DaveT

Yeah, I thought he failed to do himself justice in that match. I’ve been watching him come through the ranks for a few years and always felt he belonged in the ‘most likely to succeed’ category. Hopefully he’ll show more of that potential when he returns to the club.

Finally caught up with last week’s MotD, as there was fuck all else on (except the women’s derby, which was dire). The double jeopardy rule only applies to a genuine attempt to win the ball…. yeah, define ‘genuine’. The Notorious decision by Taylor at Brighton still has me fuming and somehow has gone under the radar of Extremely Dodgy Decisions. The DOGSO foul by Gross was Invisible to Taylor, but he managed to give us a penalty for a challenge on Diaz that arguably wasn’t even a foul. Corrupt. We should have been 2-1 up and playing against 10. The fact they equalised from a dodgy free kick just rubbed salt in the wound. Another 2 points to add to the tally of points stolen from us this season.

He’s been massively underwhelming lately, but, watching the story of our League cup run on LFCTV, he made a big, big contribution. It also reminded me of how good Curtis Jones was before his injury.

Oliver doesn’t want to award a clear and blatant foul - we can only speculate as to his motivation. Atwell doesn’t want to over-ride him and used some obtuse and blatantly inaccurate verbiage to justify the non-decision. Again, we can only speculate as to why he takes this line. Webb obfuscates all over the place whilst tacitly admitting a penalty should have been awarded. Owen …. is just a stooge. Or a cunt. Of both. In microcosm, this is everything that is wrong with refereeing, PGMOL and the application of VAR and its protocols.

Nah, you’re wrong. I’ve been through the rules and it clearly states: ‘the size and importance of the match should be a major factor in the referee’s decision’. Later it states: ‘Big decisions should only be given between the 20th and 70th minutes’ and elsewhere ‘the club badge should be taken into account when issuing cards’ and ‘woebetide any referee who gives a major decision against a Manchester club’. Another gem: ‘Any player taking a corner when the ball is not touching the quadrant should be red carded; every 2nd free kick can however be moved 10 yards from where the offence took place.’

This is where my head’s at, especially when you factor in that other variable….. you never know what kind of performance you’re going to get from the officials.

That line up was typical of the kind of luck that Klopp has regularly suffered. Origi and Sakho had been brilliant in that cup run. IIRC Sakho couldn’t play the final because of that spurious doping charge, which eventually died away and Origi was still regaining fitness after that horrendous Funes Mori tackle. (Don’t know why he picked Toure ahead of Skrtel though). And then there was that utter cunt of a ref. The fact that Juergen gets so much more out of far less available resource and with far greater challenges is what makes him a much better coach than P€p.

Jonathan Northcroft last Sunday….. This is why everybody wants to have a pint with Juergen, and the little weirdo in the corner of the pub on his lonesome is Guardiola.

That was Haaland, surely?!

Typical of Arsenal’s luck, that when they do get taken into extra time, they don’t have to play again three days later. Penalties. Let’s see what bottle they have.

Totally agree with this. It’s one thing holding your ground, but this was a centre half using his weight to barge a much smaller player when the ball wasn’t in playing distance. That’s usually Robbo’s position and I wonder if that would have made any difference. Another aspect of this blocking thing that now seems accepted is when defenders move into the path of forwards who are trying to close down the player with the ball eg at kickoffs, often throwing an arm across to impede the run.

15th

Here’s the incident Dave mentions when the Lino flagged early and the whistle went as Nunez was about to shoot. Doesn’t even look offside, let alone borderline…

It's incredible what these lads have done this season and especially in the last few weeks. When you look at the players we've been missing and still are missing, top,top players like Mo, who hasn't started a game since early January, Trent, Jota, Matip, Konate this weekend - compared with the absences suffered by our rivals (Grealish, meh, Zinchenko - weak link, Tomiyasu etc), it's amazing. Meaning that the lads who are available are having to play lots of minutes, and the youngsters who are drafted in have to perform. And then factor in the regular shaftings we're getting from PGMOL - stonewall penalties not given against Arsenal, City, the Spurs fiasco, Brighton away. There would be clear daylight between us and the rest if PGMOL had a higher level of competence and integrity. Of course, we got a contentious drop ball in our own box last week, so I suppose that evens it all out. We're way ahead of any expectations I had at the start of the season, but it will be a travesty if Klopp doesn't sign off with more silverware than what we've already won this season.

“Probably looking at his bank account..’. Nailed it.

I loved the way the commentary team kept bemoaning the absence of Shaw and Martinez. The same Shaw and Martinez who, along with Varane, got tonked for seven (SEVEN) a year ago.

You’d think. But that’s pretty much what they’ve just done at home to …. Everton

I record MotD, but often don’t get round to watching it until after I’ve read Dave’s roundup and find out about the interesting bits. Even then I fast forward through the ‘punditry’.

The City figure is just Haaland’s wages, though, isn’t it?:)

I gave him 5 minutes before switching to Mute. He doesn’t seem to know what’s happening half the time, maybe he was doing Wordle. I saw that we’d been given a penalty 20, if not 30 seconds before he did. Muppet.

Wow!! We’ve been a shambles in between the goals! Mad.

Hopefully Spurs edging them out by 1 point, courtesy of that win gained via the VAR fiasco against us.

Here’s the full article… https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/39623699/barcelona-manchester-united-top-earning-uefa-clubs-2023-kit-sales

The top revenue-generating clubs in the world based on kit sales, according to an annual finance report released by UEFA (Just saw this on Facebook. So surprised to not see City there!)

Squires doing a great job taking the piss out of the 'controversy'...... https://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2024/mar/05/david-squires-on-mark-clattenburg-nottingham-forest-dropped-ball-furore#comments