity.

Agreed and for them to get rid of this 5cm tolerance line also and accept offside is offside even if it's just by a nose. The fact the PL/PGMO claimed this is the best tech in the world is proving to be a bit embarrassing to be honest.

I also need to point out Dale Johnson's comments that the VAR should of ignored this because fans/pundits would not of even think this could be offside is a nonsense also. You can't pick and choose which laws to follow, in law the VAR got it spot on but the process was messy, not helped by those watching on TV having the commentators from both ITV and Sky mentioning the keeper being impeded, I'm guessing any comments Stuart made about the keeper to the ref got misinterpreted. The day when the audio gets played out in the stadium will surely help I hope.
 
You had issues like this without the SAOT.

Where the best camera angle they had for the offside line had parts of players blocked, they'd then need to parse in information from.other camera angles.

Just bin off VAR it's getting worse.
 
You had issues like this without the SAOT.

Where the best camera angle they had for the offside line had parts of players blocked, they'd then need to parse in information from.other camera angles.

Just bin off VAR it's getting worse.

Not sure I agree with that - getting worse. At Bournemouth last year with SAOT it took over 9 mins and yesterday nearly 6 - so virtually 15 mins between the two. Although not a statistically valid comparison, what it does indicate is that SAOT has so far been worse. I don’t think it will be binned, especially when used all over the globe, but significant improvements still need to be made, both with the technology and with its interpretation and especially in an attempt to get spectators onside (pun intended!).
 
VAR is getting worse generally.

Surely they know the SAOT has failed quickly? So these decisions would have took a long time even if they started immediately with the old tech

Regardless there have been 5 minute plus offside decisions pre-SAOT.
 
VAR is getting worse generally.

Surely they know the SAOT has failed quickly? So these decisions would have took a long time even if they started immediately with the old tech

Regardless there have been 5 minute plus offside decisions pre-SAOT.
I still don’t agree about VAR being generally worse, though agree that there have been occasions of approx 5 min plus with offside calls, which is unacceptable & which SAOT was meant to help with, but in certain circumstances, the reverse is true.
 
Pope was moving to his right and would never have made a save.
Thiaw has his arm round Haalands neck, so Haaland will inevitably be in contact with him. Who is pinning who ?
In this age of technology, one in a million situations like this will always cause discussion like this.

Interesting comment about Temu in a previous post, apparently Shein have entered the market with an updated version giving x-ray views through a crowded area !!
 
You had issues like this without the SAOT.

Where the best camera angle they had for the offside line had parts of players blocked, they'd then need to parse in information from.other camera angles.

Just bin off VAR it's getting worse.
Clearly that isn't happening, again people are forgetting that it wasn't the football authorities who wanted VAR, it was introduced after clubs, pundits, fans, etc, kept complaining about referees and ARs making mistakes. I've had the radio on for much of the day and the very people bemoaning VAR are the very same people who were criticising decisions before it was implemented, and I absolutely guarantee they'd be back to criticising if VAR was scrapped (which it won't be).
 
Agreed, but I don’t think those who are critical of VAR should be pointing the finger at Attwell as many are on social media. The semi automatic offsides failed (again), so he was between a rock & hard place & I suspect followed protocol. Whether protocol should change & indeed whether clear & obvious needs to be introduced for offsides is a matter for PL & PGMOL to discuss. However, the problem all stems from the different technology used here as opposed to Europe. In any event, even if spectators/clubs consider introducing clear & obvious, I suspect clubs/England would not want a two tier system for European/England matches, whereby as far as I am aware UEFA/FIFA have a fully functional semi automated system for toe nail offsides (perhaps with some level of technology tolerance).
Agree with the Atwell bit. Thought he did a remarkable job at noticing the possible offside
Problems with VAR are deep rooted and go far beyond SAOF. It's basically sh1t and I've never deviated from that observation (from day 1)
We're stuck with it because the self-interested financially motivated decision makers (and FIFA) don't have the game's best interests at heart. The dynamics and culture of the game do not lend themselves to it ever being fixed

One misguided and unknowledgeable assessment we regular hear is, 'it's not the protocol that's broken, it's the people (MO's) behind it
What a load of tosh
 
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It looked like Haaland's foot was closer to the goal-line than either opponent, but then we've had other goals recently that looked clearly offside but (after frame selection and applying a 5cm tolerance) were judged onside. And no sign yet of the SAOT cartoon. I've got to ask what happened to the 5cm tolerance - did it take four minutes to erase it?

Once it was decided that Haaland was in an offside position, the defender certainly would have had a chance to have blocked the shot without the interfering.
Lots of people are forgetting the offside line is goalkeeper Pope’s bottom, so even with the naked eye it is clearly offside.

A good reminder the GK can be the second last defender.

Saying the 5cm tolerance is a factor is wrong.

I agree, I don’t see it’s subjective that Haaland is impacting the last defender, he clearly is.

IMG_1712.png
 
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