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This was a great win. Potentially huge, as it's games like this where successful sides really separate themselves from the rest. Like many of the games in the early part of last season, it wasn’t especially pretty but it didn’t need to be. It’s all about results, especially when the circumstances are as difficult as this. Klopp described it as the “biggest potential banana skin ever”. Bit over the top maybe, but this was a huge test. The players travelled halfway across the world, came through extra time and a penalty shoot out and then had to go and play on the South Coast at 3pm on a Saturday. It’s never an easy place for us to go even under normal circumstances as they are always desperate to stick to us because we keep taking their best players. It was a fixture where we could easily have come unstuck, but the lads put on their big boy pants and dug in to get the win. In fairness it was so nearly much more than the scrappy grind it ended up as. After going 2-0 up we were flying and could have buried them completely had the third goal come. It didn’t, and then Adrian gifted them a late one to set up a tense finale. It was Leicester last year all over again. The similarities are uncanny. Mane and Firmino put us 2-0 up only for the the keeper to have a brain fart that left us hanging on. The main difference is that after we let in that daft goal at Leicester we kept them well under control and they never threatened to get another. The only reason Southampton didn’t complete a comeback was because Ings missed an absolute sitter. Cheers lad, appreciate it. Ins had scored the goal that got them back into it, but he didn’t really know much about it. Adrian just inexplicably kicked it right at him and it ricocheted into the net. Great pressure from Ings but that’s unforgivable that. What Alisson did last year was probably worse because it was so irresponsible and arrogant, but Adrian’s mistake was equally infuriating because he was just so unbelievably casual. What the fuck was he thinking? He Trent in acres but he ignored him and attempted a pass to Matip that had zero room for error. The only thing I will say in slight mitigation is that our defenders were pissing me off all day, continually passing the ball back to him even though everyone knew he had a bum ankle. He almost got caught in the first half as he took too long to get his clearance away. That should have been enough for the back four to think “yeah let’s keep it away from him”. But no, they kept passing it back to him and eventually he fucked up. Where was that pitch invading fan when we needed him? It didn’t cost us much (although any goal conceded pisses me off as our defensive record last year was something to be proud of and I’d like to beat it this year), but it took some of the shine off what was shaping up to be a really impressive win. The first half was shite but the goal just before the break lifted us and we came out after the break and did really well. The game completely turned on one moment of magic from a former Southampton player. Gotta love Sadio. It’s not enough that he’s been stealing his team-mates celebrations for years, he’s now started copying their goals. That goal had Coutinho written all over it. Absolutely brilliant. He’s got a new cerebration now that he sees as his own, even though Bobby has done it before and pulled him on instagram the other day saying “Sadii don’t copy me please!”. That was funny, but the reply from Sadio just made me want to hug him. “Huh? It’s different to yours Bobby! This is going to be my new celebration for this season. Don’t discourage me!”. “Don’t discourage me” hahaha bless his little cotton socks. I love Sadio Mané. He’s just such a genuinely lovely lad isn’t he? He’s also been the best of the front three for the last 12 months now. He’s no longer the ‘third man’ of that group. He’s top class and he’s been averaging almost a goal a game in 2019 now. He had another great game and was involved in everything we did. Bobby was really quiet in the first half and although Mo was looking good again (the goals haven’t come but he’s looked in brilliant form so far this season), it was Mané who stood out as the biggest threat. Southampton had been the better side until the goal and they had their chances. Adrian made some good saves to keep us on level terms but we were just predictably flat. Based on their midweek exertions I expected a performance like this to be honest. It’s hard, and any criticism of the team needs to be tempered because of it. You’re not going to get fluent football under these circumstances and all you can ask is for them to hang in there and just find a way to win. They did it, just as they did so many times last season. ‘Mentality Monsters’ is right. The second half display was terrific though. Southampton couldn’t get out of their own half as we just strangled the life out of them. We stepped it right up and created several great chances. We should have scored more than just the one more really. Sadio produced a great ball to send Mo clear but his shot hit the keeper’s foot. Then Mané got in down the left and put one on a plate for Bobby, but his shot rolled inches wide (would have been a ‘team goal’ of the season contender). No matter, soon after that Sadio robbed a defender and fed Bobby again, and this time he finished it superbly. We were flying in that second half. Robbo went close but was denied by the keeper (another one that would have had ‘team goal of the season’ written all over it) and Matip flicked a Milner shot just wide. It was all very comfortable until Adrian dropped that bollock. Was it just me who was pissed off that he didn’t reference it in his post match tweet. Instead of the usual bollocks about ‘great team win. big three points’ etc t would have been nice for him to acknowledge what he did. I don’t think I’m being too harsh here, as it’s not like I expect an apology from him, but at least reference it even if you make a joke of it. The good thing is that just like Alisson’s blunder last year it didn’t cost us any points. Alisson was full of contrition afterwards though and promised to never do anything like that again, and so far he hasn’t. Hopefully Adrian learns his lesson too. This is the thing with keepers who are good with their feet. They think they’re better than they are. Say what you like about the Mig, but he’d never get caught like that because he would never be that casual about his own ability that he’d take a risk like that. I don’t buy into the theory that Alisson’s absence is the reason we look more vulnerable though. It’s hardly Adrian’s fault that he’s having so many shots to save. It’s not like he’s playing in midfield or defence. That’s where the problem lies currently. I don’t pay too much attention to all the XG stuff, but the nerds who do seem concerned about what’s happening right now. Apparently this was our worst XG defensive performance since Lovren’s nightmare against Spurs at Wembley. Chelsea the other night was even worse. Even if you don’t put any stock in such stats it’s still fairly obvious that we’re not right defensively at the moment. It started in pre-season and it’s carried on into the real games. I’m not concerned about the long term as I’m confident we’ll get it right, but there has to be a little worry about the short term purely because there is so little margin for error if we want to win the title. Every game matters and if we defend like this against Arsenal next week it could be costly, as the one thing they can do is attack. At least we have a full week on the training ground to iron out a few of these issues. Need to make the most of those while we can, because once the CL kicks in we won’t have that luxury. Overall though I’m fucking made up with the lads. A 100% start despite also having to play ‘Cup’ games against City and Chelsea. They know how to win and they’ve got massive balls. Star man is Sadio. By a mile. Ox was probably the pick of the rest though and it was good to see him running around, enjoying himself in midfield rather than being a passenger on the wing. I’d keep him in the side for the time being, especially for home games, as he gives us that bit of extra drive. Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Milner (Fabinho), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Henderson); Salah (Origi), Firmino, Mané:

Saturday Aug 10: Didn’t take long for the glow of last night to be extinguished did it? I think we all expected City to win, but winning 5-0 was a bit fucking much like wasn’t it? West Ham are shite, but is this what we’ve got to look forward to on a weekly basis? You know, as demoralising as City’s relentlessness is, the thing that’s bothering me most today is fucking VAR. Along with oil money, this is the worst thing to ever happen to football. I hate it. It’s shit. It needs fucking off. What happened in the City game today was an absolute nonsense, regardless of whether the decisions were right or not. This isn’t what footy is supposed to be about . We’re going to have this kind of debacle on a weekly basis. Sometimes it will be us affected but even when it’s not I still hate it. That City goal that was disallowed for offside today was a joke. I don’t need decisions to be THAT precise, but the real problem is how this kind of shit is just killing the spontaneity of the moment. We’re going to reach a point very soon where we don’t celebrate a goal because we’re waiting to see if there’s going be VAR. In fact we already have. Technology does need to be used, but not like this. The u18s kicked off their season today and won 7-1 away at Blackburn. Impressive that, especially considering hardlyany of last year’s side were playing and I’d never heard of most of these lads. I’m sure the names will become familiar soon enough if they keep this up. Sunday Aug 11: United spanking Chelsea 4-0 was great. Why? Because they’re shite but this will make people think they aren’t. Let them get their hopes up. Let them think Maguire is going to be their Van Dijk and that this is the season when Pogba lives up to all of his hype. It’s going to make it all the more enjoyable when it all goes to shit and they lose 3-0 at home to Villa or Bournemouth. Maguire getting man of the match was a classic case of the narrative being written before the game. If United won and didn’t concede a bucket load, he was always getting man of the match, the weird looking cunt. I don’t care much for him. Monday Aug 12: Klopp says Alisson will be out ‘for a few weeks’ and LFC twitter goes into full blown panic because no-one believes him. It’s understandable as when it comes to injuries he’s usually fairly economical with the truth. So much so in fact, that you could even accuse him of lying through his shiny new teeth. Jurgen is honest about most things, he’s one of the most truthful managers out there in general, but player injuries? Nah, I learned a good while ago not to believe anything he says. Alisson may well be out for only a few weeks, but if it was longer, much longer, it wouldn’t be a shock as Klopp has form for this. People are panicking because we’ve signed Andy Lonergan on a one year deal. The suggesting being that this means Alisson’s injury must be long term. I don’t see it like that. We’ve got no fucking goalkeepers! Bringing Lonergan in makes sense, as Kelleher isn’t fit yet, Grabara is out on loan and the other keepers are all about 12. Elsewhere today, Pogba is still saying he could leave United before the end of the month. There’s more chance of him stringing together three good performances than there is of that. THAT’S how much of a long shot it is. It’s funny that he’s showing this level of disrespect to them though. What a twat. Speaking of twats, Ryan Kent has thrown a bit of a strop. He posted a passage from the bible which was a not so cryptic shot at the club for not letting him go on loan and for pricing him out of a move to Rangers. He unfollowed the Reds and deleted every picture of him playing for us. He’s previously posted a picture of Prince with the word ‘slave’ on his face as well as images from ‘Prison Break’. I’d fine him the maximum possible for that. I can’t even tell you how much I hate ’Prison Break’. Actually it’s not ‘Prison Break’ that I hated. It was myself, for continuing to watch it right until the end even though I knew after season two it should have stopped there and then and it was fucking rubbish. I’d be watching it and saying “why are you still watching this you sad cunt. Just switch it off and never go back to it. You’re weak as fuck. You make me sick.” So yeah, fuck Prison Break. And fuck Ryan Kent too, if he hadn’t signed a new contract he’d be a free agent now and could go where he likes. So tough shit. Tuesday Aug 13: Lovren is close to joining Roma and let’s just say I’m not thrilled about it, for reasons I’ve outlines numerous times in previous weeks. I won’t repeat myself here, other than to say that if we were selling him then it should have been done when our window was open and we could get a replacement. Of course, Klopp may well tell us he doesn’t need a replacement because he’s got Fabinho and two 17 year olds to act as cover. It’s bollocks though. Gomez is yet to complete even half a season for us, let alone a full one, while Matip has also had his injury troubles. Yeah, Fabinho is boss when he plays there but that means he’s not in midfield. I’m completely disregarding Van Den Berg at this point as you don’t come from a Dutch team no-one has heard of and immediately perform at a level good enough for the European champs, not when you’re only 17 anyway. So that leaves Hoever, who as I’ve said, I think is going to be a superstar. But he’s our right back cover, so if he’s needed in the middle who covers for Trent? And more importantly than all of this, who is going to put a smile on Mo’s face every day? Not gonna lie, I hate this idea. Meanwhile, Naby limps out of training with a muscle injury. Of course, oui. Let’s just be thankful it wasn’t one of the centre halves. Keita just can’t stay fit though can he? All that shit his country probably hasn’t helped. In other news today, Man City are found guilty of breaching FIFA’s transfer rules. Their punishment? A fine that is less than what they pay De Bruyne each week. I mean fucking hell, we got banned from signing kids and Chelsea got banned from signing anyone. City though? They can do what they like. Probably emailed FIFA and threatened to tie them up in court for the next ten years. Worked with UEFA so why not. Wednesday Aug 14: L 2 Chelsea 2. It wouldn’t be hard to pick holes in the performance if I wanted, but we won and in finals that’s all that matters. We were lucky though, as when it goes to pens anything can happen. We played better in the Charity Shield and lost in the same way. This time our keeper actually saved one though, and that made all the difference. Chelsea looked good to be fair, but then so did Norwich last week. Something about how we’re playing is allowing the opposition to get in behind us far more than usual. The second half was pretty good but before the break Chelsea looked dangerous every time they had the ball. Our midfield is often criticised for lacking creativity. I always feel that’s harsh on the lads, as it’s not really their strength. Their strength is work rate, pressing, facilitating the forwards and stopping the opposition from getting to our back four. We got work rate tonight, we always do, but some of the other stuff was lacking. The defence were outstanding individually, but not so great collectively. They all made some great blocks, clearances and interceptions, but Chelsea got in behind us about half a dozen times. Lots to work on there. The forward lads looked good though. Said bagged a couple of goals and Bobby was brilliant when he came on. Mo was fine too, even though he didn’t score. Do us a favour though, eh Jurgen? No more Ox in the front three, File that one away in the “never again” box with “Lallana in the front three” and “Karius in goal”. Adrian though. What a story that is. It was worth signing him just so Klopp could yell “ADRIAAAAAN” in his post match interview. He kind of ruined it then by saying “like in Rocky”. You don’t need to explain that one, gaffer. Fucking hell. VAR did it’s best to ruin another game though. I didn’t celebrate our first because I thought it would be ruled out, and I hesitated a little on the second one too. Then you have to wonder why we didn’t get a penalty for handball, and why their penalty wasn’t overturned? It was dodgy as fuck. Did they just not want to over-rule the ref because it was the first time a female had been given a game like this? If so it’s a joke. The technology is there to HELP the ref, so fucking help her! The abuse Tammy Abraham is getting online for missing a pen is fucking vile. Chelsea fans have form for this of course, but I’d hesitate to pin all this on them when it’s just as likely to be some EDL pricks masquerading as Chelsea fans. Some will be Chelsea fans, some won’t be, but each and every one of them is a massive fucking cunt. Not that twitter will do anything about it, they never do. It’s strange how you often hear about how this is a crime and people can be prosecuted for it, but the absolute worst instances of it seem to go completely unpunished. I mean, how hard can it be to nail these pieces of shit for the despicable shit they’ve posted tonight? They aren’t all hiding behind jar usernames either, some of them are quite happy for their identity to be out there. Scumbags. Thursday Aug 15: Lovren has apparently agreed terms with Roma but they are yet to agree terms with LFC. Standard Italian club behaviour that. The latest is that they’re now trying to get him on loan. Fucking Italian clubs, they just don’t like handing over cash to English sides do they? Always looking for fucking handouts, but then they’ll go to Holland or France and buy someone for £30m. We should tell them to fuck off. Wait, how did I miss this? John Arne Riise has just had a kid and he named him Colin! Hahahaha fucking hell. There’s nothing wrong with the name Colin, but it’s one of those names that you don’t ever associate with a baby. Like Nigel, Keith, Neil, Graeme, Wayne, Barry etc. Hell, I don’t even think people are calling babies ‘David’ anymore. So fair play to Riise for bucking the trend and not going with what’s fashionable. Friday Aug 16: It seems we have now told Roma to fuck off. Good, let Dejan stay where he is. By Mo’s side, making him smile. One player who is on the move though is Coutinho, who joins Bayern on loan. Good move for him under the circumstances. Decent deal for Bayern too, albeit not what they were really after in terms of getting a winger in. The real losers are Barca, which is always nice. They lost on the pitch too tonight, to a last minute overhead kick by a 38 year old who had only just come on the field. They’re proper shite without Messi aren’t they? Meanwhile, Klopp says that Adrian was injured by a pitch invading fan the other night and is a doubt for tomorrow. Fucks sake. Andy Lonergan is on stand by though, so it’s fine. I’m serious. He’ll probably be man of the match if he plays and save a last minute pen to preserve the three points. Klopp also had plenty to say about dickheads running onto the pitch, making reference to the Norwich fan who was on with his kecks around his ankles last week. “A man running around with his dick swinging. Who wants to see that?” That’s our manager right there. What a man he is. I usually watch Klopp’s press conferences on the laptop as I’ve got an LFCTV Go subscription, but I watched this one on sky (I haven’t got sky, but I have a knock off IPTV sub). I won’t be doing that again. Not when they’ve got that Danny Mills cunt on there. He was laying into Klopp for ‘making all kinds of excuses’ before tomorrow’s game. He was answering fucking questions! That seems to be all anyone wants to ask him about, and he did his best to play it down. Mills was also putting the boot in about Klopp ‘complaining about injuries’ when ‘that’s just football’. He wasn’t complaining you bald fuck, he was asked about who he has available and he answered the question. Mills has actually achieved the impossible. I hate Danny Mills the pundit even more than I hated Danny Mills the player. What a cunt. …. and that was the week that was.