v Fulham

[gavin]

City XI: Ederson, Walker (C), Dias, Akanji, Ake, Rodrigo, Kovacic, Foden, Doku, Alvarez, Haaland.

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Phillips, Bernardo, Gómez, Gvardiol, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis.

Super Jack is missing. Doku starts.

[KunDB]

Surprised that Gvardiol died not start. Great to get a look at Doku and still a good team.

C'mon City.

[KunDB]

Everything about the Fulham goal was awful from our point of view.

Need to get into a better rhythm and play as a team more.

Good first goal from Alvarez & Haaland.

Scrappy passing and not feeding Haaland.

[KunDB]

Cannot believe that goal was given by VAR. But alleluia Ake.

[gavin]

A very poor first half from City. Must be better second half. I don't think that should be offside from a corner.

[KunDB]

Brilliant from Haaland, excellent from Foden.

Philips done well for his short appearance which is hopeful for the future.

Gomez showing his promise and talent.

4 wins from 4 and not yet firing on all cylinders.

[gavin]

5-1 and I don't even think we played that well. Good to see Doku and Sergio go past defenders.

[jingoe]

Fernandez  goal against us at OT was exactly the same as Ake's . Rashford in an offside position and electing not to touch the ball. I don't think either goal should have been allowed

[Kilkenny Blue]

Not impressed with Doku at all, thought he had an awful game, but he'll come good and really love his attitude and honesty.

2nd goal was a farce, blatant offside and if it had been against us we'd have rightly been up in arms.

Foden was sublime.  He's just getting better and better.  I watched the Sheffield Utd match at my pals house in Hale last week and Bryan Robson was there for the 2nd half and said that Foden is a generational talent.  Very complimentary towards City as well.  Johnny Cocktail was setting up the bar (it was a wedding anniversary) and he's a massive City fan and watched the game with us.  He'd done the Mahrez leaving party the week before!

Bobb, Gomez and Lewis!!!  Wow!  The last goal was a thing of absolute beauty

[gavin]

That was very, very far from exactly the same. Rashford shielded the ball. There was nothing underhand yesterday. You can argue whether it was offside but not that Akanji was deliberately affecting defenders. I can't understand the fuss. The Sheffield goal against us was similar in some ways but no fuss there. It was a goal direct from a corner and Akanji was definitely not in the way of the keepers vision. You can argue that the keeper might have thought that he would touch it but honestly I don't think he was saving it regardless.

[KunDB]

That was very, very far from exactly the same. Rashford shielded the ball. There was nothing underhand yesterday. You can argue whether it was offside but not that Akanji was deliberately affecting defenders. I can't understand the fuss. The Sheffield goal against us was similar in some ways but no fuss there. It was a goal direct from a corner and Akanji was definitely not in the way of the keepers vision. You can argue that the keeper might have thought that he would touch it but honestly I don't think he was saving it regardless.

I broadly agree with you, but it should have been ruled offside, the real problem is the rules and the interpretation of them.

As for VAR, that has been distorted, instead of being used to assess factual decisions eg offside or not it is now being used willy-nilly and frequently to provide cover for the fellow on field referee decision.

Why the referee yesterday is not told you look at the TV replay and you decide to award the goal or not, why some secret hidden referee needs to decide is beyond me.

Also, instead of VAR deciding what is the actual correct decision which should then be referred back to the referee to watch, reconsider and ultimately determine, VAR is used to decide if their is sufficient evidence for the on-field referee decision to be overruled, ie is it so obviously an error that VAR must intervene. VAR should just decide whether it is a foul, penalty or offside and just refer it back to the on-field referee to take a look again and let them make the final decision (without telling them their decision).

For example, yesterday it was factual that Akanji was offside, VAR should have informed the referee of this fact. The question of whether the goal should stand or fall then depends on a judgement call of whether Akanji was interfering with play (imo he clearly was) which VAR should advise needs to be considered and ask the on-field referee to take a look at the TV footage to make a final decision, without any steer as to what they think.

[Vickki]

I think Aki's goal should have been disallowed, because Akanji was offside and interfering the goal keep vision. We have been on receiving end of 2 bad decisions like this one.
In the "Spirit of the game" we should have kicked the ball back to Fulham or let them score from the off. We had enough fire power to win the game, and if we didn't,  we have our integrity intact: so who can call us 'cheats' now?

[gavin]

Ake was heading the ball to score not to Akanji. It was not a pass. It was a header on goal direct from a corner. Is the new method of defending a corner to rush everyone out asap in the hope of catching people offside when someone heads towards goal? It would seem to me to be a corruption of offside. Corners typically aren't very effective anyway. I often think City are at more danger from City corners than the opposition as it is. If they keep finding ways to disallow goals from direct headers from corners then we have no chance.

[gavin]

Akanji definitely did not affect the keepers vision. I was right behind the goal yesterday and could clearly see Ake head it and it fly in. Fulham are suggesting that the keeper thought Akanji might have deflected it. Indeed, Akanji did make a movement after the ball had passed. So there is an argument there. However, I don't think the keeper was going to save it even if Akanji weren't there. In fact, I know he wasn't.

[Vickki]

Gavin, I'll trust your judgment on this one. I only had the couch view and subjected to so called expert opinions.. My last City game was the 1-4 at Liverpool just before Covid. Infact, that was the last time I was in England.
Lucky you!