Liverpool 2 Chelsea 2 (Aug 14 2019)

[tlw content 12,303]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

It's not quite the Champions League but it was still a nice feeling seeing Hendo and the lads repeating their trophy lift routine. It was also nice not to lose a penalty shoot out.

 

The game itself provided more cause for concern than reasons to be cocky, but we won so that makes it easier to put those concerns to one side. I’m sure Klopp and his staff will have seen things they want to iron out as quickly as possible though, as I didn’t think we played well at all.

 

We didn’t deserve to win the game but we didn’t deserve to lose either. We should have beaten City the other week and losing on pens was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Had we lost this one, I don’t think we’d have had too much cause to feel hard done by, other than by VAR which I’ll get to in due course.

 

The Super Cup isn’t the biggest trophy in the world, but I’ve got a spring in my step today. There isn’t that euphoric buzz of winning a Champions League, but it still feels good doesn’t it? 

 

UEFA will be delighted too. A packed crowd, great atmosphere, exciting game and the winning side celebrating like it genuinely means something. They couldn’t have asked for more.

 

It was also the first game to be officiated by an all female refereeing team and they did well. That too has to be seen as a success, despite the cack handed attempt to help them out by the VAR crew. Again, I’ll get to that in a bit.

 

As Big Virg said afterwards, it was a good game for the neutrals. Chelsea probably feel a lot like we did after losing the Charity Shield. The loss stings but they’ll have taken a lot of positives out of the way they played. 

 

For us it’s a case of just grabbing the trophy and getting the hell home to rest up. Forget about the performance, but take some lessons from how easily Chelsea were able to open us up at times. 

 

Chelsea were good to be fair. I was a bit surprised at how well they played, but I wonder how much of that was down to us not being at the level we expect. Norwich looked good too, let’s not forget. There’s something not quite right with us at the minute. 

 

Everyone is talking about this high line we’re playing and it’s clearly not working exactly as it’s supposed to. Teams are getting behind us too easily, but Chelsea were also running at us as well as in behind us. We looked all over the place at times.

 

 

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[bigal 206]

It was just a bad decision for the penalty, she didn't have to give it because of her lino. Bad decision. Otherwise I agree with all you say about VAR, absolutely ruining the game. The flag not going up, teams and fans unsure whether they can celebrate or feel gutted. Hate it. And not correcting the pen, your reasoning is the only one that makes any kind of sense.

Pulisic looks a player, amazed we didn't do more to get him from the off. Kante is just brilliant and Kepa will get stronger too with time. Lampard giving their young players a go is good for them, will give them choices later. How pissed off they must be though that they get a ban and City get fined pocket money for a second offence?

[Kurt 102]

Agree with that. Neither Ox or Lallana is wingers and should never being picked there. It's just like replacing Suarez with Balotelli or Lambert. Completely different players, so you also need to change the way you play. That's why I think we should have added extra attacking depth In the summer, or at least kept Wilson as back up. I would much rather play him (or Kent for that matter) than Lallana or Ox on the wings.

[Bob Spunkmouse 2,375]

The lino flagged pretty immediately for a goal kick it looked like to me.

 

personally I didn’t think the ref was much good. Fair enough she let the game flow which is often not the case with refs from the continent, so credit to her for that, but she let some pretty blatant fouls go as part of that, she gave three throw ins the wrong way in the space of about 5 minutes, and she got the pen dead wrong.

 

it didn’t look a pen in real time to me. I agree they didn’t want to overturn her decision so just went with it, but it was an awful decision.

 

she wasn’t the worst ref I’ve seen - she wasn’t Anthony Taylor - but I still thought she was a bit shit, myself.

 

As for the rest of it, pretty much spot on.

[Barnesey 283]

VAR is taking the joy and spontaneity out of the game. I didn’t celebrate either of our goals as I thought Bobby was offside - he wasn’t but TV made it look as if it was. Neither did I celebrate the missed penalty because Adrian was off his line and it should have been retaken. Bin it soonest. 

 

Football matches he’s should be a self contained event involving 22 players and 3 officials. The rest of us are spectators. 

 

Getting decisions right is not is not as important as some would suggest. The game is better for the errors of all involved (and their managers).

 

if we want to treat it as a business remember I am the customer. I subscribe to Sky, BT and LFC TV. I pay for a season ticket, buy merchandise and spend money in the ground. I’m the customer and I am scared VAR will ruin the game I love. 

 

Get rid. 

[skaro 5,240]

 

Along with VAR, perhaps another thing we can change is to play football in empty stadia... with both sets of supporters waiting outside.

 

Then, when a goal is scored - and ratified by VAR of course - we let the confirmed scoring team's set of supporters into the ground to celebrate.

 

Then wait for them to go out again, and restart the match. 

 

[Stickman 7,198]

What made it great about winning this is that you just know how much it would have pissed off the bitters, City, Utd and the wider "anyone but Liverpool" football universe who already would have had the keyboards at the ready with "Kloops lost another final" "Chelsea are Euro champs" "Loserpool" etc etc etc...Kind of funnythe number of blues on Twitter who are now saying they didn't watch it even though they knew we were one down.

Looking at the game I am like everyone else must be worried at how easy at the minute we seem to be allowing teams to get in behind and having acres of space in the final third to do what the fuck they want. Maybe Jurgen is thinking we'll get away with it as human error is being taken out of decisions either way we are looking like the side from 2016-18 in giving teams plenty of opportunities or maybe it's early season rustiness after the incredible effort from last season.

[Captain Turdseye 12,099]

15 hours ago, Bob Spunkmouse said:

The lino flagged pretty immediately for a goal kick it looked like to me.

 

personally I didn’t think the ref was much good. Fair enough she let the game flow which is often not the case with refs from the continent, so credit to her for that, but she let some pretty blatant fouls go as part of that, she gave three throw ins the wrong way in the space of about 5 minutes, and she got the pen dead wrong.

 

it didn’t look a pen in real time to me. I agree they didn’t want to overturn her decision so just went with it, but it was an awful decision.

 

she wasn’t the worst ref I’ve seen - she wasn’t Anthony Taylor - but I still thought she was a bit shit, myself.

 

As for the rest of it, pretty much spot on.

 

Apparently that ref has only just been added to the elite pool of refs in France and only reffed her first Ligue 1 match in April. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for girl power...

 

 

... but there’s no doubt it was a token appointment and a publicity stunt. There must be dozens of refs all over the continent that have earned the right to do that game by doing CL/EL games for years. Thankfully we won so we don’t have to fume over it and we can keep banging the drum for gender equality without any hypocrisy. 

 

[Stickman 7,198]

Thought the lineswoman wasn't too shabby ...Well one of them anyway

 

 

[DaveT 437]

17 hours ago, Bob Spunkmouse said:

The lino flagged pretty immediately for a goal kick it looked like to me.

 

personally I didn’t think the ref was much good. Fair enough she let the game flow which is often not the case with refs from the continent, so credit to her for that, but she let some pretty blatant fouls go as part of that, she gave three throw ins the wrong way in the space of about 5 minutes, and she got the pen dead wrong.

 

it didn’t look a pen in real time to me. I agree they didn’t want to overturn her decision so just went with it, but it was an awful decision.

 

she wasn’t the worst ref I’ve seen - she wasn’t Anthony Taylor - but I still thought she was a bit shit, myself.

 

As for the rest of it, pretty much spot on.

Agree with that. I was fuming all game, as much with the officials performance as with our sloppiness in and out of possession. The praise being heaped upon her from all quarters is so patronising, because, purely based on the performance of the officials and quite irrespective of their gender, they were all abysmal. The ref got both penalty calls completely wrong (even Hoddle and Cole struggled to find any justification for the Chelsea pen - tells you everything) - and the fact that those decisions weren't overturned by VAR is highly questionable. It wasn't just that though - I lost count of how many fouls and throw-ins were given the wrong way. In fact it was just like most league games, especially when Taylor, Moss, or Pawson are involved!

 

On a playing note, I'm worried about just how bad Big Games James has been right since the start of pre-season. Desperately hope we're not witnessing the start of his decline. 

[TheBitch 3,322]

The ref' and her assistants were way better than 95% of officials in the Premier league.

 

Chelsea are still cunts even with Lampard in charge, never forget that.

[dave u 6,045]

11 hours ago, TheBitch said:

The ref' and her assistants were way better than 95% of officials in the Premier league.

 

Chelsea are still cunts even with Lampard in charge, never forget that.

 

I agree. There were some calls she got wrong that seemed a bit obvious (a few throw ins and one time she give a goal kick when Emerson's cross looked like it had clearly been deflected behind), but when compared to the shite we see on a weekly basis I thought she was pretty good. And the assistants were too, or at least I think they were. Its difficult to assess them properly with the way offside is now done with the VAR.