Rule changes that will affect Liverpool and all Premier League clubs next season
The 2018/19 Premier League campaign finished with Liverpool ending second behind Manchester City in the race for the title, while Everton landed eighth spot.
The Championship play-off final, Europa League final and the Champions League final are still to be played - but for the most part, attentions have turned towards next season.
The piece must have been written by a blueball. Their attention turned towards next season since about February or something.
People will probably laugh at this but I want something to be done about keeping the ball at the corner flag, as it's clearly time wasting. There's a rule for every other aspect of time wasting, there should be something for this, e.g. add more time on. The attacking team always loses possession, and the defending team often cause an unsightly melee, sometimes they get cards when their frustration boils over. People will say it's part of the game, but so was diving and shirt pulling in the box, until VAR turned up to go and clean the dark arts out of football.
I'm on the fence with VAR, I think it's the final nail in the coffin of common sense in the beautiful game, CS has been depleting for years to the point where it has now been iradicated altogether,
It was Shanks who said 'referees know the rules but do not know the game',
How true is that statement, that even after 30 odd years it's still the case now,
Where I agree that refs need help i think the standard in refereeing has dropped whilst the standard of football and footballers has gone through the roof, so i guess something had to be done, however, why not increase the standard of refereeing by introducing a ref academy where standards are set at a very high standard, and have a conveyor belt of candidates, perhaps introducing a ex- player pool, to have that 'know the game' experience on the pitch?
I'm not convinced that VAR will better for the game, I guess through time we'll all find out !!
YNWA
How many ex-players say they want to be referees?
Standards in officiating have always been questioned, even back in Shanks time. The incident at Inter Milan in our case, or the offside goal given for West Brom against Leeds, or the ghost goal in the Wembley WC Final, or in Paris with Henry or more recently, the incident in last year's ECF. If the ref got it wrong, he could always say he didn't see it, now he doesn't have that excuse. If he has to see something, he can look at it and inform himself of the facts before considering what decision to go with.
Our ref at this year's ECF, is Skomina who reffed our home game v Napoli and handed out yellow cards like confetti. He has had 3 European Cup knockout games since, and has needed to use VAR in all 3. So it's likely he will use it again in Madrid. The video ref is Makkelie who was ref in our game in Porto, and who used VAR to overturn a wrong decision on the pitch in our favour.
As a club, like every club, we will love it when it goes for us, and be frustrated when it goes against us. But at least the referee will know what happened, and be in a position to make the correct decision.
next season we should not have to wait nearly 3 bleedin' weeks for the feckin' Champions League final..
That is the fault of the EPL, nobody else. Our league started 1 week, in some cases 2 weeks earlier than the other major leagues, and therefore finished earlier. Two of the other leagues have still to finish, another two have cup finals still to play. We have to wait for them to finish before we can play the European Cup Final.
Next year, the final will be at least one week earlier, to allow for European Championship preparations. But in 2021, it should be back to a date similar to this year, or possibly later.