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Napoli 2 Liverpool 0 (Sep 17 2019)

     

     
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    Dave Usher

At least we played better than we did last year. The 2-0 scoreline was ludicrous really. We should never have lost the game at all but to lose by two was just taking the piss. If we never have to go to play in Naples again it will still be too fucking soon.

 

Whether we finish first or second in the group didn’t matter to me before, but it does now. I’m sick of Napoli. I’m sick of having to play them in pre-season. I’m sick of their rat fans stabbing people. I’m sick of their shitty fucking Kappa kit. I’m sick of their snide bastard players and I’m even sick of Carlo Ancelotti’s rogue eyebrow (and I’ve always quite liked ol’ Carlo). I want us to smash them at Anfield and then never have to play them ever again.

 

I must admit, I struggle to get up for the Champions League group stages these days. Since we’ve become title contenders these games don’t do anything for me to be honest. They’re a necessary evil but my blood doesn't get pumping until the knock outs come around.

 

So going into the game my feeling was that I’d like to win to keep the run going, but that if we were to come a cropper in any game we have coming up then this would be the one that would be the least damaging. Losing a Premier League game can have dire consequences, but basically, this game didn’t matter because whatever the result we should still go through anyway. 

 

That didn’t stop me from being fucking livid afterwards though. Livid at VAR, livid at Napoli, and livid at the amount of bollocks I heard on telly and read on social media about it. Yeah, I mean the penalty incident and some of the baffling takes on it. “He gave the ref a decision to make” “It’s not a clear and obvious error” “if that was at the other end I’d want it” and various other nonsense soundbites.

 

I don’t often talk in absolutes and I generally have respect for the opposing point of view. I'm not an "I'm right and you're wrong" type of guy. On this though? Nah. All of the above is absolute horseshit. It wasn’t a penalty. 100% it wasn’t. No debate, no room for ambiguity, it was just a dive and should have been a booking for Callejon. I honestly can’t get my head around how anyone sees it differently.

 

Are we that attuned to cheating now that an incident like this is somehow seen as contentious by people who ought to know better? Apparently so. This isn’t a 50-50 call. It’s not even a 90-10 call. In fact, it’s not even a 99-1 call. It’s a clear dive and the only ‘contact’ that is made (if you can even call it that) is Callejon ensuring that his leg brushes against Robbo’s on his way to the floor. 

 

We don't lose very often these days and I'd almost forgotten how it feels. If you take VAR out of the question then I wouldn’t be anywhere near as bitter and resentful as I am about this one. I don’t blame the ref for giving a penalty as in real time it looked like a clumsy foul from Robbo. As soon as it happened I said “oh shit that’s a pen”. 

 

So, even if replays had shown that the ref got it wrong I could have lived with that because it’s tough and mistakes happen. Refs will get some of these wrong as it’s impossible sometimes to get them right in real time. But isn’t that the whole reason they inflicted this video shit on us?

 

I’m totally against VAR in all forms but at least when the on-pitch referee would go to the touchline to look at the video himself then more often than not the decision would be right, because if he fucked up he’d see it and over-rule himself. Since they stopped that and had some fucking trained monkey in a room looking at the video and doing absolutely fuck all, the whole thing has become a farce.

 

The video is meant to help the ref, so let him look at it and then either stand by his decision or change it. This ref was good I thought. I liked how he let a lot of stuff go and wasn’t blowing up any time a Napoli player hit the turf looking for a cheap free-kick. 

 

A lot of the time in Europe refs are blowing up for nothing and it becomes really hard to play our normal pressing game. This ref wasn’t like that, so if he had the benefit of seeing that incident on a pitchside monitor I reckon he’d have reversed the decision and booked Callejon. Instead he’s been made to look foolish because he was hood winked by a player and because the video ref didn’t help him out. 

 

The four worst words in the English language right now are “clear and obvious error”. I’m sick of hearing it as it’s basically just a fucking cop out for not ensuring the right decision is made. By using this daft rationale you can pretty much justify never over-ruling anything. I mean come on, in our last two games alone we’ve seen two clearly incorrect decisions upheld on this bullshit ‘not clear and obvious’ thing.

 

They’re basically saying that if it’s subjective they won’t overturn anything, but realistically 99% of decisions are subjective to some degree, as this has proved. The fact that there are people claiming that this, THIS, is not an obvious error shows that. I mean fucking hell people, he took a dive. It’s as clear as day.

 

So I’m not angry that we lost to Napoli. I’m not even angry that the referee was conned by a well executed dive. I’m angry that this video bollocks that has been inflicted on us on the premise that it would stop this kind of shit has actually just made the situation even worse. We talk more about bad decisions now than we did before.

 

“He gave the ref a decision to make”. I’m so sick of hearing that because it no longer applies. When it’s a referee making a decision without the help of replays, then yeah, that’s a valid argument. If a defender dived in and the ref mistakenly thought it was a foul, it was a legitimate thing to argue. 

 

The second they brought this fucking video shit in though it became null and void. Or at least it should have. 

 

It’s fucking shit. I hate it. It should be fucked off. I hate VAR and didn’t want it. I know some were in favour of it, but even they must surely see that this is not how it’s supposed to be. The way it’s being implemented is not how this shit was advertised. VAR is basically a big red brexit bus, promising shit that it had no intention of ever delivering.

 

In terms of the game and the performance, I’m fine with it. Napoli are a good side and it’s a difficult place to go. I thought we played pretty well and should have won. The reason we didn’t was because of VAR being as much use as Phillip Degen and because we were just too wasteful in attack. 

 

Sadio was uncharacteristically sloppy and Bobby followed up his sensational display at the weekend with a bang average one this time. He got better in the second half, but overall he was a little bit off. I thought Mo was generally fine. He wasn’t great but he was the least culpable of the front three. He was really unlucky with a great shot that the keeper did superbly to tip around the post.

 

The most frustrating moment of the night was the brilliant counter we had from a Napoli corner that saw Sadio and Mo running at the last defender. I’m absolutely positive that the shit at Burnley contributed to that whole thing going wrong as it caused Mané to second guess himself.

 

In fairness the defender did well and made the pass difficult, and what should have happened really was Sadio should have just drove at him and had a shot. There were a couple of split seconds when the pass might have been on and even when he did play it there was a chance of making it, but I just think the whole situation was in his head and impacted his judgement.

 

Overall we had some good chances and loads of situations that should have led to good chances if only we’d played the right pass. It was just one of those rare off nights for the attackers (for some weird reason they tend to usually happen away from home in Europe), but the performance was generally good and there were some top quality outings from the likes of Fabinho, Trent, Matip and Adrian.

 

It’s Adrian I feel for the most actually. He was fucking brilliant and didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. He made a nice double save in the first half but the thing I liked best about that was how quickly and confidently he was up and appealing for offside when the striker finished the rebound from the second one. He just seemed in complete control of that whole situation. 

 

The save he made in the second half was incredible. I think it’s one of the greatest saves I’ve ever seen actually. The commentators kept saying that “he went early” but he didn’t at all. It wasn’t going early, it was recognising the situation and spreading himself to try and give the striker the least amount of space as possible. 

 

Schmeichel did that all the time. You can be reactive and wait until the forward takes his shot and then try to save it, or you can be proactive and make yourself as big as possible. Adrian did the latter, and although there was some fortune involved in that the ball hit his hand, he still had to keep it out and somehow he turned it over the bar. It was an incredible save.

 

He was good in everything he did actually. His distribution was good, his handling was good and he looked supremely confident. He nearly saved the pen too. Top performance from him.

 

He’s the star man just ahead of Fabinho.

 

It's not nice losing a game but as I said, if we were going to lose one then this was the best time for it. Similarly, if Virg was going to make a costly error than let it be in this game when we're already 1-0 down.

 

On that note, Steve McManaman said after that second goal that the penalty incident doesnt matter now because they scored again. Fucking hell. Look at how that goal came about. Mo plays a high risk pass because time is running out and we need to score. Virgil then tries to keep the ball alive by playing a risky ball for the same reason. But the penalty doesn't matter because it finished 2-0? Behave yerself.

 

But yeah, far better to have a blip in this one that at Chelsea next weekend. At least it's a Sunday game, and having played on the Tuesday that gives us plenty of time to recover, which will be necessary given that Klopp went full strength (bar Gini being left on the bench). 

 

Stamford Bridge is always a tough place to go but the way we've been playing we should be fine. The only thing that could cause us a problem is if the forwards are wasteful again, because the way we play means that we'll almost always create good situations no matter who we play.

 

Misfiring in Champions League away group games isn't the end of the world, as we saw last season when we lost all three of them.

 

Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson (Shaqiri), Milner (Wijnaldum); Salah, Firmino, Mané:

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They do go to the monitor in the CL. This should have at least been referred. I saw a completely nothing foul in the Inter v Sparta game be referred for a red card, which was completely pointless. 

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I think the whole VAR thing is highlighting how slow refs are on picking up the latest ways players, teams and managers come up with cheating.  The whole pundit circus just adds to it.  Even Carragher was saying it was a pen.  He tends to do this a lot and I think it’s so he can claim no bias.

 

Years ago when players started diving and feeling for contact regularly you could understand referees and fans falling for it.  Kane is probably the biggest proponent of it i

of late.  He’s clearly convinced himself that it’s not a dive if he dives but manages to engineer contact and if he doesn’t get that contact then he was just unlucky.  You have a lot of people in the media who seem to think any contact equals a foul and it’s wrong for a whole host of reasons.  Last night was a perfect example of why.  They need to put this in black and white.  If you’re diving before any contact is made then it’s not a foul.  That fucking wanker Tomkins has said he thinks it’s a pen because the player was taking evasive action.  I’ve never heard anything so laughable in my life.

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Just now, The Guest said:

I think the whole VAR thing is highlighting how slow refs are on picking up the latest ways players, teams and managers come up with cheating.  The whole pundit circus just adds to it.  Even Carragher was saying it was a pen.  He tends to do this a lot and I think it’s so he can claim no bias.

 

Years ago when players started diving and feeling for contact regularly you could understand referees and fans falling for it.  Kane is probably the biggest proponent of it i

of late.  He’s clearly convinced himself that it’s not a dive if he dives but manages to engineer contact and if he doesn’t get that contact then he was just unlucky.  You have a lot of people in the media who seem to think any contact equals a foul and it’s wrong for a whole host of reasons.  Last night was a perfect example of why.  They need to put this in black and white.  If you’re diving before any contact is made then it’s not a foul.  That fucking wanker Tomkins has said he thinks it’s a pen because the player was taking evasive action.  I’ve never heard anything so laughable in my life.

Sounds like its taken right out of the Gareth Bale school for diving

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7 hours ago, Scott_M said:

They do go to the monitor in the CL. This should have at least been referred. I saw a completely nothing foul in the Inter v Sparta game be referred for a red card, which was completely pointless. 

Just seen that in the PSG game. It just makes me even more angry. How would they not look at that and at least tell the ref to have a look and see what he thinks.

 

Were the Sicilian mafia sat in the room with the video ref?

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17 minutes ago, dave u said:

Just seen that in the PSG game. It just makes me even more angry. How would they not look at that and at least tell the ref to have a look and see what he thinks.

 

Were the Sicilian mafia sat in the room with the video ref?

 

The VAR room and video refs were up in the Eagles Nest.

 

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Excellent report as per usual Dave,I agree with you on the VAR.... but what if as was suggested (by someone!)that captains are given 3 chances to question the decision (tennis & cricket)... works fine there & doesn't take long & everyone knows what the fuck is happening at least! 

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9 hours ago, dave u said:

Just seen that in the PSG game. It just makes me even more angry. How would they not look at that and at least tell the ref to have a look and see what he thinks.

 

Were the Sicilian mafia sat in the room with the video ref?

 

Yeah.

 

Klopp made a good point in his post match presser. He asked the room if anybody thought it was a penalty and 1 or 2 said they did (probably local Naples reporters). But the fact a couple did means it wasn’t a clear & obvious error. 

 

However, it certainly wasn’t a clear cut penalty either. Personally, I think if it was referred he’d have overturned it as he didn’t stand for any of their shit all night - and IMO it should have been referred.

 

I’ve said before I like VAR, or at least the idea of it, but the implementation isn’t as expected & it’s gotten worse since the World Cup 18 months ago (although not perfect, it was actually decent in Russia IMO). 

 

Anyway, I’m over it. Treat it as a minor inconvenience / annoyance and back us to win the next 4.

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In the psg game last night the ref went to the monitor to view a possible handball and disallowed the goal on that review, why didn't the cunt ref in our game do the same. 

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1 minute ago, Butch said:

In the psg game last night the ref went to the monitor to view a possible handball and disallowed the goal on that review, why didn't the cunt ref in our game do the same. 

I think it all depends on whether he's advised by the video ref to go and check. The prick in our game must have told the ref "nah you're all good mate".

 

It's shite. And what makes it even more shite is it isn't used the same way in each competition. Until I saw the ref last night looking at the monitor I was under the impression that they'd scrapped that. Turns out it's just the PL that has.

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It was clearly a dive. The VAR official was also a German and imo probably just went with his mate on the pitch so as not to make out he had made a mistake. The Official in VAR should be a different nationality to the referee imo, something that FIFA/UEFA should be looking into. 

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I use it as an example quite often, but I really do think it's relevant here. And that is if cricket is anything to go by, VAR will be a reasonable system in about a decade. 

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I wonder if we struggle when the pressure is off.  It's an easy looking group, big game Sunday "we will be fine" do we look a bit sloppy. Everyone knows in Eurooe l how we dominate in knock out games . Even though we scraped through the group last year no one wanted us cos they knew that when the heat is on we fight it with fire.

15 wins on the bounce in the premier league because those money dopers up the road keep winning.

The group stages seem a bit trite for us.

They need high pressure situations. 

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I am 100% in agreement with what you said on VAR usually I feel you're a bit too harsh on it but this is unforgivable. This situation is why we have VAR and they still managed to fuck it up.

 

Watching the match live I was 100% certain it's a penalty and was not even mad so the refs mistake is understandable but the moment VAR came into play and they went through with the penalty I was bitter for the rest of the match.

 

Somehow this makes me angrier than the mistakes that ref made against Leicester last year because here they looked at the mistake on camera and still decided to fuck us.

 

The way VAR has been implemented means no one is happy... even Man City who has had two goals correctly ruled out by VAR can feel bitter and hard done because there's no consistency at all. 

 

On that note, Steve McManaman said after that second goal that the penalty incident doesn't matter now because they scored again.

 

I fucking knew some mouth breather was going to come out with that excuse... Most football pundits honestly have no understanding of how football works

 

 

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It looked like a clear penalty in real time. On review, it turned out to be a dive. This is exactly what VAR was introduced to sort out and if it can’t even get that right it should be fucked off.

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7 hours ago, Butch said:

In the psg game last night the ref went to the monitor to view a possible handball and disallowed the goal on that review, why didn't the cunt ref in our game do the same. 

It’s the double standards of how they’re applying it. On a goal everything gets checked - offside, handball, any foul in the build up. On a penalty it has to be a clear and obvious error. It’s bollocks. Either apply it evenly or jib it. I’m in favour of jibbing it.

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I thought part of the idea was to pick up things which the ref couldn't reasonably be expected to have seen in real time. To stop refs looking like a prick because they have been conned. A bit like the other night.  

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