Just looking through some of the controversial incidents surrounding Liverpool this season...
The ones that have favoured Liverpool were:
Szoboszlai's dive given as a penalty against Bournemouth when we beat them 3-1; Nkunku not given a penalty when Chelsea were down 3-1 at Anfield; A drop ball given to Liverpool against Nottingham Forest, from which they eventually scored like 2 minutes later, for some reason this one was a national outrage and people are still crying about it despite Forest benefitting from the exact same error earlier in the game and having multiple chances to clear the ball before they conceded.
The ones that went against Liverpool:
Mac Allister's ridiculous sending off against Bournemouth in the game we beat them 3-1.
Van Dijk's sending off against Newcastle. Maybe some people will agree with this but I still think he got the ball and barely made any contact with Isak. The ref didn't think for a second.
The Tottenham game. Remember Tottenham at this point were challenging for 1st place. Curtis Jones was sent off for a normal challenge. Luis Diaz gets a perfectly legal goal ruled out for a bullshit offside that VAR failed to correct. Salah is through on goal but is instead booked for a completely fair challenge. Diogo Jota gets booked for casually jogging near a Spurs player, and is then sent off for a second yellow for an admittedly reckless challenge but one with no contact. There were yet more controversial decisions in this game, like the non-penalty on Gomez or Robertson's booking, in what was easily the biggest robbery in Premier League history.
Quansah's penalty against Crystal Palace, a rather arguable call, 50-50 I'd say, far from being "clear and obvious", yet VAR decided to intervene and send the referee to the monitor over 2 minutes after the incident. We went on to win the game but that was ludicrous.
Odegaard's handball, need I say more? In truth had it been given, I'm not sure Liverpool would've gone on to win the game, but facts are facts, that was one of the most blatant penalties we've seen this season. And again in a title race match.
We had two very controversial goals ruled out against Burnley, the first one a Gakpo goal being ruled out by a very debatable foul by Nunez, and later an Elliott goal ruled out for a Salah offside when you could argue he didn't interfere with play in any way. Meanwhile, look at Man City's goal against Fulham...
The game against Manchester City just now... one of the clearest penalties you'll ever see, a high foot catching Mac Allister in the chest, Doku looked like a fucking karate player. Beyond that, I'd argue there should've been another penalty earlier for Aké on Salah, and Kyle Walker should've been sent off for a dangerous and reckless challenge that left Salah on the floor, of course no foul was given. Again, a title race match.
We also had one of the most ludicrous disallowed goals ever at the League Cup final, which came very close to literally deciding a title.
That's just this season. Had these decisions gone the right way, Liverpool would have 7 more points, while Arsenal and Manchester City would each have a point less. It could've been far worse if we weren't so good at overcoming adversity. Never mind how we're still level with Arsenal at the top of the table despite going through one of the worst injury crises in history. I remember reading an article detailing objective data about how often Liverpool gets paired with referees from Manchester, and how often they have controversial VAR calls in their games compared to other Premier League teams, and the difference was beyond staggering. Can't quite find it right now, though.
I'm sorry but anyone who genuinely believes Liverpool is favoured by referees is blinded by tribalism. We've been consistently fucked over by referees for as long as I've watched this game, barring a few exceptions (we did get a lot of iffy penalties in 13/14). We were robbed of a legitimate league title because of Rodri's handball in 21/22. I see PGMOL apologies left and right for anyone who plays against Manchester City, and Liverpool have already received 3 of their own this season, possibly a 4th one coming up this week. It's fucking insane how rigged this league is against us. In truth, Arsenal got fucked over too in their game against City, because obviously City is the team that's favoured. No wonder referees favour them after getting paid boatloads to officiate games in the UAE.
Anyways I'm done here, have a good week everyone.
Last edited by mZuzek - on 12 March 2024
