That was the week that was (Dec 19-25 2020)

Saturday Dec 19:

Palace 0 L 7  Holy shit! Well that was fun. Having a game won by half time is something I could defo get used to. It’s nice to just be able to sit back and watch us win an away game with no drama, no VAR, no stress, just some sensational goals. The finishing today was unreal, especially Bobby’s two.

Those were just glorious goals. The skill and technique to pull those off was just different level. He’s back now. He’s been steadily getting there for the last few weeks but he’s defo there now as you don’t score goals like that unless you’re right on it. If Jota was fit right now who would you leave out? 

I think I’d have to pick all four even though that doesn’t really work as well as 4-3-3. It’s not even as though rotation is an option as any time Sadio or Mo aren’t on the field they’re throwing toys out of the pram! Sadio’s reaction today was just hilarious. Angry Sadio is funny because it’s so out of character that it’s hard to take him seriously.

He saw his arse big time today because he was brought off earlier than he’d been told. Then you’ve got Mo who wants to play every minute of every game and take every penalty and set-piece because he’s obsessed with the Golden Boot. When Jota is back I reckon we’re going to have one angry forward every week. There are worse problems to have though and I’m sure Klopp doesn’t give a fuck if one of them has a titty lip. 

Also today, we had some weird shit involving Mo and an interview with the Spanish press. I say weird not just because of what he said, but because of who he was saying it to. He doesn’t do many interviews and when he does he usually goes with the likes of CNN as it’s a global thing and raises his profile around the world. 

Why is he talking to AS though? There will be a reason for it as he doesn’t do things like this on a whim. He flirted a little with Real and Barca but it seemed more polite than anything else “both huge clubs, you never know what might happen one day” that kind of thing.

He also said he wants to break every record there is at Liverpool though, so it’s not like he’s agitating for a move. It’s just really strange, and that shit he said about nit getting the captaincy last week was utterly bizarre. Trent is the longest serving player so he got it. That’s how it works under Klopp. Whenever the regular captains aren’t playing it goes on length of service.

If Mo doesn’t like it, tough shit. It’s weird really because I couldn’t be any more relaxed about this situation. If he is getting itchy feet and fancies a move, I’m not bothered. If he wants to stay here for years, great. 

Whatever happens is fine with me as the club will be just fine whatever happens. This isn’t like whenever the prospect of Suarez leaving came up and I’d be terrified and devastated in equal measure because I knew we’d be fucked without him. If Mo leaves, it’ll be his loss, not ours. Which is why I don’t think he has any interest in moving on as he knows what a great thing he has going on here.

Sunday Dec 20:

Do we reckon this Mo situation is about him wanting another new contract? And by that, I mean a pay rise? He said something about wanting to stay and break records but that it’s up to the club. And the fact he even agreed to an interview to begin with tells me he’s after something. This is it you know, he wants a pay rise.

Nothing else really makes sense. Why would you want to leave the best team int he world when you’re a key member of it? And why would you want to join Barca (skint and in transition) or Real (skint and shite) at this moment? In the past, sure, I get it. The idea of having Barca or Real on the CV is appealing, but going there now is a huge step down if you’re playing for us.

So I don’t think he wants to leave. I think he’s using their ‘interest’ as leverage to get a pay rise. But fuck that. He signed a deal not long ago making him the top earner and he’s got three or four years left on it. So if we tell him ‘no’ what’s he gonna do? Fuck all.

If anyone is getting a pay rise it should be Gini.

Monday Dec 21:

Carra and Neville pick their team of 2020 and Conor fucking Coady was in it. I can’t tell you how irritated I am by this. There are other subjective calls too but those are generally borderline decisions. Mané didn’t make the team which also bothered me, but there’s not much in it between him, Salah and Son so it’s understandable. Coady getting in is just fucking ridiculous though.

I can name 20 centre backs off the top of my head who are better than him. Virg, Joel, Joe, Fabinho, Laporte, Stones, Ake, City’s new lad, Maguire, Lindelof, Alderweireld, Gabriel, Mee, Tarkowski, Dunk, White, Mings, Konsa, Keane, Mina, Soyuncu, Foffana, Evans, Rudiger, Silva, Zouma, Ogbonna, O’Connell… Ok, so I can name a lot more than 20 who are better than him and if I really thought about it I could add more to that list. I think I’ve made my point though.

One of those I mentioned was big Virg, and that video he put out today was fucking incredible. He’s just had his whole knee rebuilt only a few weeks ago, but he’s already doing shit that I can’t do even with a normal knee. The squats and the stepper exercises, how the fuck is he doing that so quickly? He’s kicking a ball too.

Maybe that’s completely normal? I’m no physio so what do I know, but that footage today has massively shocked me. It’s hard not to start thinking maybe he could be back A LOT sooner than expected but we probably shouldn’t go down that road, especially if what he’s doing now is normal in the early stages of rehab.

Also today, Divock has removed all mention of LFC from his twitter profile. He’s unfollowed everyone and deleted all his tweets. His Instagram account is unchanged though. What’s this about then? Have the ‘LFC fam’ been giving him shit? Does he just want to fuck twitter off? Do we actually care?

He can do whatever he likes as far as I’m concerned as his legacy is secure. He’s been shite for 18 months but even if he’d taken to the field with a microphone and called us all knobheads every time Klopp sent him out there, it wouldn’t make any difference to how fondly he’ll always be thought of after what he did that season.

Tuesday Dec 22:

I never have dreams or if I do I never remember them. Last night I did though and it was a belter. I was part of the squad and we were walking off the field after training. A few of the lads (I can only remember Fabinho though) were complaining about Mo not passing and being a greedy bastard.

Then Sadio comes up to me, and says in Sadio’s voice / accent “my friend, I’m starting to think that he (Mo) just doesn’t want to pass to me”. And I went “nah Sadio it’s nothing personal towards you mate, he just doesn’t pass to anyone. Even some of the other lads have been moaning about it”.

Sadio was a little bit pacified by that but still wasn’t happy so I was trying to work out what to do about it. I thought about going to Klopp but that would be a bit of a shithouse move running to the boss, so I said to Sadio “let’s have a word with Hendo, he’ll sort it”. Sadio didn’t want to but said he didn’t mind if I did, so I decided that’s what I’d do.

I saw Hendo running off somewhere so shouted him. “Can’t stop I’ve got to be somewhere” he replied, and carried on running. So I started running after him, thinking I’d catch up with him and I could tell him about Mo being a greedy bastard and get him to sort it, because he’s Hendo and he can sort anything.

And then I realised that it’s Hendo and he’s likely to run all day and I can’t run for more than about 30 seconds, so I gave up pretty sharpish. I also found out why he was running. He’d hit a ball into the crowd at Man City and it hit someone in the face, so he wanted to make sure they were ok. Because he’s Hendo and that’s how he rolls.

And that’s it, I think I woke up or the dream just ended. I don’t know. But it was ace being Sadio’s mate while it lasted.

Some rumours that we might swap Div for that Schalke centre back. Won’t happen, not because Div won’t leave or because we don’t want the Schalke lad (both may be true) but because swap deals just don’t happen anywhere other than on footy manager.

In other news today, we’re meant to be signing some kid from Birmingham. I don’t know anything about him but I’ll ask Sadio tonight and find out what’s what. Hendo too, if I can catch him,

Wednesday Dec 23:

One of Mo’s Egypt team-mates reckon he’s unhappy here and wants to leave. Mohamed Aboutrika says “I called Salah about his situation at Liverpool and he is upset, but that would never affect his performance on the field.

“I know that Salah is not happy in Liverpool, he told me the reasons why he is not happy but they are secrets and I cannot talk about it in public. One of the reasons that made Salah angry was that he was not the captain against Midtjylland.”

You know what, if he’s not happy about not being captain, Klopp should get him in the office and tell him “fucking get over yourself, you big baby”. This is mad though. There’s defo something going on here. I said it when he did the interview last week but when his mates are revealing phone conversations they’ve had, then I don’t see how anyone can even be in denial over it.

The only question I have is whether he’s ‘unhappy’ because he wants to play elsewhere, whether he wants a pay rise, or whether he thinks the the club want to cash in on him. The second seems most likely, but what if it’s the third option? I wouldn’t entirely rule that out because something just isn’t right about this whole situation.

Sadio, Bobby and Mo are all the same age and will all need replacing at similar times you’d assume. Their values will be low when if we let the grow old together so maybe the club are thinking it makes sense to cash in one of them and freshen up the forward line with a younger face? It does make economical sense, but I’m not sure it makes football sense. Replacing all three at once would cost a fortune though so maybe they are thinking if they could get big money for Mo it would be worth sacrificing him.

Maybe the plan is moving him on while we can get maximum value and then bringing Elliott through as his replacement. If Elliott becomes the player that it looks like he might, that would make huge financial sense, but it’s a tricky needle to thread because how many seasons will it take until Elliott is contributing 30 a season like Mo is? He’s only 17 now, so it’s hard to see him being at that level in the next two to three seasons.

By the time Elliott is contributing at the level of Salah (if he ever is) then Mo will be long gone, so if this is the plan we’re going to need a stop gap, who may not come cheap. So all in all, maybe we should just keep Mo for another two or three years? I dunno, to be honest I’m relaxed about it as they know what they’re doing don’t they?

Thursday Dec 24:

Klopp looked in great spirits again in his press conference. Laughing and joking and taking the piss out of the journos by threatening to make them sing Happy Birthday to Matt McCann (the press officer). Then he said “we’ll do it in the embargo’d section”. It’s a far cry from the way he was a few weeks ago.

He said we won’t see Thiago this weekend as it’s too soon but Shaq and Milner might be involved. We’ve come through that injury crisis in pretty fucking good shape haven’t we? No wonder Klopp is full of beans again.

Saw something today about how every keeper who Messi has scored against will get a bottle of Bud for every goal they let in. So some keepers from the lesser lights in Spain are going to see them delivered by the truckload. Even Alisson will get two because of the CL semi. 

I’m annoyed by this but I’m not sure why. It just seems a bit arrogant and condescending, albeit unintentionally. Alisson should post a photo on Insta of him and Divock drinking the bottles while wearing their CL medals. 

Friday Dec 25: 

Klopp’s video message today was just… fucking hell… he’s just the greatest man alive isn’t he? Only he can deliver such an inspiring, heartfelt Christmas message while also singing “Last Christmas” in the same video. He can do it all that man. You’d follow him anywhere wouldn’t you? We’re so fucking lucky to have him. 

Nothing else to say really as it’s Christmas Day and there’s nothing happening. 

…. and that was the week that was