JRC

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

Objectively that could be Salah's worst game in a red shirt. Just the 2 goals. Jota's Law transferred to him for the day, though I felt Diogo was still under it's effect as he had a pretty good game without scoring. Would have said Szoboszlai myself, albeit a close call vs VvD, except Elliot came close to nicking it with that cameo. Jurgen doing a lot to prove his nemesis Chris Wilder correct, using the extended subs laws to transform games on a regular basis these days. All 4 made a big difference today.

Not to get all corporatist on this, but where the f*** are the Pl or FA on this? PGMOL are contracted to them to provide officiating services, but must have obligations in place re assuring integrity and quality standards, and the client (PL) should be rigorously monitoring performance and compliance etc. Quality should be core to their 'mission'. Yet despite bringing in a bloke from RL, who do this stuff really well, that audio overall, and the outcome, proved them to be an organisation with absolutely no concept or culture of quality, the kind of procedural stuff that can seem tedious but restricts and prevents human error being impactful. But don't worry, they've had an internal review by those who should never have let it get so sioppy in the first place, and it's all sorted. They must worry about who is going to get the Pl Refereeing contract next time round though, with all the competition from, like, erm, you know, thingybob. (As to the UAE stuff - they are Caesar's wife, and shouldn't have touched it with a barge pole)

Jota's Law: The worse he plays, the higher the probability he scores. Was inevitable yesterday. Best thing was a bunch of lads got a poor game - or shocking miss - out of their system. Gravenberch looks like he could be a real player. Glides over the ground, but has the stride of a sprinter: Opened his legs and showed his class, as David Coleman once said.

The adherence to the VAR protocol is doing my nut in. Apart from not being true, apparently, in the case of serious error, how on earth do you conclude that breaching that protocol is the more egregious problem than allowing a recognised valid goal to be mistakenly denied? Or - Spurs taking the free kick is not really a restart because the officials have decided it was a goal, so it's not the appropriate action, whatever Comms snafu there has been. We've all seen players take a cheeky quick throw in when they touched it last, linesman flags furiously and the ref says... Sorry, you've restarted now, it's too late, carry on? Finally, getting too legalistic - they can't review off side decisions once the game has restarted is the protocol, I believe; but they didn't need to, because they already had reviewed it (hence check complete) - they just need to tell the ref someone had misunderstood the message. For me, failure to correct the error - or tell the ref until half time as they are now saying - is the bigger failure.

Couple of points not really strongly made in all the hubbub. The club seem to be the only agents in this who have pointed out that it is outrageous for PGMOL to announce a review, to be scoped and undertaken by.. PGMOL, for which the substantive outcome has already been announced... by PGMOL. It's just appalling governance by any standard. Secondly, considering the timeline - the match officials knew they had made a mistake within seconds, Webb et al surely within minutes. Notwithstanding their failure to raise or try to address the failing during the match - just call the mistake and give the goal, screw the 'can't take it back when it's restarted', that they didn't suggests they either lack the courage to act ethically or are not bothered about the accountability they will face, neither good looks - does anyone believe they were in the correct frame of mind to effectively officiate the rest of the match? Whether leaning to us to overcompensate or the opposite (a big Spurs win would minimise the impact of the error), the delay in confirming or adressing what they knew was, again, unacceptable and poor incident management, and should be called out.

Liew appears to be covering the Ryder Cup, so was probably at a loose end last night, nothing going on and all quiet. Worth noting, any corrupt operation will usually court tame journalists to drive a defensive narrative. Some - Lieuw, Glendenning - just have history as t***s, but the number coming out to just handwave and dismiss - or ridicule - any response other than 'its just a c**k-up, nothing can be done about it' is depressing. Really disappointed with Vickery who usually, in my experience, talks sense and knows his stuff, but chose to be like a whiny teenager on this matter.

Did I see on here or on X that Webb approved a partial replay of a game (from the 67th minute when the error happened) in the US because of a similarly significant human error? Question. What would have happened to the Ref if he had stopped the game when told about the mistake, awarded the goal and told Spurs to Kick Off? Lifetime ban? Because I know which course of action would be most damaging for 'sporting integrity' and it isnt making the right decision a few seconds after the game has restarted, even if the rules say you can't. The rules also said it was a goal.

Move over Jan Molby and Gary Bailey, this one was captured on live TV and filmed from every angle.

And recognising - and exploiting - those weaknesses is all grist to the tactical mill. Someone else posted that Klopp highlighted the Newcastle left side defensive channel at half time, lo and behold.

I can't stand watching on telly, but turned it on as VDV got sent off. Watched the next five or so minutes, and Joelinton committed 3 fouls in just that time alone, left one on Endo that wasn't penalised and kicked the ball away while abusing the ref for having the temerity to have a quiet word with him. Absolutely bizarre refereeing not to yellow card him.

With some justification, but they won't be at the appeal hearing. Anyway, just adds to the primary argument that the ref and VARs were not up to scratch.

Didn't neglect to drop back to cover Trent some times as well; but a beautiful footballer, no question.

I was 64 yesterday!

OK, there's been some cry arsing on here worthy of the Moan Stand, but today is my 50th season opening home game as a Season Ticket holder, and I am genuinely buzzing off my head with excitement more than ever, whether or not we have made a show of ourselves in the Transfer Market league or we are putting out a team made from the tea ladies or the owners are the embodiment of pernicious neoliberalism. It's Anfield, we are LFC and it's f***ing on. Let's do it!

Some of the comments about the non-penalty have irked me. If the ball wasn't hit at him such that he was unable to get his hand out of the way, which it wasn't, the body silhouette or natural arm position are irrelevant, just whether it was intentional or not. He moved his hand towards the ball, no question. Instinctive maybe, but he had time to move it out of the way but didn't. If he were to catch the ball with both hands in front if his chest, it would be a penalty, nothing to do with ody position

Maybe. Lavia was either backup/succession to a slowing Fabinho or a risky first-choice 6. Less essential with Caicedo's age and athleticism. Did Jorg know it was going to a late bidding war? Makes the dynamics of the last 3 weeks make sense. He seems, as with Dom, to like a late-night last minute move. And I think Jurgen has previously admitted that while getting players in early in pre-season is good, it's always better to wait a bit for the right one, eg the Virgil saga.

Maybe Jorg is the 4D chess/poker player, and a combined Caicedo/Lavia swoop was always the plan; Lavia price has been agreed, so now he is going all in with the rest of our stash for Caicedo.... Maybe. Maybe not.

Although tbf, Mane - who hadn't had a great first half to the season while Mo was twisting the City and Watford defenders' blood - was brilliant on his return, in a new role.

He seems to have a mentoring element to him. He is very much the senior man there now, and obviously has a fine tactical brain on him. Looking for an iconic final season from him - thinking Alonso 2009 - while helping Klopp and Pep to get their ideas over. Any of that midfield will be better footballers if they listen to and learn from him. Either that or he pisses off to Saudi.

Noticed against Brentford that on more than one occasion someone other than the full back took the throw-in, and that seems to have been an iron rule for years.

Goal difference worth a point to us if its Man Utd we end up catching - they can't afford to end up on the same points as us, less so for Newcastle. It would be beautiful if we do go above them on GD, as it would mean that the 7-0 would be crucial rather than a dismissable freak result (for both teams) as some Utd voices have suggested.

Another season where we don't get doubled by anyone. Small consolation, I know, but makes me smile.

Agree on this, especially the latter point, although not without a caveat. I think Taylor has grown into his Fifa role, and now has much greater authority and confidence, whereas before he was like an insipid rabbit who got bullied by players much too easily and lost control of games. The only problem is that his ropey decision making hasn't improved at all, much like his boss Webb, who had all the right physical attributes and attitude, but just got it horrifically wrong with alarming consistency.

The stats on his decision making are scary. We were in possession of the ball more than twice as much as them, yet we managed to concede twice as many fouls, which, in a simple weighting that you generally concede fouls when not in posession, implies that he gave fouls in their favour at a ratio of 4 to 1, which just defies reasonable expectation. Just for laughs, the worst offender for committing fouls in that game? Hatchet man Mo Salah, of course.