arbitro

It looks like our old friend Henderson will be playing against us next season. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44525272

England are in danger of becoming a one man team. Far too many weaknesses tonight to be considered serious contenders. Still a win is a win and as we know from many Rovers performances last season winning is the only thing that matters.

Tunisia look one of the worst teams I have seen so far and for them to be level is poor from our point of view. We have played some decent stuff but at this level you can't afford to miss the quality of chances we have. Sterling has been poor again and Alli isn't fit. Big second half coming up.

I think you are right there Tom. The assistants have been told not to flag for tight offsides and if a goal arises from one of these it gets referred by VAR. Referees and assistants now have a safety net and some will use this to negate their responsibilities.

That was a penalty. A clear touch first by the Swede who is then clattered.

It still comes down to opinion Tom and that is one of the strengths of football. I thought the Switzerland goal should have been disallowed for a push but many don't. I'm more than happy to trust the referees interpretation without any interference and debate key incidents amongst ourselves.

I thought the touch by the Australian (albeit a slight one) also made the ball deviate. The debate on Saturday was the contact as a consequence of making the tackle. In that respect it is the same as today. As I said I don't think either are penalties but for one to be referred as a clear and obvious error and the other not is baffling. In my opinion there is an added pressure on the match referee when an incident has been referred to them as a clear and obvious error. Effectively he is being told that several of his colleagues, with the benefit of a multitude of angles think he is wrong. It will be a brave referee who sticks by his original decision in the face of such pressure.

Another VAR inconsistency in the Sweden v Korea match. A Korean defender clearly wins the ball and whilst sliding brings down the Swedish player. It was not referred to the referee by VAR but in similar circumstances France were awarded a penalty on Saturday. I didn't think neither we're but the VAR inconsistency is alarming.

I couldn't find a stand alone pre season thread (apologies if there is). Ticket prices for the Hibernian game have been announced. I think £20 is too much for a friendly (albeit under the guise of a testimonial) and had I not booked the train would probably give it a miss. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/june/ticket-news-hibernian-a/

Seeing as merchandising was mentioned as a valuable income stream I was flabbergasted to see the prices of some of the newly marketed training gear. I was interested in buying a polo shirt but the £35 price turned me off immediately. It is a middle of the road quality shirt with a printed white Rovers badge. It is almost that the football industry abuses loyalty of supporters of when it comes to the general prices they expect us to pay. I bought two instead for that price from a well known high street shop.

There does seem to be more than normal added in this WC so I wonder if Collina has told the referees to be more precise. In the laws it is called additional time. The injury time name is a real misnomer as I frequently hear people say there were no injuries, where did he get x minutes from. Additional time is an all encompassing description for injuries, cautions, substitutions, goals, time wasting etc.

Confusion is an apt description. There are too many grey areas as each review by the VAR is opinion and not fact. The referees will always make errors but when incidents are effectively re refereed and they still get it wrong then the overwhelming evidence is that VAR is more trouble than it is worth.

And the VAR confusion goes on. Surely the Switzerland equaliser falls into the clear and obvious error category and should have been passed to the referee to review his decision.

The Mexican coach deserves great credit for his tactics. They played terrific counter attacking football and as the game wore on defended excellently. He got his substitutions correct and left the Germans defeated and deflated.

I like the three year deal with guaranteed no price increase without commitment. If only we had been so innovative and tried to drum up business in a different way. https://www.safc.com/news/club-news/2018/march/season-cards

It was checked in the studio but not referred to the referee to view pitch side. The VAR felt it wasn't a clear and obvious error. I agree on the deliberate handball. I called it a yellow card straight away.

But he touched the ball first. Once you have touched the ball when making a sliding tackle then almost inevitably will be contact. That isn't bringing a player down Stuart, football still has to have an element of physical contact. The incident today falls into the unavoidable contact category in my opinion.

I thought that was more of a foul than the one given for the penalty today but interestingly the VAR didn't advise the referee to review it.

But what is the defender supposed to do on the second contact? In my opinion that contact is virtually unavoidable and a consequence of sliding in to get a touch on the ball. I also think several angles showed the ball deviate slightly as the defender gets a slight touch. Either way I think most would say it wasn't a clear and obvious error by the referee in real time.

My point was around the recent interviews which seem to be aimed at lowering the expectation levels. The upbeat noises coming out of Ewood seem to have been tempered. I think there will be some signings, my doubt is whether these will be cash signings or freebies and loans.

But surely the contact comes as a consequence of sliding to get a touch on the ball before his opponent. A touch on the ball is winning it and any contact is a by product of this. And I don't believe that the incident was 'clear and obvious', borne out by the fact we and millions of other are disagreeing. One thing I think we all agree on is that the art of tackling is soon to be extinct.

Something about the whole summer to date just doesn't feel right at the moment. Although nothing was confirmed about how much money was available the impression I got (from Mowbrays and Waggotts comments) was that there was money to spend but recent interviews have cast some doubt on this. Any out of contract players will be free to sign for another club from July 1st and Mowbray talking about young PL players on loan gives me the impression those two markets are where we will be. My opinion is also based on the owners previous history of back tracking on promises. And I believe if we don't bring in several players of quality we will be on the cusp of relegation from day one. I have no doubt the new BRFCS buzzword (negative) will be used to describe my comments but the lack of movement is quite alarming.

Would that be a dehydrated one Matty? ?

Their role has been diminished to such a degree they now have very few responsibilities and even less accountability. Just after I retired assistants were instructed to give the benefit of any doubt to the attacking team as the authorities wanted more goals. It was the perfect excuse for them to hide behind when they got one wrong and as an assessor (as I was at the time) I had to support this even though I knew some of the assistants would tell me they were only following instructions. I asked if the authorities wanted goals then why was the benefit of doubt given to attacking teams when there was doubt in the referees mind at penalty kick situations. They were in fact instructed not to give them if they weren't certain.

Good point - I never thought of that.