1.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 08:55:57
Klopp fully deserved to be sent off. What he did to the official was unacceptable and he will likely get a deserved fine for it.
However, whilst I agree with a lot of the sentiment of this article, and that officials need to be treated with more respect by the footballing world, I simply do not agree that being a referee is as difficult as is being suggested. The rules are there, learn them and referee the game properly.
The quality of officiating in the Premier League is absolutely appalling, and has been for far too long. Further, the establishment’s response to fair criticism never seems to involve actual improvement, only to rally around those criticized and ignore whatever is thrown their way. Until they begin to show willingness to improve referee performances, they cannot expect others sympathize when they are berated by players/ coaches, even when it goes over the top like Klopp on Sunday.

{Ed025's Note - I agree that the standard of refereeing is very poor Lowel but that is no excuse for abusing them mate. Maybe if they were shown a bit more respect their confidence would improve and up their game. Just a thought..

2.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 09:23:31
I wholeheartedly agree to the yellow card for back chat. However- I think that should go hand in hand with mic’d up refs. Outstanding article and I’m in total agreement that the game is losing its way. I would say the standard of var and refereeing overall is dreadful and one of the major reasons behind it. Nice one seano.

3.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 09:32:32
Don't think it has to do anything with confidence. Coz you don't need confidence when you're just 5 yards away from blatant incident.


Think Klopp was already at a boiling point after the excuses were given from Arsenal game and City game just triggered him especially from the beginning the ref kept on making mistakes after mistake and the Salah one my Gosh ?.

{Ed025's Note - please don’t try and make excuses for his appalling behaviour KF..

4.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 09:33:16
The refs take way too much crap for the players and I'd be delighted with seeing yellows and reds dished out for it. No one should approach a referee other than the team captains and they should do so politely.

If our lads surround the ref, Hendo or Milly or Virgil or whomever has the armband should be telling them in no uncertain terms to f off and then talk to the ref themselves.

That being said, refs need to up their game too. As has been noted several times, the purpose of PGMOL seems to be to protect their members own ass backwards decision making rather than improve the standard of refereeing. And the standard ain't great.

5.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 09:35:52
I was in full agreement with Ed025 until Sunday evening.
When a defender can pull am airbound martial arts throw on another player with a linesman 6 feet away and it goes unseen and unpunished then you're either talking gross incompetence or something a bit more sinister.
I know for a fact that if I performed like that in my job on the Sunday I'd be suspended on the Monday pending a disciplinary and probable dismissal.
All officials will make mistakes, but that "tackle" is amongst the most astonishing things I've seen in a game of that magnitude that went unpunished. There's no "re-training" for that either, if a lineo doesn't see that right under his nose then he's very clearly in the wrong line of work.

{Ed025's Note - it was shocking decision flash I agree with you mate. But klopps reaction was well over the top and it incites fans..

6.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 10:41:28
I completely agree Ed, and it sends a wromg message to those playing at youth level too. It's not a coincidence that abuse towards officials abd general aggro is on the rise, figureheads like Klopp should be using their influence to discourage that. Leading by example, set the tone for others to follow.
There are always decisions that will be disputed in any game, but there's no place at any level of the game for aerial judo throw to be completely ignored and go unpunished.
The FA and the Premier League could help by announcing that they're looking into how that kind of challenge gets ignored or missed, acknowledge that it was seriously below their required standard.
Guardiola didn't exactly cover himself in glory either when their goal was correctly disallowed, so both managers really need a kick up the hoop for their pitchside behaviour.

{Ed025's Note - your spot on flash mate..

7.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 11:03:54
Klopp himself has apologized for his conduct and outburst so no need beating a dead horse on that one. If a lot more managers actually owned up to their own wretched behavior (I won't mention any names) and outbursts like Klopp often does, maybe we would get somewhere as well.

As for the incident itself, it is typical of the absolute incompetence of refs which I think at this point, is what the overlords actually want. It generates clicks as controversy sells. What I do not like is doing it on the backs of footballers and managers who are just trying to compete hence, creating an uneven playing field.

That WWE takedown of Salah would have been a foul and a yellow had it happened to Harry Kane, KDB, etc. BUT cos it's Salah, "Oh, there's not much there". This is what I mean by an uneven playing field being created on purpose in real time which is what Klopp goes ballistic about. Is he right to be mad? Yes, absolutely and who wouldn't be under the circumstances? Had Salah done his shoulder there with no punishment, it would have been Pickford/ VVD all over again. Also, notice that NOBODY talked about that incidence on MOTD or on Sky. I wonder why?

{Ed025's Note - don’t give me all this “poor me poor me” nonsense oli. Yes it was a poor challenge and probably deserved a yellow card. But trying to justify klopps behaviour is farcical mate. Liverpool players are not angels either but it’s gone now and it’s time to move on. But we do need better behaviour from players and managers so as not to incite the crowd and of course better standards from the officials..

8.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 11:12:13
Not defending Klopp's reaction at all ed25 mate just saying the facts which a lot of people are afraid to say.

{Ed025's Note - ok mate..

9.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 11:24:50
Completely agree klopp deserved the red card for his behaviour no matter the standard of refereeing.
There is no excuse for the reported coin throwing or the vile chanting from both sets of fans.
Unfortunately this is now a common occurrence from small amounts of fans from lots of teams.
This is no excuse but I have to wonder sky pundits banged on about how good the ref was and let so many tackles go to allow the flow of the game. But I thought he was awful. Now if you’re a neutral you might enjoy it but if you’re a fan of either team playing you are going to get riled by the standard of officiating. The other thing how can they decide they will officiate 1 match in this way but not the other hundreds of games in the season. No foul given on Salah by Bernardo yet look at 90% of the pens that Harry Kane gets awarded?
The prem maybe need to get strict and only allow the captain to talk to the refs or start handing out bans to players breaking these rules. Mic the refs up so they are held accountable for what they are saying and also hear the levels of abuse they receive from players. Might make for difficult broadcasting but if the players and managers show the officials more respect maybe fans will follow suit?

{Ed025's Note - good post that ibiza mate..

10.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 12:14:24
It is ironic that UK pundits tell us that this is the type of thing we want to see and that refs should let this stuff go. Personally, I don't want to see shirts being pulled under any circumstance. That is blatant cheating not to mention dangerous.

Grabbing a shirt should be an immediate yellow card.

On Salah, because he stays on his feet and is a physical specimen, it is assumed he can never be fouled. If anything, Klopp doesn't moan about it enough. It was the same for Sadio Mane.

{Ed025's Note - “klopp doesn’t moan enough “!!! Give your head a wobble mate..

11.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 12:31:07
Ed025 - Klopp's moaning keeps you in a job mate.

{Ed025's Note - very true mate.. ?

12.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 13:01:15
Definitely. even klopp agreed its a red???two wrongs don't make a wrong right.

13.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 13:06:27
I think the best thing the game can do is bring more transparency and public engagement for the referees. On TV and in the stands no one has any idea what they're saying, how they're making their decisions etc etc. It's not perfect in other sports but at least you can debate based on what their logic was. Klopp obviously got carried away, he got a red card, apologized and took responsibility for it. If people are still bagging on about him, then I think you just have a vendetta coa what else do you want to happen, other than for it to not have happened?

14.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 12:49:14
Why are the officials not made accountable?

Klopp made a mistake and got punished, but the officials made a blatant mistake and got free.

15.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 13:30:33
The two seem to go together. The refs are not respected because they make mistakes too frequently and never own up or take any responsibility. This leads to the lack of respect. The football association then feels the need to protect the refs even when they are wrong.
Personally I feel respect is earned, if the refs upped their game to reduce incorrect decisions and held cheating players accountable, a lot of the unsavory diving and harrasing of the refs would decrease.
But the refs need to hold themselves accountable before they try to do so with others.

16.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 13:42:34
I agree with all the sentiments regarding officiating standards - it is very poor and is often difficult to understand how certain decision are made. On the flip side referees are human and there will always be errors - the more harassment they receive, the more cheating we see from players, the more errors you would likely see. I believe respect for the officials goes hand in hand with improving standards, the bigger issue however is the wider impact the behavior of star players and managers has. The respect has to come first in my opinion, even if it has no discernible impact on officiating quality, just because the message it is sending out currently is miles away from being good enough.

17.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 12:58:11
ED25, where in my post did I defend Klopp's conduct. I said he had a right to be mad under the circumstances. Did I say his outburst was okay? Pls, show me where I said that. Pls, point it out. I'll wait.

{Ed025's Note - you never in that post oli. Sorry if I implied you did mate..

18.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 13:02:43
But its kinda infuriating that we seem to get these everywhere ed025.take the paris spectacle for example. and we have told we will ban people who threw coin on pep right. city are just turning blind eye.

{Ed025's Note - Paris was an absolute disgrace liverbird. But let’s not pretend Liverpool supporters are all sweetness and light mate..

19.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 14:07:51
The ref apparently said he was going to let the game play, according to Pep and he did let it play to an extent. Pretty sure he didn't say he wasn't going to give any fouls which is completely different. That would be daft, just imagine? There was 17 fouls in the game and 4 yellow, so that makes my point. Big difference from letting a game play and not giving any fouls.

20.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 14:30:09
I get the subjectivity and tolerance on fouls, to an extent. However, any grabbing of the shirt should be a straightforward foul. I don't know when shirt-pulling suddenly became an accepted part of the game.

21.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 14:44:13
Thanks for the clarification, ED25. I just didn't want you to accuse me of what I didn't do. We're still good, right?

{Ed025's Note - all good mate ?..

22.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 15:48:03
It should be one in the memory bank for Salah.
The next time we play City, Mo should be thinking 'I owe Silva'.

23.) 18 Oct 2022
18 Oct 2022 18:13:45
Great article seano (really missed your match review) totally agree on the lack of respect for refs and that rugby has it so right.

No one can say there's a lack of emotion in rugby, 30 guys 15 to 20 stone smashing into each other, yet the few times a match a player stays down you know he's hurt. Little or no cheating.

Miked up refs, open debate between the ref and var and most importantly zero acception of intimidating the ref, if you taught Nigel Owens the rules of football and sent him out on the pitch with the same rules regarding approaching the ref id guarantee the abuse would stop, admittedly it would probably end up 5 vrs 6 but it would stop.

24.) 19 Oct 2022
19 Oct 2022 04:12:03
@idontlooklikeklopp - I agree, the problem is there needs to be a will to change how things are and nobody, from any sort of governing body or authority, seems to want to do that in football. Eeking out as much money as possible from whatever new venture, reformat, dodgy World Cup, etc seems to be their only concern and whilst that remains the issues regarding respect, officiating quality and player/ manager behavior will remain.

I couldn’t watch the game as I had work the next day unfortunately thus no match report - hopefully next weekend.