Rodgers And The Ghost Goal: Nothing To See Here
Twitter has been all a flutter this morning over Brendan Rodgers’ comments regarding Luis Garcia’s infamous ‘ghost goal’ in the Champions League semi-final. The current Liverpool boss was there that night in his capacity as a Chelsea coach, and used it as an example of what difference the crowd at Anfield can make.
As is usually the case, the media angle is playing a big part in the reaction of the fans. The headline on the Guardian home page is ‘Rodgers urges patience against Zenit’ whilst The Telegraph go with ‘Rodgers on Chelsea’s side over ‘ghost goal’. The latter is somewhat more inflammatory than the former!
For the record, the quote (with the supposedly bad section in bold) is:
“I was here for the first Chelsea semi-final, for the ‘ghost goal’. For me, it wasn’t a goal. That was the sheer force of the crowd that got the goal.
José Mourinho spoke at that time of how he didn’t think it was over the line but the bottom line is that the referee gave it. It was under massive influence, there is no doubt about that.
The atmosphere was as good as you will ever get. The crowd will be so important for us but equally we need patience”.
Poor old Brendan. I can see absolutely nothing wrong in what he has said here. He gives an honest opinion, and praises the Anfield crowd in the process, and still takes stick online for his trouble.
Whilst Reds fans rightly say it would have been a red card for Cech and a penalty to Liverpool had the goal not been given, has anyone ever seen the goalline incident from an angle proving that the ball was actually over the line?
I haven’t. So for me, it wasn’t technically a goal either (though I'm incredibly glad it was given, of course!)
With regards to highlighting the potential of the atmosphere at Anfield, I think we have to be fair to Rodgers – when has there been an atmosphere in L4 that comes close to that this season?
Most weeks it’s pretty quiet (or so it seems via dodgy internet streams anyway!), so his best experience of the power of the Anfield crowd is from that match. He doesn’t have an example from his time at Liverpool that comes close to that, so I can understand why he chose that famous night.
I think some fans have decided that they don’t want Rodgers to continue as Liverpool manager, and so seize upon anything they can in order to undermine him. For what it’s worth, I don’t particularly care what he says, as it has very little bearing on whether he’s capable of doing the job to the required standard or not.
Disagreeing over ghost goals has no influence on that.
Related articles you might enjoy:
Brendan Rodgers: Making Progress? – An in-depth look (for The Tomkins Times) at Rodgers’ stats, compared to Dalglish’s.
Swansea Stats: Brendan’s Bravery Shines Through – A look at the stats behind Swansea’s impressive 2011/12 campaign that enabled Rodgers to get the Liverpool job. Compares them to the Reds, and other promoted sides too.
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