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Liverpool 1 Burnley 1 (Jul 11 2020)

     

     
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    Dave Usher

So much hard work and so many great performances had gone into that 100% home record so for it to end like this leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. We should have won this game by a landslide.

 

The performance was good - brilliant in spells - but the finishing was shite and that - coupled with some terrible officiating - is why we aren’t going to end the season with a perfect home record (and the points record might now be beyond us too). 

 

In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter. We’ve ended the 30 year wait for the title and we’ve done it in spectacular fashion. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone or reading too much into us drawing a football match you’d expect to win, I’m just disappointed at not winning the game. I’ve got a proper cob on over it actually.

 

Not with the team or any individuals, far from it. I’m just upset we didn’t win. I think the best way to describe it is that I’m not pissed off with the players, I’m pissed off for them. Not as pissed off as they are though. There’s no easing off from these boys at all, they’re even more desperate to keep winning than some fans are. 

 

I loved seeing Trent and Robbo fuming at that incompetent ref at full time. They won the title weeks ago but they’re absolutely seething at the officials because we dropped two points. It’s great. It just made me feel even more proud of them. I see how much it hurt them dropping two points and it just gives me confidence that they’ll be going all out to win the last three games.

 

I’ve got mates who are just not arsed about anything that has happened since we won the title. They’re not bothered about records or anything like that, and that’s fine. Each to their own. I am bothered though. I want every record that’s out there because this team deserves them.

 

I wanted them to win all 19 home games and I honestly thought they would. For it to end like this doesn’t sit well with me as it felt like daylight robbery. Partly by Burnley, but mostly by the officials.

 

The non-award of a penalty when Robbo was brought down was genuinely scandalous. “He touched the ball so it’s not a pen”. Nah, fuck off. That’s absolute bollocks. The lad was at full stretch having mis-controlled it and Robbo had dispossessed him. Penalty all day.

 

I don’t care if he got the tiniest touch on the ball, it makes no difference in that instance as he didn’t get enough on it to take it away from Robbo. He may as well have not touched it for all the difference it made. The ball was right there for Robbo and if he hadn’t been wiped out then he was in.

 

It’s bad that neither ref or lineman saw it (not sure what side the linesman was on, if he was on the opposite side then he gets a pass but if he was facing it then he should be sacked) but it’s worse that VAR didn’t intervene. There’s just no fucking point to that shit and I want it gone. The technology itself is great in theory, it’s the soft cunts interpreting what they see that’s the problem.

 

It was supposed to ensure that we got more correct decisions. Instead we’ve got gimps in Stockley Park ruling out goals for offside decisions the width of a gnat’s pube, yet they’re allowing bullshit penalty decisions (or non-decisions) to stand every week. I’m sick of it, it’s a complete farce.

 

They continue to fuck things up and the Premier League then has to say “yeah that decision was wrong, sorry” but the next week we get even worse mistakes. Yet we’ve still got fucking dickheads out there suggesting that VAR was brought in to help the REDS! Remind me again, which team is it that’s been awarded 18 penalties this season? I’ll give you a clue. It isn’t us.

 

You could easily make a video compilation of 20 clear penalties we didn’t get this year. Van Dijk is manhandled on virtually every set-piece while Salah is frequently hauled to the ground in the box. We hardly ever get penalties these days which makes what we’ve done this season even more remarkable. 

 

Burnley’s goal also owed much to the officials who awarded them a free-kick for a non-existent offside. Sure, we then need to do a better job of defending the set-piece, but if the linesman hadn’t fucked up then we wouldn’t even be discussing it.

 

Klopp was angry all day because he felt that Burnley were being allowed to foul Alisson on every set-piece. I think for the most part they were just clever in the way they managed to get in his way without actually fouling him, but yeah there were some occasions when the foul couldn’t have been more obvious. Yet the ref let everything go.

 

Klopp’s angst probably goes back to that disgraceful decision last season to allow a Burnley goal direct from a corner when Alisson was mugged by one of their players. Usually you only need to fart near a keeper and refs are giving free-kicks, so how come that doesn’t seem to apply to Burnley with Alisson?

 

Mostly they just stood their ground and refused to let Alisson have a clear run at it, which is fine, but there were others when it was just a blatant foul. The most obvious one was seconds before they hit the bar late on. Their lad just blatantly shoved Alisson as he went for the ball and for the ref to miss that is inexplicable. 

 

I wonder what would have happened if that shot had been a couple of inches lower and gone in? Would VAR have overturned it or would we have gotten some nonsense about it being a different phase of play or not a clear and obvious error? Frankly with the way it’s gone all season there’s no way of knowing.

 

The officials played a big part in us not winning this game but not as big a part as Mo. The Salah of two seasons ago would have scored enough goals in this game to have hauled back Vardy in the race for the Golden Boot.

 

I was full of praise for him the other night at Brighton and I said that he was looking so sharp that I felt like he could still finish as the top scorer in the league. Yeah, me and my big mouth again. His finishing was risible. The effort that Pope made the spectacular save from in the first half was a good one, but every other chance he had he wasted.

 

He can be so infuriating at times. His record is sensational and stands up to comparison with pretty much anyone other than Messi and Ronaldo, yet he misses so many fucking chances it can have you pulling your hair out. 

 

He missed two great opportunities in the second half while Firmino was denied by the post. Bobby’s performance was good but he just can’t buy a goal these days can he? 

 

Draws like this are probably easier for a manager to deal with because the performance is good. Klopp often says he can’t control the result so the most important thing for him is always the performance, because more often than not a good performance leads to a win anyway. Not all the time though, as we just saw.

 

Still, Klopp will be far more relaxed about this draw than the one at Goodison for example, when we were dogshit and barely managed a shot.

 

As a fan though these might be even harder to take because it’s so frustrating when you play well and don’t get what the performance merits. When we play badly and don’t deserve anything it’s easier to rationalise that. It’s the sense of injustice that a game like this brings that really sticks in the throat.

 

I honestly thought we played really well. The first half especially was quality. Really enjoyable to watch. We played at a good tempo, passed it around well and the movement up front stretched Burnley to breaking point on several occasions. 

 

Curtis was great on his first start. He was popping up all over the pitch and on another day would have scored a couple of goals. He had one effort saved and another deflected wide, but the important thing is he was involved in everything, arriving in the penalty area and getting on the end of things. 

 

Neco did well too, and it’s really nice to have those two as genuine first team options now. They might not be ready to dislodge the first choice players in their positions, but if we needed to start either of them for any length of time we know they can do the job. Hopefully we’ll see Elliott and Hoever also come through over the coming months.

 

So yeah, we played well in that first half and we scored a great goal. Fabinho produced one of his trademark diagonal passes that he drops over the head of the full back and Robbo came flying in to send a glorious header curling past the keeper into the far corner. Brilliant goal that.

 

The only reason we didn’t get more was because Nick Pope kept making saves, the massive pain in the arse. He made a really good one to claw away a volley from Salah, then he denied Mo again with his foot. He also made a comfortable stop to deny Jones before producing the best of the lot when he flew to his right and prevented a powerful Mané drive from finding the top corner.

 

We created so many chances in that half that I was slightly perturbed that it was only 1-0. But we’ve been in this situation so many times this season (and last) and have nearly always gotten the result. Either we extend the lead or hold onto it. This time we did neither.

 

I didn’t think the second half was as good as the first but it was fine. We were in control, still creating chances and there was nothing to worry about until they scored out of nothing. The other night when we conceded at Brighton it had been coming as we were on the back foot. This wasn’t like that.

 

The Burnley goal came completely against the run of play and came from nowhere. It was immediately after the drinks break when we’d made two chances. Jones and Williams made way for Keita and Trent, and within seconds our lead was gone.

 

An incorrect offside call gave Burnley a free-kick in their own half which they launched up to Tarkowski who headed it across the box but behind everyone. No danger there, except Rodriguez reacted quickest and then lashed one into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Great finish to be fair. Alisson had no chance.

 

It was a kick in the teeth because we should have already been out of sight. This is what can happen when you aren’t clinical though. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve written about how important the second goal is because irrespective of how dominant you are and how much in control you are, at 1-0 all it takes it a set-piece or a mistake and just like that you’re level.

 

It’s rare that we’ve suffered that fate in recent seasons but if any team is ever going to do that it’s Burnley. No matter how much you’re hammering them they don’t let it bother them. They don;’t change, they don’t panic. They just dig in, stick to what they do and they try to make the most of any set-pieces they get.

 

This was classic Burnley. I’m not going to say anything negative about them or how they play. I don’t have a problem with it. They’re doing a hell of a job on far more limited resources than most other clubs. Fair play to them and great credit to Sean Dyche. They owe a big thank you to that fucking ref though.

 

It was heartening to see just how much the players wanted to get that winning goal. They pushed and pushed for it and they created good chances. They just didn’t take them, which has been a problem all season. If you can call it a ‘problem’ when we’ve only failed to win five games from 35.

 

So now we’ve got three games left and we need to win all of them if we’re to break the points record. Motivation won’t be a problem, we can see that. The lads want to get that record but my gut feeling is that we’ll probably slip up in one of the remaining games as we’ve just been a fraction off in front of goal since we came back. And before that too really.

 

Put it this way, if the 2018 version of this front three had been playing this season I genuinely don’t think we’d have dropped a single point, except maybe at the Etihad. Even then though, if we’d been clinical at 0-0 it’s a different game.

 

Still, we’ve done alright haven’t we?

 

Star man is Robbo who was well and truly back to his best after a ropey couple of weeks. Fabinho was excellent too, while the two kids deserve credit for how they played. I though Gomez was improved too as he’s not looked great recently but this was much better.

 

Next up is Arsenal, the big fucking wasters. Not beating Burnley was frustrating but if we don’t give Arsenal the kind of beating we should be giving them that’s going to be a whole different level of irritation. 

 

Come on, lads, let’s fucking smash these lightweight, mentally weak fucking shithouses all over the Emirates.

 

 

Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Jones (Keita), Wijnaldum (Oxlade-Chamberlain); Salah, Firmino, Mané:


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We’ll get nine points from the last three games. I don’t care to be honest, but I can’t stand any more my son sorrow and tears when we don’t win. The greedy bastard. 
 

I’ve always thought that was the trickiest game, and Salah was abysma with his finishing. 
 

What a goal that would have been should he had buried it at the last minute ..... 

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I think what does my head in about the constant shit decisions that we seem to get all the time is the lack of coverage by the commentators, or them laughing about it and making some fucking inane comment about robust (tee hee) defending. Tell it how it is and at least try to earn your wage, would make a nice change from the usual drivel.

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VAR is shite. It's just created new problems without barely solving any of the old ones. 

 

I know Allison likes to stand his ground (as he should) but I wouldn't be annoyed if he went to ground holding his face rolling round the pitch. I wouldn't blame him at all. 

 

 

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Just seen that penalty call again. From his position, there’s no way the ref can see if the Burnley lad gets the ball. If the ref gives the penalty, no way does it get overturned by VAR. And it should definitely be a penalty because even though the defender looks to get studs on the ball, it’s still in Robbo’s reach and he’s clear round the back...... except the defender then clears him out. That’s the 4th(I would argue 5th) nailed on penalty we’ve been denied in the last 3 home games. 

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The saying only death and taxes are the only certainties in life is wrong or at the very least, incomplete. Another certainty is long runs come to an end.

 

I wouldnt say Im not bothered since we won the title but, there's a sense of serenity about it all. After the derby bore, I said Id be happy if we just drew the next 5 games to win the title. At the same time, I always want the boys to win and records are nice to have. But Im not getting out of my tree about this result for a couple of reasons.

 

First, losing our first game as Champions by 4-0 to city really pissed me off and second, I dont see a draw as being a bigger downer. Third, their keeper pulled off 2 worldie saves to deny us. Fourth, I really dont think the players could have given more effort even if Anfield was full of 52,000 fans.

 

We missed a number of other chances, Bobby was desparately unlucky to see his shot hit the post and how the fuck the ref and VAR didnt give that pen for the foul on Robbo after the fernandes farce and another similarly soft decision is, beyond credulity. Or may be not because the outcry over those decisions always seems to affect refs in the next set of games. 'The fuck Im giving anything after that shit show' seems to be the M.O. of many official after they've seen their colleagues ripped a new over a poor decision.

 

But you're always liable to get caught with a 1 goal lead. A mistake by a player or official, as in this case when neither Mo nor Sadio were offside, can always bite you in the nuts. It's like the Leicester game last season when a clear hack on Naby in virtually the same place, was waved away as no pen. Fuck that shit.

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