Beyond a Joke

In football it's generally believed that, over the course of a season, decisions even themselves out and you get what you deserve. While it's true that most teams do end up in the position that they deserve to be in, it's a common fallacy to think that poor refereeing decisions, late goals and injuries even themselves out. It just doesn't happen.

This season Liverpool have suffered horribly in this area, and it does not look like improving any time soon. Whereas last season Liverpool benefited greatly from last gasp winners against the likes of Middlesborough, Wigan and several other clubs, this year has been a completely different story, with 3 late goals costing us dear in Europe.

These 3 goals came home and away to Lyon and at home to Fiorentina. The home match against Fiorentina was a dead rubber, so it mattered little that Alberto Gilardino capatalised on a mistake from young right back Stephen Darby to complete Liverpool's Champions League misery.

However, the matches against Lyon , both home and away, were crucial, and defined the Reds Champions League campaign. Inevitably, they were both decided by late goals. Firstly, at Anfield Liverpool succmbed to a 2-1 defeat which left their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread, as Lyon dominated for large periods and deservedly won, thanks to goals from Maxime Gonalons and Cesar Delgado.

In the return Liverpool played exceptionallly well, especially considering the fact that both Johnson and Gerrard were out injured, and Torres was nowhere near full fitness. Lucas and Mascherano controlled the play in the middle, but the team still lacked a cutting edge, with Andriy Voronin missing their best chance.

However, the ever erratic Ryan Babel produced a fantastic goal with a wonder strike from 30 yards to give the Reds the lead with 7 minutes remaining. As ususal though, Lyon struck back to effectively end Liverpool's interest in the competiton for another year, as Lisando scored in injury time to break Red hearts.

It's intensely annyoing to know that we could be looking forward to a trip to the San Siro if it wasn't for a lack of concentration costing us 3 late goals, however these things always happen and cannot be planned for, you just have to cope as well as you can.

Injuries to key players have hampered the Reds pursuit of success this season, as injuries to Gerrard, Torres, Johnson, Benayoun and Aquilani (amongst many others) have destroyed all confidence the team had. The reason Liverpool were so poor midway through the season was because they had so many injuries to crucial players, and those players who were returning into the side after time on the sidelines were coming back into a side bereft of confidence and desperate for results.

It seems as if whenever the Reds have been performing well an injury has come along and wrecked all the momentum that has been built up. Injuries have denied the Reds any chance of success this season, and all we can do is hope for better next season, as our squad is nowhere near deep enough to cope with the sort of injury crisis we have had to face this season, thanks to a lack of investment from messers Hicks and Gillett.

Refereeing decisions this season have become beyond a joke. Normally, you'd expect a couple to go in your favour and a couple against, with the Reds most likely to receive a slightly fortunate decision at Anfield because of the effect of the Kop. However, this season the amount of not just bad, but frankly ridiculous decisions has increased incredibly.

It seems that some referees don't even know the rules of the game, for example the beach ball incident against Sunderland. Admittedly, we deserved nothing from that match anyway, but it was unbelievable that a professional referee, plus his assistants, didn't have a clue what to do once Darren Bent's shot had deflected into the net off a beach ball.

That cost us at least a point, and possibly 2 more as if we had managed to keep it tight at the back we could have built on that defensive platform to knick a goal.

It all started on the first day of the season at White Hart Lane when Liverpool were denied two penalties against Spurs, one of which was a stonewaller. Voronin was pushed off the ball when he was clean through on goal. Whether Voronin would have scored or not is a matter for debate as, after all, it is Voronin, but there is no argument, it should have been a penalty and a red card for Spurs' Benoit Assou Ekotto. The penaly, if converted, would have earned Liverpool a vital point from a tricky encounter on the first day of the season.

The other penalty appeal was for a handball in the area, which fell into the "seen them given" category. It could have been a penalty, but, after the Reds had already been given one penalty earlier on in the half, it was unlikely to be given.

Following this, Liverpool had yet more bad fortune at home to Aston Villa, as the away side took a 2-0 lead from a corner that was headed home by Curtis Davies on the stroke of half time. There was nothing wrong with the award of a corner, or the corner itself, but there was absolutely no time for the corner to be taken. The shot that was deflected wide came in 30 seconds over the allotted injury time, yet referee Martin Akinson somehow found time for the kick to be taken.

After the Villa game there was the horrendous beach ball incident at Sunderland, then in stepped Lee Mason. At Fulham, the referee who Rafa sarcastically described as "perfect", sent off both Phillip Degen and Jamie Carragher to end Liverpool's hopes of earning any points. Degen was sent off for a strong tackle on Clint Dempsey, that deserved a yellow card at most. Only 2 minutes later, Carragher was sent off for a challenge on Bobby Zamora, in which he clearly won the ball. Even Zamora admitted afterwards that it was never a sending off offence.

Mason's performance cost Liverpool yet more points towards the end of January, when he failed to award 2 clear cut penalties at the Britannia Stadium, home of Stoke City. Firstly, he showed Lucas a yellow card for diving when it was obvious that Danny Higginbotham had sliced him down in the box. Then, with seconds remaining, he failed to see Lucas being pushed in the area as he tried to get on the end of a cross from Fabio Aurelio.

These two decisions where bad enough, but he made a third critical error that cost the Reds dear on that day. For the Stoke goal Mason awarded the home side a corner, when it should have been a free kick, because Ricardo Fuller's shot went behind without a deflection. If Mason had made the right call, then Liverpool would have secured a crucial 3 points.

On top of this, the game before, Liverpool were harshly treated by yet another referee, this time in the FA Cup replay at home to Reading. Phil Dowd was the man in charge this time, and he was fooled by Shane Long's dive as the lanky striker went down easily following a weak challenege from Benayoun. Dowd gave the away side a spot kick and it was duly converted to send the game into extra time.

In extra time, Alberto Aquilani's shirt was grabbed while he was in the penalty area. It should have been a spot kick, especially considering how quick Dowd was to award Reading a penalty, but the cries of the Kop fell on deaf ears.

Most recently, the Reds have suffered two shocking decisions in critical matches at home to Everton, in what turned out to be a fiery and thoroughly entertaining Merseyside Derby, and away at Arsenal.

In the Derby, Sotitios Kyrgiakos was sent off for a two footed tackle on Fellaini, however, the Everton man somehow escaped punishment despite of the fact that he stamped on the Greek's ankle in the collision. Kyrgiakos could have been sent off, however, in a Derby match, it should have been a yellow. Fellaini, on the other hand, deserved to be sent off yet wasn't even shown a yellow card for his involvement in the challenge.

Furthermore, Pienaar was allowed to stay on the pitch for the majority of the match, even though he stamped on Mascherano in a horrifically high tackle, and took out Kuyt, the matchwinner, as well. He was finally given his marching orders for a second yellow, however this was at the end of the game, so had little bearing on the outcome of the match.

In our last match, at the Emirates stadium, the Reds were denied a late penalty following a blatant handball by Spanish playmaker Cesc Fabregas. Gerrard's free kick would have curled into the back of the net, but Fabrgeas put his hands way above his head and stopped the ball continuing towards goal. It was a save Reina would have been proud of yet, amazingly, a penalty wasn't given. Also, earlier in the game, Vermalen had deflected Maxi's shot over the bar, using his hand, but this was also ignored by match referee Howard Webb.

Let's be clear, in some of these matches Liverpool performed so badly that even if every decision had gone our way we probably still wouldn't have managed to get a result, but in some of them, crucial decisions went against us and defined the match. Crap referees are part and parcel of football, and, to a certain extent, they make the game more interesting as a result of the controversy they create, however the sheer volume of bad refereeing that has afflicted the Reds this season is simply shocking, and must be taken into account when evaluating the team's performance this year.

We can only hope that for the rest of this season things start to even themselves out. Somehow, i can't see it happening.

YNWA