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It feels churlish to keep harking back to last season considering we’re doing so much better this year (we've already got more points and have seven games left!), but watching this I couldn’t help but think that we’d have scored six in a game like this last year without even breaking sweat. I know, I know, I’m even annoying myself with this 17/18 season nostalgia, but I can’t help it. Fulham were dreadful and they were there for the taking. Frankly, it’s ridiculous that we needed a late penalty to get over the line. This should have been a routine win with a big dent put into the seven goal advantage City have over us. Instead it was a torturous last 15 minutes that has probably knocked six months off the end of my life. We won’t play a worse team all season (Huddersfield are shite but at least they can get behind the ball and make it difficult) but it’s typical Liverpool that they can make it look easy against Bayern Munich and then almost royally fuck things up against Fulham. Sometimes games are just really difficult because the opposition dig in and are well organised, or because the players just can’t really get going. Neither was the case here. We played well in most aspects of the game and it never looked flat or disjointed. Fulham may have had men back behind the ball but there were still gaps all over the place and we had no problems playing through them. Up until the final pass, cross or shot I thought we looked good. We passed it around, switched the play quickly, found space between the lines, won it back quickly when we lost it and basically did everything you’d want to do up until the decisive moment, which was usually shite. That's why I think we'd have killed them last season. I’m singling out Mo as the worst offender but it wasn’t just him. Both full backs got into some great positions but their delivery just wasn’t up to the usual standard, while Bobby started the game brightly but faded, seemingly bothered by whatever injury it was he picked up late in the first half. It was mostly Salah though. He’s definitely let the recent lack of goals get in his head now. He’s missing easy chances, he’s going it alone when he should be passing, dribbling when he should be shooting, and too many of his shots are going straight down the keeper’s throat, whereas last year they were finding the top corner. The worst moment of the game for him was when he completely ruined a glorious counter attacking opportunity because of a terrible, inexplicable decision. He had two players to his left and only needed to come inside to open everything up, but instead he went the other way and lost the ball. That just doesn’t happen if he’d been scoring regularly. I said a few weeks ago that the Salah we’re seeing now is the Salah we thought we were getting when he signed him. A very good player but not the superstar he morphed into within a few weeks of his arrival. Sadly, “Superstar Mo” left the building in Kiev and barring a handful of cameo’s hasn’t been seen since. I keep saying it, but we need him back sharpish if we’re going to get over the line in either of these competitions we’re chasing. We’d be well clear at the top with last year’s Mo and that’s just so incredibly frustrating. It’s not his fault and he’s trying his best, but whereas last year everything just happened naturally and he didn’t have to think about anything, this year has been the opposite. He’s not playing on instinct and some of his decision making has been dreadful. Sometimes it feels like he's really close to exploding in a flurry of goals again, other times it looks like he couldn't hit Harry Maguire's arse with a banjo. It shows just how good this team is now that they can be where they are even with Mo giving us about 50% of the goal output he gave us last year. And last year's Mo didn't get the opportunity to play against the God awful Tim Ream. That would have been carnage. I actually find it hard to believe this game played out the way it did when we were so dominant from start to finish. Fulham have the worst defence I’ve ever seen in the top flight and this was an opportunity to eat into City’s goal difference advantage. The most important thing was the three points and I’m grateful we managed to salvage that when it looked like we’d blown it, but making up only one goal on them was a huge opportunity missed, particularly as they play Fulham next. City could destroy them but it’s possible they won’t (they needed yet more questionable officiating to beat a mid-table Championship side in the cup). I expect them to beat Fulham easily enough, but they don’t need to score five or six. If they’re up by a couple they might just keep the ball for the rest of the game and not let Fulham have a kick. We didn’t have that luxury and the chance was there for us to score five or six if we’d been more clinical. In the end it’s just a massive relief that we didn’t fuck it up. Over the last thirty years we’ve specialised in dropping points to relegated shite and in that respect it would have been almost fitting for our title chase to hit the rocks against these losers. Thankfully this team has more about it than most of those that went before and they just about spared themselves from the embarrassment and ridicule that would have followed. How the hell did they find themselves in that situation though? It’s crazy. Every attack looked like it would end with a good chance for us as we were just slicing through them and having our own way right from the start. They were so narrow and for once we actually did the right thing and used the width. So many times we bang our heads against the brick wall in the centre, but this time we used Trent and Robbo and got into countless good situations. The other thing we did well was press Fulham into mistakes. We weren’t always winning the ball high up the pitch, but the press was forcing them to knock the ball forward aimlessly and that meant it was coming straight back at them. I barely remember Fulham getting out of their own half in the opening 45 minutes and it seemed as though we got round the back of them at least a dozen times. Somehow we only scored one though. Lovely goal it was too. Sadio’s hot streak continued as a nice one two with Bobby saw him side foot home. The exact type of goal we should be scoring more often. You know the drill by now, say it with me: “There’s only one way to beat them…. *cups ear* That’s right, “get round the back”. We got into a lot of those situations but didn’t pick out the right cross. Robbo’s end product was way below his usual standards and he didn’t have the best of starts to the game. He kept going though - he’s fucking relentless - and he was bombing up and down that left flank all day, doing the job of two players. It was such a strange game really. Once we’d made the breakthrough I thought we’d go on to smash them everywhere. If we’d gotten the second I suspect we would have, but the second goal just wouldn’t come and the longer it went the more we started to snatch at openings. Sadio hit the bar with a header from a corner. Once again he got himself free with that great movement and terrific leaping ability he has. He’s so good at that, maybe he should be staying behind after training and showing Van Dijk and Matip how to find space in the box? He could also show ol’ 50p head Joel how to head a fucking ball too. Another free header off target from him, it’s becoming a weekly thing now. We were getting plenty of chances but then we had a little spell of a few minutes where we gave the ball away cheaply a couple of times and Fulham were able to get up the pitch and give their crowd something to get encouraged about. It didn’t help that Fabinho was on a yellow card and couldn’t risk making any tackles, and there was one attack that was a direct result of him having to pull out of a 50-50. He played very well but I’d have subbed him for Milner at half time and put Gini as the six. Fabinho was definitely hampered by that harsh yellow card, but it wasn’t a major issue because Fulham offered virtually nothing other than the occasional counter led by Babel, who by far their most dangerous player. Still, the goal he scored had very little to do with anything he did and everything to do with three of our lads fucking up to put it on a plate for him. The first mistake was Milner, who’d only just come on for Lallana (who worked his nuts off). It always seems to take Milner a little while to get up to speed with the game when he comes off the bench, so it wasn’t entirely a surprise when he sliced a clearance miles up in the air and gave Van Dijk an awkward situation to deal with. Still, Virgil deals with awkward situations in his sleep. Initially he was asking Alisson to come out and deal with it, which was never really an option as the ball wasn’t going to reach the keeper. He had other options. He could have let the ball drop and just booted it into the stands, or he could head it back to Alisson. He chose the latter, which was fine in theory. In practice though he didn’t get as much on it as he’d have liked. It wasn’t a great header but to me it was still good enough as it reached Alisson and all he had to do was pick it up. For some reason he tried to go with his feet and the end result was Babel walking through to roll the ball into an empty net. Three of our players have their fingerprints on that goal but the bulk of my disappointment is reserved for Alisson as I thought that was genuinely fucking terrible goalkeeping. Ultimately there was no harm done though and looking back on it now my biggest take away from it is Babel’s reaction to it all. His whole body language and facial expression screamed out “ah for fucks sake” and when his team-mates came to congratulate him he wanted no part of it. Don’t get me wrong, he was professional and gave his best all afternoon, and he might have scored earlier with a rasping effort that was blocked. That’s different though, he’s playing on instinct there and doesn’t have time to think about anything. He was trying to score, but when he was suddenly presented with an open goal and nobody around him (and time to think) the implications of what that could mean were definitely in his head and he looked proper fucking gutted. Look at his face! He’s a good lad is Ryan and hopefully he can do us a favour in a couple of weeks against City. I’m not holding out much hope for Fulham getting anything from that game but if the rest of the players are as up for it as he will be then you never know. Babel’s goal was a real body blow but thankfully there was still a fair bit of time left for the lads to dig themselves out of the hole they’d fell in. The response was good as they laid siege to the Fulham goal, but the winning penalty had more than a hint of fortune about it. Not the decision itself, as that was a stonewall penalty. The way it came about though was freakish. Salah's shot was straight at the keeper, but Spider Rico (he’s a bum) in the Fulham goal dropped it and Sadio was on him like a young Rocky Balboa. The keeper then compounded his error by grabbing hold of Mané who hit the deck like he’d taken a right hook from Clubber Lang. Let’s be honest here, the contact from the keeper was not enough to put Sadio on the floor and there’s no question he made a meal of it. From the ref’s angle though it will have looked like he was dragged down by his shirt. It’s only from the opposite angle you see that the keeper didn’t grab his shirt and pull him back, he just put his arm around him to impede him. Still a pen though. Had Sadio stayed on his feet he’d have been awarded nothing. You don’t get any reward for that, just ask Mo who’s missed out on several penalties by staying on his feet after being fouled. The point here is that the keeper grabbed Sadio to prevent him latching onto the loose ball. If Mané shrugs him off and still gets the ball, that split second of being held makes all the difference in terms of how much time he has to do something with it. It’s the same as the Salah incident in Munich. The defender caught him and the brief delay as he readjusted his feet to shoot allowed another defender to get back and clear. The ref doesn’t give it because Mo stayed on his feet, but that foul stopped him getting a shot away. This was different as Sadio was running away from goal, but the basic principle is the same. If Sadio stayed up he’d have got nothing. In short, the keeper is a dickhead for grabbing him, Sadio was smart in making sure the referee had to give it, and Fulham can have no complaints about that at all. I don't mind admitting that I ran and hid in the kitchen while Milner took care of business. Bad shithouse I know, but I couldn’t watch it, my arse had gone completely. I heard my Dad cheering so I then raced back in to watch the replay of it. Big Games James. What a guy. After that Fulham never really got near us and if there was another goal it was only ever going to be scored by us. Origi had replaced Firmino and was looking direct and positive on the left, and the longer the game went on the more adventurous Wijnaldum was getting with his forward runs. I think the catalyst for that may have been Milner coming on for Lallana, which freed up Gini to get forward more. He headed over from close range and also curled a shot inches wide from the edge of the box. We had so many chances it’s utterly ridiculous that this game was as close as it was. Salah had the chance to wrap it up late and finally end this drought he’s been on, but his finish reeked of a man who’s confidence in front of goal has disappeared. It was brilliant play from Sadio to set him up though. Top class that, he drove at the defence but then delayed long enough for Salah to overlap him and receive the pass. Deserved a goal really, and let’s face it, we really need Mo to get one soon before this 'mini crisis' escalates further. Great credit to the players for finding a way to get the job done and not letting the soft goal they conceded prove fatal. Because it would have been fatal. Failure to beat Fulham would have been virtually impossible to recover from I think. There’s still a long way to go but we really can’t afford more than maybe one slip up, and that slip up couldn’t be in this game because of the more difficult tests we have still to come. I’m still angry that they came so close to fucking it up, but at the same time I’m proud of them for still finding a way to win. It’s not the defensive lapse that I’m pissed off about, as that’s always a possibility no matter how good you are. Mistakes can happen and it only takes one freak moment for even the worst teams to score. The goal we conceded should have been irrelevant because this was such an easy game there’s no excuse for not being well out of sight by that point anyway. I don’t mean it was easy because they’re second from bottom. Often those games are difficult because of how those sides set up. Swansea away last season springs to mind as a good example, and I could see Cardiff making things very hard for us when we go there. This was easy though because Fulham didn’t make it difficult for us at all. They let us play, largely uncontested. Maybe that was the problem? It was too easy. After about half an hour or so and it was almost like a pre-season friendly at times. A glorified training session even. Off the ball our work rate was still exemplary so I’m not accusing the lads of slacking off, but they definitely need to be more clinical as when you let shit teams hang around bad things can happen. Still, we’ve had three big games this week and won them all, so perhaps I shouldn’t be nit-picking. It’s another win that edges us closer to where we want to be. Seven more of those and who knows? It’s not in our hands but winning all seven has to be the goal and then whatever happens happens. The international break hasn’t come at a great time (they rarely do) but at least we’ve got two weeks at the top of the table before we play Spurs. Despite their recent collapse that’s the toughest game we have left as they’re always close games between us and Spurs are very dangerous. We’ve been great at Anfield though so hopefully that continues. Star man is Sadio. He scored one, won the penalty, hit the bar and put one on a plate for Mo. We’d be lost without him at the moment. Hopefully he can keep this going a while longer until Mo remembers where the goal is again. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dikj, Robertson; Fabinho, Lallana (Milner), Wijnaldum; Salah (Sturridge), Firmino (Origi), Mané:

Saturday Mar 9: We all knew City would beat Watford, but it still grates when it’s 0-0 at half time, looking like a bit of a struggle for them and then out of nothing they’re handed the lead courtesy of what - and I’m being deadly serious here - might just be the worst decision I’ve ever seen. We all know the offside rule is completely fucked these days, but I thought it couldn’t be interpreted in a worse way than what we with the Kane penalty incident at Anfield last season. I was wrong. This was a million times worse. It’s easy to say the rule itself is the problem because it causes confusion, but that’s a cop out. The rule might be shit, but interpreting it in the way that Paul Tierney cunt did today genuinely boggles the mind. It’s almost as though he was looking for a reason to give the goal. I mean, why is he even going over to speak to the linesman at all? It’s offside, the flag goes up, just get on with the game. Yet he’s running over there giving it the ol’ “let’s not be hasty here, let’s discuss this”. Really can’t get my head around it at all. The cunts who are making these stupid rules are ruining our game. I said it last week about VAR and handball, but the offside rule is now arguably the biggest problem in football. But even with the shitty changes they’ve made it to it, there’s still no way on earth Tierney was within his rights to award that goal. I’m off to google “Der Spiegel Paul Tierney” to see if the cunt is mentioned is any of those hacked emails. Sunday Mar 10: L 4 Burnley 2 Alls well that ends well, but fucking hell this has been an abysmal weekend for Premier League officiating. Nothing will ever top what Tierney did at the Etihad, but Andre Marriner gave it his best shot by allowing that Burnley goal and then booking Alisson for being unhappy about it. He saw that foul and ignored it. It’s hard to wonder just how that can happen, as Marriner is one of the best refs we have. Ok, that carries as much significance as being the Japan’s slimmest Sumo, but it’s still a valid point. I’d expect a Sunday league ref to get that decision right, so how can Marriner miss it? He was screwing us over all day though, the prick. Thankfully the lads were able to overcome it and get the win. The front three looked like themselves again and Lallana’s inclusion genuinely helped the team, particularly with the balance he brought to midfield. I don’t think he’ll ever be the player he was when Klopp first arrived because his body won’t let him do that for any sustained period of time, but it’s good to see he’s still got it in him to produce performances like this when he is fit. Lallana was one of my favourite players, his ability on the ball and the technique and balance he’s got are a joy to watch, and he’s a grafter too. He’ll run himself into the ground and that’s why Klopp won’t give up on him as quickly as the likes of me. I don’t know how long he can stay fit, but as long as he is fit I’d be looking to start him in every home game and also some of those aways we have, because having someone that can run beyond the forwards and create space fort them makes us so much dangerous. And he’s the best presser we have too, as we saw with the second goal. Fucking boss that was. The other take away I have from this is that Mané has sneakily had himself a really impressive season. Take penalties out of the equation and he’s scored more than Salah this year. In fact, take penalties out of the equation and no-one in the top flight has scored more than Sadio. He’s not getting the credit he deserves because he’s still regarded as the ‘third man’ in our front three because he can be a bit streaky with his form. He’s been more consistent this season than he was last year though, which is not something Bobby and Mo can say about themselves. Massive win this though, as playing the day after City is just shit, I hate it. Much better to be playing first and applying pressure than playing second and having to respond to it. Next week we have the chance to go top again, but looking at all the remaining fixtures I think the key to this will be if we can be ahead of them when they go to Old Trafford, as that's their game in hand and really we need them to go there knowing they have to win. Meanwhile, crazy scenes in the Brummy derby where Jack Grealish was lamped by a fan and then took his revenge by scoring the winner and diving into the away end to celebrate. Good for him, this is one of the best stories of the year as he completely stuck it to the twat who attacked him, as well as the shithouse steward who kicked him (who was immediately arrested) and the thousands of Birmingham fans who cheered the moron off the field. Well done Jack Grealish. Now, can we talk about the haircut and those socks? Monday Mar 11: Zidane is back at Madrid. Yeah we’ll see how this bald fraud does now with no Ronaldo scoring 50 odd goals a season to make him look good, and fucking refs fixing CL games for them. Fuck Zidane, he’s as over-rated as a manager as he was as a player, and that takes some doing. Yeah I said it, and I stand by it, OVER-RATED. If you don’t like it, tough shit. B-A-L-D-F-R-A-U-D. Not sure why they’ve even gone down that road when Big Sam Allardyce is still available. He was doing his regular self promotional slot on Keys and Gray this weekend and it couldn’t have been any more Brexit if he tried. “We convince ourselves about the fact these foreign coaches are better” Not entirely sure what he means there, as he says its a fact that they are better but, and this is just a wild hunch, I don’t think that’s what he actually believes. That’s three of the worst people connected to football in the one studio right there. Imagine how much of a colossal twat you’d have to be to make Andy Grey seem alright. That’s Keys and Allardyce though. Instead of licking Big Sam’s Big Balls, Keys could have just asked him outright; “Do you think you could achieve the same kind of results and play the same standard of football that Guardiola, Klopp and Pochettino are getting at their clubs?” I’d love to have seen him answer that. Maybe he’d have dusted off his “Allardicio” quote. He’s not entirely wrong in his overall point though, as there have been loads of foreign managers given jobs they were just never qualified for, and in some of those cases British coaches would have done a better job. That would be fair comment (just look at some of the bums Swansea have had, for example), but suggesting that the top clubs are overlooking British managers for inferior foreign coaches is laughable. Who’s the best homegrown manager in the league now? The LMA will probably tell you it’s Sean Dyche or Eddie Howe. Imagine either of those at a top six club. Dyche would make Moyes look like Bob Paisley. It wasn’t just foreign coaches he was complaining about either, it was the overall standard of the games themselves. “Too much passing in midfield”, apparently. No, I’m not even taking the piss. He’s a waddling caricature of himself these days. This was great too; "All the other games this weekend games have been just a little bit too slow in the build-up and a little bit low in terms of shots on target and chances created." His last stint in the league was at Everton, who under him finished dead last in terms of shots on target and chances created. Don’t expect his boy Keysey to mention that though. Meanwhile, the Peaky Blinder wannabe got 14 weeks in jail. Is that all? I saw people condoning that sentence by saying this is the same punishment you’d get for doing it on the street. It’s not on the street though is it, it’s completely fucking different. Attacking someone on the street is still a horrible act, but a person who does that expects to probably not get caught. It’s a scumbag thing to do but it’s a calculated risk and often done in the heart of the moment, and even more often a result of ale. It takes a special brand of dangerous fucking head case to run onto a football field, in a televised game no less, with coppers everywhere, and attack a player from behind. You KNOW if you do that you’re going to jail, so the guy clearly wasn’t put off by the prospect. And you've got to be a nutter to think like that. This wasn’t a heat of the moment loss of control. You actually have to think about running onto a pitch and even plan your moment. So it’s a calculated act. Then when you’re on the field you’ve still got time to decide what to do. That tit on Sunday knew what would happen to him but obviously feels that a couple of months inside is a small price to pay to punch the most hated player from their biggest rivals. Maybe if he thought he was going down for five years he wouldn’t have done it? This isn’t a deterrent at all and it’s probably less than he expected. The talk now is all about how we can stop this kind of thing. You’ve got some knobs talking about perspex screens and fences, while ex pro David Cottrell wants police to be given guns so they can shoot anyone who runs on the field. I don’t even know where to start with that, other than to suggest that maybe he’d be more at home in America, as part of the gun lobbying ‘the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun’ lunatic fringe. Seriously, nobody ever ask this fella his opinion on anything, ever again. There are also suggestions today that clubs should be punished. Why? It’s hardly the club’s fault if some paying punter decides to jump a barrier and run onto the field. You can’t legislate for it and if someone really wants to run on the pitch then they will be able to. There is some merit to the notion that a fan might be less inclined to do it if he thinks it will cost his team points, and the one thing it would stop is the hero worship these pricks get from their peers, but it’s still massively unfair on the club. To me, they should just slap a mandatory prison sentence on anyone who runs on the field and touches a player. Make the punishment severe enough and they won’t do it. Tuesday Mar 12: The kids are out of their version of the CL after a penalty shoot out loss to Dynamo Belgrade. I watched the first half of this but then had to go out. The first half really wasn’t good but they went ahead after the break when Gatzel set up Duncan. They couldn’t hold on though unfortunately. Curtis Jones and Adam Lewis played, but there was no Ki-Jana Hoever for some reason. Maybe he’s injured, but if not then he should have played as he’s the best u19 player at the club. In the big boys CL, City went through to the quarters after a 7-0 win over Schalke. Are you watching this, UEFA? Not good for your competition is it? That said, Schalke are 36 points behind Bayern so their English equivalent right now would be…. *checks table* …Everton or Bournemouth. In the other tie, Juventus overcame a 2-0 first leg deficit to knock out Atletico. That’s some seriously good going that, as if there’s one team in Europe you’d back to hold onto a 2-0 lead it’s Simeone’s men. Ronaldo did the damage and you’ve got to hand it to the fella, he’s an incredible goalscorer. I saw a stat today that since turning 30 he’s scored nearly 90 goals in the CL alone. That’s staggering. If we go through I’d like to avoid Juventus but it’s nothing to do with Ronaldo, it’s just for the obvious reasons. Hopefully City will get them or Barca, but they’re nailed on to get Porto or Spurs though, aren’t they? Jammy twats. I don’t think any team has had easier cup draws than them fuckers this year. Meanwhile, the Besiktas coach lays into Karius and basically says his attitude stinks and that he doesn’t seem to be motivated. He made a bad mistake in a game at the weekend and was booed by the fans, and reportedly asked to be subbed at half time. The coach says he would have took him off if their usual back up had been fit. He’s broken isn’t he? Probably beyond repair. Saw something on Twitter today from a Red reminiscing about when a fan ran on and thumped Kevin Bond at Anfield, two weeks after Walshy had knocked him out at the Dell. I remember that well, it was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen at the time and I still laugh about it now, which I realised today makes me a fucking gargantuan hypocrite based on how I feel about the Grealish incident. I guess all I can say is it was the 80s and things were different then. Plus Kevin Bond deserved it. Wednesday Mar 13: Bayern 1 L 3. What a fucking big boy performance that was, especially second half. We've had some great nights in Europe under Klopp and some brilliant performances, but it's usually all blood and thunder, crazy rollercoaster rides. The Dortmund tie for example, or more recently the City quarter final, which ended well but for a spell it was really in the balance and we had that bit of luck with the disallowed goal that should have stood. Then we're 5-0 up against Roma and ended up hanging on by our fingernails after the away leg. This was different. Even when we conceded there still seemed to be a calmness and resolve about the players. They gave the ball away far too much in the first half, but they never looked in any danger at the back. And once we got that second goal Bayern just knew they were beaten because they barely laid a glove on us over two legs. This team is really fucking special. Sadio's two goals were things of beauty and Virgil might already be top ten in terms of the best players we've ever had. His influence on this team is almost Souness-like in a way. A different type of leadership, but the inspiration he brings is the same. Players in the tunnel must look at him and go "we'll be sound here today". Opponents must look at him (and to a lesser extent Alisson and Fabinho) and think, "how the fuck are we going to do anything against these?" The only downside was the silly booking for Robbo that rules him out of the next game. He's one of only a handful of players we can't really replace, so we need an easy draw or it could cost us. He didn't need to make that challenge but it was never a yellow card, especially at that stage of the game when there was no advantage to be gained. The ref was good overall I thought, but that wasn't his finest moment. Update on the Karius situation. He hasn’t been paid for four months and has reported Besiktas to FIFA. Kinell, no wonder he hasn’t been motivated! That’s taking the piss that, and he’d be well within his rights to just not bother showing up for training or games. That’s presumably what they want. Can't see him seeing out that second year of the two year loan, and we're defo not getting the agreed transfer fee for him either. I bear him no ill will, but I don't need to be seeing his pretty face back at Melwood for pre-season, as he just brings back too many painful memories. Unless of course, we win the double this season in which case I genuinely won't give a fuck about anything. Thursday Mar 14: Steve Nicol is one of our greatest players. I love the guy. Brilliant footballer and a real character. As a pundit though? Fuck me, he makes Dean Saunders look like a genius. While the rest of were buzzing at the way the lads went to one of the most difficult areas in Europe and won comfortably last night, ol’ Chico was saying this on US TV: “I would love to say that Liverpool came and were just too clever and sat in a great spot. But the truth is that I don't think Bayern knew what they wanted to do. Clearly in the first leg they sat and gave nothing away. "But at home, and the reason we all thought they were favourites, you'd expect them to be pushing again, but they didn't. They didn't go forward, they just sort of sat and waited. If you look at the stats, the only reason they had more possession was because Liverpool kept giving them the ball. "That had nothing to do with what they were doing. Liverpool on the ball in this game overall, I thought they were atrocious. I thought they were as bad as I've ever seen." Atrocious??? We were a bit lax in our passing int he first half, but bloody hell that’s embarrassing. As bad as he’s EVER seen? It wasn’t even as bad as anything we’ve seen this month! The United and Everton games were much worse Friday Mar 15: Wow, that draw did NOT go as I expected. First two names out were Ajax and Juve. While I was relieved to avoid Juve, that guaranteed at least one all PL tie, and the prospect of us getting City was looming large. The next name out was us, so I’m bracing myself for the worst when I’m pretty sure I saw the letters “Port” as the guy unwrapped the bit of paper. “Wait, did we get Porto?” Then it was confirmed. Fucking hell, we got Porto. I don’t want to say too much about it as these things can return to bit you in the arse, and it’s disrespectful to Porto who just beat Roma and are therefore no mugs. Bottom line though, we should win that tie and if City had gotten that draw we’d have been fuming about how they’ve had it easy all the way through. We still have to beat them, but this was great for us. Not so great for Spurs, who have to play City. Given how shite they’ve been against them they’ve basically got no chance. The bigger issue here is that the league meeting between them comes just after the second leg. Spurs will probably be completely demoralised by that point and will roll over. If we beat Porto we get either United or Barca in the semis. United is the easier game (despite our irritating habit of freezing at Old Trafford in league games) but I’ve wanted to play Barca for a couple of years now and that would be fucking ace, a proper European night. I”m getting ahead of myself a little here, but I can’t help but worry about a final that would likely either be against City or Juve. Not sure which would be worse, but worry about that if and when it happens I guess. Meanwhile, over on EFC Twitter…. I wish I could post the replies, but they've gone now unfortunately. What a sad bunch of fucking losers. Seriously, it’s utterly bizarre behaviour. We’ve had blue training gear, several of our lads have ran out in blue boots (Virg, Robbo, Bobby to name three) and nobody, NOBODY gives a shit. These wankers catch a mere glimpse of anything even resembling red on their players and the pitch forks come out. The ECHO ran a story on it (there is literally nothing they won’t run a story about these days) and this was the headline - Jordan Pickford deletes Xbox controller tweet following Everton fan 'backlash' - The goalkeeper faced a number of tongue-in-cheek responses after tweeting out the picture. Ok, couple of points. Backlash being in inverted commas, suggesting it wasn’t really a backlash. It was and it’s not the first time. And tongue-in-cheek responses? No, Evertonians don’t do tongue-in-cheek, not when they’ve seen Red. Just ask Koeman, who went from saviour to sacked within a few months of having a red Crimbo tree. I’ll tell you who’s to blame for all this though - Michael Ball, the soft bitter cunt. Ever since he sent back his Predators because they had a tiny bit of Red on the stripes this has become normal behaviour to them, like a test of their true blueness, the fucking weirdos. Staying with Pickford for a sec though. I wrote in this week’s Round Up that I think there’s defo something wrong with him mentally, and it seems Marco Silva agrees, as today he said Everton are working on a daily basis to “keep growing his emotional balance”. Not a surprise to anyone who saw how he behaved at Newcastle last week, the lad’s just not quite right. and that was the week that was....