Liverpool FC Forum

Bore draw. But not a disastrous result, given how poor we were in the second hand.

Hopefully the TAA knock isn't too serious. 

We should have Thiago back after the international break. And TAA won't be travelling with England, so hopefully he'll be back too.

Think I’ll take that. I’m knackered !!

Not the worst result but yet another injury. The international break comes at the right time though, hopefully we'll have some of our injured players back by two weeks time.

Disappointing second half performance where we looked pretty leggy and gave it away far too easy, a point away at City is not a bad result though. The fixture list opens up a bit for us now, our job in the early stages was to get to mid November still in contention and we have done that.
Well done.

I'll take that all day long. Thought the 4-4-2 worked well and agree with everyone we tired in the second half but for all their territorial possession they didn't fashion too many chances. Allison was imperious in goal and Matip and Gomez did very well. I'm happy going in to the international break with the hardest match of the season out of the way. Good league this year.

We all wanted 3 points but like many I'm happy to take away a point. Hard game as usual which easily could've been decided with KBD peno, glad he missed.

Good result, and considering the games we’ve played up until this point we’ve done well to stay in the mix.

Would have taken that point before kick off so no complaints that it's all we are leaving with. 

First half we were unreal but just lacking the killer instinct to go a couple up. Second half wasnt so good and we created little but fatigue kicked in and losing trent swang it in their favour.

We head into the break still in a good position with hopefully some players returning to fitness in that time. Get Thiago, Fab and Trent back and we will kick on again.

Var is still shyte as well

The defensive partnership worked well which was encouraging, Jurgen just needs to tell Joe and Joel to play it short though, the amount of cheap possession they gave away trying long balls from the back was unreal, against a team like City it’s hard work getting it back.

The first half was a great watch and we played some super stuff. Playing over their midfield and behind their defence worked really well and we could easily have had another goal. Both teams were a bit more cautious in the second half but I thought we were still the better side until Firmino came off after which we just looked disjointed and maybe lucky City didn't punish us in the last half hour. A draw is a fair result in the end and you'd take 1 point from your toughest league game of the season.

Santa » Mon Nov 09, 2020 2:09 am wrote:Do you think who we are missing tonight? Thiago

Our link play from defence to attack keep breaking down time and again. So sloppy

Meanwhile that Ribena man is solid as a old tree trunk

Thiago and Fabinho. And VVD would have settled the back 4 better, Gomez is a good player but he has no presence.

We did well to get a point away from home considering the players out through injuries.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... -good-one/

The current handball law is a joke – and not a very good one
I propose a wholesale rewriting of the handball law to take away the nonsense sanction of a player who accidentally handles the ball

KEITH HACKETT
8 November 2020 • 9:24pm

Did Liverpool’s Joe Gomez intend to handle Kevin de Bruyne’s cross in the 32nd minute at the Etihad on Sunday? No.

Should Wolves’ Max Kilman have been penalised for handball after blocking Dennis Praet's delivery in their 1-0 defeat at Leicester? No.

On each occasion, the defender had little opportunity to get out of the way of the cross and did not ‘deliberately’ commit handball but we have all been conditioned now to believe that as soon as the ball strikes a player on the arm in the box it will be a spot kick. The reality is that both players had no time to get out of the way.

I would propose a wholesale rewriting of the handball law and would suggest these guidelines to referees judging whether a handball has taken place:

The hand/arm is moving towards the ball;
The hand/arm is used to stop the progress of an attack by an opponent;
The hand/arm is used to control the ball;
The hand/arm denies a goal or a goal-scoring opportunity.
This simplification will assist the interpretation of handball and takes away the nonsense sanction of a player who accidentally handles it.

The law may be an a-- but, separate to that, this weekend’s events underline once again how the VAR is ruining the game. Technology is there to help the referees not hinder them but I am seeing a worrying trend now where the VAR must be right. It is taking control and taking authority from the on-field official and that cannot be right. Fans are asking, quite rightly, who is running the game now?

I was shocked to witness the footage of Neil Swarbrick, who is in charge of operations at Stockley Park, appearing to be discussing the Leicester penalty - which won them the game - 30 minutes after the decision.

Management should not interfere with the process and certainly not review decisions at half-time. Any form of review of the VAR decisions should take place sometime after the game has finished and should involve the on-field referee.

This was wrong. It is vitally important we uphold the integrity of the VAR process and that the appointed VAR and AVAR are completely independent.

PGMOL and the Premier League need to improve the training because as it stands the VAR is getting out of control.

I’m also not surprised Leeds are going to write to the Premier League and PGMOL requesting more clarity on VAR and the offside law after Patrick Bamford was deemed to be offside as he pointed to team-mate Mateusz Klich where he wanted a through ball to be played, denying him a goal. This decision was a joke.

I have said repeatedly that the technology producing the offside lines is flawed and we need a new system.

But, once again, we see that the VAR is not being used as it should be - as an aid to the onfield referee. At the moment it is intimidating him. And most shockingly taking authority away from the guy who is actually in charge on the pitch.

There seems to be an arrogance with the PGMOL not to listen and change their directives - because, quite frankly, it is a shambles at the moment.

The only time a ref makes a mistake is when he does not see the incident properly. VAR should be no more than “ I see something in the replay you should see again” the ref goes to the monitor has a relook and decides “ ok, I did not see that, reverse the decision” or “after watching it again, I’m happy with my original decision”. Keep the power with the referees, just help them see more.

It is as simple as that!

Good luck lads

kazza » Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:52 am wrote:The only time a ref makes a mistake is when he does not see the incident properly. VAR should be no more than “ I see something in the replay you should see again” the ref goes to the monitor has a relook and decides “ ok, I did not see that, reverse the decision” or “after watching it again, I’m happy with my original decision”. Keep the power with the referees, just help them see more.

It is as simple as that!

Kazza the one thing for certain is that there is nothing simple about VAR. Many Manchester City whinge bags claim that VAR was designed to make sure that they didn't win the league and that the system was totally corrupt. To be honest I ignored their idiotic theories as sour grapes and in the main I still do. What I would say is that VAR is doing absolutely nothing to improve the game. Idiotic handball and extremely marginal offside decisions (I'm talking about less than 5cm) were not the reasons for clubs, managers and fans demanding a system that helped referees partly due to the speed of the game. VAR appears to be actually making more stupid decisions than referees ever did and because of this I would like it scrapped. Numerous VAR decisions have lead people to think that the game is corrupt and that is just one more reason to confine the system to the scrapyard !! Fans are not given enough Information as to how VAR has arrived at a decision. We are relying on the quality of the technology that they are using. The Mané goal against Everton is a classic example. I have seen screenshots were the ball is at least 12 inches in front of Thiago to determine that Mané was offside by probably less than 2cm. Situations such as these should be fully explained given the importance of the decision.