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Saturday Aug 3: Klopp makes a completely innocuous comment about our spending capability in relation to other clubs (“we don’t live in a transfer fantasia” or something), and City got their knickers in a knot. I’ve said before about how their press office are utterly obsessed with us and what they see as the unbalanced reporting in our favour, so it’s no surprise they saw their arses over this. I expect that of them, because they’re a mixture of small time dickheads who have no idea how big clubs are supposed to be have, and Abu Dhabi trained zealots who think they can control everything said or written about them (see the leaked emails from that chief exec fella). It’s a bit much when old Baldiola weighs in talking absolute bollocks as well though. “We don’t get enough credit wah wah wah” “Kevin De Bruyne should have been player of the year but you gave it to Salah wah wah wah”. “We won five trophies wah wah wah”. How does he not get this? When you spend what they spend, it’s expected that you’ll win everything. It’s only a story when you don’t. Spending what they’ve spent isn’t a guarantee of anything of course, but it does make it easier. Still, not even I would try to suggest he hasn’t done a great job. He really has. His squad is full of £50m players but he’s taken the sum of those parts and built a team that’s greater than it, which is far from easy. He’s a great coach, but Klopp finished one point behind him on a fraction of the budget and he also won the Champions League. So pipe down, baldy, you’re getting the credit you deserve, it’s just that we deserve more. Tell you what winds me up though. City keep using the wage bill thing to show that they aren’t spending more than us and United. Firstly, the figures they are putting on their accounts are obviously complete horseshit and I’d estimate there’s at least £100m a year they aren’t declaring. Secondly, even by their own cooked books the difference is still only £4m a year between us and them, but they’re spending quadruple what we are on transfer fees. Thirdly, Man City are fucking minuscule in comparison to us and United, so how is it possible they can spend more without breaking the rules? The answer is that it isn’t possible. I’m not arsed about the Charity Shield itself one tiny bit but I desperately want to fucking smash them everywhere tomorrow. Sunday Aug 4: Aaaaaargh fuck off. We should have won that, we were better than them and they got out of jail. We didn’t start well and the organisation at the back wasn’t quite there, but we had no problems creating chances and the longer the game went on the more we just got a stranglehold on it. It was impressive stuff and in time I’m sure I’ll be able to focus on that. Right now though I’m just so pissed off we didn’t beat them. They celebrated a little too exuberantly I’m told. I wouldn’t know as my toys went out the pram as soon as the whistle went and I turned the TV off, but it probably tells you a lot that they reacted like that. City know they were second best but it doesn’t really matter when they also know they’ll have very little trouble with the rest of the league. From their point of view, they need to avoid defeat in the games against us and they’ll probably be ok. So we need to fucking beat them, preferably twice. To do that we need to be much more clinical than we have the last few times we’ve played them. Did we learn anything about Klopp’s plans for this season? I think we did. There were some interesting selection decisions. Gomez starting over Matip for example. That tells me that Joe will start the season and has regained his spot as Virgil’s main partner. It’s hard to argue with that but it’s not what I’d have done. Maybe Gomez is better than Matip, but for me Matip was in possession of the shirt and did nothing to deserve losing his place. The only thing that happened was the season ended. Right now I think he’d my first choice and Joe would have to wait for his opportunity. It’s not something I feel especially strongly about and I’m not moaning about it, but that’s just how I see things. Divock on the left was significant too. Not because he’s likely to play there often, but because he’s clearly the next in line when ANY of the front three are missing. He’ll play left when Sadio isn’t there, central when Bobby isn’t and I’d guess that he’d also get the nod when Mo isn’t playing, albeit he might be on the left with Sadio switching over. For all the whining from some about us needing to sign someone, I don’t see too many players out there that would even make our bench. Ideally I’d have wanted a fourth match winner that we could rotate in and out with the rest of the front three, but that ship sailed when Klopp decided to give Divock a new deal. He’s put his faith in Origi and although I still feel he has plenty to prove (he’s played well in spurts but we need to see him do it consistently) but if Klopp believes in him then who am I to doubt that? He knows what he’s doing, so instead of cryarsing about us not buying new players, how about putting faith in the ones we actually have, because let’s face it, after 97 points and a European Cup they deserve it. Monday Aug 5: Goodnight sweet prince. The Mig has gone back to Belgium and signed for Bruges. I didn’t see this coming at all. I’m not shocked he’s left as he was always too good a pro to go down the Carlo Cudicini route, but how are Bruges affording his wages? Palace would have made sense, but this looks like he must have taken less money to go home and play, in which case good for him. He had his critics and he wasn’t the greatest, but I never thought he was as bad as some made out and he was always a top fella. I wish him well, he’s a good egg is Si. Klopp should have brought him on yesterday for the shoot out. It would have been a nice way to sign off and he couldn’t possibly have been worse than Alisson. We may as well have not had a keeper in the shoot out for all the use he was. Mig’s replacement is Adrian. Hmmm. I’ve written some choice things about him in the past as it felt like every time he played against us he wanted to start something. He’s a narky, mouthy, over aggressive fucker. He’s like a Spanish Bellamy, only he plays in goal. None of that matters now as he’s on our side. He’s our snarky, mouthy, over aggressive fucker. He’s a good keeper too, despite the dislike I had for him I never thought he was shit. There won’t be many better number twos and he was a free agent so we’ve just made £9m on this little exchange. Sound. We can put that in the kitty for Mbappe or Sancho next summer. Or put it towards the new contract Kloppo will give Lallana just as soon as he strings half a dozen games together without breaking down. Speaking of Lallana, he was fucking boss when he came on yesterday. As I always say, I love watching him, I think he’s absolute fucking quality. Unfortunately it doesn’t really matter because he can never stay fit long enough to show it. I don’t like how he’s become a target for a lot of the ‘LFC Family’ on social media though. No matter how good things are, it seems that some need to have one thing they can kick off about. It’s winding me up more and more. Give me a couple of months and this will be me.... Tuesday Aug 6: Wilson might be off to Bournemouth. On loan. Interesting one, because the recent suggestions were that it was sell or keep, no loan deals to be considered. My view has always been that selling him now might not be the best option because we don’t know what he is yet. Keeping him is tough though because as I wrote last week, he’s basically the same player as Shaqiri only not as good, and if Shaq can’t get a game then he’s got no chance. This though? This would be fucking perfect. He has a year in the Premier League to show what he can do, and this time next year we make a decision on whether to keep him and let Shaq go. And if we decide it’s Shaq who stays, we’ll get £40m for Harry from ‘Nice Guy Eddie’. Everyone’s a winner, bonet de deuche. Ok, quick pop quiz. Which former Red and current pundit said this today, about Wayne Rooney: "If he’s fit and he’s hungry, you know who need that type of player? Liverpool." I’ll not reveal it until tomorrow to give you a chance to guess. Here’s a clue though, he talks so much shite he makes Paul Merson sound like some kind of fucking footy guru. He’s a strong contender for the thickest pundit out there currently. Wednesday Aug 7: Noel Gallagher is running his mouth again. Laughing at us for ‘finishing second’ in our best ever season. The balls on this prick. His club achieved pretty much the sum of fuck all in it’s entire existence until they were bought by a human rights abusing state who proceeded to break every financial rule in the book to get success. We’ve got 18 leagues and six European Cups, the most recent of which was won in the season he’s mocking us about. That’s not really the issue here. Noel’s just being Noel. And by that, I mean he’s being an insufferable bellend trying to stay relevant. The real issue here is that for some reason the likes of Sky keep asking him his opinion on footy. Who gives a fuck what some singer who was big in the 90s thinks about footy? Are they going to ask Daman Albarn what he thinks of Chelsea’s chances this year? How about getting Mick Hucknell on to big up United’s chances. If so, then fair enough. Otherwise, why the fuck is Noel Gallagher getting this kind of airtime? Of course, the answer to that question is because Man City are so small that he’s the most recognisable face connected with them. With the likes of us, United, Arsenal and others it’s much easier as there’s a wealth of famous ex players you can go to. No-one is tuning in to see what Paul Dickov and Trevor Morley think though, are they? So they go to Noel, who has somehow achieved the impossible in recent years and actually made Liam seem not so bad. Meanwhile, things seem to be moving on with Coutinho, who is being strongly linked with a loan move to Arsenal or Spurs. This is good, it puts Barca in a situation where they’re going to have to accept that they aren’t getting a big fee for him and this is the best they can get. Now it needs Coutinho to turn them down and for us to be laying in the weeds waiting to pounce. I’m 100% ok with us not buying Coutinho, and I’d be 100% ok with the situation if someone else did. If he goes on loan to Spurs or Arsenal though, and we make no move to try and get him, then I’m 100% not ok with that as it would be completely fucking daft when Klopp himself even said last week that Coutinho improves every club in the world even ours. I’m beginning to think that I’ve been clinging to some false hope on this though. He’s not coming back, is he? I can make my peace with that as long as he doesn’t end up somewhere else in the Premier League. That’ll do my fucking head in. Oh, for the record, the ex Red advocating we sign Rooney was Dean Saunders by the way. Thursday Aug 8: AM: I subscribed to the Athletic today. Toyed with it for a while because their NFL coverage is great and most of my favourite Bears writers went there. Now they’ve got Pearce and Hughes on board and are really raising the bar on the footy coverage, so I figured I’d give it a go while it’s half price. I’ve just read an interview with Klopp’s assistant Pete Krawietz and this bit jumped out at me: “Who’s on the market and for how much? And you still have to compare them to the players already in the squad. If £40million won’t buy you a noticeable improvement, if we don’t see how that guy will lift up our performances to the next level, Jurgen will never do it. He won’t spend for the sake of spending.” There are some fans who think Klopp isn’t being allowed to spend because the owners won’t let him. While I’m sure there are some restrictions in place, the idea that he isn’t buying anyone this summer because there’s no money is just inconceivable to me. He isn’t buying anyone because it’s difficult to improve on what we have without spending a fortune. Krawietz also said: “Perhaps the thinking in England is a little different in that respect. Spend, spend, spend. It’s all down to what you do in the transfer market. That may even be true, to some extent. On the other hand, we still believe in the possibility of developing a player, through training and systematic routines.” In other words, we could sign someone who is as good as or might be a marginal improvement on a player we already have, but why do it when you can just work with that player and make HIM better? I agree with that. But still, Coutinho…. PM: Ah bollocks, the window closes and we didn't get him. No-one else did either, which makes it easier to swallow. Looks like it'll be PSG or Bayern or someone if he does actually move on. Maybe he'll stay at Barca and then in January we can... no I need to stop right there. It's not happening, I've got to face it. In all seriousness, on a scale of 1-100 on where my rage is at us not signing anyone, I'm probably a 2 or a 3. I'm not concerned by it at all really. I could go into all the reasons why here but it's probably best saved for a proper in depth article, so I'll maybe knock something up on that in the next couple of days. Suffice to say, I'm relaxed about us not signing anyone because we've got a great team and good depth and I trust Klopp. One club that has been signing players is Everton. Today they paid £40m for Alex Iwobi, prompting Marco Silva to say: “Alex was one of our main targets for this window and I believe he is a fantastic signing. He is a direct and skilful winger and fits exactly the profile of player I want in my model." In other words, “we’ve tried all summer to get Wilf Zaha but we couldn’t afford him, so we’ve had to settle for this lad, who’s nowhere near as good but was cheaper”. Speaking of Zaha though, my estimation of him as a man just fucking plummeted. He actually wanted to join Everton. I mean what the actual fuck? I know they were the only club in for him, but still. Come on man, you’re better than that and why would you do that to Palace fans? They’d understand him moving to a Champions League contender, but why leave Palace for fucking Everton? He must have the worst agent in the world, as its that massive contract he signed last year that has allowed Palace to drive up the fee and put the bigger clubs off making a bid because of the total cost of the package. On the field tonight, Harvey Elliott got his first goal for the club but it wasn't enough to prevent the kids from losing 3-2 at Oldham. It's good though, they're playing against grown men in this EFL Cup and they're not up against other kids, so it's a real test for them. They've got a couple more group games and hopefully they can win those and qualify for the knock outs. Friday Aug 9: L 4 Norwich 1 That’ll do nicely, except for the injury to Alisson of course. Beforehand I had predicted a 5-0 win and at half time I thought I’d under sold it. There was a real chance of seven or eight at that stage but the second half tailed off and Norwich never threw the towel in. I was impressed with them actually. As for us, we were great in little spells and sloppy in others, but we’re so fucking good these days that results like this are just the norm now. We can win games really comfortably without being anywhere near top form. Mo looks in great nick, Bobby was sharp and Origi is playing with a real confidence now. I didn’t think we looked good defensively though, and that was even before Alisson went off. Still plenty to work on there. Alisson isn’t going to be back any time soon if he’s done his calf. Best case scenario on that would be 3-4 weeks but it could be longer as calf injuries are right lingering bastards. You think they’ve cleared up and then you feel it again. Wasn’t that was fucked Bobby up at the end of last season? I’m sure it was. The first thing that came into my mind when Alisson went off was that Mignolet must be fucking cursing his luck. He sat on the bench all last season without getting a sniff. Adrian comes in and then 39 minutes later he’s on the pitch looking at an extended run in the side. I think he’ll be alright, but I’d like to see us sharpen up defensively so he doesn’t have much to do. Still, a winning start, plus three on the goal difference and we can sit back and see what happens over the weekend now. What was that VAR shite about at half time though? No idea what was going on, but having to wait an extra five minutes to start the game because something wasn't working makes a mockery of the whole thing. I hate it anyway, but that was before I'd even considered this potential aspect of it. There was a report today saying we'd have won the title last season if VAR had been in use. That may be so, but we'd also have won it a fucking referee from Manchester had done his fucking job instead of doing a favour to a team from Manchester. You didn't need VAR to see that Kompany should have been red carded. A working pair of eyes and a non biased outlook was all that took. ….and that was the week that was