Liverpool vs. Aston Villa: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

A patchy display, but yet more "I'm on drugs" officiating via the PGMOL's motley crew (ref and VAR), with terrible decisions and basically allowing Villa to turn the game into a dog-turd – game-vandalism, not the merely half-true "time-wasting" – before adding 10 minutes that Villa could also turn into a dog-turd.

Thankfully Bobby Firmino gained a point with his last-ever shot at the Kop end just before that added time was added, but his farewell was ruined by the plague of the Premier League, which is the worst of the big leagues for ball-in-play time; a league becoming duller to watch because of duller teams with duller tactics and dullard officials, as well as all the financial dopers. It's making Italian football look fast and all-above-board.

And, if diving forwards with six studs into someone's chest isn't a red card, it's hard to know what is; unlike Diogo Jota's high boot against Spurs where people said it should be a red (it shouldn't have as he was trying to cushion a dropping ball), this was a forceful action; more forceful even than Sadio Mané at City. This was full body-weight into Gakpo's chest, for fuck's sake.

Mings is 6'5", weighs a ton. Dangerous, reckless, and an obvious red card fudged. And while Villa got a legitimate penalty, Liverpool were also denied one for a clip on a turning Jordan Henderson, and then had a goal ruled out for offside for the kind of goal that would stand most other weeks, with the bizarre sight of the ref viewing the monitor to judge interference with play.

ESPN tweeted:

This challenge by Mings on Gakpo left a mark 😳

There was a VAR check for a potential red card but nothing was given.

And notice that Gakpo is not crouching or leaning down into it; he’s a big guy too. It’s insane.

By then Villa, aided by yet another poor ref, this time on his Anfield debut with the whistle (the one who, as 4th official, Klopp had gestured towards against Spurs, so obviously he would be given this game) had turned the match into a pile of shit anyway.

Who had 77 minutes for the perpetually time-wasting goalkeeper to be booked, then not booked again for time-wasting thereafter? Isn't this beyond a cliché? Final warning. Final warning. Final warning. Final warning.

Liverpool never got into a rhythm as any tackle was deemed a foul, and any foul was a chance to waste 60 seconds; a torn eyelash, a fractured fingernail tip.

Villa had several head injuries just from heading the ball away, with is shithousery trick 101, like John Terry parking in a disabled bay to get his fish and chips; he takes the piss because he knows he can.

Villa played on when they had someone down injured, then surrounded the ref when they lost the ball. They screamed at the ref to get Fabinho booked from the very start of the game. Is this the ‘product’ you want, Premier League?

Villa are a good team, but I'm sick of sides coming to Anfield to spoil with shithouse tactics – beyond the laws of the game – that need cracking down on in the early minutes, not as token gestures at the end; this followed the Brentford template, and is a stain on the game.

And again, adding the time on at the end and allowing the time-wasting and game-vandalism to continue, is like saying to a Formula One driver “I'll be kind, here's more petrol” after they've just set their car on fire.

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