That was the Week that Was (Jan 20-24 2025)

Monday Jan 20:

Curtis has upset ‘the fam’ after saying Hazard is a better footballer than Mo but that if he was picking a team he’d always take Mo. He’s getting dog’s abuse from twitter virgins even though what he said is 100% true and it’s something he winds Mo up with regularly. Salah is better than Hazard. We all know this, Curtis even acknowledged this by saying it’s Mo he’d have in his team. The only problem here was how he worded it, and I’d have to go back and watch it but I think that was partly Rio Ferdinand’s fault for how he phrased the question.

Curtis was basically saying Hazard has better technique and that he’d rather watch him play. Hazard was the player Curtis wanted to be when he grew up, so of course he’s going to say that. But here he is getting all kinds of shit from absolute fucking weapons on social media who just need to fuck off and support someone else. Arsenal preferably. They’d fit right in there.

Is this an age thing maybe? Is it younger fans who adopt this stupid fucking attitude? Or is it just a cunt thing? I don’t know, as these accounts are usually faceless so it’s hard to know the demographic, but I wish they’d fuck off. I watched that video more or less as soon as it dropped as I was basking in Darwin content on YouTube and that came into my feed straightaway. As soon as he said it I knew what he meant but I also knew it would cause murder.

It’s so stupid though. I can absolutely relate to what he’s saying because I’d rather watch peak Adam Lallana play than pretty much any other midfielder we’ve had since other than possibly this season’s Gravenberch, who is an absolute fucking delight to watch. I loved watching Lallana play and think that technically/aesthetically he’s superior to most midfielders we’ve had since. Doesn’t mean I’d pick him over them though.

The other half of that video was Ferdinand talking to Slot and it was brilliant. Slot is really open and honest so it made for a great watch. How honest he was about Trent was almost uncomfortable. Referring to a lack off effort against United and in some training sessions, and when asked why he doesn’t invert him as much he pointed to Gravenberch and Macca and said “because I rate these two more highly”. He then pointed to the right side of the pitch and said Trent is the best in the world there, but it still had my eyebrows doing the Ancelotti.

That’s just how he is though, he doesn’t bullshit and if he does criticise it’s always tempered by handing out praise too. Anyway, the video is great, despite the presence of Ferdinand, so I’ll embed it here for anyone who didn’t see it.

Also today, Slot did his presser before tomorrow’s game and the thing that jumped out at me (other than Jota being out for ‘weeks’) was this comment about Darwin. "The most difficult in football is to find consistency, as a team and an individual. Only a few players in the world are able to be at the same level every three days. Then there is a big group of players that are able to play very good many times but not every single time. He is one of the players that belong to the group that is good many many many times, but the next step for him is it would be nice it he was to go into the bracket of the five, six, seven or eight players in the world that are outstanding every three days. We have one or two who are in the group of the highest standard. That is a nice challenge for him to go to that group.”

I mean, maybe I’m reading too much into that because I want to, but that doesn’t sound like a manager ready to give up on a player to me. That seems more like a manager who thinks this player could potentially explode into being the player everyone hoped he’d be when he arrived. We’ll see though I guess. What I would say is that Darwin can only change the narrative by scoring goals.

You’re not going to get Fowler or Carragher changing their mind just because of Saturday’s heroics, but if he bags another eight-ten goals before the end of the season what then? If he scores important goals that lead to trophies, people are going to look daft talking about "not a Liverpool player" or "take any decent offer".

Slot often refers to ‘the life of a striker’ and it’s spot on. Last season everyone was laughing at Chelsea for not having a centre forward. This season Jackson started like a house on fire and that talk went quiet. It’ll come back if the goals dry up, because that’s the nature of the beast. People actually convinced themselves Rashford was world class because he had a hot six months in an otherwise very average career. Don't get too high during the good runs, and don't get too down on them in the bad ones.

Bottom line is, goals change people’s perception and that’s the only way Darwin can quieten all this noise around him. Great pressing, assists and chasing back to help defensively will not do that, but it will please his manager and get him more opportunities to then score the goals he needs to shut people up. He’s got to go out and do it though.

Another big thing to come out of today was Konate saying he’s been offered a new deal but isn’t close to signing it. The natural assumption is that he’s being lowballed, which might be the case. It also might be that the club don’t want him signing it yet (or announcing that he has) because it doesn’t help with the optics on the other three contracts. It also could be that Konate doesn’t want to sign anything until he sees how that all plays out.

That would be logical, as at the very least when you know what others have been paid you have a benchmark for your own demands, but if Virgil left then Konate would immediately become more valuable, and worth a higher salary. If I’m his agent I’m telling him to hang fire until everything else plays out. I don’t see this as a major problem, but then a year ago I wasn’t worried about the other three either.