Expert Premier League predictions from Mark Langdon: Liverpool to push on

Mauricio Pochettino became the latest in a long line of managers to blame a referee for losing a football match after Paris St-Germain found another new way to exit the Champions League in hilarious circumstances.

It has even been claimed security had to intervene when president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Leonardo reportedly went looking for Dutch arbiter Danny Makkelie in the aftermath of PSG's latest collapse.

Predictable nonsense once again, so step forward hero Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou, who went right up in my estimation this week for defending officials, although it must be said he did so after a couple of decisions went his way after a victory over Livingston.

"Officials are human beings," Postecoglou told BBC Sport.

"I've seen players and managers make a hell of a lot more mistakes than referees this year, let me tell you.

"It seems a lot of the analysis of games here is more 'referee watch' than analysis of the actual game.

"Yes we got a corner we maybe shouldn't have, but there are still a hell of a lot things that need to happen for us to score from that corner."

Well done Ange and hopefully Poch can go back to being a nice guy once he is out of the Paris cesspit.

One area where referees could do with some help is in the changing of the laws for tactical fouls. The "take one for the team" offence is punished by a standard yellow card but it is now such a cynical part of the game that it should be a red because the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

The outstanding Kylian Mbappe absolutely skinned Dani Carvajal in the second half of the Bernabeu clash on Wednesday and the Real Madrid man took him clean out. He was then subbed off for Lucas Vazquez, who then did the same thing to stop a dangerous attack.

It seems totally unfair that only a yellow card is given when there is no attempt to play the ball and the sole intent is to stop the game.

Week in week out players just drag opponents down and it's bizarrely accepted as part of the match.

If you were formulating the laws of the game from scratch there is no way such an act would be punished with a free kick 40 yards from goal and a token caution, when a tiny foul just on the line of the penalty area is given as a spot kick (as we saw in Bayern v Salzburg on Tuesday) which results in a near 80 per cent chance of a goal.

Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by Inter on Tuesday but no real damage was done as they progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals and the Reds can turn their attention to domestic matters by beating Brighton at the Amex.

Jurgen Klopp's side have won seven on the spin in the league, conceding twice in the process and Brighton have hit a flat spot with only three wins in their last 25 in all competitions.

Albion have lost five of their last six and four straight in the league, and three of those defeats came to nil against fairly modest opponents in Burnley, Aston Villa and Newcastle.

The former xG kings are also failing in the expected goals department these days, 'winning' only three of their last 16 matches on the metric.

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