19 Apr 2014

'I've told my Agent...' €6m star admits he'll probably quit LFC this summer and move to Serie A.

On-loan defender Aly Cissokho is a dead man walking at Anfield, and his exit at the end of the season seems to be a foregone conclusion. The defender acknowledges that his time at Liverpool may soon be over, and he's admitted that a move to Serie A is something that holds great appeal.

When asked about his interest from Napoli, Inter, and AC Milan this week, Cissokho admitted that he is open to moving to 'another big club', and further added:

"What I want for my career is to keep playing for top teams. I like Serie A; it is a good championship.

"I feel fine in England, but after the interest from Italian clubs, I've told my agent that it would be a good opportunity" .


Despite a series of steady performances after Christmas, Cissokho - who cost Valencia €6m in 2012 - has not endeared himself to Brendan Rodgers, or the club's ex-players, who are lining up to slate him. Here is a selection of comments from some of the club's legends.

Phil Babb

“I watch Aly Cissoko playing there and I wonder if he will ever fit the bill”

Jimmy Case

"The more I see Aly Cissoko operate there [as a left-wing back] the less I’m happy with it. I wouldn’t play him there again. His control isn’t there or his first touch, he can’t get past a player from a standing position and he doesn’t have the intelligence to follow the fluency of play".

John Aldridge

"Without being unkind to Cissokho, he just hasn’t fitted in yet. Enrique gives us better balance, both defensively and in attack, and he knows what is expected.".

Ian St. John

"He is very negative and predictable. You will see him receive the ball and then knock it straight back to the centre half 9 times out of 10".

Is Cissokho as bad as everyone seems to think? What to the stats say?

* Passing accuracy: 79.8%
* Passing accuracy - Opposition half: 64%
* Duels won: 58%
* Aerial duels won: 56%
* Recoveries: 22 (One every 23 mins)
* Tackles won: 59%
* Clearances: 20 (One every 20 mins)
* Interceptions: 9 (One every 73 mins)
* Chances created: 4 (One every 128 mins)
* Crossing Accuracy: 7.4%
* Assists: 1

Cissokho's defensive stats compare well with the squad's overall average, but his attacking stats are extremely poor. 7.4% crossing accuracy? That amounts to two successful crosses - i.e. balls that found another LFC player - in 27 attempts. LFC fans also don't rate the defender Last month, I conducted a survey on the site, asking if the defender is good enough for Liverpool:

* 9000 visitors (approx) voted.
* 82% of participants voted NO

That's a pretty emphatic vote of no-confidence by a significant sample of Liverpool fans. An Anfield exit seems inevitable, but Cissokho could leave the club with a Premier League winner's medal, and he would (IMO) deserve it.

From January 1st until February 12, he made nine starts in a row, and helped the Reds remain unbeaten in all nine games. That period of games signalled the start of Liverpool's imperious march up the table, and defensively, Cissokho made a good contribution.

Not bad for a year's work.

Author:


81 comments:

  1. Any LFC player who might pick up a medal deserves it, I would also get 2 more made for Borini and Assaidi, they have contributed also, by scoring important goals against our nearest rivals.

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  2. I would love to see carragher pick one up

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  3. Tnx Sunderland

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  4. Side track a little, looking at the league table again. I realized how far LFC has come this season. Many would have thought that we are going into a fierce fight with Everton for 6th in the league and supposed to rank behind Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs. But with some incredible results on the pitch (9 goals in 2 wins against Spurs, 2 wins against Man Utd, 5-1 hammering of Arsenal at home etc) while not getting any help in the transfer market, we are now leading the league with 4 games remaining. A truly remarkable achievement, regardless of what's going to happen at the end of the season. Whether LFC wins the league title at the end of the day (we are now very nicely positioned to do it), we fans just have to agree that it's an absolute previlege to watch the many great attacking football and stunning wins produced by this current team. 10 wins in a row is no small feat in EPL and right now, we have a chance to enhance it even further.

    Now, pray hard for the team to win the remaining matches and take the EPL title. It'll be too big a miss if LFC cannot do it this season, after having so many breath-taking wins till date. This team, together with the owners and manager, certainly deserve the league title. It will be especially sweet for players like Steven Gerrard, the old loyal guard of LFC (sad case for Jamie Carragher). It certainly helps when our nearest rivals keep dropping points during this crucial run-in. There should be no better moment than this season, than now!

    Hopefully Sunderland stays in the EPL!!!

    Just 4 more wins, LFC, please!!!
    YNWA!!!

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  5. With regard to your comment "where is the foul? Azpilicueta slides away from Altidore, whose standing leg connects with the Spaniard's foot. It's Altidores fault that he goes down: Azpilicueta had nothing to do with it

    i'm a Sunderland Supporter and to be honest i did'nt think it was a foul,
    in how i read the rules
    Azpilicueta trying for the block, with his momentum carrying him into Altidores already unplanted foot..........but from behind in the box??

    but referees nowadays seem to like to even up decisions

    What is your view on Ramirez elbowing Laarson and the ref giving you advantage?

    Anyway good luck, mate

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  6. He did mention Man City's wage bill after the 3-2 victory though!

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  7. Have to agree. They had something like 30 shots, with nearly half that number on target, if I remember correctly. So, if they can't finish a game that they appear to dominate, only got themselves to blame.

    Blame Mourinho for failing to get the best out of his players, particularly his strikers.

    BR has consistently got the best from his first eleven and beyond, particularly in the second half of the season.

    The apprentice has overtaken the master, methinks. :-)

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  8. As you can see altidore was about to turn right and if azpilicueta never slid in he would have turned no problem. It was a pen !!!

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  9. This is Rafa's facts moment lol. Lets get one thing straight, the refs are horrible. The only thing is fans only see their teams side of the story...which is understandable. But for coaches to do it is deplorable. In the same game they allowed Ramires to carry on. Playing with ten is almost the same as going a goal down. Mourinho needs to stop the bull, when they were leadin the table, he kept on drilling in his players head that they wont win the league and they are small horses and its a false table yada yada. No one fault thats its coming through. U said they weren't good enough and they are proving it.


    You know whats funny, the so called big teams see the results and decisions how they affect each other....Oh the refs helping LFC, they hate Chelsea and vica versa or Arsenal, City etc. No they helped Sunderland, they are important in this too, fighting for their lives against two top 3 teams in 4 days and taking 4 points. Should Fulham and Norwich cry about the refs helping Sunderland move above them? Its just ridiculous. I feel the refs should get called out when they are poor, because they do it alot and its annoying some of the decisions they make. Some u can genuinely see they had a bad view but generally and regularly poor. Mourinho is a tool in any case, why doesnt he talk about his spineless tactics against relegation teams that force so many draws. Two DMF against these type of teams.

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  10. Bang on there mate

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  11. If Brendan Rodgers decrees that all referee decisions even themselves out over the course of a season, who are we to argue.

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  12. Remember ETO on Saurez ? That was a pen but nothing so stop whinging

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  13. you should seriously consider stop running a site on liverpool.. i really hate seeing ur hyped up headlines on newsnow n im very sure u're not a liverpool fan.. just go and do a site for manure please.. thanks in advance!

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  14. How come you do not mention the fact that Ramirez should have had a straight red? Or that West Brom were denied an obvious penalty against Chelsea? What goes around comes around.

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  15. I don't think that the referee was as bad as Mourinho is making him out to be. The penalty was a soft one, but you can't really blame the referee for making that call as it did look like Azpilicueta caught Altidore in real time. Furthermore, the linesman who was in a much better position did flag for the foul, so I think the referee's decision, while incorrect, is very understandable.


    Besides that, I think the referee waved away a couple of handball decisions, which upon watching the replay, would be very harsh on Sunderland if given. Add to that the two incidents involving Ramires, one being the foul on him by Larsson and the blatant 'revenge' elbow on him, the most obvious one being the latter, I think that the decisions were pretty balanced overall.


    I thought Mourinho's behaviour was poor, a stark contrast to Pellegrini, who I think had more to be aggrieved about with the decisions at Anfield. That was one game where I think we rode our luck, and really benefitted from the referee's decisions. Managers will always look at their team through rose-tinted glasses, but Mourinho's actions (the calling of Wenger a specialist in failure, unnecessary media blackout and jibes at other clubs) have been poor.


    I was once a fan of Mourinho and his tasty soundbites, but what was once eccentric is now downright pathetic.

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  16. Simon Joseph Lau5:24 am, April 20, 2014

    "What they are doing through the whole season is fantastic, especially in the last couple of months, and in teams involved in the title race. Absolutely fantastic."



    Dear me, why is he saying this before our crunch encounter at Anfield? One only wonders what he is insinuating and what for...

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  17. For a fair-minded, objective person like JK, I just don't see how he's possibly called that a no-penalty...

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  18. For the great St John to call Ali negative must be the stupidest remark in footballing history - he spends all his time attacking down the wing - ONE, He is played out of position. TWO, Liverpool only lost two games he played in out of at least 16 both against the top two teams away and we were robbed by the ref in both. Ali looks gangling - that is his crime.

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  19. It's interesting how, if Altidore were for example a fantastic, technical player like Hazard or Silva (not Suarez because people assume he dives), people would be praising their intelligence for putting their left foot directly in the path of Azpilicueta to create a fair penalty. However, when it's Azpilicueta, people will condemn him for putting his left foot where he *apparently* isn't allowed to! When he's in possession, he can put his feet wherever the f*** he likes! And again, that's bad luck for Azpilicueta. He took a gamble, and it didn't pay off.

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  20. We will only get medals if we win - 4 games to go 10 points will do it hopefully we will need even less.

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  21. He caught him in slow motion too! Two completely different worlds, same fate ;-)

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  22. I'm now waiting for the, "I'm allowed to have my own opinion, is that okay?" reply from JK, hehe...

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  23. The fans will be after Roman's own head if he gets rid of Mourinho's...

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  24. And that's where it will end- RM won't have him back at all.

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  25. It's his fault because he tried to put his foot down? I think you're grasping at straws on this one. Without the defender he is 100% in control of the ball and about to change direction. Because of the defender he can't keep his feet. The defender goes to ground for no reason and sticks a leg out. Best case scenario it's a 50/50 call but that replay has me convinced it's a clear cut penalty.

    It wouldn't matter anyway, even a less controversial decision would have got Jose riled up. He blames others far too often and that's probably what gets under the skin of most fans. Just accept responsibility and get on with it, not act like a clown. I don't mind his comments at all, they're amusing and he's good for a laugh, but there is no "class" in any of it.

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  26. Why is it a foul? Because Azpilicueta was in the wrong place at the wrong time, simple. Dude, it's not Altidore's responsibility to avoid contact with Azpilicueta, it's Azpilicueta's responsibility to avoid illegal contact with Altidore. Azpilicueta got unlucky, but he took a conscious risk when he slid in like that.
    The fact the ball had gone to the right doesn't help your argument at all either, it means that Azpi has slid in while nowhere near the ball.

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  27. Utterly perplexed at how that wouldn't be a penalty. If you want to conclude it in one short, single sentence, all you have to do say is, 'Azpilicueta was in the wrong place at the wrong time'.

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  28. Altidore can put his feet wherever he god damn likes.

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  29. No mate, nothing genius, just a sore loser who is now very very scared of finishing the season empty-handed, and this after he had a go at Rafa and Arsene.
    The guy has returned and been an idiot, loses admirers and friends every time he opens his mouth.

    Rafa said of Jose & Fergie, you see the "Real Person" when they don't get the 3pts.
    I hope we go to town on them at Anfield 3-0 or 4-0.

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  30. My, my; someone's been busy with the delete button.

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  31. fingers' crossed for tonight.

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  32. "The referee came here with one objective and the objective is to give a fantastic performance"....lol, epic.

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  33. Hansen and Shearer claimed 100% foul, which confused me at 1st as I saw no foul whatsoever. Then Shearer explained, and I see his point.


    Azpillcueta's trailing leg (left) slides under him and takes out Altidore's standing leg (left) which equals a 100% foul. Hard to spot at 1st admittedly, but you can see that Altidore is still trying to play the ball with his right foot when his left leg is taken from beneath him (even if his momentum is taking him that way anyway it is irrelevant).


    Fair play to Mourinho though. His rants have been tiresome and extremely predictable this season, but this one was hilarious!!

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  34. No release clause7:47 am, April 20, 2014

    You make disagree that it's not a penalty - however look at the trailing leg, it 100% makes contact therefore making it a stonewall penalty. Anarchy may make for entertainment in the papers but class and respect are what ultimately gives longevity.

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  35. What a great way to teach youngsters how to accept losing and show respect for authority .......... sarcasm , irony - take your pick !

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  36. No penalty for me .but chelsea wont win the yesterday game either at most draw only.

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  37. I have read so many articles of this comedian jamie k!! I have decided that u make me sick!! Call yourself a liverpool supporter?? Y bring up suarez incident when it has nothing to do with how pathetic mourinho is!!! U sound like a man utd supporter!! U always have negative thinga to say about our club and worst of all u always come out with pathetic transfer news!! U totally make me sick!!

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  38. I agree with you 99%. Personally I don't think Cissokho has done no worse than Flanagan has or Enrique would have. When he was at Porto I thought he was the best left back in the world to be honest. He does seem to have gone off the boil since then though and right now I would qualify him as decent but we need to do better than that. In this league, it always helps if you can combine quality with grit and fire if nothing else, for the sake of people's perception. Personally I wouldn't mind if he stayed if that meant we sold Enrique but Cissokho wants to be first choice somewhere and for that, I don't think he's what we need if we truly want to become one of Europe's elite clubs again.

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  39. So kick off around the corner. I think we will see 1 of the following 2 teams


    1.
    --------------Mignolet------------
    Johnson Skrtel Sakho Flanno
    --------------Gerrard-------------
    ------Coutinho-----Allen--------
    Sterling-----Suarez-----Moses


    or


    2.
    --------------Mignolet------------
    Johnson Skrtel Sakho Flanno
    --------------Gerrard-------------
    ------Lucas----------Allen-------
    Sterling----Suarez---Coutinho


    I personally would go with the 1st option. IMO Coutinho is not of much use out wide plus we will be taking away creativity from the middle of the park if we go with option 2. We could also see a diamond formation but fact of the matter is that we need to win this match and it is not like we are facing a team like Southampton who are a possession based team. Furthermore, Norwich are the lowest scoring team in the league and have the 5th worst defence so it would only make sense to go in for the kill.

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  40. You would of course be right if Suarez had really made racist remarks. But he didn't. So we were right to defend him. There is only one thing worse than racism and that's false racism allegations. But Karma came back to bite Evra in the arse when he played Suarez onside at OT a while back.

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  41. And it's wrong when a LFC manager does it too. But that doesn't mean we cannot criticize another team's manager. Especially one who constantly runs his mouth off about other clubs.

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  42. It was never a penalty though..so much is clear

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  43. I think with the amount of penalties we've had and the one Citeh did not get the other week, we should really not complain too much.

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  44. Correct. I don't think he dived either. I think he's just a...as the Americans say...cluts

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  45. Seeing is believing. Right now he's been as much value for money as Aspas and Alberto.

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  46. Jamie your an idiot who gets pulled along with the press who love this disrespectful fool. It wasn't genius is was a loss of control by the whole backroom staff. Absolutely stupid and if you think Mourinho didn't get his assistant to throw that wobbly then you haven't watched how his staff act where ever he goes. Happened at Real all the time eye poking ect.

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  47. The English media created the special one myth.

    It was easy copy as another poster pointed out below, and his frequent tantrums and outbursts are dismissed as clever mindgames.

    It is of course telling when our media takes over a decade to realise what it took their Italian and Spanish counterparts a couple of years to figure out.

    Mourinho is undoubtedly a brilliant manager, demonstrated by how he maximises the output of every squad he has controlled.

    But his utterly selfish approach tears at the very fabric of the game. He has been labelled the enemy of football by UEFA after ending Anders Frisk's career. His Porto team rewrote the book on cheating and game killing. He has gouged opponents eyes.

    He also seems not took be able to overcome the very tactic he uses in Europe, theparked bus approach. This surely damages his credentials as manager.

    He adds colour I suppose, but I wouldn't miss it if he left, if Chelsea signCosta it will be hard to write them off for league next year.

    Ramirez is a model Mourinho player, almost seems engineered. Box to box, can score goals, hurts people routinely, simulates fouls.........

    To summarize, I despise him because of his production line cheating and his own spiteful behaviour, but also recognize his undoubted man management abilities

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  48. I hope you were being sarcastic like Mourinho

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  49. Norwich need the 3 points so will have to attack they can't afford to sit back and hope to get us on the counter . An early goal for us will open them up even more ...... just hope that Andre doesn't forget to put his contacts in !

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  50. Off topic it was lovely the tribute paid to Dylan Tombides by West Ham its sad to see anyone lose their life at that age and a real loss to Aussie football.

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  51. jaimie i just hate when you talk about the past... past is past let it leave and praise suarez now enough

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  52. Why is a Chelsea fan allowed to write articles on this site?

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  53. Let's get it correct he swept his leg with his left leg under his other leg a very skillful trip. Mike Dean's bad decisions were Ramires not getting sent off for hitting Larsen and the blatant high boot Johnson unleashed. I get they were bad decisions and yes they could have changed the game but should he be patted on the back for keeping all the players on the pitch. Or slated just because the Chelsea team are now singing the blues for all the wrong reasons. The fat lady hasn't sung yet and as a Liverpool fan I know it is not over. It would have been more interesting at Anfield if Chelsea won yesterday however we still need to keep focused to Win the league and not fooled by two well oiled winning machines in Chelsea and City. All that is left to say is a big thanks to Fabio Borini the best bit of business done in 2013/2014 season get in there kidda ;-)

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  54. I hate people who just sit on the fence.....

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  55. Chris Rossington10:55 am, April 20, 2014

    Lol it's altidores fault he went down, how can we be expected to take you serious after comments like that

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  56. Aly was awful, bless him. I was excited to see a player I remembered as an all-action full back in the mould of Thuram. But Cissokho turned out not to be that player. If he can persuade a top club in Italy to take him on, good luck to him: but he looks more suited to the Championship, to me.

    Would like to hear some more discussion of the left-back possibilities. For me Luke Shaw is the leading contender. He's very young to be as good as he is.

    But what about Ricardo Rodriguez at Wolfsburg? Three years older than Shaw but a real quality player, as multi-dimensional as Leighton Baines, physically impressive, quick, with quality and flair. Any other realistic targets around?

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  57. Your second guess is right.

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  58. The ironic thing is the original comment by Mourinho was neither ironic nor sarcastic imho. :-).


    For what it is worth I think you can be ironic without being sacrcastic and sarcastic without being ironic .....on the other hand you could just be sardonic.

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  59. Interesting that Evra apparently voted for Suarez in the PFA player of the year award.......Just goes to show nothing seems to be night or day any more

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  60. Shaw would be my choice. Reason being that at 18 he is already incredibly adept. To think that he can only get better, can still be moulded and that he can give you 10-12 years service is a good reason to go all out to acquire his services.

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  61. The table never lies everything else is chaff

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  62. That's what they were saying about Borini.....

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  63. So you don't think that his comments about Mike Riley were hinting at a bias from the referees towards Liverpool? Which would be ridiculous and stupid.

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  64. Apparently Mike Dean has said he didn't see the Ramires incident, which means it can go to review, so Ramires can get a ban and not play against us.

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  65. You're easily impressed if you think that displays genius.

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  66. If it was Fergie who said it would you have said he was also genius too? Whilst I can understand mourinho's ire, I'd never call him a genius like you've just did. This isn't about taking moral high ground. You're just either a) sleeping with the enemy or b) putting something b controversial to generate eyeballs.

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  67. Short minded, Ramires should have seen red in the first half for a clear elbow....

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  68. what about the red card for Ramirezno

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  69. Yeah that was my first thought, that he was saying the refs have set things up beautifully for Liverpool to win the title. But he, and everyone, have short memories when they make accusations like that...our away losses to Chelsea and Man City were riddled with referee errors that went against us, then there's the Carroll goal recently, etc etc.

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  70. Skillful trip? You mean Azpilicueta put himself in a position to be stepped on so that Altidore would fall? That's pretty silly...looks clearly as if Azpil. is making a slide to block a potential cross, and Altidore just clumsily steps on him and that takes him to the ground. But I can't fault the ref for making that decision...in fast motion it looks like Azpilicueta catches him and takes him down. Refs don't have the benefit of slow motion in the moment.

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  71. The silliest part about Altidore going down is that it doesn't seem like the appropriate place to be stepping whether Azpilicueta's foot was there or not...he sort of lunges out to step on Az.'s foot. Clumsy.

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  72. Joel Matt Murdock Hwa4:11 pm, April 20, 2014

    Karma has come back and bit his team I'd say! Those two clear red cards when against us at Stamford Bridge went unnoticed but this time injustice has even itself out! Keep calm guys! We go again! The same!

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  73. Exactly! There are decisions that go for and against you all season. His team are no different to all teams this season and in many ways you could argue he has been more fortunate by getting the decisions go his way in the big game against Liverpool. Let's just hope his squinnying doesn't affect the referee's performance when they come to Anfield next week. He really is nothing more than an awfully sore loser.

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  74. Ramires should have been sent off before the penalty incident. If Chelsea were at their best they would've won. They weren't at their best, they lost. That is why they lost, not because if the linesman and especially not because of the referee who in fact gave them a favour by not sending off Ramires.

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  75. AzP's leg should never have been there. He dives in gets nowhere near the ball and it doesnt matter if he catches altidore's foot from behind or is underneath it, he still takes the foot away and brings him down. Its very contentious though - ive taken a long time to come to this opinion.
    If you look from the ref's view of it he absolutely has to give it. He sees altidore's leg getting unnaturally swiped from beneath him. Him not giving it would have been bottling it.

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  76. Sorry, but he really didn't believe Liverpool would ever be in this position. So he deserves nowt!

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  77. Well, in his defense, not good enough for Liverpool doesn't mean he's a bad defender...we have very high standards. He's done a hard shift a few times, but I know I am not the only one who reflexively bites his nails every time he tries to bring the ball out. His dribble is awkward at best and he waits agonizingly long to pass the ball for a guy who isn't usually able to fend off the opposition.

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  78. Why do you think Mourinho has started all this nonsense? It will probably mean the FA will decide not to retrospectively punish him.

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  79. Hopefully Ramires will get a retrospective 3 match ban by the FA for his violent conduct against the Sunderland player off the ball.

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  80. Liverpool were denied two stonewall penos against chelsea and city over xmas. two games we lost by one goal. mourinho has no class, and people are rightly tired of his childish actions. if you can't lose with dignity then you deserve criticism

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