Featured: That was the week that was (Jan 16-22 2021)

[tlw content 12,240]

 

Saturday Jan 16:

 

Reports today that Gini has turned down our contract offer. Seems pretty certain he’s going now. I’m not happy about it and I can’t understand the logic at all. Why are we allowing him to walk away for nothing rather than give him the kind of salary that he’s earned?

 

Maybe I’m over simplifying it but giving him a four year contract and then selling him in two years still has to be better financially than allowing him to walk away for fuck all now? Especially as we’ll need to buy a replacement. Unless they’re under the illusion that Naby fucking Keita is finally going to come good? Please God don’t let them be under that illusion.

 

I hear the arguments as to why we shouldn’t give him what he wants, but look at it this way. Imagine the state we’d have been in this season if he’d left last summer, which he would have done if Barca had any money. We’re in a bad enough state as it is, but without Gini? *shudders*

 

So we don’t pay him because he’s 30 soon and we let him leave for nothing. Then what? We’ve got fuck all money to go out and buy a replacement because whatever cash we do have will be needed on another centre half and probably another forward. How are we replacing him?

 

Klopp and Edwards have earned our trust with how they’ve handled things over the last few years, but this feels different, not least because I suspect if Klopp had the choice he’d want Gini to stay. I don’t like this at all, it concerns me greatly but we have no choice but to just hope they know what they’re doing.

 

Sunday Jan 17:

 

L 0 Man United 0. Shite. At least part of it was. A lot of it was fine, good even. But when there’s nothing at the end of it then it doesn’t really count for much. We had all of the ball and they had the clearest chances. It shouldn’t be that way but this is us at the moment. 

 

West Brom, Newcastle, Southampton, they all had hardly any of the ball but they all hd good chances. And it’s not the chances we’ve given up that concerns me as it’s not easy to go through a game against PL opposition and restrict them to no clear chances, unless you’re playing us, so I’m not concerned that Pogba and Fernandez had clear chances. I’m just completely dispirited that we didn’t have any of our own.

 

Actually that’s not strictly true. We had chances but they didn’t look like clear ones because the finishing was fucking risible. What was Firmino doing? He was all over the place today. Usually you have to put a gun to his head to get him to take a shot as he always wants to pass. Today he had a glorious situation where he could have rolled Robbo in and instead he shot. Badly.

 

His choice of pass was abysmal too. It’s like he’s lost the capacity to make any right decisions. Then you’ve got Sadio, who looks great until he gets in the box. And Mo, who’s just been fucking woeful since his angry two goal cameo at Palace after he’d been dropped for that interview with AS.

 

I’m depressed. There’s fuck all to do except watch the footy and that’s just too stressful now. There’s no enjoyment in this at all. Just a helplessness that the lads are struggling and need us and there’s nothing we can do for them. 

 

Today brought that home more than anything. This should have been our moment to lord it over United. We’ve waited years for this. Decades in fact. All the shit they’ve thrown our way and now that we’re finally back on our perch we can’t stick it to them because the stadiums are empty. I know there are more important things going on in the world and people are dying. That doesn’t really make this any less distressing though.

 

By the time we’re back in the ground the moment to celebrate and revel in it will have long gone and there’s now the possibility that it might be United taking the title from us. What kind of sick fucking joke is this? 

 

If we have to relinquish the title then it better be to City, because if it’s to anyone else that’s going to be the bitterest of pills to swallow. 

 

And the officiating today was a fucking disgrace. Blowing up six seconds early because Mané was clean through? You’re never going to convince me that wasn’t a deliberate act to ensure we didn’t score. I don’t know why Tierney didn’t want us to score, I just know he clearly didn’t because that was just not a normal thing to do.

 

Not that we’ll say anything about it. We’re the biggest pushovers in football. You can do what you like to LFC because the only people who’ll say anything are the fans. Look at the lack of free-kicks Salah gets. He isn’t in the top 100 most fouled players this season and I saw something today saying that last season he wasn’t in the top 300 and actually ranked 16th on his own team!! 15 of our players were fouled more than Salah? Fuck off.

 

Why has no-one mentioned this? I don’t understand. I don’t know why Klopp has never had those stats quoted to him and asked for his thoughts about it. I don’t understand why it hasn’t been written about. I mean Christ, the Athletic can churn out 10,000 words on a new security guard farting at Melwood but they haven’t done an in depth piece on this? What am I missing here?

 

 

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[johnsusername 2,220]

I think some of our players are made of chop sticks.

[alles ist gut 3,900]

Top, top “defo not defending it” analysis there, Dave.

[Arnaud 645]

Mo has been shite for months, not weeks.

[DalyanPete 262]

Guess what, West Ham are two points behind us now. 

 

Thanks for the update Dave, I haven't looked at the table for weeks.

 

[m0e 1,525]

Agree with all that except the first bit. If Gini left last summer, we'd have bought a centre back and Fabinho would be in midfield.

 

That's what's happening this summer instead. 

[Mark M 1,520]

That paragraph on Salah is quality - sums up perfectly how I’ve been feeling about him lately. 

[Daisy 14]

Yeah Gini is definitely not getting replaced. That was Thiago. 

 

His situation is pissing me off just as much as the centre back issue. Got to be pissing the players off as well 

[Rushies tash 1,847]

The club don't bitch about things because as soon as they do, the media immediately turn on us and accuse us of cracking up or hypocrisy or whatever else they can come up with to deflect attention away from whatever blatantly bent piece of officiating we've suffered from that week.

[dave u 6,021]

3 hours ago, Rushies tash said:

The club don't bitch about things because as soon as they do, the media immediately turn on us and accuse us of cracking up or hypocrisy or whatever else they can come up with to deflect attention away from whatever blatantly bent piece of officiating we've suffered from that week.

 

And how does that work out for us? 

 

Pointing out the inequality in decisions can hardly make things worse because it's pretty much as bad as it can get.

 

Can't wait to see what the officials have in store today when there's no VAR. They've basically got licence to do whatever they like. At least when VAR is in play it makes it a bit trickier to screw us over.

[dave u 6,021]

And if Thiago is Gini's replacement, then we're going to be light as fuck in midfield even if we buy a centre back and can move Fabinho back up there full time.

 

Fabinho, Hendo, Thiago. Then what? Jones, sound. Love him. Ox? Not good enough and not reliable enough. Top lad, got loads of time for him, but he hasn't been a viable option for us basically ever since Roma.

 

Milner will probably go, as will Shaq. Taki isn't ever going to be a legit midfield option and I can't stress this enough, Naby Keita is about as much of an option in midfield as Matip is at the back. You need to disregard him completely. You can't plan around players who are missing half the time.

 

As I say, if Gini goes he needs to be replaced and it won't be cheap. It's a false economy.

[Code 883]

7 hours ago, Arnaud said:

Mo has been shite for months, not weeks.

You have to wonder when he managed to score all those 18 goals this season, considering he’s been shite for months?

[Arnaud 645]

25 minutes ago, Code said:

You have to wonder when he managed to score all those 18 goals this season, considering he’s been shite for months?

Contradictions are part of life, son !

[Code 883]

30 minutes ago, Arnaud said:

Contradictions are part of life, son !

Sorry, I got that wrong, its 19 goals. 

[Arnaud 645]

32 minutes ago, Code said:

Sorry, I got that wrong, its 19 goals. 

And so many misses and a terrible attitude.

[Code 883]

36 minutes ago, Arnaud said:

And so many misses and a terrible attitude.