Fuck him. He tried the psych game, couldn’t save a shot, and couldn’t take one. He deserves every part of that failure.
2/25-2/27 Gameweek 27
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Fabinho did exactly what Pirlo did to Joe Hart and I love it, but VVD was the “Fuck you” exclamation point,
Glad my team won but I still hate penalties deciding things like a Cup Final. I get you can’t play forever.
Penalties are a crap shoot.
Rarely does one player own a defeat as entirely. Didn't play the whole game, come in for this one purpose. Fail 11 straight times then fail doing the thing you're not even supposed to do. That's rough.
I could not have conjured a funnier ending than subbing on your massive transfer flop, having him stop 0 penalties and then having him punt the ball far enough to land on Roman's fucking superyacht
If he had gone in and done his job without the histrionics with the same result, I’d pity him. Instead he walked out to try to get in every player’s head, had to be ordered back to his line every time, and couldn’t back his smack. No sympathy.
That's awesome of Hendo letting all the kids touch the cup as he comes back through the crowd down to the pitch.
Tsimikas being front and center for these celebrations despite not playing a minute this game is very funny
Somebody’s got to do it. Most of the Liverpool Old Boys are club cheerleaders … Graham Souness has been known to knock them at times too.
There's always someone that does it. I remember Josemi, who contributed about as much to the 2004-05 Liverpool team as I did, being front and center next to Gerrard for the Champions League trophy lift.
Nothing beats John Terry in full kit wanker mode, though.
Cheerleaders are annoying agreed, but Nicol never seems to say anything positive about Liverpool.
Minamino deserves a big cheer from the crowd there. He supplied the goals to get them to the final.
At least he’s consistent. Maybe he got stiffed in a contract dispute or something. Was he one of the Spice Boys?
answering my own question … nope .. he played on the great 80s teams. Maybe he’s just resentful at their modern success.
To his credit he played a lot of, if not most of the minutes that got them to the final.
Oh absolutely he deserves it. It was just funny seeing him attached to VVD and Henderson who obviously got a ton of screen time
Yeah, and it's his first trophy with the club, as he joined the year after the title win.
I can't fathom, still, the irony of bringing on a PK stopping specialist who not onlu goes 0-fer the shootout, but also blazes one over the bar in such spectacular fashion....high comedy
The adage usually is that the keeper can only be the hero in a shootout, that if he loses nobody blames him because penalties are such a lottery. But when you come in specifically for the penalties, replacing a keeper that was MOTM for your side, go 0-11 in saves (including one from the opposing keeper), and then put your kick into Row Z to lose, it's tough not to get some grief.
Italy and England went to penalties in Euro 2012 (in Kyiv, coincidentally) Hart was using similar tactics to get in the Italians’ heads. Down 2-1, Pirlo stepped up and popped one of the softest Panenkas you’ll ever see. It totally swung the momentum, Ashley Young stepped up and missed his next, and Italy went on to win.
If anybody’s interested in seeing how Milner, Gerrard, Buffon, Pirlo, and Rooney haven’t aged a day in 10 years: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJr0iAraDDM
I bring that up because I think the one-two punch of Fabinho’s Panenka and VVD’s absolute “FUCK YOU” had to be playing in Kepa’s mind from that point forward. It’s not like Liverpool left many where he could get them, but those they did (Konate in particular) Kepa never looked like saving.
Has anybody seen a replay from anything other than the EA Sports FIFA camera?
If anybody’s interested in seeing how Milner, Gerrard, Buffon, Pirlo, and Rooney haven’t aged a day in 10 years: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJr0iAraDDM
I bring that up because I think the one-two punch of Fabinho’s Panenka and VVD’s absolute “FUCK YOU” had to be playing in Kepa’s mind from that point forward. It’s not like Liverpool left many where he could get them, but those they did (Konate in particular) Kepa never looked like saving.
Has anybody seen a replay from anything other than the EA Sports FIFA camera?
I thought there was nothing Kepa could do about almost all of Liverpool’s penalties, whereas many of Chelsea’s were very reachable and Kelleher actually had a total mare in terms of continually guessing wrong or moving too early and allowing Chelsea players to roll it the other way. It won’t be written that way but Kelleher was the worse keeper that shootout IMO.
Kelleher’s own penalty was pretty great though while Kepas was…not.
Kelleher’s own penalty was pretty great though while Kepas was…not.
Fully agree that Kelleher was awful. His body language was not good. There's a happy medium between the two keepers' behavior, but the extremes tend to not pay off. Kelleher probably had an opportunity for at least three of them and the miss on Werner was particularly bad. Awful pen, got a hand to it, trickled through.
A team's approach to pens is often fairly uniform as the guys train and one-up each other. Chelsea clearly prefer deception and in a long shootout a good keeper is going to have a better shot. Liverpool took turns trying to break the net and you'd have thought they'd be more likely to miss one.
A team's approach to pens is often fairly uniform as the guys train and one-up each other. Chelsea clearly prefer deception and in a long shootout a good keeper is going to have a better shot. Liverpool took turns trying to break the net and you'd have thought they'd be more likely to miss one.
Well, gee, that's mighty decent of you, I feel so much better
this is the real head scratcher
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11671/12554608/mike-riley-personally-apologises-to-evertons-bill-kenwright-and-frank-lampard-for-man-city-handball-decision-vs-everton#:~:text=PGMOL managing director Mike Riley made personal telephone calls to,Saturday's game against Manchester City.
When was the last time VAR didn't have a shaky weekend with match-altering results?
City were gifted two points in a tight title race and Everton robbed of one in a relegation battle.
Chelsea had Lukaku's goal disallowed by a margin that the technology is incapable of determining. It's not physically possible for VAR to figure that he's offside, let alone using that fucking sleeve as the point.
I struggle with the call against VVD being correct as well. Even in high school we would set up a few guys in offside positions against a high line to interfere with players running back. I have never seen that call before and probably won't again.
I don't think it's a conspiracy theory against certain teams, but I do think referees have put their heads together to defer to the on-field officials as much as possible. They're effectively using VAR as a protest and not as it was intended.
Given events elsewhere in the world the time isn't right to make a public fuss about this. In cleaner, "happier" times I'd like to see fan demonstrations demanding refereeing reform. There aren't enough officials on the pitch and there isn't any effective oversight. Put in rugby rules, make these folks publicly accountable. Add eyes on the field and give them appropriate power. Use VAR to make officials more effective, not taking literalism to a degree that sucks the life out of the game. This is beyond absurd and seems ridiculously easy to apply some patches to the threadbare fabric.
City were gifted two points in a tight title race and Everton robbed of one in a relegation battle.
Chelsea had Lukaku's goal disallowed by a margin that the technology is incapable of determining. It's not physically possible for VAR to figure that he's offside, let alone using that fucking sleeve as the point.
I struggle with the call against VVD being correct as well. Even in high school we would set up a few guys in offside positions against a high line to interfere with players running back. I have never seen that call before and probably won't again.
I don't think it's a conspiracy theory against certain teams, but I do think referees have put their heads together to defer to the on-field officials as much as possible. They're effectively using VAR as a protest and not as it was intended.
Given events elsewhere in the world the time isn't right to make a public fuss about this. In cleaner, "happier" times I'd like to see fan demonstrations demanding refereeing reform. There aren't enough officials on the pitch and there isn't any effective oversight. Put in rugby rules, make these folks publicly accountable. Add eyes on the field and give them appropriate power. Use VAR to make officials more effective, not taking literalism to a degree that sucks the life out of the game. This is beyond absurd and seems ridiculously easy to apply some patches to the threadbare fabric.
The whole system needs a significant rethink. Other countries have implemented VAR with much more successful results. There is just no reason for the PL to be the world's top class league in every other respect at this point - players, managers, facilities, attendance - yet have some of the worst refereeing.
For what its worth, I think the VVD call was correct and I suspect this has been some kind of point of emphasis this year because I've seen several other examples (one example that immediately comes to mind is that Harry Maguire got called for the same thing a couple weeks ago, negating a set piece goal by Varane).
To be fair, I have also seen a million players get sent off for what Naby Keita did to Chalobah. But Liverpool have been hard done by other decisions, like the Harry Kane leg breaker tackle that was 100% stone cold red but not given. There's just no consistency or predictability at all.
For what its worth, I think the VVD call was correct and I suspect this has been some kind of point of emphasis this year because I've seen several other examples (one example that immediately comes to mind is that Harry Maguire got called for the same thing a couple weeks ago, negating a set piece goal by Varane).
To be fair, I have also seen a million players get sent off for what Naby Keita did to Chalobah. But Liverpool have been hard done by other decisions, like the Harry Kane leg breaker tackle that was 100% stone cold red but not given. There's just no consistency or predictability at all.
I'm almost okay with the VVD call because it's debatable. I don't think it meets the "clear and obvious" threshold, but I can see both sides. I'm fine with that.
There is no excuse for VAR's decision on Lukaku to be definitive. The tech isn't capable. More than that, I don't want that to be offside- it doesn't violate the spirit of the rule, it takes away an aspect of play that is absolutely thrilling, and is utterly arbitrary.
My understanding of Keita/Chalobah is that both players' feet were equally raised, both were focused on the ball, and you can make an argument for incidental contact. There's no world in which it isn't a card of some color, but I'm not going to feel hard done by if it's red.
This weekend's handball and the Kane tackle on Robertson were absolute, undebatable, and universally agreed-upon decisions that the same referee blew. I'm going to cross a line here and say that this isn't an accident. Officiating in realtime at pitch level is fucking difficult. You can name a few referees that did it well, and that number is probably a good comp for the GOAT debates we have for players- it's exceedingly hard to do. Kavanagh was sitting in a chair with monitors, replays, and angles that pitch officials 5 years ago would have dreamed to see. There is absolutely no excuse for getting this wrong- there's no interpretation, there's no debate, there's nothing. These are the most black and white, Refereeing 101 decisions, and he got them wrong. Something about that stinks and genuinely feels like there's more going on with this.
There is no excuse for VAR's decision on Lukaku to be definitive. The tech isn't capable. More than that, I don't want that to be offside- it doesn't violate the spirit of the rule, it takes away an aspect of play that is absolutely thrilling, and is utterly arbitrary.
My understanding of Keita/Chalobah is that both players' feet were equally raised, both were focused on the ball, and you can make an argument for incidental contact. There's no world in which it isn't a card of some color, but I'm not going to feel hard done by if it's red.
This weekend's handball and the Kane tackle on Robertson were absolute, undebatable, and universally agreed-upon decisions that the same referee blew. I'm going to cross a line here and say that this isn't an accident. Officiating in realtime at pitch level is fucking difficult. You can name a few referees that did it well, and that number is probably a good comp for the GOAT debates we have for players- it's exceedingly hard to do. Kavanagh was sitting in a chair with monitors, replays, and angles that pitch officials 5 years ago would have dreamed to see. There is absolutely no excuse for getting this wrong- there's no interpretation, there's no debate, there's nothing. These are the most black and white, Refereeing 101 decisions, and he got them wrong. Something about that stinks and genuinely feels like there's more going on with this.
I agree that both of those decisions were ridiculous. I'm not yet willing to go into conspiracy theory mode but I still can't really wrap my head around the handball decision in particular.
I watch Union Berlin every week, and I have only seen at most a couple of calls (maybe) that left me scratching my head. I can't think of one off the top of my head, so there hasn't been anything egregious. It's generally much faster than in the PL too.