Leaderboard

And so it ends. In the most predictable way possible. It’s been obvious for weeks that we’d probably win all of our games and it wouldn’t be enough. Leicester were the last hope we had of taking anything off City, as Brighton didn’t have a meatball’s chance in Luke Shaw’s house. All we could do was make sure we didn’t allow some tinpot smalltime deadbeat club like Newcastle or Wolves to have the satisfaction of saying they cost us the title, and thankfully we did that. Nine wins in a row to end the season. Unbeaten at home for the second year running. 97 points. Only one defeat (courtesy of a ref from Manchester). Two Golden Boot winners. The Golden Glove winner. The Premier League and PFA Player of the Year. Trent smashing the assists record for a defender. Andy Robbo being the greatest human being on the planet. I could go on and on about this season, but it’s not over yet because we’ve still got a chance to come away with a big prize. That’s the very least these lads deserve from this incredible season. This game was tough though. Really tough. It’s the kind of game we’ve made a habit of losing over the years. Wolves packed the defence but posed a threat on the break. They’re set up perfectly to pick off good teams, but they’re shite when they have to make the play themselves. So playing a side with our attacking intent suits them perfectly. Throw in the tired legs from that Herculean effort in midweek and the whole distraction of what was happening at Brighton and this had the potential to go south for us. It didn’t though, because these players fought through the tiredness. They blocked out the disappointment they must have been feeling when they heard the City score, and they dug deep to win a game that was threatening to get away from them in the second half. The spirit of this group of players never fails to impress me. It would have been easy to stop fighting and give in to the fatigue when they knew the title had gone but instead they found something deep inside them to fight even harder. Wolves were pushing hard for an equaliser. Their fans were taunting us and the whole thing looked like it could fall flat. But the boys rallied, got the second goal to kill the game and ended the season in a manner befitting of everything that had gone before. They won the game for their own sense of pride and defiance. In fact, defiance was the tone for the majority of the afternoon, although it was briefly punctuated by hope, then confusion, then disappointment. Then back to defiance again. It was a weird day really. We started the game well and got an early goal when Hendo and Trent combined well to set up Mané to score at the Kop end. We were attacking the Kop end because Conor Coady won the toss and made us change ends. The fuck is that about lad? City have got their ex players deliberately missing chances against them while ours are pulling stunts like that? Anyway, we’re 1-0 up and looking good, and then the news comes through that Brighton have scored. Cue mass celebrations around the stadium. Personally I didn’t like it. It was too early and it meant nothing. I understand why people did it and got excited, I just couldn’t buy into it myself as I knew City would come back and I also knew it would be distracting to our players. Then it got really weird. From what I could tell, the original cheer had come from the Anny Road end of the Main Stand. Everyone else seemed to pick up on it from them. A minute later, another cheer went up so I looked to my left and saw the same section of the crowd going mad again. It couldn’t be 2-0, could it? Shit, even I was ready to go mad at that point. Still too soon, but a 2-0 lead would have been a whole different ball game. Then the cheering died down and there was just confusion. No-one seemed to know what was happening, but some of the Wolves fans were celebrating. Then a fella in front of me managed to get a signal on his phone and saw that it was 1-1. Word filtered around and the air was sucked out of the place. From what I can tell, the second cheer started in the away end but because the first one came from our fans down near that corner, people must have assumed it was them again and that it meant another Brighton goal. It was really deflating though. Wolves fans cheering Man City goals was just sad. For many of them I don’t even think it’s because they had a preference as to who won the title, I just think that, like fans of every other club from that part of the world, they’re unfunny 'banter' cunts. I’ll get to them later though. That whole episode absolutely killed the rest of the first half. The players lost their rhythm completely and we barely had another attack worthy of the name after that. Wolves were closest to a goal when Doherty hit the bar after a dangerous counter attack. It had gone flat and it was almost certainly because of what was happening in the other game. It was hard not to be invested in the events at Brighton though. It’s easy to say “just do our job and see what happens” but the fans are always going to be following the other game and it’s inevitable that news will filter through to the players. They’ll have known by the roar that City were losing but they’ll also have known by the way it just completely died down that it was either a false alarm, or that City had equalised. And it showed in the rest of the half. Klopp kept looking around at the crowd with a wry smile. He probably wanted to tell everyone to shut the fuck up about the City game and just worry about our own lads, but equally he’ll have known that he’d be wasting his time. I felt that we badly needed to get to half time though so he could talk to the players and get them refocused. The problem in the second half wasn’t focus though, it was legs. It looked to me like a few of our lads hit a wall. Wolves knew it too, and began to get more adventurous. In the opening half hour they basically played with a flat back five and three sitting midfielders. Their front two were left all alone and couldn’t get into the game. When it became clear that our energy levels had dropped though, their wing backs began pushing forward and they were giving us loads of problems. Alisson needed to come to the rescue a few times and we also had some good last ditch defending to clear the danger. We were offering nothing in attack anymore and Wolves had us on the back foot. The midfield lads may have been a bit leggy, and Trent and Robbo defo seemed to be flagging a bit, but the real problem was that the ball just wasn’t sticking up front. It kept coming back at us because the forwards weren’t holding it. Mo was especially poor. He never looked sharp all day and the week of training he missed with that concussion certainly seemed to have an adverse effect on him. Mané became very sloppy too in the early part of the second half, while Origi had faded after a brilliant start to the game. He looked great in the opening 20 minutes or so. Full of confidence and really positive. Like the Origi of the spring of 2016. Great to see. We didn’t get him the ball enough after that, but he did go really close with a volley following a move that he started. It looked like a defender managed to get something on it and deflect it over the bar, but it’s Martin Atkinson so I wasn’t surprised when he signalled for a goal-kick. I was surprised when Divock’s number was raised immediately after and he made way for Milner. Don’t get me wrong, we definitely needed Milner out there to settle things down and retake control of the game, but Origi can consider himself a little unlucky to be the one to make way. The change saw Wijnaldum go right, Milner left and Hendo and Fabinho sitting in the middle. I suspect the logic behind it was that Wolves are much better when the other team comes at them, so let’s sit in a bit and force them to make the play themselves, because they can’t, the counter attacking cunts. It worked well. Wolves were much less threatening after the change and some of the lads who had been flagging (most noticeably Trent and Hendo, who had become a little erratic with their passing) got their second wind. Trent then crossed for Sadio to put the game to bed. The goal brought him level with Mo in the race for the Golden Boot. We didn’t know at the time, but Aubameyang was also on 22 goals and all three players would share it. One thing I did know after the Mané goal was that nobody was getting a pass from Mo for the rest of the game. And they didn’t. A couple of times he went alone and incurred the wrath of team-mates, but it was always going to happen. Being top scorer means more to him than it does to Mané, who just seems a lot more laid back about the whole thing. Sadio has no pens in his 22 goals so for me he’s the real winner. He’s been brilliant this season, especially since the turn of the year when he’s taken up the slack when others haven’t been firing. I was rooting for him to get his hat-trick as it would have been well deserved. Maybe that’ll come in Madrid in a few weeks. He’s often been the man for the big occasion and scored in last year’s final. But then Mo will be itching to make up for what happened last year. I don’t really care which one is the hero, just as long as we win. The second half of this game was probably the least enjoyable experience I’ve had at Anfield all season. We knew City were finishing above us and I think everyone just wanted the game over with. What made it worse was that for a while it was looking like we might not even hold onto our lead, and all of this was being played out to a backdrop of the away end acting like, well, acting like Midlands fans. Wolves, Birmingham, Villa, they’re all the same really. Unfunny sad cunts. I’d happily see every Midlands team relegated and never come back up. The second goal did lighten the mood and the Kop refused to let disappointment put a dampener on the day. We’ve still got a European Cup final to look forward to and the Kop made sure everyone knew it. Maybe Sky were expecting to see some final day of the season tears? Usually you get it from the relegated sides, but they all knew their fate weeks ago. You know the rest of the country were hoping to see some crying scousers, but instead they got defiance. The win over Barca changed everything. Imagine how we’d have felt if we didn’t have that final to look forward to? It would have been heartbreaking watching Klopp and the players doing their lap of appreciation with nothing to show for it. Instead we were waving them off to their third European Final in four years. Usually at the end, you’ll get some fans nipping out to beat the traffic. That didn’t happen this time. I’m sure some managed to sneak out but as I looked around as we waited for the players to come back out, it looked as though everybody had stayed behind, and rightly so. The bond between team and fans is as strong as I can ever remember it. Maybe it was stronger in the 60s and 70s with Shanks, I don’t know, but this is something special. And it’s all down to one man. He made all this happen, and anyone who wants to bring up him ‘not winning anything’ can fuck off. Aside from it being not true (he won plenty at Dortmund), it’s completely missing the point. What he’s done here is incredible. It’s one of the greatest managerial feats of all time. Think about where we were when he arrived, and where we are now. And look at how he’s done it. He’s transformed some players that were here already, he’s brought in world class talent without needing the backing of an oil state to do it, and he’s done it without ever taking a backward step against any team, no matter who they are. That’s what I love most about Klopp. He’s the manager I always wanted. I hate pragmatic, defensive football. I want to see my team go on the front foot and take the game to everybody and play with no fear, and that’s what we do. The 3-0 defeat in Barca won’t be remembered because we lost the game (and because of what happened a week later), but put the scoreline to one side for a second and just think about how we played that night. Did you ever think you’d see a Liverpool side go to Barcelona and dominate them like that? We had more possession and more shots than them. At the Nou Camp. Nobody does that. We lost the game so you can say it counts for nothing, but to me it counts for an awful lot. Players know, you see. The Barca players will have come off the field that night buzzing about their result, but knowing that we’re better than them. Our lads knew it too. A week later it was proved beyond all doubt. My point is, if this team can go away to Barcelona and take the game to them and show no fear, they can do it any venue in world football against any team. The two best teams in the world right now are us and City. They finished on top but I’d much rather be us and I'm not envious of anything about them. There's nothing about City that makes me jealous. I prefer our team. I prefer our players. I prefer our club. I prefer our fans. It means more to us. There’s a bond between crowd and team that isn’t there anywhere else, certainly not at City. Our lads know it. Theirs do too. They’ve got the league title but it’s all just pretty hollow. If our players bring home a trophy they’ll be remembered forever. It’ll be an experience they never forget. It’s different here and that’s why so many want us to fail. It’s also why it will be so much more sweeter when we win something. And we will do. I’m not predicting when and I’m certainly taking nothing for granted against Spurs. Whatever happens, this team is going to be around for a while. We’ve got top class players in every position and they're all still young (apart from Big Games James). We have players other clubs would love to have, but we’re now in a position where we don’t need to worry about that. You’d have to be batshit crazy to want to leave Liverpool right now. The way this team plays, the way the crowd reacts to it, this fucking manager. Who wouldn’t want to play here? The scenes at the end were understandably a little bit subdued I thought. The players wanted to show their thanks to the fans (Hendo’s programme notes on that were fucking amazing by the way) and the fans stayed to pay tribute to the remarkable efforts Klopp and his boys have given us all year. Alisson got presented with the Golden Glove for his 21st clean sheet of the season, while Sadio and Mo got the Golden Boot. Mo’s little girl brought the house down by dribbling from the halfway line to score in front of the Kop. And then as they tried to bring her off the pitch she turned around and did it again. Then the rest of the players and their families came out. There were so many people on that pitch it was hard to even make out the players. That’s how it is now, every year there’s more and more. Trent’s brothers and mates were out there playing keepy uppy in the middle of the pitch, and long after everyone else had gone Trent was whipping crosses in for them to attack. Love that. The owners were out there too. I was taking some photos of Klopp and as I zoomed in I saw him go “WOW!!!”. Turns out he’d seen Linda in a bright pink dress with these big weird red gloves! Jurgen gave her a hug and then did the same for Henry and Werner, although they didn’t get a ‘WOW!!!” As I left Anfield I wasn’t disappointed, just sad. How can you be disappointed when the players have produced a season unlike any other. Not even the most decorated of Liverpool teams have performed at the level these lads have over an entire season. 97 points and a European Cup Final. Incredible. So I’m not disappointed. I’m just sad that this team (and manager) didn’t get what they deserved. Sad that we, the fans, are still waiting for that title. It’s doing my head in, it feels like we’re jinxed and will never win it again, but thankfully Klopp doesn’t see things that way and neither will the players. They’ll come back ready to do it all again next season. I’ve never been prouder of a Liverpool team as I am of this one. It’s hard to take knowing that we’ve had the greatest season in the club’s entire history and it’s STILL not enough to win the title. It’s even harder to take when you know that we’re Carl Lewis and we’ve been beaten by Ben Johnson. What rubs salt in the wound is when it seems like everyone is cheering for Ben Johnson and seeing him as the saviour, just because they don’t like Carl Lewis! It’s also galling how nobody in the media seems to want to even mention the complete disregard for the rules of the competition that everybody else is playing by. If that sounds like sour grapes it’s because it fucking is. My grapes couldn’t possibly be any sourer. I don’t know how Klopp can be so philosophical about it all. I’d be fucking steaming if I was him. Especially when that daft bald cunt is harping on about their ‘achievement’ and how they were the underdogs. Fuck off you stacked deck, shite cardigan wearing fucking egghead. And I don’t want to hear “if we’d beaten Leicester at home or West Ham away” or “drawing with United and Everton cost us the title”. We can nit-pick until the cows come home but it’s unfair on Klopp and the players. They didn’t win every single game, but who does? This City team who are being lauded the greatest ever lost four fucking games this season. FOUR! We lost one. So harping back to a few draws we had along the way as the reason we came up short just doesn’t feel right to me. I have no regrets about anything we did. None. Those draws didn’t decide the title, the defeat at Man City did. That was the game that did it. If we’d been able to avoid defeat that day we’d be Champions now, but that we didn’t was largely due to circumstances beyond our control. Everyone will remember the 11mm that denied Sadio a goal but that wasn’t decisive because we went on to equalise after that anyway. As I’ve said before, the reason we lost that game is that a referee from Manchester failed to produce a red card for bulb head Kompany when the game was 0-0. That’s it. It’s that simple. The title went City’s way because a local ref helped them out. How that was allowed to happen in the first place I’ll never understand, and it’s something that has been brought up before when the same ref shafted us against United a couple of years ago. You can’t have a ref from Manchester officiating City or United games. Just can’t have it. It’s nonsensical. Keith Hackett even brought it up on Twitter this morning, saying that Taylor’s incorrect decision decided the title. That tackle was worthy of two red cards, let alone one. It was an out of control, high lunge. That’s an automatic red. Plus he was the last defender, denying a goalscoring opportunity. Yet fuck all was said about it at the time and other than Hackett and bitter, resentful bastards like me who will never let things like this go, fuck all is being said now. Yet the media are all out to get City apparently. This despite the fact that no-one in the British media ever addresses the fucking massive FFP elephant in the room. “Oh what a great side” “Pep is the best ever” “Yes they’ve spent money, but what a wonderful team”. Just fuck off. Fuck right off. One day someone might call it like it is and expose Ben Johnson FC for the cheating cunts they are, but it won’t be any time soon though, not while they’re the only ones capable of stopping us from dominating the league like we always used to. Maybe if we fall back into the pack and the gap at the top is 30 points again, maybe then, maybe, people will realise what a fucking problem this is. While City are stopping us winning stuff though, they’re safe from any recriminations. Here’s the stupid thing though. All these soft cunts cheering for them don’t realise that it’s not just us that City are cheating out of trophies. It’s other teams. Brighton and Watford for example. Brighton were beaten by them in an FA Cup semi final, and Watford are about to be beaten by them in a final. Chelsea lost the League Cup Final to them. Burton Albion reached a semi but lost 9-0 because City rotated the squad and drafted in a load of £50m squad players. This shit affects everyone, but all these stupid cunts cheering for City can’t see the wood for the trees. Without us, City would be winning the league by a landslide. Ok, most of the other clubs in the league aren’t affected by that anyway, but they are affected by what is happening with the cups. City are hoovering up those as well. This means that there are no trophies for anyone to play for anymore, yet no-one is arsed. Why? How come we’re the only ones talking about City’s rampant rule breaking? I almost want them to beat Watford 10-0 next week just to emphasise the point. Fans of other clubs are, for the most part, morons. I don’t give a shit about Everton fans singing Blue Moon away at Spurs, as being a blue is such a miserable, joyless existence how can anyone blame them for revelling in us not winning the title. If we had won it their shitty lives would be almost unbearable. The only thing they have to cling to is hoping we aren’t successful, so I give them a pass for all their fawning over City. Hell, they did the same for United so why would this be any different? I remember them singing Glory Glory Man United at a derby game back in the day, so this is nothing new and I get why they are the way they are. Shit, United themselves are just as sad now. Cheering Man City’s goals while they’re losing 2-0 at home to Cardiff on the way to finishing sixth. Yeah, they should be laughed at. They don’t deserve anger, they deserve pity or ridicule, take your pick. So none of that bothers me, if anything it amuses me. Everton and United are our rivals, us winning the title would have been their worst nightmare. What about all these other whoppers though? Top of the list being Wolves, but you could probably replace them with half the teams in the league had they been playing us this weekend. They weren’t playing us though, Wolves were, so that’s who I’m going to focus on here, even though it’s a certainty there’ll be other ‘banter merchants’ following their lead when they face us next season. Cheering the City goals was bad enough, but “you nearly won the league” and “you fucked it up again”? Where to even start with that? I’m embarrassed for them, the sad bastards. I mean fucking hell, it was only a month ago that they blew a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go in an FA Cup semi against Watford. A MONTH!!! And they’re taunting us about ‘nearly’ winning something and ‘fucking things up’. We’ve lost one game all season, to the team who won the title, and even that was a fucking screw job. Having skidmarks like them taunting us is beyond the fucking pale, it really is. It bothered me. I wish it didn’t, because that’s the reason they do it. But it did. It fucking pissed me off big time. I’m still pissed off now and I won’t forget it. I still bear a huge grudge about Newcastle’s fucking lad bible, shitty ‘bantz’ at Anfield when we were at the height of the Gillett & Hicks saga. Fuck Newcastle and fuck Wolves. Fuck everyone who’s not us. All these sad, pitiful, desperate fucking losers, the same cunts who had the summer of their lives last year when their shitty England team reached a semi final after having the kind of easy draw normally reserved for Man City in a domestic cup, are taking the piss out of us? The team with the third most points in the history of football in this country? Fucking Brexit bastards. We’re failures but Southgate and Kane are national heroes honoured by the queen. This fucking country, eh? Next season we’ll be subjected to all that bollocks all over again, just like we had with the Demba Ba crap. So let’s just win that European Cup and then ram it down the throats of all these fuckers. “Oh Liverpool fans will be unbearable if they win anything”. You’re damn fucking right we will. You don’t even know the half of it. You’d better hope Spurs beat us next month because if they don’t, I promise you’ll never hear the fucking end of it. And when we eventually do win the league, you should probably go and live in another country or take up another sport, because we’ll be the most unbearable gloating cunts you’ve ever seen, and you’ll have brought it on yourselves. Star man is Alisson, just ahead of Mané and Matip. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson (Gomez); Fabinho, Henderson, Wijnaldum (Oxlade-Chamberlain); Salah, Origi (Milner), Mané: