Nerf

Klopp's mother has died, which might go some way to explaining his demeanor in recent weeks.

25 minutes ago, Colly said:

if that isn't a foul neither are half the fouls in a game of football.

This but unironically

25 minutes ago, Liam said:

So the ref should have blown up for a foul/infringement three times rather than letting you go and score?

I went and had a look and that seems the rule for accidental handball only. They obviously deemed that there was more to that handball. I don't think it was on purpose, but the ball effectively gets brought under control by his hand, so it comes down to interpretation at that point.

I guess the argument, as always, is to what extent that is a clear and obvious mistake. Some would argue 'missing a handball' is clear and obvious, whilst some would say not. I guess it is upon the referee himself at that point in time to then stick to their original decision.

I'm not sure in what world you can argue it's intentional handball, though. Firmino tries to chest it down, while being fouled by Dier, the ball ricochets off Dier's hand onto Firmino's. We're at the point where a team has effectively had a goal disallowed because they were fouled in the build up. Whatever your allegiances, that should concern you for the health of the game.

To your other point in response to David, yes. That's where we're at. The build up had two potential outcomes: a foul for Liverpool, or a goal for Liverpool. The end result is a foul for Tottenham. That is, frankly, absurd, and a consequence of the incessant meddling with the rules over the last few seasons.

Both disallowed goals last night are shambolic. Son's highlights how completely out of touch the current offside guidelines are, and Salah's once again indicates how English referees don't even know what the fucking rules are. IFAB have clarified that the handball would have had to immediately resulted in a goal/assist or it doesn't count as an infringement. This is the state of English football. The referees have all the time in the world, get to look at a million fucking replays and angles, and still don't even know the rules. It's farcical.

To the surprise of absolutely no one that ever watched them, Clattenburg has bizarrely admitted that referees were biased in favour of Fergie's United.

9 minutes ago, It's Pronounced Zoom-E said:

That has to be a yellow card for Coady.

Referees are encouraging this kind of stuff so much, especially in the VAR era. Players will dive and/or go down in the box under minimal contact to win a soft/bullshit penalty, and the referees/VAR not only are likely to give the penalty, but they don't punish the attacker if he does dive/simulate. It's absolutely ridiculous how much they enable it.

They can't review yellow card incidents through VAR, can they? It does open up the question now of whether that means the referee hasn't seen the incident in real-time and thus Coady retrospectively gets punished for diving.

1 hour ago, Adam said:

 I'm fed up of Klopp (and Guardiola) complaining about it in the way that they are.

Then stop watching their interviews and talking about them incessantly 🤷‍♂️

2 minutes ago, Baddar said:

Salah has covid.

me too

Word on the street is it's a season ender. Lol.

Jota is unironically Portugal's best left sided forward.

Now the Prem have clarified that they didn't even check if it was a foul or not 😂😂

What is the actual point of VAR if you're giving a fair tackle OUTSIDE THE BOX as a penalty? Even if you argue it's a foul, it's still quite clearly not in the box. Where is VAR?

I know we've all said this a million times, but if you need to spend 5 minutes faffing about with lines, then it wasn't offside.

Van Dijk needs surgery on a damaged ACL. According to James Pearce it's "unlikely he'll play a significant role again this season."

Gutted for him. We certainly won't win a title without him, but more so gutted he'll be missing out on so much time because of that horrible T-Rex looking cunt.

1 hour ago, Cymbols said:

I suppose these things equalise out. 
 

Again though, not really VAR’s fault - either of them. It is all about the rules. First one can’t be a red card due to the nature of the incident after an offside. Second one is offside under the rules. Should those be looked at? Probably. But VAR can only follow the guidelines that the rule makers have come up with. For better or worse.

On the plus side, Liverpool are five goals better off compared to their last game 👀
 

So then Richarlison shouldn't have been sent off? His tackle was a (terrible) attempt at the ball after play had already been stopped.

i literally dont understand the offside rule

Absolutely dying for them to explain this one lmao

So, with that precedent, if an Everton player is offside, it's fair game to just twat him?

lmao var is a fucking joke

Not sure how I feel about this. The proposal is apparently from FSG with the backing of Rick Parry and Man United, and basically seems to be a way for the top clubs to consolidate power in exchange for a greater top-down distribution of TV money. A lot of it makes sense and would be good for the game, but equally it all feels a little bit tone deaf.

9 hours ago, E X P A N D said:

How I was introduced to VH

I'd never played GT4 but I just sensed that Panama was coming. It fit perfectly.

8 hours ago, Adam said:

What a day...Everton are genuinely the best team in England at the moment and that's even with a bad goalie.

Don't let the madness of the last 24 hours distract from the fact that Pickford's got little arms.

6 hours ago, C-MIL said:

I went with the rainbow idea too (not sure what other gay iconography has been reclaimed or not), but I wasn't sure how much color you wanted so I have 'em with none, some and lots.

https://i.imgur.com/4XGSuO8.png
https://i.imgur.com/61lQZtn.png
https://i.imgur.com/88AbJeO.png https://i.imgur.com/TlqHnJf.png

That third one is excellent. Great stuff.

Thiago is fucking ridiculous. What a baller.