Marcus Rashford of Aston Villa celebrates scoring his team’s second goal from the penalty spot with teammates Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey.
Marcus Rashford of Aston Villa celebrates scoring his team’s second goal from the penalty spot with teammates Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
89 min “And as for PSG,” he returns, “I’d say it’s absolutely critical we have Kamara and Onana available Kamara in particular is very necessary for Villa to produce their best, both in defence and building attacks.
Am also hopeful Pau Torres will be back for Mings … Konsa has improved significantly in the time Mings has been out, and Torres’ reading of the game and generally higher ability to not have a brain-fade is something that means I have Konsa and Torres as my first-choice CB pair. It feels harsh on Mings, but this is a team that is moving forwards, and there are other players – like McGinn, most notably – who I think Villa are now slightly ‘better’ than… such is life, and football – it’s the most exciting and interesting Villa squad I’ve seen in decades, though, no doubt!”
Agree with pretty much all of that. I’ really like Kamara and Onana will be necessary for clutter. Torrest doesn’t have the physicality you’d want in a centre-back, but Paris don’t have a proper centre-forward.
80 min “Further to Hugo Molloy’s point on the power of penalties,” begins David Howell, “I think this is also the hidden vulnerability that the VAR debate overlooks.
In a sport this low-scoring, individual decisions – that are often subjective and/or pedantic – have an outsized impact on the outcome when they decide whether or not to award either a goal or, as Hugo says, an 80%-odd chance of one. VAR can increase the accuracy of those decisions, but (partly but not only because of that subjectivity) never to 100%, and so this vulnerability is exposed but never truly fixed.”
The main thing, I think, is to get the laws properly and clearly drafted so that when we see something happen and are clear on the facts, we know what the call is likely to be.
67 min “That penalty is is a good example of why a regular foul in the box should simply be a free kick instead of an 80% chance of a goal, reckons Hugo Molloy. “Intentional (professional) foul, or offence that prevents a goalscoring opportunity anywhere on the pitch should be a penalty, everything else a free-kick. How exiting would direct free kicks be from 12yds versus penalties.”
I agree with all of this. All the guff about what is and isn’t a penalty misses the essential point: most of the offences that yield one are nowhere near severe enough to yield one.
