LIVERPOOL suffered their second defeat of the season as they were beaten 4-0 by Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Sunday. Luka Modric opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a fantastic strike before Reds playmaker Charlie Adam was booked for a challenge on the Croatian. In the 18th minute Andy Carroll fed strike partner Luis Suarez and the Uruguayan poked the ball into the net but it was ruled out off for offside. Then in the 28th minute, Adam went to collect a looping ball but as he put his foot up to control it he caught Tottenham’s Scott Parker above the knee. Referee Mike Jones showed Adam his second yellow card and the Scot was sent from the field.
At first glance the tackle looked to be reckless by Adam, however the replay clearly shows that Adam was looking at the ball and completely unaware of Parker’s presence. He lifted his leg to control the ball and caught Parker above the knee accidentally. Admittedly the rules do state that a player should be sent off for catching another above the knee, but in this case common sense should have prevailed and Tottenham should have received a free-kick with no further action taken. Mike Jones was very close to the play and should have seen that Adam had no intention of going for Parker, it was just an unfortunate collision.
Later in the match Martin Skrtel, who was playing at right-back because of injuries to Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly, was sent off after collecting his second yellow card for going through the back of Gareth Bale. Skrtel had struggled to contain the Welshman all game with Tottenham’s left-winger beating the Slovak four times in the opening 15 minutes. Jermaine Defoe made it 2-0 to the home side in the 66th minute before his shot from the edge of the box was parried by Pepe Reina and Emanuel Adebayor was able to convert following a clever piece of skill. Liverpool’s frustration showed as Luis Suarez was booked for sarcastically applauding a refereeing decision before Adebayor got his second of the game in the last minute to make the score Tottenham 4 Liverpool 0.
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The really idiotic thing with Adam’s sending off was the first yellow which was incredibly soft. But what did you expect from the beachball referee?
Its back to the argument the ref knows the rules of the game but has no idea how to play and i would say he never played a game in his life
i disagree mate, sorry. Adam had to go, it was a potentially season ending tackle regardless of intent or not. We were off the pace the whole game and that led to the late clumsy tackles. There is a school of though that says if it’s unintentional then its not a card, but if that had been Parker breaking Suarez’s leg by accident?
the ref was left with no option as the tackle was over the top. Let’s jut hope it was a bad day for all and nothing more. Stoke was unlucky but we were spanked on saturday. At least noone has to be dropped to make way for stevie g!
Agree. There is NO rule that says you can ignore a rule if there is no INTENTION in the tackle.What some fans want is referees to play by the fan’s rules! We were crap…end of…..
Liverpool were rubbish. Stop diverting the conversation away from the fact that we havn’t looked like scoring all season. Adam is to slow, Henderson does nothing, Downing who knows. Carragher should not be on the pitch. Dalglish playing Skyrtel right back ridiculous and Carroll doesn’t look like he could hit a barn door. We have bigger problems than discussing a bullshit red card. Get real King Kenny lovers.
I am so with this!
Go away manu scums whiskey nose lovers
We were very immobile against Spurs on Sunday. It was so annoyin the way we kept passing the ball back to the keeper. We lacked class and maturity in the midfield. Bad match. No excuses. I hope to see Coates, Bellamy and Maxi get more playing time. In my opinion, they are beta than than the ppl keeping them out.
Adam pratically wrestled the opposing player to the ground on his 1st booking…parker was lucky no break anything on the 2nd…if that is not a red card, then I don’t know what is…
It wasn’t the second yellow that was the problem. It was the first. Anytime in the match the second is a yellow simply because it is dangerous. The first however is brushed off, dismissed and ignored even without warnings so early in the game.
Going through the first incident, there was a scruff for the ball, it popped out to Luka who was naturally much quicker. A tug on the shirt, as his first offense of the game, in the middle of the park in a highly competitive match. He was naturally frustrated because of the goal conceded and the mere fact that Spurs were better on the day.
How often do we see, or at lest expect to see a referee actually use his “common sense” as you put it, and realize that a stern verbal warning is all that is needed for a harmless offense in a non-threatening situation.
We all wanted a good game of football. I am a Liverpool fan, my brother a Spurs fan. This fixture is anxiously expected to be tight and competitive with the best team on the day winning, and everyone see 11 v 11 for the most of the match, because the referee allowed it.
I was happy to admit to my brother that we would have lost anyway based on the way we started, but we both agreed that we hoped for a much better fixture than that. He saw his team dance around the pitch for an hour while I saw sheer panic and disorder. The English Premier League sales-pitch needs work.
I can’t argue each incident as, by-the-book they are yellows, but we all know referees are their to communicate with the players, otherwise we would have cameras and a Big Brother with a loud buzzer, for referees. I expected more from a professional referee.
LFC was very aggressive at the start but that was it. Nothing went right after that. YES! The players either gave away the balls easily or were dispossessed of the ball. YES! There was little creativity. YES! They fail to gel. BUT let’s be honest. The referee was definitely harsher on LFC players. I don’t know why. Can anyone venture a guess?? If the red cards had not been given, the scoreline will definitely be very different. And maybe the outcome as well. Any team can manage a draw or a win even on an off day.
We were hammered alright and would have lost anyway, red cards aside
Everybody seems to have missed that Skrtel’s first yellow was given to the wrong player
Skrtel just put his arm in front of Bale, but Bale was tugged back by Henderson. Look at it closely, Hendo should got the yellow
This doesn’t excuse Skrtel’s later 2nd yellow, but if everyone reffed like that, there wouldn’t be a match that finished 11 a side
Ref was trying to teach Kenny a lesson in my opinion
Ref was crap, but so were Liverpool. End of.
What? Diverting the way we played to the red card? When a team like Spurs play the way they did at their home ground, there are very few teams in the world would have handled that sort of pressure. We only saw us fail for 30 minutes. The rest we had even less control of.
People criticizing the team and the players after 30 minutes of cluelessness against a rival that has been boosted by the signings of 2 world class players. The rest of the season they have been impressive, note we did not play badly against Stoke. Though we should have shown more character, we were horribly unfortunate.
Man Utd were always going to beat Chelsea this weekend, and they played better to show it. But Chelsea had all 11 to fight to the end, making it a far better EPL game than the Liverpool v Spurs one, even if outcomes were predetermined after 30 minutes of football.
I don’t think we have any real issues other than our team resigning themselves to bad luck. We need a real leader in the middle of the park. That is all. I’d take Jamie Redknapp at this point even.
Each midfielder has a role to play, none can fill the captaincy void of Gerrard. We’ve shown we can play well, we’re just lacking character even Kenny can’t inspire from the touch line. It doesn’t matter how good Gerrard is or isn’t – he’s our team captain.
Decisions are going to against us, but our luck will change. We can even take hope from Spurs who came through some rough times recently.
We just need to keep our heads up even when after 5 games we have seen a last man foul from behind not given a red because it was early in the game. A legit goal disallowed, 2 legit penalties not given given the context with a weak one rewarded against us. And after Kenny meeting with Riley, Jones decided to punish Adam for 2 fouls inside 30 minutes of a highly competitive match.
Any Liverpool fan who thinks they deserved better is seriously deluded, & Adams tackle on Bale last season finished his season, ok that was for Blackpool but it showed intent & he is a wreckless tackler (he got away with it then). Liverpool fan comments before the game were arrogant & I could not understand why they felt a god given right to win on Saturday considering we had previously lost to the two best teams (under a Modric cloud) & we were bound to be confident following on from the week before. I think this arrogance came out on the pitch also, but Liverpool have too many new players that still need to settle in, a lesson learned I’m sure.
The same arrogance you’ll have to reflect on when you eventually lose again, Mr Perfect.
2 weeks after learning 2 harsh ways not to start the season and you’re telling off whoever needs to learn their lessons now. That is instant arrogance. Imagine when you lose again, having supposedly learned your lessons in the 1st 2 games. Awkward.
Don’t take it personally Clint, after all you have got 18 leagues to Spurs 2 (& Uniteds 19)!
I had to switch the tv off, couldn’t stand watching my team lose that badly anymore 🙁
Just because we started badly for the first 20 odd minutes with 11 men doesnt mean we,d of played as bad for the next 70 with 11 men.agreed we were awful generally but its difficult to judge those 70 odd mins as kenny said, being one and then two men down.adam should not have recieved that first yellow simple as.i seen far worse tackles in the manure v chelski game and no cards were given.its to simplistic to just say we were crap and would of lost anyway thats stupid.the ref dished us yellows like confetti and had a direct influence on the result.not saying we,d of won with 11 men but we,d of had a far better chance of getting back into the game.dont forget we lost agger aswell