• 2 Mar 2024, 11:20 p.m.

    Whose side are you on cunt chops?!!!?

    Chicago: Raging against the machine.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 4:28 a.m.
  • 3 Mar 2024, 8:43 a.m.

    There’s also the throw in episode between the Konate drop ball incident and the goal. Match of the Day didn’t show this clearly and it’s possible that it wasn’t caught on any camera. Liverpool throw and two different players each pick up a ball and make to take the throw in from two different places. We mark up for the throw nearer our goal (on about the half way line) but they actually throw it in further back which means we aren’t in position to challenge. Don’t know if this is against the rules but I was surprised the ref didn’t stop play and order it to be retaken.

    Overall, I thought MOTD was pretty fair to us. Possibly because JJ was there to balance Lineker’s bias and no scousers were present.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 8:51 a.m.

    Having seen it this morning, I’m pretty sure Elanga was offside for his chance in the first half.

    I do think that, although the decision was clearly wrong, everyone is getting a bit carried away about a drop ball in their penalty area.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:02 a.m.

    Agree to a point. But we’ve been adversely impacted by pretty obvious refereeing errors in almost every game in 2024. I don’t think there’s any grand conspiracy at work, but it does seem that at the very least there’s a degree of sloppiness when it comes to the ‘lesser’ teams in the league compared to the hand wringing whenever any of the big 6 gets anything go against them.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:11 a.m.

    I'm increasingly thinking there is a deeper thing at work here.

    The whole premise of EPL is to keep the big clubs big and winning.

    It's become like WWE to some extent with a narrative storyline to support.

    FFP, VaR and refereeing generally push that narrative, tipping things in the direction of where they want it to go.

    Yes we had chances to clear it, but if you get little things (and sometimes big things) going against you it tips the scales slightly to favour the result that is wanted for the narrative. And a slight tip at elite level is all that's needed often.

    I was thinking last night that there doesn't seem to be the same controversy of decisions in US sports, is that true or do I just not follow closely enough?

    And if it is true, how come it's so different to UK sports?

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:15 a.m.

    I ask myself why Prem is so anti an independent regulator and wonder if what is there to be uncovered is on a grander scale than I'd imagined.

    And a lot of my faith in the system is I think rooted in good old fashioned British honesty and integrity (cf those diving, cheating forrins).

    But that is clearly bollocks these days.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:19 a.m.
  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:22 a.m.

    Against all odds, the accusation that Liverpool were the beneficiaries has set a bunch of them of that they are the real victims here.
    Not least because <sob> of the chanting.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:26 a.m.

    Which other Uk sports have the refereeing controversies of football? It’s because it’s so much more fluid than most sports and lots of the decisions are subjective, however hard ifa tries to quantify what it handball or a foul.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:29 a.m.

    Rugby has it's fair share.

    Ask Scotland fans about the 'try' V France.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:29 a.m.

    Wolves had a similar run of stinkers early in the season - it happens. I think there’s a big club bias but it’s probably not intentional, more to do with referees being intimidated by celebrity. Also, if you are spending more time in possession and attacking, you’ll get more dodgy penalties etc just by being in the area more.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:33 a.m.

    And drop balls in your own area...

    From Telegraph report

    "The Professional Game Match Officials Ltd has confirmed that Tierney did make an error by not awarding possession to the home team.'

    They can't really say anything else. But Tierney will not think he did anything wrong (top refs are by definition arrogant and have absolute conviction in their actions) and nothing will happen to him to change his future actions.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:46 a.m.

    I’d argue rugby has more, but the dissent around them is negligible. But it’s a game of fine margins around interpretation of so many rules (particularly around set pieces) that refs have a huge influence on the results of tight games.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:47 a.m.

    My guess is that he was too concerned about a possible injury to the celebrity player to check what was happening to ball. And so guessed, figuring that the fallout from incorrectly giving the ball to us would be less than the fallout from incorrectly giving it to them. Especially given the position on the field.

    Remember when we all thought Neil Warnock was ridiculous for kicking off over a throw in that we shouldn’t have got? This seems similar to me.

  • 3 Mar 2024, 9:49 a.m.

    Check out the comments on the bbc story today praising the cheating scouse cnuts for never giving up. Jeez.