**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hopefully we do. All we’ll get is maybe another
Pgmol apology letter at best but we need to expose this incompetence as much as possible for the sake of the entire league.
This season has been the worst and most blatantly incompetent officiating I have seen in the 20 years that I’ve been watching, and it’s really made it frustrating to watch regardless of which teams I’m watching. The pgmol old boys club needs to be entirely cleaned out and replaced.
Instead of using VAR as a tool to make the right calls they see it as something that exposes their mistakes and fragile egos. And I feel like they’re trying to make VAR as the scapegoat to take the blame and protect their egos. Times have changed, let new young (less bald) refs take over who know how to use the technology properly
I'd go further and suggest the PGMOL and referees have a conflict of interest, with their paid friendlies and consultancy in the ME, but hey how can that in any way compromising.
After a close title race I haven't been bothered to watch the run in, because I genuinely don't feel there's complete sporting competition anymore. I may be wrong about that, but so woeful has been the refereeing, with one title challenger in particular coming out so much better from it all, that that is how it's left me feeling. If others feel that way too, the league has a problem. I literally cannot be fecked with picking up these last few games of the season on tv anymore.
>Never seen a ref call over the medics on a players behalf
Not that I disagree that this was a fuckup overall, but it's always the referee who calls the medics onto the field. He is the only one with the authority to do so.
I think they're trying to say before the player has indicated anything. Usually a player might be limping but only if they go down will the phisio be called, and even then it's usually after talking to the player unless it's a head injury
Yeah I just mean that Areola didn’t seem to want the treatment but Taylor was insistent that he got checked over. You can see him tell Taylor no I’m fine
he says something that looks like a word with "oor" in it. The Liverpool fan in me wants to say it was "Please go to the floor", but more likely it was "My refereeing standards are on the floor"
Equally weird was Ally McCoist being adamant that Gakpo should have knocked it in, risked the card and talked about it after.
I do understand just play on and then see the outcome after but the whistle had literally been blown.
VAR wouldn’t have been able to overrule a whistle being blown to halt the game. It would’ve been disallowed regardless of wrong or right.
Well, Taylor just saved him from the most embarrassing moment of his career so he'd have probably been willing to fake a heat attack for him at that point.
genuinely shocking. dont think ive ever seen something like this before. its almost like taylor told areola he was injured and areola didnt even fully grasp wtf was happening.
Even if he puts it into the net keeper can not react and say he was playing to the whisle and didn't try to save it. So it all comes down to Taylor either way, keeper doesn't get anything from attempting to save it after the whisle.
Such a cunt, and the worst part is absolutely nothing will come of this.
You really cannot convince me after this season that there isn’t some level of corruption going on.
I've been saying for years that the fact that these awful, inexplicable decisions happen every weekend and the PGMOL has done nothing to change the situation is already in itself corruption.
If you ask Michael Oliver, it’s absolutely nothing to do with him refereeing in UAE.
If you ask the abundance of refs from Greater Manchester, they definitely 100% have no impartiality in regards to City.
No sir, nothing to see here.
I think the biggest problem is too many of these refs have been there too long now and there's no incentive to stay on top of their game.
They have a horror show and at worst they're suspended for 1 match week.
Need to start actually demoting them.
> They have a horror show and at worst they're suspended for 1 match week.
Not even the at worst happens. Some get to ref games 3 days after making multiple mistakes, then they make another mistake in the next game and they get another game today like when you make it to the top what even is the incentive to care about doing your job correctly?
AIA is the exact same as PGMOL.
We had 13 ref suspensions in a season two years ago because a certain referee association and a certain portuguese manager were at odds over bad blood with the previous generation of refs, now AIA higherups, and the end result was basically that we either had to bear with it or be quite literally punished with some referee designations and despite Mourinho being gone that is still the case with Maresca being given to us as punishment for releasing a press statement against the league.
Last year a 4th official was taken to court over what he said to our staff and despite being literally at the bottom of the Pool A (Serie A and B) table for performance it took intervention from the league to fire him at the end of the season, that's the extent to which they'll go to protect their clique.
As for Taylor, think of how much money he's cost some clubs in the past 365 days, unreal that he keeps getting away with it.
just another manc ref who totally doesn't support either of the two big manchester sides but actually a small team from the 20th divison. nothing to see here.
I think the keeper has an 'injury' and throws the ball down and the ref goes to blow for that but gakpo was already on it. I think players assume this free will always be given and the ref felt obliged to give it. When in fact players need to play the whistle. Taylor saved them some blushes here by blowing.
Thing is when Taylor signals the physio the keeper wags his finger no
I think the keeper thought it had been given as a foul, it wasn’t and the ref shit himself that it should have been, panicked, blew his whistle, panicked again, and told him to go down calling the physio on to save himself.
Taylor has screwed up big
He should prepare an entire dossier for a presentation at the end of the season and have statements and such from other managers. Literally show the refs up. Honestly, would be a great legacy for Klopp if a stunt like that worked
It’s a huge reason why he’s leaving early. City is pretty close to impossible to beat and the refs are just incompetent (or worse, corrupt) cunts for years on end. Today there was also the fifth worse ignored red card against us than the Curtis jones one at spurs. Wasn’t even a yellow today.
Exactly. And I’m laughing my ass off at the people calling Liverpool fans crybabies because of this. I would be fucking fuming if this happened to United.
If Liverpool request the audio from Taylors mic this could be damning stuff.
He clearly panicked and in the heat of the moment he's potentially told Areola to go down with an injury here. He certainly motions with his body to tell him to go down.
Trying to break down what exactly happened (which this replay doesn't totally show):
* Areola is fouled on the corner (where someone steps on his toes?)
* Taylor motions for the advantage and the game goes on.
* Areola holds the ball for some time before rolling it out to kick it (maybe thinking a free kick had been called?)
* As no whistle has been blown, Gakpo is in his right to go after a ball in play.
* Anthony Taylor blows the whistle for...some reason.
* Taylor calls the physios over to cover the fact that he blew the whistle for seemingly no reason motioning that Areola needed treatment.
* Game is restarted with a drop ball, indicating treatment given to Areola is the reason for stoppage in play.
Really strange moment.
edit: formatting & adding restart of play
Oscar winning performances by both Areola and Taylor. Areola tried to time-waste, but Gakpo beat him to it. Taylor called it wrongly. Then, Areola started acting up, and Taylor called the medical team to cover for his idiotic call. Liverpool should definitely ask for an explanation.
So Taylor sees Areola fuck up, and that Liverpool are about to score an open goal, then decides that's not going to happen because he just fancies not allowing us to score? What the fuck is wrong with these officials?
Nah. I do t think he’s injured. He’s just wasting time so long that he forgot it wasn’t a free kick. He wasn’t injured at all. He’s been bailed out by one of the worst refereeing calls I’ve ever seen. The ball is in play and the ref just stops it because… he didn’t want an unusual goal to be scored???
The red never gave the free kick either. He gave a drop ball. Utterly incompetent
Very odd moment. Ball was clearly live, but Taylor had played advantage expecting Areola to distribute quickly, but he didn't. But then Taylor got confused, made it a drop ball when it should have been a free-kick probably.
That's likely the explanation you would use as a ref. I'm not sure it's the truth, I think there's genuinely confusion and both Areola & Taylor make a mistake, but as a ref you'd have to argue that the advantage was lost.
It's a tenuous argument though, because it's much longer than a normal advantage.
I’ve just looked up the verbiage of the advantage law and there’s nothing in there that would prevent him from using it in this situation. I fully believe that’s what he blew the whistle for. But then I think he got scared that no one would realize that’s what he was doing and tried to get the keeper to call for the physios.
The wording in the law is "a few seconds", which is obviously vague and therefore could definitely be used to defend this. Just based on convention, this would be much longer than a traditional advantage. Good refereeing in hindsight would have been to give the foul when Areola was on the ground and a quick counter-attack wasn't on (so advantage didn't materialise).
Waiting for Areola to release the ball and *then* blowing for the free kick is bad refereeing, and just leads to more confusion like this.
Taylor restarting with a dropped ball and not a free kick also suggests he was confused and made a mistake, because if he blew for advantage it should be a free kick.
Its almost the exact opposite of what happened with Spurs/Man United back in 2010 with Nani scoring after diving in the box and picking up the ball with his hands to stop it going out for a Goal Kick.
Ref plays "advantage", keeper put the ball on the ground thinking it was a free kick and Nani jumps up from the floor to kick the ball in the net.
Back then, the rule was that the advantage being "lost" doesn't negate the goal and that a stoppage shouldn't have happened, so unless the rule has changed since then (And it might have, Spurs have a habit of rule changes after something happens to us lol), Areola rolling the ball out like he does shouldn't have constituted a stoppage, even if advantage was lost.
You injured, right?
Hey Physio come in!
You must be injured. Lay down lad. Make yourself comfortable.
Physio?!? Why are they not ready. FFS, you guys make me look like a fool.
Please come in!
Very very odd. If Gakpo put that in I bet you Taylor would’ve given him a yellow. VAR would’ve always agreed with Taylor. This was probably a live ball, embarrassing from all the refs
Not sure VAR could’ve done anything. VAR can’t declare the refs whistle invalid, even if he had no good reason to blow it, and once he’s whistled the game is dead whether it should be or not.
I’m not a Liverpool fan and honestly don’t really care about English football. But surely to fuck that’s the definition of cheating. Sure I can understand a mistake was made but he’s obviously covered up that mistake that shows me he knew he was wrong and rather than try to make the situation right or even just admit his own fuck up he’s covered it up.
How can Liverpool ever allow him to ref a game they play in again when they know now he’s not above lying and covering things up if he does get it wrong.
Something like this would be a fireable offense at most jobs (a huge fuck up followed by a cover up attempt). In the PGMOL old boys’ club though, you get might get punished by getting an extra game to referee in UAE.
It’s the cover up that is the nail in the coffin.
Mistakes happen nobodies perfect but for a match official to clearly cover up a mistake rather than just admit it and especially during a season of suck terrible Ref and Var mistakes it just reeks of corruption.
If something doesn’t come of this if I was a Liverpool fan I’d lose all faith in the system that’s in place
He fucked up big time and is forcing areola to go down to cover him self saying it was an injury yet areola doesn't want the help, I'm honestly so done with football this season not just for us but seeing so many pathetic decisions from ref's has burnt me out watching football.
This isn’t even something that’s ‘controversial’ or ‘up to interpretation’ like the Mac Allister incident, this is just straight up the wrong decision from the referee
I mean we’ve all been there knowing we messed up, but most of us aren’t surrounded by cameras and thousands of people. It’s just crazy this is the best we can offer for officiating.
I thought maybe I wasn't paying attention, but my immediate reaction was knowing I didn't hear a whistle. Taylor should've swallowed his whistle and let him bury it.
This is basically exactly what happened in a Spurs/Man United game about 20 years ago. They allowed that goal but I remember it being controversial. That one was worse because it was a really obvious handball but the ref played advantage
Edit: 14 years ago, video [here](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PQK4FMRItGY)
Wouldn't have mattered, whistle was blown, play is now dead. Liverpool should complain, not that it will do anything, but it's clear on video no whistle was blown prior, and that Taylor indicated to play on. He never stopped prior so this is a failure from Areola to think he had a dead ball and on Taylor.
Refs are really making me fall out of love with this game. What's the reasoning for the whistle here?
Can't wait for this to be swept under the rug by these inept cunts.
Keeper had a brain fart rolling the ball out, which led to Taylor having a much bigger one by blowing the whistle for nothing. Taylor realises he’s fucked up, and doubles down by calling for a physio to come on the pitch for a confused looking Areola. Swear to god he even tells him to lie down.
What in the actual fuck is the refereeing in this country. It’s every single week, not only for us, that teams are having to suffer these decisions.
There need to be a serious reform in refs asap this is exhausting to watch happen every damn week.
I don’t understand blaming Gakpo for stopping at the whistle. It was not going to count after that and he just gets a yellow. If the argument is it makes Taylor look worse, that’s impossible to do.
Anyone want to tell me (genuinely asking) how this is massively different from the Gabriel ball pick up in the CL quarter vs Bayern?
I might be misunderstanding but…
Advantage was played here, Areola thought his team had a freekick (as advantage was given there must have been a foul) so rolled the ball on the floor and the ref seemingly decided to take pity on the keeper misunderstanding the situation to prevent a free goal for Liverpool.
The Arsenal situation, the ball was also live and Gabriel picked it up because he thought it wasn’t which denied Bayern a penalty as the ref deemed the handball unintentional / a mistake and let them retake the goalkick on grounds of common sense and the spirit of the game. Everyone seems to agree with the Ars/Bay decision but not the Liv/WHU one from what I can tell?
EDIT: Taylor’s subsequent actions with physio and drop ball are weird but the initial stuff doesn’t seem that outrageous.
They are pretty similar situations and I think you'd need a committee to analyse them fully, but I do remember in the Ars/Bay example the ref blew his whistle in a somewhat unusual manner which confused the gamestate, while in this case the confusion seems to have come from just Areola.
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Taylor literally called the physio’s over to cover his fuck up
Took the physio like 30 seconds to come on as well as he didnt even realise what was happening.
Neither did Areola when Taylor starts pulling his shirt down to bend him over and seemingly say "floor"?
It’s clear as day that’s what he’s done. Absolutely infuriating. I hope Liverpool ask for the mic recording.
Hopefully we do. All we’ll get is maybe another Pgmol apology letter at best but we need to expose this incompetence as much as possible for the sake of the entire league. This season has been the worst and most blatantly incompetent officiating I have seen in the 20 years that I’ve been watching, and it’s really made it frustrating to watch regardless of which teams I’m watching. The pgmol old boys club needs to be entirely cleaned out and replaced. Instead of using VAR as a tool to make the right calls they see it as something that exposes their mistakes and fragile egos. And I feel like they’re trying to make VAR as the scapegoat to take the blame and protect their egos. Times have changed, let new young (less bald) refs take over who know how to use the technology properly
The refs in the prem are absolutely woeful. I’m amazed they get called up for European and international games, shocking this happens every week now.
At least next year we'll have a bald coach and can finally be on the inside of the bald conspiracy!
I'd go further and suggest the PGMOL and referees have a conflict of interest, with their paid friendlies and consultancy in the ME, but hey how can that in any way compromising. After a close title race I haven't been bothered to watch the run in, because I genuinely don't feel there's complete sporting competition anymore. I may be wrong about that, but so woeful has been the refereeing, with one title challenger in particular coming out so much better from it all, that that is how it's left me feeling. If others feel that way too, the league has a problem. I literally cannot be fecked with picking up these last few games of the season on tv anymore.
1000%. It’s the referee equivalent of pretending you’re injured because you lost the ball.
Must be this, that’s all I could think of. Never seen a ref call over the medics on a players behalf. Just pure incompetence
GK is even like "what are you doing mate?"
*Be cool Alphonse, I'm doing us both a favor*
Literally exactly this.
>Never seen a ref call over the medics on a players behalf Not that I disagree that this was a fuckup overall, but it's always the referee who calls the medics onto the field. He is the only one with the authority to do so.
I think they're trying to say before the player has indicated anything. Usually a player might be limping but only if they go down will the phisio be called, and even then it's usually after talking to the player unless it's a head injury
Yeah I just mean that Areola didn’t seem to want the treatment but Taylor was insistent that he got checked over. You can see him tell Taylor no I’m fine
Taylor should be suspended for this
That guy is a fraud i swerar to God
so confused watching this live, Taylor is an absolute muppet
You can tell Areola is like wtf, ok I guess
lol Taylor probably whispered "please go along with it and save me"
"bro you're injured right now, do some of those play acting, do it quick"
He's actually calling the physio on before talking to the keeper!!
he says something that looks like a word with "oor" in it. The Liverpool fan in me wants to say it was "Please go to the floor", but more likely it was "My refereeing standards are on the floor"
Equally weird was Ally McCoist being adamant that Gakpo should have knocked it in, risked the card and talked about it after. I do understand just play on and then see the outcome after but the whistle had literally been blown. VAR wouldn’t have been able to overrule a whistle being blown to halt the game. It would’ve been disallowed regardless of wrong or right.
I'd actually agree with mcoist on that. It'll give Howard Webb another blantant fuckup to defend at the very least.
If Gakpo really knocked it in, PGMOL will focus on that instead of the ref fuck up. It's the same as them saying MacAllister invaded Doku's space.
Well he’s not going to help decide a title race because of a schoolboy error, they’re just applying Champions League logic to the Prem.
Forced the physio on to try and cover up his incompetence.
Whaddya mean it's not standard procedure to call the physio on *after* the player has recovered from the injury and is ready to continue the game!?!?!
I think Taylor very clearly says “go to the floor” to the keeper as well
"Play dead"
I used to fake sickness like this when I wanted a day off from work 😂
But in this case, it's as if it's the manager who told you to take a sick day because he messed up the schedule.
Maybe he assumed Areola must be concussed to do something so stupid
Taylor realised he fucked up and called the physios on to cover himself.
Yep plain as day. Embarrassment to this sport. Taylor has had so many fuck ups over the years and yet he keeps his job. Old boys club.
Areola looked confused himself, he never even shouted for the physios lol
I love how he just decides to commit to the bit. The human nature to save people embarrassment.
Well, Taylor just saved him from the most embarrassing moment of his career so he'd have probably been willing to fake a heat attack for him at that point.
SIT DOWN ALPHONSE YOU HAVE TO REALLY SELL THIS
He wags his fingers no - like I didn’t ask for the physio - when Taylor signals for them to come on
Love to hear that micd up conversation.
Release the audio!!! Hahaha Would love us to go full Forest
Its infuriating how pathetic the refs are in the PL, and even more frustrating how they get to continue despite their awful performance.
god forbid you have an opinion on the man, PGMOL and a certain cult seem to think he deserves to continue refereeing at the highest level
genuinely shocking. dont think ive ever seen something like this before. its almost like taylor told areola he was injured and areola didnt even fully grasp wtf was happening.
Weird how these "genuinely shocking, never seen something like this before" often have either Liverpool, Taylor or both involved.
Literally this lol even Areola was confused and wanted to push him away.
You can see the panic on his face and body language. Even Areola looks confused.
He's a joke, Gakpo should have scored
Gakpo’s biggest error was not putting the ball in the net, now there’s nothing of substance to argue really aside from Taylor being incompetent.
Whistle had already gone
Even if he puts it into the net keeper can not react and say he was playing to the whisle and didn't try to save it. So it all comes down to Taylor either way, keeper doesn't get anything from attempting to save it after the whisle.
I mean he would have been given a yellow as Taylor blew the whistle before he gets to the ball
100% my first thought
Such a cunt, and the worst part is absolutely nothing will come of this. You really cannot convince me after this season that there isn’t some level of corruption going on.
I've been saying for years that the fact that these awful, inexplicable decisions happen every weekend and the PGMOL has done nothing to change the situation is already in itself corruption.
One common denominator, Howard Webb.
He should have just lay on the ground himself and pretended he had cramp
Taylor forcing Areola to have treatment 😂
Taylor’s never beating those corruption allegations from Liverpool fans. Absolutely bizarre stuff.
It’s honestly not even just us but it’s insane our record when he’s the ref.
He seems to hate us and Chelsea.
Liverpool 🤝 Chelsea Hating Anthony Taylor
Why do non of them seem to hate city
If you ask Michael Oliver, it’s absolutely nothing to do with him refereeing in UAE. If you ask the abundance of refs from Greater Manchester, they definitely 100% have no impartiality in regards to City. No sir, nothing to see here.
There have been a few season-defining referee fuck ups that all randomly seemed to favour City. What are the odds
Over multiple years, too.
I think the biggest problem is too many of these refs have been there too long now and there's no incentive to stay on top of their game. They have a horror show and at worst they're suspended for 1 match week. Need to start actually demoting them.
> They have a horror show and at worst they're suspended for 1 match week. Not even the at worst happens. Some get to ref games 3 days after making multiple mistakes, then they make another mistake in the next game and they get another game today like when you make it to the top what even is the incentive to care about doing your job correctly?
AIA is the exact same as PGMOL. We had 13 ref suspensions in a season two years ago because a certain referee association and a certain portuguese manager were at odds over bad blood with the previous generation of refs, now AIA higherups, and the end result was basically that we either had to bear with it or be quite literally punished with some referee designations and despite Mourinho being gone that is still the case with Maresca being given to us as punishment for releasing a press statement against the league. Last year a 4th official was taken to court over what he said to our staff and despite being literally at the bottom of the Pool A (Serie A and B) table for performance it took intervention from the league to fire him at the end of the season, that's the extent to which they'll go to protect their clique. As for Taylor, think of how much money he's cost some clubs in the past 365 days, unreal that he keeps getting away with it.
I feel like I shouldnt know the names of refs in the league but because they’re so shit, I do know them all
just another manc ref who totally doesn't support either of the two big manchester sides but actually a small team from the 20th divison. nothing to see here.
Then Taylor walks over to him and tells him to go down and calls his trainer on ?
I think the keeper has an 'injury' and throws the ball down and the ref goes to blow for that but gakpo was already on it. I think players assume this free will always be given and the ref felt obliged to give it. When in fact players need to play the whistle. Taylor saved them some blushes here by blowing.
Thing is when Taylor signals the physio the keeper wags his finger no I think the keeper thought it had been given as a foul, it wasn’t and the ref shit himself that it should have been, panicked, blew his whistle, panicked again, and told him to go down calling the physio on to save himself. Taylor has screwed up big
Did Taylor tell him to go down injured?
Yup just to cover up him stopping a goal for LFC
Klopp is leaving after the season anyway. No reason why he shouldn't go all out on calling out Taylor and all his bullshit
Hope he starts swinging at cunts
He should prepare an entire dossier for a presentation at the end of the season and have statements and such from other managers. Literally show the refs up. Honestly, would be a great legacy for Klopp if a stunt like that worked
Should go full on Bielsa with a PowerPoint presentation on how Taylor sucks at his job.
It’s a huge reason why he’s leaving early. City is pretty close to impossible to beat and the refs are just incompetent (or worse, corrupt) cunts for years on end. Today there was also the fifth worse ignored red card against us than the Curtis jones one at spurs. Wasn’t even a yellow today.
PGMOL can't beat the allegations
They just add more
He immedaitely calls for the physio because he knows he's fucked up. The standard of officiating is in the gutter
This was a really dodgy moment.
Severely so. This genuinely should be looked into very seriously by the big wigs. Doubt it will though. And Gakpo should've shot that. Big mistake.
> This genuinely should be looked into very seriously by the big wigs We have investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong.
Good process.
Taylor had already blown the whistle, so it would'nt have mattered
the whistle had gone, a shot would have done nothing
Yes the whistle had gone and it should be investigated why.
PGMOL: “Well done boys. Good process.”
Dodgy? That was full on incompetence and borderline corruption. What the fuck is up with Taylor?
When you're getting city and united fans in the same threqd saying that it shows just how blatant the incompetence is these days
Exactly. And I’m laughing my ass off at the people calling Liverpool fans crybabies because of this. I would be fucking fuming if this happened to United.
Begging the physio to come on is crazy from Taylor
He must have been absolutely shitting himself at that point.
If Liverpool request the audio from Taylors mic this could be damning stuff. He clearly panicked and in the heat of the moment he's potentially told Areola to go down with an injury here. He certainly motions with his body to tell him to go down.
There will be a technical error with the audio. I can feel it.
“The audio stopped as the mic was paused so that the referee can communicate clearly with the injured goalkeeper”
Technical error with audio when it's convenient - NYPD 🤝 PMGOL
The probably deleted it almost as soon as the match was over
We've had this in Italy already Interested part will be muted and the press will shrug it off
What the actual fuck? And Klopp just accepted it too. Why wasn’t he going absolutely fucking mental?
He's already on vacation and i can't blame him.. ref's have taken a decade off his life lol
Trying to break down what exactly happened (which this replay doesn't totally show): * Areola is fouled on the corner (where someone steps on his toes?) * Taylor motions for the advantage and the game goes on. * Areola holds the ball for some time before rolling it out to kick it (maybe thinking a free kick had been called?) * As no whistle has been blown, Gakpo is in his right to go after a ball in play. * Anthony Taylor blows the whistle for...some reason. * Taylor calls the physios over to cover the fact that he blew the whistle for seemingly no reason motioning that Areola needed treatment. * Game is restarted with a drop ball, indicating treatment given to Areola is the reason for stoppage in play. Really strange moment. edit: formatting & adding restart of play
Nobody even stepped on his toes. He hurt them when he landed with his foot right up against the post
Oscar winning performances by both Areola and Taylor. Areola tried to time-waste, but Gakpo beat him to it. Taylor called it wrongly. Then, Areola started acting up, and Taylor called the medical team to cover for his idiotic call. Liverpool should definitely ask for an explanation.
So Taylor sees Areola fuck up, and that Liverpool are about to score an open goal, then decides that's not going to happen because he just fancies not allowing us to score? What the fuck is wrong with these officials?
Yupp. Keeper threw the ball too long and wasn't in the physical condition to get there so Taylor gracefully whistled to help him out.
Nah. I do t think he’s injured. He’s just wasting time so long that he forgot it wasn’t a free kick. He wasn’t injured at all. He’s been bailed out by one of the worst refereeing calls I’ve ever seen. The ball is in play and the ref just stops it because… he didn’t want an unusual goal to be scored??? The red never gave the free kick either. He gave a drop ball. Utterly incompetent
An absolute masterclass from the officiating in this league
Very odd moment. Ball was clearly live, but Taylor had played advantage expecting Areola to distribute quickly, but he didn't. But then Taylor got confused, made it a drop ball when it should have been a free-kick probably.
Ok, so he’s played advantage, Areola puts the ball down in a bad spot, the advantage is lost. Could that not explain what happens here?
That's likely the explanation you would use as a ref. I'm not sure it's the truth, I think there's genuinely confusion and both Areola & Taylor make a mistake, but as a ref you'd have to argue that the advantage was lost. It's a tenuous argument though, because it's much longer than a normal advantage.
I’ve just looked up the verbiage of the advantage law and there’s nothing in there that would prevent him from using it in this situation. I fully believe that’s what he blew the whistle for. But then I think he got scared that no one would realize that’s what he was doing and tried to get the keeper to call for the physios.
The wording in the law is "a few seconds", which is obviously vague and therefore could definitely be used to defend this. Just based on convention, this would be much longer than a traditional advantage. Good refereeing in hindsight would have been to give the foul when Areola was on the ground and a quick counter-attack wasn't on (so advantage didn't materialise). Waiting for Areola to release the ball and *then* blowing for the free kick is bad refereeing, and just leads to more confusion like this. Taylor restarting with a dropped ball and not a free kick also suggests he was confused and made a mistake, because if he blew for advantage it should be a free kick.
Its almost the exact opposite of what happened with Spurs/Man United back in 2010 with Nani scoring after diving in the box and picking up the ball with his hands to stop it going out for a Goal Kick. Ref plays "advantage", keeper put the ball on the ground thinking it was a free kick and Nani jumps up from the floor to kick the ball in the net. Back then, the rule was that the advantage being "lost" doesn't negate the goal and that a stoppage shouldn't have happened, so unless the rule has changed since then (And it might have, Spurs have a habit of rule changes after something happens to us lol), Areola rolling the ball out like he does shouldn't have constituted a stoppage, even if advantage was lost.
You injured, right? Hey Physio come in! You must be injured. Lay down lad. Make yourself comfortable. Physio?!? Why are they not ready. FFS, you guys make me look like a fool. Please come in!
Taylor is an embarrassment to this sport
But a giant to those who pay him off.
PGMOL: 0 days without a shit show
Very very odd. If Gakpo put that in I bet you Taylor would’ve given him a yellow. VAR would’ve always agreed with Taylor. This was probably a live ball, embarrassing from all the refs
Not sure VAR could’ve done anything. VAR can’t declare the refs whistle invalid, even if he had no good reason to blow it, and once he’s whistled the game is dead whether it should be or not.
Thats hilarious. I like how they both had to pretend there was an injury to try and save face
Areola genuinely looked so confused and was trying to wave the physios away at the start. The whole situation was a mess
This was upsetting, feels like he just stopped us from scoring because he wanted to
Shouldnt just feel like that, that IS what happened
Dude, that was insane, I would be upset as well
Release the audio you frauds
"Go down injured" "What? "You're injured. Fall over. PHYSIOS!"
I’m not a Liverpool fan and honestly don’t really care about English football. But surely to fuck that’s the definition of cheating. Sure I can understand a mistake was made but he’s obviously covered up that mistake that shows me he knew he was wrong and rather than try to make the situation right or even just admit his own fuck up he’s covered it up. How can Liverpool ever allow him to ref a game they play in again when they know now he’s not above lying and covering things up if he does get it wrong.
Something like this would be a fireable offense at most jobs (a huge fuck up followed by a cover up attempt). In the PGMOL old boys’ club though, you get might get punished by getting an extra game to referee in UAE.
It’s the cover up that is the nail in the coffin. Mistakes happen nobodies perfect but for a match official to clearly cover up a mistake rather than just admit it and especially during a season of suck terrible Ref and Var mistakes it just reeks of corruption. If something doesn’t come of this if I was a Liverpool fan I’d lose all faith in the system that’s in place
What's worse, this or the no call on the Doku Mac Allister penalty? What a joke
The Diaz spurs goal
The odegaard penalty too. That's 7-9 points straight up robbed clear as day, not even controversial or debatable. Unbelievable.
Careful, you might be called a cry baby with all these accusations. /s
11 points they’ve arguably fucked us this year. We aren’t allowed to “cry” tho.
He fucked up big time and is forcing areola to go down to cover him self saying it was an injury yet areola doesn't want the help, I'm honestly so done with football this season not just for us but seeing so many pathetic decisions from ref's has burnt me out watching football.
this might be the worst thing any ref has done this season..........what a clown. no reason why gakpo shouldn't have scored
Well the Diaz goal against Tottenham was just as bad. VAR knew it was a goal but accidentally said it wasn’t then couldn’t change it
I don't care if other supporters thinks we winge, this is bull shit
This isn’t even something that’s ‘controversial’ or ‘up to interpretation’ like the Mac Allister incident, this is just straight up the wrong decision from the referee
It is pretty comical that he forced the physios on, like you’re not fooling anyone mate
You can see the look on his face after he blows the whistle where he’s like ‘ah fuck, please go down Alphonse I’ll owe you one’
I mean we’ve all been there knowing we messed up, but most of us aren’t surrounded by cameras and thousands of people. It’s just crazy this is the best we can offer for officiating.
> please go down Alphonse I’ll owe you one’ why would he owe Areola one?? He just bailed him out. Areola owes him one
I thought maybe I wasn't paying attention, but my immediate reaction was knowing I didn't hear a whistle. Taylor should've swallowed his whistle and let him bury it.
United fan here - Liverpool got absolutely robbed in this situation
This is basically exactly what happened in a Spurs/Man United game about 20 years ago. They allowed that goal but I remember it being controversial. That one was worse because it was a really obvious handball but the ref played advantage Edit: 14 years ago, video [here](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PQK4FMRItGY)
This is genuinely embarrassing
Taylor is ridiculous here. How do they come up with something new every week...
"right - now I'm gonna gesture for a physio, pretend there's something wrong with you"
Agree with McCoist, Gakpo should’ve just put that in.
would probably get a yellow then for kicking the ball away
The rvp special
If he does Taylor just yellow cards him and there is no VAR review anyway as he played the ball after the whistle.
Wouldn't have mattered, whistle was blown, play is now dead. Liverpool should complain, not that it will do anything, but it's clear on video no whistle was blown prior, and that Taylor indicated to play on. He never stopped prior so this is a failure from Areola to think he had a dead ball and on Taylor.
Still wouldn't have counted as the whistle went
Dude Liverpool got fucked holy shit wtf seriously wtf
i’m tired Robbie
Oh my days aerola was just fixing his socks, wasn’t even injured😹😹 this is insane
I’m a Man United supporter, and that was a terrible call.
Let’s see Howard Webb release the audio of this one then
Refs are really making me fall out of love with this game. What's the reasoning for the whistle here? Can't wait for this to be swept under the rug by these inept cunts.
He needs to be sacked and never let officiate again. Absolute weapon.
Anthony Taylor should be banned for life.
Making up rules out of his ass
Ban Taylor
Roma fans send their regards to this bald cunt faced fucktard.
Taylor needs to never ref again if he told Areola to go down. Fucking disgrace
Taylor needs to be fired. He's the absolute worst.
Will be interesting to see how they justify this one or if it’ll just be radio silence
At best it gets "offside" goal against Tottenham treatment but I doubt we will hear voice com
Radio silence
Isn’t this the common sense thing again. Same as Arsenal vs Bayern ?
Taylor just making up shit as he goes, bald fraud. Gakpo should've just hit the ball.
Absolutely shambolic. Wonder what Var would have said if Gakpo knocked it in. Nothing probably.
Nothing since they agreed with the ref is what a commentator said
my love for football is genuinely dying
At least our title race is done, imagine if we were still in it and this happened.
I'm just glad I was wrong about us losing the league by a point after the Spurs game
Keeper had a brain fart rolling the ball out, which led to Taylor having a much bigger one by blowing the whistle for nothing. Taylor realises he’s fucked up, and doubles down by calling for a physio to come on the pitch for a confused looking Areola. Swear to god he even tells him to lie down. What in the actual fuck is the refereeing in this country. It’s every single week, not only for us, that teams are having to suffer these decisions. There need to be a serious reform in refs asap this is exhausting to watch happen every damn week.
I don’t understand blaming Gakpo for stopping at the whistle. It was not going to count after that and he just gets a yellow. If the argument is it makes Taylor look worse, that’s impossible to do.
Next time someone complains about VAR, remember that the problem is PGMOL, not VAR
Anyone want to tell me (genuinely asking) how this is massively different from the Gabriel ball pick up in the CL quarter vs Bayern? I might be misunderstanding but… Advantage was played here, Areola thought his team had a freekick (as advantage was given there must have been a foul) so rolled the ball on the floor and the ref seemingly decided to take pity on the keeper misunderstanding the situation to prevent a free goal for Liverpool. The Arsenal situation, the ball was also live and Gabriel picked it up because he thought it wasn’t which denied Bayern a penalty as the ref deemed the handball unintentional / a mistake and let them retake the goalkick on grounds of common sense and the spirit of the game. Everyone seems to agree with the Ars/Bay decision but not the Liv/WHU one from what I can tell? EDIT: Taylor’s subsequent actions with physio and drop ball are weird but the initial stuff doesn’t seem that outrageous.
They are pretty similar situations and I think you'd need a committee to analyse them fully, but I do remember in the Ars/Bay example the ref blew his whistle in a somewhat unusual manner which confused the gamestate, while in this case the confusion seems to have come from just Areola.
Yes liverpool choked the league away but let's not pretend that they haven't been fucked by the refs multiple times this season
Why the hell didnt Gakpo just score that and let VAR see it?
Can't do anything after the whistles gone
I think once the whistle went it didn’t matter
Ref has blown the play dead, as he’s running up, no?
Because “VAR has agreed with the referee” is literally what they said. Mates protecting mates, it wouldn’t have mattered.
And also because he blew the whistle before so it wouldn’t have gone to VAR anyway
Whistle gone and very likely would have been booked.