Had it been Suarez tripped in a similar way or could I say given the opportunity to win a penalty for his side then no way him or Liverpool would have won either one of them. In fact he would have been booked for the second one. Had it been anybody else raising his hand from 50 yards to the linesman not happy for a decision then no one would have noticed. The ref here gave him a booking for that. I see Rooney doing this hundred times every season most of the times very close to the officials and not miles away.
We were basically out-muscled by WBA and by the officials. We still can't handle the physical games. We still get most of the decisions against us.
We made mistakes. Kelly, Gerrard, Lucas and Downing were awful. Lucas is still lacking match fitness. We were torn apart by WBA once Agger was sent off.
We had some good chances in the 1st half. Had one of them went in or had that linesman was fit enough to be a linesman (he blatantly stopped two good opportunities for offside), then we could have taken the lead but the reality is there are still many teams better than us. Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, Man City, Man U, Chelsea and even Everton have better players than us. We are not clinical, have no wining mentality and can't cope with physical teams. We could be fighting for places between 6th to 9th that could depend on the next two weeks for whom coming in. Fulham and Swansea might get more points than us if we don't buy the right players and keep playing our overrated English players.
It is still early to judge, but we still need to work very hard on building a team capable of finishing better than last season. I think we need to build a team away from Gerrard and Carragher. They can't give us anything more.
By the way, I don’t want to see Sahin joining us. He is too lightweight. We already have enough of them.
No change
posted on 18/8/12
Lucas goes missing in very physical games, I've always said this!!
posted on 18/8/12
"If Suarez had gone down as softly as that for both penalties people would be talking about him diving or simulation. On both occasions Shane Long was barely touched and he made the most of both challenges."
Not being funny, but Suarez has earned that hasn't he? How often last season did Shane Long go down like he'd been shot? Are we supposed to disregard the type of man Suarez has proved himself to be?
posted on 18/8/12
Not being funny, but Suarez has earned that hasn't he? How often last season did Shane Long go down like he'd been shot? Are we supposed to disregard the type of man Suarez has proved himself to be?
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What's that got to do with it? Simulation is simulation whether you have a reputation for it or not. It doesn't matter than Long has never done it before; he did it twice today.
It is a referees job to be unbiased. That means they judge a foul on that moment alone, they shouldn't be looking at a person's reputation. If they are then they aren't officiating fairly.
posted on 18/8/12
'What's that got to do with it? Simulation is simulation whether you have a reputation for it or not. It doesn't matter than Long has never done it before; he did it twice today.'
and in all fairness Dowd isnt very good and we were all saying this before the game!
posted on 18/8/12
Continental and Latin players dive.
Players from the British Isles don't.
For Gerrard, Long and Rooney, that's a peno.
For Suarez or Torres or Ronaldo it's a dive.
FFS, don't you know the rules?
posted on 18/8/12
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 18/8/12
ttliv, I agree with you. We were comprehensively beaten in the end but both penalties played a major part so they are talking points.
They were both very soft.
As for your point about losing concentration, I completely agree. Over the last few years we've pretty much always given the top 4/5 a good game, we've a good record against them. When we play against them we look like a good team. I don't know why we can't do it against the lesser teams if we can beat Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and City as we have done why can't we beat WBA et al.
posted on 18/8/12
ttliv
Spot on. But we don't just blame the refs. Read the article again, players are also being blamed.
posted on 18/8/12
I don't know why we can't do it against the lesser teams if we can beat Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and City as we have done why can't we beat WBA et al.
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Physically and mentally we are not ready for the small teams. Arsenal have had similar problems but I think Wenger has been able to prepare his team for them recently. Most of our players are lightweight and can't handle those games.
posted on 18/8/12
ttliv87,
Whilst i agree with some of your sentiment I definitely disagree with you saying WBA were comfortable all of the second half. Even the awful commentators on the stream i was watching were saying WBA were getting outplayed and just hoofing it clear from defence in the second half.
Fact is one of our lads slipped that put Agger in a tough situation that resulted incorrectly in a penalty (outside the box). The red card is harder to dispute though.
What I'm trying to say is we weren't as bad as some people are trying to make out. We were unlucky to be 1-0 at half time and very unlucky to be 2-0 down with 10 men in the second half....after that we were poor admittedly.