Liverpool and Man City have WILDLY different records with David Coote

David Coote is in hot water after a video leaked that appears to show him disparaging Liverpool. It makes certain refereeing performances look very interesting.

Referee David Coote is now suspended as the Premier League investigate a leaked video. The video appears to show Coote insulting Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp, with a second man in the video declaring ‘We hate Scousers’.

Coote has reportedly admitted it is him in the video - though, he doesn’t remember filming it. This is after he supposedly told the Premier League that the video was fake.

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There are now calls for severe punishment if things are indeed how they look. We believe it should lead to big changes in refereeing standards - again, if the investigation turns up what we now expect it to.

After all, there is plenty of history between Coote and Liverpool. He’s been at the centre of bizarre decisions for years now, including on Saturday against Aston Villa at Anfield.

But it’s not just Liverpool where things look strange.

David Coote and Manchester City

There are two ways to show bias against Liverpool, after all. You can give some dodgy decisions against them but you can also boost their rivals.

Liverpool have fought incredibly close title races with Manchester City over the last few years. Coote has been involved in several of these, having started to referee both clubs in 2020.

And their respective records in that time is incredibly notable. There’s a context here, of course - Liverpool and City have been near-perfect at times over the last five years. The Reds less so, admittedly.

Still, it’s bizarre to see that Manchester City have won literally every fixture Coote has refereed for them. There have been eight in total, though the first was an FA Cup tie against Rotherham in 2019.

Since that, it’s been seven wins from seven. Six of those were in the Premier League, none of which saw City concede a goal. In fact, the only fixture in which they did concede with Coote refereeing was a 3-2 win over Liverpool in the EFL Cup.

Liverpool, in contrast, have won five of eight fixtures with Coote as the referee. They’ve conceded in six of these fixtures, drawing one and losing twice.

Yellow cards

Coote oversaw two cup exits in 2022/23, with the Reds getting seven yellows across the pair of fixtures. Their opponents, City and Brighton, combined for just two.

And that’s another notable thing. City have had four yellows in eight fixtures refereed by Coote - Liverpool had five in just one meeting with Brighton last season, refereed by Coote. In total, they’ve had 14 across eight games.

It’s not something that really carries over into the Premier League. Liverpool had fewer yellows than City in 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22. City have had fewer in the subsequent seasons - but not by much, the Reds have always been within three places of them in the yellow card table.

And yet under Coote, you’d think the two clubs were miles apart in discipline.

All in all, everything will be analysed deeply after this video leaked and it’s very tempting to read into things. But there’s very strange evidence here that the two clubs aren’t really refereed the same.

Maybe it’s a coincidence but right now, it’s easy to find a reason.

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