Summary: Manchester United, Forest and weekend football

Spiers Briefing 22 4 24


Welcome to the roundup, this season every Monday. The athletics He addresses three of the biggest football questions of the weekend.

This was a seminal weekend. The crazy nature of English football – the refereeing bias, the 3-0 lead after 20 minutes and the moaning and groaning about the game being overrun. one more time. It ended with two appropriate trends on Twitter: “Shameful” and “Bloody VAR”.

Here, we ask how much Manchester United were embarrassed when they beat Coventry on penalties in the FA Cup semi-finals, and the same question for Nottingham Forest after their club’s official response to the refereeing decisions. And finally, is it so bad to play football on a Saturday, Pep?

At Wembley, another incredible day in Manchester United’s modern history began as billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe ran the London Marathon early, trying to look composed and in control while watching Clark Kent style United. Funny bad things.

Ratcliffe, Erik ten Haag, even Jason Wilcox on day one: all managed the stoic 50-yard stare as they tried to give the impression they knew what they were doing, all while their side conceded late goals in the FA Cup semi. – Final without reasonable cause.

VAR may be on display but, in truth, brilliant Coventry’s horrendous history of hard luck has not been the fault of the officials. The handball penalty on Aaron Wan-Bissaka that took the game to extra time was questionable to say the least (especially when you consider the unnatural hand positions by Jack Grealish and Ashley Young who were not penalized this weekend).

And if Haji Wright’s big toe or left elbow is out, he’s out.

VAR, a stickler for the rules and one who doesn’t like to accept football banter.

United were shambolic from the 71st minute, melting away at 3-0. On the plus side, they won the game and did not concede at least 20 shots even after extra time. That hasn’t happened since February.

And at least they got some credit for not celebrating their first shootout victory. There was no pile-on to Rasmus Hojlud’s free-kick winner, instead the Coventry players held their composure.

Oh, except for Anthony, who ran in front of the Coventry whippersnappers and danced with his hands to his ears. It was the same Anthony who came on as a substitute in United’s 3-0 win and gave his team victory.

But still: “Yeah, take that, our little Championship club with two percent of our wages, it’s tempting to be you!”

Andre Onana has been booked for time wasting against Coventry City.

How much can Dunn blame VAR?

Former Scotland striker Steven Fletcher felt like breaking football’s fourth wall when he told the world on social media that he had submitted a transfer request in 2012.

“Just put in a transfer request to let my fans know where I am at the moment,” Fletcher tweeted at the time with Wolves’ immortal hashtag “headsgone”.

It was a window into the inner workings of football, but Fletcher was a frustrated, cheating player.

Twelve years later, the professional football club Fletcher got his time.

Nottingham Forest tweeted: “We warned Pigmaol before the game that VAR was Luton’s supporters but they didn’t change it. Football and Twitter heritage.

This is it, this level is where clubs go down. Liverpool claimed VAR had “undermined sporting integrity” earlier this season, Arsenal still described it as “unacceptable officiating”, and now Forest are having a bad day and have their phones in hand.

Obviously, Forest should have been awarded at least two penalties and yes, they have made some terrible decisions this season, but with every Premier League club seemingly receiving terrible calls on the pitch, maybe, just maybe, the English referees simply made a mistake?

There is plenty of evidence for this. About it, actually.

What Dunn has no evidence of, except what he has to offer the world, is the bias among high-level judges. And frankly, if you’re going to make accusations of his nature on social media — and you’re not a die-hard fan six pints deep — you should probably show some evidence.

But if Forest don’t understand the decisions being made against them, and the only excuse they can come up with is that Stuart Atwell is a Luton fan, then it really begs the question – what is Mark Clattenburg – who was hired by the club? Judge Commentator – Is Jon Anderson doing anything other than bad feelings for Gladiators?

How bad is the city really?

Sometimes it’s only when you go on holiday or something serious happens in your personal life that you take a step back and realize just how crazy football really is.

It’s a twisted melodrama when you think about it.

Pep Guardiola spoke about his players’ health on Saturday after recent games, including Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final defeat by Real Madrid, and said he did not understand how they had ‘survived’ the FA Cup semis. Final against Chelsea.

“It’s not normal, it’s not acceptable to play today,” Guardiola said after the team failed to move the game after a day. He was then asked if he or Manchester City had contacted the FA about the matter. “There’s nothing you can change in this country,” he replied, two days after the association scrapped more than a century of FA Cup games, perhaps a little too hot for Tuesday-night trips to the likes of City. Leipzig

Guardiola is happy with this decision, naturally: “It’s much better… a program with a lot of games is tight.”

Not to mention having the best academy in English football, they have more money than any other football club in the world to buy any player they want.

What else does Guardiola need to help his team? Maybe he wants the air cleared on all matches. Maybe teams with more possession per game will get bonus points. Maybe the ball shouldn’t be allowed to rise more than 20 feet off the ground. Or clubs accused of breaking multiple financial rules between 2009 and 2018 should face trials – let alone any fines – while continuing to win trophies by lifting trophies indefinitely and other less influential clubs get points deducted for their breaches. Because they’re desperately trying to keep up with the league’s top spenders?

If you want to build one of the most expensive clubs in the world with seemingly endless owners, you’ll probably (unless you’re Chelsea) have to play in a lot of competitions. Try rotating your team instead of just making four changes per match. Or better yet, stop moaning after a game you won.

It’s coming.

  • Winning the league title is a big thing. To be ahead of one of your local rivals in the list of many titles ever won in your country is quite impressive. It’s not the same when you’re a big club and the last one to win a second league title in the last 14 years because it was during a pandemic without fans, so it’s great. Winning the league title, as said by the domestic rivals in the game, is unique, surprising and extremely rare. Inter Milan can do all that with a win away to AC Milan at the San Siro tonight.
  • Much riding on the local derby game, Everton host Liverpool on Wednesday night in a game that is consistently regarded as the sweet spot, but in fact since the turn of the century, Liverpool have won 28 derbies to Everton’s five. If the Reds do not complete 29 at Goodison Park, their title bid is almost certainly over.
  • Manchester City will return to action on Thursday away at Brighton, if Pep goes well.

(Top photo: Getty Images)



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