The Warm-Up: VAR creates more arguments than it solves, again
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Updated 18/01/2018 at 09:03 GMT
Plus: an interesting transfer, club social media banter goes meta and the most spoiled fans in the world
Mit Chelsea weiter: Teammanager Antonio Conte
Image credit: SID
THURSDAY’S BIG STORIES
VARma, penalties and the undeniable fun of a last-minute equaliser
Nobody realistically thought that VAR would solve everything, stop any arguments and make an objective truth out of football. So at some point, during its trial this season and what will presumably be an even greater roll-out next, we have to consider if the whole thing is worth the disruption it undoubtedly causes.
The latest example of all this came in Chelsea’s win over Norwich in the FA Cup third round replay, a win that eventually came after extra-time, forced by a last-minute equaliser for Norwich that gave us all the fun that a bloke watching a TV in some corner of west London then whispering in a ref’s ear cannot.
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Chelsea v Norwich City – Emirates FA Cup Third Round Replay – Stamford Bridge
Image credit: PA Sport
Chelsea had taken the lead through Michy Batshuayi, and looked to be heading for a not entirely comfortable but relatively drama free victory, before Jamal Lewis glanced home a header with the last touch of the 90 minutes, and forced extra-time. In those additional 30 minutes Chelsea achieved little except getting two men – Pedro and Alvaro Morata – sent off, both for bookable offences, one each for diving.
Chelsea eventually won 5-4 on penalties, despite a fine performance from Norwich keeper Angus Gunn, on loan from Manchester City, but Antonio Conte wasn’t happy, in particular about a penalty he thought should have been awarded when Willian went down in the area.
Conte is giving his opinion about VAR with lots of gesticulation #cfc — Liam Twomey (@liam_twomey) January 17, 2018
“If we want to use a new system, I can’t accept a big mistake,” he said. “In this case, the Willian penalty was a big, big mistake. Not from the referee on the pitch, who took quickly a decision to book Willian and didn’t have any doubt, but from the person watching the game [Jones]. I hope the VAR wasn’t a referee because if you see that watching on television and don’t think that’s a penalty … he has to improve. It was very clear.”
So then, VAR: the solution to arguments that is merely causing more.
Might Sturridge to Inter be the most interesting move of the month?
Perhaps it’s the weariness that constant transfer updates about the same players brings, but the sight of a fresh, new, shiny rumour has got the Warm-Up quite excited. Not like that. Minds out of the gutter, people, it’s early.
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Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge
Image credit: Reuters
Word on the street is that Daniel Sturridge could be heading to Inter, either on loan or a permanent deal, depending on what they and Liverpool can thrash out. It would make some sense: he has seemingly even fallen behind Dominic Solanke in the Liverpool pecking order, and after five years at Anfield you do get the feeling he has gone slightly stale. What better than a move abroad to spice things up a little?
English players moving away from Blighty and their comfort zone is always something to enjoy and celebrate, and this is no exception. Could a time at Inter provide Sturridge with the space he needs to revitalise his game? Will it be any use if he’s still constantly injured? Whatever, it’s something different, and you get the feeling that Sturridge needs something different.
What exactly are Chelsea playing at here?
Andy Carroll has his uses. He’s a big lad, sure. A big lump, the unkind might say, a tree with a load of unruly branches sprouting everywhere and getting in people’s faces. But you could also argue he’s unfairly maligned, given he’s also capable of doing stuff like this:
But, but, but. Yet, yet, yet. Come on. Reports are that Chelsea are keen on bringing Carroll to Stamford Bridge, so concerned is Antonio Conte about Alvaro Morata’s ropey form and so little does he trust Michy Batshuayi. But the solution to a couple of big, relatively unreliable strikers is not to sign another big, entirely unreliable striker.
Carroll has scored two goals this season. They were in one game, against West Brom. Know why that is? Because he’s been injured for most of the time, knacked beyond all sense and possibly repair and only good for seven league starts.
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Andy Carroll heads West Ham's first goal
Image credit: RB presse
And Chelsea want him. Chelsea. The team who are technically still defending champions. Chelsea Football Club. What….what exactly is happening here? Who at Chelsea wants Carroll? Why do they want Carroll? Is this part of an elaborate hoax? A gag by Conte, safe in the knowledge that he’s doing one in the summer?
Sure, they could probably do with another striker, but this is like trying to fix a broken window by putting a sieve over it. But a really big sieve. That will break. Buy some glass, Chelsea. West Ham apparently want £20million for their sieve, and Chelsea are willing to pay it. Nothing makes sense anymore.
IN OTHER NEWS
🔥 IT’S A 🤝 MATCH! 🔥 📱 Não faltavam opções, mas nem todos têm o que é preciso para ser Gverreiro!Os reforços estão escolhidos. Sabe mais em: https://t.co/m73VumyIAq pic.twitter.com/LDd53B3pFp — SC Braga (@SCBragaOficial) January 16, 2018
The era of social media banter has gone meta, as SC Braga use a mock up of Tinder to announce a new signing. Honestly, what was wrong with a bloke signing a bit of paper on a trestle table at the side of the pitch, eh?
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: Angus Gunn
Son of former Norwich hero Bryan, Angus Gunn is one of the fine crop of youngsters currently on Manchester City’s books, and he showed why most are hoping he makes it through somehow with a sterling performance for Norwich against Chelsea on Wednesday evening. From a distance he looks like David de Gea, tall and a bit spindly but still pretty agile. The most important thing from this point is not to put too much pressure on him with excessively ambitious comparisons and predictions…
Gutted to go so far & not make it in the end. Proud of the whole team! Keep fighting in the league now 💪🏻🔰💛 pic.twitter.com/x1cEhVKMh1 — Angus Gunn (@AngusGunn01) January 18, 2018
Zero: PSG fans
Some people genuinely won’t be satisfied with anything. Last night PSG played Dijon in what turned out to be not really a football match, but an exhibition, 11 highly expensive players dancing their way around 11 much cheaper players and running in eight goals. 8-0. 8-0! That’s not sport. Neymar was responsible for four of those goals. Four! He managed the impossible feat: to impress the usually unimpressable player-raters of L’Equipe enough to be awarded 10/10. Not bad.
Stop the clocks – after scoring four goals against Dijon last night, Neymar has become only the eighth player to have been awarded a rating of 10 by @lequipe pic.twitter.com/6vmVOCWW2p — Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) January 18, 2018
And yet somehow, he still got whistled by his own fans. Why? Because he took a penalty that, had Edinson Cavani taken it and scored, would have made him PSG’s all-time top-scorer. Are those fans bored by PSG’s dominance too? Do they want to somehow create some peril to make it more interesting? Or are they just excessively spoiled fans who have lost all sense of perspective and reality?
RETRO CORNER
Theo Walcott departs Arsenal with a vague sense of disappointment about his Gunners career. Here he is in happier times, scoring a hat-trick for England against Croatia in 2008.
HAT TIP
Ronaldinho. See? You’re smiling already. Just thinking about the things he did and the way he did them, the way he was, gets you giggling. Look him up on YouTube and maybe you’ll fall for him all over again, a bit like all those defenders. Watch for long enough – it won’t take long – and you might even feel like standing to applaud, just like the Santiago Bernabéu did, an ovation for a Barcelona player, as if for all the rivalry they hadn’t so much been beaten by his genius as shared in it. Sergio Ramos was on the floor, they were on their feet. Cameras zoomed on a man in the north stand with a moustache and a cigarette hanging limp from his lip. Bloody hell, did you see what he just did?
It would seem silly to recommend anything other than Sid Lowe’s tribute to Ronaldinho, in the Guardian.
COMING UP
Nothing! Excellent. Have a break from all this relentless football and go for a walk or something.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by hunk of the month Tom Adams. Get him before he disappears to Korea for the Olympics and falls in love with the luge or something.
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