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Dave Usher at Anfield
This was the biggest screw job since Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart dropped the WWE title to Shawn Michaels in Montreal. Fat Jon Moss and his little publicity seeking lino robbed us of two points. There’s no other way to put it; we got shafted.
It doesn’t matter that Spurs played well enough to have merited a draw, what matters is they only got it because 1) they’re diving bastards and 2) the officials were either incompetent, or something worse.
May as well get the controversy out of the way first, so let’s begin with the first penalty, which came shortly after Spurs had got back to 1-1 and could therefore have proved pivotal in the game.
Kane is offside, or at least that’s what everybody other than Moss and his little sidekick thought. Apparently there has been a rule change that means if the ball deflects off a defender, it doesn’t matter if the forward is miles offside. Firstly, if this indeed the case, how are we not all aware of this pretty fucking massive change in the law? And more to the point, how has there not been a huge outcry over it, because frankly it’s fucking scandalous.
Whichever cunt came up with this change should be in the unemployment line, alongside Fat Jon Moss, the fucking clown. No doubt you’ve all seen the transcript of his conversation with the linesman regarding the first penalty. Moss had no idea whether Lovren did or didn’t get a touch, yet he opted to give the pen anyway.
Now, either he was told by the fourth official in his headset that Lovren touched it, or he just thought ‘fuck it, I’m giving the pen anyway’. Either way, it’s unacceptable. You can’t have selective video replays. Either we’re using VAR or we aren’t. And unless they've quietly slipped this rule in along with the offside changes, we aren't using video assistance for refs, so why the fuck is he asking Martin Atkinson if he saw anything on the TV?
There's so much to dissect from that one incident, but the linesman’s statement that if Lovren touched the ball then Kane can’t be offside really shocked me. He knows the rules better than I do, or at least I’d hope he does, so we have to assume that some soft cunt at FIFA has now decided that goal hanging is an acceptable part of the game and is no longer punishable by offside.
It seems you can be as far offside as you like if the attempted through ball strikes a defender on the way through. Think about that for a second. Think what a fucking monumental change to the game as we know it that is. And yet how many of you knew this was the case? I certainly didn’t. Klopp didn’t either, so at least I'm in good company.
The incredulous look on his face afterwards when he was told about what the linesman said was absolutely priceless. It seems the rule has been changed without anybody being informed, because it’s not just the fans that don’t know. The managers don’t and neither do the players. How the fuck did we get here?
We’ve now reached the stage where a striker can spend the entire game stood near the penalty spot if he wants, and the only time he’d be given offside is if the ball is played directly to him and he goes for it. He can stay there and wait until his team-mates run through and then they can cross it to him as long as he’s behind the ball. Or he can benefit in the way Kane did, by collecting a pass that struck a defender on the way through. It’s a fucking travesty and that rule needs changing back to the way it was.
Then there’s the decision itself. It’s not even a penalty, it’s a dive and it should have been a booking. Karius does not touch Kane. He doesn’t even come close to touching him. What minimal contact there is comes because Kane leaves his leg in there and kicks the keeper on the back to make it look like a foul. One horrible Bruce Forsyth’s bastard faced twat he is.
Moss was conned, so now it should therefore be a three game ban. Won’t happen though. It’s easy for the FA to make an example of an African playing for little old Everton, or a South American at West Ham. England’s golden boy though? Not a fucking chance they do anything to the big chinned slobbering cunt.
Karius saved the penalty so there was no real harm done, but it’s still difficult to accept when you then see the same two officials conspire to give another penalty late on, only this time with a complete role reversal. Moss chose to ignore his linesman when it would have meant not giving a penalty. Then he chose to listen to him when it meant awarding one.
Fishy as fuck that, especially as this is the prick who sent off Mané at City and has since done nothing about similar incidents, including one in this game when a Spurs defender tried to boot Mo in the head.
Then there’s the linesman. He gave that penalty at the end even though the ref was closer and had a better view of it than he did. Who the fuck does that? It's his job to give it if he has a better view and the ref asks for his assistance. It's not his job to put the ref in a terribly awkward situation by refusing to move from his position and insisting it was a pen even when the ref - who was much closer and had a better view - had waved it away.
If he’s so eagle eyed, how come he didn’t spot that Lamela was offside when the ball went to him? Oh wait, Van Dijk got to the flick before he did so I guess that’s not offside either? I say ‘guess’, because that’s exactly what I’m doing. Lamela looks offside to me, but what is and isn’t offside is now so muddied that I have no clue anymore. The cunt then celebrated with a fist pump.
It’s a long time since I’ve been so angry after a game. I feel cheated, so much so that any flaws in our performance seem largely irrelevant. The players weren't at their absolute best, but despite all the possession Spurs had in the second half they didn’t really hurt us. The first equaliser was a once in a lifetime strike by a fucking donkey who 99 times out of a 100 puts that in the back row of the Kop, and the second was… well we’ve already been through that.
We were excellent in the first half but could have been more clinical with some good situations. The game plan was sound though and it was working well. Clearly the players had been instructed to knock the ball over the top behind Spurs’ high defensive line at every opportunity, and it was causing them a lot of problems and they looked nervy and unsettled for most of the half.
Salah gave us a dream start when one of those balls over the top caused confusion and the useless Dier poked the ball behind his defence for Mo to run clear and beat Lloris with ease. Not sure what the keeper was even doing there, he dived the wrong way like Brad Jones always used to. You’re not playing dodgeball you fucking over rated bum.
We had chances to increase the lead but it just wasn’t really clicking in the box. Mané continues to struggle and not having any viable alternative to him is not helping. He’s just overthinking everything and not playing on instinct. So many times recently he’s gotten into decent positions around the box only to take too long to decide what to do. He wasn’t terrible by any means but he’s definitely low on confidence.
The problem is that we have no alternative. Ox came on to replace him and was fucking horrendous, he never caught up with the speed of the game and offered no attacking outlet. I have to say that the substitutions made by Klopp once again made us worse. It's a recurring theme.
Bringing Henderson off was understandable as we can’t overplay him as he works his way back to full fitness, but we really missed him when he went off. I thought Hendo was excellent and when he went off Spurs enjoyed much more possession in the pockets of space between the defence and midfield.
In fairness, they were starting to get it while he was on which is probably why Klopp made the change, but Ox was all over the shop and Wijnaldum didn’t get involved too much either.
All that said, Spurs weren’t creating chances and I can’t help but think part of the reason they had so much of the ball was because we were happy for them to have it and we funnelled them into areas where they couldn't hurt us. The plan may well have been to lure them onto us and then hit them with our pace on the break.
It’s not how we usually play and the fact it’s so rare for an opponent to have so much of the ball against us tells me this was more about our tactical set up than it was Spurs being anything special. The ploy was actually working up to a point. Defensively we were very good but the counter attacking wasn’t up to standard and we ended up having to protect a slender one goal lead.
All it takes is a moment of bad luck or a mistake to wipe out a one goal advantage, and that’s what happened. Some will say it’s a mistake by Karius. I’m not a fan of his by any means but I don’t put any of this on him at all. He played well and had earlier made a fine save to deny Son. Maybe he could have held onto the cross, but it wasn’t a “gimme” catch and he may have dropped it at someone’s feet in the box. He took the percentage option and punched it, and I’m good with that.
He’s a little unlucky that it landed right at the feet of Wanyama, and massively unfortunate that the big cart horse then produced the hit of his life to send the ball flying back into the top corner.
It was a kick in the balls, but nothing compared to the penalty that was awarded soon after. Karius held his nerve well and didn’t commit himself and had an easy save in the end. I don’t know why more keepers don’t do this as so many penalties go straight down the middle. Good for him, perhaps this game can be the making of him?
It was looking like we were headed for a 1-1 that would have left everyone relatively satisfied. There would have been no sense of injustice on our part as the equalising goal had been legitimate and neither side deserved to lose.
But then Mo produced the kind of goal that for so long has been the exclusive domain of Lionel Messi. It was just stunning and would have been a fitting way to win any game. We’d have been talking about that goal for fucking years, but instead it was completely overshadowed by that fat cunt ref and his dickhead assistant.
We have enough trouble seeing games out without also having to deal with officials making it even harder. Klopp had sent on Matip at 1-0 and gone with three centre backs. I don’t like that approach except when it’s to counter an aerial bombardment. I feel as though it just invites pressure and the fact we’ve conceded twice after that change does nothing to sway my view on that.
Matip wasn’t the problem and I can’t even point to anything to say the formation change was either. It’s just as a general rule I don’t like it. The last second equaliser was not a result of anything systematic or tactical, it was just down to a cunt of a linesman, a cunt of an opponent and a split second lapse of judgement by Van Dijk (and I mean split second as he immediately corrected it and pulled out of the challenge).
Karius this time dived the wrong way and Kane was off celebrating and goading the Kop with his fucking stupid Jimmy Hill face. Fuck him the gormless looking gargoyle. Fuck Deli All too, the diving cunt. And fuck Lamela, the talentless diving pretty boy shitbag.
And fuck Pochettino too. He said afterwards that Spurs were “much, much, much the better side”. I liked him far better when he let his interpreter do his talking for him. He’s talking out of his flabby man tits there. He can fuck off, so can Spurs, the diving bastards. I hope Arsenal destroy the cunts next week, and that's not a sentence I've uttered too often in my 44 years on this earth.
As for us, it’s not a bad point as it keeps Spurs at arms length but that is scant consolation at the moment simply because of the injustice of it all. I'm pissed off and will be for quite some time yet. It should have been three points and if we never see that Jon Moss twat again it will still be soon.
Star man is Mo, of course. What a player he is. He wasn’t even at his absolute best and yet look at the damage he did. He's incredible.
Trent was very good too, and apart from that awful missed clearance that “played Kane onside” Lovren was aggressive and solid.
We need to put this behind us now and take out our frustrations and anger on Southampton next week and hopefully increase the lead over those diving shithouses.
Team: Karius; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson (Wijnaldum), Can, Milner (Matip); Salah, Firmino, Mané (Oxlade-Chamberlain):
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