Saturday Nov 28:
Brighton 1 L 1. Well that was unpleasant. Just a real kick in the balls again. We weren’t great today but we were the better side and deserved the points. The lads are goosed. They’re either dropping like flies or they look tired as fuck because they’re having to play so many games. It’s a vicious circle. We’ve got loads of injuries so can’t rotate the squad, and because we can’t rotate the squad we’re getting more and more injuries.
Milner was playing his third full game in six days so it’s no wonder he broke down. Matip was left at home because we couldn’t put him in that situation. Fabinho had to sit out much of the Atalanta game because he’s just back from a hamstring, and Robbo is running on fumes and looks ripe for an injury of some sort. It’s a fucking nightmare, which is why Klopp is over-reacting to the whole 12.30 thing. He has a point, of course he does, but surely those two and a half hours difference between 12.30 and 3pm kick offs aren’t going to make THAT much difference?
He’s just pissed off about everything right now and I don’t blame him. I’d be lashing out in all directions if I were him too. Not sure Chris Wilder would be high on my list, but each to his own. Des Kelly was a bit of a twat in that post match interview today and did seem to be poking the bear a little bit. I do think some of his points were valid though, as were some of Klopp’s.
To Jurgen’s credit he stayed and argued his case whereas a lot of managers would have stormed off at that line of questioning. It wasn’t comfortable to watch though and he’s looking a bit frazzled at the moment. It’s understandable, everything is going against us at the moment but personally I don’t want to see the manager looking as pissed off with everything as I am. I need to see him looking like he has it all in hand and to be a reassuring presence. That’s obviously difficult given the shit he’s having to deal with.
In terms of VAR, I could just copy and paste what I wrote in the diary exactly a week ago after the farce at Old Trafford. It’s killing football and sucking the enjoyment out of it. Milner even said the same on Twitter. This is not football, it’s a fucking made for TV drama now.
Meanwhile, there were rumours today that a couple of funeral workers had been killed by Boca Juniors ultras because they took selfies with Diego’s corpse. Turns out it wasn’t true but it raised an interesting question. What kind of punishment would have been too much? Killing them would be excessive, obviously, but some level of retribution is in order I’d say.
It’s basically the Marcellus Wallace / Tony Rocky Horror discussion that Jules and Vincent had in Pulp Fiction. Marcellus threw Tony out of a fourth storey window for giving his wife a foot massage. Was that an over-reaction? Maybe, but Tony Rocky Horror had to know there would be consequences, just like the morons who took selfies with a dead Maradona should know that’s not cool. Now they’re issuing grovelling apologies and pleading for clemency. Good luck with that. For what it’s worth, I definitely think some kind of beating is warranted as you can’t be showing that level of disrespect just because he was famous. Imagine how his family must be feeling.
I’m still obsessing about Maradona by the way. The documentary was on Channel four tonight and I watched it again. It’s fucking brilliant, if you haven’t seen it you should as it’s an incredible look into all the shit that went down when he was in Italy. It’s also very sad, especially now. You see the fresh faced kid and then you see the mess he ended up as and all the trials and tribulations in between that caused it. It was emotional.
One thing that really stood out to me because I didn’t know any of this until I watched the documentary the first time was that Italy turned against him just because Argentina beat them in the semi final and Diego had asked Napoli fans to support Argentina. A lot of them did, as the game was being played in their stadium. After that, all bets were off and the press (not to mention the law) went after him with everything they had.
It’s not Maradona’s fault that some Neapolitans turned against Italy though. The rest of Italy has looked down on Naples and treated them like shit for decades. Fans of clubs in the north of Italy sing about Naples being dirty and the people being unwashed and in need of soap. It’s basically how Merseyside is treated by most of England. It got me thinking. If England were playing a World Cup semi final at Anfield against Uruguay when Suarez was in his pomp here, if he asked scousers to support Uruguay what percentage do you reckon would? 50%? 75%? 90%?
Obviously I would, but that doesn’t count for much as, hell, I’d have backed El Hadji Diouf even now if he asked me to support Senegal over England, and I can’t stand that cunt.
Sunday Nov 29:
Going back to Klopp’s interview after the game yesterday. While I didn’t like Kelly’s confrontational approach, Klopp did start that whole argument with his response to a question about Milner’s injury. He said something like “you’ll be happy now” which was always going to draw some kind of response from any interviewer with a backbone. Obviously I side with Klopp as he’s right about us getting shafted with all these 12.30 kick offs, but he should probably let it go now as it’s not a fight he’s going to win.
We’re a massive fucking draw in the Asian market so BT are going to want us (or United) in that time slot as much as possible. They aren’t going to show Burnley v Everton and while Klopp is right to say this problem could be avoided if BT and Sky worked together, there’s as much chance of that happening as there is Everton doing something to help us out. Bet they're against the five subs rule just to spite us. Cunts.
On the pitch today there was a sickening injury to Raul Jimenez, who fractured his skull in a clash of heads with Sideshow Bob. I didn’t watch it and I don’t want to. I was told about the horrific noise which was clearly from his skull cracking, and I have no desire to see or hear that. I like Jimenez, he’s boss. I really hope he makes a full recovery, but so much of his game is about heading that there’s a good chance he might be finished, which is terrible really. Why does this happen to the inoffensive ones? If this has to happen to anyone, let it be the likes of Richarlison.
Monday Nov 30:
My boy Troy has let himself down today talking about the Jimenez / Luiz incident. He’s getting hammered for what he said about players should be able to decide if they carry on with head injuries, but really he needs educating as this is a commonly held belief in the game. I’ve said it so many times but he’s a complete throwback to the 80s. He thinks and plays like an old school player so is it really any surprise that he thinks players should be allowed to decide themselves if they can carry on?
It’s easy for those of us who have never played at that kind of level to sit in judgement about how these players need to be more sensible, but you have to understand what makes these fellas tick. They’re built differently to us. They’re intense competitors and in a lot of cases that’s the reason they’ve gotten as far as they have. Deeney hasn’t had the career he’s had based on just his talent. It’s the fire and drive they have to win and be the best that allows these fellas to make it as high in the game as they do, but sometimes they need protecting from themselves.
I see it in the NFL all the time. Those lads needed to be protected for their own good because they’d lie about concussions just so they could stay in the game. They’d get smashed on the head, be down on the floor seeing stars and when the physio would get there they’d say “it’s my knee”. I’ve heard loads of NFL players talking about how they’d say they were ok and that they can’t even remember the rest of the game.
The NFL now has people sat in a box whose job it is just to watch for potential head injuries and they will send down the order that a player needs to be assessed for a concussion, and if he has signs of one then he can’t go back in the game. David Luiz yesterday would 100% have been pulled from an NFL game, and clearly footy has a long way to go to catch up. Deeney is far from the only footballer who thinks like that, although most of them are aware enough to not say it publicly.
Meanwhile, Klopp gives us a little more clarity - if you can call it that - on Thiago’s situation. He didn’t damage ligaments or break anything, but whatever the injury actually is (they haven’t said) it hasn’t improved at all since it happened and he still can’t train. Some days he can do a bit, others he can’t do anything. This is fucked up. Klopp said he’s still a few weeks away but what difference is a few weeks going to make if it’s as bad now as when he did it?
I really don’t like the sound of this at all and it feels like we’re heading into a situation like we had with Gomez a couple of years ago when he ended up having an op months after the initial injury because they didn’t know what the problem was initially. We won’t see Thiago before Christmas, I’m fairly sure of that. Fucking dirty Everton cunts.
Tuesday Dec 1:
L 1 Ajax 0 Ah football. That’s how I remember it. What a boss game that was and not a VAR review in sight. I loved how Ajax didn’t give a fuck about who we are and just went and played their own game. They played really well I thought, but they were so wide open on another night we’d have scored five. The forwards were sloppy throughout though and Curtis was our most likely scorer all night. He’d gone close twice in the first half and he made it third time lucky after the break with a boss little finish.
The kids were great tonight. Kelleher didn’t do anything I wouldn’t expect a Liverpool keeper to do, but given that not all Liverpool keepers have been able to do those things in recent years so you’ve got to be happy with what he did tonight. Yeah he made some saves, but what I liked most was he just looked in control of what he was doing and he radiated confidence. I haven’t really seen that for him in the cup games he’s played prior to this but goalkeepers do take time to mature and develop and even at 23 he’s still a baby.
Great night’s work for him though and also for Curtis and Neco. We expect Curtis to play well but I was made yup seeing Neco bounce back like this. I think a lot of people have forgot just how impressive he was in his first half a dozen or so games. He’s not been too good since the first lockdown ended but tonight was the Neco we want to see.
I read some comments from Lallana last week about Neco and how unfair it is that he’s been getting stick. He said that when Neto was first called up to train with the team most of the lads had no idea who he was, but immediately they were wondering why they hadn’t seen him at Melwood before before he was so good. That’s the thing for me. If these lads weren’t good enough they wouldn’t be here. Klopp could have signed players for the squad but instead chose to promote young players because he believes in them.
It’s not like when he first got here and just had to make do with what he had. These kids aren’t making up the numbers, they’re training at New Melwood because Klopp wants them to be a part of the squad. And if he thinks they’re good enough then I’d say he’s probably done just about enough for us to trust him, no?
We’ll see several more of the kids next week now because we’ve won the group with a game to spare, which is a refreshing change. We’re down to the bare bones in midfield and defence now with all these injuries, so next week is a chance for Cain, Clarkson, Rhys Williams and a load of other kids to get a senior appearance to their names. I’d imagine Tsimikas, Origi and Minamino will start too as they badly need games because they’ve looked well off the pace when they have played.
Wednesday Dec 2:
So fans are back in Anfield this weekend. I didn’t qualify for the ballot on account of living a 2 minute drive away from an area that did qualify. That’s fine though, there has to be a cut off point and I’m just outside of it. *Shrugs* whadayagonnado? TLW’s own Dan Thomas qualified though so I’m excited about that. I knew I had no chance of getting a ticket but Dan getting one is the next best thing.
This must be exactly how Jimmy and Henry felt in Goodfellas when they heard Tommy was getting made. They knew they could never be made on account of them being part Irish. Only 100% full Italians could be made guys so Tommy getting his button was the next best thing. Hopefully Dan’s story has a better ending than Tommy’s did. Now I’ve got an image in my head of Dan walking into Anfield, all excited, then suddenly seeing there’s no-one else there and going “oh shit”.
Saw an interview with Trent today where he spoke about how competitive he is and that is what drives him on to improve. “I’ve always found the competitive side of playing to be really beneficial. If I want to work on long-range passing, then I’ll turn it into a competition as that’s how I get the best out of myself. I’ll challenge someone, saying: ‘I bet you can’t do this’, and make sure that mine’s better.”
Yep, we see that all the time when LFCTV put out videos. Trent is the worst loser you’ll ever see. He takes everything ultra seriously and his toys come out of the pram all the time when he doesn’t win. It’s great, especially as he hardly ever seems to win when they do those random challenges or quizzes, or playing FIFA. Doesn’t matter what it is, he’s always moaning about something when he doesn't win.
He lost again on this week’s episode of Wingmen. Him and Robbo had a quiz and Trent lost, with the forfeit being he had to post an inspirational voice message to the player’s WhatsApp group ahead of a training session. It was fucking hilarious to be fair, but they missed a trick by now showing us any of the replies. That was the first thing I thought when he sent that message. We needed to see how it was received by the rest of the lads otherwise there wasn’t really much point showing us that.
It got me thinking anyway. I reckon most of the foreign lads didn’t even know it was a piss take and will have replied with thumbs up emojis.
Gini will have posted a 100 emoji, a bicep emoji, a fist emoji and five flame emojis. Gini loves his emojis. The savvy Milner will have known what was going on and will have posted a crying with laughter emoji. Curtis will have replied "Lad WTF lad???" Sadio, bless him, will have heard it and got all fired up and will have replied “Trent’s right boys, let’s do this”. Minamino won’t have had a clue what was happening and will have just posted “Taki!” Mo will have immediately forwarded the voice message to Lovren.
Can’t believe they didn’t let us in on the responses though. Poor show that lads. Once again though, Wingmen proved to be a highlight of the week. It’s great, I love it. Hendo was in this one and his straighten routine was fucking hilarious. The best bit was when Trent had to do the speech and Hendo said “do you want me to do it for you?” because he knows he’s boss at them. Robbo then says “he is great at motivational speeches to be fair” and even Trent goes “yeah he is”.
Hendo fucking rules doesn’t he? He reckons him and Milner would do a better show than Trent and Robbo. I’m not sure they would but I’d certainly like to see it. “Middlemen” - come on LFC TV, make it happen.
Thursday Dec 3:
Fell down a Maradona rabbit hole on youtube again today. Saw something that really made me laugh. It was an interview with him when he was talking about Italia 90 and he referenced what I mentioned the other day about when he asked Napoli fans to support Argentina. There was more to it than that, as he explained. He said “I told them that for one day they want you to be Italian. Then for the other 364 days in the year they’ll go back to calling us Africans.” Then he starting laughing his head off at the memory and said “They went mad. They went loco!!!”
It was boss. Firstly because he was 100% right in what he said about how Italy treated Naples back then (and probably still does). They did refer to them as Africans and you can bet that Diego bringing that up will have touched a nerve with the Neopolitans. Secondly, I loved it because even though that incident changed everything for him in Italy and caused him a lot of pain, suffering and humiliation, he was sat there laughing his cock off about the memory of how Italy reacted to what he said.
Saw something today that Harry Winks might be looking to leave Spurs. I’ve always thought he’s a bit over-rated, which makes what I’m about to say seem somewhat contradictory. I think he’d look great in our midfield. How can I say that if I think he’s over-rated? Because while I think he’s been good for Spurs, but nothing special, I see what Klopp has done for so many players and I look at Winks and his style of play and I could see him being dynamite for us.
Not that we’re going to sign him, I’m just saying that there are loads of players out there who would go from being good to great just from playing in this team. Look at Jota for example. Everyone looked at him and thought “yeah he’s a good little player” but nothing more than that. No other top teams were banging down his door, he wasn’t even going to be an automatic selection at Wolves this season as Podence (Jota’s clone), Neto and Adama (my boy) were all fighting for the same spot. Yet he signs for us and immediately his game is elevated by about ten levels.
I could see Winks being the same, and there will be loads of other players out there in the same category. A few of them will be playing against us on Sunday. Podence, Adama and Neves. All good now, all would be great if Klopp got his hands on them. Not Conor Coady though. Klopp’s great but he can’t turn water into wine.
Friday Dec 4:
Virgil posts a picture of himself in the gym starting his rehab. It was meant to be uplifting but it just made me sad and angry. He has to spend the next six months in the gym after having his entire knee rebuilt, while the reckless little cunt responsible for it is allowed to continue to go out there and concede daft goals in his mediocre little fucking team. It’s proper shit this.
Jeez, Klopp looked rough as fuck in his presser again today. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now. He looks tired, bedraggled and he doesn’t have his usual upbeat demeanour. Something is just a bit off with him lately. He looks like I feel.
In terms of what he gave us on injuries, Naby and Trent are both back in full training now but he more or less said there’s no chance for them to start but maybe they could be on the bench. That’s good as it means they can start next week if needed. Ox is closer too. Every little helps at the moment. Still no Shaq though. What the fuck is up with him now? Is it his calf again? I don’t think they’ve given us any detail on what it is have they? I know Klopp said it was a muscle problem from international duty, but which muscle?
Obviously there was nothing on Thiago. Let’s face it, we won’t see him again in 2020. I know I keep saying it, but I don’t think I’ll ever not be boiling over with anger about what happened that day at Goodison. We could win every trophy there is to win for the next ten years and I’ll still be fucking raging about that derby. Not enough was made of that. It feels like it’s all been forgotten now except we’re left to deal with the aftermath of it, with no Virg, no Thiago and two points less than we have actually earned. Dirty Everton cunts.
Speaking of whom, how funny is this! The other day I wrote “they aren’t going to show Burnley v Everton” in that 12.30 slot. Tomorrow’s early kick off on BT is Burnley v Everton! I’d love to see the viewing figures for that compared to when we’re in that slot. That will show once and for all why all of Klopp’s complaining isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference because the bottom line is the Reds pull in more viewers than anyone else.
Staying with the Blues. Chippy Tits Joe and Derek Hatton have been arrested for corruption and intimidation of witnesses. I for one am shocked that these two might not have been acting completely above board all these years. Shocked I tells ya!
and that was the week that was….
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