Whether the end result is the same wasn’t what you were asking. You asked if anybody still believes there is no corruption involved. There are plenty of people who do because corruption isn’t the same thing as bias.
Just because you aren’t bothered about the distinction, don’t be surprised if people disagree with your assertion.
The end result remains the same. Poor decisions, through bias, incompetence, corruption etc that have cost Liverpool.
The argument is done to death, and every example of Liverpool on the receiving end that is offered is countered with low level insult or attempted explanation that has no credibility. And now the examples of how Liverpool have been “lucky” with some decisions. The Milner one vs City? I am accused of not remembering but I genuinely don’t think he merited a red card…
Do we get occasional decisions in our favour? Yes.
Do these decisions even out over the season? No.
Do City get decisions in their favour?
Yes.
Do they suffer poor decisions on the same level? No.
We will be arguing over this in years to come, and in fairness you have given example after example of how results are “corrupted” through bias etc.
At this point I don’t care who agrees or disagrees with me, I genuinely believe that bias exists against Liverpool FC, and the city. I would advise people to read "There she goes " by Simon Hughes to give some perspective to my view.
I reckon;
In time when the human rights abuse is too hard to stomach City will be exposed, the FFP concerns will be addressed and they will be stripped of titles. Then the odd snippet regarding decisions will be exposed as well. Some sports journo will unearth a story…
Anyway…
This is a magnificent Liverpool team in an incredible season.
A league season where we should be winning no 21, where greatness is probably going to be measured by money and power and sportswashing rather than the magnificence of a great team. Fingers crossed a proper legend manages the team that knocks City off the top on Sunday. Because that would be proper, and just.
If only there was a topic on the forums relating to Referees or the twelfth man…
Like every thread stays on topic?
The Fair Play table is related to bookings and red cards, not fouls and there is considerable divergence between the two. Also, you are conflating being dirty with what I described as there being a physical robust side to our approach. I dont agree with that and what you are trying to reconcile is easy to do so if you drop that conflation.
And neither do I…it probably should have been a second yellow though. Big difference.
I am probably completely wrong because I am of course losing the plot but I thought you have frequently quoted “evidence” from several seasons ago.
Apologies if that isn’t true.
I think the point is, and it’s a valid one, that one generally has to back months to nit pick and find the odd one here and there for us whereas a generous decision for City is frequently just last week.
Also bear in mind, a generous decision does not necessarily have to be in a game they play in. Frequently poor decisions against their direct rivals has just as much impact on their standing on the league table. Bear in mind also that this was a real bone of contention in Ferguson’s heyday where the decisions are not so much in their favour on the day, although there were loads of that for them just as there are for City, but against their rivals which indirectly benefited them just as much as it does for City now.
Anyone thinking that there is no bias at the least or deliberate decision making at worst is having themselves on. Sport as a whole has been riddled with some sort of corruption since the whole notion of it came about be that athletics, boxing or whatever. The notion that the Premier League, with all the money that’s floated around it from various rather unsavory people is squeaky clean is laughable.
Ok I’ll bite. Apart from the penalty at Everton that definitely should have been, give me some examples in the last 3 months.
I was continuing my post as I accidentally posted before finishing. I believe the rest of my post should cover an instance of poor decision making that hampered us in the last three months. We’re a damn good team so we find ways to overcome but sometimes it’s not possible, such as Harry Kane staying on the pitch when he really shouldn’t have etc etc etc.
So you can’t quote any specific examples then? Which decisions in the last 3 months can you cite as direct evidence of referees or VAR making deliberately wrong decisions to favour City.
The Kane one that apparently meant we were denied 3 points but the James sending off didn’t mean we got 3 points. You can’t have it both ways.
We play Southampton needing a win. There is a blatant foul on a Liverpool player and 14 seconds later they score to give Southampton the lead. Referee and VAR leave it be. At that point, Liverpool are playing a weakened team, are down and goal and as it stands City are Champions. So…
Just last week, was it last week?, Villa take the lead where there was an offside in the buildup. Goal stood. Same scenario, Liverpool are chasing, Villa ahead. Who stands to gain.
So that’s two in the last two match days let alone three months. Kid yourself all you want my friend.
So you believe those officials did it deliberately to make sure City win the league. How many people are in on this? For a start the man in the middle and the VAR guy at both games? They are in cahoots? Do you not see how ridiculous that is?
I believe I did say bias at the least and deliberate decision making at worst. Your stance seems to be that it’s corruption or bust. Bias is just as damaging to us and some refs have shown a marked tendency to give us the wrong end of the stick more often than not. You pointing out one example from 7 months ago when that Ref gave us a pass isn’t going to cut it. Honestly.
I do think you’ve got to go back to the Everton game, which I think was in Feb where they directly benefited from what was a clear game turning mistake. In contrast, they were denied an earlier penalty in the West Ham game last weekend that most people think was an odd decision.
If you go back earlier there were some pretty big ones that went in their favour…the earlier wolves game and the penalty given for less of a handball than the Rodri one that was overlooked against Everton. There was also that 2-1 game against Arsenal that I remember turning on 2 dubious decisions both in their favour (a soft pen and harsh sending off, if I recall correctly). So you can definitely find them, but if we acknowledge that bad decisions happen do they happen for City more frequently than that default level? I think that is a really hard sell, and where a sense of unfairness can be legitimized is probably more about the overall tenor of the games they play where they seem to get the collection of small decisions go their way rather than getting an unusual number of dubious decisions. In some ways that is even more important and more frustrating because it plays into their game plan of creating suffocating pressure AND its more difficult to point to due to the distributed nature of it.
Importantly, I think that latter situation can be very easily explained by far less nefarious reasons than conscious bias.
Yes I do look at Bluemoon it is true…I look at other fan forums too and I see posts like yours citing examples of where we have supposedly had a string of favorable decisions.
I probably watch more Premier League games than most. I love watching football and I see these perplexing decisions in many games. If an inexplicable decision is given for Leicester in a game against Crystal Palace is that because of bias/ corruption because you can bet some people will believe it is.
I don’t buy the bias conspiracy theories on Bluemoon, the Everton forums, the Shed or on here. They are just bad decisions by mediocre officials. The whole officiating system including VAR and time keeping needs a total overhaul. It has become farcical.
Mike these guys up like rugby and make them answerable and more transparency would remove a lot of the controversy.
Again, I dont agree.
