DaveT

2 minutes ago, Creator Supreme said:

Koumetio doing OK so far.

I thought he was really shaky defensively initially but he’s grown into it and has been really good on the ball. 
Officials have been really shit since I’ve been watching.

I see City took their own ref with them.

54 minutes ago, sir roger said:

 

Has Beck gone back to chilly Jocko land ?

Yeah, Dundee isn't it?

Loved reading that! In fact I can't get enough stuff on this match, it was fucking epic. I even listened to Talkshite on the way home on Monday (broke the return journey by staying over with relies in Oxford). They were mostly ok, but also came out with the same shite about Chelsea's ending average age..... not mentioning the guys who came on were Nkunku (26, 10 full international caps), Mudryk (23, 16 caps), Chalobah (24 150+ 1st team appearances for various clubs) and Madueke (21, 18 England u21 caps). We brought on Bobby Clarke,19, never started a league game, Danns, 18, only other first team appearance - came on in 89th minute vs Luton)..... plus McConnell, Quansah.

I didn't get to see any replays until I got home and watched it back....and ended up shouting at Kavanagh all over again - what a cunt of a performance. Their first yellow for a foul was in the 119th Minute, and the yellows count was 5-2 in their favour - utterly scandalous. The Caicedo 'tackle' was so late I missed it - I was shouting for the foul on Gakpo when Fernandez went through his ankle to get the ball - one of many free kicks we didn't get.

I loved our defending - proper defending, lads like Bradley, Konate and Endo who actually enjoy the defensive side of things..... unlike Trent for whom it seems like a chore,unless he's got a grump on,or even Virgil of last season with his half-hearted attempts to block shots. The captain was fucking immense here - as he has been all season.

On and off the pitch it was a real show of defiance in the face of adversity - the injuries, the shithousery from the opposition, the awful refereeing. Fantastic performance from everybody. It's right up there with my favourite finals.  

13 minutes ago, NoelM said:

The PGMOL are a vindictive shower and they act fast. Their commitment to needling LFC is up there with Rio Ferdinands commitment to being always wrong.

 

That's 5 out of the last 9 league matches where Tierney (3) or Taylor (2) have been ref. And Tierney was also on VAR at Bournemouth when they should have had a red card. Must admit, Tierney could have been a lot worse in the Chelsea 4-1 game. Webb is definitely running scared, though.

Great stuff. Disagree about Pochetino - his Spurs team were one of the worst for shithousing - diving, tactical fouling. One season, IIRC, Kane Lamella and Delle Ali were something like three out of the top 5 foulers - not counting the ones they got away with.

Totally agree about Xabi - he'd be on a hiding to nothing going to Bayern, that team is looking in need of a major re-build but they'd still be demanding instant success. Still can't believe they've got Eric fucking Dire lining up for them.

57 minutes ago, NoelM said:

Yes Mauricio, the result was "completely unfair" - what a deluded idiot - Klopp should pin this on the wall. We destroyed them and Pochettino admitted so after the match.

 

“After Liverpool, the result was completely unfair because if you watch the game, there were a few penalty [decisions] which would have changed the game. Maybe that was good for us, to feel the pain, the negative situation, and to be stronger now and to find the way to compete better and to start to see that we need to live in a different way"

‘And to stop Liverpool having 13 shots on target or stop Darwin hitting the woodwork 4 times’….. Is maybe what he should have said

2 hours ago, sir roger said:

With us being a very good high pressing team with a penchant for tactical fouls I am not surprised we are up at the top.

 

A bit surprised we are adjudicated to be over a third more culpable again than City who appear very similar to us in approach ( maybe our press is more aggressive / gung-ho ? )

I made some comments on this topic in the Brentford thread and Barry W made a similar, well reasoned and plausible case as you. As you say, some are clear tactical fouls and valid free kicks. Many however are genuine attempts to win the ball back, but often it appears that a lower threshold is applied to other teams than us in terms of what is allowed. As you say, we’re not the only team to adopt the high press but we get penalised for it more often. You only have to look at some of the free kicks not given to us at Arsenal and Brentford versus those given against to identify some glaring inconsistencies. The stats also confirm that our foul count goes up according to who is referee. Taylor can be relied on to give 50% more free kicks against us than are given on average by all other refs. 

The soft (or plain wrong yellow - see Jota, Konate, plenty of others) followed by a subsequent, valid, yellow is increasingly distorting results and is becoming a big issue. Blame the player all you like but that’s simplistic and avoids the real problem which is that the awarding of yellows is probably the most random, subjective, inconsistent thing in football right now. 
Great write up, btw.

15 hours ago, RogMan2804 said:

Excellent write up Dave! The frequency of the word 'cunt' when describing City cannot be overused. Assuming Bayern nab Alonso (which I don't want to assume but kinda do), what would your thoughts be if FSG appointed Rob Edwards as Jurgen's successor?

Incredibly he neglected to call that cunt Kompany a cunt!

10 hours ago, Anubis said:

First goal - two defenders had a pull at Virg’s shirt and still couldn’t stop him.

Luton haven’t yet acquired the PL skill of wrestling opponents to the ground without conceding a penalty. 

28 minutes ago, niallers said:

With 63%possession to boot!

Fucking cunt officials.

 

Crude arithmetic…. Assume ball is in play 65 minutes. They had possession @ 37% = 24 minutes. We apparently fouled them 18 times, ie once every 1.3 minutes. They, on the other hand only fouled us once for every 10 minutes we were in possession.  It’s a joke.

That foul count 4-18 should invoke an immediate steward’s enquiry. Especially given the physical nature of their play. Just surprised he didn’t give a penalty against Robbo. Of course we should have definitely had one, maybe 2 of our own. 

2 minutes ago, Anubis said:

Richard Archer, Sarah Cracknell, Adam Devlin, Cameron Diaz, Rick Wakeman, Natalie Sawyer, Dean Clearasil Gaffney, The Ghosts of Thomas Frank’s Murder Victims, Bees, Maupay The Poisonous Everton Dwarf, Jude, Jermaine Jenas’ Hope, Twelve-thirty Kick Offs, Creator Supreme - your boys took a hell of a beating! A HELL of a beating!

You forgot Michael cunting Oliver!

35 minutes ago, waddy78 said:

Cant stand "Fletch" his voice goes through me, the cunt was even doing ITV's super bowl commentary the other day.

I haven’t even got the sound on! I was talking about the massive captions that obscure large sections of the screen, the long close ups of pigeons, managers, back of player’s head…..whilst the ball is in play!!!!

BT’s coverage is as awful as Oliver’s refereeing 

5 minutes ago, niallers said:

We've had 65% possession yet have given away 9 frees and only got ONE in return. One fucking free in a 55 minute half? Fucking do one Oliver. Thought he was supposed to be decent. His Newcastle supporting side is obviously exuding through today however. It's a fucking disgrace of a refereeing performance by him. 9 fucking frees to 1. Absolute cunt

Oliver is clearly auditioning for another lucrative pay day in the UAE. 

This is Taylor/Tierney levels of bias here

2 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

The refs play a major part in the every single game, and will play a major part in deciding the league. I realized that months ago.

How many months? 120?

1 minute ago, Funkasy said:

Oliver is so fucking shit it’s insane.

He’s gone from being the best of a bad bunch to utterly fucking awful 

Surprised we haven’t gone with Joe G at RB for the extra height at the inevitable aerial onslaught, as well as his pace for their counter attacks. 

46 minutes ago, Kevin D said:

I agree.

 

I think since Spurs, the big calls in games have gone 70/30 in our favour, when before it was 80/20 against. 
 

It also goes to show that raising a big furore was the right call.

Well, yeah. Apart from Taylor not sending off Gross at Brighton  (managed to give a penalty for the wrong challenge), blatant handball penalty not given vs Arsenal, 2 perfectly good goals disallowed at Burnley, scandalous red card for Ibou a week ago. We got away with the Nkunku one against Chelsea and 2 pens in our favour against Newcastle (both a little soft, but technically correct decisions). I'd say that we were 50/50 at best since Spurs.

Still right to kick up a fuss, and keep raising it until the end of the season.

How the fuck does he not get booked for that?

Stuttgart vs Mainz it is, then.

No VAR check on the little bump by White on the goalie as he started to go for the cross? There would have been a 5 minute check if we’d scored that.