That was the week that was (Apr 5-9 2021)

Monday Apr 5:

You can tell West Brom won at the weekend as Allardyce was on Talksport breakfast this morning telling everyone how he masterminded it. You can set your watch by him. Any time the Baggies have a good result he’ll be on, Monday morning, talking about how ‘he’ did it. 

I was in the car so I caught most of it and he’s amazing. He’s a total parody of himself these days. He says that they identified the Chelsea keeper as a weak point because he always does mad things. The lack of respect for an opposition player was staggering. I’m sure these kind of things are pointed out in team meetings but how many managers would actually come out and say it just to make themselves look clever, especially when the keeper didn't even do anything wrong? Honestly, I think he’s the only one. Not even Mourinho would single out an opposing player like that.

The best thing about Fat Sam though is how he can take credit for wins and pass on the blame for losses. They’ve lost loads of games since he went there but he put that down to “players not putting away their chances”. Because obviously his gameplan was flawless. He’s one of a kind. Thankfully.

Meanwhile, we’ve got Real Madrid tomorrow! How cool is that? It’s shit that fans aren’t going to be at either game, but springtime, big European nights against the top sides, this is what we live for. It’s not the same because we can’t go, I know that, but it’s still the most excited I’ve been about footy since…. actually since Atletico a year ago I think. Defo the most excited I've been for a game this season anyway. I’m genuinely looking forward to tomorrow night.

Tuesday Apr 6: 

Real 3 L 1 Well fucking hell. Wasn’t that a massive damp squib? Remind me never to look forward to any game without fans there ever again. It just isn’t the same. It's awful, especially when we lose.

I’m not saying no fans is the sole cause for what’s happening to us but it definitely makes it less enjoyable to watch these games. I’m at the end of my tether with it now and just don’t know how many more of these games I can sit through, especially when we're playing like such fucking losers.

This was fucking abysmal. I can’t believe we performed like that in such a massively important game. Every single player was shite. Every one. No exceptions. That’s what has really shaken me here. Even players that we can always hang our hats on, the likes of Fabinho, Gini and Robbo, they were shite too. Everyone was shite. Klopp was shite too.

He got the team wrong by picking Keita then he took him off three minutes before half time, creating a story and putting an unfair spotlight on Naby (he was shite, but no worse than anyone else), and our tactical approach to the game just seemed wrong from the start. Why were we playing so slow? Why defend with the high line when we weren’t pressing them? Whose idea was it to let Toni Kroos have as long as he wanted to pick out balls over the top? 

I just feel really deflated after this because we’re a shambles right now and we can’t keep blaming injuries. Other than the centre backs and Hendo we basically had everyone available tonight. Klopp said post match that the goals didn’t concern him as they were mistakes and mistakes can happen. It was how we played that was the worry for him. I agree 100% with that.

We’re going out there with our 6th and 7th choice central defenders so being vulnerable in that area is almost to be expected. The first goal I can live with completely because Nat Phillips is playing against Real Madrid in a Champions League quarter final. He isn’t supposed to be here. I have nothing but love for Nat Phillips. This isn’t his fault.

The second goal is a brain fart from Trent, who was also partly responsible for the first and third goals too. Alisson was shite on the third. But like Klopp said, I can live with all of that as long as we’re playing well and creating chances. Remember when we used to score three or four to compensate for those mad games when we gave away a load of stupid goals? We just don’t have that in our locker anymore.

Fuck Real Madrid though, the arrogant, entitled cunts. This was supposed to be the night when we shoved it right up their arses for what happened in Kiev. If we’d played them last season or the season before it would have been carnage and we’d have utterly humiliated them. Instead, we get to play them when we’re in this fucking sorry state, and we humiliated ourselves. The ref can go fuck himself too, falling for so much of their shit but not giving our lads (especially Sadio) anything when they were fouled. The booking for Trent when he didn't even touch that Vinicius bellend was outrageous (although that was more the fault of the linesman than ref).

Usually I’d be the first one banging the drum about how it isn’t over and we can turn it around in the second leg. Not. A. Fucking. Chance. Anfield with no fans isn’t Anfield. It's a field. The only thing left to hope for now is that someone can stop City from winning it.

Wednesday Apr 7:

Speaking of City, just catching up on their game from last night. I hadn’t seen the disallowed Dortmund goal until now but I did see Sancho’s tweet saying the ref “needs checking”. He’ll surely be in trouble for that but having now seen the incident he’s got a point.

We know European refs are always trigger happy with the whole ‘foot up’ thing but this was taking the piss. The kid Bellingham did nothing wrong at all and it’s a disgrace that VAR didn’t overturn that. 

The worst part of this wasn't City winning, it was seeing Haaland and Foden cosying up to eachother at full time, hands over their mouths whispering like teenage girls. The two most punchable faces on the planet and they'll be teaming up soon as I'm now 100% convinced Haaland is joining City. You could just tell. He'll score 50 goals a season playing in that team.

As for tonight, PSG and Bayern were involved in a cracker but I didn’t watch any of it as I can’t face it. It’s probably 50% about empty stadiums and 50% the Reds sucking away any enthusiasm I have for watching any footy whatsoever. Hopefully Bayern turn this one around in the second leg as they’re the best hope of stopping City winning it.

Meanwhile, what the fuck is going on with all this racist shit? Every week now we have footballers being subjected to racist abuse on social media. Today LFC had to put out a statement after Trent and Naby were on the receiving end. The other day it was Callum Robinson after he scored two against Chelsea. Rashford has been getting it all season and the list goes on and on. 

It’s just fucking weird. Obviously these cunts have always been out there but they are just so brazen about this shit now. Loads of them aren’t even doing it under the mask of anonymity, they’re doing it from their own account with their own name on. And fuck all gets done about it. I remember someone got sent down not so long ago for this kind of thing, and there have been others who have lost their jobs because of sick stuff they've said or done. So how come it’s happening more then ever? Just expose the fuckers and ruin their lives.  

The likes of Twitter and Instagram could stop this if they wanted to but they don’t seem to give a fuck. Watch how quickly they act when someone posts a video of a Premier League goal though. Racism = ok. Copyright breach = delete & ban.

Thursday Apr 8:

Lots of talk about this Konate lad from Leipzig. Given that for about four months the only teams we’ve looked like we could score against are Arsenal and Leipzig, I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be touching any of their players with a shitty stick. If they make our forwards look dangerous then that’s a massive fucking red flag, surely?

Not sure I like the rumblings apparently coming out of the club concerning Sadio’s slump. The Athletic have done a typically long, in depth piece on what different sources at the club are thinking and there’s some bollocks about how this stems back to Guardiola’s throwaway line last season about “sometimes he’s diving”. The implication being that refs have been influenced by that and this is why Sadio is getting fuck all from them.

What a crock of shit. I hope that’s not what people inside the club are thinking because that’s proper Man City behaviour that. Any time something doesn’t go their way they’d be pointing the finger at Liverpool because they were utterly obsessed. We better not start with that shit. There’s not a chance in hell that the ref the other night wasn’t giving Sadio free kicks because of something Guardiola said well over a year ago (and subsequently apologised for).

It’s certainly true that refs have had it in for him though. He’s been criticised for not going down when fouled and then he’s been criticised for going down when apparently not fouled. One source at the club said "He can’t win" and the comments made by Michael Owen were apparently referenced in the article, suggesting that Sadio is aware of it.

I’m not having it that this is the reason why he’s completely forgotten how to play football though. There’s way more to it than that because there’s no way he’s that mentally fragile that he’d allow refs to torpedo his form like that.

Having said that, getting all this out in the public domain does maybe put refs under some pressure the next time he's brought down in the box and they want to wave it away.

But let's be honest here, the horse is long gone and closing the stable door now is a fucking waste of time. The time to have made a huge stink about unfair treatment from refs was after Goodison. We just accepted it and we've been a punchbag for officials ever since.

Friday Apr 9:

I just thought of something. Where the fuck is Ben Davies? I’d completely forgotten about him because of the international break but as far as I’m aware he hasn’t even been on the bench lately has he?

He’s gonna be a modern day Frank McGarvey. I only know McGarvey was a Liverpool player because he was in my Panini sticker album, and even then he was wearing a St Mirren kit. If Ben Davies is in any Panini album he’s probably in his Preston shirt. McGarvey left us to join Celtic without playing a game. There's every chance Davies will go the same route.

The u23s lost 3-2 at City tonight. I don’t think I’ve watched a full game of theirs all season because there’s just no point. There isn’t one player in the regular line up that has any hope of making it here, even though I did enjoy watching Cain and Clarkson play when they were in the u18s. It might just be me, but u18 footy is boss and u23 footy is dull as fuck. It feels like all the best kids we have are in the u18 set up, while there are players like Woodburn, Moyes and Gallagher in the 23s who are just treading water until they are released. 

And we’ve got about a hundred keepers, most of whom I’ve seen play a few times but there’s one fucker I’ve never seen play any games yet somehow he keeps getting named on the bench for Champions League games. Just who in the blue hell is “H. Davies”???

We’ve got Villa tomorrow. I have no idea what’s going to happen because that Arsenal game last week has thrown me. That’s the outlier here. We looked good in that game and it’s muddied the water because it made me think we’d turned the corner. Then the Madrid game happened and I’m back to just having no idea what we are anymore. 

If I had to bet on it, I think I’d pick us to lose. But then that would be seven straight losses at ‘Anfield’ (I don’t even like calling it that without fans) and statistically the odds against that must be pretty big. Playing the odds would mean a win, so how come I can see us toiling away and losing to one of only two or three shots Villa have?

Hopefully I’m worrying over nothing because if we do win this one it does set us up nicely for a run at getting fourth. It’s hard not to be shaken by that horror show the other night though.

and that was the week that was…..