Martin Tyler was the voice of football on Sky Sports for 33 years and many Liverpool fans felt that he had a bias against our club.
Speaking on DR Sports, the commentator was asked to address why his delivery was often lackluster when speaking about goals scored by our club.
Using the example of Andy Cantwell’s deadpan impersonation of these moments, the 79-year-old addressed this assertion with a simple response.
He said: “I would, in my defence, get a whole catalogue of Steven Gerrard goals.”
It was a simple response that the Chester-born broadcaster clearly thought was enough to quash any discussion of him being biased against the Reds.
Martin Tyler had different levels of excitement for different teams
After his comments connecting the Hillsborough Stadium disaster to hooliganism, It’s easy to see why many Liverpool fans would be unhappy with Tyler.
There was also plenty of evidence from his career, with the match against Manchester United where both Anthony Martial and Christian Benteke scored being addressed in the video below, where our big moments weren’t marked as fervently as other clubs.
It would be hard for someone involved in television for so long to have such an obvious bias against anyone, with most clubs probably able to provide enough evidence to support their own thoughts.
However, this has long been a topic of discussion and though the Premier League Commentator of the Decade in the 2000s did address this matter – he wasn’t exactly thorough with his response.
You can watch Tyler’s comments (from 24:45) via DR Sports on YouTube:
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When someone has a virtual monopoly on a job, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good at it, or a legend, or a commentator of the decade.
The fudging of the response by him to a perfectly reasonable question, given the evidence over 30+ years, just goes to prove he was biased, and less than honest. He’s clearly learning from the current UK and US governments. There’s no greater insult!!
Tyler is finished. LFC will carry on.
He is like Neville. Hates LFC. Jealousy. Neville has a decent past with United but they have been shite for years now. Every year he says United will finish in front of LFC. We all laugh at him now Tyler has gone thank god for that
He was biased to Man U as they were the money making club for sky sports and the prem with the global fanbase that they have.
Always wanted them to look good.
Imagine depressed he would of been with this current man utd team? 😂
It’s one of these situations where if the premise/presupposition cannot be agreed with, the rest of the perceived problems are non-issues. We all have our presuppositions based on our varied experiences. I personally never felt he was never biased against Liverpool- at least certainly not in the 1990s. I watched most of the Sky Sports games from the 90s- be they MNF with Andy Gray, or the like. His commentary style was always more of a storied historian that weaves a tale of the game in the context of the wider narrative of football and the world game in general. Of course this meant sometimes he would react a half second later to a goal being scored. But, he was always a superb commentator – you got a dignified sense of the elegance of the game when he commentated. And Andy Gray was his perfect foil- the on the spot analysis from Gray was and is unmatched till this day; and Tyler was always a superb partner for Gray. Their mutual respect led to a coverage of the game that was regal (almost).
Now, that said, I always preferred the Alan Parry and Trevor Francis combo, or even the Ian Darke or but that was just me. Peter Brackley and Gary Bloom were also terrific in their own ways. What I loved about the 90s commentary from Tyler and co was that football at the time was also a bit more special in that the game itself had also that perfect blend of commercialism and pure reverie at the time; and the beautiful game had also not been over complicated by VAR and tech.
The 90s was just in that sweet spot (where the 80s had just been too chaotic with alleged match fixing, hooliganism, and arguably not as organised, and tech and professionalism had not fully developed to the peak level yet), while at the same time, the tech, setup, analyses and player power had not yet been corrupted by over commercialism from the 2000s onward.
As such, for me, I disagree with one of the above posts that Martin Tyler is not deserving of his “Commentator of the Decade” award because of a monopoly on the position. For me, he epitomised the pinnacle of that golden era with the pioneering work him and Gray (and Keysie) did at Sky. The two were miles ahead of anyone you’d hear before including Motty and Barry Davies, because they were ahead of their time. I can see why some people may have interpreted his view of LFC as sounding biased, but I put that down to the quality of the football from LFC in the 00s onward as well (LFC were arguably more successful under Houllier, Benitez) but the football was not as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing as it was under Evans. The other reason I can think of is that Tyler himself aged considerably in the 00s and 2010s (ironically the time that he began being immortalised in games like the latter titles in the EA FIFA series) , and he had the title of “The Voice of Football” but he had actually moved past his peak by then. Much like the golden age of English football being 1995/96 through 2005/06 or maybe even till 2008/09, and the golden age of European football being 1999/00 through 2018/19, he had arguably passed his peak then. In a very fitting sense, Tyler’s peak coincided with English football’s peak (not in terms of football per se- but in the overall packaging- where it all came together perfectly in the 90s). So, by the 2010s, he had already been on the wane. I can see why some would find he lacked abit of that pizazz and intensity.
Even so, despite passing his peak, I think he still was a terrific commentator who could hold his own back in the 2000s and 2010s compared to the likes of the newer gen like Peter Drury (who came into their own and into their peak in the current decade and are now the best), and so, yeah, I definitely think it is a combination of factors as to why LFC fans have a clouded view of him, but I think if you just watched in the 90s, you would never ever say that about Tyler in relation to Liverpool. It could be that the football Robbie and Macca (Steve McManaman) played was just terrifically attacking at the time, so it helped him provide more exciting coverage as well.
Sorry mate you’re wrong
Sorry mate, too many excuses for a commentator who, when other teams played and scored, applied the deserving enthusiasm and applause in the moment-exceot for Liverpool. And that has been evident throughout the years. Also, the negative comments he always made about Liverpool, cannot be because Liverpool performed poorly. Show me one decade that Liverpool didn’t play good quality football, where we deserve his negative commentary, and I am a Liverpool fan for the last 50 years! So I’ve listened to most of his commentary for our games and it is very safe to say that Tyler didn’t, doesn’t and will never like Liverpool. With all the great word skills and well-articulated phrases and descriptions mostly momentarily during commentary over the years, isn’t it very surprising that he couldn’t even put two sentences together to justify he’s antagonism against Liverpool? Guilty as charged..
So we never got any recognition we deserved ! There’s a lot on the commentary teams who don’t like us including Referees ! Who cost us Championships. Deny penalties deny Red cards against us Fouls against us and yet any little knock or fall out comes that whistle or Finger.if we had a Way of being able to Question By a panel of managers/ independents, Referees should made accountable and discussed for their decisions and maybe just maybe their might be less bent refs and we would earn the silverware we honestly won !