Saturday Jan 11:
Spurs 0 L 1 We were nowhere near our best today but we were still way better than sorry shithouse Spurs, who went out there just hoping not to get smacked around. Just because Mourinho said afterwards that they did well and deserved a point, a lot of people seem to have bought into it.
They deserved nothing. They played like a plucky little underdog in the cup. I was embarrassed for them as they’ve always been able to go toe to toe with us since Klopp has been here. Now look at them. Pitiful.
You know the great thing about our lads though? They won at Spurs but they were pissed off. You could see it. They were genuinely disappointed in themselves. Hendo was fuming afterwards and you could see him say to Klopp on the pitch “not good enough. That was fucking shit”.
Virgil wasn’t happy either, and Klopp reckons when he went to congratulate Bobby he was met with “I know, I should have scored more. I’m sorry”. The standards they are setting for themselves are the reason that I’m so sure this title race is over. There’s just no way these lads are going to lose six or seven games. There’s more chance that the gap gets bigger rather than smaller.
We’ve now officially had the best ever start in the history of the big five European leagues. What we’re seeing it truly historic shit. It’s literally never been done before. 20 wins from 21 games. Incredible stuff. We are a few months away from this team being the reigning champions of England, Europe and the World. Who’d have thought. Even just a couple of years ago it seemed well out of reach, but look at us now.
The u18s won again too. They went behind int he first minute and Stoke but equalised before half time and won it with five minutes left. These boys love a late goal even more than the senior lads.
Sunday Jan 12:
City smash Villa into the middle of next week but Guardiola is still saying the title has gone and we’re too far ahead. Why do so many people think he’s just playing mind games here? Guardiola has a higher opinion of Klopp and his team than pretty much anybody in football.
He’s always talking about how good we are, and he was doing it before we were even challenging them. So now he finds himself 14 points behind having played a game more. Of course he thinks it’s over, why wouldn’t he?
It isn’t mind games, he just knows how good we are because we matched them stride for stride last season when they had to be absolutely perfect over the last few months to hold us off. He knows they aren’t clawing back a 17 point deficit.
Nat Phillips is going back to finish his loan spell in Germany. He’s probably never going to play for us again but what a cool story he’s got to tell, cutting short a loan spell to come back and help us beat Everton, before then giving it the arl Josemi “and now my work here is done”. Great stuff.
Almost as great as this story from a London journalist about Berbatov from yesterday…
"Dimitar Berbatov came into the media cafe at Spurs about 10 minutes before kick off, looking for food. Grabbed a roll, but the catering manager came over and asked him where his pre-match meal voucher was (all media get given them).
"While his colleague argued his case, having taken one himself, explaining who the Bulgarian was, Berbatov casually buttered his roll, stuffed the whole thing into his mouth and stood in front of the woman with it hanging half out as if to say 'what you going to do about it now?'
"This sent the catering manager to a new level of outrage at this Bulgarian and his devil may care attitude. While she raged, Berbatov simply smiled with buttered roll still hanging out of his mouth before walking out of the room. Dimitar Berbatov - doing what he wants since 1981."
Meanwhile, Fabinho says he wants to welcome his mate Mbappe to Liverpool. You and me both, son. You and me both.
Monday Jan 13:
Some spectacular footy played by the 23s tonight in a 5-0 win against Southampton. Sensational stuff, especially from the skipper Jones. He’s far too good for this level now and the opposition usually can’t get near him. I know it’s tough with the number of senior lads ahead of him, but we need to get him some minutes, somehow, because he’s special.
Elliott and Williams were both class again too, as was Pedro. The new lad up front scored a couple and if this is going to be the regular line up for the 23s now they’re going to be fun to watch for the rest of the season. The midfield has been revamped now with Christie-Davies going out on loan. The trio that played tonight are very easy on the eye. Pedro, Clarkson and Cain are all brilliant in possession
Tell you what really grabbed my attention though. Hoever was only on the bench. Maybe there’s a fitness reason for that, or perhaps a message is being sent. He started the season on the brink of the senior squad. He was Trent’s deputy and also an option at centre back. Recently though he’s been nowhere near. He didn’t make the team against Everton and now he’s not making the starting line up for the 23s.
International duty has fucked his season right up. He was brilliant for Holland in those youth tournaments but while he was away Neco was flying past him in the pecking order and now he can’t get in at centre back ahead of Van den Berg and Boyes.
Tuesday Jan 14:
So, a report reveals that Everton have lost a shit load of cash over the last 12 months. £110m in losses or something. Serious shit. They had their AGM tonight and Moshiri didn’t show up. Why? Because he was having a really important meeting with someone who wants to invest in naming rights to their new stadium. Fuck me, not even Evertonians are gullible enough to not see through this shit, surely?
Hold on, it’s actually true. Kind of. The investor is his mate Uzmanov (long rumoured to have an unofficial stake in the Blues) and he’s paying £30m just to be given first refusal on the naming rights to the phantom new stadium. Jesus, that’s so fucking blatant even Man City will be looking at that and going ‘dunno about that lads, it’s a bit obvious like’.
You know, FFP may as well just be fucked off completely now because teams aren’t playing by the rules and unless you’re an Italian club there seems to be no punishment for it.
Actually that’s not strictly true as Championship sides have been hammered in the past too, and Derby are currently looking at a potential 12 point punishment after their chairman bought the stadium for more than it was worth and rented it back to the club.
I genuinely don’t get how Everton are being allowed to get away with what they’ve been doing. They lost £110m and yet they’re still throwing all that cash at Ancelotti?
If FFP is ever actually enforced in the Premier League, then Man City will be reigniting their rivalry with Macclesfield in League One and Everton will be there right alongside them, blaming that whole shit on us.
Wednesday Jan 15:
Suarez is out for four months after needing knee surgery. He was indestructible when he was here but age is catching up with him now. Shame for him, but at least it means there’s no chance of him having his heart broken by us again. I really, really hope we get to play them again you know. This time it might be worth playing the FA Cup side just to make it a bit more fair.
So the AFCON next year will be back to taking place in the winter. I’m sure there’s some perfectly simple explanation for it, and it will be something to do with FIFA acting in their own self interest. Loads of Reds are up in arms about it because it means no Mo, Sadio or Naby for possibly as long as six weeks.
At this point I’m not arsed. It’s so far ahead that frankly next season isn’t something that concerns me at all. I just want that title this year and I’ll worry about anything else afterwards. I’ve long felt that once we win that title I’m not even going to care about what comes next because I just want the monkey off our back.
No doubt I’ll feel a lot differently when we’re playing a dozen games with Mané and Salah though. As for Naby, it’s no better than even money that he’d be available to play for us anyway as he must have missed as many games as he’s been available for.
I suppose another part of the reason I’m not stressing about this is because I figure that Bobby and Mbappe can hold down the fort until they return anyway.
Thursday Jan 16
Roma want Shaq and have had a loan offer turn down. What the fuck is it with Italian clubs and their loan offers? There’s no way we’d be letting Shaq go anyway while there is so much to play for, but they could at least make us an offer that might make us consider it. If they’d come in and offered £30m then who knows.
It’s just mad though isn’t it? Why would we let any first team squad member go on loan? What the fuck are they even thinking? It’s actually annoyed the shit out of me to be honest. These fuckers tried to the same shit with Lovren last summer and have clearly learnt nothing.
Even Inter Milan are paying actual cash to sign soon to be out of contract 53 year old Ashley Young, so where do Roma get off trying to insult us like this?
In other news today, apparently UEFA changed the formation of their ‘team of the year’ just so they could get Ronaldo in. It was meant to be 4-3-3- but Ronaldo was the fourth striker in the voting, so they went 4-2-4 and dropped Ngolo Kante.
It’s really not that big of a deal but it is completely baffling to me how Ronaldo needs to be cow towed to like this. He’s had a great career and won a shit tonne of awards both individually and collectively. All things come to an end though.
Ronaldo is 35 in a few weeks. I’d say he is undoubtedly the best 35 year old to ever play the game, but Father Time is undefeated and eventually he’ll get Ronaldo too. Why are UEFA so arsed about it though? What do they think is going to happen if he doesn’t make their ‘Team of the Year’? It’s just fucking weird.
Meanwhile, Phil Babb thinks we should sign Koulibaly to play alongside Big Virg because it’s the only position where we might actually need strengthening. Initially I rolled my eyes when I saw that, but in fairness to Babb he said his concern was just with the fitness records of Gomez, Matip and Lovren, and he’s right on that score.
The problem is what do you do when everyone is fit? If we signed Koulibaly, presumably it would be at the expense of Lovren who would move on, which is fine, but where would that leave Gomez? He could be our centre back for the next dozen years, so why replace him with someone who will play every week? Because Koulibaly is currently better than Joe, but if Joe is playing every week (or at least most weeks) then he’s quickly going to become one of the best around.
If we paired Koulibaly with Van Dijk we might never concede a goal again, and it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else. Besides, we need that money for Mbappe.
Friday Jan 17:
Why is it any time we play the Mancs or Bueshite, we’re subjected to those God awful ‘Combined XI’ things? At least in the past there was a discussion to be had, but but not any more. Even Dave Prentice couldn’t find room for one Everton player in his line up, but ESPN somehow managed to sneak Maguire and Rashford in theirs.
Rashford is United’s best player but he got in ahead of Mo Salah. I mean seriously? You can make a case that he could edge Divock out of a spot on the bench, but that’s it. Rashford over Salah is fucking crazy talk.
As for Maguire? What’s that based on? Price tag, presumably, because he hasn’t pulled up any trees since going there and there are actually video compilations of his individual performances that are doing the rounds online just ripping the piss out of him. Picking him over Lovren is laughable. Taking him over Matip is embarrassing. Going with him over Joey G is fucking criminal. He’s better than Phil Jones though, I’ll give him that.
Finally, the u23s lost 3-0 at Wigan tonight. Shite it was. They were well beaten and I switched off before the end as it was doing my head in. The defence looked awful and the attack was toothless without Elliott and Jones.
I’m struggling to see what they saw in Van den Berg because he doesn’t even look as good a player as Morgan Boyes right now. Need to have faith though as we haven’t got too many transfers wrong in the last couple of years, and he is still a kid.
...and that was the week that was
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