Wolves (H) - Sun 22nd May 2022 (4:00pm)

[Trumo 16,198]

And so the domestic season comes down to this. We need a win against Wolves, and hope that Villa upset the odds by taking something other than a good hiding away from the Etihad. We can do our bit, but we have no control over what happens over there. Though we had a couple of games in hand on City in early January, they were so far ahead on points that the league title was all but wrapped up for them. For us to close the gap down to a point with just one game to go speaks volumes for this manager and his players. They’ve done so while also getting to the final (at least) of every cup competition they’ve entered this season. It’s genuinely extraordinary, and it still has the possibility of being something even better than that. First things first though.

 

Nerve. Intelligence. Nous. Energy. Tenacity. Yer ma. Tactical flexibility. Winning touch. Order.

 

I don’t ask for much.

 

Last season’s fixture finished with a comfortable 4-0 win for the Reds. Following a fine full-stretch save by stand-in keeper Kev/Queef/whatever he’s called from Podence’s delicate chip from the edge of the area, we took the lead when Mo latched onto an error by Wolves’ former Red Conor Coady to slot the ball past the keeper. We had a few thousand fans in the ground for this one and they made a hell of a racket. Coady then hit the deck in our penalty area and Wolves were initially awarded the spot kick before VAR intervened to rule it out. Sadio had gone in to challenge but pulled out at the last second, so the expected contact Coady was looking for never arrived. Gini doubled our lead in the second half when racing on to meet Hendo’s clever pass following a swift break, and firing a sweet effort into the top corner from 20 yards. Big Bird got in on the act to bullet a far post header into the net from Mo’s right wing cross following a short corner. In the dying stages, Trent’s peach of a low cross was put into his own net by the despairing Nelson Semedo who’d tried to prevent a tap in for Sadio. In truth Sadio should have finished it off himself but got his timing wrong, scuffing his attempted effort onto his standing leg with the ball ricocheting in off Semedo.

 

December 1977 saw Wolves visit Anfield just after Christmas. The Reds were doing well in the European Cup (which would be retained with victory over Club Brugge at Wembley) but in the league, it was Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in the ascendancy. Their story is not too dissimilar to when Leicester won the league. Unlike Leicester, Clough’s team would also prove to have the cojones to win domestic and European trophies over the next couple of years. Liverpool saw off Wolves 1-0 thanks to a twice-taken penalty by Phil Neal in the first half. It sounds like one of those games where we struggled to get going but did just enough to claim the points. Couple of interesting points about that Wolves team. Their manager was called Sammy Chung (an unusual sounding name for that era), and they had Steve Daley in their ranks. He’s the player Man City would piss away the best part of £1.5m on at the tail end of the 70s, which was a British record sum at the time. Not the first time City have spent over the odds on a player, though of course these days most of the cost is kept off the club’s books and placed on that of the secretive parent company and the ruling regime. I can’t find highlights of the game so here’s the Guardian’s match report.

 

 

The big box office smash around Christmas 1977 was John Travolta’s other big 70s hit, Saturday Night Fever. The story of a working class teenage New Yorker named Tony Manero who seeks escape from his humdrum existence working in a hardware store in the form of being a god on the dance floors at the disco. It’s a story about disaffected youth seeing the medium of dance as a (albeit temporary) chance to be a somebody and stand out from the crowd. The basic premise has been successful in cinema before. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is an example from the late 60s (and one that featured in one of my match threads earlier this season), and the likes of Footloose come to mind from the 80s. Anyway, Saturday Night Fever is a very watchable film in its own right but what really lifts it is the stellar soundtrack. The Bee Gees had a bit of a renaissance off the back of their new disco-infused sound, and there are other hits from the likes of The Trammps (‘Disco Inferno’) and Yvonne Elliman (‘If I Can’t Have You’). For me though, the standouts are by David Shire (‘Manhattan Skyline’) and Walter Murphy (‘A Fifth of Beethoven’), both brilliant musical interludes, the former sounding pure 70s disco and the latter modernising a classic. So successful was the film that only a couple of years later it got parodied for one scene in Airplane!, song and all!

 

 

I’d imagine Klopp will look to more of his first choice regulars for this one, partly because they might be available, and partly to give them some match action prior to the following week’s big one. Commitment, attitude and application have not been a problem for the squad this season and I wouldn’t suddenly expected them to be. They can only play the game in front of them, and not think about what’s going on elsewhere. The fans will let them know anyway, as happened in this very fixture in 2019 when we took the lead and then heard that City had fallen behind at Brighton. There was a party atmosphere for a couple of minutes until news filtered through of a City equaliser. I was at a wedding party in Florida back then and the wifi was so shit at the venue, I only found out a couple of hours later what had happened on the day. Anyway, for this one all we can do is go all out for the win, and see where we are at the end. Just finish the job and hope Hendo gets to break out the shuffle sometime around 6:00pm. You should be dancin’!

[Anubis 21,565]

Get in. Get the three points. Get out.

[an tha 8,440]

A chance however slim to win the League title.

 

Games do not get much bigger than this.

 

Whatever happens our team have been fucking incredible.

 

If there is any justice in this world, they end day as Champions and those cheating, sportswashing, nomark manc shithouses are devoed.

 

I have seen some say rest players for Paris.....fuck that - Best possible eleven, get game won and see if there is indeed some justice and this incredible team and manager and his staff and us as fans get to properly celebrate in a way that we were denied in 2020 by Covid laws.

 

Plus i believe we need the team to have rhythm and not let rust set in ahead of Paris anyway - we always struggle without rhythm, and having too many of our best players not playing for 2 weeks before Paris is IMHO a bad idea...we'll have nearly a whole week after this before Paris too.

 

I don't expect us to end day on Sunday as Champions, but i do expect us to win, and if we do - well who knows....

 

This team have made us dream.....maybe just maybe they'll get the reward they deserve so fucking richly....

[Bjornebye 33,761]

 

 

 

[coachpotato 696]

Personally think the game at the Etihad could be over by half time. City are just ruthless.

But we have a chance and we will go all out to push for the unlikely to happen.

Regardless, it’s a great chance to give the team a send off they deserve and Anfield should be rocking.

[Rushies tash 2,800]

I don't sense the same edginess from this as was the case in 2019 when we played Wolves and City played Brighton. Most people are realistic enough to expect an easy win for City and so we will devote our energy to enjoying the game and giving the team the send off to Paris it deserves. That said, if, by some miracle, Villa hold City, the fucking roof will come off.

[aws 8,070]

Whatever happens, we'll always have Paris. 

[aRdja 2,900]

Alisson; Trent, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Keita, Thiago; Salah, Diaz, Mane

[ZonkoVille77 5,827]

I get the feeling we're fuckin shite. 

[AngryOfTuebrook 24,508]

The last league game of a truly magnificent season - with Paris just a week away - will mean a proper party atmosphere at Anfield. I'm confident that this squad will be professional enough to stay focused and do everything needed to get the win. (Any win will do, but I really want to see a clean sheet, so Ali gets at least a share of the Golden Gloves.) 

 

Just get these beat, Reds.

[diamondjoe 506]

Martin Tyler is a cunt.

[TheHowieLama 13,011]

The quadruple is on y'all.

[Reckoner 2,219]

Just seen a tweet that says 

‘Liverpool Football Club have won more trophies this year than they've lost games.’

Staggering

[aRdja 2,900]

10 minutes ago, Reckoner said:

Just seen a tweet that says 

‘Liverpool Football Club have won more trophies this year than they've lost games.’

Staggering

That’s false right; 

 

We’ve won the league cup and fa cup.

We lost against Leicester, West Ham, Inter.

[VladimirIlyich 9,629]

5 hours ago, Reckoner said:

Just seen a tweet that says 

‘Liverpool Football Club have won more trophies this year than they've lost games.’

Staggering

'Could win' are maybe the right words.

[Aventus 2,582]

5 hours ago, aRdja said:

That’s false right; 

 

We’ve won the league cup and fa cup.

We lost against Leicester, West Ham, Inter.

Might be calendar year

[kop77 265]

 

flag day sunday

[AngryOfTuebrook 24,508]

7 hours ago, aRdja said:

That’s false right; 

 

We’ve won the league cup and fa cup.

We lost against Leicester, West Ham, Inter.

This year. We've only lost to Inter.

[Mcfaggen 114]

I think a strong start is important. We get a couple of early goals & that filters through to City. I don’t think they like pressure, so I think it’d negatively impact them. 

[Pete 2,032]

Win and see what happens. 

Then onto Paris.  

[Scott_M 6,740]

I don’t know what to think on Sunday. Some random thoughts / facts…
 

This could be 3rd time they’ve pipped us in 8 years. It’ll be the 4th time in 10 years it’s gone to the last day.
 

There hasn’t been a switch in last day positions since 88/89. 
 

I feel the story of Gerrard doing something for us is incredibly fanciful. 

They should have won it already. Mahrez should have finished the title at the Ethiad with that last second chip and with that penalty at West Ham.

 

Could Joel’s big toe come back to be the 11mm from 2019?

 

They’ve already blown the CL. They should be playing us in Paris next weekend. I assume this adds more pressure. 
 

That and the fact we’ve chipped away a 14 point lead and they’ve missed 2 golden opportunities to effectively win it, all the pressure is on them.
 

Since it’s been unveiled, that Aguero 93:20 statue has big potential for an egg on their face moment. 
 

Coutinho loved a goal against City. 
 

Villa aren’t very good, however, it’s the lower sides City have struggled with this season - they’ve dropped home points to Palace & Southampton. 

City have issues at the back. I actually thought Gerrard’s game plan against us was decent - it was like how Simione set up against us at Atletico in the groups stages - keep 2 up from and use their pace against 2 centre back with balls into the channels. Watkins could cause Fernandinho issues. 
 

 

Conclusion - I’ve no fucking idea. Just win our game and what will be will be, we can’t influence their game, an early goal or two would be preferable. 

[Lario 1,518]

1 hour ago, Mcfaggen said:

I think a strong start is important. We get a couple of early goals & that filters through to City. I don’t think they like pressure, so I think it’d negatively impact them. 

This is it.

 

Go a couple of goals up in the forst 20 minutes, and hope Villa hold out for the same length of time. Let's just hope Ollie Watkins turns it on against them like he does every fucking time he plays us!

 

City are flaky mentally and defensively. Have a fucking cut off 'em and see what happens.

 

City to draw, we win.

[Heinze 276]

10-0

[m0e 2,943]

15 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

This year. We've only lost to Inter.

If we beat them we would have equalled another record.

 

Fucking annoying that was.

[JustTosh 390]

Had a look into the crystal ball:

Comfortable, not spectacular 2-0 win at Anfield. 3 mins left of match at Emptyhad, City leading 1-0. Then as our players prepare for their round of honor – explosion! Coutinho equalizes, 1-1 at their place. FA officials getting busy tying red ribbons around the replica trophy.

Fuck being realistic, I’m allowed to dream.