Before this season I've pretty much watched all of the matches under Klopp and thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of years. I admire the way Klopp and his team have achieved success with hardwork, honesty and integrity rather than excessive spending and turning to the dark arts, and its really refreshing in this day and age.
This season I've watched the team and something just doesn't seem right, the warning signs have been there for a while versus the likes of Leeds and Villa. I didn't watch the derby game, I don't know why but I had a really bad feeling about that match beforehand and when I heard about Virgil's injury I felt physically sick. Then when I saw the Mane VAR pictures, it was quite clear that they were going out of their way to disallow the goal. As for Pickford, I've said for a ages that it was only a matter of time before he injured someone because he has history for it, but for some reason he keeps getting away with it. It's just a shame that it happened to be one of our players.
Its been mentioned in other threads that we've been getting fucked over by referees for years, just think of Atkinson, especially at Old Trafford. You have certain referee's that have already decided that they are giving you fuck off even before a ball is kicked. I've had it myself when I used to play, some of them just take a personal dislike to you or they have a bee in their bonnet such as they don't like swearing, tackles from behind or timewasting etc. but to be honest, that never bothered me and you adjust your game accordingly.
Obviously in the Pro game there is more at stake and the idea of VAR was to stop clangers and provide more fairness in cases where the referee has got it wrong. I think back to last season and the Wolves game, Taylor has rocked up and decided to give us nothing, he's disallowed a goal even before it hits the back of the net. It goes to VAR and the goal is rightly given, cancelling out his bias. I don't know what has happened this year but its as if this bias is now being reinforced by VAR and in some cases increasing that bias e.g. Sheff United and Brighton 'non' penalties being given. So we've now reverted back to being shafted by the referee on the field but with the added bonus of being shafted by the VAR muppet, effectively playing against 13 men now!
Its becoming comical now, open season with violence against our players going unpunished, whilst a freekick and a yellow card is given when an opposition player is not even touched but dives and screams - they are of course cheating but the referees are enablers for this behaviour. Falling for the cheating is showing that they don't actually know the game and that could be the reason why we don't get the decisions because our players are not diving cheats or it could be that the referees are just bias. The more I watch games, and I've watched a lot more of other teams this year, the more I think it is the latter. Put it this way, if you've got Martin FUCKING Tyler commenting on the 'none' foul on Salah the other night then alarm bells should be ringing - even he sounds embarrassed by it now.
The problem with this gang of referees now is its too cosy, cushy whatever, its like a gang of mates who are untouchable and the fact that they are all white Englishmen is not a good look and I wonder what the conversation sounds like when they all get together. They'll all talk about teams and players and this is where the group opinions will be formed, not necessarily consciously.
So then we come on to the actual football of our great team, it felt like that defeat was coming - it probably should have happened at Fulham but for the miracle of actually getting a penalty. We've seen some exceptional performances this season against the likes of Leicester, Wolves and Spurs but generally our level has dropped significantly and there have been quite a few terrible performances now. The players look knackered both physically and emotionally which is understandable given the year we've all been through so I can't be critical of them. I think Klopp has been affected too, some of his decisions have been odd. I know that we've had a lot of injuries but the use of some squad players might have been better and he hasn't managed to affect games with his substitutions, the timings have been odd. It feels like he is just trying to nurse us through this period difficult period and still get the results, it hasn't paid off. Look he's the best manager we've ever had and has earned any benefit of doubt. The club has definitely slipped up by not ensuring cover for what is essentially only two reliable CBs, they've got nearly everthing right but that has been a mistake, perhaps covid was a factor in not being able to sign someone.
For the first time in years, I'm actually dreading watching one of our games now but I'm hopeful that we will improve when Matip and Jota return. These low points are what makes the highs so special.
