That was the week that was (Dec 20-24 2021)

Monday Dec 20:

So it’s business as usual then. Games will carry on and we have to play three matches in six days with a depleted squad. I don’t know what the right thing to do is, but this ain’t it. Making us (and Chelsea) play all these games right now is basically just gift wrapping the title for Man City who seem to have been completely unaffected by COVID and keep faving opponents riddled with it. Every point is going to be vital and that Leicester game next Tuesday has the potential to derail us. 

We’ve got them in the cup first though and that’s a game we can do without. I don’t want to see Salah, Mané, Jota, Hendo, Trent, Matip or Konate anywhere near that game, and even Keita, Milner and Ox should probably be kept away from it as we’re going to need them over the Christmas period, especially that two games in three days shit.

Just looking around newsnow to see what’s happening today and it’s mad the amount of trivial shit that gets turned into articles now. Trent did a piece with Sky where he was answering random questions. I watched it and was alright. But some of these little throwaway answers have been turned into individual stories. 

Sky: Whose accent would you rather have, Robbo or Hendo?

Trent: They’re both as bad as each other but I’ll say Hendo’s.

HITC.com: ‘BOTH AS BAD AS EACH OTHER’: ALEXANDER-ARNOLD MAKES CLAIM ABOUT LIVERPOOL DUO

I mean really? It gets worse though. James Maddison tweeted “what a save!” after Alisson pulled off that stop to deny Deli Alli yesterday, and that is apparently worthy of an article on more than one LFC fan site. I just don’t get it. It winds me up. 

You know what else winds me up? Dermot fucking Gallagher. He’s even worse than Peter Walton. They both talk complete bollocks and will shamelessly defend bad decisions, but Gallagher does it with a real smugness. He has some strong Tory MP vibes about him. Not even he could defend the decisions yesterday, although he certainly tried. The baldy little prick.

Tuesday Dec 21:

Rickie Lambert outs himself as a mad anti-vaxer after going to bat for that other loon Matt Le Tissier. Of course Big Dejan liked his post, he has some kind of bat signal goes off over his house any time someone posts about this kind of shit. What is it with these fellas who played on the south coast though? Shilton is the worst person in the entire country, Le Tissier is an absolute tool and Paul Walsh broke my heart by revealing himself as a bad brexit bellend (he threw a street party the day it went through). And now Lambert. Must be something in that sea air. Even Lovren was at Southampton for a bit.

Meanwhile, Klopp will face no charges after what he said about Tierney. This is bollocks really. Based on what he said, and what usually happens when managers say such things, he SHOULD have been charged. No doubt about it. So for him to not be charged, well it’s basically an admission of guilt. They know Klopp had every right to say what he said so they’re going to let it slide.

Ljinders did the presser today and covered a lot of things, including his desire to once again become a manager. He wouldn’t be drawn on whether he wanted to succeed Klopp but obviously that’s something he’d be thinking about. I’m not sold on that idea but I’m not against it either. It would certainly help with continuity and not having to completely change the style of play and philosophy. It’s preferable to me than Gerrard coming back anyway, but really the thought of anyone other than Klopp just makes me sad.

There was a report in the Times today where they outlined something I’ve been wondering about. I wasn’t completely sure that this was happening but now I am, and it fucking stinks. We had to play against Spurs despite having four players out with COVID. We had enough players to complete the fixture because all the lads are jabbed which means they don’t have to isolate. 

Now we find out that Watford had one player who had it but couldn’t play their game against Burnley because they had a load of unvaccinated players who then had to isolate. This is almost certainly what has happened with most (if not all?) of the other postponed games too. So basically we were punished for doing the right thing. The league has now come out and said any team that has 14 players including a keeper has to play no matter what. That’s what it was supposed to be already though wasn’t it?

Firstly, I’m willing to bet they still don’t enforce that across the board and we’ll still see some games called off because of anti-vaxers. Secondly, teams have already benefitted from it. They should have been made to play, or forfeit. Or everybody should have been given a two week break. You can’t allow some teams to have a break while others plough through on tired legs with weakened squads.

We’ve been shafted here. So have Leeds, who are fully vaccinated and have had to soldier on with half a team missing. Chelsea too. In the long run we should be better off because our players have been vaccinated but not if they let other teams continue to postpone games any time one player tests positive and a load of selfish dickheads then have to isolate. We had to play away at Spurs without our entire midfield and without the world’s best defender. Spurs were coming off a two week break because they “didn’t have enough players available” to complete their fixtures. How many of those unavailable were unvaccinated players who hadn’t even tested positive? We deserve to know these things because it sure as hell feels like we’ve been screwed here.

Wednesday Dec 22:

L 3 Leicester 3 Its funny how loads of us went from not being arsed about this game to it suddenly feeling like the most important one of the season. Some of you are always well up for the cup games but to me they’re little more than a chance to blood youngsters and give squad players some much needed playing time. If we can win in the process then great, but I wouldn’t be risking key players to do it. 

It felt like Klopp shared that view until half time of this game when all of a sudden he decided we had to win. Maybe he got pissed off with the Leicester fans too? They were a fucking state weren’t they? It’s mad that we’re the only set of fans in the country singing about the Tories. You’d think the whole nation would be against them now but I guess the country being completely fucked takes a back seat to point scoring “banter”. 

Leicester fans went to Goodison after the election and chanted for Boris Johnson. They even had A4 print offs of the cunt’s face. I still hate Villa and Newcastle more but you can make an argument these are the biggest dickheads in the country. Chanting about the Gerrard slip too, as though anyone inside Anfield is even arsed by that anymore. We’ve won everything since then and it’s pretty lame for anyone to still be using that. It angers me, but not in the way they’re intending. It doesn’t make me think about Gerrard falling over and us losing the title, it just makes me think “you absolute fucking losers, just fuck right off you pathetic twats”.

We went 2-0 down early, then it was 3-1, but the lads kept going and found a way as they so often do. You also have to say Leicester are serious bottle jobs aren’t they? Twice they’ve blown top four on the final day of the season and when you see how shite they were in the second half of this game it’s easy to understand why. 

Jota giving it loads in front of their fans after slotting the winning pen was the highlight of the evening, especially the way he ended it by snarling “fuck off!” at them. What a guy.

Now we face Arsenal in the semis and if we get through that it’s Chelsea or Spurs in the final. So Chelsea then, as Spurs will Spurs it up like always. I hope they don’t as I’d like to face them again and make Kane and Son cry again. Pricks.

Thursday Dec 23:

Everton have five COVID cases and loads of injuries so they asked for their game to be postponed on Boxing Day. Their request was refused, which although funny because it’s them, is a fucking disgrace really considering how many other games have been called off, including ours because Leeds don’t have enough players because of… COVID and injuries. How is that different to Everton?

That game being called off helps us and hurts us at the same time. We’ll beat Leeds whenever it is played and the risky one for us was always Leicester away on the 26th. Now we go into that with a full squad on six days rest while they have to face City away two days earlier. So that’s worked out well for us.

The downside is that we don’t get to face injury ravaged Leeds and put seven past them like City did. That one game virtually wiped out the goal difference advantage we had over them and now we won’t get the opportunity to batter a depleted Leeds. Additionally, Robbo is now unable to face Chelsea away because he’ll still be serving a suspension. So it’s swings and roundabouts but overall I think we’re coming out of this one better off.

Friday Dec 24:

Everton asked again for their game to be postponed and this time their request was granted. That’s where Chelsea went wrong last weekend. Just keep asking until you get your own way. In fairness, Everton should never have needed to ask twice and it’s alarming to me that they did. Of course a load of their fans - and that Michael Ball weirdo - found a way to turn it around onto us. Apparently only ‘big six’ clubs get to pick and choose which games they play. Completely ignoring that us and Chelsea were forced to play last weekend and that our Boxing Day game is off because Leeds said they couldn’t play, it had nothing to do with us. 

Have you seen Burnley’s situation now though? They’ve played four games less than most teams now and those games are going to have to be fitted in somewhere. They might end up playing a load of games in May, needing to pick up points to survive and having to do it by playing four games in a week or something mad. And I could be wrong here, but I don’t think they themselves have cancelled any of these games, it’s their opponents doing it. 

Dean Smith says it’s madness for teams to have to play twice in three days. Let’s see if he gets the same kind of shit from the national media that Klopp’s been getting this week. Guardiola said virtually the same thing as Klopp but I haven’t heard him getting any shit on talksport this week. It’s been bash Jurgen week on there, they’ve been completely obsessive about “Klopp wants to take our festive footy tradition away” Alan Brazil and Simon Jordan especially. 

What’s annoying about it is that they keep misrepresenting what he said. He isn’t calling for the festive games to be scrapped, he’s just asking for an extra 24 hours between games. And you why he’s saying that? Not because it’s something he came up with himself, but because he listens to experts and the experts (i.e. the sports science nerds) are telling him that this is madness. But if you put the radio on you’ll hear knobheads ripping him, talking about “it’s our tradition and if he doesn’t like he should go back home. Then there’s the wankers who call in with their “They get well paid to play football so they should get on with it. I have to work 12 hour shifts every day but you don’t get me complaining about being too tired.

It’s annoying as fuck but so many people in this country are thick as pigshit. I bet there’s a big correlation between those kicking off at Klopp’s comments and those who voted brexit. Conte and Rangnick have both said similar stuff today but it only ever makes headlines when it’s Klopp and it’s a fucking joke. Look at the difference in these tweets for example…

I’m ok with people who accept Klopp’s point but simply don’t want to give up the tradition of playing on the 26th and 28th. That’s fair enough and it’s a view I have some sympathy with. I don’t feel that way myself, not anymore, but for most of my life I’ve loved all the games over the holiday period so I get it. It’s a tradition, people don’t want to give it up and that’s fine.

What annoys me is when people dispute Klopp’s reasoning though as it’s really not arguable. Players need a certain amount of time to recover between games, that’s just a fact. And if they don’t get that time then they are at a higher risk of injury, and their performances will not be to their usual standard. Denying that is like denying climate change or COVID.

Finally, the Inside Training video showed Virg, Fab and Curtis back in training. No Thiago yet, but he’ll only be a day or two behind presumably. The highlight of the video was Matip pinging one into the top bin during shooting practice, and it being accompanied by the usual excited cry from Van Dijk, who buzzes of EVERYTHING Joel does. I actually think it annoys Joel.

….and that was the week that was.