Waiting for a player to get injured taking warm-up penalties to really throw a wrench into this silly argument...

While we are talking pens, I'm sure I saw a stat that something like 90% of pens that are on target in the top half of the goal result in a goal, compared to the general 70-75% conversion rate. Would it seriously be that hard for a club to get an eight yard by four foot bit of plywood to put in front of the goal in training and just say to their takers to keep practicing until they're not missing?

Mental exhaustion is a nebulous concept, but so are the dynamics as to why not having kicked a ball will affect players. Ideas like 'momentum' do a lot of heavy lifting.

In answer to your question, I don't think there's any robust research on this topic at all

[x] Hand up.

Fat bloke in the pub coming through, but whoever kicked a ball in his life knows that those first few touches are vital for confidence.

Not saying that you have to play X minutes to have the required result, but kicking the football exactly 0 times before taking a pen as the first kick seems a bit dodgy. *This is opinion was formed without peer reviewed studies.*

That said I was convinced that subbing on a keeper for pens is largely FPS, but seems like that these lads are doing a bunch of analysis in training (who would have thought) and actually select keeper pensave % (Mendy's is below a frog's *******, while Kepa's is incredibly high - or so TheAthletic claims).

Last day of my Lisbon trip. Just got back from Benfica vs some amateur wine stompers (i.e. Boavista). Great experience, would highly recommend if anyone is ever in the City with a day/evening to spare.

General thoughts:
The stadium was only at 33% capacity because of covid, and even then it wasn't sold out, so it made it easy to stroll up on the day and buy a ticket.

Cons:
- No beer. I knew that Portuguese/Spanish games didn't have beer in the stadium, but because of covid they've closed all the stalls outside the stadium, presumably so that fans can't congregate. That being said, given the punishment I've given my body over the last 5 days (the wedding was on a ****ing vineyard!) it's probably a good thing to limit my alcohol intake.
- Cheerleaders at half time. Seriously, wtf Portugal?

Pros:
- The stadium is awesome. Apparently it's almost 20 years old but it's designed in such a way that there isn't a bad seat in the house. Got a cheap ticket up in the gods and could see the game perfectly.
- Ticket prices - €25 not bad at all.
- That atmosphere was great despite it being <33% full. The ultras didn't stop making noise and the crowd was pretty lively in general. Pretty impressive that fans were still jeering when opposition players didn't get booked in the 89th minute when the team is up 3-1.
- For a Portuguese league game, it was actually pretty good. My only usual exposure is either the national team or CL games and it can be a bit turgid and defensive. It wasn't exactly end-to-end but it was decent.

Am now off to see how many pastel de nate I can put in my body before my early morning flight.

few pics. It's actually not that easy to get photos on a forum these days. Tapatalk doesn't make it easy.

Niiice TR. Glad you enjoyed the trip and the game.

Surprised that Benfica stadium isnt 33% full. Thought fans would be ecstatic to return.

I went to the Estadio da Luz for the England v Croatia game in Euro 2004, not long after it opened. We were up in the gods too and I think it's the steepest seating I've been to, to the point that it gave me vertigo
They were serving beer both in the stadium bars and with vendors in the arena, but maybe that was just a UEFA thing.

Looks like a mint stadium

Think Valencia's stadium is pretty steep if I'm thinking of the right one. Not sure what the best ground I've been to overseas is, I suppose in terms of combined atmosphere and facilities it's probably SGE, but I've been spoiled with where I've been able to go

In terms of pure stadium facilities anywhere though, Spurs' new ground is superb. Only been for NFL, but there's basically zero faults with it

The killer is taking a stand against taking a stand against racism. What a good lad. Perfect place for him to insert himself.

Kneeling before games stands up against racism how exactly? Wasnt Zaha the first one to stop? For the exact reason that it is now a meaningless gesture and there are no real steps being taken against real racist incidents.

Inb4 racist

Both the away teams I've seen at the league in the Lane so far have packed it in. For some reason we are still doing it

Wycombe holding would be my dream

Taking the knee is a nice easy way of making it appear that you're 'doing your bit'.
Without the knee, doing your bit actually means making some form of effort.

**** that. *takes knee* *continue not letting black people board trains*

Peterborough did something else entirely standing together as a team. Preston just lined up ready for kickoff

To me, that Peterborough gesture means more as they've clearly thought about it to come up with something themselves instead of just following the defined trend.

Are you not from one of those racist countries?

That is a joke but It actually relates to again what I think is in a linear argument.

If you are playing in one of those racist countries and there is a reasonable chance players will be racially abused by fans during the game, you absolutely should take the knee before kick off.

In any stadium where you might be bood for taking knee, these are the stadiums must be kneed in. So Kneeiing should be inversely related to booing.

In fact a mass taking the knee in front of the racist fans after a goal is scored against one of those racist countries would be a good trololololollo goal celebrations and no one could do anything about you inciting the fans.

They also didn't follow the defined trend in previous games by letting us score six

Nah, not from England.

I see your point tho and dont mind making a couple of racists mad. Unfortunately in the ****ing country I am in we are 30 years behind and would have voted for Hunxit then starve.

Anyways, saying that this is the way and you cannot show your respect in other ways is plain stupid and just looking for something to be outraged about.

I guess what Im trying to say is, that if someone decides kneeling is not for them and they want to show respect in other ways/forms they should not be instantly labelled racists and if somebody does take the knee is not instantly a saint.

BINGO!

People love to do as little as possible while thinking/saying they are doing the most as possible. Plus they can show the world how much they care. Actually doing something doesn't always get the recognition or attention that being vocal about kneeling/not kneeling is.

For me I'll leave it up to the actual people we are kneeling for. If black players by and large still feel it effective and necessary to kneel then I'm kneeling with them.

But I think for the keyboard warriors it's yet another way of feigning righteousness without having to actually do anything that makes an actual difference

The keyboard warriors are not the ones taking the knee, I dont think 80% of EPL players know how to even use a keyboard.

Joking aside, the above quote just reads like a rote statement that has been misapplied.

Also what is wrong with their being a way for socially selfish people who normally would do jack ****, to do something that gets noticed and provokes discourse?

Its not like they need to do it to get laid, like some try hard save the whale student types.

It's weird that there are so many actual articles on why exactly Kaepernick then players across sport started taking the knee. Instead of wondering, why not take 5 minutes and google that ****?