Jump to content
  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

Featured: That was the week that was (17-23 2020)


tlw content
 Share

Recommended Posts

theweekthatwas.jpg.c1fbcaffb0090e7b2d3f5068e60210dc.jpg

 

Saturday Oct 17:

 

Everton 2 L 2. I’m too angry to say anything really coherent about this. It will all be in the match report so I’m not going to even comment on the controversial issues from this. If I start I doubt I’ll be able to stop so instead I’m just going to focus on the football side of it. We played well. It was the perfect response to what happened at Villa as you could see the determination the lads had to immediately stamp their authority on this one. 

 

From the first whistle they were right at Everton. The two early fouls by Virg showed how pissed off he was with the Villa result and he set the tone as we were on the front foot. It looked like we would blow them away but then you know what happened and the momentum was taken away from us. The reaction was good though and we bossed the first half.

 

The second half was scrappy to begin with but eventually we took control and we were by far the better team. We should be better as we’re the Champions and they’re Everton, but they went into this in the best shape they’ve been in for decades. And we were coming off that Villa game. Then we lost our most important player (we were already without Alisson) but despite all this we’ve completely schooled them. 

 

Forget the result, that doesn’t tell the story. This was dominance. Everton know they’re still not even remotely close to being at our level. Maybe that’s why they act like thugs every time we play them?

 

I have always put that down to the crowd and the effect that 30,000 baying bitter bastards has on players, but it turns out that’s got fuck all to do with it. It’s not the fans that make them act like that, it’s the fucking badge. Dirty cunts.

 

Sunday Oct 18:

 

So he’s done for the season then. Grade 3 ACL tear, which basically means his whole knee needs re-attaching. We’re looking at probably 12 months until he’s back at full speed so this is an absolute fucking nightmare. I’m unspeakably angry about it all as the whole situation was a fucking disgrace, and I don’t just mean the tackle. 

 

I’m probably in the minority here but I’m angrier about Oliver and Coote not punishing Pickford than I am at Pickford for actually doing it. I’m not defending him at all, but these things do occasionally happen as it’s always been part of the game. What should never happen is for a referee to see it and do nothing. That’s the thing that’s getting to me. 

 

David Coote should no longer be in a job this morning, but fuck all will happen to him despite him being guilty of quite literally the worst bit of officiating I’ve ever seen. An on field ref not getting a decision right is one thing, but when you have access to replays and still get it as wrong as Coote did that’s negligence of the highest order. Sack the cunt.

 

Naturally there’s a lot of defeatism around after this. Our title prospects have taken a severe hit and it might be too much to overcome. I don’t think it’s as clear cut as a lot of people are making out though, mainly because everyone else is flawed. Look at Spurs today, 3-0 up and looking great. Looking like title contenders even. Then they conceded three to West Ham and drew. That’s what I’m saying. All the other top teams have their faults and it’s not going to take 99 points to win it this year.

 

Actually it wouldn’t have taken 99 last year. That’s what we got, but 82 would have been enough. Somewhere around that will do it this year too probably (I expect maybe 86/87ish might be enough) and we can get that even without Virgil. His injury means we aren’t going to run away with it again but it shouldn’t mean we can’t be right in the thick of it. We need to pray that Matip doesn’t break down again and that Alisson is back soon. If that happens and we can get to January still in the shake up, we can bring someone in and finish the season strongly.

 

Clean sheets are going to be hard to come by now (they were anyway) and we might see a lot more of those crazy 5-4 type games again, but we were a good side before Virgil and we’re still a good side now. We’re better now than we were before we signed him and although we’ll obviously miss him big time, we have enough strength in other areas of the pitch to keep the rig on the road.

 

I feel worse for Virgil himself than I do for our prospects this season, because I think we’ll be alright.

 

 

This is just a teaser, click here to view full article

 

Please note that the Week that Was is only available to website subscribers. Subscriptions cost just £2 a month (you need to register first) and can be purchased here. 

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • dave u pinned this topic
1 hour ago, dave u said:

Think I jinxed Fabinho by talking him up too much.

 

He was shite tonight.

Hopefully we can get Matip fit enough for the Prem games against the teams who like the aerial battle and use Fab at CB in the CL and against the better PL teams.  

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On your point about the title race Dave, I can’t see past us. We’ll win it reasonably comfortably in my view. As you say, it won’t be a 90+ campaign, but I reckon there’ll be double figures between us second. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Daisy said:

How can you say that so confidently. Feels like the entire world is against us at the moment 

Because we’re almost top anyway, we’ve got by far the strongest squad in terms of both ability and mentality and we’re managed by Jurgen Klopp.
 

If not us, then who? Everyone else looks far inferior in my view. The universal fear of City is two seasons out of date, in my opinion, and everyone else is far more flawed than they are. 

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think we're favourites but I wouldn't say strong favourites as we've got weaknesses in our squad which weren't obvious pre-lockdown. 

Virgil out and Matip as fragile as ever.

Alisson seems a bit injury-prone.

Milner a bit older, Curtis not ready, Keita injury-prone and probably not good enough, Gini maybe signing a pre-contract elsewhere in Jan.,Fab may have to play in defence more often than midfield, Ox still fucked. That's a hell of a lot of potential issues in midfield. 

The summer signings will give us a lot and I think we are more than capable of dealing with all of the above providing we don't get even more unlucky with injuries. But that's a big proviso. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, aws said:

I think we're favourites but I wouldn't say strong favourites as we've got weaknesses in our squad which weren't obvious pre-lockdown. 

Virgil out and Matip as fragile as ever.

Alisson seems a bit injury-prone.

Milner a bit older, Curtis not ready, Keita injury-prone and probably not good enough, Gini maybe signing a pre-contract elsewhere in Jan.,Fab may have to play in defence more often than midfield, Ox still fucked. That's a hell of a lot of potential issues in midfield. 

The summer signings will give us a lot and I think we are more than capable of dealing with all of the above providing we don't get even more unlucky with injuries. But that's a big proviso. 

And in spite of that, look where we are and look where the rest are. Everyone else is far more flawed than us. 

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was a depressing reading, all that stuff about the derby. Depressing but spot on ! I try to get some distance drop the game as I get okd, the son being too upset when we concede a goal, ilness I have endured the for month ect, but I felt like you with the Pickford case. I could not get out of my head what happened for days. I could not even read this mighty forum.

 

 

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kind of agree with Paul but I'm more leaning towards aws in the sense that for us to win it by double figures a lot of things would have to go our way in terms of injuries.

 

Paul's completely right when he says everyone else is more flawed than us. That's why I didn't get all the defeatism when Virgil got injured. So we don't have Virgil. Guess what? Neither does anyone else, and we've still got the best team and best manager. 

 

So I still think we'll win it barring any further serious injury setbacks.

 

As for the entire world being against us. Fuck anyone who isn't us. That kind of shit will only make the team even more focussed and determined.

 

There'll be a lot more bumps on this road than there was last year but I'd love to hear people's suggestions on who has what it takes to finish above us, because I just don't see anyone worth fearing.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, not worth mentioning this in next week's diary but I'll throw it in here.

 

Spoke to my dad the day after the Sheffield United game. No matter how many times I've corrected him, he still calls streams 'screens' so I've just given up now and let him get on with it. Kept complaining that the 'screen' my mum had on the laptop was freezing on them.

 

Then he said he's sick of that 'VCR' giving bad decisions against us and it needs binning off. That one cracked me up.

 

Finally, he kept calling Jota 'Josh'. Usually it takes a year or two before he gets the names right, but I mean come on, how hard is it to remember 'Jota'?? 

 

Took him forever to remember Matip's name but he's forgotten it again now because out of sight out of mind and that.

  • Upvote 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, dave u said:

Kind of agree with Paul but I'm more leaning towards aws in the sense that for us to win it by double figures a lot of things would have to go our way in terms of injuries.

 

Paul's completely right when he says everyone else is more flawed than us. That's why I didn't get all the defeatism when Virgil got injured. So we don't have Virgil. Guess what? Neither does anyone else, and we've still got the best team and best manager. 

 

So I still think we'll win it barring any further serious injury setbacks.

 

As for the entire world being against us. Fuck anyone who isn't us. That kind of shit will only make the team even more focussed and determined.

 

There'll be a lot more bumps on this road than there was last year but I'd love to hear people's suggestions on who has what it takes to finish above us, because I just don't see anyone worth fearing.

By double figures, I mean low double figures; ie, 10-12 points. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 24/10/2020 at 18:36, tlw content said:

Sunday Oct 18:

 

So he’s done for the season then. Grade 3 ACL tear, which basically means his whole knee needs re-attaching. We’re looking at probably 12 months until he’s back at full speed so this is an absolute fucking nightmare. I’m unspeakably angry about it all as the whole situation was a fucking disgrace, and I don’t just mean the tackle. 

 

I’m probably in the minority here but I’m angrier about Oliver and Coote not punishing Pickford than I am at Pickford for actually doing it. I’m not defending him at all, but these things do occasionally happen as it’s always been part of the game. What should never happen is for a referee to see it and do nothing. That’s the thing that’s getting to me. 

 

David Coote should no longer be in a job this morning, but fuck all will happen to him despite him being guilty of quite literally the worst bit of officiating I’ve ever seen. An on field ref not getting a decision right is one thing, but when you have access to replays and still get it as wrong as Coote did that’s negligence of the highest order. Sack the cunt.

I must be in the minority too. I didn't watch the game and this is exhibit A as to why I don't. I was upstairs when I heard the roars of delight, which was great, so I checked my phone to see who had scored only to be brought up short by the dreaded VAR symbol. Duly I heard the howls of rage from my wife and knew it had been chalked off. I was okay with it all, as I have been all season long. Then the scale of the shitshow that I had swerved gradually became clear as the day progressed, and I began waiting for the mea culpa from David Coote and PGMOL. Over a week on I'm still waiting, that's how much it has gotten under my skin. The last time Coote was the centre of attention over such an obvious mistake, Chris Foy said that "David is a very good referee", but there is abundant evidence that he is not. This "human error" crap needs to be called out. It's you-had-one-job stuff, and it's deeply dispiriting that the emotional well-being of so many is being put in the hands of people who don't know what they're doing.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • dave u unpinned this topic

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...