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Showing content with the highest reputation on 29/04/19 in all areas

  1. When you haven't posted regularly for a long time it's really difficult to get back into the swing of it, I don't think I'll ever post regularly again, but I'll always be around. I have never provided quality opinion on anything however.
    7 points
  2. The fucking tension built up prior to the fight... holy shit. Then the fucking Dothraki were just snuffed out in seconds. Outrageous. Such good stuff and it takes its place in the overall story being told. Some incredible scenes and moments that will take a second and third watch to unpack.
    5 points
  3. I enjoyed the episode, but I want Bran to die, the annoying weirdo.
    4 points
  4. That reminds me of the end of titanic where the boat has sunk and everybody is in the sea dying. This is a more harrowing picture though.
    4 points
  5. Top bloke, gave me his ST for a year. Then when I couldn’t go to the games anymore due to Carly’s health he wouldn’t accept a penny for all the games I had been to.
    4 points
  6. I’ve read the books and disagree. I’ve got no issue with that, but calling it fucking shite says to me that you’ve either lost objectivity or your expectations have been a touch high. This episode was just a part of an overall story. It happens with everything. It was ‘they ruined the Sopranos with that shit ending’ it was ‘TNG isn’t Star Trek’ and so on and so forth. Id genuinely ask what people want from a TV show if that was classed as absolute shite. I get that there might have been some things that people would have preferred not to happen or something, but fucking shite? To each his own, but my own is miles from that.
    4 points
  7. 3 headers, Tony Hately in a uefa cup game, forget who it was against, Köln? In the fog. Visability so bad kop had to ask the Annie Road „who scored“
    4 points
  8. My youngest son is 12 and has ASD, he goes to a small country primary school with 3 others in his class, he’s not very popular because of his obsessive nature and also because he doesn’t like football or the other things that they like. He’s fixated with certain games (a Mario fanatic) and has become the biggest Avengers fan - we’ve been to the cinema to see all the movies since Civil War and he’s watched all the others countless times on DVD. He has been totally obsessed with seeing End Game since Infinity War, we bought him Thanos Gauntlet for Halloween and he even made me a Captain America Shield out of Cardboard to “wear” when we saw it. I booked tickets for the premiere showing of End Game in Galway, it sold out 6 screens in advance. We arrived at the cinema and he immediately saw others with Thors hammer, gauntlets, shields, helmets, t-shirts, kids spoke to him, admired his stuff and he reciprocated. He clapped along when the whole cinema applauded (when Captain America was able to wield Mjolnir), cheered (along with the whole cinema) when everyone came back before the battle and waited and booed (with the whole cinema) when the final credits rolled and there was no post-credit scene. I remember his face when he realised that there were loads of others like him and thanked the stars for the Marvel movies.
    4 points
  9. To my shame I wasn’t looking forward to this. Not because I thought we might drop points (I knew we’d win easily), but because City’s wins over Spurs and United had taken the wind out of my title sails. You know what though, fuck all that. I’m not going to allow Ben Johnson FC to ruin the enjoyment these lads are giving us. Kloppo’s team have already got more points than any LFC side in history. If they come up short of a title because they’re up against financial dopers breaking every rule in the book, it doesn’t in any way take away from what they’ve done. I should have been going to Anfield with a spring in my step, but I wasn’t. I left with one though, and I won’t allow myself to be such a big fucking baby again. It’s a pleasure watching this team and should be treated as such, title or no title. I loved this performance, it was great, even if it was one of those ‘third gear will do’ type of games. I know Huddersfield are crap, but so are plenty of other sides that have come to Anfield over the last 30 years and gone home with a result. It doesn’t happen anymore though, does it? I couldn’t even remember the last home game we lost and have had to google it just now. It was the season before last when Benteke got the winner for Palace. In other words, fucking ages ago. If we avoid defeat to Wolves on the final day that’s two entire league seasons without losing at home. Add that to all the other amazing things these lads are doing. With Barcelona on the horizon Klopp might have been tempted to rest a few, but of the regular starters only Matip and Firmino missed out. Matip was rotated with Lovren as has been the case a few times of late, while Bobby was apparently nursing a slight injury. Hopefully that’s all it is. Surprisingly, his place went to Sturridge. All I can think of there is that he must have looked better in training than Origi, because I honestly thought we’d seen the last of him starting games. I’d have liked to have seen Shaqiri given the start personally, but in truth Huddersfield are so bad we could have played Mignolet up front and still won. 15 seconds was all it took for us to take the lead. At the time I didn’t realise just how good a goal it was though. From my seat it looked like the lad just inexplicably passed it straight to Mo. It wasn’t until I got home and saw it on TV I realised what had happened. It’s just brilliant from Naby, and I think it may have been planned. Ok, you still need luck, but it’s looks like the boys knew what Huddersfield were going to do from the kick off, and they laid a trap for them. They initially left the midfielder Stankovic in space to encourage the keeper to pass to him, but even before the pass was played Keita had already set off to press him. By the time the ball arrived and Stankovic controlled it, Naby was on him and made the challenge. The ball broke kindly to Mo who unselfishly gave it back to Keita and just like it’s 1-0. Great stuff. Keita has three goals in his last five starts, but more importantly he’s looking the part now. He was class in this game. Confident and efficient with the ball, and he was probably even better without it. He’s getting better with every game now. We were shite for about ten minutes after we scored though. Huddersfield had loads of the ball in our half and had a couple of half chances. We couldn’t really get out and it was all very sloppy. Thankfully we didn’t concede in that spell and then began to play our football again. Mané made it 2-0 with a terrific header from a glorious Robbo cross. Credit to Big Virg too for starting that whole move off. Great from him. Goal number three came just before the half and once again it was an assist from the full back position. This time it was an inch perfect ball from Trent to pick out the run of Salah. The pass was just so good because the keeper had to come for it but he couldn’t get there. All Mo had to do was lob the bouncing ball over the keeper’s head and into the net. Goal difference is almost certainly not going to be a factor in the title race, but at half time I was thinking that if we could bang in a few more in the second half and cancel out City’s advantage, it would potentially allow us a draw if City were to lose one of their games. There’s probably a one in a thousand chance it comes down that, but if we’d really gone for it and taken our chances this could easily have been 8-0. That said, with Barca coming up it was probably wise not to go mad. Nobody told Robbo though. Bloody hell, he never stopped running. Mo was the same, he was flying about the place causing havoc. It’s that Golden Boot time of year and he can smell it. He ran Huddersfield ragged and could easily have had a second half hat-trick with a bit more luck. Same for Sadio though. He scored another great header, this time from a pinpoint Hendo cross. If Mané hadn’t got there Robbo was right behind him. That’s happened a few times this season. His chance will come eventually, surely? Imagine a Robbo goal at the Kop end against Barca. Mo almost blew the roof off with a 30 yard half volley after lobbing the ball over a defender’s head. It looked in for a split second from where I was, but it had hit the side netting. Reminded me of Suarez that did. The game was meandering along and the intensity had gone from both players and crowd. I blame Van Dijk for that though. He went down after winning a header and there was a collective “oh fuck” and then just a terrified hush. I expect there were some people praying too. When he eventually rose to his feet and gave a thumbs up to the bench, the cheer was as though we’d scored. Don’t ever frighten us like that again Virg. That scare seemed to have an effect on everybody. As great as this team looks, an injury to Virgil at this stage of the season would be devastating. He didn’t look quite right to me after that, but it could be my fear playing tricks on me. I felt as though the performance went a bit flat after that though and so did the atmosphere. Then, Klopp sent on Ox and Shaq and everything changed. I can’t even describe how happy I was to see Ox back on the pitch. Just made up for him. It’s been a long road back for him but he’s such a top lad and everyone at the club seems to love him. What happened to him last year was cruel as fuck, and one of the abiding memories I have of Kiev (along with Mo going off and Karius doing what he did) was Ox crying on the field at the end as he made his way around on crutches. It sounds daft saying this when we’ve had such an incredible season without him, but we have genuinely missed him. You could see within a couple of minutes of him coming on just what he brings. That run beyond the frontmen into the box that causes defenders to panic, it’s the one thing we don’t get much of from the midfielders we’ve relied on this season. Ox provides something a bit different to them all, and who knows what difference it might have made if he’d been available to start or to bring on in those draws we had a couple of months back. Maybe he’ll still be able to make a vital contribution somewhere along the line in our remaining games. He got the kind of ovation you’d expect, but weirdly, it sounded to me as though Shaq’s cheer was even louder. I may be wrong on that, but that’s how it sounded at the time at it took me aback. I know he’s hardly had a sniff since the turn of the year but I wasn’t expecting that kind of noise for him coming on. The pair of them being introduced lifted everybody. The players responded immediately and the crowd were suddenly buzzing again. Ox nearly scored straight away. What a moment that would have been. Great run into the box, lovely ball by Mo, just a shame the finish wasn’t what he would have wanted. He looked great though didn’t he? Sharp as fuck. So did Shaq. I don’t know what he’s done to deserve the cold shoulder he’s been given, but it was good seeing him back out there as we all love Shaq, don’t we? He’s one of those players that fans naturally gravitate towards. He looked keen to impress and produced a peach of a cross with his right foot that Sadio thumped against the post with his head. That would have been a hat-trick of headers, which I don’t think has been done before by a Liverpool player. Sadio is so good in the air these days though. He’s got a great knack of finding space between defenders, and he can jump right out of the fucking stadium. Ridiculous how high he can get. We were just slicing through Huddersfield at will in those last twenty minutes and the only surprise is that we only added more goal. Again, it was class. Shaq waiting until the perfect moment to split the defence and pick out Robbo’s overlap, and then Robbo delivered a great ball on the run to give Mo a tap in. Mo could have added another with a shot that fizzed just over following a dazzling run past two defenders, while both he and Sadio wasted good opportunities to play the other one in and instead went for goal themselves. I hope the Golden Boot isn’t an issue here, but it does look like neither of them want to pass to the other when there’s a chance to go for goal themselves. Tell you one thing that deserves a mention before I forget. The Huddersfield keeper’s reaction to the Kop applauding him was great. So many keepers either just give a token clap or ignore it altogether, but this lad really appreciated it and made sure the Kop knew it. It’s not like he’s English either, so like other overseas keepers he would have had an excuse for not necessarily being aware of the tradition. Good for him though. Also, that Bacuna is a good player. He’s caught my eye a few times on MOTD but this was the first chance I’d had to watch him live, and I thought he played well. Got a bit of needle about him too, which I like. Even at 5-0 down he was still fired up and playing hard. In the closing stages the Kop belted out “Liverpool Liverpool top of the league” but it kind of felt a little, I dunno, not exactly half hearted, but certainly lacking in a little of the gusto of a few weeks ago. At the final whistle the players (mostly Lovren) and Klopp were geeing up the Kop, and the crowd responded. I don’t think it was a ‘we’re gonna win the title’ type roar though, more a defiant ‘we’re proud of you regardless of what happens’ type of thing. Klopp did his now customary three first pumps, but only after teasing the Kop that he wasn’t going to do it because the cameraman was right on him. Proper showman isn’t he? It’s hard to maintain any belief that we’re going to get what we deserve from this season when City just keep relentlessly winning and most opponents are too scared to even lay a glove on them. Spurs are the only side in months that has even had a go at them. It’s horrible watching their games and helplessly seeing the title slowly slipping away, but there’s fuck all we can do about it. Let’s just win our last two games, not just in case City somehow slip up, but for our own sense of pride. If it’s not enough, then so be it, but let’s keep winning and show everyone that we’re not going away. Finishing on 97 points would be incredible. So what if all the sad jealous cunts around the rest of the country take the piss and sing “you nearly won the league”. I don’t give a fuck. Let them sing what they like, the fucking losers. None of them have ever reached 97 points, so let’s win those two games and reach that target. United fans are now cheering when they hear Man City are winning. This is what we’ve reduced them to. That’s because of us. We’ve got them so fucking terrified that they’re actually cheering Man City results. They’re pathetic and we’ve made them that way. No-one else. Us. So if you know any mancs and they try to wind you up, point that out to them. We’re miles ahead of everyone else and if City had played by the same rules as everybody else the title would have been ours about a month ago. We’re 21 points ahead of third place. Think about that for a second. 21 points!!! It’s mad. This team is fucking phenomenal. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. This is the best Liverpool team I’ve ever seen, which essentially amounts to them being the best we’ve ever had. Some will argue they need a league title before they deserve that honour. I disagree. If we end on 97 points, that would have been enough to win the title in ANY season before last year. It’s just our luck that we might do it in one of only two seasons in the 131 years of English football when it isn’t enough. We’ll see though. At least our entire season isn’t riding on what Man City do in their next two games. We’ve still got a Champions League semi against Barcelona to look forward to. I can’t wait for that. Can’t. Fucking. Wait. Star man is Robbo, with honourable mentions to Keita, Salah and Mané. They were all good though, except Sturridge, who was - predictably and understandably - off the pace and ineffective. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Gomez), Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Henderson, Keita; Salah, Sturridge (Shaqiri), Mané:
    3 points
  10. Thought it was fantastic television. The kind of episode I feel I've been waiting for since Blackwater. Tension ludicrously high. Arya in the library was like a resident evil game and her chase scenes exhilarating. The dragon bits were well done with the aerial fighting. Didn't see the ending coming and thought Arya was fucked. For the first time in 8 series I'm looking forward to brann talking next week to see what he knew/knows.
    3 points
  11. Fuck losing Milner this summer. Pick his games accordingly until he asks to go or age stops him performing.
    3 points
  12. I assume you're talking about goals, assists & creation. I'd say our CM is as good as any midfield in Europe without the ball. A fully settled Keita & a fully fit Ox will definitely help with this, as will playing Henderson as an 8 over Gini (who looks best as a 6 IMO). But we should also note that there's a massive difference between our full backs & City's. Our midfield allow our full backs to get forward more as they will cover when that happens. City might has a more productive CM, but we've more productive full backs. I did like the last 20 minutes on the weekend of Keita & Ox as the 8s. Looked lively, threatening & full of energy.
    3 points
  13. The general community feel is still very good, in my opinion. Yes, there is bickering and occasional name-calling, but the good outweighs the bad. People show genuine concern for others, help and advice is asked for and offered, we have collections for those in need and TSOP seems boss. Opinions are subjective. The quality of debate can still, at times, be decent. There’s always going to be plenty of repetition, though. People have their views and beliefs and as such are often unwilling to concede ground, meaning discussion goes round in circles. People come and go. Unfortunately, a number of very good posters have either left altogether or contribute less frequently than they used to. There will be various reasons but I think it’s worth noting the popularity of Twitter, which is now far busier than internet message boards and forums.
    3 points
  14. What the manager and players have done in terms of getting points has been remarkable. Picking out certain results is very harsh, imo. You can't win every single game. We'd all have snapped hands in August for 91 points after 36 games.
    3 points
  15. Wasn’t anything to do with Liverpool. The football writers always pontificate over their award while adding a big spoonful of pomposity in citing matters of character and morality as significant. The players just tend to go for whoever’s been the best player in the country, understanding the clue’s in the title. Sterling’s been given shoddy treatment by the media the past few years and this lot were always going to give him it to show just how bloody progressive they are. I should say by the way, he’s a superb footballer, has worked on his main weakness and had a brilliant season. I just don’t think he’s been anywhere near as good a player as Van Dijk and that the deciding factors in them going for him were predictably politics and Tony’s favourite n word.
    3 points
  16. Fucking hell. Just incredible.
    3 points
  17. Excellent. As highly as I rate Breaking Bad and Mad Men, I think The Shield is on that 1a, 1b 1c level with The Wire and The Sopranos. If anyone is watching it for the first time, the pilot is great but with the exception of Dragonchasers(episode 10) season 1 is only decent, like a 6/10. In Season 2, they really begin to smoke and when Forrest Whittaker turns up in season 5 you are in for some of the most amazing and thrilling TV known to man. It's also highly addictive. It's completely normal to sit down with the idea of watching one episode at 9pm, then watching the next 2 seasons and fucking work off. I can attest to this.
    3 points
  18. I don’t think they had much choice but to finish the Night king storyline in this episode really. The battle for the iron throne is the real story here and they needed at least two episodes to wrap that up. They could have wrapped up the iron throne first and then had this battle as the last episode but I think it makes more sense the way they’ve done it. Besides which the White walkers are only one strand of the story. The Night King didn’t even appear until season four, and even then only briefly. As has been mentioned, in the books he’s not even a character yet. This episode had so many great moments that any minor gripes I have over plot points falls to the wayside. The Dothraki lights being snuffed out was chilling and one of the tensest moments of TV I’ve witnessed (and I agree it made sense they’d charge in, they are all headcases and had just had their spirits lifted by their swords beings set alight), Lyanna Mormont slaying the Giant wight, Daenerys saying ‘Dracarys’ and lighting the Night King up, the scenes with Arya in the library and in the Godswood at the end. It was sensational TV.
    2 points
  19. This is what we get when we compare the end of last season to the standings at the moment. 17/18 season: 1. Man City 38 32 4 2 106-27 100p 2. Man Utd 38 25 6 7 68-28 81p 3, Tottenham 38 23 8 7 74-36 77p 4. Liverpool 38 21 12 5 84-38 75p 5. Chelsea 38 21 7 10 62-38 70p 6. Arsenal 38 19 6 13 74-51 63p 18/19 season: 1. Man City 36 30 2 4 90-22 92p (-8p) 2. Liverpool 36 28 7 1 84-20 91p (+16p) 3. Tottenham 36 23 1 12 65-36 70p (-7p) 4. Chelsea 36 20 8 8 60-39 68p (-2p) 5. Arsenal 36 20 6 10 69-49 66p (+3p) 6 Man Utd 36 19 8 9 64-51 65p (-16p) Basicially we have made a massive improvement compared to last season while the mancs have had a huge drop in points gained. Arsenal have improved already and can do even better, and Chelsea only need one win to get more points than last season. We have also scored the same amount of goals as last season already, but have condeded 18 less. Even if we dont win the league this season we have improved more than anyone could realisticly dream of in August. I think we will win the CL and if we get 97 points it will feel like a morale win in the league as well. Happy days.
    2 points
  20. I thought it was absolutely immense, they'll struggle to top that. I watched it in a fairly dark room with my tablets screen very bright so it was ok. i can see the next episode mostly being a build up to another big battle in Episode 5, with Episode 6 to tie things off. Understand some people's disappointment reg. the white walkers ending but it's always been about a struggle for the Iron Throne and now it moves onto that closure. Expecting a few more surprises yet. Just immense TV really.
    2 points
  21. Is it worth pointing out that it isn't the climax of an 8 series journey? That it's just one early part that should be looked at as a whole, just as other battles were.
    2 points
  22. Saturday Apr 20: Fuck off City. A spawny undeserved 1-0 win over Spurs today puts them one step closer to the title and means we’re relying on United even more than ever. And United are shit, so God help us. Meanwhile, the six nominees are announced for POTY. Virg and Sadio are on the list, along with Sterling (fair enough), Aguero (hmmm, maybe), Hazard (yep) and Bernardo Silva. Not having that. He’s had a good season but Andy Robbo, Salah or Son Heung Min are more deserving than that snide little fuck. What pissed me off even more though is that Bernardo is also up for the Young Player award. He’ll be 25 in a few months!!! How the fuck is he considered a young player? This award is an absolute fucking joke. I’m surprised Harry Kane isn’t up for it again. Sterling is though, and he’s 24 too and has been playing top flight football for *checks wiki* SEVEN FULL SEASONS!!! Somewhere along the line they’ve lost track of what this award is actually supposed to be about. When James Maddison, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ben Chilwell are not on a shortlist of six for young player of the year, it makes a mockery of the whole thing. You have to wonder whether they’d have even nominated Joe Gomez had he stayed fit. I’m guessing not. The writers will get that one right, but they’re also nailed on to give Sterling the main award and it won’t be just because of football reasons (although in fairness he has probably been better than everyone else other than Virgil). Their colleagues on the front pages have given him so much unwarranted shit that some of the back page lads will be wanting to make it up to him. Virg has no chance of that one unless we pip City to the title. Meanwhile, the Brazilian press reckon we’re interested in a 23 year old striker from Gremio, who goes by the name of.. wait for it… Everton. I’m all in on this one, imagine the fume from the Blues when the Kop are all chanting “Ev-er-ton”. Even better, imagine how funny it will be when they are singing it themselves in a derby, especially if he scored. Edwards, make it happen. A report claims that ‘liverpool’ is the most commonly used football related password. Not surprised, we’ve got more fans than virtually everyone, and when you throw in all the Everton, City and United fans who’s passwords are ‘fuckliverpool’ or ‘liverpoolscum’ etc then it makes sense. Funny story. My cousin once had an account on ‘Love at Lycos’ back in the day. Don’t get me wrong, he had no trouble attracting female attention on night’s out (he was usually having to beat them off with a stick) and this account was just for a bit of a laugh more than anything. He didn’t have a computer at the time so used to use the one in my mum’s. He went on holiday for a couple of weeks and while he was away I thought I’d do a little bit of tampering with his account. I had to get into it first though. What would his password be? First attempt, ‘liverpool’. I’m in. Unbelievable. First stop was his profile. Changed from straight to bi. Next stop, changing the picture. I went to mingers.com and found an incredible photo that looked like a lab experiment of him gone wrong. Seriously, you know that Halloween episode of the Simpsons when Bart has an ugly twin who they keep in the attic? This was like that. So I changed the photo, and then went cruising around different pages, because whenever someone visited your page you could see it. I visited loads of pages, left a couple of messages here and there and then logged out. Two weeks later, he comes back from his hols and he’s in my mums. I’m outside the door, listening. He logs in, and then I can hear him muttering to himself, confused and wondering how come there were loads of gay fellas messaging him. Then he sees the photo of himself and hears me pissing myself outside of the door. That’s when he realised what had happened. On reflection, it might have been the greatest day of my life that. Sunday Apr 21: Cardiff 0 L 2 Nice professional job in the end. It took longer than we would have liked to get the first goal, and I’m not gonna lie, my arse was starting to go a little at half time when we hadn’t scored, but looking back now, there was no way we weren’t going to score as we were creating chances and Cardiff were never going to be able to keep going in that heat. Gini’s goal was a belter and Milner’s pen was typically calm and clinical. Mad that there are people out there who don’t think that was a foul. Fucking dickheads. If that wasn’t a penalty, then we may as well just abolish penalties altogether. Should have been more than 2-0 really but goal difference is unlikely to come into it, so it’s all about the points. We need City to slip up somewhere, but it won’t be at Old Trafford. I said yesterday that United were shit, but it appears I was being too kind. They’re much worse than that. 4-0 at Goodison? Every single one of them involved in that shitshow should be ashamed. At least it means they’ll have to put in some effort on Wednesday, but get your money on a ‘plucky defeat’ and an ‘at least they tried’ narrative being pushed afterwards. Fucking losers. As if they’re going to take any points off City. Like I’ve been saying for weeks, if anyone is going to help us out it will be Burnley. Meanwhile, two more goals for Harry Wilson this weekend, taking his tally for the season to 16. He’s played mostly in midfield so that’s an impressive number. It’s going to be interesting to see what we do with him next season but when you look at the players we have competing for midfield spots, there’s no room for him there. Maybe he’s an option for the front three, but a loan at a Bournemouth or Newcastle would probably serve him best. I really like him though, I’d love him to nail down a place here one day. Emre Can wins the title with Juve and posts on social media “I came here to win trophies”. Cue clickbait articles about him having a dig at Liverpool. Get the fuck out of here with that shit. Congrats Big Sexy, I don't begrudge you your success but equally I've barely given you a second though all season and you've not been missed in the slightest. Transfer rumours today see us linked with Nicholas Pepe, a forward from Lille who is tearing it up in Ligue 1 this year, and Ajax playmaker Hakim Ziyech. Not seen anything of Pepe, but Ziyech is boss. Fuck it, sign them both, we’re having great success with African forwards so why not? Now that the AFCON isn’t in January there’s no reason not to, especially as we need to replace Sturridge and Lallana this summer. Monday Apr 22: I commented last week on how chesty the Blues had been after beating Arsenal and how funny it was when they lost at Fulham. After them battering United yesterday there’s no living with them now. I saw a tweet from one of them saying only Virg and Sadio would get in their team, and maybe Alisson could provide competition for ol’ Barney the Dinosaur in goal. Utterly fucking mental they are. Not all of them are as bad as this loon, but there’ll be loads thinking that in a combined Merseyside XI they’d have five or six in there. Truth is, their best player by a mile is Digne and even he wouldn’t get in our side. Digne is the second best left back in the league, but Robbo is number one. There isn’t one other Blue I’d even want on our bench, other than Richarlison who might be decent cover for the front three if he wasn’t such a twat with an incredibly punchable face. The Blues might say I’m being just as biased as that deluded fool I’m ripping into, but the players I’m valuing so highly are 39 points better off than his. Can’t wait until they lose to Huddersfield or someone next week. *checks fixtures* Ok, they’ve got Palace, who are rancid at home. Still, defo a Palace win, mark it down now. Tuesday Apr 23: Virgil is asked whether Man United can do us a favour, and replies “they need to do themselves a favour”. Ooof! He’s right like, and at least he’s not antagonising the mancs in the way Flat Track Pep is. He said today that Old Trafford isn’t a scary place to go anymore. He’s not wrong, but why say it the day before you go there? Especially when a lot of the home fans weren’t exactly fired up for the game. If they have anything about them, they’ll be pissed at Guardiola’s arrogance and want their team to win now. Solskjaer rattled City’s cage too by (rightly) pointing out the amount of tactical fouls City commit when they lose the ball. It’s about time someone pointed this out, as it does my head in. As soon as City lose possession and the opposition look to counter, some cunt commits a foul. Not a serious foul worthy of a yellow card, just a foul that stops the counter attack. Guardiola denied it and says he never tells his players to do that. He might be right, but that Amazon behind the scenes documentary showed the ‘Playmobil Man’ Mikel Arteta telling players to do exactly that. Anyway, the upshot of this is that manc beef has to be good for us. Anything that might make United’s fans get behind their team more, or make United’s players try harder, has to be a good thing, right? Wednesday Apr 24: Ok, so it didn’t really matter in the end. I don’t know if United players tried their best or not but if this was their best then fuck me, they’ll be lucky to finish top half next season. Cowardly, negative, playing to not get hammered football. Rashford up front on his own and Lingard playing behind. I’m not even sure Mourinho would have been that negative. De Gea can fuck off too, the bum. It’s utterly demoralising having to just sit here and watch City reel off win after win. I didn’t hold out any real hope for United tonight, but I can’t pretend there wasn’t a part of me thinking that it might be tough for City because it’s a derby game and United do have some players who could hurt them. As it turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was just easy for them, they didn’t really have to break sweat because United are fucking garbage. Really bad. Meanwhile, Mo is in New York mingling with the stars, including The Khaleesi from Game of Thrones. The rest of the lads are back here training in the cold while he’s rubbing shoulders with the ‘mother of dragons’. If he wasn’t such a nice fella I’d be a little concerned about this as team-mates can often become resentful when one player gets this kind of attention. Don’t want him turning into another Beckham. Thursday Apr 25: Virgil is PFA Player of the Year and is one of four Reds in the team of the year. I could argue the toss about Ederson getting in over Alisson (just on aesthetics alone it should be our man) but it’s difficult to complain too much about ten of the eleven. Salah, Son and Hazard all missing out is debatable, but one thing that isn’t in question is that Paul Pogba being named in it is fucking hilarious. Presumably the voting was cast when he was at the tail end of that purple patch he had after Jose was sacked. Y’know, that one period in the season when he was actually arsed because people were blaming him for Mourinho’s failure. What a fucking fraud he is. I hope United don’t sell him. He’s the living embodiment of how shite they are now. Much in the same way that Ozil sums up modern day lightweight, flakey bastards Arsenal, Pogba is the poster boy for this 6th placed, overhyped, overpaid, over-rated United side. De Gea is right there alongside him too now, the werewolf looking error prone twat. Onto tonight now. That youth cup final was FUCKING BOSS! Those lads did themselves and the club proud. City looked a class above in the first half and scored just before half time. Annoying as fuck as the youth team play exactly like their first team and the goal was your classic City strike - passing move, byline, cutback, goal. I didn’t see how the lads could turn it around because they were being given a chasing and the midfield and forwards just couldn’t get into it. The second half was completely different though. Barry Lewtas had them on the front foot and they pushed City back, but they didn’t take their chances and it looked like they’d lose 1-0. Then with three minutes left, Bobby Duncan picked the ball up, turned and leathered one in from 30 yards. The keeper should have done better but there was loads of swerve on the ball as Bobby’s left foot is like a sledge hammer. This was fairy tale stuff because Bobby left City last summer to come home. He’d barely had a kick before that and spent most of the game marooned on the left wing to stop City’s right back getting forward. You could almost read his mind though when he picked that ball up. He was always going to turn and shoot, and it’s a sign of a big time player that this is what he can do when it matters most. He is Stevie’s cousin though so we shouldn’t be surprised by that. City were the stronger side in extra time but both sets of players were absolutely goosed and it was a war of attrition. It went to pens, and we scored all five while City missed one. The standard of pens was ridiculous, not least the winner from Glatzel which was right in the top bin. He looked petrified as he prepared himself to take it and I was sure he’d miss, but fair play to him, that was a phenomenal penalty. Great stuff from the lads, especially as this was a one off final at City’s home stadium. Why the FA decided to do it that way is anyone’s guess, but hopefully they’ll go back to the two legged format in future. I love the youth cup, me. Friday Apr 26: L 5 Huddersfield 0 Really enjoyed this. Yeah Huddersfield are terrible but it’s just great to see how we can take care of business against these crap teams now without even really having to extend ourselves too much. Some of the football was absolutely sublime and the goals were great. The goals we didn’t score would have been even greater. Mo went close to two incredible goals that would have been goal of the season contenders and that Sadio header that hit the post would have been amazing too, not least because it would have given him a hat-trick of headers. Robbo was phenomenal and bagged two more assists. He was buzzing afterwards because Ox had told him prior to the season that if he manages 10 assists then he will put up a signed Robbo shirt on his wall next to the one he has from Messi. He’s now got 11 and he’s making Ox keep his side of the bargain. Speaking of Ox though, perhaps the best thing all night was him coming back. Not gonna lie, I had a lump in my throat when he came on. Also not gonna lie, I’d have had a lump in my pants if he’d have put that chance away. Great to see him back out there and it was surprising how sharp he looked. Remember when players would be out for a while and come back rusty as hell? Seems to not be the case any more, which is almost certainly a result of how much time goes into rehabilitation these days. In years gone by, Ox would have been back in the team two months ago, but he wouldn’t have been ready. He might actually be a useful option off the bench in some of these huge games we’ve got left as he looked great. We even got to see Shaq again tonight too. He looked razor sharp as well. This might be the last we see of him at Anfield as I’m not sure he’ll want to stick around next year if he’s seeing as little action as he has in the last few months. Hope not though, I love Shaq. This was almost definitely the last we’ve seen of Sturridge though. I was surprised he got the start, but not surprised he was off the pace and didn’t do much. Great player in his day but he’s unrecognisable from that now. That’s 91 points now. The most we’ve ever had. Hopefully we’ll get to 97 and then what will be will be. Title or no title, this is the best Liverpool side I’ve ever seen. Some will use trophies as the barometer for that honour, but to me that’s not really fair considering none of our previous great sides were having to deal with the same level of competition (and rampant cheating) these lads are up against. Kenny’s Boys of 88 are the benchmark in the ‘best ever side’ discussion, but this team already has more points despite having played four games less. They’ve conceded four less goals and need to score only three to equal the 88 side’s total. If they manage to win a trophy (or two) this season then I don’t even think there’s a debate to be had. I fucking love this team, it’ll be a travesty if they end up empty handed again. That was the week that was….
    2 points
  23. 2 points
  24. ive lined up a pacemaker for the heart attack and got the dye ready for the grey hairs im sure these 2 legs will give me !!
    2 points
  25. I still love the forum like I love boobs, cheese and a good rum but not acknowledging it's change is like saying things are the same now as the 80s. It's got a lot more political, music and breakfast obsessed on the GF and repetition on the *f is higher than ever. Honestly if someone else mentions SteveO on the Evert*n thread again, I'll tell you word for word what they'll say. Overall the humour has swayed massively, probably suiting my age. I'll never find a remotely similar forum in terms of opinions I agree with that won't be expressed anywhere else. The forum has genuinely improved me as a person whilst simultaneously confirming how much of a cunt I am.
    2 points
  26. Fuck using VAR for those games.
    2 points
  27. I'm really proud of this team and what they have achieved this season. The fact that they might miss out on the title to an atrocious human rights abusing murdering totalitarian oil state is fucking galling it really is. Etihad city Manchester branch fucking glorified advertisement for an airline bunch of wankers.
    2 points
  28. Fabinho, Ox and Keita could be ace.
    2 points
  29. I think what NV is saying is bring back JP and Major Tom.
    2 points
  30. This is a quite long but interesting article on how the game has changed in the PL with Klopp and Guardiola. https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/ken-early-football-s-new-age-neutralises-philosophies-of-the-past-1.3874358?mode=amp Ken Early: Football’s new age neutralises philosophies of the past Ken Early Apr 29, 2019 When Liverpool scored after 15 seconds against Huddersfield Town on Friday night, one common reaction would have been to bemoan the lack of competitiveness in the Premier League, and wonder if there was anything else on television. But this was one of the most interesting goals you’ll see all season, and it’s worth analysing what happened in detail. From the kick-off, Huddersfield go back to holding midfielder Jon Gorenc Stankovic, who plays it right to central defender Christopher Schindler. Daniel Sturridge closes Schindler down, and Sadio Mane is close to the right back Tommy Smith, so Schindler plays it back to goalkeeper Jonas Lössl and runs towards the right corner of the Huddersfield box to make himself available for a return pass. Except Sturridge has angled his run to close down Lössl such that he is also threatening that return pass to Schindler, and he has Mane in support. The other centre half, Terence Kongolo, has split to the left corner of the Huddersfield box, but Mohamed Salah is close by: too risky. The easiest available pass is up the middle to Stankovic, who is unmarked and appears to be in space. Appearances can be deceptive. Naby Keïta is a good 15 yards away from Stankovic, on the far side of another Huddersfield midfielder, Jonathan Hogg. Hogg is pointing and gesticulating to team-mates and paying no attention to Keïta, whose orientation at this moment seems to be entirely defensive. In fact Keïta is waiting to spring the trap. As the ball goes back to Lössl, he knows his team-mates are leaving the goalkeeper with only two options: hit it long, or pass to Stankovic in the middle. At the precise instant he sees Lössl has chosen the short rather than the long pass, Keïta takes off, goes past Hogg before Hogg realises what is happening, and arrives on Stankovic’s blindside as he turns with the ball and attempts to pass. Keïta blocks the ball to the nearby Salah, runs into the area, collects the return pass and scores. The interesting thing about the goal was that you’d never have seen one like it in the Premier League of 10 years ago. These 15 seconds showed some of the ways the game has changed. First, Huddersfield were trying to play the ball out from the back, rather than simply humping it into Liverpool’s half. This mightn’t seem like a very clever idea for a team like Huddersfield: maybe they’d be better off playing long ball rather than trying to be some kind of sad cargo-cult Barcelona. Sure, if Lössl had just launched it they wouldn’t have conceded this particular goal. But would they have been any more successful over the course of the season? Cardiff have been true to the old-school approach, and it hasn’t done them much good. Huddersfield would have got away with that opening sequence against most teams. This time they were destroyed by the superb organisation of Liverpool’s press – most obviously the timing of Keïta’s burst forward into the challenge, but also the angle Sturridge chose to cut off, the positioning of Salah and Mane. It was a team goal to which four players contributed, and two of them didn’t even touch the ball. This is what top-level football is about now – team moves so rapid and automatic you have to watch it back several times to figure out what just happened. The game is more collective than ever, yet the players are still judged and criticised as individuals. Look at Sky’s coverage of the Manchester derby last week. The senior analysts were Roy Keane, who was the best midfielder in the league 20 years ago, and Graeme Souness, who was the best midfielder in the league 20 years before that. At one point, Keane lost patience with Gary Neville’s reluctance to condemn United defenders Luke Shaw and Matteo Darmian for their actions on the City goals. “It’s two yards! At least close him down . . . if the guy gets a shot off no problem, get out to him! Like your life depends on it! . . . Gary, you’re on about the runners. There’s an obsession about players – oh there’s people running – but the ball’s . . . that’s the danger! There’s no runner there, the ball’s just, there’s only one ball, close it down! Don’t worry what’s going on over there or over there, close the ball down! That’s the basics!” Keane’s scorn is always intensely watchable and the clip of this exchange has since had more than a million views on YouTube. And you might find yourself nodding along – why didn’t Shaw make a challenge, why couldn’t Darmian get a bit closer to Leroy Sané? Why won’t these young men tackle and put their bodies on the line, like they did in the good old days? You’d almost forget that these were City’s 156th and 157th goals of the season – an all-time record in English football. How do they seem to find it so very easy to score? Is it because most of their opponents are cheats and bluffers, so rotten from too much money and first-class travel and Dr Dre headphones that they have forgotten or stopped caring about the basics of football? Or might it have something to do with what City are doing? Their game is about systematically presenting the opponent with a bad choice, and a worse choice. Which is it going to be? You are Luke Shaw and Bernardo Silva is coming at you on the edge of the box. Do you challenge him and risk getting dribbled or maybe conceding a penalty, or do you stand off and risk him shooting past you? You decide that David de Gea will probably have the shot covered and . . . congratulations it is 1-0 to City and you are already trending on Twitter, and not in a good way. You are Matteo Darmian and Raheem Sterling is bearing down on your defensive line while Sergio Agüero makes a run in between you and Chris Smalling. Do you follow Agüero’s run and leave space for the advancing Sané, or do you guard the space and let Sterling play Agüero in for a one-on-one? You decide to go with Agüero, then you have to backpedal when Sterling passes to Sané and . . . congratulations, it is 2-0 to City and you are about to have your manhood questioned on live television by the world’s funniest, angriest football pundit. There is a seductive simplicity about the notion that it’s all about character and desire: desire to get to the ball, to make the tackle, to block the shot. But this ignores how the game has changed over the last few years. There’s still only one ball – but that ball is a lot more elusive than it was in Roy Keane’s day. If you want to understand the evolution of the sport, look at some historical comparisons. Over the last 10 years, the number of passes in the Premier League has increased by more than 25 per cent. In 2007-8, teams passed the ball 358 times per game on average. In 2017-18, the average was 453 – nearly 100 passes more per game, per team. The trend towards more passes is magnified at the top end. Arsenal were the top passers in 2007-8, averaging 495 passes per game. Last season, Manchester City’s average was 743: a full 50 per cent more than the best passing team of 10 years ago! How do you get close to the ball when it’s moving that fast? You can do what Keane urged the United players to do, “ignore the runners” and “not worry about what’s going on over there and over there”, focus on the ball and try to “get to it, like your life depends on it” – but if you press and your team-mates don’t, then City will pass it around you and make you look foolish, and after chasing them for an hour you will find you can hardly move your legs. And that’s when they’ll start running up the score. Against City you either press as a team, or not at all; against a system like this the individual is powerless. The rise of system football means that the English league today has less broken play, and more periods of controlled possession. In 2008, Premier League teams averaged almost 24 tackles per game. By 2017-18 the average number of tackles had dropped by almost a third, to just over 16 per game. Huddersfield Town topped the tackle table in 2017-18, with 744. The team with the lowest number of tackles in 2008 was Reading, with 800 – so the team that made the fewest tackles 10 years ago tackled more than the team that makes the most tackles today. Interceptions have also declined, by about one-sixth. Less broken play means fewer chances for individuals to seize the moment and be the hero. Another evolution involves crossing and the players who do it. If you compare crossing statistics from 2007-8 and this season, you notice two big changes. First, the overall numbers are down. The top 20 crossers in 2008 averaged 6.5 crosses per game, whereas in 2018-19 this group is down to 4.5 crosses per game – a drop of nearly one-third. Today’s teams don’t like giving the ball away with hit-and-hope crosses. Second, it’s a different type of player doing the crossing. The 2008 top crossers list was made up of wingers and midfielders – names like David Bentley, Stewart Downing, Ashley Young (who was a winger back then), etc. There is only one full back in the top 20: Nicky Shorey, then of Reading. In 2018-19, eight of the top 20 crossers are full backs, with Everton’s Lucas Digne leading the way, and Jose Holebas, Kieran Trippier, Trent Alexander-Arnold and (converted full back) Ashley Young also in the top 10. If you want full backs to cross a lot then you had better hold possession long enough to give them time to get into the opposition third. That’s one reason why, 20 years ago, full backs seldom crossed the halfway line – the other being that few players were fit enough to keep running the length of the pitch for 90 minutes. Even in 2008, defensive full backs were the norm and a player like Dani Alves – who invented the template for the modern attacking full back – still seemed like he’d been beamed back from the future. For the state of the art in 2018-19, look at Liverpool. Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold are two of the most dangerous old-school wingers in the Premier League – which is to say, players who set up goals for team-mates by crossing from high positions. Robertson’s 11 assists are already a new Premier League record for a defender; Alexander-Arnold has nine so he too could easily match the old record of 10 this season. The only “true” wingers with comparable assist numbers are Sané and Ryan Fraser. Robertson and Alexander-Arnold have done this while simultaneously being part of the meanest defence in the division. Moreover, despite playing with two full backs who operate as wingers and in theory leave huge spaces behind to be exploited, Liverpool have yet to concede a single goal on the counterattack in the Premier League all season. The level of tactical organisation required to pull this off is phenomenal. It underlines the reality that football is less and less a battle between individuals, and more and more a contest of systems. At some point maybe the ex-pros who analyse the game on television will understand this and stop judging players by the standards of a sport that no longer exists. Mind games: another lost art that people miss from title races of old. The top managers these days are far too respectful of each other. It was interesting, last week, to see Pep Guardiola’s response to Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s mildly provocative comments to the effect that City are a great team for kicking you to the ground the second they lose the ball. Everybody who watches City knows this is true – Raheem Sterling provided another good example of the art on Sunday, when he lost the ball to Ashley Barnes on the edge of Burnley’s box, then jumped on Barnes’s back to snuff out the potential counterattack, escaping a booking. But Guardiola doesn’t like people talking about it because then referees might start giving yellow cards for those tactical fouls. He reacted with genuine annoyance, and soon afterwards journalists were receiving data from City’s press team showing that actually, United foul more than City. It made you wonder if there is a vulnerability there, should other managers decide to play on it. That was what José Mourinho did as manager of Real Madrid: knowing that Guardiola is already highly strung, he decided to rack up the tension to the maximum; if he’s a worrier then let’s give him something to worry about. Let’s troll and needle and provoke until he’s too tormented to think straight. Mourinho’s tactics worked, after a fashion. Madrid won the title in 2012 and a burnt-out Guardiola left Barcelona to go on sabbatical. So why haven’t Jürgen Klopp or Mauricio Pochettino been tempted to crank up the psychological pressure on Pep? It could be a question of personality. Klopp, plainly, is no Mourinho. Last week he did a “Jürgen Klopp answers the web’s most-searched questions about him” video for Soccer AM. Asked “What is your favourite film?” his answer was immediate and decisive: “Forrest Gump! ” Somewhere out there, José felt his lip curl without knowing why. Or it could be that they know what they have in common is more important than what divides them. In one sense Pep is Klopp’s biggest rival. But in another, he’s a kindred spirit – one of a small group of people in English football who fully understands what he’s trying to do. One day the rest of the culture might catch up with the pair of them.
    2 points
  31. Look at the fucking state of that! I hope they go bust and can't afford to feed their kids, and that their kids die, so there is no chance of this ever being repeated in future. If M&S went for 'food porn' on their adverts, this is 'food penectomy'! Fucking rancid!
    2 points
  32. The sausages look burnt. I knew lifey had resigned from his job but didn’t realise Tilda had hired him. The black pudding looks decent and I’m sure it would have tasted nice had it not been half-submerged in bean juice. Only one thing the Farmfoods hash browns are fit for - being rammed up Mook’s arse. Dead hard, like.
    2 points
  33. Great stuff, as ever. Don't know if it came across on tv, but conditions were really not great, very blustery and showery, but despite that we played some excellent football at times. The weather was horrendous at the weekend, and I was hoping it would be a leveller for Burnley. But, of course, the storm abated and the conditions were benign for City. Nevertheless, Guardiola still commented on the dry pitch....... but doesn't get shit from the media like Klopp does whenever he mentions these kind of things.
    2 points
  34. Just been to Tilda's Kitchen in Walton Vale and had this. £8.50 with tea and 2 pieces of toast. There's a 2nd egg hiding under the 1st. Here's an extra hash brown to replace the fungus. The sausages are a little thin for my liking, but they were nice and cooked well and hadn't dried out like skinny sausages after do. And there's a few too many beans. All in all though, it was a nice feed. 7.5/10 from me.
    2 points
  35. Sorry if already mentioned. Andy Robertson got a PFA award for community work. EFC fume alert.
    2 points
  36. Does he fuck. Yes the S*n ,Daily Mail etc are cunts for all those stories about him. We already knew that. Does that mean he deserves the award? No it doesn’t.He’s improved a hell of a lot the past year or two but I could name at least 5 players more deserving of the award this year.
    2 points
  37. 2 points
  38. Quality of the opinions shared and of debate is a big one. General community feel is different. People grow older and do other things, so again that's not a criticism it's just the natural flow of things, I guess. Who knows, maybe it has stayed the same and I'm the one who has changed. Maybe it's both. The world has certainly changed.
    2 points
  39. I think it has changed but couldn’t really say why, people getting older maybe. I though am still young at heart and pretty great. It’s my humility that helps.
    2 points
  40. I'm 53 and had a tear in my eye when Lady Mormont did what she did. I thought it was great. Not sure why Danyeras would agree though to let her entire force be wiped out so early and easily but I suppose it adds to the story. At least she has one Dragon left, maybe 2.
    2 points
  41. If Harry Kane reads this post he’ll claim at least two of those.
    2 points
  42. City won in 2012 with pretty much their last kick of the game, while Utd fans were celebrating beating them to it. They won it because they kept going until the last. Keep going. Get the points at Newcastle. See where it takes us.
    2 points
  43. If Firmino is not fit i personally would prefer to see a formation change than shoehorning Origi or Sturridge into a front 3. It never works against good teams when we do shoehorn them in.
    2 points



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