Liverpool 3 Bournemouth 1 (Aug 19 2023)

[tlw content]

 

A decent enough way to start our home campaign all things considered. Far from perfect and we still have a lot of question marks over our play (and specifically the system), but the encouraging thing was how the team responded to adversity. 

 

First, going behind and coming through a wretched opening 20 minutes, and then the way we handled the absolute joke sending off in the second half. This could easily have gone wrong, but it didn’t. So I’ll take the positives and the points and we move on to next week. That’s going to be much tougher though. Tougher even than Chelsea last week. And if we don’t get that ban overturned it will be tougher still.

 

I’m going to start with that because it really was such a disgusting situation. The problem is twofold though. I’ll start with the initial decision first. I genuinely don’t see how the referee can be sure that was such a bad tackle that it’s worthy of a red. He couldn’t possibly know for sure because it happened so quickly. 

 

What he did know is that Mac Allister didn’t go in with studs raised high. He also knows that he didn’t leave his feet, or lunge wildly. So he was in control of his body and wasn’t throwing himself recklessly. So the worst that could have happened was that he was a fraction late and caught the lad on the shin, possibly with the sole of his boot. It’s possibly that it might be a red, but highly unlikely. So why was his first instinct to produce the red card? That’s just bad refereeing, but we have a safeguard in place for that now to prevent those mistakes from wrongly hurting teams. Don’t we?

 

Ha! As if. The first problem is a referee who, if he is unsure (which he had to have been because how can you be sure when the tackles doesn’t fit most of the criteria for a red card?), should be issuing a yellow card and then letting VAR help him out if he has indeed missed something really bad. A referee should only be handing out a straight red if he’s certain, otherwise he should always err on the side of caution just for the good of the game.

 

Klopp said afterwards that if a yellow had been awarded, VAR wouldn’t have overturned it. He’s probably right, but it’s Paul Tierney and his Toblerone shaped mate, so you can’t be so sure. Nevertheless, Klopp’s overall point is correct. There’s no way anybody looks at a replay of that and says “no that’s a red card”. So why didn’t they step in and tell the ref he was wrong?

 

Well the answer to that is simple. We’ll hear a lot of bureaucratic nonsense about “high thresholds for overturning decisions” and “clear and obvious” but it’s really just about who is making the call. Paul Tierney is out to fuck Jurgen Klopp every chances he gets. He always has been, but it’s gone into overdrive since Klopp waged a public war with him. He was never going to overturn that. He was probably laughing his tiny cock off along with Captain Roid Rage beside him.

 

So we got fucked again by Tierney and Webb (who put Tierney in position to do it, just because he can). The question now is what do we do about it? Klopp has wisely refrained from attacking the officials who made the decisions and has concentrated solely on the decision itself and why it was wrong. You have to do that and you also have to appeal. You can’t not appeal a decision as bad as that because you’re basically making yourself a punchbag for the refs. You have to stand up to it.

 

So lodge the appeal and made sure as many pundits as possible call it out for fucking travesty it was. We shouldn’t need to do too much as I expect any ex pro who is commenting on it will say what a joke it was and that it needs to be rescinded. As far as I’m away it isn’t the refs who hear the appeal so we should be ok there. We’ll see though. But enough of that and onto the game itself.

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[StevieMax]

Star man is Szoboszlai and it’s not even close.

Agreed, and Endo's  cameo was promising - did he ever stop moving?

[DalyanPete]

Great stuff Dave.

Start to think Darwin wasn't a good  move by us. If he had it/we had a plan for him surely he'd be starting every week?

 

[Bucksinator]

Szoboszlai was unreal,best home debut Iv seen in a long time,fingers crossed it wasn’t just a flash in the pan. Diaz is going to be a menace this season,what a finish for the goal.

[sir roger]

Two quick points.

 

The Szobo penalty is a cert in real time, its the old ' slow motion distorting things ' aspect.

 

I can't believe Robbo has never been forced by our coaches to be at least capable with his right foot. Plenty of blame to go around for their goal but its not the first time Robbo has swiped a ball towards our own goal due to being unable to clear the ball away from goal.

[stringvest]

6 minutes ago, sir roger said:

Two quick points.

 

The Szobo penalty is a cert in real time, its the old ' slow motion distorting things ' aspect.

 

I can't believe Robbo has never been forced by our coaches to be at least capable with his right foot. Plenty of blame to go around for their goal but its not the first time Robbo has swiped a ball towards our own goal due to being unable to clear the ball away from goal.

 

It's like a throwback to the 60s.  He should be fined every week until he learns to kick with his right foot.  He's a liability.  It kills our forward play too - every time he faces an opposition player, the ball goes backwards, he can't shift it onto his other foot and play forwards.  So poor.

[TheBitch]

Credit where it’s due, of all the problems we’ve got right now, Stringy is right on Robbo. 
 

I love that level of dedication to the cause. 

[stringvest]

25 minutes ago, TheBitch said:

Credit where it’s due, of all the problems we’ve got right now, Stringy is right on Robbo. 
 

I love that level of dedication to the cause. 

 

Now that the dynamic duo have left, Robertson is the team regular that is sub-optimal by dint of his one-footedness.  To be clear, and to put things in perspective, he's less of an issue than Nunez, less of a lightweight than Harvey, and less of a sick note than my boy Thiago.   I can't be the only one who is driven mad by Robertson running up the wing, then stopping and playing it back when there were perfectly good passing options forward.  

[aws]

You’re not. 

[beejay]

 I knew Mac would be a great signing but was unsure about Dom following the preseason games and Chelsea last week. But what a performance! Absolutely top quality, with a work rate and stamina to match. 

 

Kudos to the acquisition team, they have taken plenty of criticism quite rightly but fucking hell what an upgrade these two are on our midfield 

[dave u]

A left back not being able to kick with his right foot.

 

I've just described 95% of left backs in world football. This isn't a Robbo thing.

[Guest]

 

[Carvalho Diablo]

"Unlike his predecessors he actually looks like he could be worthy of Gerrard’s number eight shirt / position"

[sir roger]

27 minutes ago, dave u said:

A left back not being able to kick with his right foot.

 

I've just described 95% of left backs in world football. This isn't a Robbo thing.

 

I've not seen too many as completely one-footed as Robbo. He seems actively scared of using his right foot.

 

My original main point was more about the coaches to be honest, we keep hearing how brilliant they are and how many coaching badges they have and about marginal gains, and they appear unable or scared to ask a player to look at a blatant issue which is costing us as a team.

[dave u]

I've always said there's no excuse for players who train every day of their lives from when they're six to not be able to use both feet. Loads of them can't though. And the lefties are usually the worst culprits. 

[dave u]

Kostas has a decent enough right peg to be fair.

[aws]

Riise was more one-footed if anything. 

[Jose Jones]

49 minutes ago, aws said:

Riise was more one-footed if anything. 

Yep Riise was way worse than Robbo, he’d run around the ball to get it on his left. At least Robbo will control it with his right foot.

[aws]

29 minutes ago, Jose Jones said:

Yep Riise was way worse than Robbo, he’d run around the ball to get it on his left. At least Robbo will control it with his right foot.

I remember laughing when he did just that at Villa. Hell of a shot though. 

[sir roger]

And the lack of action by the coaches of the time re Riise culminated in us losing a CL semi final. 

[stringvest]

11 hours ago, dave u said:

Kostas has a decent enough right peg to be fair.

he does.  And you see the difference when we’re pressing forward on that side.  I’d prefer that than one barnstorming run every two games in a sea of backwards passing. 

[stringvest]

12 hours ago, dave u said:

A left back not being able to kick with his right foot.

 

I've just described 95% of left backs in world football. This isn't a Robbo thing.

maybe 20 years ago, not now

[Dave D]

2 hours ago, stringvest said:

maybe 20 years ago, not now

Id agree- I couldn't use my left foot as a 13/14 year old striker.

 

In true Roy of The Rovers style I spent hours using only my left foot kicking the ball against a wall gradually increasing the distance.

 

Worked a treat.

 

Maybe they are short of walls at the training Centre    

[Rushies tash]

Quite right too...

 

 

 

[bossy]

Just rewatched this. After the opening fuck ups, Trent was fantastic, his range of passing was sublime. Virgil was great too. Made up Mac has had his red rescinded as he’s going to be boss for us. Endo did a job too when he came on, kept it simple, but effective and occupied the dangerous defensive spaces. We really worked hard, particularly when down to ten men. God knows what’ll happen at the geordies but it was good to notice the positives without the stress of it being live.