Liverpool 2-1 West Ham United: In game and Post Match discussion

Happy for Shaqiri who is contributing, wonder next time we decide to go with double pivot Klopp will play shaq in the 10 role ahead of Bobby/Minamino.

It was another gutty win for us, again shown when we were not at our best we dug in and found way to get the three points. Jota proving to be the depth scoring we needed off the bench.

Agree with pretty much all the posts above praising Jota and Shaqiri.
Shaqiri probably doesn’t have the body to last 90 minutes in a klopp team but as a sub or 60 minute man he can make a big difference.

And Jota is what we have needed for a while. As iconic as origi is, I never felt he would change a game as a sub. Jota does.

Anyone else not even bother celebrating after Jota's winner because of the inevitable delay to try and find something wrong with it?
I'm getting to the stage where the extacy of scoring is being removed from the games because of VAR.

By the time the goals are given it is a MASSIVE anti climax.

I agree with you. Watching the odd La Liga or Serie A game and seeing their implementation confirms it for me, the problem is definitely a Premier League one. From what I've seen other leagues seem to be using it for obvious errors, the referees are constantly going to the monitor and most importantly they don't try to reinvent the wheel by disallowing goals because of an armpit hair.

The problem is that the issue is one of ''common sense''. There is no modification you can make to the rules that will fix the problems if you continue to apply them without any common sense.

It should be: (1) goal is scored, (2) use common sense to check offside, (3) if the guy is a whole big toe or a 1/4 of foot offside then call the goal off but if you have to zoom in x3 to show me that he's a toenail offside then just don't do it, its a goal end of story

Instead what we got is 1 1/2 half years of extremely pedantic and deprived of common sense decisions coupled with officials who are too proud to back off when they are wrong to the point where the VAR officials can't even apply basic football rules like sending a GK off for a butcher's challenge because ''it happened while VVD was offside''. Ridiculous

One must also admit that a lot of fans got the wrong idea of VAR from the get go. A lot of people think it's a tool that is here to eliminated any and all forms of injustice. This reasoning leads to the common sense deprived and overly pedantic M.O. we are living through right now.

Yes that's right.There's no common sense button on the telly. Far as offside goes it should just go by the position of the feet. That would clear up any confusion about arms, heads etc. It would be much easier to judge and fans can clearly see if the decision is correct.

Also there doesn't seem to be a set criteria, a set of firm guidlines. One game they judge on something that ISN'T a clear and obvious error, sometimes the ref is sent to the moniter. Sometimes they take a quick look, sometimes, as in the Mane foul,they check it numerous times.How far back in the move to they go. The handball rule has changed. It's all a bit of a mish mash.

The arguments will carry on and if it has improved decision making, it's not by much.

Agreed, feet should be what it's measured by and common sense should be used to avoid calling an offside because one guy is 3mm offside because he wears size 10 instead of size 9 shoes. Call the offside when its reasonably not ridiculous to do so. There's no way to phrase this, its just common sense, you're not an Elite Sniper, call the dang offside for something worth calling.

Also I noticed, as far as the PL is concerned, the referees are happy to let VAR carry the whole thing and actually look like they are avoiding the use of the monitor because it shields them from a lot of the backlash.

The ref against Everton is the biggest criminal of this whole story. You are on the field, you see such a horrific tackle...you shouldn't need VAR, pull the red card and send the guy off. Did not see the tackle? Well a player is badly injured and the whole team is protesting, go to the monitor and have a look at the tackle. Maybe you can discuss the possibility of a penalty with VAR, but the red card is basic refereeing. It wouldn't fly if a player turned around and punched a defender or a keeper while in an offside position, so why would a career threatening tackle be okay? Basic logic yet the referee flew under the radar and VAR took the blame.

Today's results went our way too

Today's results went our way too

Back top of the table where we belong and we aren't even playing that well!

Back top of the table where we belong and we aren't even playing that well!

You love to see it, shame about the goal difference but that’ll sort itself out sooner or later once we have one of our destructions of a team, which is due.

Did Mane impede their keeper. Friend didn't give it, if VAR wasn't sure they should've said "goal"....they are totally inconsistent.Either VAR has the final say or it doesn't.

The way it's set up is ludicrous.One week they give a decision which is clealy wrong, next week they say "not sure" and bounce it back to the ref. As far as next week goes...your guess is as good as mine..could say yes..could say no..could say it's not a clear and obvious error..even if it is an error..could tell the ref to go and look at the moniter...clear as mud.

VAR doesn't have the final say if it's not an offside question. The ref went to the monitor, found out what exactly happened then made his decision. There was no celebrating it, even Jota didn't. It was always going to be a monitor job, which is what happened. First ever time the monitor was used at our house in the league. Salah went down because he was fouled. It is a penalty any day of the week. That clears that up.

What was not clear was our performance. It was awful throughout. Their goal was bad defending. The equaliser was our first shot on target, and we didn't play great in the second half either. Well done to Nat, and he can do a steady job, but most defenders can cope against a pub team that attack half heartedly once every 20 minutes. It will be a different challenge next week.

But we've won 7 of our 8 home league games behind closed doors. Lockdown may have brought some changes, but Anfield is a fortress. Some things thankfully don't change.

Get the F**k in!

Monster win against all odds but never doubted it after they took the lead but have to say getting pretty sick of going 1-0 down all the time.

Great fighting spirit lads and Shaq and Jota, that was just sublime, MOTM goes to Nat. What a start to your career.

VAR doesn't have the final say if it's not an offside question. The ref went to the monitor, found out what exactly happened then made his decision. There was no celebrating it, even Jota didn't. It was always going to be a monitor job, which is what happened. The woman VAR advised the ref to look at it. No surprise as she is not a referee, she is a well known assistant referee. First ever time the monitor was used at our house in the league. Salah went down because he was fouled. It is a penalty any day of the week. That clears that up.

What was not clear was our performance. It was awful throughout. Their goal was bad defending. The equaliser was our first shot on target, and we didn't play great in the second half either. Well done to Nat, and he can do a steady job, but most defenders can cope against a pub team that attack half heartedly once every 20 minutes. It will be a different challenge next week.

But we've won 7 of our 8 home league games behind closed doors. Lockdown may have brought some changes, but Anfield is a fortress. Some things thankfully don't change.

I disagree about our performance, it was certainly not our best but it wasn't terrible either. You have to give some credit to West Ham, they defend really well, just ask City ;-)

Great performances by Nat Phillips, Big Shaq (what a pass) & Jota.

We have been no where near our best for some time and still top the league.  I would take a draw at City next week, but you never know especially if Thiago is fit, this guy is a player.

YNWA

Great performances by Nat Phillips, Big Shaq (what a pass) & Jota.

We have been no where near our best for some time and still top the league.  I would take a draw at City next week, but you never know especially if Thiago is fit, this guy is a player.

YNWA

Its impossible to predict the City game, they could spank us, it could be a boring draw or we could spank them, it depends on the mood of the players on the day and for us who we have fit.

Finished watching the replay, my MOTM would be TAA or Wijnaldum.  Gomez has a good game too, but I did not see Nat MOTM.  He did win a few headers but that's about it.  He lost his position a few times in the 1st half.  It will be a disaster if he plays against City in the next PL game.

Unsung hero for me was Gini ran his socks off took the pressure off with his ball carrying and got into some tight spaces to play some critical passes. Would rest him and keep him fresh for City.

Unsung hero for me was Gini ran his socks off took the pressure off with his ball carrying and got into some tight spaces to play some critical passes. Would rest him and keep him fresh for City.

yes Gini was good, but its so annoying the amount of times he has the ball in a good position and instead of running at the defence he stops and passes it sideways, I know this is probably instructions from Jürgen, but you can almost sense the frustration and you just want him to have a dribble and then shoot. I sometimes feel the team is a bit to regimented and would love to see the shackles come off a few players, but who am I to argue with our record in a recent years.