Leicester City 3 Liverpool 1 (Feb 13 2021)

[DaveT]

I pretty much checked out at half time of the Brighton away game. A free kick given against us every time they flopped to the floor, but White stops a promising attack (yellow card offence) with a forearm to Jota's throat (yellow card offence) - no card shown. Since then I've only watched a couple of games live, last one being the Brighton home game (big mistake!). It's been clear since early on that it's open house on our players. 

It's the sense of injustice that gets the blood boiling. Lots of big decisions going against us, and way,way more small ones - and there's nothing you can do. Can't even bawl at a linesman from the stands now. For the sake of my health, and my wife's sanity  - she can't stand to hear 'This is fucking bent!!', followed by the sound of an object hitting the wall, any more - I've distanced myself from all football. 

The footy is just not the same with out fans, and the previously awful refereeing has got several times worse this season. Yet, read the media, you wouldn't know there's a problem. It's apparently no big deal that Mike Dean, plus VAR official with all the technology, plus 4th official plus lineperson got a major call wrong. Then they all did it again in the very next game. Or that Tierney blew up 5 seconds short of the MINIMUM amount of added on time with Mane about to run clear (dodgy as fuck that was). Or ManU equalised at West Ham after the ball went TWO FEET out of play. Or City scoring dodgy offside/onside goals in consecutive games. Or Walcott's red card challenge on Milner where we didn't even get a free kick (in a game where we had two clear penalties denied). Or Pickfor/van Dyke. Or a shedload of flaky offisde lines. Or a load of dodgy penalties.

 

I don't blame any of our lads for letting their heads drop - everything has gone against them this season, some of it unfortunate, lots of it bent-as-fuck.

 

I'll keep in touch with what's going on through these threads and Dave's reports (mentality monster, Dave) but I can't see me re-engaging anytime soon.

[Marcas]

The whole VAR thing has been a disaster, but only because of the inept shitbags in charge of it. When you get down to millimetres everyone knows it’s all bollix and 100% subjective. But here’s the thing: if we play the way we can it doesn’t matter - we should have been two or three up. Yes, Mane was pushed, but bad officiating doesn’t make Allison charge out of his box and straight into Kabak like a fucking gobshite (or head the ball to a Leicester player when he could have, like, just fucking caught it!); bad officiating hasn’t made Bobby shite for the last year with increasingly few and far between glimpses of what he used to be. Bad officiating didn’t leave us with no recognised back-up striker (and I don’t consider Origi a back up anything), or any way of impacting from the bench, and it certainly didn’t force us into scrambling through a fucking bargain bucket on the last day of the transfer window for a decent centre back. I’ve no idea where the issue lies between FSG and Jurgen in terms of player recruitment, but the one thing I do know is that virtually every club who’s ever had sustained success over a period of time has used that success to attract better players to continually refresh and enhance the team. Judging on that basis we’ve pissed away two years of glorious opportunity.

[Davelfc]

I can't go along with conspiracy, I just can't.

 

Yet I agree that many decisions in a lot of games have been shocking and the mancs seem to be getting crazy decisions their way. We may have a warped view of penalties now because we see them given for almost anything to the mancs and yet for us, or any team they are playing the threshold seems to be much higher. 

 

That could just be my bias, as fans we surely are biased and if you asked a neutral (you have to find one first) what they thought about a certain decision then there's a chance they could see it very differently. 

 

Referees and Linos have an excuse to coward out of decisions now, thinking that Var will bail them out. They don't want to be seen to make too many bad decisions. I am sure that as they each get a turn to sit in the Var box that they are looking after each other too. 

 

Goal line technology works brilliantly, I think it was one brain cell Redknapp that said because GLT worked so well, so would VAR. But as we know GLT doesn't have a bias nor is it stupid. I'm looking at you Mr Coote, you massive fuck nugget. 

 

We have VAR which has been implemented poorly, and apparently changes to suit the wind. We have a team that has played brilliantly that is now IMO exhausted. If you score enough goals (that are given) then VAR and shit refs can't really hurt you much at all, except when they fail to send off reckless and dangerous fouls by players. Our problem is that teams have worked out how to nullify us and because of the small margins refs and var suddenly share our season. We also don't have fans in the ground to call the shite out and push the lads along. A perfect storm. 

 

Get the fans back as soon as it is safe to do so, scrap VAR or at least ensure it is implemented consistently and sack shit officials. For fucks sake how shit have you got to be in order to get sacked as a referee. 

 

 

 

[Code]

2 hours ago, Dave D said:

Some terrible decisions being made no question but lets not pretend all is well in our camp otherwise. It clearly isnt.

Its reminding me of an undisputed Heavyweight champ getting caught clean on the chin, legs have gone and is taking a pounding but telling the ref he's fine.

 

We need this fight/season to end. We can regroup and come back stronger but right now its painful to watch   

Agree, the season needs to end, rather sooner than later.

 

Call me a blind optimist, but Ive not given up on the CL yet. 

[Peter Cormack]

That was the straw that broke this camel’s back, Even the mrs  can see it’s as bentas fuck, she was screaming louder than me at the tele when Taylor gave the pen. I left the room when the 1-1 goal went in to save the tele from damage. Great report Dave the rational part of me thinks it can’t be a conspiracy against us. My eyes tell me it is. Shearer on MOTD gave his usual balanced opinion. He must hate us, or is he just stupid. Or both

[NoelM]

Thanks Dave, it needed to be said and you did it.

[DaveT]

15 hours ago, Peter Cormack said: Shearer on MOTD gave his usual balanced opinion. He must hate us, or is he just stupid. Or both

And the results are in........(drum roll)...... It’s......... Both!

[Bobby Hundreds]

I'm still annoyed by that push on Mane. It's unbelievably poor refereeing.

[Barrington Womble]

3 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I'm still annoyed by that push on Mane. It's unbelievably poor refereeing.

as many have mentioned though, the reaction of the players lets taylor and the VAR get away with it. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

29 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

as many have mentioned though, the reaction of the players lets taylor and the VAR get away with it. 

VAR and the ref shouldn't need players to make them aware of the rules and a blatent foul. The game wasn't stopped the players had to react to the ball.

[Barrington Womble]

13 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

VAR and the ref shouldn't need players to make them aware of the rules and a blatent foul. The game wasn't stopped the players had to react to the ball.

They do though. Even more so when there's no crowd putting pressure on them and when 5 or 6 players shout at once in an empty ground, it's really noticeable. I've lost count of the times over the years I've heard ex-pros and ex-refs who have said "you can tell from the players reaction". I know it's hard to believe, but refs are human too - the more pressure we apply to them, the more decisions we'll get. It might not be right, but it's been the way since I have been watching footy. 

[3 Stacks]

I thought this had good elements to it. The midfield was once again pretty good. I don't think that's been a problem for a while. We just can't really create many good chances and there's too much fragility at the back.

 

 

[Herp McDerp]

6 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I'm still annoyed by that push on Mane. It's unbelievably poor refereeing.

 

Worse than the foul on Origi that wasn't given in the build up to the Manc rats goal last season.

[Colt Seavers]

The trouble is the rules have gone the way of NFL with regards ambiguity around the rules; therefore the refs/VAR can apply different interpretations of the rule to suit the decision they have come up. The pundits seem to be more accepting of the reasons given for the decisions as the weeks go on.

If you moan about the decision it's seen as sour grapes and an incident where you have been helped by VAR is brought up as if this makes it ok.

 

[Barrington Womble]

17 minutes ago, Colt Seavers said:

The trouble is the rules have gone the way of NFL with regards ambiguity around the rules; therefore the refs/VAR can apply different interpretations of the rule to suit the decision they have come up. The pundits seem to be more accepting of the reasons given for the decisions as the weeks go on.

If you moan about the decision it's seen as sour grapes and an incident where you have been helped by VAR is brought up as if this makes it ok.

 

this is why i think journo's should be doing something to expose it for what it is. there's tons of these fucking leaches hanging around LFC waiting for Billy Hogan to tell them we're skint and some foetus is going to save us millions in the transfer market because we got early access to his ultrasound and can tell he's got 2 actual feet. let them earn their money for a change. go through some of the appalling decisions this season and illustrate where VAR has not got involved (like the Mane incident) and where it did (the firmino handball at Arsenal). Look where it gave a pen for nearly no contact when the ref has given nothing (Wellbeck) and where salah gets done twice on saturday. you can show where the line is drawn for the mane and VVD incidents in the derby and show the one on saturday. I haven't got much outside one game - you could make a 10 part series for netflix just based on this seasons bad decisions for us. it needs flagging and it needs exposing for the arbitrary way VAR appears to be getting used - and as a consequence allows for suspicion the decisions are less than honest. 

 

I am sure the bottom line for most of us is we'd sooner get to no VAR so we don't need to get fucked twice. but that's not going to happen, so they absolutely need to apply this shit as fairly as possible

[Lario]

Can anybody clear up when the ball is actually played?

Is it when the player makes contact with the ball, or when the ball leaves his foot?

 

They always seem to stop the video at the point of impact. But at that stage, surely the ball isn't moving.

[dave u]

On 16/02/2021 at 17:08, Lario said:

Can anybody clear up when the ball is actually played?

Is it when the player makes contact with the ball, or when the ball leaves his foot?

 

They always seem to stop the video at the point of impact. But at that stage, surely the ball isn't moving.

 

They stop it at whichever points helps them best come to the decision they want to make.

[kemskem]

If there was some sort of impact sensor for the ball they could use it would be interesting to see if they would have it.