Liverpool 0-0 Tottenham: In game and post match Deja Vu.

One other thing.  I wasn't impressed when I heard Adam was in the team.  But to be fair - the lad did put a couple of decent crosses in.  He's got no drive or pace and doesn't support attacks like I expect from a midfielder, but he did put a couple of decent balls in tonight so fair play to him.

(Still not a starter though)

Thought we played the better football tonight and felt Spurs were there for the taking. We looked clueless whenever we had the chance to get the ball into the box. We have really struggled this season with putting the ball in the right areas. Our crossing of the ball is crap.

Which is why we shouldn't be arguing over if it was the right or the wrong decision because if I were reffing today and gave a red, it's the correct decision.  Of course had you been the ref today and waved play on, it would have also been the correct decision.

I saw violent conduct, you didn't.  Would be a huge concern if we refereed high stakes games having such a difference of opinions but we don't, so I guess it's all good.

Lovely distraction from the bittersweet game.

edit: Not implying we're arguing about it, we've clearly just exchanged opinions respectfully and not dwelled on it too much.

I hope you're not another ref who knows all the rules and regulations, but not the game.

Re Suarez, the kick was accidental. Of course, Parker made the most of it, to disrupt our momentum. He is after all, very experienced. However, the yellow was a fair call by the ref.

Re Skrtel challenge. Yes he won the ball, but we only saw that after the replays. At first viewing, it looked dangerously high. Again it was a fair call. The ref had a good game in general, and used his judgement to make his decisions instead of his rulebook.

I hope you're not another ref who knows all the rules and regulations, but not the game.

Re Suarez, the kick was accidental. Of course, Parker made the most of it, to disrupt our momentum. He is after all, very experienced. However, the yellow was a fair call by the ref.

Re Skrtel challenge. Yes he won the ball, but we only saw that after the replays. At first viewing, it looked dangerously high. Again it was a fair call. The ref had a good game in general, and used his judgement to make his decisions instead of his rulebook.

So cos he made the right decisions in Liverpools favour he had a good game!!  yeah riight.   

I will remember this post when when he makes the right calls which go against Liverpool. 

So cos he made the right decisions in Liverpools favour he had a good game!!  yeah riight.   

Keith if the Skrtel challenge had been made by Ferdinand or the Suarez one by Rooney I'd have the same opinions..

Keith if the Skrtel challenge had been made by Ferdinand or the Suarez one by Rooney I'd have the same opinions..

No problem, its about opinions.

Off to bed. Goodnite. 

No problem, its about opinions.

Off to bed. Goodnite. 

Don't rush back lad 

Draw today means a win on Saturday!!!

I hope you're not another ref who knows all the rules and regulations, but not the game.

Re Suarez, the kick was accidental. Of course, Parker made the most of it, to disrupt our momentum. He is after all, very experienced. However, the yellow was a fair call by the ref.

Re Skrtel challenge. Yes he won the ball, but we only saw that after the replays. At first viewing, it looked dangerously high. Again it was a fair call. The ref had a good game in general, and used his judgement to make his decisions instead of his rulebook.

I'm no longer a ref because frankly the effort to reward ratio of trying to reply to accusations of "oh you know the rules and regulations but not the game" wasn't worth it.  Note: not saying you've done such a thing but it's the tongue in cheek truth.  (preferred to focus on learning about coaching more, time is finite and I'd prefer to allow 20 hours towards learning about coaching rather than 19 hours and 1 hour reffing if you catch my drift.)

More important than "knowing the game" (or as I like to call it, a synonym for allowing terrible refereeing standards in this league) is the ability to justify WHY you made your decisions.

So re: the Suarez kick, it was accidental and Parker in your opinion absolutely made the most of it (and seeing as you're playing ref in this scenario, we are working under the assumption that your decision is correct).

The ref gave Suarez a yellow for seemingly nothing (or as you described it, 'an accident') but didn't award Parker anything for simulation, yet today ref Michael Oliver made a fair decision?  Why/How is that so?

re: Skrtel tackle, it was impeccably timed and I applauded it at the time but if you don't believe that Skrtel could have very easily snapped Bale's leg* had the challenge been a few inches/milliseconds later/earlier, you probably be best learning the rules and regulations instead of the game because the laws are in place to prevent broken legs before they happen

Now obviously, it's a contact sport and even breaks/injuries etc can result from 100% fair/legal challenges, but I think we can all agree the safety of everyone involved with the sport is paramount or at least it should be.

*(don't get me wrong I was hoping this would happen, but I know when to flick the switch between fan, referee, player, coach etc. which to me screams of rationality, something I was accused of not having because I was just following the laws and regulations instead of using common sense and just generally 'knowing the game' - if the irony's not lost on you, I'll point it out: you're complaining that there's no wiggle room for interpretation of the laws of the game when in reality, it's because there's too much wiggle room you're getting frustrated at them).

Now I'm glad Michael Oliver had a good game by using his "interpretation" instead of just blindly following the rules.  He did follow the rules perfectly by using his "interpretation" but had I made different decisions using my interpretation you'd bleat I was following the rules and not using common sense/interpretation etc. which are implicitly part of the laws of the game?

Do you see the problem here, your argument is a circle.  Me being able to see the big picture is probably what makes me such a fantastic ref but an utter c**t of a human.

just to be clear and so I'm not being accused of bias: Bale would have also been off for me as well (yellow for simulation, yellow for getting in Agger's face over it, two yellows = red).  Parker too etc.

I might be greedy but I thought the 3 points were there for the taking,its just my opinion but I felt we choked in midfield and felt at times we played too close.At the end of the day we kept the Spurs attack quiet especially Bale so I suppose we should be glad we got a point.

I didn't watch the match but judging by the highlights, the Cat was my animal of the match. So cute!

Main story on the BBC News sports section tonight? Suarez gets a yellow card! SHOCK, HORROR!

Seriously, this is the story and headline they led with. Along with a picture of said villain. Tossers! 

So can we expect the same football headlines when other players get yellow cards? No, I thought not. 

I think their sports editors are as thick and useless as their obligatory weather bimbos who tell you that rains wet. 

You know, I'm actually disappointed by spurs, they're supposed to be this wonder team that plays spectacular football, and yet what do they do, sit deep and not even try to play football, we dominated them from start to finish. Any top team would have given it a real go instead of settling for a point against us, if they're really going to go for the title, settling for a draw is never going to work for them, no matter who they play. We were brilliant today except for that clinical 'final ball' that just seemed to elude us, thought jay might have done it in the first half, but tonight highlights our need for more wide men i think, in order to stretch teams and create more space in which to exploit, although I can't fault Kuyt for his defensive work rate at the end of the day, he seems a bit 'hit and miss' at the moment. All in all, its not a terrible result, getting a point against a team in the top 4 who beat us convincingly at the start of the season, but if we have higher aspirations, then we need to be more clinical and sart creating more space in the final third i reckon

Main story on the BBC News sports section tonight? Suarez gets a yellow card! SHOCK, HORROR!

Seriously, this is the story and headline they led with. Along with a picture of said villain. Tossers! 

So can we expect the same football headlines when other players get yellow cards? No, I thought not. 

I think their sports editors are as thick and useless as their obligatory weather bimbos who tell you that rains wet. 

I know!

Sometimes I just feel like erasing "watching football" from my life.

Suarez was given a yellow by the ref.  The ref viewed it as yellow and gave it...end of.  He's the one responsible for doing so.  Not Rooney or Neville.  Frankly, we shouldn't give two shits about what any Man U players, managers and/or fans say.

All you need to know is the lying c**t Evra is their acting captain.  I'll let the ref make the calls. You win some, you lose some.  I'm sure not many will go our way on Saturday, but I highly doubt they (Man U) think any call(s) that may or may not have been correct were, in fact, wrong. I still remember the bullshit Agger send off a year or two ago and their reaction to it. 

When we are beating all the bottom 13 teams and then I'll be happy with a draw against a top six team.

More important than "knowing the game" (or as I like to call it, a synonym for allowing terrible refereeing standards in this league) is the ability to justify WHY you made your decisions.

So re: the Suarez kick, it was accidental and Parker in your opinion absolutely made the most of it (and seeing as you're playing ref in this scenario, we are working under the assumption that your decision is correct).

The ref gave Suarez a yellow for seemingly nothing (or as you described it, 'an accident') but didn't award Parker anything for simulation, yet today ref Michael Oliver made a fair decision?  Why/How is that so?

re: Skrtel tackle, it was impeccably timed and I applauded it at the time but if you don't believe that Skrtel could have very easily snapped Bale's leg* had the challenge been a few inches/milliseconds later/earlier, you probably be best learning the rules and regulations instead of the game because the laws are in place to prevent broken legs before they happen

Now obviously, it's a contact sport and even breaks/injuries etc can result from 100% fair/legal challenges, but I think we can all agree the safety of everyone involved with the sport is paramount or at least it should be.

*(don't get me wrong I was hoping this would happen, but I know when to flick the switch between fan, referee, player, coach etc. which to me screams of rationality, something I was accused of not having because I was just following the laws and regulations instead of using common sense and just generally 'knowing the game' - if the irony's not lost on you, I'll point it out: you're complaining that there's no wiggle room for interpretation of the laws of the game when in reality, it's because there's too much wiggle room you're getting frustrated at them).

Now I'm glad Michael Oliver had a good game by using his "interpretation" instead of just blindly following the rules.  He did follow the rules perfectly by using his "interpretation" but had I made different decisions using my interpretation you'd bleat I was following the rules and not using common sense/interpretation etc. which are implicitly part of the laws of the game?

Do you see the problem here, your argument is a circle.  Me being able to see the big picture is probably what makes me such a fantastic ref but an utter c**t of a human.

just to be clear and so I'm not being accused of bias: Bale would have also been off for me as well (yellow for simulation, yellow for getting in Agger's face over it, two yellows = red).  Parker too etc.

I wouldn't give Bale a yellow for "getting in Agger's face", I would give a yellow for the dive.

If every ref applied every rule in the game for every action, it would end up with 10 and less a side ala Brazilian football. There would also be 7-8 minutes injury time as standard rather than 3. That can't happen though, so judgement is as important as the ability to rhyme off rules and regulations.

When I saw Suarez foul, initially I thought it was nothing. But even though it was accidental, he caught him, so the ref was right to caution him. When I saw Skrtel's challenge, I thought it looked rough. The foot was very very high, and the ref probably thought the same. Can't complain really. The replays show it wasn't that bad, but it could have been.

I had a long-running argument elsewhere with a regulation nerd over Johnson's tackle against City, arguing that it was a clean ball-winning challenge and nothing to talk about. The nerd then proceeded to get out the rules, regs, pdfs, videos, etc to prove why it should have been appropriately sanctioned, with no regard to the context of the tackle itself, or even the fact the ball was won. After all, the rules are the rules in his eyes. Fortunately, the ref on the pitch was right that night too.

It's the same when you accidentally elbowing an opponent during an air duel, so the Suarez incident was viewed in the same manner.

F***ing typical.
No prizes for guessing the photo and content in the papers following last night.

Suarez standing over Parker and, monkey boys tweet.

Have to say, sly sports just showed the Suarez 'kick' again and I have to admit it looks bad 

Yes he's looking at the ball all the time, but it looks dodgy.

Rusty maybe, not having played since boxing day

Does it F**k. He's about to catch the ball on the volley.
Fair play to Parker he put his body in the way a fair bit at the end of the game.
Only reason it got any mention is:
1 The cat was the only other highlight
2 Shrek got the needle in for next weekends game.

Gutted. Played all over them and still we drop 2 points. 

This is really starting to piss me off.

Thought Andy played a fantastic game tonight, pity he didn't smash that ball with his right peg into the back of the net for the winner.  Is anyone ever gonna get onto the end of one of his knock downs. It's so obvious Pepe kicks it long, Andy knocks it down and yet every other team seem to have players to clear the ball whilst ours are just F***ing watching!!!

Skrtel, Carroll and Johnson were superb last night