It’s worth saying as well that VAR rescued us in the first half, in a situation that might have been technically offside but, for me, in the category of ‘for fucks, he’s level, play on’.
You can argue whether the goal should have stood or not. The interpretation is still murky. Personally I think Dier’s foul influenced Firmino’s handling of the ball and a lot of time/play happened since the handball until the goal, so it should have stood.
What was ridiculous, and I think what @Eintrachtfan was getting at, is that Tottenham were awarded a free kick. If you watch that incident and conclude that’s a free kick to Tottenham then you don’t have a scooby doo what you’re looking at.
Referees in this country do not understand the game. Their backtracking over the City goal the other day is a prime example.
However, the grappling influenced Bobby’s control which affected it popping up and hitting his hand, one doesn’t happen without the other IMO.
I think that’s a stretch. For once, I though Atkinson was decent. It was lucky he didn’t have a penalty decision to make.
With a 3-1 win in the bag, it’s easier for me to be a little more magnanimous over the handball incident. Grapple definitely affected Firmino handling it, but at this stage it doesn’t matter.
The main thing was a lovely performance, plenty of chances, and a very good away win.
Like everyone else, I’m watching to see if we do anything on the central defender front, as it is getting ridiculous.
For me you don’t have one without the other and it needs to be taken into consideration, cause & effect.
Gotta be dire straits to pull it out. The mojo must be strong, to be used.
JOEL (joel)
Always be missing our Joel
We’ve got the wisdom to know
He’s not indestructible
Always be missing…
Just watched the full replay and I am just so happy for the team, club and all of you wonderful people !
The best I have seen us play in a long, long time. Probably best we have played this season. Yeah, it was.
First half we just broke them ! They were caged in, under intense pressure all of the first half. Then we also got that very important goal !!!
Second half, Tottenham was actually maybe more dangerous, but we were much better.
Such a deserved victory !
Finally, I am sad for our porcelain defender, Matip. He played well in the first half, but Klopp said it looked nasty, so really bad. Also Klopp told the journalist that he should tell him if he knew of a cheap very good defender, so apparent that we don’t have the cash, or FSG don’t want to spend a lot, to buy a quality centre back unfortunately. So doubt we will buy a good one in January. But such is life.
For now, celebrate and worry about the centre back tomorrow !
By the way, just want to say that I saw your post on the corona thread and just want to tell you that I wish you and your family the very best ! Hopefully you’ll all be rid of the sickness soon !
IFAB amendment to the handball law for from this 2020-21 season, trying to ensure an accidental handball will only be punished if it occurs “immediately” before a goal is scored:
“It is not an offence if, after an accidental handball, the ball travels some distance (pass or dribble) and/or there are several passes before the goal or goal-scoring opportunity,” read a statement from IFAB.
The Salah disallowed goal passes the travel some distance test. Suppose it comes down to the ref’s interpretation of whether it was “accidental” or not. I’d bet my house that if it was the other way round, the interpretation to Harry Kane would’ve been accidental hence goal stands.
We are 4-3-0 against the rest of the Big Seven (The Big Six + Everton) and 6-4-3 against everyone else.
We have to fix the latter.
And Thiago is a badass.
I thought he’d be a bit of a wallflower, making dainty passes across the pitch.
But he gets stuck-in as much as anyone!
Did not watch it live due to being at work (and, despite it being a slow day, having to finish a project for grad school ). Figured I would wait to get home to watch the full match back, which was fun. Anyway, while I’m convinced we can beat anyone on our day, I didn’t think we would play our way back to form by beating Spurs, but we did. We have been out of form, everything has gone against us, the injuries have been debilitating, but we didn’t just become a shit team overnight — the quality tonight was evident. Now we just need to rediscover some modicum of consistency.
Interesting thing about Thiago is once he gets booked he doesn’t seem to make rash tackles, but he will do it every game. Odd bar that he is fantastic. Better him playing further forward as the tackles didn’t matter so much.
the issue is that you have three seconds to decide whether the advantage is the correct course of action.
The thing is, Thiago is getting consistently booked for his first or second infringement. Then you have, for example, Matt Doherty, who pulls back a player to prevent a good counter situation and no card.
Speaking of which, Spurs were trying their best to match Shitty’s off the ball stop counter situations. Atkinson never gave Kane a talking to for this. Some were blatant, as when I think Son from a meter away extended his arm trying to grab the shirt of a player who had just skipped away from him.
Son failed to grasp that time, but even if he did, Atkinson would not have given a yellow.
Then the stupid advantage decisions - just outside the box a foul, waves play on as ball falls to Bobby, but he has a mass of players around him and no support so the ball ends up going out. Only about three seconds from wave play on to ball going out, but then Atkinson doesn’t call the play back.
What I noticed today is how well Milner linked up the play for us. I thought he had a great game except for one mistake at the end that almost cost us a goal. He might be getting on in the years but he is still vital to our midfield, right now at least. I hope he is playing on Sunday again.
Great result - we are still a great team, just vulnerable this season due to the injuries.
Good win, good performance.
Kane got himself injured trying to back under a player, got his just deserts.
We won, so I can say this with no bitterness.
The refereeing was diabolical. Off the top my head.
- Allowing advantage when we had no advantage.
- BBC match stats has each side on 50% possession
(not having that), also we committed 2 more fouls than Spurs. They got away with murder.
- Assault on Thiago. No way the Spur’s players were getting near the ball.
- Watching the replay, I thought Mo’s goal would be disallowed, never mind, play brought back, free kick to us and yellow card to Dier. Was gobsmacked Spurs got the free kick.
- Mo flagged for offside when clearly on. What happened to allowing the play to develop?
Make no mistake, the officials tried to stop us winning the game, we took it out of their hands. But hey let’s concentrate on being lucky with their offside it should be onside ‘goal’ and the correct decision was made to give Spurs a free kick from Mo’s disallowed goal.
Up the Reds, Manure will start to drop down the table. They won’t finish above the tricky Reds, never mind fighting for the title.
The worst moment in the match was when Mané missed the sitter at the start. You saw in that moment all our lads heads drop (like a ‘not again’ moment). Soon after Son put one in the back of the net, EvenAlisson was extremely fragile. Luckily Jon Moss corrected the situation.
Best moment was when TAA scored. All our lads had an extra spring in their step after that and TAA started playing like we all know he can.
Gini and Thiago switching was a master tactic. It meant Thiago could bei n space most of the time so diminuing the EPL intensity on him.
Talking of Gini he and Milner were fantastic, like a couple of terriers let loose in a rat infested barn. Their influence was most noticed when Thiago went off to get a massive band put round his head. Did the work of 3 and also in the dying minutes where Millie was winning the ball and Gini was playing ‘try and take my toy off me’.
Firmino was rubbish then he came good and the front 3 started firing, great to see,
Rinse and repeat performances like that and who knows!