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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: The corruption fallacy - they’re all out to get us!

« Last post by Eeyore on Today at 11:58:05 am »

He certainly broke the rules. And then he tried to cover his error by persuading the goalie that he was injured. This was pointed out on the BBC. Shearer couldn't believe it.

What will happen now is that PGMOL will refuse to release the audio and Taylor will go unpunished. They have a consistent record of closing ranks and protecting referees when they make mistakes.

The incident was similar in some respects to the Arsenal v Bayern match where Gabriel picked up the ball when it was 'live' in the box. It ought to have been a penalty, but the ref bent the rules and allowed Arsenal to take the goal kick again. Yesterday the West Ham goalie was hoping to waste time. He also made a stupid mistake. The ref bailed him out too. Same thing. Both incidents are unusual (but will surely become more common as time-wasting becomes more and more sophisticated). But it's not the referees job to react to bizarre mistakes by erasing them.

The thing is what you are describing is a conspiracy and corruption. All the match officials and Stockley Park will have heard the audio. Webb and the PGMOL will know what happened. So if there is no action taken against Taylor then it is 100% a conspiracy and 100% corruption.

Would you agree with that?

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Mohamed Salah - Best in the World *

« Last post by Garlic Red on Today at 11:57:52 am »

Mohamed Salah emerged from the corridor leading out of the London Stadium deep in conversation with David Moyes.

As the West Ham United manager put a hand on his shoulder and they said their goodbyes, Salah was flanked by a member of Liverpool’s security staff for the short walk to the team bus.

It took him past a group of reporters eager to get his thoughts on an unseemly touchline spat with his own manager, Jurgen Klopp, as he waited to be introduced off the bench with 11 minutes to go in Saturday’s 2-2 draw.

Moments earlier, Klopp had sought to draw a line under it during his press conference. “We spoke about it in the dressing room, but it’s done for me. That’s it.” Asked whether the Egypt forward saw things that way, Klopp added: “It was my impression, yes.”

So, nothing to see here? All water under the bridge? Salah clearly did not get the memo.
It is standard practice for him to turn down interview requests — he has only stopped post- match to speak to the UK’s written press twice in nearly seven years as a Liverpool player — but this was not the usual smiling response of, “Not today, thank you”.

Not breaking stride, he said: “There’s going to be fire today if I speak.”
The words were uttered matter of factly.

“Fire?” The Athletic inquired.

“Of course,” he replied.

After his manager had sought to douse the flames, Salah poured petrol on them.

There did not need to be “fire”. He could have taken the opportunity to play down the altercation. Even better, he could have apologised publicly for the disrespect he had shown Klopp. He did neither.

After a wretched few weeks which have seen Liverpool’s title challenge disintegrate, it was another sad sight on Klopp’s farewell tour.

For context, Salah was added to the club’s leadership group last summer because he was regarded as such a role model for the youngsters in the squad. And what happened yesterday was not a brief moment of petulance. It spanned over a minute.

The flashpoint started with Salah, annoyed that he had remained on the bench for so long, seeming reluctant to shake Klopp’s hand as he prepared to come on. Words were exchanged before Klopp found fellow substitutes Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez more willing to embrace him.

As the incident continued, Klopp initially stepped away from it and focused his attention on the field, before walking back towards Salah and getting something else off his chest.

What followed was completely unacceptable as Salah, usually so mild-mannered, vented his spleen towards his manager, throwing his arms up and pointing in Klopp’s direction. It took Nunez, the most unlikely of peacemakers, to step in to calm his team-mate down.

Just to complete a bleak few minutes, Michail Antonio nodded West Ham level before the triple substitution could be made.

At the final whistle, Salah was the first Liverpool player to leave the pitch, briefly aiming some applause towards the away end, before ruffling his hair and disappearing down the tunnel. This was the day when the frustration that has been gradually building inside him erupted.

Salah’s durability has been as remarkable as his goal-scoring feats since arriving at Anfield from Roma in the summer of 2017. He missed just 10 league matches across his first six seasons at Liverpool.

This season, he has missed much more game-time than usual. Damaging a hamstring at the Africa Cup of Nations on January 18 kept him out until the trip to Brentford a month later. Then he immediately broke down again and spent another three weeks on the sidelines and was not available for the League Cup final win on February 25.

Since returning to action in early March, he has scored just five goals in 13 appearances, and two of those were penalties. During that damaging period, Liverpool have been knocked out of the FA Cup and the Europa League, and have now dropped out of the title race.

In three of the past six matches, Salah has been named on the bench. You only have to look at how he has reacted to being substituted in games to appreciate how much not making the starting XI hurts.
But the harsh reality is that he can have no complaints about being overlooked of late.

He has not pressed like he should out of possession, his touch has repeatedly let him down and, in the final third, he has been wasteful. He has looked like a player lacking rhythm and confidence.

Sorting out Salah’s future is one of the most pressing items in prospective new head coach Arne Slot’s in-tray as he prepares to take over from Klopp this summer.

It is a genuine dilemma. We are talking about one of the greatest players in the club’s history; a forward who is fifth on Liverpool’s all-time list of scorers with 210 goals in 346 matches and is still their top scorer this season with 24 goals in all competitions. He became the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 goals in all competitions in seven successive seasons.

It would be premature to describe his slump as proof that he is a declining force but, as he both turns 32 and enters the final year of his deal this off-season, it would be a sizeable gamble to offer another lucrative extension to someone earning over £350,000 ($437,145) per week.

Last August, Liverpool turned down an offer of £100million, potentially rising to £150m with add- ons, for Salah from Saudi Pro League outfit Al Ittihad, largely because they did not have enough time to find a suitable replacement. If a similar offer is forthcoming much earlier in this summer’s window, they would surely be tempted to cash in, given their self-sustaining business model.

Much will depend on Salah himself.

Is he ready to wave goodbye to elite football in Europe and head for Saudi? There is a school of thought that he would rather sit tight for the final year of his contract and then depart as a free agent in 2025, when he could command a huge signing- on fee.
Maybe a proper break in the months ahead and then a new start, seemingly under Slot, will get him firing again.

But Salah needs to reflect on what happened at the London Stadium yesterday, because he let himself down. If he had something to get off his chest, it should have happened behind closed doors.

Klopp has elevated Salah into a global icon at Anfield — his departing manager deserved better than this.

James Pearce in The Athletic today. The last sentence sums it up perfectly. I’m amazed so many fans don’t see it the same way.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: The corruption fallacy - they’re all out to get us!

« Last post by Jm55 on Today at 11:57:27 am »

I'm talking about the match report as you well know and I'm talking about the Manchester Guardians match report as you well know.

And if you've ever read a single post of mine on here, you'd know (And do know) that I jibbted MOTD years ago. It's a load of shite. Has been for more than a decade.

Whether you watch it or not isn’t the point, I don’t watch it either but the point is it’s one of the most prominent media enterprises that there is and they discussed it and made the point that plenty of here are making so to make the point that the media have all unanimously ignored it is incorrect.

The media by and large aren’t there to protect PGMOL, they’re there to make money via whatever generates the most views and clicks. It’s largely the media’s fault that we got VAR in the first place due to the likes of MOTD and Sky crucifying referees for ages whenever they made an error, obviously sometimes that was more just than others but the point is they’re certainly not trying to protect them or downplay the errors.

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The Boozer / Re: Unpopular Opinions

« Last post by Kenny's Jacket on Today at 11:56:53 am »

Radio 4 is massively exclusive to all those who are not white middle, class and university educated.  It should be shut down and they should start again.

Starmer talked  about working class kids learning Latin or something like that, I think it was aimed at improving Oracy
I thought it was a very good point and a way to elevate  working class kids
Do you not think Radio 4 could provide similar in Adults.

I  think your comments came from a good place, but if we play up to class stereotypes it will reinforce them.

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General Football and Sport / Re: LIVERPOOL TRANSFER THREAD - 2023 (FSG posts = get muted) - No Mbappé

« Last post by Vinay on Today at 11:56:23 am »

Problem here is many don't see Trent as a "6" without a very strong, powerful DM alongside him.

And Mac Allister better as an "8".

Is the solution, playing Sboz wide forward, off a striker, swapping Macca there and then you
sign a beast to mind the shop alongside Trent?

Yes, a powerful, big DM is needed. Szoboz should be a squad player for the LW in this set up.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Harvey Elliott (Harvey Daniel James Elliott)

« Last post by RyanBabel19 on Today at 11:56:09 am »

Think I must watch a different player to most on here, been one of our best players across the season IMO

Other players get praise for making things happen but Elliott doesn't often seem to get the same despite it being something he offers in most appearances. Every time he's coming on I think we'll get at least one big chance now and generally he provides with a deep cross from the right hand side or having a go himself.

From all the reports we'll be playing with a 10 soon, think he's a very important player and you could be forgiven for thinking he's a lot older than he is

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Mohamed Salah - Best in the World *

« Last post by GBF on Today at 11:56:02 am »

You'd sell our captain and vice-captain before Salah?

I'm not on the "sell Salah" train just yet but that's absolutely crazy to me. Trent is world-class and still only 25, Van Dijk has been a leader and a rock for years and in a position where physical decline isn't so impactful. If it's a choice between selling Salah or either of those two for big money, it's a no-brainer for me, Salah is gone.

Captains don't win you game.  Trent ain't world class, he is a shit defender and cannot play midfield correctly...he is good as a player to have in the team specially for his passing range.  Virgil unfortunately is no longer consistent for a defender.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: LFC's next manager - chat and informed speculation

« Last post by IgorBobbins on Today at 11:54:29 am »

This is a horrible window into the next few years isn’t it? …. If we don’t win the lot they’ll be endless press briefings about who signed who, who wanted who etc etc etc

The only way for it to be avoided is that Hughes MUST be a public figure whose accountable for recruitment decisions
If that’s what it says on the job spec then Slot can’t be the one in the firing line for it

I get what you’re saying, Jack, about the need to take the pressure off Slot.  But personally I wouldn’t be in favour of Hughes doing media interviews and being so public facing.  Do the sporting directors of any other PL clubs do this? I think it would be quite strange - I’d much prefer our behind the scenes team (Hughes, Edwards, scouts, even FSG) to just work away behind the scenes, out of the spotlight.  I think I’ve only ever seen about 3 official photos of Edwards and he was our SP for around 8 yrs, wasn’t he?

But I do take your point about Slot.  I’d even go further and suggest the club try to limit the number of interviews and press conferences he does, but I’m not sure if that’s possible.  I think one of the reasons for Klopp’s fatigue was doing constant press conferences, answering the same questions by the same journalists.  Must be exhausting!

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Darwin Núñez (Darwin Gabriel Núñez Ribeiro)

« Last post by Eeyore on Today at 11:54:04 am »

Maybe. (I'm a Jota man myself).

But I am more interested in the way you use the same statistics to argue diametrically opposite points on different days. I've long admired your ability to do this and was just tickled you were doing it just now. 

It is the context though. Jota is portrayed as a master finisher despite not having a particularly good scoring rate. He is also in the peak years of his career and is seen as the finished article.

I see Nunez as a young Striker who almost certainly has the best years of his career ahead of him. Big powerful athletic strikers mature later. The context is that they both score at a decent rate but the perceptions are completely different.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: The corruption fallacy - they’re all out to get us!

« Last post by Andy @ Allerton! on Today at 11:53:53 am »

The problem is that MOTD still happens, whether you watch it or not. And therefore it still represents 'evidence' - in this case evidence that destroys your argument. That's the way these things work.

So you're saying that you should trawl through BBC content and spend hours of your life looking for stuff that should have been reported in their main report?

No doubt you'll also be able to point me at where the Manchester Guardian mention it.


You're talking shite about this as usual. You know I was talking about the match report - why wasn't it in the BBC and the Manchester Guardian and other match reports? It was a vital and central point in the match.


Instead of talking bollocks, why don't you try and defend that for a change? WHY wasn't it reported on the so-called impartial BBC match report?

I can understand why it wasn't printed in the Manchester Guardian.