Liverpool FC Forum

murphy0151 wrote:Let’s look at games involving Man United:

August 28th – United one-nil down to Blackburn with a minute to go. A clear handball by Saha in the six yard box lays the ball on a plate to Smith, who equalises.

Sept 20th – United get a non-corner against Liverpool which results in a Silvestre headed goal to squeak them a 2-1 win.

Oct 24th – Wayne Rooney dives - and goes down like a flying pig in the box - at 0-0 against Arsenal. Serial-Old Trafford-penalty-awarder, Mike Riley, gleefully points to the spot, and in a game they never looked like winning, United are gifted the points.

Jan 4th – with the clock ticking down, Tottenham launch a speculative effort from the half way line that Roy ‘Coco’ Carroll throws into his own net. The referee and linesman claim temporary blindness, and that sprinting quickly requires head-down and eyes closed, so it’s not their fault. No goal is awarded and Spurs are robbed. The officials also missed the 20,000 United fans behind the goal holding their heads in horror.

Those are all FACTS - Irrefutable when you look at the replays. Only a United fan would claim that any of these incidents were called correctly.

So, if the referees had made the correct calls, the calculator says that they would have lost to Blackburn and Spurs, and drawn with Liverpool and Arsenal. That’s 2 points instead of the 8 they were actually awarded.

Now, let’s look at Liverpool’s fortunes:

Aug 29th – Luis Garcia scores a goal at Bolton that is CLEARLY on side, but is ruled out. Liverpool, one-nil down at the time, lose the game by the single goal.

Sept 20th – see above

Nov 6th – with Liverpool at home to Birmingham, Muzzy Izzet clearly handles on the line to prevent a goal. The ‘miss’ by the referee also meant that the player remained on the pitch. Liverpool lose the game 1-0.

Nov 20th – at 1-0 down, another Luis Garcia goal is disallowed for offside even though the ball is played off a Middlesbrough defender. Liverpool go on to lose 2-0.

Jan 1st – at 0-0 at home to Chelsea, and totally outplaying them, Liverpool are denied two clear penalties. One when Sinama is wrestled to the ground from behind. The second, as the Chelsea defender clears the ball with his hand that the whole world sees – except of course for one ‘Mike Riley.’ These decisions could have put Liverpool one or two goals up. Instead, they lose one-nil after bossing the game.

So, a defeat at Bolton should have been a draw. A loss to Chelsea should have been a win. A defeat at Man United should have been a draw. Let’s be conservative here and say the Muzzy Izzet decision would have earned us a point (in reality it could well have been 3 against 10 men) and the Boro result stands as they scored 2 anyway.

So, that means the 5 defeats suffered in these games would actually have been three draws, a win and one defeat. That’s 6 points instead of none.

So, if you do the maths, United lose 6 points they currently have, while Liverpool gain 6. That means that instead of United having 44 points, they would have 38. Instead of Liverpool having 37, we would have 43.

WE should be something like 5 points ahead of them, NOT 7 points behind!!

Now, I’m sure anti-Liverpool (or pro-United) fans reading this will claim that you can point out all sorts of bad calls throughout the season that can impact games. But these are CLEAR errors that have been PROVEN to be errors. I’m sure there are some minor incidents I’ve missed, but the ones listed here had a direct impact on the results of those games. I’ve tried hard to remember incidents where United have been hard done by – I honestly can’t remember any. Similarly, I’ve tried to recall incidents where Liverpool have benefited from referees decisions. The only one I can think of is recently against Norwich – Jamie Carragher’s ‘hand ball,’ which I am 100% convinced was ‘ball-to-hand’ as the player was trying to move his hand AWAY from the ball as it hit him. Even the Newcastle game, which we eventually won, saw one of the most off-side goals ever seen awarded to Patrick Kluivert. Thankfully, that blatant error had no bearing on the final result.

In contrast, have Man United had any off-side goals awarded against them? Have they had any opposing defenders punch the ball out of their area or off the goal line? Have they scored any on-side goals that have been disallowed? If they have, I don’t recall them. In fact, things could have been even worse for them as they should have had Van Nistelrooy sent off against Arsenal and Rooney sent off against Bolton. Video evidence, banning them both belatedly for 3 games, proves it. But a belated ban didn’t help Arsenal or Bolton, both of whom lost those games when they should have been playing against 10 men.

So, while Liverpool lie 5th, we should be 3rd and Man United the ones actually in 5th place - and completely out of the title race with 38 points.

stu_the_red wrote:Utd fan, do you agree you get rediculous decisions at ur ground all the time and do you agree Mike Riley seems to do his best to make sure your lot win?

Ridiculous decisions all the time?

No, not always.

As for Riley...well, as I've expressed before, he is a bad referee and ask the majority United fans, they will say that they don't like him.

He should not be able to referee big matches but there you go. And against Arsenal, he denied us a blatant penalty later in the game, just because he gave us one earlier. The whole Rooney incident maybe wasn't a penalty but you could say it kind of evened up. As for those penalties he awarded us earlier at OT...well, some of them were penalties...others were arguable.

But every week we see blatant refereeing mistakes...just happens that ours get highlighted more!

ManUtd wrote:As for Riley...well, as I've expressed before, he is a bad referee and ask the majority United fans, they will say that they don't like him.

stu_the_red wrote:Part of the game, always has been and always should be.

I'm sick to death of all this change nonense. The idiots at the top have already devalued the Uefa cup (probably the hardest trophy to win before all this stupid ****** change was brought in) and scrapped the cup winners cup.

The cup winners cup should be brought back, the onlly teams ALLOWED in the champions league should be the champions and compitition winners. There should be no video refs either.

The only "change" for referees i wouldn't be against is the 4th official, who in truth does ****** all anyways should look after the time keeping, 20 seconds for a goal, 20-30 seconds for a subsitution and any time wasting.

No how no way, should any other stupid changes be made. I'm sick of the "debate". If you love something you love it for what it is. I love football and all its imperfections. You either love it, or you dont.