FAB 208 : FA Cup 2022/23

[Kowalski]

So, worse than TikTok then?

Don't worry, I hear time is running out on the TikTok deal

[Patrick Thistle]

Now I was at the game and would want to watch it back with a clearer, multi-camera view, but what 3 red cards are we talking about here? Fabinho, fair enough, although from where I was stood it looked like he slipped which made his lunge worse than it was going to be. But yeah, I wouldn't have been surprised by a red there. Is Robertson's tackle one of them? To me it looked like he was just too slow and went to kick the ball only to have it nicked away by the Brighton lad who was then the recipient of Robbo's swinging foot. It would a very harsh red for kicking someone who he never even knew was there when he began swinging his foot. After those two, I have absolutely no idea what the third 'red' might've been.

Konate elbowed Mac Allister in the back. Fabinho crippled his opponent with a very nasty stamp on his achilles..Robertson could have gone for a late stamp as well.

Liverpool very lucky to only lose the game and not have several players suspended as well. Given Brighton are a league rival for a Europa place now, Liverpool have done rather well injuring Brighton players.

[Jimski]

I don't think VAR can do non-red card fouls outside the box (even if a second yellow). But even so, should've been off.

[Third rate Leszno]

I think Fabinho was stunned it wasn't a red. I'd love to hear what you think after you see the incident.

As for Konate, according to Liverpool fans it was a robust shoulder to shoulder. I recommend biology lessons with a particular class on the human body. Mac Allisters shoulder is not in the middle of his back and side arming M-A to the neck is a wrong 'un too. The fact he was the last man as well and you can see we were puzzled how not even a free kick (never mind any card) was not forthcoming.

Just got home so I'll find some highlights to watch. As Snake said, Konate looked shoulder to shoulder at first watch. Bear in mind where the Liverpool fans were stood, I've no doubt that other angles may show a different picture. When you were singing 'You're not fit to referee', there were plenty of Liverpool fans who would happily have joined in as Mr. Coote is widely perceived to be shit.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Now I was at the game and would want to watch it back with a clearer, multi-camera view, but what 3 red cards are we talking about here? Fabinho, fair enough, although from where I was stood it looked like he slipped which made his lunge worse than it was going to be. But yeah, I wouldn't have been surprised by a red there. Is Robertson's tackle one of them? To me it looked like he was just too slow and went to kick the ball only to have it nicked away by the Brighton lad who was then the recipient of Robbo's swinging foot. It would a very harsh red for kicking someone who he never even knew was there when he began swinging his foot. After those two, I have absolutely no idea what the third 'red' might've been.

Robertson gave mcallister the full set of studs, and if you don't buy dogso by konate, there's the question of what the hell is he doing with his arm. I'm in a WhatsApp group with a bunch of liverpool fans, and they were all just grateful that they didn't get three red cards. Seeing how despondent they were I went and had a look at the match thread on RAWK, and while there's a bunch of the typical nonsense you get on one club message boards, that konate challenge gets called a clothesline a couple of times. The Thing is that ibrahima konate physically can't carry out a shoulder to shoulder challenge on alexis mcAllister, the size difference is too great, and he shouldn't have tried.

This isn't just a liverpool thing though. You see stuff like this in a lot of games. This is the gradual increase in violence that you're going to get when you basically do away with enforcing the rules. Players gradually keep turning up the heat, when they see that there is no punishment forthcoming. I was watching PSG against Reims and nipped out to the shop to get some food, and when I came back, the referee was walking over to the touchline monitor to have another look at a marco Veratti tackle, looked at it for a couple of seconds, cancelled the yellow card and he sent him off. It would never have happened in England. PGMOL have made it extremely clear that if the ref says its just a yellow, then VAR has no business saying otherwise.

[Ray de Galles]

Same here. It was Gabbidon, was it? I watched bits here and there and wondered who the co-commentator was.

Yes, hence the Tom Kerridge comparison above. He got a lot of that during the World Cup apparently.

I don't know Kerridge's work much but find it strange as he seems to have grown up in Gloucester while Gabbidon's from Cwmbran.

[Third rate Leszno]

Ok, I've found a clip of the Konate challenge and yeah, it wasn't shoulder to shoulder, it was to the side of his neck. Defo a foul, not convinced it was a card for the challenge itself but the only other covering defender was a little way away so if I was a Brighton fan I'd have been screaming that he should go.

[Sean of the Shed]

Don't worry, I hear time is running out on the TikTok deal

Underappreciated.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I was watching PSG against Reims and nipped out to the shop to get some food, and when I came back, the referee was walking over to the touchline monitor to have another look at a marco Veratti tackle, looked at it for a couple of seconds, cancelled the yellow card and he sent him off. It would never have happened in England. PGMOL have made it extremely clear that if the ref says its just a yellow, then VAR has no business saying otherwise.

Btw, Reims equalised in the 96th minute, with balogun racing through the middle, going round donnarumma at top speed and managing to score. you can see why arsenal didn't buy a striker just because jesus was injured.

[Gangster Octopus]

Btw, Reims equalised in the 96th minute

Yay!

[hobbes]

I think Liverpool's problem stems from the last few years. They were consistently faster to the ball and quicker at passing. A lot of that has gone due to the team aging and lost confidence. But a lot is down to what teams are allowed to do to you now. Players used to be protected from challenges. But now we've a weird situation where if you're a defender shielding the ball, any touch will win you a free kick. But if you're a midfielder receiving the ball that same defender is allowed to go through the back of you and dump you on your arse with no come back. In Mane's last season in the Premier League I don't remember a game where he wasn't fouled from behind 3 or 4 times receiving the ball while the ref waved play on.
Likewise if you were receiving a ball at chest height you'd at least be able to get the ball on the deck before being challenged. Now players will steam in and throw their leg round you at chest height to smash the ball away. And given the power and fitness and skill of most prem players most of the time they do it without causing long term injury. But by god it's awful to watch.
Liverpool have consistently struggled over the last 3 years with teams who were prepared to be "a bit more physical" (kick them up in the air) but had enough to usually prevail because at least referees would give the players a bit of protection from the worst of it.
Now they're all bit slower and premiership football has become murderball, the teams that will do well are either too quick for the "tackles" to catch them, or so routinely violent that no one wants to hold the ball for long.
I suspect what we saw today was Klopp finally saying to his players that they need to be more physical too. And the Liverpool players (Milner aside) being really fucking shit at it.
I'm stunned there weren't two red cards. In the ref's defence I think Konate's looked in real time like a shoulder barge. On replay it was a foul, obviously. Fabinho's was horrible. I suspect the reason he got away with a yellow on VAR was that there wasn't much force involved. Not that you need a lot of force for studs to mess up your achilles. Should have been a red of course.
Robinson's I'm not sure, not only because Mac Allister turned back into him putting his foot where Robinson was about to land, but because that sort of a foul appears to be a pro forma yellow these days. Which is what everybody wanted wasn't it? A game where you can kick people as long as the game flows?

[jameswba]

I thought Liverpool trying to kick another team off the pitch would somehow be everyone else's fault but not Liverpool's.

[Snake Plissken]

Liverpool have always done that sort of stuff, it’s what led to Dyche and Klopp having a half time barney at Anfield once. (In short, Ashley Barnes steams in just in front of the dugouts, Klopp yells at Dyche to tell his players to stop doing that sort of thing, Dyche responds with something like “you fucking first, dickhead”.

[Sean of the Shed]

For some reason this blew my mind. Just once and that was a century ago. You'd think two teams like these of a similar pedigree would have met more than once.

https://twitter.com/FACupFactfile/status/1619969857243553792?s=20&t=odZ1n9FQFN2iIW1JikxKdg

[hobbes]

I thought Liverpool trying to kick another team off the pitch would somehow be everyone else's fault but not Liverpool's.

I suppose if you were looking for the most uncharitable reading of "the game has changed (in my opinion for the worse) and Liverpool haven't kept up" you could read it that way.

[3 Colours Red]

Now... where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?

Ah, yes. The equaliser - that's pretty likely to happen when two of your three first-choice centre backs get knacked in the first twenty minutes and you're sticking centre mid O'Connor back there.

And Pearce should be sacked and made to march through Regent Street (the main thoroughfare of Wrexham city centre) while the locals throw eggs at him.

[Patrick Thistle]

I suppose if you were looking for the most uncharitable reading of "the game has changed (in my opinion for the worse) and Liverpool haven't kept up" you could read it that way.

There was a bit of "he ran into my fist" in your interpretation of Robertson's tackle on Mac Allister.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I do love the momentary mini-drama of any cup draw, but I can't bear 'The One Show'. Hopefully it's made clear at the start precisely when the balls are being drawn.

[hobbes]

There was a bit of "he ran into my fist" in your interpretation of Robertson's tackle on Mac Allister.

Only if putting your foot on the ground is an unnatural thing to do.
I'm not suggesting it was Mac Alister's fault. He was fouled, obviously. And players stepping on others feet these days seems to be a yellow card (if that.)

[Kowalski]

Underappreciated.

My middle name

[ale]

I do love the momentary mini-drama of any cup draw, but I can't bear 'The One Show'. Hopefully it's made clear at the start precisely when the balls are being drawn.

Obviouly dont bother watch to watch cup draws outside 3rd round very often. But even enduring it once a year is hard work-the whole point of the TV scheduling is to delay drawing the balls as long as possible. It used to be a world of certainity. 12:45. Not a minute more. Not a minute less. Monday after previous round of games. On Radio 2. In the school playground. Where for one day of the school terms the kid who brought the transistor would be popular.

[Jah Womble]

At primary school, David Marsh used to bring his transistor radio in every Tuesday for the lunchtime chart rundown - so his popularity remained fairly consistent.

Can’t say I recall any poring over the radio for the cup draw, however. Usually had to wait for the TV news or the next day’s paper for that info.

[Snake Plissken]

Southampton v Luton or Grimsby
Leicester City v Blackburn or Birmingham
Stoke City v Brighton
Wrexham or Sheffield United v Tottenham
Fulham or Sunderland v Leeds United
Bristol City v Manchester City
Manchester United v Derby or West Ham
Ipswich or Burnley v Sheffield Wednesday or Fleetwood

[longeared]

Fuck that. Play the reserves in the replay and just make sure we get promoted.

[Patrick Thistle]

Very much a "look what you could've won" for Wrexham there