I'm not sure why that must be considered ludicrous. The facts are that we have had four players sent off this season already with just a handful of games played. One has been rescinded. One we cannot challenge as it was for two yellow cards, and you can't appeal them even when there is clear evidence that the first yellow card was totally unjustified. The third, in the opinion of many neutral commentators, was extremely harsh. Yuo have to remember that officials are people too, they have exactly the same emotions as everyone else. To have your work publicly criticised by someone of the standing of Klopp (who was handed a huge fine) will have stung and it isn't a huge step to imagine that they would try to "get their own back".
I've got to take issue with this. The "offside" goal is one issue - there's no denying that it was a fuckup of monumental proportions and all associated with Liverpool have every right to be fuming. It's not the same as subjective decisions being given/not given for/against your club, because VAR actually worked and came to an objectively correct decision before tossing it in the bin and carrying on regardless.
But there seems to be this prevailing narrative that it fed into a pattern of wrong decisions, both in that match and over the season as whole - it's that old chestnut of "say it often enough and it eventually becomes accepted fact".
Curtis Jones' red card - unfortunate from his point of view because he didn't set out to make a leg-breaker of a tackle, but a red card all the same. Intent doesn't come into it, players have a duty of care to their fellow professionals; much like rugby is attempting to change the way players tackle by punishing even accidental head contact, the front-on straight-legged studs-showing tackle is an absolute no because even the slightest mistake (like going over the ball) is recklessly endangering an opponent.
Diogo Jota's red card - not unfortunate at all. The "clear evidence that the first yellow card was totally unjustified" doesn't exist, in fact the opposite is true. Much has been made of the Spurs player 'tripping himself up'; yes, his left foot hits his own right boot and down he goes, but watch back a few frames further and you see where Jota's knee knocks against that left boot, causing the whole thing (bear in mind the pace Udogie was running at and that his leg was full speed, fully extended at the point of contact). The classic tap-tackle. It was a foul that stopped a clear break for Spurs, hence the yellow card that always accompanies such a foul (deliberate or not). It was also Jota's 3rd foul in quick succession, so the ref had every right to give it under the persistent fouling laws too.
The ref was actually decent on that day in difficult circumstances; just very badly let down by the shambolic VAR and a poor decision by his assistant (in my view he should have been capable of giving the on-field decision as onside, it was tight-ish but you expect a high standard - maybe asst refs are a bit complacent in the expectation that VAR will get it right anyway? A separate discussion...). The ongoing "aren't we hard done by" is a bit weird and just plain wrong.
www.claretandhugh.info
dangerous I said from the start.
