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Liverpool fury
I write this immediately after the game, because i dont want the rest of the weekend thinking about ending the weekend 7th and potentially being 9th when all games in hand have been played.
Before the Salah goal i was content with a 0-0. lot of the ball, explosive in the first 30 minutes and then Vardy should have scored at least one. Second half nothing happening and a 0-0 would have been fine.
I write because i was fuming at the collapse after the 77th minute. In my mind it was offside, still not clear how it wasnt. Alisson costly and then phenomenal but once again heads were gone. Leicester to their credit smelled blood and rightly ran us ragged for that period. However a few minutes after raging to my wife how a team can blow a game in such a small period of time remembered that final we once had and had to accept that all you need sometimes is 6/7 minutes.
This one hurt. It shows that we are mentality monsters no more, but rather the opposite. Every week seems to bring about a new problem. As i said back in January we are in a dog fight but right now i just want to pull us out of the fight and restart next year but that’s not how dog fights work. we need to keep fighting and hopefully not end up being taken out back. Everything is on fire and we have to pretend its fine.
Nik, told my wife an Alisson mistake today would be costly in the long run, Munich
ps. not sure i could go through what Jürgen is currently going through. Stay strong!
Liverpool are being robbed by VAR and officiating in general. I have no doubt that this is true. Matt Stead in 16 conclusions completely glosses over the VAR intervention as if it’s just one of those things.
As a one off maybe. But this season Liverpool have had the thin end of the wedge repeatedly. As a fan it is painful to watch because you are just waiting for the moment when VAR will have a chance to get one over on us.
Despite his involvement in the Goodison fiasco, Oliver is the only current ref that I trust. The rest (mostly from Manchester bizarrely) do not appear fit for purpose. I mean compare portly Jon Moss to a La Liga or Bundesliga ref!!
I appreciate that other teams have things go against them, but not constantly week in, week out. From today’s game, in the first half when Liverpool are on top, do VAR look at either of the potential penalties on Salah? Of course not, not interested. As soon as something comes up that could benefit their opponents, VAR VAR VAR. Same every week.
Really losing interest now as I know that Liverpool can outplay the opposition most weeks but will rarely be allowed to win. That’s not sport.
Bring in new, fitter, younger referees and make the VAR process more open and honest. Why do these officials always get to hide up and not answer to anyone?
Vinny, disgusted, LFC
So the match was hugely frustrating. Bossing them for 3/4 of it only to be undone by a mm offside decision and a schoolboy communication error (as well as a defensively sloppy goal). Fair play to Leicester though, they stayed in the game and took the chances that were presented to them. I’ll always have a soft spot for Brendan and that exhilarating Liverpool team of 13/14 so I wish him well, particularly with a well run and likeable club in Leicester.
A few things from this match highlighted some gripes I’ve had for a while but, for the avoidance of doubt, I’m not using them as excuses for our loss. They’re just annoying things that I’ve noticed in many other games that were also present today.
1) When did it become acceptable for a player to block a quick free kick from being taken with no recompense?
2) How is it fair that an offside being waved through to the culmination of the move but not given as a defensive free kick then results in the attacking team getting another bite at the cherry as Liverpool did today after Kasper’s incredible save from Bobby?
3) How do refs get fooled by big & strong defenders and midfielders going down at a feather’s touch when they’re being pressured in defensive positions?
4) If a player puts the ball beyond another and then runs into him then the common understanding is that it’s not obstruction because the defensive player has no obligation to move out of the way. In that case why was Thiago penalised for putting his foot down on the floor to balance himself (where else is he meant to put it?) and Barnes running into it?
James Outram, Wirral
Is it possible to talk about that game without a focus on the officials?
Salah is fouled in the box. The same foul was committed by Robertson on Welbeck earlier in the season. The outcome of the Robertson foul is a penalty. Of course Salah gets nothing. The VAR review of the Welbeck incident lasted about three minutes. The Salah review – 3 seconds
The still image showing where the VAR drew his lines was pretty astounding mainly because the blue line is six inches behind Firmino’s foot. It’s fine if that’s the new instruction but I wish we could be told in advance. I won’t even comment on how long VAR wanted to spend trying to find a way to give a penalty instead of a free kick.
For the third goal about ten seconds before the ball goes in the net Evans puts two hands on Mané and pushes him over from behind. Naturally there’s nothing given for this.
We probably didn’t deserve to lose today and probably also didn’t deserve to win. The team definitely collapsed as soon as things turned against them and there was also a classic calamity where defender and goalkeeper both ball watch as they clatter into each other. But can you actually look at that game today and say the referee and VAR didn’t bring about the overall result just as much as any of the players on the pitch? And that’s where the issue lies because I don’t think any of the critical decisions were called with correctness within the game or with consistency based on the way referees have handled other games across the season.
Minty, LFC
So I have to comment on your 16 conclusions of the Liverpool Leicester game. Why is Thiago’s foul on Barnes so awful but Trent ‘might as well not be standing there’ Alexander absolved? You’re just like Carragher. You spout a lot of crap but leave your goody two shoes brits alone. How is Thiago a defensive liability but all you English media folk can’t ever say ‘hey you know what, that Trent boy is pretty shit at defending isn’t he?’ It’s an every week thing with him too. As my brother says he gets beaten easier than eggs in a diner! His shocking attempts at ‘defending’ against Sterling last week go unspoken. So yes, Thiago is the problem. There’s a lot of players playing bad, the whole team in fact and Thiago has been dragged down to everyone else’s level unfortunately. Even Robbo has been atrocious recently despite your glowing praise for him in the lead up to the first goal. Oh yeah and your mention on Henderson’s ‘awful’ header that let Vardy in in the first half? Nah he’s English. But I’m not saying you don’t like the foreigners far from it because nothing was mentioned of Mané either who was by far the worst player on the pitch. It’s BECAUSE of him we took so long to score when we completely dominated for 70 minutes. He is just always losing the ball. And when it comes to slowing the play down where is the mention of Curtis Jones? His idea of a counter attack is stop and go backwards! Every time! He is so slow to pass it sometimes. He’s not the worst though that goes to Gini ‘let me have 25 touches and a wrestling match before I move the ball on’ Wijnaldum. Nuff said on him. Fuck off to Barcelona. But yeah, it’s Thiago who is slowing it down. He’s the one that moves it with a touch or 2 max. Open your eyes!Rant over!
Alex
While I am a tad furious with Liverpool’s poor title defence, I am a even more furious at the British tabloid press banging on about said poor title defence yet they never bothered highlighting City’s even worse title defence last season. Their constant fawning over Guardiola is galling
Yours somewhat annoyed
Seán (LFC) Dublin
Whisper it… but maybe Dejan Lovren was Liverpool’s most important player all along.
Oliver, London
Salah is too consistent for Liverpool. How dare he score another goal. Its all his fault for letting in 3 goals in 5 minutes. Mentality Failure.
Sergio Reyes
Same old Spurs
I could pretty much copy & paste the same text after every Spurs effort but for the sake of variety I won’t. Same old bollocks regarding the performance, players, lineup, mistakes.
Big picture time though. The other week I mentioned how I hope we lose 5 in a row but the mighty Baggies ruined that for us by rolling over and letting us tickle their soft underbelly. That being said, there is a a huge probability we will lose our next 3 games. Please please just let that happen. We have Wolfsberger x 2 sandwiching an away game at West Ham. Lose those games and that will be 8 losses from 9 – with that 1 win against WBA barely counting – and, at this level, you should be getting the old elbow. Even Levy, with his awe induced fanboy look in his eyes, will have to see sense.
Anyone who argues Mourinho should stay on because we are in the mighty League Cup final are firstly, for want of a better phrase, utterly mental and, secondly, need to remember we beat powerhouses Leyton Orient, Stoke and Brentford to get there. Yeah yeah, and Chelsea but that was on pens. It’s not like some romantic run to the CL final where Moura miraculously found team mates with passes and poked that weird round thing toward that curiously shaped thing (it’s a goal/net, guys). Also, it’s against Man City who are at their imperious best and, funnily enough, just calmly walked through us as if we were some sort of new age virtual reality football game that’s like playing against real PL players but really isn’t.
Lose these next 3 games. Get him out. Get someone in (short term or otherwise) for that new manager boost and a bit of positivity. Start thinking about a rebuild, an identity, a strategy and let’s enjoy this again. We might even nick the cup if we make a change. Even if we don’t, at least we’d give it a go under someone else. Anyone else. Literally.
Some short term humiliation for some long term gain is fine by me. 7 nil? Ok. Not a problem. KO of Europa? Sure thing. Finish in non European places. Sign me up. Anything to release me from this ongoing sporting persecution.
Glen, Despondent Spur
Mourinho has put a not fit, uninterested Bale on, as well as a badly out of form and uninterested Ali so he can say, “hey, I gave you what you wanted, and look how they wasted the opportunity” or something like that to pass the buck after the game.
Might have to see what this rugby’s all about.
Jon, Lincoln
Im so tired. Id take Tactics Tim till the end of the season, thats how tired I am of this vacuous nonsense archaic bollocks football.
Please Jose, just go.
TGWolf (In reality just give it Ledley) THFC
Defending City
Lee, I don’t disagree one iota with your novel assertion that City are successful because they are rich. It’s blatantly obvious.
What I do take exception to is ‘Take away the money, and city are still a division 2 team.’
You seem to have bought into the ‘no history’ myth somewhat. Yes, City went down to Division 2/League one for ONE YEAR in their history. The fact they spent 75% of their existence before the oil money playing top division football not relevant, no?
They were just starting their 7th straight season in the Premier League when the takeover went through, and were even playing in the UEFA Cup. (Crafty Sven and the the Fair Play League place, admittedly)
Without making a tedious list of the reasons City have always been a ‘big’ club, let’s not pretend they were some sort of plucky minnows.
Martyn, MCFC since the inflatable bananas
I disagree with Mark MCFC, your scouting network is not the reason you are currently better than United if anything United’s youth team has been able to provide a pathway for more youngsters to the first team (Rashford ,Williams, Greenwood, Henderson vs Foden) I’m not saying Long term it won’t have an effect..I also disagree with Lee , and spending money doesn’t always make you successful see United acquisitions since Fergie Left.Money helps but it must be spent wisely
United have Lagged behind ,because City have made better decisions in terms of recruiting players (Aguero, Kompany,Dias De Bruyne etc….) and Managers (Pep) since the takeover. There have been short term remedies like RVP and one off”s like De gea and things have improved in the last 3 years but you still feel CIty are at least a year ahead.
Liverpool made similarly wise decisions over the last 5 years, while spending much less, the reason they currently lag behind can be attributed to their cycle being over and not having adequately replaced the squad on time.
This might be the one chink in the armour other teams may be able to exploit ,City have somewhat been able to replace ( Sane, Fernandinho,D Silva and Rodri) so far but will they be able to adequately replace the rest of the star cast (Gundogan,De Bruyne ,Aguero) and most important Pep …… These will be the question,s that will need answering if City are to continue to dominate
Roode, MUFC
Mikey or Mickey?
Was Sean trolling Mikey CFC??? Mikey clearly signs off his mailbox entry as “MIKEY CFC” yet Sean calls him Mickey. Not once mind you. But twice. If it’s Mickey instead of Mikey once , it’s honest mistake but twice is just trolling Mikey CFC for calling Barnsley pitch horrendous. I kind of enjoyed it to be honest. So I ask Mikey CFC, were you upset/offended Sean called you Mickey twice instead of Mikey? The mailbox deserves to know!!
JP NASHVILLE
Love for Alex Scott
I’ve not been particularly motivated to watch Football Focus over the last couple of years, but Alex Scott really is a joy to watch. She’s knowledgeable, fun, and most importantly, makes Martin Keown palatable.
Jon (We will ignore the Arsenal bit), Lincoln
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