Ratings and Reactions: Liverpool 2-2 Villa

[Stevo985]

Alan Shearer: "I think it is a penalty. I think you've got to give the benefit of the doubt to Suarez there. I know he's gone down too easy at times. 

'If Guzan's going to be silly enough to come rushing out like that on a wet pitch, sliding out. What is Suarez expected to do here? Is he meant to jump over him and get out of the way and hurdle out of the way, so he doesn't make contact with him?

'Part of a forward's job is is when you're racing towards the ball with a goalkeeper, part of your job is to try and get there first and toe poke the ball past him. Then the keeper's got a problem. Because once the keeper goes down, he's not in control of his body."

 

Yes. Suarez can easily jump over him and still be in control of the ball. What a bloody stupid point. To think, he got paid for all that. He anticipated the dive and deliberately conned the referee. Ashley Young does the same thing. It's not just about diving theatrically under minimal contact, it's about players willing to throw their bodies into players to simulate contact. It's worse than diving.

"on a wet pitch..."

 

hahahaha

 

what on earth does that have to do with anything?

[Stevo985]

The thing is, I agree with the people saying stuff about strikers looking for penalties. If a keeper comes rushing out a striker will look for the foul.

 

That's fine, and it's not cheating. If Suarez had poked the ball past Guzan and Guzan had wiped him out then it's foul. Even if that was exactly what Suarez wanted him to do. it's a foul.

 

But what these people apparently fail to realise is that there was no contact. If there was, it was so minimal that it's taken 1000 replays to spot it. it's not enough to make him fall over.

 

That's the difference. Brushing someone doesn't mean it's a foul. A striker looking for a penalty is fine. But a striker looking for a penalty, not getting it, and then diving, is not ok.

[AVFCAM]

The problem is that the ref doesn't have 1000 replays...it may also have been playing on his mind that he had called 2 other Suarez decisions incorrectly during the game, both times waving play on when he had in fact been fouled.

In all honesty, I can't blame the ref, nor Suarez really. If that was Benteke, Lukaku, RVP, Rooney, Giroud, Aguero, Navas, Negredo etc. etc. etc. then I don't think we'd be so annoyed about it and we wouldn't call it a dive, we'd just say it was a soft penalty. If it was Gabby at the other end, we would be livid if the ref called it as a dive.

[Mantis]

I agree Zat you can't really blame the ref too much for the decision but there's no excuse for the great lengths some of the pundits are going to to defend Suarez, given that we all have the benefit of several different replays.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Mantis

[Zatman]

I agree Zat you can't really blame the ref too much for the decision but there's no excuse for the great lengths some of the pundits are going to to defend Suarez, given that we all have the benefit of several different replays.

 

It doesnt bother me as im not surprised anymore, their is a never say anything bad about Liverpool element of the media so you get pundits sucking them off at every opportunity and channels like Sky and BBC giving jobs to any Liverpool players they can find. 

 

Recently have seen random ex players doing games. Steve Nicol, David Fairclough, Jimmy Case and David **** Speedie. wish the media would grow some balls about them

[Stevo985]

Yeah fwiw I don't blame the ref, and to be fair I don't think many people have (despite the fact he had a terrible game, for both sides)

From his angle it looked nailed on.

[Pelle]

Didn't see the game, just a few moments here and there. For some reason I was watching when they got that penalty. Safe to say that the missus was quite chocked when I went totally mental when I saw that it was as I expected a dive. Well, at least to my somehwat beer dim eyes. Still think it was a dive, but can't fault the ref for it. From his angle it was nailed on.

 

Anyway, feared a big loss so even if lost a 2-0 lead I'm somewhat pleased for the point and from the reports that we played really good in the first half. When I saw that they scored in OT in the first half I thought they'd win quite comfortably in the end, which made it more pleasing that they didn't. Watched the last 10 minutes of the game on my phone and thought we looked to be the team who wanted the 3 points the most, but I might be biased.

 

Hope we can keep on playing like we did in the first half for most of the rest of the season.

[Richard]

Great unexpected point but even when it was 2-0 i just knew they'd come back,  it always happens to us

 

Special mention though to those who have not been of a more optimistic nature recently who have posted positive comments on the back of this result and performance.  Fair play to you you could have disappeared and said nothing but it's great to see good comments

[villaglint]

On the pen debate.

 

Clearly it is a dive but I can't really get that angry about the fact it was given. These things happen very very fast and from the refs view it looks a pen.

 

If it had been the other way around I would have expected it to be given but that's football, your always biased when looking at these things.

[CanVillan]

The Villa made Liverpool look very ordinary. Even with the home crowd, Suarez had only his thespian skills for effect.

Good job Villa.

[turnbull]

Villa must have played well cos most of the Bluenoses I work with actually said they had, which was a surprise. They also thought that Suarez had dived! Christ, the earth will tilt on its axis at this rate.

 

The plop fan on the other hand was very down in t' dumps after a fellow fan gave him a round of effs as soon as he saw him, which was hilarious. He was that overwhelmed it was like watching the first half again!!

[briny_ear]

Great unexpected point but even when it was 2-0 i just knew they'd come back,  it always happens to us

 

Special mention though to those who have not been of a more optimistic nature recently who have posted positive comments on the back of this result and performance.  Fair play to you you could have disappeared and said nothing but it's great to see good comments

Richard, why do you think that people who have been unhappy with the performance of the manager and the team so far this season would "disappear" when there is a good performance? As far as I can tell, 99.999% of people posting in here are Villa fans so of course they will celebrate a good performance and it's a bit odd to suggest they wouldn't.

 

The performance against Liverpool was exactly the sort of thing we have been looking for, rather than the negative and unsuccessful tactics seen in so many games this season. So the sensible response is to say "Great, let's have more of this!"

 

You comment about "disappearing" suggests you may have failed to understand the source and nature of the disappointment with Lambert and the team's performance for much of this season.