Featured: That was the week that was (March 7-13 2020)

[tlw content]

 

Saturday Mar 7:

 

L 2 Bournemouth 1 The result we needed if not the performance we wanted. It wasn’t bad and we deserved the points, but on the way home I was thinking how mad it is that a team that is so far ahead and has such an incredible record, has hardly battered anyone all season. We seem to win by a single goal all the time don’t we?

 

I’m not complaining of course. I just think it’s funny how things have worked out. I think we all expected that when we finally won the title it would be dramatic, heart stopping and would probably go down until the final kick of the season. That’s how we tend to do things after all.

 

So this is weird. The biggest lead any team has ever had at the top. The title could even be wrapped up already in the unlikely even that City lose their next three games. So, from that perspective it’s been a stress free ride, right? Wrong. We don’t have the stress of the overall race (just the stress of whether we’ll all be allowed to finish it) but we’ve had a shitload of games that we haven’t been able to enjoy because they’ve been tight!

 

We needed the heroics from Milner to preserve the points today, although I do feel that had that been a goal we’d have rallied again and won it. This shouldn’t have been as close as it was, especially as I was under the impression that VAR was brought in to help us win the title. Where was it today when Wilson shoved Gomez in the back? Absolute farce.

 

Thankfully we forced a couple of mistakes and that was enough for us to overturn the deficit and record our 22nd straight home league win. What an incredible achievement that is. These last couple of years have been unreal. Man City set a bar that was higher than anything we’d ever seen, and Klopp just pole vaulted right over it.

 

Three more wins now. Two actually, as City won’t beat United tomorrow. We’ve broken City, they’ve given up and aren’t playing with any intensity at all in the league now, plus United’s negative, counter attacking style has given City kittens twice already this season. Almost there now. Almost there.

 

Also today, there was a good interview with Harry Wilson on BT before the game where he spoke about the decision he’s going to have to make this summer. Ordinarily I’d be happy for him to make that decision himself and for the club to just go along with his wishes. I don’t think it’s that straightforward though because of some unusual circumstances.

 

Firstly, if Mo goes to the Olympics then we’re short on the right wing. Shaqiri will probably leave and Elliott is probably a year or two away from pushing for that starting spot. Secondly, we’ll be without Mo and Sadio for 5-6 weeks in the winter due to AFCON. We’re going to be short handed and personally I’d keep Wilson around even if it means he won’t play much when everyone is available. It’s not fair to him but needs must I’m afraid.

 

Something else from today that I didn’t notice until watching the highlights tonight. The handshake thing was excrutiating to watch because the players didn’t know what to do. Instead of scrapping it altogether they made them go through the whole routine only without shaking hands, so what you got was a load of lads looking really uncomfortable and not knowing whether to make eye contact with each other or just walk past. 

 

The Bournemouth keeper was wanting to make eye contact and you could see him looking at all our lads as they went past, and if anyone looked at him he gave a little nod. Everyone else just looked embarrassed.

 

I was telling Adrianna about it and she said “that’s nothing, you should have seen what happened at our game this morning”. Her footy team played but I couldn’t watch because I was at Anfield. So she tells me what happened and it’s fucking hilarious. Just like the PL teams, they didn’t do the handshake, but just like the PL teams they still went with the charade of one team having to walk past the other. 

 

Where they differed was instead of just walking by, they were told to touch boots instead of a handshake, and it made for absolute carnage, as they had to hop from player to player and half of them ended up losing their balance and falling over. I wish I’d gone to her game now instead of Anfield.

 

Sunday Mar 8:

 

As I expected, City lost again, meaning it’s now just two wins required. Unless Arsenal actually do something worthwhile for once in midweek and beat City, which would mean we only need one more win. So yeah, two more wins then. Always nice seeing City lose, but not so much when it's United beating them. I'll take it of course, but I was enjoying the misery of United fans and this little run they've had has got them all chesty again. 

 

Meanwhile, Werner is dropped by Leipzig amid claims it’s because he keeps fluttering his eyelashes at Klopp. Surely a more likely explanation for them leaving out their top scorer is that they’re keeping him fresh for the Champions League game with Spurs on Tuesday? That doesn’t make for a juicy headline though, I guess.

 

 

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[Paul]

Keeping yourself busy? Don't know what the problem is. Lazing around all day getting twatted by some kid on Battlefront has never bothered you before...

[halewood pete]

Very worrying times.Morgan and Brady just confirming what absolute tossers they both are.

[alles ist gut]

Top, top second goalie analysis there, Dave. Let’s be careful out there (or not out there, if you’re Stringy).

[rb14]

2 hours ago, Paul said:

Keeping yourself busy? Don't know what the problem is. Lazing around all day on FakeTaxi has never bothered you before...

Come on Paul. You've known him a little while now. 

[Arnaud]

I don’t understand the doubts over Werner. He’s a very good player , eyes and stats back that. He’s so much better than Origi.

 

[Frank Dacey]

When it comes to the Dildo brothers, it shouldn't be a surprise that they're trying to shaft people.

[Tarwater]

I have only seen Werner play 5 or 6 times, so have no real basis for judging him one way or the other. I do, however, have pretty much the exact same opinion of him as Usher. Maybe it’s because I just expect him to be not only very good, but excellent, after hearing all the reports. So I’m only setting myself up for disappointment even before the games begin. I say avoid, but recognize that I haven’t seen enough of him to judge fairly. Put it like this, I was much more convinced that Keita would make it for us than I am Werner. So maybe I wouldn’t hack it as a scout.

[dave u]

10 hours ago, Arnaud said:

I don’t understand the doubts over Werner. He’s a very good player , eyes and stats back that. He’s so much better than Origi.

 

Much better than Origi isn't the bar I'm setting though. My bar is much higher than that. It's 'as good as or better than the three we have'. That's what we should be looking for, because they need genuine competition for their place if they're going to get better (or even stay the same).

 

I don't think, based on an admittedly small sample size, that Werner is that level. He doesn't appear to have any guile about him at all, he's just like a bull in a china shop.

[dave u]

15 hours ago, Paul said:

Keeping yourself busy? Don't know what the problem is. Lazing around all day getting twatted by some kid on Battlefront has never bothered you before...

There's never anyone on during the day. I play Battlefront at night.

[dave u]

13 hours ago, rb14 said:

Come on Paul. You've known him a little while now. 

Genuinely don't even know what that is. And seeing as you brought it up, I'm assuming I'm better off not knowing!

[Arnaud]

29 minutes ago, dave u said:

Much better than Origi isn't the bar I'm setting though. My bar is much higher than that. It's 'as good as or better than the three we have'. That's what we should be looking for, because they need genuine competition for their place if they're going to get better (or even stay the same).

 

I don't think, based on an admittedly small sample size, that Werner is that level. He doesn't appear to have any guile about him at all, he's just like a bull in a china shop.

I know, I don’t disagree. He’s different indeed, it’s what we need maybe.

 

 

[deiseach]

This kinda answers a question I've long had: do you write these on the day? Pretty cool if you do that rather than retconning it all at the end of the week. When future generations are sifting through the ashes of the past, Dave will be their Samuel Pepys.

[dave u]

Almost all of it is written on the day (usually that night). Sometimes if not much has happened on a particular day I'll go back at the end of the week and check newsnow to see if there's anything I can add to it to pad it out a bit.

 

There was virtually nothing going on last Sunday though, hence the lack of content for that day.

[Pete]

23 minutes ago, dave u said:

Almost all of it is written on the day (usually that night). Sometimes if not much has happened on a particular day I'll go back at the end of the week and check newsnow to see if there's anything I can add to it to pad it out a bit.

 

There was virtually nothing going on last Sunday though, hence the lack of content for that day.

Looking forward to the next few weeks  months then. 

[sir roger]

22 hours ago, dave u said:

Much better than Origi isn't the bar I'm setting though. My bar is much higher than that. It's 'as good as or better than the three we have'. That's what we should be looking for, because they need genuine competition for their place if they're going to get better (or even stay the same).

 

I don't think, based on an admittedly small sample size, that Werner is that level. He doesn't appear to have any guile about him at all, he's just like a bull in a china shop.

Think that bar is a bit unrealistic , Dave. I would put the Three Amigos all in Europes top 10 forwards so expecting the same or better is almost impossible. Surely Werner is at a similar or higher ranking than the other three  at the point we bought them , which is what I imagine Klopp and Edward's are looking at . 

[Paul]

On 15/03/2020 at 22:23, dave u said:

Genuinely don't even know what that is. And seeing as you brought it up, I'm assuming I'm better off not knowing!

I googled it. You assume right.