Couch potatoes go again - weekend TV watching

[Janik]

More misuse of VAR, not overturning the obvious error on the Man City penalty call.

The Spurs player bundled into the Man City one, throwing in a kick and on the ankle for good measure. This can be reasonably interpreted by the ref as a foul. It’s a subjective call, and one that could go the other way. But as a subjective judgement by the ref that is justifiable by the laws, there is no way VAR can reasonably deem it an obvious error. One of those situations where a decision on the field (whichever way it was given) should stand.

[elguapo4]

Agreed, can't see any error in the Man City penalty.

[Janik]

I think the best part of the well taken goal by Lowton of Burnley is where the Palace full-back (?van Aanholt) tried to body-check him, and Lowton stayed strong with the Palace player instead being the one sent spinning to the floor.

[delicatemoth]

Oh that Firmino touch and pass for Liverpool's goal was great.

[Janik]

It was genuinely brilliant and so aware. And I don’t even need to damn it any more.

[Satchmo Distel]

How do Liverpool arrest this slide?

[Jah Womble]

The Spurs player bundled into the Man City one, throwing in a kick and on the ankle for good measure. This can be reasonably interpreted by the ref as a foul. It’s a subjective call, and one that could go the other way. But as a subjective judgement by the ref that is justifiable by the laws, there is no way VAR can reasonably deem it an obvious error. One of those situations where a decision on the field (whichever way it was given) should stand.

I think that quite a few think Hojbjerg was fouled first.

Me, I tend to go by the fact that had such a penalty incident occurred in Man City’s box, I’d be screaming for it.

[Janik]

If there was a potential foul on Hojberg that would likewise be a subjective call which VAR shouldn't be overturning on the ambiguous evidence available.

[3 Colours Red]

How do Liverpool arrest this slide?

It's quite simple really: get the defenders back, get Jota back, find a way to incorporate Thiago into the team without him slowing everything down and stop Alisson's brain farts.

[Sporting]

Playing Everton next weekend will help.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

There's this mad idea doing the rounds that it's not a penalty if the defender is just clumsy. Jose was referring to it as a "modern penalty." as though a player ploughing into forward like that, right in front of the referee wasn't usually given as a penalty in the good old days. If anyone was going to have complaints about the refereeing, it might well have been man city. Lamela raced into a tackle way too fast around the half hour mark, jumped in, missed the ball with his tackling leg, and chopped the player down with his other leg. He didn't even get booked for it. It was a red card in I think three different ways, (Excessive force, both feet off the ground, and scissors action)

That leicester Liverpool game was so strange. Liverpool were much the better team for the first thirty minutes of each half, and that goal really was a thing of beauty. The collapse when it came was abrupt and kind of shocking. The cameras were spending a lot of time looking at klopp, and judging by that and his strange post match interview, I find myself wondering if he's going to be there next year. He seemed to take it very hard, and I don't know if he's going to be there next season. He has said that he's going to see out his contract to 2024, but it's worth considering what is likely to happen in that time frame. It's highly likely that Liverpool will be a lot more competitive next year, as those players are still good. They're just all at the age where injuries start to happen more and more often, and it seems unlikely that they would suffer this many crippling injuries next season. But at that stage most of the team will be 30, and hard decisions will have to be made about dismantling and rebuilding the team. and that's actually quite a grim process, and given how tightly grouped in age a lot of that team is (1990-1991) that likely won't be completed by 2024.

All of those things are currently compounded by his Mam's death from Coronavirus. That's an extremely difficult one to judge because it's not remotely connected to football, and in this context, seems primarily seems to make him understandably sad and unhappy, on top of everything that is happening with his job, which suddenly may not seem quite as absorbing and important as it did six weeks ago. The next two game seem to be very important in this respect. Liverpool are first playing Red Bull Leipzig, who are a team that they will either hammer, or narrowly lose to. Normally speaking they would hammer them, but these are not normal times. then after that they are playing Everton. and while Everton are playing man city midweek, But they could wind up doing horrible things to liverpool if things go a certain way.

[Satchmo Distel]

That's very sad news about Klopp's mam and made even sadder by the fact he cannot attend the funeral. In a normal job you'd want him to have some compassionate leave and I wonder if there is a case for that here (or maybe football is a necessary distraction during the grieving process)?