Liverpool Football Club Thread

[bradigor]

Our front three smiling and looking lively. It's like 19/20 again

[bradigor]

We've given up Origi on. I wanted my 4-1

[CheekyLee]

Origi coming on to shore up the defence.

[glb]

When Milner starts getting cramp you know the players have put in a shift.

[bradigor]

State of Jose wanting a penalty

[bradigor]

Best team won

[gospvg]

Great performance today, Arnold played very well & Bobby/Thiago. Mane always a menace could and should have scored more.

 

Thanks Jose.

[CheekyLee]

Best result in a while, and I'm still angry at the ref/VAR!

[Stig]

That was sooooo much better. More of that please Liverpool, let's leave the last month behind us.

 

The disallowed goal was BS, he's getting manhandled and it goes from Diers arm to Bobby's (paging Gotters). But fuck it, Sadio finished it off for us anyway.

 

COME ON.

[glb]

Much better indeed. Spurs were pretty poor, kind of embarrassing for them to play so conservatively with the front line they have.

 

A few players that looked off the pace recently turned up tonight. TAA with his best performance in months.

 

Still issues for Liverpool with the continued need for back line adjustments meaning the midfield control shown tonight won’t always be as convincing for the rest of the season. But been far too much negativity recently, so will park that for another time. Big win, and a big lift before playing West Ham on Sunday

[bradigor]

Go out and make a statement signing (Upemecanco? Konate?... Lovren?) and we can get a run going to win the title, but leave the defense patched up and we settle for best of the rest I reckon.

[Gabe]

A good game then? I didn't see it but the stats seem to suggest we were comfortably the more attacking team.

[ryodi]

I’m impressed by how well Henderson has done filling it at the back.

[Adrock]

Ankle ligament damage for Matip, could be a while. Surely they're looking for someone short term to shore up the back.

[BeeJay]

Just seen the Bobby VAR farce. Funny thing is that I can see how VAR comes to that decision, which also evidences how completely broken the use of the technology is. What I still don't understand is why the law makers haven't ever watched a rugby union match in their life before and learnt from their use of the technology. In rugby, the use of the technology would clearly have decided that if the decision was a handball by Bobby, which dissallows the goal, then  therefore the first offence is given, which in this case could either be the Dier handball or the Dier bear hug. A decision to award a free kick to Spurs is the most broken thing about the whole incident.

[Oh Danny Boy]

52 minutes ago, Adrock said:

Ankle ligament damage for Matip, could be a while. Surely they're looking for someone short term to shore up the back.

All centre backs out for the season. Who’d have thought we’d be at a situation where we’d regret selling Lovren? Personally I’d write off Matip, at best he should be third choice, solid player but he’s just made of glass and can’t be relied upon. 

[Adrock]

It's a shame because he is clearly the 2nd best central defender at the club, he is so good. Just can't stay fit.

[Chewylegs]

Cracking result, unfortunately I didn't see the game but have seen the highlights.

 

We once had an amazing defender called Daniel Agger, he was also made of glass, in the end you just have to let them go.

 

But if we had Lovren in defence still I would worry every time he played.  We are doing better without him.

[feltmonkey]

That handball decision is yet another one where by the absolute letter of the law it's correct, but that only goes to prove that the law is stupid.  It doesn't matter that the ball hits Dier's arm if the referee decides that is accidental (and it clearly was because he wasn't paying any attention to the ball, preoccupied as he was with trying to grope Firminho) as defenders are now allowed the leway of accidental handball.  If the ball hits the arm of any attacking player in the build up to or scoring of a goal though, the laws state that it has to be disallowed.  There's no leway there at all.  

 

As for the question of whether a free-kick can be given to Liverpool for Dier's obvious foul - bizarrely I'm not sure it can under the current VAR laws.  There are really specific situations VAR can rule on, and general fouls are not one of them.  It's a bit unclear whether the referee can decide on a foul if he views the monitor himself - maybe they're not supposed to, but there have been a couple of incidents this season when a referee has gone rogue and given yellow cards based on VAR, which also isn't allowed in a normal VAR check.  

 

So we have a situation where the correct decision should be no goal and a free-kick to Liverpool, but the laws have got so tied up in themselves it was seemingly impossible for the officials to award that.  As someone said, what if Spurs had scored from the free kick?  Perhaps then they could have disallowed it and brought it back for Dier's handball?  God knows.

 

It's getting ridiculous.  Football is a simple game made byzantine by the people who make the laws.  I'd be interested to know whether any of the lawmakers have actually played the game at the top level, or if any players or former players are even consulted.

 

Edit - There were a couple of cracking goals in tonight's game by the way.  

[dizogg]

4 minutes ago, feltmonkey said:

That handball decision is yet another one where by the absolute letter of the law it's correct, but that only goes to prove that the law is stupid.  It doesn't matter that the ball hits Dier's arm if the referee decides that is accidental (and it clearly was because he wasn't paying any attention to the ball, preoccupied as he was with trying to grope Firminho) as defenders are now allowed the leway of accidental handball.  If the ball hits the arm of any attacking player in the build up to or scoring of a goal though, the laws state that it has to be disallowed.  There's no leway there at all.  

 

As for the question of whether a free-kick can be given to Liverpool for Dier's obvious foul - bizarrely I'm not sure it can under the current VAR laws.  There are really specific situations VAR can rule on, and general fouls are not one of them.  It's a bit unclear whether the referee can decide on a foul if he views the monitor himself - maybe they're not supposed to, but there have been a couple of incidents this season when a referee has gone rogue and given yellow cards based on VAR, which also isn't allowed in a normal VAR check.  

 

So we have a situation where the correct decision should be no goal and a free-kick to Liverpool, but the laws have got so tied up in themselves it was seemingly impossible for the officials to award that.  As someone said, what if Spurs had scored from the free kick?  Perhaps then they could have disallowed it and brought it back for Dier's handball?  God knows.

 

It's getting ridiculous.  Football is a simple game made byzantine by the people who make the laws.  I'd be interested to know whether any of the lawmakers have actually played the game at the top level, or if any players or former players are even consulted.

 

Edit - There were a couple of cracking goals in tonight's game by the way.  

I actually don’t think it is correct though. From the premier league website:

 

“An accidental handball by an attacking player or team-mate will only be penalised if it occurs immediately before a goal or a goalscoring opportunity.

 

If an attacking player accidentally touches the ball with their hand or arm and then scores a goal, or the ball goes to another attacking player and they immediately score, this is a handball offence.

 

But it is not a handball offence if after an accidental handball the ball travels some distance via a pass or a dribble, or there are several passes before the goal or goalscoring opportunity.“

 

So it should have stood based on that. Atkinson is just a stupid old cunt. 

[Gabe]

Having just seen the highlights - and based on the above - the goal definitely should've stood.

 

The only get out is if he thinks Firmino has deliberately moved his arm to control it - there is a slight movement towards the ball with his arm but I'm not sure I'd say it was the case.

[Chewylegs]

It would be very hard to say he deliberately moved his ball to the hand when Dier was doing wrestling on him!

 

But they showed it slowed down and sped up as it hit the hand (that might have been only for TV not VAR) so it made it look worse...again!

[Gabe]

I agree with you @Chewylegs, but either Atkinson didn't know the rules or he thought there was a deliberate movement. It should've stood - and it was a lovely strike from Salah, too.

[Azrael]

Good game. Bobby, Hendo, Gini, Mo, Sadio, Trenters, Milnz and Thiago Alcântara do Nascimento were all outstanding. 

 

Shame, but hardly surprising, about Matip. Nat did ok but by that point there wasn't really much of an attacking threat from Spurs so could still do with bringing someone in (not Lovren). 

[JamesTW]

Spurs must wish we had Lovren, they have beaten us once in the best part of 10 years and he was shocking in that game

[Oh Danny Boy]

It wasn’t that long ago that Lovren was was rated higher than Matip by Klopp. He can easily go half a dozen games looking solid and class then have one riddled with brain farts. Like that clip that was posted on the football thread a month back of a recent  own goal of his. The ball posed no danger and defenders instinct should be to just clear it over the bar if you’re unsure. Lovren inexplicably decides in the split second to try to send it to his keeper’s arms from waaay too close and ends up knocking it clean into his own net. Not like defenders are not prone to stupid split second decisions, the Riise one against Chelsea in the champions league is scarred into my mind, but Lovren was prone to them a bit too often for comfort. Even after a spell of being a rock in defence you’d be nervous as the next game arrives thinking ‘will this be the one where he has multiple brain farts in?’

 

Still I’d rather have Lovren than the current situation of no defence. 

[glb]

Saw a nice stat relating to last night; Bobby moved into our top 20 all-time goalscorers with his strike last night. He’s ahead of Suarez, Torres and other greats like Sean Dundee.

[Gabe]

Lovren's career took a similar trajectory to Skrtel's; both actually looked quite solid and dependable at the start and became a key layer but they both just lost form and never really recovered from it, becoming liabilities on the pitch.

 

I think Skrtel's was triggered after he had been out for a bit with a head injury and I want to say that Lovren's was after the hammering we had from Tottenham (where he had a torrid time) but I could be misremembering there. 

[dizogg]

1 hour ago, Gabe said:

Lovren's career took a similar trajectory to Skrtel's; both actually looked quite solid and dependable at the start and became a key layer but they both just lost form and never really recovered from it, becoming liabilities on the pitch.

 

I think Skrtel's was triggered after he had been out for a bit with a head injury and I want to say that Lovren's was after the hammering we had from Tottenham (where he had a torrid time) but I could be misremembering there. 

Tbh Lovren was fine for a club that was happy to get top 4 every year, not a club that wants to win the league. Same with Skrtel really. The levels went up and they got left behind.

[ryodi]

The comment about Origi playing in defence mustn’t be that far away from coming true.