Liverpool 2 PGMOL 2 – VARs Simply DO NOT Give Liverpool Foul Penalties

Floodlight robbery by Stuart Attwell, yet again (bumper post-match fume!)

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Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

Liverpool were sensational, as I will get on to (as will the gang), with ten men against the disgusting, fat-cat, <insert the obvious next phrase> PGMOL.

Liverpool magic, PGMOL tragic.

I have no argument at all with the 100%, nailed-on red card for Andy Robertson for his DOGSO challenge, which was as bad as his two recent ones for penalties, on a day when he deflected the first goal past Alisson Becker too (while the second Fulham goal was going wide until it hit Joe Gomez’s heel).

Here’s a list of Anfield DOGSOs in Liverpool’s favour since prior to the arrival of Jürgen Klopp:

Yup, ZERO!

And here’s a list of the foul penalties given to Liverpool by VAR since its introduction in 2019. (Click to enlarge.)

Long list, isn’t it? Feel free to share it and any of the pre-paywall content in this piece, as I lose my shit about the dodgy-as-fuck PGMOL yet again.

This compares with TEN for Man City and SEVEN for Man United.

Here’s Liverpool’s list again, in five and a half years:

Now, Manchester clubs’ list:

David Coote ALONE gave each Manchester club two foul penalties each, albeit the fact that he worked at the Manchester FA for four years continues to be memory-holed even when publications talk about the contents of his LinkedIn page, and investigations into him in 2017 from his time at a local FA.

Again, in 205 Premier League games, two foul penalties to Liverpool via the VAR.

One every 102.5 games!

Foul penalty-rate by Coote to Manchester clubs?

In just 25 games as a VAR he intervened FOUR times to give Manchester clubs penalties. One every 6.25 games.

• All VARs’ Liverpool Foul Penalties Received: 1 every 102.5 games (2 total)

• David Coote’s Manchester club Foul Penalties: 1 every 6.25 games (4 total)

If the ref doesn’t give a foul, the VAR WILL NOT GIVE A FOUL. You can place bets on this and get rich, if there’s a betting market for such madness.

(Also, only one ever given by any VAR against Man City, in 205 games.)

This has been the case for the entirety of VAR … apart from a couple of months in early 2022. No Liverpool player since 2019 has been fouled in the box, other than Diogo Jota, and it not be seen by the ref.

For Liverpool, all VARs, across all VAR-time … and it’s one foul penalty every 102.5 games, and none from Paul Tierney and Stuart Attwell who between them have done the best part of 100 games, and given foul penalties against Liverpool. (Their vision suddenly works in those cases.)

That this was at Anfield, at the Kop end, should surprise no one who follows my outlining of the data.

Accidental?! Holy fucking cow! A foul has to be intentional now?! They’re making this shit up as they go along! It’s up there with “they both came in high”.

Tete sticks his leg right into Joe Gomez’s path, because he’s not looking at Gomez. Gomez has every right to make that run, and Tete just doesn’t see him.

In this case, someone missed the ball so badly, a la Jordan Pickford, that they may have broken their own leg kicking Gomez. The impact was so great he injured himself.

Luckily Gomez’s leg wasn’t broken. Again, it’s an accident, but accidents are what comprise most fouls!

Weirdly, Andy Robertson was kicked in a similar manner in the first minute, i.e. accidentally.

That was a foul.

And a yellow card.

But could have been a red.

Still, it was given as a foul.

This was much worse and … not a foul!

(Edit: added photos above, as well as showing the nasty Achilles-raker on Ryan Gravenberch.)

If the foul on Robertson was a foul, and it was a foul, then the foul on Gomez was assault! As with Pickford’s, maybe the ref didn’t quite understand what happened, which is why you need the VAR.

Except, Stuart Attwell is a spineless idiot who sees nothing on a regular basis. We might as well have Clement Attlee in the VAR seat, who died in 1967.

THIS IS THE SAME FUCKING STUART ATTWELL WHO DIDN’T GIVE THE DOKU PENALTY LAST SEASON.

That helped derail Liverpool, just as Coote had earlier in the Arsenal game as a VAR who didn’t deem it a handball when Martin Ødegaard twice handled. This is a pattern, beyond all doubt.

I can bore the fuck out of people by listing all the clear foul penalties not given to Liverpool by ref and then the sleeping VAR, but that one should be given by a VAR over every 100 games is just utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly fucking crazy.

Don’t make me reach the other c-words, but corrupt springs to mind, when it’s that obvious.

Just as Liverpool went over 300 games (eight years) without an opponent getting a second Premier League yellow, or the recent 9-12 fouls against in games before being given one, the odds of which are also astronomical.

Again, Gomez was running into the box, and Kenny Tete did not see him. Just as when a goalkeeper moves to punch the ball and accidentally punches a forward, he didn’t mean to foul Gomez. But he fucking-well poleaxed him at 1-1. Most fouls are unintentional.

In one of his very first games for the Reds, Virgil van Dijk went to clear the ball and instead kicked Erik Lamela who got his body in the way. Clear penalty. You can name thousands of penalties over the years for accidental foul when someone didn’t see the player making the blind-side run, or just the front-on run.

And DOGSOs at Anfield! No Liverpool player can ever be denied a goalscoring chance at Anfield, as that’s the law.

It’s ironic to get one against – a clear one – after I’ve frequently and recently listed half a dozen clear ones that haven’t been given to Liverpool in the past DECADE (including two this season), and none have gone to Liverpool (other than a handball on the goalline).

Actual obvious DOGSO fouls weren’t given if it was Mo Salah and the ref was David “my nose is clean” Coote. Salah can be kicked, hauled back and nothing. Andy Robertson with a late tackle, off you go.

Again, that rotten word, Coote.

But no, he’s a good chap, old Cooty Toots, ex-Manchester FA.

Stephen Warnock then said on commentary that Liverpool should not worry, the 1-2 minutes for the injury to Alex Iwobi’s supposedly injured bollocks would be added on to the end of injury time.

It wasn’t! Ha! Who would have guessed?!

Also, Darren Cann, the blind blimp on the line, couldn’t even tell when a ball was in play or out of play, because AT NEARLY FIFTY-SIX YEARS OF AGE, his beer belly obstructs half of Anfield.

This is the PGMOL, folks.

I mean, fat-shaming is a bad thing, I get that – but being old and out of shape is not what this elite league needs. He’s nearly a pensioner, for fuck’s sake. He’s getting up towards sixty years of age, and is in the shape of a Weeble. For crying out loud!

I’ll get onto the joys of Liverpool’s play against the odds (and in the week I’ll have some really encouraging historical comparisons on the deeper data), but the PGMOL needs investigating, not just David “a really nice bloke” Coote.

At the very least, it needs to be aware of the horrific errors it is making on a regular basis that means Liverpool simply do not get VAR penalties for fouls.

I didn’t mind Tony Harrington as a ref on the earlier showings, but he now looks like just another guy sent to derail Liverpool given how he didn’t add the time he so clearly made a point of saying he’d add, as well as not going back to send off the guy who pulled Ryan Gravenberch’s shirt while on a booking, and Gravenberch just carried on.

There’s the punishment for not just stopping when fouled. That could have made it 10 vs 10, but the big officiating fuck-up was the VAR crime of no penalty for Liverpool at 1-1.

But hey, the Reds were fucking ace today. Possibly the best display under Arne Slot, after the red card.

That was superb football, 10 vs 11. (Sorry, 10 vs however many the PGMOL had on their side today.)

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