dave u

You might see everything as black and white, rules are rules, no room for any kind of human feelings when you're a ref etc, but to me it's more nuanced than that. Maybe I'm the Kirk to your Spock! I see some areas of grey. For example, not giving a penalty against a player because you know his mum has just died is obviously something that can't happen. That would be ridiculous and unfair to the opposition. That doesn't compare to a ref saying "I know I'm supposed to book him for lifting up his shirt, but he's clearly upset that a 5 year old girl he was close to has died of cancer, so you know what, sorry, I'm not going do it." He took his shirt off, he didn't break someone's leg. I know what the rule says but who would have actually been hurt by Oliver not producing a yellow card? Even Sean Dyche would have found it difficult to moan about that one. If a Burnley player had then later done the same thing and been booked for it, they would have had cause for complaint. How likely is that though? I'm not saying Oliver did anything wrong as he was enforcing the laws of the game just like he's paid to do. I give him credit in that he probably felt like a right twat doing it, whereas there are a few other refs that I doubt would even give a shit. He'd have had his knuckles rapped for not producing a yellow card and I expect pretty much every other ref in the country would have done exactly what he did. I just find it puzzling that people can see him doing that and their first thought is "good man, upholding the laws of the game" rather than "ah fucking hell, really?" I don't think any less of him for producing the yellow card, but I'd have undoubtedly thought more of him if he hadn't.

Ordinarily I agree, and the point about where the line is drawn is a fair one. I'm not railing against the rule, I just tried to put myself in Oliver's shoes and wondered what I'd do, and I'm fairly certain I'd have just said, on this occasion, "bollocks to this, I'm not booking him". That said, I'd have booked him for the dive he did to win the free-kick that he'd scored from, so he wouldn't have scored anyway if I'd been the ref, the cheating twat. If he was booked later and Burnley were pissed off, I'd tell Burnley to fuck off and stop being whiny little babies. I agree with the second point, and don't really see why players insist on having messages on their shirts when they know the consequences. It's not the rule itself I took issue with. Oliver did what he had to. He's been a good little boy and will have earned himself more brownie points with his bosses. I just think it made him (the one ref with enough gravitas to have turned a blind eye) look like a jobsworth and personally I'd have thought a lot more of him if he'd just taken a stand and let this one go.

Rich man's Lallana.

If this had been one of those post CL 'flat' performances where we looked leggy and nothing came easy to us, it would have been easier to understand. It wasn't like that though. We had energy, we were flying around, we passed it well, got into the right spaces, did everything you'd want us to do. Then it came to the final pass or shot and it was just crap. So frustrating to watch but ultimately we got away with it and we keep rolling.

I agree with pretty much all of that actually, especially how it might have been too easy and he wouldn't have done that against better opposition. I still think it was proper shit from Alisson though.

Wish I knew mate. He isn't trusted anymore, that's for sure.

Yeah he really rose to the occasion when he head butted Materazzi and left his team with ten men in a world cup final. 95 goals from over 500 games as an attacking midfielder, playing for teams that dominated their leagues. Bang average that. He fooled you all just because he had a great touch and could do lovely pirouettes. Basically a bald, French Adam Lallana, but without the great work off the ball.

I stand by this and will to my dying breath. Not saying he wasn't class, but he was massively over-rated.

He'd already had a month ban for it and a final warning. I could (probably should) have given a permanent ban last time but I gave him a second chance. He basically just carried on the same way though. To clarify though, he wasn't banned for the posting of the video, although I won't have anything like that on here. If people want to watch that shit, then they can find it somewhere else on the internet other than on here.

Seem to remember something on commentary about the fans there not liking him?

Germans are sound aren't they? Great place to go, they love their footy and do it right (atmosphere, ticket prices etc) and in my experience they're a friendly and warm bunch with a good sense of humour.

The Polish Alvaro Morata.

Got my dates wrong on that. Had my hopes up there too. Gutted. Agree with Brownie about needing to be within a point after we've played Chelsea.

Me too, I always thought it was "I'll lick your bum bum now". I feel embarrassed now.

I was one of the only lads in my junior school who wasn't asked to be a prefect. Not sure why, I wasn't exactly a model pupil but I wasn't one of the mad bastards either. I only wanted to be asked so I could turn it down and look like a badass (one lad did that and it was the talk of the whole school and instantly made him the coolest kid in the year), but not being asked at all probably made me even more hardcore. I also set a school record for the number of house points lost in a week (you lost a point any time you misbehaved). Usually the worst offenders would be on minus seven or eight. I somehow lost 22. Don't know if that record still stands but I was damn proud of it at the time. Actually that might be the reason they never asked me to be a prefect.