Italian Serie A - 2019-20

Always thought Atlanta would best Juventus as they are better team for me.
 
There was never doubt even with the old rules, doubt was only with terrible referees and big clubs like Juventus who are helped with subjective refs who like to interpret the rules differently.

If the handball was obvious advantage - penalty. It's pretty simple, and it's always simple outside the box too, only incompetent refs made it complicated inside the penalty box.
Yeah. It used to be awarded on the grounds of intent and/or advantage. What has replaced these factors has little correlation to the spirit of the rule that served the game well for a century. The change appears to be driven by the wrong reasons as the main criticism of the existing rules came from managers searching for an easy way to deflect blame after a poor result. Taking out that agenda-driven nonsense out of the equation - as IFAB should have done - there was always a general consensus within the game as to what constituted a handball. There is no surprise that the majority of handball controversies in the modern era have come in the last two years and last night perfectly encapsulated how far the new law has drifted from the long-standing spirit of the rule.
 
Either Serie A or La Liga. Since the start of last season

Penalties in Serie A: 279
Penalties in La Liga: 260
Penalties in the Premier League: 181

La Liga isn't as stict on handballs as last season from what I've seen. Recently in the Celta Vigo-Atletico Madrid match there were two handballs in the box late on but you could see clearly from replays they were both accidentlal so neither were given.

Everytime I see highlights of the CL final from last year I still think the Sissoko one was incredibly harsh. Yes his arm was in the air but it dosen't even fully hit it.
 
Serie A is disintegrating every record for penalties this season. Hilariously the percentage of penalties for handball hasn't changed from last season. Except with 6 and a half games to go we might finish with over 60 penalties for handball this season. Half of last season's total

If things don't change we're headed for players kicking the ball into defenders hoping to draw a handball as a viable attacking strategy...
La Liga isn't as stict on handballs as last season from what I've seen. Recently in the Celta Vigo-Atletico Madrid match there were two handballs in the box late on but you could see clearly from replays they were both accidentlal so neither were given.

Everytime I see highlights of the CL final from last year I still think the Sissoko one was incredibly harsh. Yes his arm was in the air but it dosen't even fully hit it.
La Liga refs are inconsistent as feck

Sissoko's penalty was fair. Standing still with his arm raised in the air before the cross even came? Yeah, that's on him
 
Just seen the 2 penalty decisions from the Juve game and they are both utterly ridiculous. The handball rule is pathetic these days in general but calling those two incidents handball is laughable.
 
Anyone saying the rules have changed should see the replay of Fiorentina-Verona match. Ref in that game probably didn't get the memo that they changed the handball rules that they use in Juventus' favour.
 
Theo yet again!!! What a season he's having, I reckon it'll end up being one of the highest scoring seasons from a LB.
 
AC Milan in good form lately? 4 wins and 1 draw in the last 5 games.
 
Napoli chances before Milan scored

Chance #1 Mertens - Donnaruma with the save


Chance #2 Insigne hits the post


Chance #3 Calejon misses a sitter



:lol:
 
Milan can't let up now, got to stay focused and try to score at least one more because Napoli definitely have goals in them.
 
Does Napoli ever sign new forwards? They've been playing Insigne, Mertens and Callejon for years.
 
Anyone saying the rules have changed should see the replay of Fiorentina-Verona match. Ref in that game probably didn't get the memo that they changed the handball rules that they use in Juventus' favour.

Why do they use it in Juve's favour when that rule has gone against Juve a lot more than it has for them? :lol:

10 penalties in Serie A against Juve this year, 9 of them due to handball. Pretty sure that's an all time record for any league ffs
 
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Does Napoli ever sign new forwards? They've been playing Insigne, Mertens and Callejon for years.
They have Petagna on their books, but he has been on loan at SPAL for a couple of years. Insigne, Mertens, Callejon, Milik, Lozano, Ounas, and Politano rotate for the 3 attacking spots (Llorente has been injured forever).
 
Milan are just a few players short to being CL regulars, they have a good base of players.

Donnaruma, Romagnoli, Theo, Kessie, Bennacer, Calhanoglu and Rebic are all fantastic. They need a CB, a rightback and a couple of forwards. It will be an important summer for them.
 
As much as Milan held control of the ball, whenever Napoli settled in possession, they've stretched Milan. That diamond isn't working out defensively against Napoli. The midfielders are getting dragged around by Napoli's fluidity.
 
Amrabatter up! Along with his standard brilliant general play, he got a rare assist last night, and what a pass it was. The improvement of his passing from the beginning of the season to just before lockdown has been rapid. So good.

Anyone saying the rules have changed should see the replay of Fiorentina-Verona match. Ref in that game probably didn't get the memo that they changed the handball rules that they use in Juventus' favour.
I was shocked that wasn't given as a pen after recent events.
 
Torino in big relegation trouble.

A shame as they had an exciting team 2-3 years back when Mihajlovic was there. Belloti, Iago Falque, Ljajic etc.
 
Just seen the 2 penalty decisions from the Juve game and they are both utterly ridiculous. The handball rule is pathetic these days in general but calling those two incidents handball is laughable.
weird your thoughts about Juventus-Torino penalty (De Ligt) and Milan-Juventus (Bonucci) are? I guess they 100% penalties :D
 
weird your thoughts about Juventus-Torino penalty (De Ligt) and Milan-Juventus (Bonucci) are? I guess they 100% penalties :D
Why would you assume I have some sort of bias here? I don’t really follow Serie A and have no allegiance one way or the other, the ones I talked about were just trending so I saw the videos.

If you want my views on other incidents then post them and I’ll happily comment, but generally speaking I think the handball rule is broken and they are given far too easily.
 
Can Atalanta win CL? They are going so bloody well in Serie A. Also PSG will have a long time without a game.
 
Okay, man.... Atalanta is gonna hit +100 goals in the league alone and will shove PSG back to their french mustard fields on an aggregated win of 11-2 and end up in the Champions League Semi-Final. Andre Agnelli, where you at?
 
Brescia players resorting to hacking down the Atalanta players to try to stifle them. Interesting to see how Atalanta cope against physical aggression.
 
It's a pity Atalanta weren't allowed beat Juve, could have been an interesting run in.
 
And to think Atalanta have scored 6 tonight without requiring the services of Toloi, Hateboer, Papu, Ilicic, Muriel or Gollini. Could have scored double digits if they started with a full strength first XI.
 
Subbing off your 2nd choice GK to let your 3rd choice GK get some minutes isn't something we see very often :lol: