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    The North London derby went the same way virtually every other one over the last decade has. A home win. Spurs went the full “Spursy” in this one, but had they been the home side then the likelihood is that the old Arsenal flaws would have resurfaced and they’d have been the ones shitting the bed. It was at the Emirates though, so it was the away side throwing up all down themselves.
     
    Arsenal played well and fully deserved the win. Spurs were ridiculously defensive but that's Conte for you. For all Arsenal's dominance the game was still in the balance at 2-1 until Emerson Royal got himself sent off. I thought the decision was harsh as it was more clumsy than malicious, but he’s shite him. It’s funny how Spurs managed to get rid of Serge Aurier and then sign the exact same player to replace him. I saw a Spurs fan last season refer to him as Emerserge Royalier, which I have to take my hat off to. Outstanding work.
     
    Richarlison is lucky he didn't join him as he grabbed Anthony Taylor's arm and tried to pull it down so he couldn't show the red card. I'd have sent him off for that. I'd also have just sent him off for being a massive cunt, so there is that too.
     
    Partey fired the Gunners ahead with a curler from 20 yards. Lovely strike, not sure whether Lloris should be doing a bit better on that though. Maybe that’s harsh, but I’d be looking at my keeper there and thinking he shouldn’t be getting beat like that. 
     
    Spurs hit back very quickly though when Richarlison was felled in the box by Gabriel. I was listening to it in the car on the way to Anfield and my first thought was “I bet he fucking dived”. He didn’t, it was a clear penalty, which Kane obviously buried with aplomb.
     
    Arsenal regained the lead when Lloris made a mess of a Saka shot and Jesus bundled in the rebound. Spurs were pushing for an equaliser but Royal got sent off and then Xhaka made it 3-1. Again, Lloris is shite on that. It looks like he’s got no chance but that’s because he’s too close to his line. If he’s a few yards further forward he saves that, as it didn’t even go in the corner. Might be the most over-rated keeper since David Seaman. Not as over-rated as that Brexit Tory cunt Shilton though.
     
    One thing to say about Arsenal is that behind their first eleven they have virtually nothing. The bench is shite, and that’s why they won’t keep up this pace. As soon as they have to start rotating or pick up a few injuries, they won’t cope. Their back four and midfield still doesn’t look any good to me, but their forward line is excellent though, and they do look like they’re well coached, much as I hate to admit that.
     
    Newcastle had been struggling for wins so far but they went to Fulham this weekend and rolled over Marco Silva’s side. Might have been a different story if the home team hadn’t been reduced to ten men very early on when Chalobah saw red for a lunge on Longstaff. Definite red card. Bad tackle.
     
    Newcastle took advantage immediately when Wilson tapped in at the back post to steal a goal from Willock. Almiron made it 2-0 with a ridiculous volley. What a goal that was. If he didn’t play for Newcastle I’d really like him as he’s got ‘my boy’ written all over him with the way he plays.
     
    Longstaff made it 3-0 and Almiron added a fourth in the second half. It should have been more as Fulham were all over the place. Decordova-Reid bagged a consolation for Fulham in the last minute but they were well beaten.
     
    Fair play to the Newcastle fans though as I have to say that from what I seen on MOTD that might be the ugliest away following I’ve ever seen. Maybe the Saudis can pay for some dentists and barbers to set up shop in St James Park?
     
    Hate seeing Eddie Howe’s stupid smiling face in interviews. If he was a golfer he’d be Paul Casey. A complete fucking non entity who won nothing, set himself up as some kind of bastion of morality but then took the Saudi cash and showed his true colours. Fuck Eddie Howe. Fuck Paul Casey. Fuck Newcastle. Fuck LIV Golf. Fuck the Saudis. Fuck those toothless cunts in the away end too.
     
    Chelsea are looking decent under Graham Potter already. They fell behind early at Palace when Edoard prodded home from six yards, but they won it in stoppage time with a brilliant goal by my boy Gallagher. 
     
    It might have been different if the referee had done his job properly when Thiago Silva deliberately handled to prevent a goalscoring opportunity. VAR told him to check it because it was a clear red, but the ref stuck with yellow. Maybe because it was Ayew and he scores about as frequently as Dwight McNeill? I just don’t know how you can look at that incident and not see it as a red card.
     
    To make matters worse, Silva then set up the equaliser for Aubamayeng. Vieira was understandably livid and was booked for arguing about it. Palace gave as good as they got but Gallagher’s brilliant 25 yard curler into the top bin gave Chelsea the points. He didn’t celebrate as he was at Palace last season. This was funny because MOTD commented on it and then showed what happened when Ian Wright went back to Palace and scored the winner. It wasn’t quite Adebayor against Arsenal but it wasn’t far off. Glorious stuff. Wrighty is fucking boss, love him.
     
    Next up, Southampton v Everton. This proper wounded me this one. I’m still not buying the Everton / Lampard hype and still think they’re in the mix for relegation, therefore any three points they get is a big deal as it makes that possibility a little less likely. Southampton actually had the lead against them but fucked it up. 
     
    They even let McNeil get his one goal a season, the useless cunts. They let Coady score too. What a fucking nightmare for me that was, both of them getting on the scoresheet feels like the football gods mocking me.
     
    Maybe Coady now has a new ‘best moment of his career’ to replace the disallowed goal against us? Fucking loser. Given how arrogant the cunt is despite never having done anything, imagine how big his ego would be if he was actually any good and had achieved something worthwhile. His head would need its own post code.
     
    West Ham finally won a game but they were playing Wolves so you’d expect that. Wolves sacked their manager afterwards and that has been coming because they can’t fucking score. It’s weird, they do have some good forward players but the lack of goals is killing them. Bruno Lage said afterwards that he’s never lost a game when he’s actually had a centre forward to start the game. He said it’s a fact and they could check it. That sounds dubious to me but he was adamant about it. I think he must mean he hasn’t lost a game when Jiminez has started, because they don’t actually have another centre forward. Unless we’re counting that young curly headed turd they paid about 70m for. 
     
    Some cat named Scamacca gave the Hammers the lead with a lovely strike. Never heard of him but he looks like a twat. The haircut, the tattoos, the pointing to the ear goal celebration… I’m marking his card early. Bowen made it 2-0 and although Wolves improved massively after the introduction of Diego Costa (made up seeing him back here, the big panto villain leg), they didn’t take their chances and West Ham got a much needed win.
     
    More officiating shenanigans at Bournemouth v Brentford where the home side were denied the most blatant of penalties even after VAR told the ref to go and check. The Brentford player slid in and completely missed the ball. He caught the Bournemouth lad and brought him down. I don’t know how you can watch the replay of that and stick with the original decision. It’s baffling to me. 
     
    Shearer and Wrighty didn’t particularly care as they were too busy praising the young ref for being brave enough to stick with his original wrong decision rather than be bullied by VAR. Fucks sake lads.
     
    The closest either side came to scoring was when Lermer headed goal wards and my boy Toney made a miraculous clearance off the line. He was on the line and somehow managed to get it up and over the bar to safety. Gary O’Neill still hasn’t lost since he replaced fallen war hero Scott ‘Scotty’ Parker.
     
    Onto Sunday now and one of the most stupid red cards you’ll ever for Sinisterra from Leeds. He gets a yellow for a foul and then later on he sticks a leg out to stop Villa taking a free-kick and gets a second one. Thick twat. That’s just completely inexcusable. I’d fine the fucker as much as it’s possible to fine him. 
     
    Leeds did well to get a draw in the end having to play with a man down for so long. Villa had the best chances and Coutinho hit the post with a brilliant volley. Leeds had their moments too and my boy Bamford went close to winning it for them. Decent point for them but not great for Villa, who continue to underwhelm.
     
    The other big derby of the weekend was in Manchester. That’s if you can call it a derby these days. I’m not sure it qualifies when you have the fans of one team rooting for the other to win the league. City fans still see it as a derby but for United I don’t know what it is anymore, the sad cunts. They should probably just go the whole hog and support City full time. 
     
    Usually I wouldn’t watch any of this as I avoid City as much as possible and when they win I want no part of it. This was a little different because I don’t think their results matter to us now as we’re not catching them after the start we’ve had and the way we’ve been playing. So what they do is pretty irrelevant to us right now. No point getting wound up about it. 
     
    In fact, there’s an argument to be made that them absolutely twitting everyone and winning the title by 20 points is what the football fans and media of this country deserve, having turned a blind eye to the cheating just because it was stopping us from picking up titles. Take us out of the equation and look at how the last six years would have gone.
     
    I completely get those making that point but I’m not there. Daft as it is, I haven’t completely given up hope yet and if we were to win on Sunday and then somehow knock off City a week later then things would look a lot different. So while there’s hope, no matter how slim, I can’t be ok with the notion of City running away with it even though it is what the rest of the country deserve.
     
    Besides, my reason for watching this was to see United getting bummed. I won’t be watching City when they’re spanking anybody else. Not even Everton. So this week I made an exception and watched the MOTD highlights.
     
    Foden scored the opener and pointed to his ear with one hand and then shushed with the other. His own fans too. What the fuck is that about, the thick little fucking manc scrote. 
     
    Haaland headed in number two as United were temporarily down to ten men after Varane was injured. That was key because it meant Eriksen was marking Haaland. Soon it was 3-0 as De Bruyne’s pinpoint ball found Haaland at the back post. That’s the kind of goal we should be getting out of Nunez and Trent.
     
    Haaland then turned provider to tee up Foden for 4-0. All before half time. If City had wanted they could have scored ten without breaking sweat, but as we so often see when a team races into a lead they ease off in the second half. Loads of United fans left at half time and I have to wonder just what was the fucking point of going in the first place if you’re going to walk out? Fair weather cunts.
     
    That horrible little Antony twat thumped in a brilliant 25 yarder to wake City from their early second half slumber. That goal just annoyed City and Haaland and Foden both completed hat-tricks. United’s defending though. Fuck me. They can’t even blame Maguire either as he wasn’t even there.
     
    Martial scored a couple of late consolation goals to give the scoreline an utterly false look but nobody was fooled by it. This was a mauling. Again. This derby is probably the most one sided in England now.
     
    The only surprising thing about the result was that it ended up looking closer than it was. A three goal margin of defeat is almost like a victory for United because they were completely fucking overwhelmed. And it was entirely expected. Sometimes because it’s a ‘derby’ people think it might be close and that ‘the form book goes out the window’. Not in this case.
     
    The only chance United had of getting anything was if City were complacent and not at the races. Because it’s United, City were never going to be anything but fully motivated and switched on, and that means United are fucked. Barring a couple of City red cards, there was zero percent chance of United avoiding defeat in this game. Zero.
     
    They can’t defend against City. They do have players who could hurt City on the break, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t defend. And that United side is just not equipped to go up against Haaland, De Bruyne, Foden etc
     
    Very few are, but United are definitely not one of them. They’re still shit, don’t let some fairly unconvincing wins cloud that. This is a fucking bad team. Probably not quite as bad as last season, but they’re still shite and it will forever rankle that we allowed them to beat us. I don’t care how bad we’ve been, that still should not happen.
     
    Finally, Monday night. Leicester wiped the floor with Forest to give Brendan a temporary reprieve and Steve Cooper is in real trouble now. There’s talk he’s about to replaced by Benitez. I mean fucking hell, is home life really that bad, Rafa? Just enjoy your fucking retirement man, for God’s sake. If ever anyone needed a hobby it’s this guy.
  • Darwin Nunez has opened up on his difficult start to life at Liverpool.
     
    The Uruguayan came to the club in a big money move from Benfica, but there was no usual bedding-in period for the 23 year-old.
     
    The comparisons with Man City’s high profile purchase of Erling Haaland were almost instant, which added to the fact that he arrived at the club just when an iconic figure like Sadio Mane was departing.
     
    The club did not buy Nunez for instant rewards, they knew all along it was going to be a slow build and therefore any comparisons with Haaland was not fair in the slightest and largely used for clickbait purposes.
     
    Jurgen Klopp is one of the finest managers in Football in honing talent and does not put them in any undue pressure to initially adapt knowing that every player is different.
     
    But after two goals in his first two senior appearances including on his league debut against Fulham, expectation was high for his first start for the club at Anfield against Crystal Palace. 
     

     
    However any prospect of a fairytale debut soon became a nightmare with the striker getting a straight red card for violent conduct.
     
    It instantly halted any momentum that Nunez had built up and saw him on the sidelines for three games.
     
    The season for Nunez since that point has been of a stop-start nature with cameo appearances off the bench which along with cancelled games throughout September has meant that he has almost had to start his season from scratch.
     
     On the plus side, the striker produced his most complete performance in a red shirt on Tuesday night against Rangers and with games coming thick and fast throughout October, he has that opportunity to make up for lost ground.
     
    Speaking to Brazil’s TNT Sports (per the Echo), Nunez reflected on a tough start.
     
     
    "The truth is that it was a little difficult to adapt, but I believe that, as training and games go by, I will adapt little by little," he said. "I have the support of my team-mates.
     
    "(After the red card) was a very tough time. I was suspended for three games, I know I made a big mistake and now I'm aware that it won't happen again.
     
    “I have to calm my nerves during the games, talk less. We all make mistakes and I know it will serve as a learning and an experience."
     
    While strikers naturally put pressure on themselves to score goals, Nunez says the most important thing is not to get too downhearted when it does not happen, as long as he is playing his role for the team like he did against Rangers.
     
    "I believe that the important thing is to leave my mark on the team, someone who can always contribute by playing well and, if I don't score, I have to be calm.
     
    “When the first one goes in, more will go in. I've been through that (in the past), and it's a little uncomfortable because, in the end, as forwards we live on goals.
     
    "But I'm calm, the coach has always supported me. My team-mates also support me at all times and I will always try to help the team by scoring goals or, even without a goal, try to help the best I can."
     
    Language barriers are often an issue for players coming from South America, and while Nunez cannot communicate with his manager as yet, there are able translators in Pep Lijnders and development coach Vitor Matos on hand. 
     
    "They are the translators when Klopp talks to the group. They sit next to me and explain what I have to do. If they didn't explain it to me, I'd enter the field with no idea what to do.
     
    "But the relationship with the coach is that he supports me, gives me confidence and I have to repay that on the field."
     
  • Liverpool is home to some of the best bingo halls in the country, and there's something for everyone. While the internet provides plenty of options to play at home, sometimes you just can't beat a good night out. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a complete beginner, there's a bingo hall in Liverpool that will suit you. In this blog post, we'll look at some of the best bingo halls in the city, and we'll give you all the information you need to choose the right one.
     
    So, without further ado, let's take a look at the best bingo halls in Liverpool.
     
    Club 3000 Bingo and Social Club
     
    The first bingo hall on our list is the world-famous Club 3000 Bingo and Social club. This is one of the biggest and most popular bingo halls in the country, perfect to celebrate, have fun and win big prizes, actually, Club 3000 holds the World Record for single payout £1.2 million. With their traditional mix of "Shout to win" and "Cash-in-hand" payouts, you will have an exciting time. Club 3000 Bingo and Social Club offers a relaxed atmosphere, great home cooked food and its friendly staff will make you feel at home. With its huge range of games and friendly atmosphere, this bingo is the perfect place to enjoy a night out.
     
    Mecca Bingo
     
    Get ready to eat, drink and play! This bingo offers a lot of facilities such as on site parking slots, a wide variety of games, licensed bar, a large menu with your favourite food and drinks, cash machines, disabled access and a smoking shelter. If you are interested in having a fun night make sure to check their bingo events and get your tickets.
     
    Dabbers Social Bingo
     
    Dabbers Social Bingo offers a unique, inclusive, and entertaining show. At Dabbers you'll find everything from cheeky calls to disco balls, big giggles, and plenty of prizes. Dabbers' social bingo provides a variety of spectacular bingo events as well as hilarious hosts with a comedy, performance, and drag background. At this amazing bingo club you will find a bar and a large menu of food and drinks.
     
    Castle Bingo
     
    Castle Bingo is led by Sheila Wignall, who has been in the bingo industry since 1997. They offer free parking for visitors, and are home to the Castle Jackpot £45,000 prize. They have a variety of locations and times in the afternoons and evenings for their bingo sessions, and are known for their great customer service assistants. If you are looking for a more relaxed environment Castle Bingo is ideal for you.
     
    How to make the most of your bingo night out
     
    Now that you know where to find the best bingo halls in Liverpool, it's time to learn how to make the most of your night out. Here are a few tips:
     
    Dress up!: Bingo is a great excuse to get dressed up and have some fun with your friends. There is no dress code at bingo halls, provided that you are comfortable. Given the informal nature of the event, feel free to wear whatever makes you feel confident and put together. Consider a little black dress and denim jacket for a nice flattering look. Buy plenty of tickets: The more tickets you have, the better your chances of winning.  However, don't spend more than you can afford. There's no point in going into debt just for a chance to win a prize. Take some snacks and drinks with you: Bingo can be a long game, and you'll need sustenance to keep you going. However, the best bingo halls offer a wide variety of food on their menus. So make sure you try some food and drinks at the bingo night. Arrive early: This will give you time to buy your tickets, find a good seat, and get settled in before the game starts. You don't want to miss out on any of the action. Have fun!: Bingo is supposed to be fun, so make sure you enjoy yourself! Don't take it too seriously, and remember that even if you don't win anything, you're still spending time with friends and having a good time.  
    Final thoughts:
     
    These are some of the best bingo halls in Liverpool. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, you'll undoubtedly have a wonderful time. So round up your friends, buy some tickets, and enjoy a night out at the bingo hall! Who knows, you might even win a prize. Good luck!
  • It’s tricky to judge how impressive this performance was because you have to factor in the level of opponent. Other than Bournemouth, Rangers are the weakest team we’ve faced this season by some distance. That being said, there was a lot to like about what we produced.
     
    I think we got pretty much everything we would have wanted from this game other than a couple more goals and having Nunez on the scoresheet. I’m fine with 2-0 but only because the performance was more like a six, seven or even eight nil type game. We had loads of chances and played some very good football. I’d rather see that and score two than play the way we did at the weekend and score one more.
     
    If we play like this regularly, more often than not we’ll have a lot more than 2-0 to show for it. Of course we won’t be playing Rangers every game so there is that. There’s a couple of ways of looking at this. One is that we only scored two, and they were a free-kick and a penalty. That’s not good.
     
    The other way of looking at it is that we created shitloads of chances and on another day half of those go in and we’ve got another Bournemouth type result to show for it. Personally I’m in the latter camp. We weren’t clinical but there are mitigating reasons for that, specifically that Darwen isn’t off and running yet. If his first shot had gone in I reckon he’d have filled his boots.
     
    Nunez didn’t score but he did absolutely everything else I would have wanted to see from him. He was a constant threat, he was involved in the build up and didn’t look like a square peg in a round hole. The only thing he didn’t do was put the ball in the net, but it’s not like he did much wrong with the finishes. Too close to the keeper, yes, but on another day they’re a yard either side and he’s going home with the match ball. 
     
    That was one of the big take aways from the performance for me, but perhaps the biggest one was the change in formation and how it looked. It was good, right? I know it was only Rangers, but given the lack of time we’ve had to work on it I think it went better than expected. We looked cohesive with and without the ball and Alisson didn’t have a thing to do until 85 minutes. They were barely able to get out of their own half.
     
    That’s partly because they were outmatched but it’s also to do with our shape and how we defended. The most obvious thing I saw was that Trent’s role changed. I’ve been saying we should simplify things for him and let him actually play right back, and that’s what happened.
     
    He wasn’t popping up in the middle or playing as a false 10 or whatever the fuck we’ve been asking him to do this season. He played on the right, he put quality crosses in, he played some defence splitting passes and he didn’t get exposed defensively. He wasn’t constantly having to chase back because the opponent had exploited the space he’d left in behind.
     
    Again, partly that’s because Rangers aren’t good. It’s also because our shape was good and we defended better than we have been. Having Hendo and Thiago in the ‘double pivot’ gave us a good base and I don’t actually remember Rangers getting in behind us even once, not until the dying minutes when Kostas had to make a clearance off the line.
     
    There was none of the usual running in behind our high line business we’ve been watching all season. Again, it’s Rangers so it could be that. We’ll find out soon enough though, assuming Klopp sticks with this new set up and doesn’t revert back to what we usually do.
     
    I hope we stick with this for a little while now because what do we have to lose? In fact, I wouldn’t be averse to us doing something different again. We’ve got to become more difficult to play against and part of that will be to keep the opposition guessing. Arsenal now have some uncertainty ahead of the weekend. Will we play the way they’re used to us playing or will we do what we did against Rangers? Maybe we do something even more out of left field.
     
    Just thinking about this game and how many chances we created, and I’m honestly surprised by it. Klopp said the forwards had one session together, but it looked quite natural I thought. Darwin’s movement was really good and it dovetailed well with what Jota was doing. He was very good I thought. He was finding space and getting turned and I’m looking forward to seeing him in this role again. I like the idea of just letting him roam about looking for space to cause havoc in.
     
    I’m not sure I’d rather him there than Bobby though. We may see some rotation in those two striker spots between those two and Nunez and it’s going to be fascinating to see what Klopp goes with on Sunday. I’d lean towards Nunez and Bobby but its tricky because Jota owns Arsenal. So does Bobby actually, and I could see a strong argument for having Darwin on the bench. I’m good with whatever.
     
    I know this is stupid and doesn’t mean anything, but I feel quite comfortable about us only scoring two because I always worry when we batter someone that we may have used up all of our goals and the next game could be a slog. This feels like the opposite, I have a sneaky feeling we’ve saved our goals for Sunday and I’m surprisingly bullish about that.
     
    I’ve just realised I haven’t even mentioned the goals yet. The first is a beauty. About time too. Trent should do better on free-kicks with the talent he has. He went close against Brighton with a low one and this time he went high. I shouted “YES” as soon as it left his boot as you could immediately tell. McGregor got close to it which tells me that a lot of keepers would have got there and tipped it over the bar. He played well but he’s an old man. Not that I’m complaining. It’s a great free-kick and a nice moment for a lad who needed it.
     
    Mo needed his goal too. Doesn’t matter that it was a penalty, they all count and he needs his numbers padding a bit. He took the penalty with the efficiency we’ve come to expect from him. Diaz won it with a zig zagging run into the box that caused two defenders to foul him.
     
    We should have scored more but it doesn’t matter. We got the win, we got a performance and we got something to build on. I think playing twice a week will help us now because this stop start bullshit has never been any good for us. We did alright against Aja but then didn’t play for weeks and lost whatever momentum we could have taken from that.
     
    Brighton was shit but there was a lot of cobwebs to be blown off and hopefully we’ve done that now and can start to claw our way back. Sunday is fucking huge for us now. Win that and suddenly things look like they’re on the up again. Lose it and we’re going to be miserable as fuck, especially with City on the horizon.
     
    In the other game Napoli twatted Ajax everywhere in Amsterdam which kind of makes our loss in Italy look not quite as shameful. They’re good, and them beating Ajax was the best result for us even if it makes winning the group more difficult. We don’t need to win it, we just need to get out of it and that result helps. Hopefully Napoli will beat them next week too.
     
    Star man is Trent but everyone played well. Alisson only had to do one thing all night but he did it and preserved his clean sheet. Rangers couldn’t do anything until the last few minutes when they made some changes and we got a bit sloppy. 
     
    Sunday will be a much bigger test but I see it more as an opportunity to show that we’re still who we are and that they are still who they are. Let’s fucking do these smelling themselves pricks.
     
     
    Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Gomez), Matip, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Henderson (Fabinho), Thiago (Milner); Salah, Jota (Firmino), Diaz; Nunez (Elliott):
     
     
     
  • Jurgen Klopp was satisfied after Liverpool recorded a comfortable 2-0 win against Rangers in their Champions League group clash at Anfield on Tuesday evening.
     
    After weeks of analysis about his personal performances, Trent Alexander-Arnold produced a another example of his set-piece quality by scoring a sublime free-kick on the seventh minute before Mo Salah doubled the lead early in the second half from the penalty spot.
     
    Another player under the spotlight after his big money move in the summer has been Darwin Nunez. While the Uruguayan did not get his name.on the scoresheet, his all-round performance was full of promise and on another evening he would have scored a couple at least.
     
    Speaking after the victory (per the Official site), Klopp was very happy with the way that the game transpired.
     
    “Good game – actually the game we wanted to play. A really good defensive performance in a new structure. Offensively, [we] created an awful lot without using, Rangers' goalie made a couple of really nice saves and we missed some others. 
     
    “But I liked it a lot. The two goals we scored were really nice. OK, one is a penalty but the move from Lucho for the pen was really good and we played good in these areas. And the free-kick from Trent was outstanding, a wonderful goal. What can I say? I would now say, 'It's Trent!', but it's long ago that he last scored a free-kick, so I am happy he had this still in his locker."
     

     
    (Regarding the performance.of Nunez) “You can just see how good a striker he is to be constantly in these situations. I think everybody saw tonight that this [scoring goals] will happen, so all good”
     
    For a team which has been as consistently good as Liverpool over the years, it has been a uncharacteristically below par start to the new campaign leading to questions if this squad is showing signs of decline.
     
    Klopp has heard the doubters and while knowing that there are many challenges ahead, believes that this is a good first step.
     

     
    “I can't wait for the moment when I can read newspapers again because I didn't read them for weeks! I don't know what's happening in the world, to be honest – I know the big news, the bad news. I have no clue but the criticism is completely fine.
     
    “We are not over the moon about our situation, let me say it is like this. We played here some really good games – it's not like 10 years ago, it's not too long ago – and Champions League nights at Liverpool are always quite enjoyable usually.
     
    “That's what happened tonight again. That we were really up, I don't think it had too much to do with the situation. The game gave us this job to do. But that's how I said, I saw tonight a team fully committed – that's what you saw obviously as well – and that's what I liked a lot and that's what we have to do.”
     
    The manager also addressed the slight alteration to the defensive set-up, saying that it was more to do with Liverpool themselves rather than their opponents on the evening.
     
    “It had a little bit to do with the game, but not too much – it was for us. We wanted to defend differently to what we usually do; if you have seen us for a few years now, if somebody was criticising us for defending, it was more [people] talking about a high line. 
     
    “Then people created now, when we were in a defensive pressing situation, they created a lot of chances, that's rare. It was rare, but happened more. That's why we set it up slightly different, closed different gaps.”
     
     
  • A routine win and much needed improvement in performance as the goals from Trent and Mo were enough to see off an outmatched Rangers side at Anfield.
     
    Chris Smith is joined by Julian Richards and TLW Editor Dave Usher to go through all the main talking points, including the new formation, a big night for Trent and a lively but ultimately fruitless outing for Darwen. The lads also look ahead with some trepidation to the weekend's clash with Arsenal. 
     
     
  • Liverpool is one of England’s most popular clubs. They have a worldwide fandom, numbering in the tens of millions, and are one of the football clubs with the biggest social media following worldwide. Not to mention, they are also hugely successful.
     
    The Reds have won eight FA cups, a record of nine League Cups, sixteen Community Shields, and a whopping nineteen League Titles, second only to Manchester United (with 20). This means that, should they win this year, they will have tied England’s biggest club in number of titles.
     
    Internationally, they haven’t done a bad job either. In fact, they hold three English records, with their six European Cups, three UEFA Cups, and four UEFA Super Cups. They also hold 1 FIFA Club World Cup. As for the Champions League, they’ve won that tournament five times, and their odds of winning the Champions League in the 2022/23 season are quite high as well. They currently hold the third position in the rankings, and might just advance even further in the coming future.
     
    But, what about the English Premier League? The top tier of English football, beloved by all fans of the sport. Liverpool has had quite the track record with the League. They, in fact, hold 19 titles. However, this season, it would seem their standing has fallen. So, let us take a look at the good and the bad, and see where Liverpool stands so far in the 2022/23 Premier League Season.
     
    The Good
     
    Starting out on a positive note, we are first going to take a look at what Liverpool did right this year. Thus far, they have been scheduled to play eight matches, however, due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the last two matches (scheduled to be against the Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea) were postponed. In other words, Liverpool only participated in 6 matches this year, and out of those six, they’ve won two. 
     
    Vs. Bournemouth
     
    The Bournemouth match took place on 27 August. It was the fourth match that Liverpool participated in during the ongoing season. It was also the first match that the Reds won this season. And what a victory it was. With a score of 9 – 0. Bournemouth was absolutely left in the dust, and Liverpool showed they still have what it takes to compete in the top tier. 
     
    Vs. Newcastle United 
     
    They would continue to show their prowess in the following match, facing off against Newcastle United, on the 31 August. Though the match was a much closer call, Liverpool still managed to come out on top, winning with a score of 2 – 1.
     
    Unfortunately, the good news stops there. The remaining four matches in which Liverpool has participated thus far have all ended in either a tie, or a loss. So, let us take a look at the reason why Liverpool has dropped from the 2nd spot in 2021/22, all the way to number 8 in 2022/23. 
     
    The Bad
     
    While not necessarily bad, the Reds started off the Premier League on somewhat of the wrong foot. Their first two matches were against Fulham and Crystal Palace. Both matches ended in a draw. Against Fulham, the score ended with a 2 – 2 and the Crystal Palace match ended in a 1 – 1. However, on 22 August, came the match against Manchester United.
     
    Vs. Manchester United
     
    Manchester United is the only English club that surpasses Liverpool in terms of popularity and League title success. And if this match is anything to go by, their EPL success continues, as they defeated the Reds with a score of 2 – 1. 
     
    Following their loss to Manchester United, Liverpool must have gotten a second wind, as they won the following two matches, which we already discussed. Their last match came on 3 September, when they went up against Everton.
     
    Vs. Everton
     
    Against Everton, Liverpool did alright. The match ended in a draw. Neither club scored a goal, and the match ended in a 0 – 0. This draw puts Liverpool at a final score of 1 loss, 2 wins, and 3 draws. Currently, they are ranked at the 8th spot of the Premier League. This is a significant drop from their 2nd ranking last season. However, the Premier League is still in its early stages. So, many Liverpool faithfuls are hoping for an improvement in the future. 
  • Gary Neville believes that there is no doubt in his mind that Trent-Alexander Arnold can become the greatest right-back that this world has ever produced.
     
    But to reach that lofty standard, he has fix some of the areas that are currently letting him down.
     
    The game of Football has never been more dissected than it is today. The manager and his assistants have enough on their plate to deal with on a day to day basis, therefore the role of opposition analysts have never been more vital, watching hours of tape of upcoming opponents and pinpointing areas that can be used to the advantage of their team.
     
    There is little doubt that the weaknesses of Alexander-Arnold’s game are under the microscope and wherever you turn everyone seemingly has an opinion on what he needs to fix.
     
    The full-back is not the first, and most certainly won’t be the last player to feel this kind of heat as it simply comes with the territory of being a modern day footballer.
     
    And for quite a few of them, this period of their career makes them better all-round players. 
     
    The natural talent of Alexander-Arnold is unquestionable and speaking on Sky Sports Monday Night Football (per the Echo), Neville said he would not change a thing about his attacking instincts but it is some of the basics that he can look at.
     
    “If you look at Trent’s stats in the last four seasons since 2018 [44 assists, 315 chances created] - that is absolutely obscene. Just to put that into perspective, I played 400 games in the Premier League and had 35 assists, he’s got 44 in his last four seasons at the age of 23. It is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot believe those numbers.
     
    “So what we've got here is one of the great talents that this country has produced in his position, but a couple seasons ago I did say I thought there would come a point where...I used the phrase ‘not to be serious about his defence.
     
    “Trent is not a young player anymore. He’s young in his age, but he’s actually got 250 matches for Liverpool and England, that's a mountain of games to have. So what surprises me still when I watch him, is three or four of the very basic things of full-back play.
     
    “In transition, you have to go forward now as a full-back, you have to then sprint back. We just saw a clip that Carra showed against Newcastle he doesn't always sprint back, in fact he ambles back at times.
     
    “In 1v1 defending, keep your body position low and crouched, body shape should be opened when the ball is on the opposite side of the pitch - these are areas where you will concede goals as a full-back - and then when you’re in the box you have to scan, you have to rotate your head."
     

     
    Speaking from years of personal experience in the full-back position, Neville highlighted that Alexander-Arnold's general starting stance is something that can be easily rectified.
     
    “Trent finds himself in a very upright position, a very relaxed, upright position. The problem with that is you can't sprint from that position, you can't change direction, you can't swivel your head from that position. Your head is the heaviest part of your body, your studs have to be close to the ground so you can set off and you have to be ready.
     
    “You very rarely see Trent in that position where he looks alert. He always jogs out in an upright position.
     
    “No defender really slips unluckily in my opinion. You slip because you’ve not been in the right position, you’ve panicked and you’ve not been alert enough to start with. I think these are really basic things for him. The hard part of the game he’s doing."
     
    “No full-back that I've ever seen in this country can do what he can do so if he can just work on those basic things and get those consistency elements with those things, we won't just have one of the best attacking right-backs this country has ever produced, we’ll have probably the best right-back the world has ever produced, because this is a Cafu. 
     
    “This is that level of full-back. This is something unbelievably special.”
     
    And while missing out on the World Cup may be a bitter personal pill to swallow, Neville believes in the long term it could be the thing that makes him the complete Footballer.
     
    “This is an important juncture in his career where you say ‘right, what does he do?’ Does he think ‘I don't have to do that, I don't want to do that’. I would urge him to just work for two, three, four months.
     
    “Have these players got time to be coached? They've got games all the time, when do you put the work in to do this? 
     
    “There might be a negative in him not going to the World Cup - that might be the biggest positive in his career if he can have five or six weeks here, just being coached and working on these things. He’s someone that I think is absolutely unbelievable but he’s at a really important moment in his career.”
  • The glass half full part of my brain rationalises this by pointing out that we’re always shit when coming off a break, and that this was a long one. It also tells me that Brighton have done this to us even when we’ve been playing well, so from that perspective this was arguably no worse than last season when we drew 2-2. In fact, this time it was us that fought back from 2-0 down so that’s a positive.
     
    Then the glass half empty part pipes up and says “don’t talk absolute shite, this was fucking horrendous.” That’s probably more accurate really. There is some validity in the 'glass half full' perspective but not much. There's a lot more to it than that. There just isn’t really any excusing this as it was fucking frightening at times. 
     
    We’re shit. I don’t know why, but we are shit. This was shit. At least the beginning and the end was. In between was alright. Too often though we were wide open. It’s not even like we’ve got players to come back. We’re close to full strength and yet we fucking stink. We have Alisson to thank for keeping us in this one because without him it could have been four or five at half time.
     
    We made a dreadful start and conceded first yet again. I think it was three minutes or something. It’s a fucking joke now. Every game we concede first and have a mountain to climb. This time we conceded twice in 15 minutes and it could have been even more. Defensively we were a shambles, and by ‘defence’ I don’t specifically mean the back four, I mean the entire team. It’s a collective as well as individual thing. Gaps all over the place. If Brighton can do that to us, and if Danny Welbeck can look this good, what the fuck are City and Haaland going to do?
     
    The first goal is just shite. Trent heads the ball out but we don’t win the second ball, which was a feature throughout the first half. Hendo and Fabinho are both too slow to react to that. The ball is quickly played back in to Trossard who turned Trent and lashed a shot across Alisson into the far corner. Trent slipped but I don’t think he’s going to make a challenge anyway as he was beaten. 
     
    All our players were kicking off at the ref over something. I didn’t know what at the time, but it seems they thought there was a handball much earlier in the build up. No idea if there was but the lads seem convinced. It’s a waste of time arguing though as VAR isn’t allowed to go back and do anything about that anymore. Andy Madley's performance was almost as bad as ours though. There's something about him I don't like. He doesn't carry any kind of aura of authority about him at all and that reflects in his performance.
     
    The second goal had Trent at the heart of it too. He tried to bring the ball down on his chest and was robbed by Welbeck. Bad decision but that alone doesn’t lead to a goal. We could have prevented it afterwards but didn’t. Joel didn’t do enough to prevent the cross (a recurring theme throughout the game) and then Solly March completely killed us with a perfectly weighted, cushioned first time ball that caught everyone on their heels. Everyone except Trossard that is, who was waiting for it. Another good finish and just like that, 2-0.
     
    The worst part is that Alisson had already saved us twice. Brighton looked like scoring every time they got in our half, it was a complete shambles.
     
    Klopp explained it afterwards by saying that because Potter has left we didn’t know what Brighton were going to do and that they caught us by surprise. I’ll take his word for it because honestly I’m not anywhere near clued up enough tactically to know what the fuck was happening. Brighton looked pretty much the same as they always do to me. Not for the first time, they were slicing through us and we couldn’t get near them. We've seen this movie before, even in games we've won.
     
    Klopp claims we eventually made adjustments and then took more control of the game, and that’s more or less what happened. After that complete shitshow opening 20 minutes or so they didn’t create chances as frequently (until late on when they were chasing the game), and we began pushing and probing a bit ourselves.
     
    I’d love to know what Brighton did so differently that we weren’t able to prepare for them. It looked fairly familiar to me. They passed it well, found space between our lines and they were brave in how many men they committed into the box when they attacked. Is that not what they always do against us? I suppose the difference was in the way they did it. The outcome was very much the same as with Potter though.
     
    I get that they have a new coach who may do things a bit differently, which makes it trickier to prepare, but fuck me, we’re a team that hasn’t lost at home in front of fans for about six years. We’ve won everything there is to win and we’ve amassed ninety odd points in three of the last four seasons. But we can’t prepare properly for Brighton because we don’t have any footage of them playing for their new manager? Jesus. 
     
    I’m now convinced that the problems we are having are at least as much about tactics as they are fitness / form. Much of the focus has been on the lack of intensity in our play, and that’s clearly been a big factor. It’s not just that though is it? Tactically we look like a steaming hot mess at times. The attack is shit and the defence is worse.
     
    Again, I don’t know anywhere near enough to say exactly what’s going wrong, but I don’t need a coaching badge to see that we’re fucking easy to play through and that virtually every goal conceded is coming down our right flank. I’m not putting that solely on Trent either as there’s far more to it than that.
     
    Opponents are blatantly targeting that area though and they’re having loads of joy. So we’ve got a glass jaw now and everyone knows it. There's no fear in our opponents anymore (that coward Eddie Howe aside, who if he'd shown a pair of balls might have actually gone home with three points). A big reason for that is because Virgil isn’t dominating at all, he’s just another guy at the moment. Nothing special about him whatsoever. He came back from the injury last season and was great, so it isn’t that. But whatever the reason, he’s no longer special. He needs to find it again.
     
    Additionally, the midfield is not giving the defence protection and is not helping the forwards much either. I thought Fabinho was shite and Thiago wasn’t much better. Every pass he played seemed to be behind the intended recipient. Hendo was alright I thought.
     
    It isn’t about the individuals though, it’s about shape. There are gaps all over the fucking place and Brighton were finding space and getting turned all day. More so in the early stages but it’s not like we were ever able to completely stop it. We made Welbeck look Drogba-esque. I mean do you realise how difficult that is?
     
    We’re not even good going forward either. We’ve scored three goals in this game and yet I thought we were mostly shite in our attacking play. We had moments because we’ve got quality players and over the course of 90 minutes quality players will occasionally produce things. It’s not fluid though and mostly we look disjointed, ponderous and predictable. 
     
    Bobby was the exception. He was good throughout. The two goals were well deserved but even without the goals his performance was bright. The ball was sticking to him, he was finding space and turning away from his markers. It was a classic Bobby game.
     
    He was denied a goal midway through the first half by a brilliant block by Lewis Dunk, who flung himself in front of the shot after Bobby had slalomed his way through. Brighton were good with that kind of last ditch defending. You never see our defenders doing that though. Seriously, other than Robbo (and Kostas I guess), when do you ever see our defenders flinging themselves in front of shots like that? It's more of an observation than a criticism, but I think it's valid.
     
    Bobby wouldn’t be denied for much longer though. The goal was a weird one as I’m not sure if Mo intended that pass or if he just mis controlled the ball. He definitely wasn’t trying to find Bobby but maybe he was knocking into an area hoping someone would be there. It didn’t look too dangerous at first but Bobby made up the ground quickly and got there ahead of the defender to clip the ball in.
     
    The celebration was immediately cut short by a linesman’s flag but I sit in line with it and knew it was very close. The VAR review took a while so that’s always a good sign. If he’d been clearly offside the review would have taken seconds, so the longer it goes the more chance there is that the lines will be brought out and we might get lucky.
     
    We did. Mo was fractionally onside, the goal stood and suddenly things looked much different. From 2-0 down and being given the runaround, to 2-1 and suddenly having some momentum is just a huge shift.
     
    An equaliser before half time would have been ideal but it didn’t come. So Diaz was introduced at the break, a move that surprised absolutely nobody. Carvalho hadn’t made any impression on the left and I’m not sure why he was given the start given the three forwards we had on the bench. I know none of them were deemed fit to start because of their exertions on international duty, but isn’t that one of the benefits of having five subs?
     
    Could we not have given Jota and Diaz a half each? I like Carvalho a lot but I like him a whole lot more off the bench right now than starting. I also have no idea what position he'll eventually settle into. He gives me serious Coutinho vibes, both in looks and the kind of player he is. Massive talent but where do we play him?
     
    Diaz made an immediate difference and we started the second half brightly. The equaliser wasn’t long in coming and Diaz was the provider. The move was quality. The goal doesn’t happened with the urgency of the initial pass from Hendo to Thiago. The speed of that pass caught Brighton on the back foot and allowed Thiago to move it on to Diaz straight away.
     
    Now he’s got the defence turned and is running at them. That’s what we need to be doing much more, but our build up has been slow as fuck all season really. This is what we want to see. Direct from Diaz, a ball rolled to Bobby and his magic feet did the rest. Great goal.
     
    So from 2-0 down to level terms and you could see confidence returning to the team. The crowd relaxed a bit more too, as it had been getting tetchy in that first half.
     
    We turned it around fully by going ahead from a set-piece. The keeper flapped at it and punched it onto his own defender, who looked on helplessly as it bounced off him into the net. 
     
    Had the final whistle went then this would have been a morale boosting victory and just the kind of result you need when you’re trying to claw your way back to form. You can’t just flick a switch and be great again, it takes work and often games will be a slog until the form comes back.
     
    A 3-2 win here would have been just what we needed, but we stopped playing after going ahead. It just went flat. I don’t think Klopp helped matters with the changes he made either. 
     
    Hendo going off was fair enough as he was only ever going to play an hour after his recent lay off. I was surprised he started to be honest, but there’s no point risking him and I fully expected that change to be made.
     
    Taking off Bobby when he was the best player on the pitch seemed unnecessary though, as did bringing on Milner for Kostas. When I saw Milner coming on I was sure Trent was getting the hook. Really don’t understand that one.
     
    The subs didn’t help, that’s for sure. Brighton got on top and fully deserved their equaliser. It had been coming. They got in behind us down our right on a couple of occasions so the warning was there. Alisson needed to make a save from a Welbeck header and there was another close call when the ball flashed across the six yard box and eluded everyone.
     
    They brought a sub on who went to the left wing and he gave Trent a lot of problems. I think he set up the goal actually. Shite from us. Joel doesn’t do enough and then Virgil completely misses it. Every time I watch that it gets worse. Initially I didn’t think it was too bad but when you see it from different angles it’s proper shit. How do you explain that? A player who never made any mistakes, who looked superhuman at times, and now he’s just a guy, swinging and missing. Making the kind of errors you see from Championship level players. 
     
    Milner might have done better too as he’s not close enough to Trossard. Alisson almost made an incredible save but the ball went in off the underside of the bar. Not in the least bit surprising, I think we all knew it was coming.
     
    Usually in that situation, where we’ve just conceded a late equaliser, there’d be a huge roar of defiance and encouragement from the Kop and the final few minutes would be played in a fucking cauldron. This time there was barely a whimper. The atmosphere was shit all day and it just feels like most of the crowd were feeling sorry for themselves. 
     
    There was no response to that Brighton goal whatsoever. Mo was trying to whip the crowd up before the restart but the reaction from the fans was so half arsed. I’m not even sure I’m saying that as a criticism, I absolutely get it and I felt the same. I don’t have much fight in me right now, I’m definitely feeling really disheartened and fed up about everything. Last season we went so close to doing something that had never been done before, and now look at us? We’re fucking shit. It’s hard to process.
     
    The team really needs a spark from the fans though and we’re not giving them it. By that I mean the Kop, as that's their job. The rest of us just follow their lead.
     
    It's miserable at the moment but if there is any positive to take it's that the lads fought back from 2-0 down so their character is still shining through. We've only lost twice in all competitions despite being this shit and conceding first virtually every game. So they’re battling, trying to turn this around, but they don’t look any closer to finding form than they did two months ago when the season kicked off. We haven’t improved since Fulham really have we? 
     
    It doesn’t help when our club record signing and the player we were so excited about after the Charity Shield is now reduced to the 'Steven Caulker role'. Brighton fans taunted him with “you’re just a shit Andy Carroll” and he’s going to get that from every banter merchant twat up and down the country if we don’t get him involved and scoring goals fairly soon.
     
    It’s important we get him integrated but centre forward is not really high on our list of problem spots right now. Bobby started the season slowly but overall he’s been pretty good. Only Diaz and Alisson have been better than him. We’ve got Jota back now too and he seems to be in decent shape. 
     
    Where do you even start when it comes to fixing us? So much seems wrong, but primarily we need to start keeping some clean sheets and become more horrible to play against. I don’t know how we do that but it’s not my job to know. 
     
    Maybe it needs a change of system or an overhaul in our approach. I don’t know, but the longer this goes the clearer it becomes that we’re not in a “do plan A better” situation. Plan A might need setting on fire now, because we either no longer have the legs and intensity to make it work, or teams have just figured it out.
     
    One thing I absolutely do think needs to change is how we’re deploying Trent. Say what you like about his form and how he’s getting exposed, that’s definitely an issue. But we aren’t helping him at all. Just watch him when we have the ball. It’s bizarre. He’s basically playing everywhere except right back. 
     
    You’ll see him in the area where you’d expect to see Hendo. Sometimes he’s where Mo would be. You’ll also see him in the number ten position and sometimes he’s even centre forward. I wouldn’t mind if it was actually helping us, but he’s not been a factor at all in those areas.
     
    I think we’re over-complicating things for him and it’s not what he needs right now. Let him fucking play right back the way he played it to such great effect for four years. We hardly ever see him wide in crossing positions these days. Why the fuck would you neuter him like that? It’s killing Mo as well. That whole right hand side needs sorting out because it should be the biggest strength of the team and right now it’s anything but. Mo isn’t scoring any goals and Trent’s having a fucking torrid time. 
     
    I could go on and on about all the things that are shit right now but it’s just too depressing. It’s a really rough patch and it feels like the season is crashing down around us already. 11 points behind Arsenal, who we play next. This is the stuff of nightmares but there’s fuck all we can do except hope Klopp and the players turn it around sharpish. 
     
    They will turn it around but when? And how far behind will we be? I don’t mean how far behind City will we be, that doesn’t even matter now. We’re not catching them and I now hope they win every game except when they play us, just to make everyone else see how much they've ruined the league with their cheating. 
     
    If we aren’t careful we’ll find ourselves playing catch up to everyone else though. I mean fucking hell, we’re level on points with Everton right now. How the fuck has it gone so wrong so fast?
     
    We do have a game in hand which would put us up to fifth if we won it. So that's a little ray of hope, but that game in hand is at Stamford Bridge and is unlikely to end up in a win, so it really is only a little ray. 
     
    We have to beat Rangers twice because if we don't we can forget about getting out of the group. You have to take maximum pointd against the weakest team in the group, and despite how alarming our performances have been I still think we'll win both of those games. There's no excuse for failing to do so, and this Tuesday is a chance for us to not only win, but also put in a performance and win well. We need a boost ahead of the two league games we've got on the horizon.
     
    Star man is Bobby, just ahead of Alisson. Hendo was decent too. That’s it though.
     
     
    Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Tsimikas (Milner); Fabinho, Henderson (Elliott), Thiago (Nunez); Salah, Firmino (Jota), Carvalho (Diaz):
     
     
  • Monday Sep 26:
     
    Could have been massive crowd at Anfield yesterday for the women’s derby, but a 6.45 kick off put paid to that. What the fuck is that all about? The majority of fans going to this were going to be families taking their kids. It’s a completely different target audience than for a Premier League game, but Sky insist on a late kick off which means loads of people will have been put off because kids have school the next day. They got almost 30k which is great, but you could easily add another 10k on top of that if it had been a 2pm kick off.
     
    The game was shite as Everton beat them easily. What a damp squib. The Reds are newly promoted though and will need time to find their feet at this level. Playing in front of a big crowd will have been a real buzz for them but maybe backfired in a way. They might have been overawed or maybe they were just outgunned. Hopefully the experience stands them in good stead for the next time they play at Anfield.
     
    Meanwhile, Trent was left out by England. When I say left out, I mean not even on a massive bench of about 12 players. Everyone will rip Southgate for it but it’s not that simple. I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating. Trent is the best right back in the world in our team. But that’s because we play a certain way that allows him to excel at what he’s great at. Southgate can’t play the way Klopp does because he’s not a good enough coach and he doesn’t have the same players we do.
     
    So in his system, the way he wants to play, there may well be one, two, three or even more right backs better suited to what he wants than Trent. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s easy for me to say because I don’t want him playing anyway. I hope he’s so pissed off about this snub that he tells Southgate he can shove his World Cup squad up his big fucking nose. Trent not going the World Cup would be brilliant for us. Get him all rested up and with a big chip on his shoulder. Thanks Gareth, now can you ditch Hendo as well? Ta.
     
    Actually he probably left Trent out because he was worried how it would look when he didn’t sing the national anthem. That’s what this is really about.
     
    Tuesday Sep 27:
     
    Rumours all over twitter that Madrid have made Bellingham their number one target for next summer. May or may not be true. The same Madrid based accounts are also saying Bellingham has told them that Madrid is where he wants to play. Again, may or may not be true but this is the kind of shit they always peddle. It’s a worry though because as soon as these pricks get involved everything immediately becomes more complicated and the price always goes up.
     
    Guardiola was singing his praises recently too. The only thing we can hope is that Klopp has managed to sneak him off to Blackpool and worked his magic on him, because Bellingham is going to have bigger offers than we’re going to be making him. Chelsea and United want him as well but it’s fair to say I’m less worried about them because Bellingham seems like a very clued up kid with a clear career path in mind, which I highly doubt includes signing for either of those two basket case clubs. Mind you, we’re probably becoming less attractive with every game now. 
     
    It’s starting to reek of Mbappe to me.
     
    Wednesday 28:
     
    I see Darwin scored for Uruguay last night. Brilliant header from a Suarez cross. Fucking love that. I know who I’m supporting in the World Cup. I’d support Argentina if Messi wasn’t there, but fuck having him getting his hands on Diego’s trophy. Speaking of Diego, I just finished watching that “Maradona in Mexico” show on Netflix. I didn’t think it was possible to love him more than I did, but I do. What a guy.
     
    Meanwhile, I saw something today that Neves turned us down in the summer because he wants to join Barca on a free next year. No idea if that’s true but if it is then more fool him. You can’t even be sure of getting paid when you go there. Then again, he joined Wolves when he could have gone pretty much anywhere, so his judgement has never been the best. 
     
    That Fabrizio Romano joker says there are a few teams in for Keita, including Dortmund. The latest reports in Germany (via his agent) have him not wanting to sign a contract here unless he’s ‘given assurances’ about more playing time. Here’s a thought, how about actually be available for selection and then take it from there? Cheeky twat. He’s played more than he’s had a right to and he’s still not happy. 
     
    That’s if the reports are accurate. They probably aren’t you know. I reckon Naby doesn’t want to sign because he can’t be happy here, can he? His time here hasn’t been much fun for him or us and he may well want a fresh start back in Germany. If Dortmund do want him he’d be a fool not to fancy it. With Sadio gone I don’t think he even has any close mates here, he seems like a bit of a loner. If we could sell him in January I would, but why would he leave then when he can go on a free a few months later? And why would someone buy him when they can get him for nothing? 
     
    I’ve seen quite a few people describe him as our worst ever signing and while I strongly disagree with that, I suppose you can make an argument for it depending on what criteria you are using. He cost £55m and might leave for nothing, so that’s pretty disastrous. He’s been here five years and largely done fuck all, so that’s not great either. And he came with massive expectations that he has spectacularly failed to reach. 
     
    So yeah, I get it. The reason I rail against it is because his performances have been nowhere near as bad as some other big money signings. Aquilani for example. He did fuck all here. Literally nothing at all. So for me Keita is not in the conversation for worst signing, but he has been helped by the fact that in his time here we’ve been really fucking good so there’s been much less scrutiny of him. If we’d struggled then we’re probably looking at Aquilani part two aren’t we?
     
    Thursday Sep 29:
     
    Fucking hell, Ox was burgled while he was at home with his family. House burglary is one of the most overlooked crimes in terms of the seriousness of it. I’ve always felt that anyone who enters someone else’s home to rob it needs fucking killing. Simple as that. This isn’t like robbing a bank or a warehouse or a petrol station. People’s homes are their safe place. You don’t cross that line. 
     
    The thought of some cunt entering a home and terrorising people so they can rob them really shakes me up. It scares the shit out of me actually. It might be my biggest fear, along with Coady scoring a winning goal in derby game. My parents house was burgled some years back. They were in bed when it happened and thankfully slept right through it, because if my dad had woke up and heard them he’d have gone at them all guns blazing and who knows how that would have ended. 
     
    And what’s the punishment for those who do it? Fuck all really. Ok, I know killing them isn’t really an option but life in jail should be. Maybe then they’d think twice about doing it, the fucking scumbags. When Duncan Ferguson beat the fuck out of some cunt who had broke into his house, that was when I started to warm to him. When he did it a second time, I wanted to buy him a pint. Whatever else he has done or will do in his career, the first thing I will always think of when I hear his name is what he did to those pricks. Every home deserves its own Duncan to keep it safe.
     
    What else is happening today. Ok, there’s this. Gabby Agbonlahor is developing a reputation for himself as something of a loudmouth halfwit. Some of his hot takes on Talksport make Jason Cundy seem intelligent and reasoned, and he’s made headlines for himself again today by saying Trent should retire from international football as long as Southgate is the England coach. I actually have some small degree of sympathy with that viewpoint but it’s a daft thing to say when you’re a pundit on a national radio station. 
     
    Imagine if Trent actually did that. He’d look like the most self entitled brat in football. Retiring from international football because your heart it isn’t in it or because you just want to concentrate on your club football is fine. Nothing wrong with it and plenty have done it. Milner and Vardy immediately spring to mind. Doing it because the manager isn’t picking you though is something else. It’s definitely the kind of thing the unprofessional Agbonlahor would have done. When a manager didn’t fancy him he just downed tools and fucked about in training. 
     
    Meanwhile, Calvin Ramsay is back in training. Good news, because Trent is going to need some rest and currently it seems like Milner is next in line at right back. I had hoped Gomez would build on some of the impressive performances we saw from him last season while deputising for Trent, but that doesn’t seem like it’s the plan now does it? No idea if the kid is ready or not, but just imagine if he’s fucking ace. What a bonus that would be, especially after we sold Neco and he’s doing so well. Ramsay being like an Elliott or Carvalho level wonderkid would be just what we need, especially as it might allow for the occasional look at Trent in a midfield role.
     
    Hahaha oh fucking hell, look at this. Headline today on Mail Sport “Conor Coady reveals putting the ball in the back of the Liverpool net was one of the best feelings of his career”. Where to start with that? Well I should say that the second or two when it looked like he had scored was right up there with the worst feelings I’ve had watching footy, so I guess I kind of see where he’s coming from. 
     
    It might be the most Everton thing he could have said though. The goal didn’t even count but hey, don’t let that stop you. You don’t need to score a derby winner to feel like you’ve scored a derby winner. Maybe they could make him a mural in Taff’s Tavern? In fairness, what else has Coady actually done in his career anyway? He’s played a lot of games but never really achieved anything. His crowning moment was probably being hit in the balls by a Jota shot in a game that they lost after he was megged by an Origi shot in stoppage time. Coady is a fucking tit and I told you all this a long time ago. 
     
    Friday Sep 30:
     
    Klopp completely eviscerated poor Kostas at training this week and LFC TV aired the footage. It was really uncomfortable to watch. Kostas is minding his own business and Klopp spots him and sees his new top knot hairstyle. And then he fucking kills him. “How much would I have to pay you to cut that off? At first I thought Darwin had shrunk”. Absolute savage. 
     
    We also had some really good analysis from Klopp in his presser when he was asked about the whole Trent saga. Some of the stick Trent has had has been fair. The individual errors and not reacting quickly enough to situations is entirely fair. The constant bollocks about his positioning and being too far out of position when we lose the ball is not fair and it was good hearing Klopp nail that and saying Trent is so far up the pitch because that’s exactly where he’s being told to be.
     
    What I don’t like about this is it just keeps Trent in the spotlight and means he’ll be the centre of attention again tomorrow. None of this will be doing his confidence any good. He’ll just want to go out and play his way back into form away from the spotlight, but instead he’s got every national pundit discussing him (and most haven’t got a clue about what he’s supposed to be doing) and it feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders at the moment. He needs our support more than ever.
     
    Finally, I was in a long queue inside the garage today and Adrianna randomly says to me, “who do you think is the worst person to have ever lived?”. I paused for a second to think, and then said, fairly loudly, “I suppose it’s probably Hitler but…. I’m going to say Richarlison”. Now there is always risk involved in these situations as you never know who is in the queue and how they are likely to react. I braced myself in case some bitter bastard fired back at me, but I heard one lad laugh and I saw another fella’s shoulders going up and down as he chuckled away. 
     
    I like to think I brightened up their day and they went home and told their friends and family about it. In all seriousness it obviously isn’t Richarlison. 
     
    It’s Conor Coady.
     
     
    ….and that was the week that was
  • Bobby dazzled with two goals but a shambolic defensive display cost the Reds two points as Brighton once again proved to be a massive thorn in our side.
     
    TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Paul Natton and John Gallagher to try to make sense of a mad afternoon at Anfield in which the impressive visitors seemed to be able to slice through Klopp's team at will. With Arsenal and Man City on the horizon, just how worried should we be?
     
     

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