Brighton 2 Liverpool 2 (Oct 8 2023)

[tlw content]

 

Another week another VAR controversy. I’m not sure what to think about the fact I’m more annoyed at our own performance than I am about any officiating blunder. Maybe I just expect more from our players and have no expectations of the officials other than us getting shafted?

 

Let me first say though that any problem I have is not specifically with Anthony Taylor. He was generally fine and reffed the game in the way I would want to see a game reffed. There were plenty of chances for him to get his card out but he treated that a last resort. For example, Alexis would not have completed the game with most other refs in charge. Two of the fouls he committed were more yellow card worthy than the two two Jota got last week for example, yet he escaped punishment.

 

Taylor was lenient and let a lot go, which is what I want to see as long as it’s consistent for both teams. And this was. I thought he should have booked March early on for taking out Nunez. He didn’t, so I’m thinking “ok, that’s fine as long as this is how you’re going to call it for both teams”. And he did call it that way so no complaint from me there, especially as I was worried about him beforehand.

 

As for the red card he missed, again, he’s trying to ref the game leniently and to keep players on the field. Maybe it all happened so fast that he wasn’t even thinking about a red card? There was a lot going on there, so I can certainly see how he’d miss that because he got one look at it and was probably concentrating on the foul itself rather than examining whether there was any attempt to play the ball.

 

What’s VAR’s excuse though? Taylor can adopt a lenient approach and officiate the game in the manner he wants to, but we’ve been getting told all week that VAR does not have that luxury and they must adhere strictly to the ‘law’. So says Mike Dean, a man who lets not forget chose to disregard that ‘law’ when he didn’t want his mate to have to go to the screen and make a decision that would make him unpopular.

 

The point here is that VAR has to look at that incident and not decide what the best decision is for the game as a spectacle, or what punishment is morally ‘too severe’. That isn’t their call to make, they are there to apply the laws of the game. And the laws of the game say that a player who denies a goalscoring opportunity in the box when not making a genuine attempt to play the ball should be given a red card. No ifs ands or buts, it’s that simple.

 

They failed to do it, and the excuse given afterwards was that Szoboszlai was moving away from goal and did not have control of the ball so therefore it isn’t a goalscoring opportunity. These clowns are making it up as they go along. Not a goalscoring opportunity? Fuck off.

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[Fallen Angel]

That was quick …

[s(k)aturation]

Were you writing this report contemporaneously, Dave?

Impressive, if true.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Still pissed off with that Virgil pass how fucking thick can you be, why do our players have the most brain dead moments.

[Daisy]

We never, ever do revenge well. 

 

Every time we've been fucked over by refs or a team we come out the next game or next fixture like a bunch of pussies. 

 

Remember Everton at Anfield after pickford? 

 

Real Madrid after 2018.

 

Theres loads of examples

[Barnesey]

Taylor didn't award the penalty until Diaz had been scythed. Possibly waiting to see if he scored but Taylor seemed to be ignoring the most blatant pen and red card. Then I see the refereeing/VARing in the Arse Citeh game and can't help feeling there is some vendetta going on.

[Kevin D]

It is great for the public here at Brighton to see us. They must have been wondering what this team everyone is talking about are all about and now they’ve seen. We were wonderful.

[bigal]

Diaz is a concern. I expected great things from this season and, yes he's popped a few in, but his general play has been poor. He is very reluctant to use his left foot, the mirror of Salah on the right. He actually did have a shot on his left yesterday and it wasn't one that will encourage him to try again. 

Combine that with a bad game from Robbo and the left side struggled to create anything.

You're right about Mo, he's generally been very good but he keeps running the ball into defenders when he takes them on, there's no trick.

But Klopp was mostly to blame for that first half, sorry to keep agreeing. Just the wrong team selection altogether.

[DalyanPete]

5 hours ago, Daisy said:

We never, ever do revenge well. 

 

Every time we've been fucked over by refs or a team we come out the next game or next fixture like a bunch of pussies. 

 

Remember Everton at Anfield after pickford? 

 

Real Madrid after 2018.

 

Theres loads of examples

I was thinking the same reading the report. The shite was the worst for me.

[DalyanPete]

MacAllister reminds me a bit of when Heskey was played on the wing. The players need the balls to say to the manager that they're not comfy playing there. When he's further forward you can see how he's always looking for a killer pass, so either play him there or don't play him at all.

I didnt realise Allison was playing that dual role, as you said, too clever for our good.

 

[Razoray]

Van Dijk's red card was given for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. Gross was not given a red (or yellow) card yesterday as he was not denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

 

Isak, 23 yards out from goal, running onto to ball, with the best keeper in the world to beat, is more of a goal scoring opportunity than Szoboszlai, 8 yards out, running on to a ball a yard away from him, with an empty goal in front of him. 

 

Fucking mindblowing. 

 

[Bucksinator]

First goal is on Allisson,he had so much time to get back in to position,awful stuff.

[DaveT]

11 minutes ago, Razoray said:

Van Dijk's red card was given for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. Gross was not given a red (or yellow) card yesterday as he was not denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

 

Isak, 23 yards out from goal, running onto to ball, with the best keeper in the world to beat, is more of a goal scoring opportunity than Szoboszlai, 8 yards out, running on to a ball a yard away from him, with an empty goal in front of him. 

 

Fucking mindblowing. 

 

Just watched this back on MOTD2. Taylor already has the whistle to his lips as the tackle is being made on Diaz. So it still absolutely begs the question as to why NO cards were handed out is totally valid. The half-wits on the programme didn’t even mention this. Nor did Dopey Dermot on Ref Watch. Danny Murphy wasn’t even sure that the 2nd Kovacic foul yesterday merited a yellow. Staggering stupidity. So, which foul was Taylor blowing for? It should definitely have been the first one, which is as clear a goal scoring opportunity as you’ll ever see.

[aws]

The purpose of the independent review which said Jota shouldn’t have had his second yellow was to see if the refs should re-calibrate the awarding of yellows. The review said the card was too soft so the refs have now swung the other way and Kovacic escapes. They’ll swing back the other way again when it suits them. 

[Razoray]

I was thinking about Spurs being top and the bullshit from the London based journalists over the weekend that they are contenders. I checked, and they have played 5 of the bottom 6, a poor United side, a tough North London derby and a blatant robbery against Liverpool. Jesus, their fall from grace will be glorious.

 

On that, I looked at the tough start we have had - only 3 homes, 5 aways and 4 of those aways were against the top 11 - and compared it to our rivals.

 

Liverpool have played 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 14th & 19th.

The average league position of our opposition is 8.875th

 

Arsenal have played 11th 9th 12th 10th 16th 1st 19th 3rd

The average league position of their opposition is 10.375th

 

Man City have played 18th 8th 20th 12th 7th 13th 14th 2nd

The average league position of their opposition is 11.75th

 

Spurs have played 15th 10th 19th 18th 20th 2nd 4th 17th

The average league position of their opposition is 13.125th. 

 

I think this demonstrates that we are doing well and results should get even better as the season continues. 

And Spurs will fall back into the pack, the cunts.

[Shitty Arse]

We are 3 points off the top and we’ve got some real cuntish away games out of the way. Drawing after last week is obviously frustrating but I think we have to be happy with where we are. A whole new midfield getting to know each other. The only reason the unbeaten run went was due to one of the worst refereeing displays in recent memory. 
I think we should be satisfied with where we are at the mo. Loads of room for improvement though obviously.

[TheSire]

3 hours ago, DaveT said:

Just watched this back on MOTD2. Taylor already has the whistle to his lips as the tackle is being made on Diaz. So it still absolutely begs the question as to why NO cards were handed out is totally valid. The half-wits on the programme didn’t even mention this. Nor did Dopey Dermot on Ref Watch. Danny Murphy wasn’t even sure that the 2nd Kovacic foul yesterday merited a yellow. Staggering stupidity. So, which foul was Taylor blowing for? It should definitely have been the first one, which is as clear a goal scoring opportunity as you’ll ever see.

Clearly running away from goal and towards the center circle.

[dave u]

5 hours ago, aws said:

The purpose of the independent review which said Jota shouldn’t have had his second yellow was to see if the refs should re-calibrate the awarding of yellows. The review said the card was too soft so the refs have now swung the other way and Kovacic escapes. They’ll swing back the other way again when it suits them Man City 

 

[redrosetints]

7pm tonight on Sly Sports. Match Official mic’d up. Webb and his PGMOL boys going through decisions so far this season with Michael Owen. Should be fun 

[TheBitch]

On 09/10/2023 at 15:09, Razoray said:

I was thinking about Spurs being top and the bullshit from the London based journalists over the weekend that they are contenders. I checked, and they have played 5 of the bottom 6, a poor United side, a tough North London derby and a blatant robbery against Liverpool. Jesus, their fall from grace will be glorious.

 

On that, I looked at the tough start we have had - only 3 homes, 5 aways and 4 of those aways were against the top 11 - and compared it to our rivals.

 

Liverpool have played 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 14th & 19th.

The average league position of our opposition is 8.875th

 

Arsenal have played 11th 9th 12th 10th 16th 1st 19th 3rd

The average league position of their opposition is 10.375th

 

Man City have played 18th 8th 20th 12th 7th 13th 14th 2nd

The average league position of their opposition is 11.75th

 

Spurs have played 15th 10th 19th 18th 20th 2nd 4th 17th

The average league position of their opposition is 13.125th. 

 

I think this demonstrates that we are doing well and results should get even better as the season continues. 

And Spurs will fall back into the pack, the cunts.

Nice to have you back @The Woolster, hang on a minute… you’re not Woolster. 

[Razoray]

2 hours ago, TheBitch said:

Nice to have you back @The Woolster, hang on a minute… you’re not Woolster. 

He is badly missed

[an tha]

On 09/10/2023 at 13:20, DalyanPete said:

I was thinking the same reading the report. The shite was the worst for me.

The most gutless, passive, spineless and meek surrender under Klopp that day.

 

Allowing shite like that to waltz off breaking a 20 year unbeaten home derby record and a 10 year in all derbies unbeaten record after what had happened at the pit was a disgrace - a totally spineless display.

 

Fortunately such a display is a real rarity.

 

Maybe the lack of a crowd was a big factor - but surely professional pride and wanting to put right what those rats got away with at the pit should have kicked in regardless - but no we just lay down.

 

It still narks me to this day that game.

[DalyanPete]

5 hours ago, an tha said:

The most gutless, passive, spineless and meek surrender under Klopp that day.

 

Allowing shite like that to waltz off breaking a 20 year unbeaten home derby record and a 10 year in all derbies unbeaten record after what had happened at the pit was a disgrace - a totally spineless display.

 

Fortunately such a display is a real rarity.

 

Maybe the lack of a crowd was a big factor - but surely professional pride and wanting to put right what those rats got away with at the pit should have kicked in regardless - but no we just lay down.

 

It still narks me to this day that game.

Amen to that.

[Supremolad]

While it's true that we arguably had our strongest 11 starting on the pitch (bar Jones), the lack of options from the bench has to be properly acknowledged. 

 

Most of the wins we have had this season have been heavily influenced by quality we could bring on from the bench. Missing Jota, Gakpo and Jones. And having Gravenberch as the only real option to throw on. That wasnt enough. Even at that, he did get the chance to kill the game.