29/11/2020
Jürgen Klopp does not deserve to be chastised by a gobsh*te like Des Kelly on the final whistle.
He doesn’t deserve it, because he makes valid points - unlike Des, who once thought it was acceptable to ‘joke’ about Scousers and hubcaps in a Daily Mail column.
Klopp is not alone in saying playing late on Wednesday and early on Saturday is not enough recovery time for professional athletes — because in the modern game, that’s exactly what the players are.
So who is Des Kelly to decide Klopp is “going about things in a strange manner”?
Klopp is contractually obliged to talk to the cameras after the game, and it was clear today he couldn’t be arsed. Who can blame him? Sometimes the circus around the game is wearing. Today is one of those days.
The match wasn’t the best. By the end the players, not surprisingly, looked tired. James Milner was added to a barely believable injury list with a hamstring issue.
And to compound it all, here we are talking about VAR again. BT’s Tesco Value Swiss Toni was looking for a story, looking for a scalp — Klopp knew it, and said so.
He was spot on about that, and he was spot on when he said there needs to be an acceptance of the current situation. This isn’t just carry on regardless. This isn't the same as it ever was. The schedule is relentless. Abnormally so. There was barely a pre-season. And players are dropping like flies. So why not some common sense?
With recovery time so vital, why couldn’t the Everton game kick off early and the Liverpool one late? Why are we still waiting for a fresh conversation about five subs in the Premier League, too?
Somewhere else common sense needs to be applied is clearly VAR.
A toe offside, an armpit offside, a p**e, an eyebrow, hair on your arm...who wanted this?
It was supposed to add to the game, but it has taken away. The joy of goals has been replaced by the pause for them to be allowed; spontaneous celebration making way for the moments of ‘is it, isn’t it’.
More, there is little guarantee of accuracy. While officials at monitors draw confusing lines and replay moments to experience a different, slower, reality to actual real life, there is every chance they are examining the wrong still. The frame rate isn’t fast enough to capture every moment of a c.23mph sprint, or a ball travelling at c.70mph.
So it’s best guess stuff. That being the case, why is there not a bigger margin of error? Why isn’t more left to the officials on the pitch instead of the increasing reliance on those off it? There’s clear and obvious, and there’s stopping and starting the game over and over to give anything and everything. Why are we even watching people draw lines that are seemingly drawn from different angles and different body parts each time?
There will likely be some reductive stuff about all this being borne out of bitterness at the result. Fine, it is. But this is happening all too often. And not just to Liverpool. It’s changing football from what we knew and loved into something else, something different, something worse…
Watch that penalty decision again. No Brighton player appeals for it. It’s the very definition of ‘a soft one’ and even Brighton players said the same. Liverpool got fortunate with the missed penalty first half. Brighton were fortunate to get another go for an accidental kick to the bottom of a boot which didn’t influence play and was far from being malicious.
It’s a shame we’re talking about all this. But here we are. It could have been a conversation about Gini’s pristine performance in midfield or another superb goal from Diogo Jota – that's nine in 14 now. Quite the return.
But on we go. A few days of talking about weird lines on crap monitors and then it’s Ajax on Tuesday and Wolves on Sunday.
Maybe if these VAR lads had something better than an Alba TV and an Etch-A-Sketch to work with there would be a little more faith in the process. As it is, it just feels like there is more pain to come.
Liverpool top of the league, for now. But after all the could have beens today, it feels a bit flat, doesn’t it?
Up The Reds,
Robbo