Saturday Oct 26:
Danny Murphy says Liverpool would take Harry Kane over Bobby. Go home, Danny, you’re drunk. If he’d said Kane is better than Firmino then that’s a discussion that can be had. They’re totally different players but both are world class at what they do. murphy didn’t say that though, and what he said displays a staggering ignorance of how Liverpool play.
I hate Harry Kane, but I’m not going to try and undermine how good he is. Similarly, I’m not claiming that Bobby is the best striker on the planet, but he is 100% the best striker on the planet for the system and style we play. Murphy should know that, and probably does. But making a daft statement like that has got people talking about him so job done, I guess. Danny Murphy the pundit is as bad as some of his critics unfairly labelled Danny Murphy the player.
Meanwhile, the u18s got spanked 4-0 by City today. Not really a surprise as we’ve got a really young side this year and City are always very strong.
The u23s drew 0-0 at home to Blackburn. They had no strikers as Elliott is still banned for calling Harry Kane a ‘fucking mong’ and Brewster was left out, presumably with an eye on Wednesday night. Curtis Jones only played an hour, which suggests he’ll be involved on Wednesday but won’t be starting. Neco Williams and Sepp Van den Berg didn’t play either so expect to see them against Arsenal too.
Sunday Oct 27:
L 2 Spurs 1 A big boy win that. Spurs may have been shite this season but we know what they can do when they’re on, and they were more up for this game than I’ve seen them all season. We were still by far the better side but they made it difficult, not least because they were time wasting from minute two. Not that I blame them, we haven’t lost at home for two and a half years so having gotten in front it made sense for them to waste as much time as they could.
Of course Anthony Taylor allowed it. He also fell for the constant diving from Kane and Rose, but no surprise there. He did give us a pen, but it was so blatant that not even he could have turned that one down, especially as VAR changed tack this weekend and is now over-ruling incorrect calls (as well as some correct ones, like at Arsenal today).
I thought we were outstanding today. 2-1 doesn’t reflect how well we played, but we’re just fucking relentless and never ease up until the job is done. Only for their back up keeper having the game of his life this would have been a rout. Great performances all over the pitch, but Fabinho… fucking hell. The destroying aspect of his game is the thing that gets him noticed, but not enough is made of his passing ability. So many times he was hitting those little diagonal balls out wide, and we scored from one of those. What a player.
Monday Oct 28:
Both Bascombe and Maddock wrote articles today highlighting the importance of Hendo in yesterday’s win (and to the team in general). I made the mistake of looking at the replies to their tweets and once again it showed that we’ve got some proper fucking joyless, sad, clueless cunts ‘following’ us. I’m sick of it to be honest. Genuinely sick of it.
I’m not sure what bothers me most. The complete lack of understanding of the role Hendo (and Gini & Milner) plays and the importance of what he does bothers me, not least because more than anything it shows a lack of trust in a manager who has us top of the league, who won 97 points last season and who brought us number six. Basically if Klopp wants Henderson in his team and he’s getting results, then frankly just who the fuck are you or I to whine about it?
I think what angers me more though is the lack of respect and affection - yes, affection - for a lad who has only ever given his absolute all any time he’s put the shirt on, and who has come through all kinds of adversity and criticism to become a successful captain of this club. I’m not telling you Jordan Henderson is the best midfielder in the world, but I am telling you that I fucking love the lad.
What is football if you don’t have some connection and empathy with the players in the team you love? I’ll tell you what it is, it’s the NBA or the NFL where players are seen as ‘assets’ and (for the most part) their only value is how much they’ll fetch on the trade market.
It always amazes me how fans of US sports teams have this detached attitude towards their stars, but much of that is because the players see it the same way. You’ll always hear players and fans of US Sports teams using the expression “it’s a business”. The emotional attachment to players just isn’t as strong as it is here, even if the term “it’s a business” now rears its ugly head now and again over here too.
When I see some of these absolute tools constantly whining about Henderson and wanting him ‘upgraded’, I just think “fuck off you crying, ungrateful, never satisfied cunts”. The justification for it is completely fucking warped. “We could be doing even better if we improved on Henderson”. Even better than what? A European Cup, 97 points and a six point lead over Man City after 10 games? Do people really think we’d be doing better than that with Keita in there instead of Hendo? Because we wouldn’t. We’d almost certainly be doing worse.
I’ve read that shit today from loads of different pricks on twitter and several times I’ve typed out responses along the lines of “Just fuck off you know nothing, arrogant, disrespectful FIFA generation twat and go and ‘support’ Arsenal where it’s ok to boo your captain off the field. I bet you’d love that wouldn’t you, you fucking virgin”.
Then I’ve deleted the tweet without sending because it wouldn’t be a good look for TLW. I’m going to explode one day though, I won’t be able to help myself.
Just have a look at these. Fucking hell. And this is only a small selection, I could have included shitloads more.
This kind of shit was understandable when we were miles off the pace and knew we needed to get better all over the pitch. It’s not acceptable now, and it’s embarrassing. These cunts don’t deserve a successful team because they don’t know how to handle it.
Meanwhile, Matip is out for six weeks. Well, reports say he is, but I expect Klopp will deny it and say it’s week to week. Then six weeks later he’ll return.
In other news, our game at Villa will be refereed by Fat Jon Moss, while Blind Martin Atkinson is working the VAR. That unbeaten run was nice while it lasted.
Tuesday Oct 29:
A few weeks ago when we played MK Dons I wrote that it might be a good idea to just let Ljinders take charge of the League Cup. He did the press conference for that game and it felt like it was ‘his show’. Klopp was away that week at the FIFA awards, but this week Ljinders seems to be in charge again. He did the press conference today and he fucking nailed it.
I love listening to him as he gives you insight you wouldn’t normally get. For example, he was asked about what the young players need to do to force their way into the first team. Usually you’d get the soundbites about working hard and being patient, but Pep spoke for a couple of minutes about the Spurs game and what it was that allowed us to dominate. It wasn’t what we did with the ball, it was “the 30%” of time when we didn’t have it.
He pointed out that our front three were responsible for six Spurs players when we didn’t have the ball (and also mentioned the tactical and positional discipline of the middle three) and said that is what these kids have to learn because talent isn’t enough. It was great, as was him quoting Shankly and declaring that “our identity is intensity”. He’s great, I love his passion and after watching this he had me believing that not only will we win tomorrow night, we might just win this trophy even while playing kids the whole way through.
Kelleher, Elliot, Brewster, Van Den Berg and my boy Neko Williams are all set to start tomorrow, while Jones should also play some part as it would be harsh leaving him out given how well he played last time. I’m looking forward to it.
With all of those lads involved tomorrow, the u21s were badly under-strength against Accrington’s first team tonight and they lost 5-2 away. Entering this competition was a good idea, but it’s not worked out how we’d have wanted because ideally you’d want the strongest u21 side facing these lower league clubs as it’s good for their development. Instead, because of the clash with the League Cup, we’ve twice had to send out makeshift sides. Now we’re out. Good idea in theory but in practice we could probably have done without it.
Wednesday Oct 30:
L 5 Arsenal 5. What an amazing night. The stakes might not have been high, but this was just so much fun that I’ll be buzzing about it for a good while. Seeing the kids going out there and showing the kind of never say die, fight till the end mentality they’ve picked up from the senior side was just fantastic. I loved it. We made so many mistakes and gifted Arsenal four of their five goals, yet nothing could dampen their enthusiasm for the game.
In the last 20 minutes of the game, it was Jones, Elliott, Brewster and Williams leading the charge and forcing the issue. They were the ones on the ball, driving us forward. It was just brilliant to see. Of course it was Big Div who delivered for us yet again, but without the contributions of the kids we couldn’t have pulled this off.
Williams was terrific. Man of the match for me. Brewster didn’t have the kind of game he probably wanted as he didn’t get many sights of goal, but his work rate and appetite for the game were phenomenal. He impressed me and I’ve not really been as big a fan of him as most seem to be. Elliott just looks the business, and I thought the game turned for us when Jones replaced the completely ineffectual Keita. Jones is seriously talented, it’s just about finding his best position now and then allowing him to develop.
Klopp said he didn’t care about conceding five or the mistakes that caused it. That’s easy to say when 1) we won and 2) the stakes aren’t high and no-one would be that arsed if we lost. I bet Emery doesn’t feel like that. At least I’d hope he doesn’t. Arsenal should be embarrassed at the way they were outplayed by a team with six teenagers in. I know it wasn’t their first choice line up either but they had more experience than us and this side has been playing together in the Europa League. We had more shots and almost double the amount of possession. And four of their goals were gifts, they actually created fuck all themselves.
Now we’ll see who we get next. Oxford or Colchester would be nice, but one of those has already been earmarked for City of course. I wouldn’t mind getting Everton at Anfield. We could play the u16s and still win the game.
Thursday Oct 31:
Villa away then. Not the worst draw we could have had but it’s not far off it. The toughest game would have been City but there’s no chance of that happening because we’re not some lower league slapdicks and therefore that makes us ineligible to face City in the cup. Of course they got Oxford, I don’t even know why they were even in the draw. In future, save us the charade and just take out the names of City and the weakest team left in, and then draw for everyone else.
Getting Villa would not have been bad if it was at Anfield. Our kids could have beaten them with the crowd behind them. The team that played last night though is not beating their first team at Villa Park, so this is probably the end of the road now. That’s if we even play the fixture. We might just pull out depending on when they want us to play it.
It clashes with the World Club Cup, and there has been some suggestion that we could play both games with two different teams. Sorry, but that doesn’t work. We play two matches in three days in that World club thingy, which means we need to take a squad of twenty odd players. So that’s the first eleven plus the lads who played last night. So who the fuck is going to be left behind to face Villa? We can’t send our u18 side out against Villa’s first team as they might get humiliated. So unless they rearrange that game we should pull out of the competition.
Friday Nov 1:
Klopp got shirty today with a reporter who asked him about the fixture problems. His argument is that any time he answers a question like that it is spun to sound like “Klopp is moaning again about how we do things over here”. He’s right, but it’s a bit unfair on the journos in that room as they’re all largely pro-LFC and sympathetic to his plight. It’s the talking heads you see on Sky and the knobs on Talksport that are the issue here.
Klopp shouldn’t be the one pointing out how ridiculous this situation is, or that the Nations League competition is a terrible idea that simply means a lot of players are being run into the ground. It’s a discussion that SHOULD be taking place regardless of whether Klopp speaks about it or not, but that’s not how the world works and for the reporters in that press conference, the only way they’re going to be given licence by their editors to write about this issue is if they’re running quotes from Klopp about it.
Another thing of interest from his presser was how he handled the question about possibly leaving out Fabinho tomorrow to ensure he avoids a booking and is free to face City next week. He said he hadn’t decided but if he plays then he’ll be told “no challenges!”. He’s joking obviously, but for me I think it’s an easy decision. Fabinho gets the day off.
That’s not about taking Villa lightly as I think it’s a tough game. It’s just that Fabinho would be one of our most important players against City. Would he be one of our most important against Villa? Not for me. We could play Gini at the six and bring Ox or Lallana into midfield tomorrow. If Fabinho plays and gets a yellow I’ll be fucking seething.
Meanwhile Jamie O’Hara (former Spurs for those of you who have understandably forgotten him) says that Scott McTominay would get in our side because he’s better than Henderson. He said it on Talksport, you won’t be shocked to hear. It’s like they’re having a contest to see who can make the most ridiculous claim. We’re getting more and more like US sports coverage now, where having a hot take gets you noticed and therefore makes you more ‘marketable’.
If you follow American sports you know what I’m talking about. The likes of Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless have made a good career from talking absolute shite and getting people riled up. It’s getting like that over here, only whereas it used to be people like Adrian Durham doing it, now it’s people who actually played the game and should know better. Danny Murphy was at it last week. I refuse to believe he’s as stupid as he often comes across, but if you get people talking then that’s half the battle these days.
McTominay better than Henderson. Fucking hell. I’m not going to search twitter though as the sight of loads of so called Reds agreeing with him would tip me over the edge.
…..and that was the week that was
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