[Archived] Rovers 0-1 Liverpool

[tony gale's mic]

i feel more of the blame should lie at FIFA and not the hapless linesman/ref. granted it wasnt the best of decisions, but something as ambigious as 'whether the player is active' will ALWAYS be open to interpretation. sure we all thought that cissé was active, but it's not watertight. arguments can be made that cissé wasnt. sure, IMO they would be erroneous, but it is mostly fifa's fault for not addressing this key issue.

evidence for thosewanting Rovers in the Champions League, that we are nowhere near ready for it.

i'm not saying we would go onto win it, but you're still talking rubbish. the champions league isnt just made up of your real madrids and chelseas and barcelonas, theres plenty of teams, especially from eastern europe etc, that we could easily get past.

if we progressed to the group stages and got all the money from that (and the pulling power) then it would have been our best chance of improving this team so they could push on and at least be some kind of a force, obviously we'll never be a chelsea or a barca.

sadly that dream for this season at least is over.

[den]

Guys weve had a bit of bad luck. Thing to remember though is that it does more or less even it self out over the course of the season.

399554[/snapback]

I wish someone would prove that to me. I've never believed that's the case and never will.

[philipl]

The TV replay of the offside given against us less than a minute into the second half clearly showed Dickov onside when the ball was played through to him. Liverpool hadn't settled and there was space in the box for just about the only time all game.

[Exiled_Rover]

Have I missed something, when did we play Liverpool? That was Bolton, wasn't it? Long balls, deep defending, negative play, cynical fouls - that's the MO of the Wanderers.

[den]

apparently raising the leg towards the ball as cisse had clearly done is considered inactive 

the ref claims their decision was indeed right cos he didnt touch the ball, thus he's considered "inactive". this whole active and inactive rule is just bullsh!t!

399576[/snapback]

If that was right - that as long as you don't touch the ball, you can't be offside, then every team can have three forwards stood offside and chasing the ball. The flag wont go up.

The FA should come out and say that referee was wrong. Will they? Will they 'ell. When have the FA been seen to stand up for what's right? All their concerned with is denying the facts.

[Oakland]

off (Please don't use that word again)side.

Edited April 16, 2006 by Oakland

[DanLad]

If that was right - that as long as you don't touch the ball, you can't be offside, then every team can have three forwards stood offside and chasing the ball. The flag wont go up.

399608[/snapback]

I thought this at the start of the season when they brought in the daft 'not offside if you don't touch the ball rule' that appears to have been ignored until one incident today!

Stand 3 players offside and just have them shield the ball without touching it. Then have Bellers outpace any of the defenders that are trying to get back/are being shielded and away we go.

When Van Tinselboy scored a clearly offside goal a few years ago and the ref had to make up another excuse for the clear error they came up with the 'not offside if not in the goalies line of vision' excuse/reason. After that Allardyce and Strachan came up with loads of new free kick routines until the FA had to put their hands up and shamefacedly say that the position had been revised, or some thing. I'd recommend that Hughes devise a couple of these types of plays and make a mockery of the rubbish excuses that the refs spout.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Of course it was offside. What a shocking team Liverpool is, Bolton in red shirts.

One other thing that struck me was, considering we were commemorating Hillsborough, was the Scousers standing up throughout the game.

[modes98]

I wish someone would prove that to me. I've never believed that's the case and never will.

399601[/snapback]

It tends to be the case that in the big games where you need the decisions you get sweet fa, yet in the crappy games where you are 3-0 up/down you get a dodgy penalty and then the pundits match 2 totally uncomparible decisions together.

Today for example they said that the wigan decision earned us a point and that has lost us a point, however it would have created a different game with liverpool pressing for the goal, whereas against wigan we were going for it and the match was played out as it should have been until the last.

As far as offside is concerned if cisse is inaceive there then only a touch can be active and a player standing right in front of the keeper blocking his view has to be deemed inactive.

[greggyk]

News coming through from Ewood:

Mark Hughes spotted picking his nose and eating it while on the touchline!!

shocking

also, what a waste of money. Liverpool didn't even try to play football. I thought were boring last season but Liverpool..........ffs. Glad I dont have to watch that crap week in week out. I dont care if they are winning games like that- its play like that, that is killing football.

Edited April 16, 2006 by greggyk

[philipl]

News comming through from Ewood:

Mark Hughes spotted picking his nose and eating it while on the touchline!!

shocking

399616[/snapback]

At last a reason that makes sense and an explanation of the off-side rule I can understand why the ref allowed that goal to stand.

[Eddie]

I totally disagree, show me where the points we've lost have been made up. I'm sure you'll point to the Wigan goal (where we should have had the lead before we went behind anyway) and the game against Newcastle. Big deal, we've lost tons more points than that and it is getting boring. It's regularly been the case now for the past few seasons, ever since we have been promoted really, and it is actually one good reason why I would stop watching football, not that I can. Coming away from a game feeling like you had it taken away from you, rather than making mistakes yourselves or being outplayed, is a horrible feeling and just makes you dislike those running the game. I can't remember a season before where I've seen so many poor decisions made by officials. It is time that they really start being punished for poor performances, not through the empty threat of being demoted, but rather through having substantial cuts in their salaries and even being fired. There seem to be a large number of untouchable officials in the Premiership, very few of them who actually deserve their status.

As for us not being up to Champions League standard, as others have said, take a look at Liverpool today.

[grizfoot]

Shocking decision.

Hyypia won every single ball in the air.

Why didn't Emerton come on?

Liverpool are the most boring team in the prem (level with Notlob).

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

For all our protests over Liverpool's (clearly offside) goal they created the better chances and if it wasn't for Brad we could have gone down 2 or 3-0.

We clearly missed the skill and craft of Tugay today in midfield...yet again our forward line was fed on scraps for most of the game and we simply failed to create even half chances.

Bellamy and Dickov up front does not work full stop.....numero uno priority for Hughes close season is to beg the board for the financial backing that will see us acquire a tall,quality forward.

I can only repeat the comments of others that champions league football is a step too far for Rovers at the moment and today was proof evident for me personally.

P.S.

Nice to see a decent crowd.........NOW LETS DO THE 'BIG CLUB'!!

Edited April 16, 2006 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Blue blood]

All this evening out theroy is absolute rubbish. If you're a small team you win a few and loose a lot - and against the big teams you won't win any. When was the last time a smaller club got a cotraversial decision their way against one of the top four?

Our two pieces of luck this season have hardly been excessive - any ref would've struggled to see MGPs handball - and at the Wigan game we'd already had a legit goal ruled for offside. When compaired with the absolutely blatent offside of todays game, or Savage's second yellow against Boro to cite another example, you can see how rovers have really been screwed over by the refs.

Ok Liverpool had the better chances, but our defence and keeper were equal to them, (Cisse looked fast but a shocking finisher and a wuss to boot) and rovers can justifiably feel agreeved not to have got a point. OK we weren't at our best or created much, but Liverpool scarcely tried to attack in the second half which made it all the more difficult to create something - especially when coming up against the best centre back combo in the premiership. I'm confident that if it had been 0-0 we'd have had that bit more space and as we were playing some decent stuff could have done liverpool some damage. As it was we were up against it and not at our creative best - even with Tugs staying on next season (we really missed him today) looking for a bit more creativity isn't a bad idea. Also another top quality striker is needed although having said that I thoight Dickov did ok in difficult circumstances.

I'm beginning to get a bit nervous about 6th place. If Bolton win against wba which they should and will imo, then it really becomes a lot tighter with little room for slip ups. Ok we're still favourites to get it but we can still be overtaken. A couple more bad results and we could be in real trouble. Having said that even though we weren't at our best if we perform at this level against Brum we should have too much for them. I think 3 pts would settle everyone involved with rovers (including the players) nerves down and set us on the way to europe.

[Fife Rover]

i feel more of the blame should lie at FIFA and not the hapless linesman/ref. granted it wasnt the best of decisions, but something as ambigious as 'whether the player is active' will ALWAYS be open to interpretation. sure we all thought that cissé was active, but it's not watertight. arguments can be made that cissé wasnt. sure, IMO they would be erroneous, but it is mostly fifa's fault for not addressing this key issue.

399600[/snapback]

The cynic in me makes me think that the rule has been changed by FIFA to make the situation deliberately as described above. This enables the match officials to always appear to be "right" any way they see it, and of course it enables them to favour the "big" clubs without appearing to be biased.

[Ozz]

It's quite possible we wont win another game this season.

Brum, Charlton away, Chelsea City at home-no gimmes there.

[DaveyB]

Have I missed something, when did we play Liverpool? That was Bolton, wasn't it? Long balls, deep defending, negative play, cynical fouls - that's the MO of the Wanderers.

399606[/snapback]

Exactly what I thought. When I started watching footy back in about '86 (I'm only a whippersnapper really!) if someone had told me that one day I would see Liverpool play long-ball, kick and rush, ten-men behind the ball and time wasting for most of the 2nd half, I'd have laughed in their face.

Bill Shankly must be turning in his grave!

[tucker]

Of course the goal was offside, utter incompetence from the official, Cisse just had to be active. Our defence pushed up to play him offside and as soon as he motioned towards the ball the flag had to go up, whether he pulled out or not is completely irrelevent.

Considering they are 3rd in the league have invested millions of pounds on their team and are current 'champions of europe', I was considerably unimpressed with Liverpool today.

I thought they were particually negative in their approach and cynical in execution, to see the likes of Reina wasting every possible second he could was extremely disappointing from a team you would expect to go for the kill and finish us of with the style and conviction that a team of their supposed calibre and standing should be capable of.

[RevidgeBlue]

I have to disagree with those who thought Liverpool were the better side, I thought in terms of our overall play and passing we've not played better all season. Friedel hardly had a thing to do until Cisse hit the post in injury time, and overall I thought we dominated possession. The goal completely changed the course of the game because Liverpool had showed nothing going forward but are particularly effective at sitting back and defending a lead.

With Liverpool sitting back in two banks of four the one thing that you could criticise us for in the second half was failing to get in any decent delivery from wide positions, which we needed to do to get them turning.

Reid put in a superb performance in midfield, didn't think anyone had a poor game.

Just about the worst decision I've ever seen for their goal, when Fowler chested the ball on initially there were two players at least 5 yards offside, forget any technical bs about being active or inactive. If there's one bad thing about the premiership it's the appalling bias from officials in favour of the so called big 4. West Brom were the previous victims at Highbury on Saturday, denied a clear penalty and probable draw.

The only good thing is that today's reverse probably won't affect our finishing position one way or the other. Our Champions League chances realistically went with our poor performances against Wigan and Pompey but we should still finish 6th although both ourselves and Bolton seem to be trying to outdo other as to who can throw it away.

[greggyk]

It's quite possible we wont win another game this season.

Brum, Charlton away, Chelsea City at home-no gimmes there.

399631[/snapback]

well its equally possible that we will win all 4 games.

See, i can state the obvious too!

[USABlue]

I was dead set against the "active inactive" crapola when it came out. In fact I do beleive I metioned it was a tool put there to allow Refs to do excatly what they did today. Give the goals to the big clubs and rule them out for the little guys. I mean come on it is such a gray area and open to abuse, it needs to go. As far as our defenders were concerned he was a threat and we shaped up for that, therefore he is very active.

I too was very disappointed Emerton did not get a nod I really really thought he could have been effective down the right instead of Bellers having to go out there. Oh well, we still have a ways to go but I thought we gave a good effort today, 32 clean sheets for Pool they are effective. All in all not too upset about the result, bit sad about the CL chance gone begging but we would have likely embarassed our selves or Arse would go and win it so. I am happy with the progress we made this year.

I found it funny within the first 30 seconds that the commentators started having a go at Rovers about, of all things, the pitch. They said we had it bobbly on purpose just to mess up Pools passing play. Where've they been we have a pretty good passing game ourselves. Dickheads.

[USABlue]

The cynic in me makes me think that the rule has been changed by FIFA to make the situation deliberately as described above. This enables the match officials to always appear to be "right" any way they see it, and of course it enables them to favour the "big" clubs without appearing to be biased.

399628[/snapback]

Bingo, you put it better than I could

[raoul]

When I first started playing as a kid, one of the first things I learnt was to 'play to the whistle'. I'm amazed the number of times I see professional footballers not doing that - waiting for a decision that doesn't come, and then complaining that they were caught out sitting back on their heels.

Did we do this in Cisse's off side? I haven't seen the game, but I've seen this point made on another forum.

Morientes wasn't offside, so presumably he bet the offside trap - how? Was it because we weren't playing to the whistle?

CL was a pipe dream anyway, now we need to show that we can earn a stop in Europe, and that will be sweet when we achieve it.

[Ozz]

well its equally possible that we will win all 4 games.

See, i can state the obvious too!

399637[/snapback]

Wanna bet?