Referee and VAR

[sarnian]

Have to say how refreshing to watch a game where the referee who I thought was excellent let the game flow and wasn't interrupted every five minutes to stop for needless VAR reviews.

Football like it used to and should be. 

[stokesy]

I couldn't agree more

[Willham]

Personally found the ref very quick to give a free kick but only for liverpool, carded two players needlessly, especially lukic first 'foul' that from where I was didn't look a foul whatsoever! And it's his first challenge during the match. He even got the wrath of klopp at one point as the ref created a foul out of nothing and blew up while liverpool were attacking, giving them a free kick, no one got carded and no fulham player had been near a liverpool player for a while.

[Nick Bateman]

Mainly agree but Coote seemed worse in second half as though Klopp cornered him at HT. Two Fulham bookings were for nothing, whilst Van Dyke struck Pereira quite hard and then stamped on Jiminez's foot and also committed another foul.

Think if that were Palhinha he would have been sent off, and all the woke brigade would have agreed. But no VAR improved the game and ref had some good moments where the game flowed.

[jarv]

I thought the ref favoured Liverpool too often in the first half, especially 2 or 3 non fouls which he gave. second half he improved and the game flowed better.

[bobbo]

Personally found the ref very quick to give a free kick but only for liverpool, carded two players needlessly, especially lukic first 'foul' that from where I was didn't look a foul whatsoever! And it's his first challenge during the match. He even got the wrath of klopp at one point as the ref created a foul out of nothing and blew up while liverpool were attacking, giving them a free kick, no one got carded and no fulham player had been near a liverpool player for a while.

Personally found the ref very quick to give a free kick but only for liverpool, carded two players needlessly, especially lukic first 'foul' that from where I was didn't look a foul whatsoever! And it's his first challenge during the match. He even got the wrath of klopp at one point as the ref created a foul out of nothing and blew up while liverpool were attacking, giving them a free kick, no one got carded and no fulham player had been near a liverpool player for a while.

yes

[fulhamfever]

LOL the referee stats

1st Half
Fulham 7 free kicks
Liverpool 4 Free Kicks

and you guessed it 2nd half the other way round Liverpool 7 free kicks and Fulham 4.

[Free Elvis Hammond]

Thought the ref was fine, and as always the game is so much better without VAR

I think VAR probably would have given a penalty for the Robinson handball to be honest, though it's no great injustice - clearly not deliberate and didn't really give us any advantage

[Stoneleigh Loyalist]

LOL the referee stats

1st Half
Fulham 7 free kicks
Liverpool 4 Free Kicks

and you guessed it 2nd half the other way round Liverpool 7 free kicks and Fulham 4.

Does that not reflect the flow of the game?

[H4usuallysitting]

I don't understand the inconsistency....if you have VAR available use it..... otherwise, why have it

[fulhamfever]

LOL the referee stats

1st Half
Fulham 7 free kicks
Liverpool 4 Free Kicks

and you guessed it 2nd half the other way round Liverpool 7 free kicks and Fulham 4.

Does that not reflect the flow of the game?

Just saying lack of cards given so for every 11 Fulham fouls we got 2 cards and for every 11 Liverpool fouls there was only 1 card. So yeah it does not add up.

[Sting of the North]

LOL the referee stats

1st Half
Fulham 7 free kicks
Liverpool 4 Free Kicks

and you guessed it 2nd half the other way round Liverpool 7 free kicks and Fulham 4.

Does that not reflect the flow of the game?

Just saying lack of cards given so for every 11 Fulham fouls we got 2 cards and for every 11 Liverpool fouls there was only 1 card. So yeah it does not add up.

Or, just maybe the referee gives a card when he believes the offence warrants one instead of counting the number of fouls? Because you do know that it is not supposed to be an accumulation of fouls for a card to be shown, right?

[fulhamfever]

LOL the referee stats

1st Half
Fulham 7 free kicks
Liverpool 4 Free Kicks

and you guessed it 2nd half the other way round Liverpool 7 free kicks and Fulham 4.

Does that not reflect the flow of the game?

Just saying lack of cards given so for every 11 Fulham fouls we got 2 cards and for every 11 Liverpool fouls there was only 1 card. So yeah it does not add up.

Or, just maybe the referee gives a card when he believes the offence warrants one instead of counting the number of fouls? Because you do know that it is not supposed to be an accumulation of fouls for a card to be shown, right?

Did you see some of the fouls yesterday that Liverpool did and got away with a booking. Foul on Robinson was worthy of a yellow and Lukic 1st foul got him a yellow which wasn't even worthy of a booking.

[KJS]

Just like the pre VAR days errors were made but overall it was a refreshing watch

[Sting of the North]

LOL the referee stats

1st Half
Fulham 7 free kicks
Liverpool 4 Free Kicks

and you guessed it 2nd half the other way round Liverpool 7 free kicks and Fulham 4.

Does that not reflect the flow of the game?

Just saying lack of cards given so for every 11 Fulham fouls we got 2 cards and for every 11 Liverpool fouls there was only 1 card. So yeah it does not add up.

Or, just maybe the referee gives a card when he believes the offence warrants one instead of counting the number of fouls? Because you do know that it is not supposed to be an accumulation of fouls for a card to be shown, right?

Did you see some of the fouls yesterday that Liverpool did and got away with a booking. Foul on Robinson was worthy of a yellow and Lukic 1st foul got him a yellow which wasn't even worthy of a booking.

Neither of which had anything to do with the number of fouls.

[sarnian]

LOL the referee stats

1st Half
Fulham 7 free kicks
Liverpool 4 Free Kicks

and you guessed it 2nd half the other way round Liverpool 7 free kicks and Fulham 4.

Does that not reflect the flow of the game?

Just saying lack of cards given so for every 11 Fulham fouls we got 2 cards and for every 11 Liverpool fouls there was only 1 card. So yeah it does not add up.

Or, just maybe the referee gives a card when he believes the offence warrants one instead of counting the number of fouls? Because you do know that it is not supposed to be an accumulation of fouls for a card to be shown, right?

Did you see some of the fouls yesterday that Liverpool did and got away with a booking. Foul on Robinson was worthy of a yellow and Lukic 1st foul got him a yellow which wasn't even worthy of a booking.

Strange that nobody has mentioned the card AP should have received for simulation for pretending to be hit in the face where replay from second angle shows he was not touched.

[Arthur]

Strange that nobody has mentioned the card AP should have received for simulation for pretending to be hit in the face where replay from second angle shows he was not touched.

From what I saw, Pereira was pushed in the face by VVD. Pereira's reaction, however, did himself no credit: the worst sort of example of over-acting to try to get an opponent into trouble. I agree Pereira deserved to receive a booking.

[Andy S]

I always thought VAR was a mistake. Last night proved me right. Ok there are occasions where it could help a referee make a decision but for all of its benefits it has made the game worse

[akf]

I enjoyed the VAR-less match as well, but the conspiracy theorist in me had one entertaining idea: they removed VAR from the semis to give the refs unchallenged leeway to ensure a Liverpool-Chelsea final.