Recent content by Gio

Agree with this.

Aye, spot on. The rule has drifted from its previous position which was to stop people deliberately handling the ball and gaining an unfair advantage. IFAB and others have lost sight of this in the pursuit of achieving consistency. Stopping the star-man stuff does not need to go to the...

Poor from Gilchrist - plenty of cover inside.

It's a bit bizarre. Simms looked offside on first viewing and the replay confirmed that. ITV's commentary team totally ignored that, deliberately I reckon to inject more drama and injustice to the moment. Didn't help that Dixon saw it twice, thought he was on, and then a third time and made a...

A lot of the problem with the Silva and Casemiro ones was that they weren't really chips and there was no disguise to make the keeper second-guess. They both went with an open side-foot and if the keeper spots that he knows it won't have much power and he can hedge his bets on waiting as long as...

It's the acid test for Southgate: how to fully accommodate the talent at his disposal. Good international managers find a way when presented with a plethora of quality in similar positions. For example, Spain in 2008-2012 had half a dozen world-class central midfielders. They didn't just pick...

Mike’s team is very strong.

Shows the impact that not being the most dominant team, not sitting on the edge of the opposition box, can have on your attacking contributions. Something that, for instance, Zidane had to do a lot of in Serie A, but is rarer nowadays given the territorial dominance that top teams have just...

Happy to chip in a semi-regular review. Unlikely to be the same player but.

Nicely put. It's never going to be seen as a success as it's set up to fail. Because fans are never satisfied and that's the tribal nature of the sport. My biggest concern is we continue re-writing the rules of the game (as done for handball) to make VAR more likely to be a success...

Voted likewise

Two most interesting teams in the draft for me. Both throwbacks to different degrees. Both impeccably executed and the player fits are gorgeous. Entertaining debate too which is refreshing. I agree with the concern over defensive width and I also agree with GSTQ’s assessment that the 4222...

23 is plenty. And it forces decisions to be made which gives the selection process some intrigue.

Aye. We really need an angle in the direction he touched the ball to see if Neuer has crossed his path or vice versa.

Is there a straight-on angle to show if he engineered the contact or not?