Leaderboard

At least we played better than we did last year. The 2-0 scoreline was ludicrous really. We should never have lost the game at all but to lose by two was just taking the piss. If we never have to go to play in Naples again it will still be too fucking soon. Whether we finish first or second in the group didn’t matter to me before, but it does now. I’m sick of Napoli. I’m sick of having to play them in pre-season. I’m sick of their rat fans stabbing people. I’m sick of their shitty fucking Kappa kit. I’m sick of their snide bastard players and I’m even sick of Carlo Ancelotti’s rogue eyebrow (and I’ve always quite liked ol’ Carlo). I want us to smash them at Anfield and then never have to play them ever again. I must admit, I struggle to get up for the Champions League group stages these days. Since we’ve become title contenders these games don’t do anything for me to be honest. They’re a necessary evil but my blood doesn't get pumping until the knock outs come around. So going into the game my feeling was that I’d like to win to keep the run going, but that if we were to come a cropper in any game we have coming up then this would be the one that would be the least damaging. Losing a Premier League game can have dire consequences, but basically, this game didn’t matter because whatever the result we should still go through anyway. That didn’t stop me from being fucking livid afterwards though. Livid at VAR, livid at Napoli, and livid at the amount of bollocks I heard on telly and read on social media about it. Yeah, I mean the penalty incident and some of the baffling takes on it. “He gave the ref a decision to make” “It’s not a clear and obvious error” “if that was at the other end I’d want it” and various other nonsense soundbites. I don’t often talk in absolutes and I generally have respect for the opposing point of view. I'm not an "I'm right and you're wrong" type of guy. On this though? Nah. All of the above is absolute horseshit. It wasn’t a penalty. 100% it wasn’t. No debate, no room for ambiguity, it was just a dive and should have been a booking for Callejon. I honestly can’t get my head around how anyone sees it differently. Are we that attuned to cheating now that an incident like this is somehow seen as contentious by people who ought to know better? Apparently so. This isn’t a 50-50 call. It’s not even a 90-10 call. In fact, it’s not even a 99-1 call. It’s a clear dive and the only ‘contact’ that is made (if you can even call it that) is Callejon ensuring that his leg brushes against Robbo’s on his way to the floor. We don't lose very often these days and I'd almost forgotten how it feels. If you take VAR out of the question then I wouldn’t be anywhere near as bitter and resentful as I am about this one. I don’t blame the ref for giving a penalty as in real time it looked like a clumsy foul from Robbo. As soon as it happened I said “oh shit that’s a pen”. So, even if replays had shown that the ref got it wrong I could have lived with that because it’s tough and mistakes happen. Refs will get some of these wrong as it’s impossible sometimes to get them right in real time. But isn’t that the whole reason they inflicted this video shit on us? I’m totally against VAR in all forms but at least when the on-pitch referee would go to the touchline to look at the video himself then more often than not the decision would be right, because if he fucked up he’d see it and over-rule himself. Since they stopped that and had some fucking trained monkey in a room looking at the video and doing absolutely fuck all, the whole thing has become a farce. The video is meant to help the ref, so let him look at it and then either stand by his decision or change it. This ref was good I thought. I liked how he let a lot of stuff go and wasn’t blowing up any time a Napoli player hit the turf looking for a cheap free-kick. A lot of the time in Europe refs are blowing up for nothing and it becomes really hard to play our normal pressing game. This ref wasn’t like that, so if he had the benefit of seeing that incident on a pitchside monitor I reckon he’d have reversed the decision and booked Callejon. Instead he’s been made to look foolish because he was hood winked by a player and because the video ref didn’t help him out. The four worst words in the English language right now are “clear and obvious error”. I’m sick of hearing it as it’s basically just a fucking cop out for not ensuring the right decision is made. By using this daft rationale you can pretty much justify never over-ruling anything. I mean come on, in our last two games alone we’ve seen two clearly incorrect decisions upheld on this bullshit ‘not clear and obvious’ thing. They’re basically saying that if it’s subjective they won’t overturn anything, but realistically 99% of decisions are subjective to some degree, as this has proved. The fact that there are people claiming that this, THIS, is not an obvious error shows that. I mean fucking hell people, he took a dive. It’s as clear as day. So I’m not angry that we lost to Napoli. I’m not even angry that the referee was conned by a well executed dive. I’m angry that this video bollocks that has been inflicted on us on the premise that it would stop this kind of shit has actually just made the situation even worse. We talk more about bad decisions now than we did before. “He gave the ref a decision to make”. I’m so sick of hearing that because it no longer applies. When it’s a referee making a decision without the help of replays, then yeah, that’s a valid argument. If a defender dived in and the ref mistakenly thought it was a foul, it was a legitimate thing to argue. The second they brought this fucking video shit in though it became null and void. Or at least it should have. It’s fucking shit. I hate it. It should be fucked off. I hate VAR and didn’t want it. I know some were in favour of it, but even they must surely see that this is not how it’s supposed to be. The way it’s being implemented is not how this shit was advertised. VAR is basically a big red brexit bus, promising shit that it had no intention of ever delivering. In terms of the game and the performance, I’m fine with it. Napoli are a good side and it’s a difficult place to go. I thought we played pretty well and should have won. The reason we didn’t was because of VAR being as much use as Phillip Degen and because we were just too wasteful in attack. Sadio was uncharacteristically sloppy and Bobby followed up his sensational display at the weekend with a bang average one this time. He got better in the second half, but overall he was a little bit off. I thought Mo was generally fine. He wasn’t great but he was the least culpable of the front three. He was really unlucky with a great shot that the keeper did superbly to tip around the post. The most frustrating moment of the night was the brilliant counter we had from a Napoli corner that saw Sadio and Mo running at the last defender. I’m absolutely positive that the shit at Burnley contributed to that whole thing going wrong as it caused Mané to second guess himself. In fairness the defender did well and made the pass difficult, and what should have happened really was Sadio should have just drove at him and had a shot. There were a couple of split seconds when the pass might have been on and even when he did play it there was a chance of making it, but I just think the whole situation was in his head and impacted his judgement. Overall we had some good chances and loads of situations that should have led to good chances if only we’d played the right pass. It was just one of those rare off nights for the attackers (for some weird reason they tend to usually happen away from home in Europe), but the performance was generally good and there were some top quality outings from the likes of Fabinho, Trent, Matip and Adrian. It’s Adrian I feel for the most actually. He was fucking brilliant and didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. He made a nice double save in the first half but the thing I liked best about that was how quickly and confidently he was up and appealing for offside when the striker finished the rebound from the second one. He just seemed in complete control of that whole situation. The save he made in the second half was incredible. I think it’s one of the greatest saves I’ve ever seen actually. The commentators kept saying that “he went early” but he didn’t at all. It wasn’t going early, it was recognising the situation and spreading himself to try and give the striker the least amount of space as possible. Schmeichel did that all the time. You can be reactive and wait until the forward takes his shot and then try to save it, or you can be proactive and make yourself as big as possible. Adrian did the latter, and although there was some fortune involved in that the ball hit his hand, he still had to keep it out and somehow he turned it over the bar. It was an incredible save. He was good in everything he did actually. His distribution was good, his handling was good and he looked supremely confident. He nearly saved the pen too. Top performance from him. He’s the star man just ahead of Fabinho. It's not nice losing a game but as I said, if we were going to lose one then this was the best time for it. Similarly, if Virg was going to make a costly error than let it be in this game when we're already 1-0 down. On that note, Steve McManaman said after that second goal that the penalty incident doesnt matter now because they scored again. Fucking hell. Look at how that goal came about. Mo plays a high risk pass because time is running out and we need to score. Virgil then tries to keep the ball alive by playing a risky ball for the same reason. But the penalty doesn't matter because it finished 2-0? Behave yerself. But yeah, far better to have a blip in this one that at Chelsea next weekend. At least it's a Sunday game, and having played on the Tuesday that gives us plenty of time to recover, which will be necessary given that Klopp went full strength (bar Gini being left on the bench). Stamford Bridge is always a tough place to go but the way we've been playing we should be fine. The only thing that could cause us a problem is if the forwards are wasteful again, because the way we play means that we'll almost always create good situations no matter who we play. Misfiring in Champions League away group games isn't the end of the world, as we saw last season when we lost all three of them. Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson (Shaqiri), Milner (Wijnaldum); Salah, Firmino, Mané:

Saturday Sep 7: Gini was the star of the show as Holland beat Germany 4-2. He scored and had a stonking game by all accounts. He’s got a bit more licence to attack in their system than he does in ours, although he does have those occasional games for us where it seems like he’s been given free reign to get in the box, and when he does he usually makes it count. Funny how quickly things can turn around though. It was only a couple of years ago the Dutch seemed to have been slumping. They had their worst team in years, while the Germans were flying high and winning tournaments. Now, the Dutch are suddenly resurgent and have beaten the old enemy a couple of times of late. It helps when you’ve got the best defender in the world too, obviously. Meanwhile, on Instagram…. Remember I said the other week how any time Paddy Berger posts a picture I get stressed if Vladi isn’t there? Well it’s been happening a lot lately, he’s popping up all over the place doing various fun things, and all I can think is “Where’s Vladi?” Well I saw this today and initially I was wigging out, but then it hit me… …Vladi is taking the photos! I feel so much better now having convinced myself of that. Sunday Sep 8: Yerrrssss, Virg has agreed to a new deal and contract extension. Wait, no he hasn’t. Fuck knows where that story came from but the Grim Reaper James Pearce has shot it down as being bollocks. His contract still has four or five years left anyway, so there’s no need to be doing anything about it. Might not hurt to offer him a payrise though, just to let him know his efforts are appreciated. Sometimes it’s hard to believe we actually managed to get him. I mean, he would walk into any team in the world, and even back when we signed him he had offers from teams that we’re in a better situation than us. He could have gone to any of the top teams in this country, but he only had eyes for us. I’d love to know what Klopp said to him when they met in Blackpool. Also today, Fowler comes to the defence of Salah and says “Everyone commenting and talking nonsense about being “greedy” or destroying team spirit, have they never watched football before?,” said Fowler. “Because you can’t be a ­top-class goalscorer without total belief you will score.” That’s true, but Salah is no Robbie Fowler. By that I mean he’s not as clinical a finisher. Robbie could do it with both feet or his head, and he could do it from two yards or forty yards. There’s a difference between wanting to score goals and being greedy. I never saw Fowler as greedy, and I don’t see Salah as being greedy all the time. Most of the time he isn’t. He just has these days though, where it’s as though he gets it in his head that he has to score no matter what and he becomes selfish. You can’t defend what he did at Burnley and Mané had every right to be pissed off. Bobby had even more right, but he’s just not as arsed about how many goals he scores as Sadio and Mo. Healthy competition is fine, but it can easily cross a line if it’s let unchecked. Salah and Mané will be fine I reckon though. Klopp will make sure of it. Monday Sep 9: People are kicking off about some of our players being under-rated in their FIFA ratings. Fucking international breaks. This is the shit people are being reduced to arguing about? Maybe it’s an age thing, but this kind of thing winds me right up. Why does anyone give a shit? Absolute virgins. Even Rhian Brewster has had something to say about his own rating. He should just be grateful he’s even on the fucking thing. Nothing against the lad personally, but he hasn’t played even one second of first team football yet and already I’m sick of hearing about him. Seriously has there ever been a player who has done so little yet had so many column inches devoted to him? It’s fucking weird. He tweets and there’s ten articles on newsnow. Why? What’s he done? Fuck all. Curtis Jones doesn’t get that kind of attention even though he’s actually played a first team game. As I say, it’s nothing against Brewster himself, I just find the whole thing weird and annoying. Speaking of weird and annoying…. Michael Owen has upset people again. (disclaimer: I don’t find him weird or annoying, but I’m in a minority). This time he’s got our fans going after him because he said “Are Manchester United players far inferior to Liverpool’s? I don’t necessarily think so”. Fucking hell Michael. I like him as a pundit, I often feel like he makes points that others might not have and he’s good at providing insight from a striker’s perspective. He’s had a ‘mare here though. There is not one Manchester United player that would get in our starting eleven, and not too many that would make our bench. De Gea, Martial and Rashford might make the bench. Maybe Wan-Bissaka too, but that’s it. So are they inferior to Liverpool players? Hell yeah they are. Have a word with yourself, Michael. Tuesday Sep 10: Emile H*sk*y says he was so homesick in his first six months at Anfield that sometimes he’d lie on the floor crying. Yeah, I know he feels. That’s how I was in those six months too as I had to listen to my dad constantly moaning about him. Funny thing was, I had Emile’s back at the point. A couple of years later I hated him even more than my dad did. Meanwhile, Nabil Fakir says Liverpool lied about the reason for not signing him. Basically he reckons his knee is sound and he was baffled as to why we pulled the plug. His former agent then responded by saying that he’s talking bollocks and that there were two reasons the deal didn’t happen. One, his knee. And two, another agent appeared mid-negotiation and wanted to start the talks over from scratch. I hadn’t heard that before, but it would explain a lot. It’s always seemed a bit weird this one. There were obvious concerns about his knee, but it doesn’t seem to have bothered him since. If there was something dodgy going on with an agent though that makes it more plausible as to why we wanted no part of it. And now he’s ended up at Real Betis, playing alongside 56 year old Joaquin. Fuckin’ agents. Greedy, horrible, leechy bastards. England played tonight. Don't know the score or who they played, but I know Henderson played. How do I know? Because I had a look at newsnow and saw the usual barrel scraping articles where some sad fuck trawls through twitter to find the worst takes they can from random thick as fuck fans who have no clue. Then you have an article entitled something like "What does he do?" "Useless" "Embarrassing" - England fans unimpressed with Liverpool man". I'd like to shut down every fucking website that resorts to this kind of lowest common denominator shit. How did we get to this point, where the opinions of random goons on the internet are deemed important enough to make a news article from? Fucking hell. Wednesday Sep 11: Milner plays in Kompany’s testimonial tonight. Actually not sure whether he played or not. He was there, but I didn’t see any of the game so not sure whether he was involved. The sad bastards actually had a hashtag this week saying #MilnersNotWelcome. Hilarious seeing as it’s got fuck all to do with them who Kompany invites to play in HIS testimonial. Really though, how much of a twat do you need to be to have any kind of negative opinion of James Milner. If there's one player that should be universally liked by everyone, it's him. And he generally is universally liked, the only cunts who don't like him are the cunts who he helped win two league titles. Man City fans are the absolute fucking worst aren't they? Paul Glatzel signed a new contract today. Good for him, the poor lad has had so many injuries and we probably won’t see him this season after he did his ACL, but the staff absolutely love this kid. That’s why he got the captain’s armband while Bobby Duncan was getting all the publicity. Some interesting comments from Lallana. He genuinely sees himself as an option in the number six role and is studying other players in the position to familiarise himself with it. I don’t see this happening at all. If Fabinho doesn’t play, it’ll be Gini. If he’s not playing either, it’ll be Hendo. Honestly, other than in the domestic cups I’ll be amazed if Lallana plays that role. I liked his attitude though and this quote in particular jumped out at me. “If I want to be part of this team, the best team in Europe, I need to keep improving and developing and that is what I have found difficult over the last two years because I have not been able to show that. I can’t be the same player, I need to be better because the team is better.” Good stuff that. A 30 year old experienced international player saying he needs to be better because the team is better now than it was when he was playing regularly. I couldn’t help but compare that attitude with Bobby Duncan, the cheeky fucking upstart. Thursday Sep 12: Oh for fucks sake. Scholes played last night and social media was full of fawning about him today. He played a disguised pass with the outside of his foot and footy hipster twitter has had it’s cock out all day. Paul Scholes is an urban myth. He got better with every year he didn’t play. When he was playing nobody, absolutely nobody, spoke of him as being the best midfielder in the league. Hell, when he was playing, he was hardly ever described as the best midfielder at his own fucking club. The he retires, that little crab Xavi made a comment about Scholes being his best opponent and suddenly his reputation sky rocketed. This whole bizarre narrative has only come about in recent years as history has been rewritten. Anyone who says Scholes was the best midfielder of his generation is just trying to make themselves sound more knowledgeable than your average Joe, who would say Gerrard, Vieira, Keane or even Lampard. Really, talking up Scholes just makes you sound like a cunt who is trying too hard. The people spouting this shite about Scholes will almost certainly be the same gobshites who tried to tell everyone that Michael Carrick was the most important player in United’s title winning sides. Friday Sep 13: Klopp says Alisson is progressing well but that the week after the second international break was always the realistic target for his return. Didn’t tell us that at the time though did he? This is what I was saying, when it comes to injuries Kloppo is a right lying bastard. It’s all about the morale. If he’d said straight away Alisson was out for 2-3 months it would have put us all on a massive downer. So instead, he let’s us think it’s a few weeks, then a few weeks pass and he lets us think its a few more weeks. Before you know it, it’s 2-3 months but we haven’t stressed out over it. Meanwhile, what about this free kick competition video today? Absolutely mad that. Nobody will have seen that coming. Joe Gomez bagging five out of five and absolutely destroying Trent, Shaq and Bobby. Fair play to him, that took some doing that and I’d never have believed he could have done that. Trent had a face like a smacked arse. He wasn’t happy at all that Gomez beat him at his own game. Dead funny it was. Trent is a terrible loser and an obnoxious winner. Don’t take that as a criticism of him though, as it’s not. I’m exactly the same. Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser, that’s what I always say. Seen an advert on BT today for something called ‘thursday night swagger’. It was all ‘street’ and they had graphics like something from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I’m thinking ‘what the fuck is this shite’ and then it became clear. It was glorious. It was an ad for the Europa League, and they had a load of dancing fools promoting their games. Of course Pogba and Lingard were front and centre, as well as Gibbs-White from Wolves and Aubameyeng and Bellerin from Arsenal. No hint of embarrassment from any of them either. Imagine being United or Arsenal in the Europa League and not being embarrassed by it. Fucking losers. …. and that was the week that was