Saturday Jan 2:
Hmmm. Curtis wished Happy New Year to the “real” fans who have supported him. Apparently he’s been getting the Neco Williams treatment on social media. These people need to fuck off and die. I’ve said it before and I’ll re-iterate it. Anyone sending abuse to players, especially young lads, I hope they fucking die. Twats.
Curtis won’t be affected by it as he’s a confident lad, but it’s fucking scandalous that pricks who claim to support us feel they have the right to force their shitty little uneducated opinions onto lads who have more talent in their little toe than these cunts have in their entire bodies.
If I ruled the world I’d make a law that says any time some twat sends abuse to a player from the team they support (which is entirely different than having a pop at players from rival clubs, because if you're a player why would you care what a rival fans calls you? Your own fans though, different story completely), a couple of boys show up at their house and drag them outside for a beating.
Not even joking. I would happily see these pricks who are messaging our players and telling them they aren’t good enough or saying “get out of my club” sent to A&E. Oxygen thieves, the lot of them.
Meanwhile, West Brom ship four at home to Arsenal. Looking forward to hearing Fat Sam on Talksport Monday morning talking us through how he masterminded it.
Speaking of Allardyce though, this was absolutely fucking priceless. He’s got three signings lined up for WBA but they can’t go through because of the new Brexit laws. This fat prick was on Talksport a couple of years back belching out about how great Brexit was going to be and how everyone will benefit from it. And now, here he is, complaining that Brexit has stopped him making signings (and a little side profit?). Life comes at you fast, eh, you odious slug.
Sunday Jan 3:
Maybe the Botman thing was a false alarm as all the media in Portugal are linking us with some cat named David Carmo. Plus the Transfer Window Grim Reaper James Pearce is saying there is no interest in Botman at all.
Meanwhile, a City player threw a New Year’s Eve party, breaching Covid rules. It wasn’t Walker though, he’s probably lying low after whatever it was he did last week. No, it was someone else. And if you had to guess which City player would be stupid enough to do this I don’t think you’d need many guesses. Benjamin Mendy is a clown and a move like this is entirely in character.
It’s not on though really. They were ‘unable to play’ against the Blues last week because of an outbreak in their squad (allegedly because Walker had a party) and now another one of their players is having a party in his house too.
Fuck all will happen, but they should have points deducted for this shit. I don’t agree they should forfeit the Everton game because why should those cunts be handed three points for nothing? Nah, play the fixture, but if it turns out that the outbreak was self inflicted then City should have points docked.
Still, even with six players out with Covid they still battered Chelsea. Helps that they’d had the week off to prepare, but the real advantage they had was Lampard being in charge of the opposition.
Twitter was weird today. Chris Kirkland got into a spat with the son of Paul Scholes. Seems Wee Scholesey’s kid threw a New Year’s Eve party in the family mansion, and Kirky not only condemned it, he tagged him in while doing so. The response was exactly as I’d expect. No contrition, no regret, no humility, just abuse, which proved Kirkland’s point really.
Have to laugh that he called him a “washed up Wigan keeper” though. And what exactly is your claim to fame, junior? This is the first time anyone has even heard of you, you soft cunt, and it’s for breaking covid rules. Go back to sponging off your arl fella and *googles* “punching a former school pal in unprovoked attack” and “playing football for Chadderton in the ninth tier” hahaha. You could only dream of playing for Wigan, you tit.
Also on Twitter, the club wished Adrian happy birthday and I made the mistake of looking at the replies. “Get out of my club” “please leave” etc
It’s his birthday you fucking bad, bad virgins. Have a day off. What are you even hoping to achieve? Klopp isn’t making a decision based on you tweeting from yer ma’s spare room. So the only thing that will happen is Adrian himself might see it if he checks his mentions, and he’ll probably get a little hurt by it as he’s only human. Still, as long as YOU feel better eh? Honestly, these people are the fucking worst.
Also today, Gerry Marsden died. Fucks sake. 2021 picking up where 2020 left off. I’ve heard loads of versions of YNWA but Gerry’s has ruined them all for me. Any other version I’ve heard I’ve tended to go “this is shit” because there’s only one version of it for me. Obviously I’m biased, but it’s just the best. Others might have better voices but no-one did the song better.
Monday Jan 4:
Southampton 1 L 0. I’m not taking this well. All season we’ve been getting stiffed by officials so I’m angry as fuck about that, but that anger is also accompanied by concern and disappointment at how we’re playing. It annoys me when people completely disregard the officiating and say stuff like “we need to worry about ourselves and what we’re doing”.
Obviously, yeah. It goes without saying, but sometimes when you’re not playing well and you’re fighting through some shit, you’re relying on officials actually doing their jobs. I’m not asking for nor expecting favours. Just fucking do your job properly and treat incidents in our games the same as you would if you were officiating two different teams. That’s all. It’s not too much to ask.
The officiating tonight was a fucking disgrace from start to finish. It’s not just the two pens we didn’t get either. It may have been three actually, I’m just not sure Sadio was in the box on one of them when he was wrestled to the floor. He didn’t get the foul regardless.
It was the complete disparity in free-kicks and yellow cards. It was just blatantly biased all night, almost as biased as the way Sky covered the game actually. Fuck all was made of any of the shitty decisions that went against us, but Tyler and Smith did take umbrage with Trent nicking six yards on a throw in deep in his own half because apparently that “has a real effect on Southampton’s ability to get out”.
I’m sick of it. It’s bullshit what we’re having to deal with this season. If we were at our best we’d be able to overcome it, but we aren’t at our best and shit like this isn’t helping. To not be playing well and also having to deal with constantly shit decisions is a tough ask for any team. Even these lads.
Our form is clearly a concern now. We’ve become really easy to stifle. Maybe I’m over simplifying things but I don’t see too much wrong with how we’re playing as a team. By that I mean we aren’t giving up loads of chances, we’re penning teams back and dominating the ball, and when I’m watching I feel as though everything is pretty good right up until we reach the box. Then it all turns to shit.
I put most of our problems on the front three no longer playing well together. We see flashes of brilliance from all of them throughout games but it’s not combination play between them, it’s moments of individual quality. More often than not when they try to link with each other they lose the ability to play the most simple of passes or they just choose the wrong option.
And we rely own them so much because our midfield is set up to control the oppositions counters, back up the play and funnel the ball to the full backs and the forwards. They’re still doing that for the most part but it feels like every time the ball ends with one of the front three they lose possession.
At least Sadio kept going and was fighting with everything he had tonight. I felt sorry for him at the end because he gave absolutely everything. He lacked quality at times and he got fuck all protection from the ref who let Walker-Peters foul without impunity all night. But Sadio kept trying.
Where the fuck was Mo? Seems “Never Give Up” is just a catchy little slogan to put on a t-shirt and ensure people are still talking about him even when he isn’t playing. Ok, I know that’s unfair and snide but he’s not getting cut any slack from me right now after some of the selfish shit he’s pulled recently.
I’m just sick of everything at the moment. Life is shit, we’re in another fucking lockdown and rather than being a welcome distraction the footy is now just making me feel even worse. There’s nothing good happening at the moment, everything is just misery. Except Cobra Kai. That’s basically the only pleasure in life currently.
Meanwhile, Guardiola defended Mendy over the party. Of course he did. It’s the culture at City. "Of course it was not correct what he has done, but don't judge him too much. Maybe many people have done the same."
Oh well that’s ok then, because others have done it too. They don’t respect any rules and they cry “persecution” when they’re pulled up on their rule breaking. Absolute cunt of club, full of cunts, supported by cunts, defended by cunts. Fucking cunts.
One thing I would agree with Guardiola on though is that it wasn’t as bad as it was portrayed. The impression people have is that he threw some wild party when it was actually more of a quiet gathering. The guests were his nephew as well as his girlfriend and some friends of hers. Yet I keep seeing jokes about him having hookers round and requesting ‘a big bum latina’. What’s that about?
Ok, so I’ve had a bit of a google on it and it seems all that was nothing to do with New Year’s Eve. It was another party, on Boxing Day. But before we hang him out to dry here it’s worth pointing out who broke the story. The fucking S*n. We all know their track record for making shit up so I’d take all that with a huge pinch of salt.
I’m actually wanting to defend Mendy myself now, even though he probably did everything he was accused of.
Tuesday Jan 5:
I switched off immediately after the game last night so didn’t see anything Klopp said. I’ve caught up on it now and it just makes me feel worse. Not because anything he said was wrong. He was spot on about everything. It’s just depressing though. Klopp rightly points out the disparity in pens between us and United over the last few years, but instead of looking into it and seeing if he has a point, the consensus from the footy media will be that he’s having a “Benitez type meltdown”.
I want no part of football at the moment, which is kind of tricky seeing it’s my job and I’m actually writing about it right now! Ideally I’d watch our game and then avoid all football completely until our next fixture. And if I’m being completely honest, in an ideal world I might not even watch some of our games right now if that were an option.
It’s not an option though. This is what I do. I watch footy and write about it. And there are much worse things I could be doing so I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I've got it better than a lot of people, it's just that this watered down version of footy with no fans is really not very enjoyable. Tomorrow I’ll have to catch up on MOTD and do the round up, which won’t be any fun whatsoever but it is what it is. I’ve got to do it so I will.
Here’s something I can’t get my head around though. There was a league cup game tonight and some of you will have watched it. I’ve got mates who watched it and I’m fairly sure my mum and dad will have too. I don’t know how you do it.
After last night the absolute last thing I want to do is sit down and watch Mourinho’s Spurs playing against a Championship side. What do you get out of it? I won’t even watch tomorrow nights Manc derby because… well fuck that.
Maybe it’s because it’s my job. Like how if your job is a painter and decorator the last thing you want to do when you’re off work is put wallpaper up. Or if you’re a gardener you don’t want to come home and get your pruning sheers out. I dunno, it just genuinely puzzles me how anyone could choose to spend tonight watching Spurs v Brentford given the way the last couple of weeks have gone for the Reds.
If you watched that game tonight then post underneath here as I’m genuinely interested to know what motivates you to do that.
Wednesday Jan 6:
Jesus. I knew we were getting a raw deal from refs this season but I had no idea the extent of just how bad it is until i saw a piece on This is Anfield. The only team in the league to be awarded FEWER free kicks than us is Sheffield United. So, the team that tops the table, has more of the ball than anyone else (except City, I assume), has trickier forwards than anyone else and who attacks more than anyone else, has been awarded less fouls than everyone other than the team that is bottom, has only two points, not a single tricky attacker and who has less of the ball than pretty much everyone else.
Not just that, the numbers on Salah are fucking incredible too. In 16 games he’s been fouled 11 times. So, we’re expected to accept that the country’s leading goalscorer over the last few years, a player whose game is based on turning defenders, dribbling or just running past them, has been fouled the same amount of times as Lewis Dunk????
Sorry, this cannot be explained away. It’s not possible for any of that to happen without biased officiating. I’m not crying conspiracy here and saying there’s some clandestine operation to make sure we don’t get any decisions, but there is 100% something not right about this. Either consciously or unconsciously, referees are giving us nothing. Why that is, only they know.
Klopp referenced United getting twice as many penalties as us despite having had way fewer touches in the box than we have, but that’s not the way to go. It’s too easy for knobheads to laugh at that and dismiss it as paranoia. Apparently that cunt Solskjaer made some smug comment referencing Rafa’s infamous ’facts’ press conference. Thankfully I didn’t see it as in my current state of mind I’d have put my foot through the telly.
These numbers need putting out there though. If I’m Klopp I’d have a friendly journey mention those numbers and ask him bout them. And then I’d laugh and say “no you’ve got that wrong, that can’t be accurate”. Then I’d have Matt McCann say “no that’s right” and I’d act completely shocked and outraged about it.
And I’d say “if anyone of the pundits on TV can give me an acceptable explanation as how that can be possible then I’ll shut up about it. But there really isn’t any way to explain that away as it’s simply not possible for the most attacking team to have the second fewest fouls”.
There’s the chance it will cause the refs to screw us even more, but the spotlight needs shining on this, especially in light of who we play next in the league. Besides, unless they start giving Sheff Utd a load of free-kicks to overtake us it really can’t get any worse than it already is.
Thursday Jan 7:
Klopp’s press conference today was quite revealing I thought. While he didn’t even come across as being in the least bit disagreeable about it, he pretty much said there’s no money for us to do anything with regards to signing a centre back, but that in any other ‘normal’ year we would definitely be doing something.
So clearly he doesn’t want to just carry on as things are, he wants another defender and he wants him now, but because of Covid the club are telling him it’s unlikely that we can afford anyone and he’s seemingly fine with that. I can’t say I am. Generally I’m fairly relaxed about our transfers unless there is an obvious glaring need that needs filling. For example, I’d have been livid if we hadn’t signed a forward last summer, because we desperately needed one.
That desperation was nothing like this though. This is much, much more dire a situation. Forget Matip. He’ll play some games and he’ll miss just as many if not more. Neither Williams nor Phillips are options to play regularly. If they were, Hendo wouldn’t have been forced into emergency defensive duty the other night.
So not only is the defence severely weakened, so is the midfield. Fabinho isn’t even an option to play there anymore as he’s needed to play at the back full time now. Are we also approaching a situation where Hendo is too? Fuck this. Get someone in and if it means borrowing to do it then fucking do it, because frankly there is no alternative anymore. Not if we want to retain the title and make a run at the CL.
Or we could worry about the finances and write the season off. Other nuggets from today, Keita won’t play tomorrow as he’s still injured but Matip has a chance of making the United game. Sure. Course he has. He’s not playing in that game and there’s no way Klopp is risking Phillips or Williams against Rashford. So Hendo it is then.
As for tomorrow, we surely have to go as strong as possible because a) we need to get back on track, b) there’s loads of time until the next game, c) the 7-2, d) we don’t actually have many options to rotate anyway, especially at the back.
That’s if the game goes ahead. Villa have been hit by Covid and there’s talk it might be called off. They wouldn’t postpone when we had NO PLAYERS available for a cup quarter final and we had to send the youth team, so why should we agree to any postponement this time? Not that I’m saying Villa have asked for one, I don’t know what’s been happening behind the scenes. Just saying I’ll be fucking livid if they get a reprieve.
Friday Jan 8:
Villa Youth 1 L 4. Not what I was expecting. When it was announced that Villa would be fielding a team full of kids I thought we might win by 10. That would be around level par, so this was five or six over. And if it had stayed 1-1 like it was at half time, in golf terms that would be like going around in over a hundred.
Put it this way, this is way worse than a Premier League side being drawn away at a conference team. When that happens you’re dealing with a bad pitch, poor facilities and pre-covid there’d be a hostile crowd too. This was the best team in the country playing against a rag tag bunch of Academy kids, in a top class stadium and perfect pitch, with no fans. And at half time it was 1-1.
It doesn’t matter in the long run and it will be forgotten soon enough. We won, it was comfortable, and in the end embarrassment was spared by the much improved second half. None of that makes me feel much better though as this was a real chance for us to work on some of things that haven’t been good recently and for the front players to fill their boots.
We didn’t do that. Sadio bagged a couple and Mo scored as well, but overall it threw up more questions than it provided answers. Why do we look so predictable and east to defend against? Why do we just seem to resort to slinging in loads of crosses when the opposition has ten players in the box? It’s stressing me out watching us at the moment. Probably 80% of what we’re doing is good, but the other 20% is beyond awful and that’s killing us.
The other concern is that Rhys Williams was done for pace again. It happened against West Brom and it happened here. One cost us a goal, the other didn’t. But it’s clearly a problem as while I wouldn’t say he’s slow, he’s not quick either and given how high a line we play that’s going to get us into trouble.
It’s the same with Nat Phillips too. He was burned by Calum Wilson, who isn’t exactly Thierry Henry is he? So it’s a problem and you can understand why Klopp played Hendo there at St Mary’s. Yet here’s the thing. Williams played against Kane and Son and did really well. Mind you, Son did get in behind and score.
I don’t think we play him or Phillips against Rashford next week. I think I’d rather Gini played there than Hendo though, mainly because I want Hendo in the middle with Thiago and… actually I don’t know who else I’d put in there. Jones is playing too safe and seems to have completely stifled all of his natural flair and inventiveness. Ox has looked crap and I don’t think Shaqiri is trusted enough defensively. He’d be my choice though I think, because he can get the ball to the forwards in the areas they want it and at the time they want it.
The lack of centre backs is really beginning to hit home now though isn’t it? And not in the way people thought. It’s not like we’re shipping a load of goals, but because we’re plugging in midfielders at the back it’s weakening us in two areas.
I don’t give a fuck about what impact the pandemic is having, there’s just no way we can come out of this month having not signed a centre back. If we do that, we’re waving a white flag on the season. Doesn’t matter if it’s a short term fix, and we don’t need to sign a world class defender. We need someone who is a significantly better option than Phillips and Williams, which would allow us to move Hendo back where he's supposed to be. How hard can that be?
Saturday Jan 9:
Bonus content as I’m a day late posting this so figured I might as well tag on the extra day instead of leaving it until next week. So what happened today? Well the Blues needed extra time to see off Rotherham and Cenk Tosun made some sort of fascist gesture after scoring.
Can’t say I give a fuck about this as I have no idea what it’s about or how bad it is. Bit like when Shaq and other Swiss players got in hot water at the World Cup for making some political gesture. If I see someone making a Nazi salute, yeah I know that’s bad. All this other stuff though? Grey area. What the fuck do I know about Turkish politics? So I’m not going to lambast Tosun, I’m just going to enjoy watching Blues tying themselves in knots trying to defend him.
Also today, Tony Cascarino is on Klopp’s case again. You may remember him accusing Klopp of ‘disrespecting’ the memory of Nobby Stiles by… actually I don’t even recall what he did. I think it was complaining about 12.30 kick offs or something. Anyway, ‘Cas’ now says Klopp disrespected the FA Cup by, get this, fielding a strong side against Villa’s kids.
Bet he never had the same view when Villa went strong against our kids last year. He’s probably the biggest tit on Talksport, which is like being the tallest giraffe in the herd. It’s genuinely impressive. Just because his surname ends in a vowel he thinks he’s John Gotti, banging on about ‘disrespect’ all the time. If he was in the Mafia he’d defo have a nickname like “Tony shit for brains” or "Tony the shit talker" or most likely, “Tony the cunt”.
and that was the week that was….
Recommended Comments