Pissed, but not VAR's fault.

Right call under a shitty rule.

Failing to pull back the foul on Origi that directly led to the Rashford goal was inexcusable. You can literally see his calf/shin ripple from the force of the foul. That's certainly clear and obvious in my book. I wonder if VAR didn't think it was a foul, or if they thought it was in a different phase of play? (Both clearly wrong in my eyes).

It removes a lot of the subjectivity.

Mane's goal yesterday was a good example. For as much as people complain about that law change, it serves its purpose. That handling was wholly unintentional, but had it NOT hit his arm, that touch off his thigh would have taken the ball well wide of him. Since it hit his arm, it went down right in front of him and he scored. Will it stop goals where the handling really had no impact? Sure. But it will also stop - or should also stop - all of them where it did. Which happens more often than the former.

For defenders, they're in the clear now unless they make themselves bigger or have the arm at shoulder height or above. Explicitly, a deflection off their own body into their hand/arm, regardless of positioning, is fine and not a handball. Again, less subjectivity and a clear result of 'no handball'.

But while it’s clearer now, the application has still been really bad, especially with VAR.

Far too inconsistent.

I'm fine on the defender's aspect, but disallowing Jesus's goal for Man City against Liverpool earlier in the year and Mane's goal yesterday is not an improvement to the game.

For IFAB, I think it came down to never wanting to see another Hand of God/Henry type of goal again.

I think the ref should have whistled it for sure. Ref missed a fairly obvious Yellow to ManU in the second, too. But for the most part I often prefer a "let them play" ref to a ticky-tack ref. I had no huge complaints, today, just wish ManU hadn't chosen this as their only game to show up to all season.

It goes to show, though. You should never take any match lightly. You should definitely take all matches at Old Traffic Circle seriously. And you should never take a match against a club that has spent a shit ton of money lightly.

I am not saying LFC did any of those. Just saying it happens all the time in sports. Wiscy against Lovie. Just the latest installment. Never believe others when they tell you how good you are.

United had their backs up against it, Liverpool has been on cruise control and running the league but not really looking that great doing it.

United was super disciplined at the back until Rojo and Young's late screwup with Lamela. And Fred...Fred actually played well. I was watching him closely.

It was atrocious. Offensively bad.

Ref made a decision early to rule no penalty along touch line...which led to another no-call against Vertonghan later which was much more of a foul, but still borderline....which led to another no call penalty later in the game, which was less of a foul but more of a foul than original no-call that precipiated the no-calls.

Also, the shoulder/bicep goal from Dele Alli was the best VAR no-overrule decision made all day in the match. The others decisions seemed like a punt. And STILL the ref called goal and pointed to center-spot while the screens showed NO GOAL. How much more screwed up can you get. It took another 60secs to realize what was the decision.

It's really hard to be a EPL ref. That's a job I don't want. I didn't see the other games.

"Also, the shoulder/bicep goal from Dele Alli was the best VAR no-overrule decision made all day in the match"


Are you saying you don't think that Dele handled it with his arm, and that it was the right call?

He clearly extended his left arm out to hit the ball with his upper arm.



Based on the new rules, I would have thought it would have fallen under the unnaturally bigger stipulation, as his arm wasn't in tight.