{"id":2145,"date":"2022-01-24T12:24:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T12:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=2145"},"modified":"2022-01-24T12:24:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T12:24:51","slug":"why-do-so-many-liverpool-fans-think-we-should-play-to-different-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/why-do-so-many-liverpool-fans-think-we-should-play-to-different-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do So Many Liverpool Fans Think We Should Play To Different Rules?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In many ways, the match against Crystal Palace summed up our season. For the opening half an hour, the Reds were absolutely relentless, putting the Eagles under repeated pressure and not letting them get out. Yet that sense of being completely in control was also undone by our own poor play at times, with sloppiness from Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino twice letting Palace get in on goal without really needing to do anything. We were desperate to be the authors of our own downfall and another team would have happily punished us for those mistakes. Thankfully, we\u2019ve got the best goalkeeper in the world between the sticks for us and he very much earned his money at Selhurst Park. Alisson Becker was called upon time and time again to dig Liverpool out of a hole of their own making, coming to the fore and doing his job superbly. Quite why the Reds find 2-0 to be such a difficult scoreline to cope with is something I don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Klopp on Alisson to Sky Sports<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I said to him now, thank you for saving our backside again. He said &#8216;that&#8217;s my job&#8217;. Of course it is very helpful to have a world-class goalkeeper at the back!&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Neil Jones (@neiljonesgoal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/neiljonesgoal\/status\/1485290040750190592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 23, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Between the launch of the Premier League and the conclusion of the 2016-2017 campaign, 2,766 games saw one side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11096\/10951284\/sky-sports-bust-common-myths-is-2-0-the-worst-lead\">take a 2-0 lead<\/a>. Of those, the game was won by that team 2,481 times, with 212 ending in draws and 73 in defeat. In other words, 2-0 is not a dangerous scoreline, no matter what the footballing clich\u00e9 might tell us. For Liverpool this season, it doesn\u2019t seem to matter what the lead is that we\u2019ve established, we\u2019ll find a way to make it seem like we could lose it at any moment. I can\u2019t quite put my finger on why we look less stable than we have in the past, but it is difficult to argue with people that say that it is because of our midfield. I love Jordan Henderson with all of my heart, but he\u2019s not been at his best this season. When you combine that with the manager\u2019s tactical tweak that has seen Trent Alexander-Arnold push inside regularly, you can see that things aren\u2019t what they should be defensively. Even so, it was the penalty that became yesterday\u2019s talking point.<\/p>\n<h2>Fans Act Like We Should Be Above Reproach<\/h2>\n<p>Like most people, I get annoyed when Harry Kane or Jamie Vardy win a free-kick or a penalty after throwing their leg into an onrushing goalkeeper. For many years, though, that has been the case, with the two English strikers getting penalties for \u2018being clever\u2019. Whether we like it or not, that has now become the norm in terms of level of contact needed for a penalty to be awarded. If a blanket rule was put in place that says that if it appears as if a player is initiating contact they won\u2019t be awarded a spot-kick, most people would be happy. Until that is the case, however, I don\u2019t really understand why so many Liverpool supporters think that we shouldn\u2019t be given penalties for the same thing that other teams receive them for on a regular basis. There seems to be an attitude that we should be \u2018better than that\u2019, as if that\u2019s something that football matches are decided on. As far as I can tell, you don\u2019t get given three points for being \u2018nice\u2019 to opposition teams.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I don\u2019t understand how people can\u2019t see that Jota moves into Guaita because he\u2019s anticipating his touch lifting the ball over the keeper and redirects to collect\/finish past him but mis-kicks it. Whether it\u2019s a penalty or not, I don\u2019t think he intentionally initiates contact.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Preece (@davidpreece12) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidpreece12\/status\/1485385235839733760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 23, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>All of which is to suggest that I don\u2019t think it was a penalty on Diogo Jota yesterday when I absolutely do. Had that tackle been in the midfield, with the ball running out of play for a throw-in, and another player had smashed into the side of our player, there would be no debate whatsoever about whether it was a free-kick or not. I can\u2019t get my head around why there are so many Liverpool fans who seem to think that it shouldn\u2019t be a penalty because Jota was unlikely to get the ball before it ran out of play. It doesn\u2019t matter that he didn\u2019t have control of the ball, nor that he wasn\u2019t going to reach it; both are irrelevant as far as the Laws Of The Game are concerned. As David Preece points out on Twitter, the series of events are that Jota tries to flick it over the goalkeeper and moves to follow the ball, realises it hasn\u2019t gone where he intended and moves to follow it but gets cleaned out. He does not \u2018initiate the contact\u2019, but even if he did, others get pens for that all the time.<\/p>\n<h2>Is There Something More Insidious At Play?<\/h2>\n<p>Every time a big decision goes in Liverpool\u2019s favour, the companies that thrive on controversy roll out former footballers, managers and referees to discuss why it\u2019s a disgrace. I always thought that that sort of thing was because the Reds gain engagement like no other football club and perhaps it is, yet recently I\u2019ve started wondering if there\u2019s something more insidious at play. Anyone from Merseyside has grown up knowing the stereotypes that Scousers have had to face: thieves, robbers, \u2018bin dippers\u2019. The idea that a decision has gone in our favour when others think it shouldn\u2019t have plays straight into those stereotypes, so the likes of TalkSport get to stoke the fires of resentment from opposition supporters time and time again. Whilst I think it\u2019s a penalty on Jota, I can understand why some don\u2019t. Even so, at worst I would say it was debatable, as opposed to the \u2018outrageous\u2019 decision that Darren Ambrose has called it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A Penalty decision that likely had no real impact on the final result is still being discussed and fumed over twenty hours later. What would they all do on a Monday without Liverpool Football Club &#x1f602;&#x1f602;&#x1f602;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CRYLIV?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CRYLIV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stuart Lord (@stuart_lord8) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stuart_lord8\/status\/1485587598257135622?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Neil Warnock was on TalkSport saying that we \u2018got away with murder\u2019, which very much plays into those old stereotypes. The same sort of language isn\u2019t used when Harry Kane or Jamie Vardy win a penalty. It only seems to be Liverpool that cause such an uproar when a mildly debatable decision goes our way, yet to point that out will merely result in calls of \u2018always the victim\u2019. I\u2019m willing to bet that I get several tweets saying exactly that to me when I publish this piece later today. Manchester City have announced major sponsorship deals with companies owned by the people that own the Cityzens, yet that has barely warranted a mention from most quarters. The Sheikh Mansour-owned club is turning the Premier League into a \u2018farmers\u2019 league\u2019 like many criticise the French and German top-flights of being, yet it is Liverpool winning a penalty that has people up in arms. It\u2019s difficult not to feel as though there\u2019s something rather insidious at play here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In many ways, the match against Crystal Palace summed up our season. For the opening half an hour, the Reds were absolutely relentless, putting the Eagles under repeated pressure and not letting them get out. Yet that sense of being completely in control was also undone by our own poor play at times, with sloppiness from Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino twice letting Palace get in on goal without really needing to do anything. We were desperate to be the authors of our own downfall and another team would have happily punished us for those mistakes. Thankfully, we\u2019ve got the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2146,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions\/2146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}