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That was the week that was (Mar 2-8 2019)

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Saturday Mar 2:

 

Some ridiculous quotes from Sterling today on how pressure from the fans got to the players in the 2014 title race when we were pipped by City. Apparently all that support made them nervous. He doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. Empty seats don’t make any noise.

 

What a crock of shite though. That team won 11 of their last 13 games and the only defeat was to third placed Chelsea. It wasn’t the pressure that did them in, it was incredibly bad luck on the Gerrard slip and then a lack of quality from the bench to change things when it became clear that Mourinho had completely done a number on us and nullified what we were good at.

 

Sure though, blame it on the fans if it fuels the bullshit narrative coming from City that our crowd is not actually a help to the players, but a hinderance. We’ve dropped just four points at home all season, maybe other clubs could do with having such unhelpful fans too?

 

Staying with City, they had an unimpressive 1-0 win at Bournemouth today. They didn’t play well but they didn’t need to because Eddie Howe’s men just curled up into a little ball and begged not to be hit.

 

Bournemouth became the first team since records began to not have a shot on or off target or win a single corner. I’m not sure how that’s even possible at this level of football, but this is the problem we have now. When a lot of teams play us it’s like a fucking cup final to them because they don’t want us to win the league (not Bournemouth, in fairness). 

 

When they play City they’re happy to just not get embarrassed. They aren’t arsed about winning because hardly anybody hates City because they were so insignificant for so long they haven’t had time to make any enemies. Their biggest enemies are probably fucking Macclesfield or Oldham or someone from back in the second division days.

 

Even United don’t give a shit about them, while Everton idolise the fuckers. Hell, even Chelsea went there and bent over. Wait until you see how up for it they are when they come to Anfield though. 

 

City don’t have the kind of ‘grudge matches’ we have and it’s a big advantage. I reckon Burnley might give them all they can handle, and Palace will be up for it too. The rest? Nah, City will have it easy in all of those games, including the trip to Old Trafford.

 

Meanwhile, a hat-trick for Bobby Duncan in a 7-2 win for the u18s draws him level with his partner Paul Glatzel on 24 goals apiece for the season. I like watching them and would love for one or both to make it here. It’s so tough though, and having a good international pedigree doesn’t mean as much as it used to. 

 

Michael Owen made a name for himself at youth level with us and England, and from the first time I saw him play I knew he’d make it. He’s probably the only youth team player I can ever say I was 100% sure was nailed on to be a star, and I use him as the barometer for all the other kids that have come through afterwards. Some of them have been hyped up, like Jerome Sinclair, Adam Morgan and more recently Rhian Brewster and Duncan, but honestly none of them have even come close to looking like the sure thing Owen was.

 

Duncan is a star for England youth and once scored a hat-trick against Brazil for the u17s. People get excited about that kind of thing, but there’s a long way to go between under 17 and senior football. Hell, even when they’re a couple of years older it’s still really tough to know whether they’ll make it or not. 

 

I mean, England u20s won the World Cup a couple of years ago and their star player was Dom Solanke. The lad who scored the winning goal in the final was the bang average Calvert-Lewin. 

 

I really want Duncan to be a star and perhaps he will be. There’s a hell of a long way to go though and I’ve seen too many of these young strikers come up short because the standard is just so high these days. 


Sunday Mar 3:

 

Everton 0 L 0 Well that was shite. Not as shite as last week at Old Trafford, but it was shite nonetheless. We didn’t play well but we should have won because we had all the chances. Its like the Anfield derby, a lot of shit being spoken about how well the Blues did. They played like the plucky underdogs they are and did a great job of stopping us playing and making sure we never really got a grip on the game. The rabid nature of the crowd inspired their players to put in the kind of shift they never have before, and never will again (not unless they play us when we’re going for a title again).

 

They worked their bollocks off and rode their luck. They never looked like scoring though and that’s five clean sheets on the bounce for us now, so take all this ‘bottling’ talk and stick it where the sun don’t shine. We aren’t bottling anything, but a seven point lead is not one point deficit and that’s hugely demoralising. On the group chat some of the lads have completely given up now. Others aren’t having it, I’m somewhere in the middle. I think it’s probably gone, but I also know that there’s enough time left and one result can change everything. 

 

I’m sick of seeing fans running down other fans for their lack of faith though. Honestly, how can you blame anyone who thinks we may have lost our chance to win it? There’s been an eight point swing in a couple of weeks and we’re up against a side that amassed 100 points last season. We could still win it, but truth be told it would be a pretty big upset now if we did.

 

In a perfect world everyone would keep faith that we were going to win the title regardless of how patchy our form has been since the turn of the year. Human emotions just don’t work that way though. No two people are the same and everyone reacts to setbacks in their own way. 

 

Some will believe right until the point when it’s no longer possible, and more power to them and their positive thinking. You can’t blame anybody who has thrown in the towel though. After all, this isn’t our first rodeo and in most of the others we fell off and were kicked in the head.

 

Klopp is a big fan of the Rocky movies and has even likened the Reds to the “Italian Stallion” himself (perhaps instead of taking the lads for warm weather training he should have had them growing beards and chopping logs in Siberia?). 

 

Rocky had one big advantage over us though; he had somebody writing a favourable script for him. Whoever has been writing our script over the past decade clearly has a sadistic streak and has looked to inflict as much mental anguish on us as possible. 

 

So how can you blame anybody who fears it’s about to happen again? When you’ve been repeatedly knocked down there comes a point when you decide you’d rather stay on the canvas than get up and take more punishment. Some Reds have reached that point now, whereas others are still staggering to their feet and hoping to land a knockout blow, Rocky Balboa style. 

 

Anything can still happen, but it’s perfectly understandable that some are preparing themselves for the worst possible outcome. It’s just a natural defence mechanism. It fucking sucks though, doesn’t it?

 

As for Everton, they can celebrate their 0-0 win all their like and sing about us ‘winning fuck all’, but watch them shit the bed next time out and spend the rest of the season continuing to be the embarrassment they’ve been all year. Losers.


Monday Mar 4:

 

It was the Mini derby tonight at Anfield. I was gonna go to this and take my daughter. Season ticket holders get in free, just like the old days (there was a time there when they were playing at Chester and Wrexham where season ticket holders still had to pay to get in). Only catch was you had to get there before 5pm and actually pick up paper tickets because for some reason you can’t just use the fancard to get in. 

 

There was no pay at the gate either. What the fuck? This club does my fucking head in. Why go out of your way to make it as difficult as possible for people to actually go and watch? I don’t get it. Would it really have been so difficult to open up some pay turnstiles? Fucking pricks. 

 

The more money they get they less they give a shit about us. Games like this are great for kids to go and get a taste for being in the big stadium watching footy. Get to fuck Liverpool, you fucking dickheads.

 

As it turned out, they did us a favour as it was dire. The Blues won 2-0 and I watched the first half on LFCTV. Just awful stuff, this is not a fun team to watch at all. 

 

If you thought the midfield Klopp sent out yesterday was workmanlike and lacking in guile, you should have seen this. Fucking hell. Connor Randall (yeah he’s still here), Isaac Christie-Davies (I’ve seen him half a dozen times and still have absolutely no idea what he is or what he does) and Liam Coyle (I like this kid, he’s a tough tackling number six). 

 

No wonder we didn’t create anything. Although the front three were useless as well. Ben Woodburn has completely fallen off a cliff. Remember when Klopp was calling him the “Prince of Wales”? The last two seasons have been a complete waste of time for the kid. He played centre forward tonight for some reason. Madness.  

 

The other two forwards were Camacho and Jones. It amazes me that Camacho gets on the first team bench because we’ve had loads of young wingers who were better than him and got nowhere near. I don’t see it with him at all, he’s alright like, but a million miles away from first team standard. He doesn’t even stand out much at this level.

 

As for Jones, I’m a big fan of his but has not kicked on at all this year and it annoys me seeing him playing on the left wing. It’s a Lallana thing. He’s not quick but he’s got great feet, so he’s a midfielder, not a winger. It’s doing my head in seeing him doing all his tricks miles from goal marooned on the touchline.


Tuesday Mar 5:

 

Remember a few weeks ago and Spurs battered Dortmund at Wembley. Some idiot ran his mouth about how Dortmund would still go through. Yeah, well tonight Spurs won 1-0 in the away leg to go through 4-0 on aggregate. Christ, that was some poor judgement from me.  Still, I’ve got some way to go before I can match Sergio Ramos in the massively ill judged decision stakes.

 

The soft cunt deliberately got himself booked at Ajax three weeks ago, thinking the job was done and the home leg would be a formality. UEFA weren’t happy and doubled his ban to two games, and then tonight Ajax dicked Madrid all over the Bernabeu and won 4-1.

 

Absolutely glorious. As much as I wanted us to be the ones to put them out, I’m realistic enough to know that given how we’ve been playing away from home recently (and all season in Europe) there are no guarantees we’ll get by Munich next week. So at least Madrid are out in the most comical of circumstances.

 

If we win number six at least we won’t have far to go to reach his house and celebrate outside. Oh, and sign that De Ligt kid to partner Big Virg.

  
Wednesday Mar 6:

 

Duncan and Glatzel (has anyone dubbed them D&G yet? Hope not) inspire the u18s to the semis of the youth cup. Glatzel scored two and Duncan got one (while both laid on a goal for the other) in a 5-1 win over Bury. The lads have had a piss easy run to the semis and they now play Watford, who you’d imagine they should also beat. City play West Bom in the other semi, so maybe we’ll play them in the final? Imagine how up for that one Duncan would be.

 

Also tonight, the Mancs turned it around against PSG and went through. Of course they did. PSG are the biggest bottlers in Europe. I had thought after the first leg that even they couldn’t fuck this up, but I under-estimated just what massive chokers they are. Still, United needed a farcical stoppage time penalty awarded by VAR to go through. It won’t stop everyone tonguing Solskjaer’s balls, but the fact is they were incredibly spawny and if football wasn’t so completely intent on ruining itself then they’d be out.

 

I’ll say it again. VAR IS FUCKING SHIT. I hate it, and it has nothing to do with United benefitting from it tonight. I’d honestly be saying the exact same thing had it gone the other way. It’s genuinely the worst thing that’s ever happened to football. It ruined the World Cup and now it’s ruining the Champions League. And next season it will ruin the Premier League. If this wasn’t how I make my living I’d seriously be thinking of fucking the whole thing off, as this isn’t the game I grew up with.

 

Between handball, offside and VAR I’m genuinely starting to hate this game. 

Thursday Mar 7:

 

The fallout from last night continues, with Neymar letting loose on Instagram and telling UEFA to go and “fuck yourselves”. Leaving aside the fact he’s a massive twat and I hate him, I have three thoughts on this. Firstly, had that decision gone his way he’d be singing a massively different tune. Secondly, he’s absolutely right. And thirdly, seeing a footballer tell UEFA to go fuck themselves is great, so fair play to him.
 
On the subject of UEFA though, they’ve belatedly launched an inquiry into Man City and their dodgy dealings. City issued a statement protesting their innocence, which should be used as further evidence against them when they’re found guilty. They had a chance to come clean but instead doubled down on the deceit. That should mean further punishment.

 

The end result of this will probably be some sort of ban from European football. I’m not arsed about that at all really, I want to see the Premier League do something. This is a little more complicated though apparently. The PL can’t do anything without the backing of the clubs. There are some rumours tonight that “up to a dozen” clubs are concerned about this and want to know what the league are going to do about it. A dozen? What about the others? Obviously Everton won’t want any part of it, but that still leaves 18 clubs. 

 

This is the biggest frustration about the whole thing for me. Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Juve and all the European big hitters should be piling the pressure onto UEFA to do something, but so should every club in the PL too. Do they not understand what’s happening here? There are rules in place that it appears everyone else bar City are following. One club is blatantly ignoring those rules to gain an advantage. Why the fuck isn’t everyone kicking off and demanding the league do something? I can’t get my head around it, unless they’re worried about their own rule breaches being exposed.

 

Friday Mar 8:

 

Surprise surprise, the suggestion is that FSG are the ones pushing hardest for the PL to do something about City. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I don’t like the implication that we’re the ringleaders just because we stand to gain the most if anything is done. There’s even an element of us being “grasses” about this. If FSG are the ones leading the charge, firstly I’d say good for them. Secondly I’d say, about fucking time.

 

As I say, everyone should be pissed off about this as it’s blatant cheating to gain an advantage. I despair when I see the love for City from so called ‘neutral’ fans. Everyone should hate what they are doing, but because it means they’re sticking it to us and United you’ve got all sorts of dickheads thinking it’s great. They’re not just sticking it to us though. Look at Burton for example, who reached a league cup semi final and lost 9-0 to City and their illegitimately paid for squad of all stars.

 

If they are found guilty (and that should be a formality given the leaked emails that confirm their guilt) it’s going to be fascinating to see what happens. You can’t fine them, because they’ve got all the money in the world and it is no punishment whatsoever. A transfer ban is an option, but Chelsea have just had that for illegal payments to Academy players or something trivial like that. What City have done is a thousand times more serious than taping up a youth player or buying his parents a house or whatever shit clubs are getting caught out doing (us and Everton both included). There’s no comparison, so the punishment can’t compare either.

 

That’s why talk of a transfer ban is laughable to me. It has to be a points deduction and strip them of the titles they won since the rules came into play. Anything less is a farce and should not be accepted by the other clubs. I won’t hold my breath though.

 

In other news today, Ox was back and Ox was injured. Thankfully it’s not thought to be anything to worry about, but this is exactly why we shouldn’t be pinning any hopes on him coming back and giving us that drive and thrust he provided last season. Any player who comes from such a long absence nearly always ends up picking up minor muscle injuries. They reckon it usually takes around six months after they come back before they reach peak level again, so if we get anything from Ox this year it’s a bonus.

 

Meanwhile, his mate Brewster has done ANOTHER interview. Fuck me, have we ever heard so much from a kid yet to play a first team game? It’s not his fault and he actually speaks very well and seems like a really likeable kid, but it’s mad how high profile he is considering he’s only ever played youth football. 

 

Finally, it seems that the plan for Harry Wilson is to loan him to a Premier League side next year, and Leicester were in pole position until they appointed Brendan. Now, reportedly, that won’t happen. Why not? He’s pretty good working with youngsters isn’t he? Is this because of the beef between him and Edwards? If so, put that shit to one side and do what’s best for Wilson.


and that was the week that was...


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“As for Everton, they can celebrate their 0-0 win all their like and sing about us ‘winning fuck all’, but watch them shit the bed next time out and spend the rest of the season continuing to be the embarrassment they’ve been all year. Losers.”

 

Question:- Who you putting your money on for the Gold cup Dave?

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The strangest thing about the whole Woodburn thing is that he’s never looked good enough.  The times he got games in the first team he looked like a deer in headlights.  He’s not got the aggression to make it at the top level.  It’s something I can’t believe the club didn’t see.

 

The Brewster stuff is amusing. He was talking about wanting to be here for his career etc.  It is all very nice to hear but it’s difficult to see him breaking through.  He’s obviously a goal scorer at youth level but you just need so much more than that now.  I’m not sure he’s quick enough or physical enough.  Should be interesting to see how Klopp treats him when he’s ready to play and how he reacts to it.  

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To pick up on a theme - the semi of the Youth Cup game against Watford has been set for 12pm on Sunday. So, anyone who was thinking of going, like me - would have to leg it straight down to the Twelfth Man to watch the Fulham game. Unless it goes to ET/penalties, in which case you're fucked. Why would the club accept (propose?!) this timing?

As for the u23s - Curtis Jones bounced right back on Friday at Derby, was really good. Adam Lewis was also pretty good as DM, especially after being shown up by that Everton right winger ..... who should have been sent off for an awful challenge on Woodburn, I think it was - ref didn't even give a foul! I think we all agree the refs in the PL are woeful - but drop down a level and they're even worse.

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