Leaderboard

Phew. That's the main thing to say about this. Phew. It was a tough watch. We weren't ourselves and they were a right handful. Unexpected it may have been, but we won't have many tougher games this season, but we survived. During the course of a season you get performances like this. There’s no point trying to analyse the whys and wherefores about it. They just happen. To every team, no matter how good they are. You can go back through history and look at every great team that has ever played the game and you’ll find a performance or two like this in even their most successful seasons. It happens, you never know when it's going to happen and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. When it does happen all you can do is make sure you somehow find a way to get through it. That's how successful teams achieve success. And we did get through it. It wasn’t pretty, it probably wasn’t deserved and you can argue it was somewhat fortunate given the nature of the winning goal. The counter point to that though is we missed three absolute sitters, which on another day we’d have converted and ran out comfortable winners. So yeah, we were lucky with the goal we scored, but Sheffield United were lucky with the ones we didn’t. That’s not taking anything away from how well they played though. Without wishing to sound patronising, I thought they were great. I was really impressed. They gave us as tough a game as we’ve had in the league since…. I dunno, probably since the Etihad last season. I mentioned last week how there are only a few games on the fixture list now that I look at and think “that’ll be tough”. Chelsea last week was one, Leicester away is another. A trip to Bramall Lane wasn’t supposed to be one of them, but you just never know. City wouldn't have been expecting to get done over by Norwich. As I say, it happens from time to time and when it does you need to be able to deal with it. It had that awkward feeling about this one from an early stage. The first ten minutes or so were ok but then you could tell we were toiling. It was slow, pedestrian, predictable, and fairly quickly you could see that the Blades were growing in confidence. The home fans were massively up for it, and although it’s difficult to know for sure when watching on the telly, from what I could tell this was the loudest opposition crowd we’ve played in front of in this country in a long time. It might just be the acoustics or where the microphones are, I don't know, but that sounded loud to me. They were hostile, which we always come up against as it goes with the territory when you’re good, but they were also hugely encouraging to their own team. The crowd were rabid (in a good way), and their performance was matched by their team who gave us all we could handle. Ok, we didn’t play well and on another day we’d probably batter them, but they’re clearly better than a lot of people realised (me included) and Chris Wilder has done an incredible job there. I’d be surprised if we came up against a more well drilled side all season. They defended brilliantly and denied us a lot of the space that we usually thrive in. You know they did this well because we barely even saw Bobby for most of the game and the full backs weren’t able to make their usual impact either. That took a lot of our threat away. Yet despite their brilliant defensive effort, they still managed to cause us several problems at the other end and could easily have scored two or three themselves. It’s one of those games where you know when you get to half time that you just want to get the win, go home and forget all about it. And that’s what we can do. I know it’s a cliché, but a year or two ago we’d have lost this game. Ok, I’ll rephrase that. Pre-Virgil we’d have lost this game. We’ve lost shitloads of games like this over the last decade, but since Van Dijk arrived that’s virtually stopped entirely. It’s not JUST him (Matip was brilliant again too), but he’s been the catalyst for it. The way I see this team now is that if the front three are on their game we’ll win against anybody. It’s as close to a sure thing as there is in football. When they play well no-one can live with us. When they don’t it becomes much more difficult, but we still usually find a way to get it done, domestically at least. We’ve had several bad results in Europe when the front three haven’t performed but in the Premier League we seem to be able to overcome it. Often with the help of opposing keepers it should be said. Everton and Fulham last season immediately spring to mind. The way this game went it was almost fitting that we won it on a freak goal. We couldn’t score from the easiest of chances and it had “one of those days” written all over it. These lads don’t do “one of those days” though. They just fight through it until things go their way. The Blades had their chances but most of them were thwarted by excellent defending. Adrian didn’t really have to do a great deal. They had a few chances that they wasted but generally we kept them out through great defending, specifically from Van Dijk and Robertson. It was a little alarming how we kept getting undone by balls over the top for McBurnie and Robinson though. With all due respect, you’d expect us to be able to handle two bang average players like that, but they were a threat. Their gameplan worked well. They targeted the space in behind our full backs and had some joy with it, especially early on. McBurnie got in behind Trent, cut inside Matip but shot straight at Adrian. Then Robinson got between Robertson and Van Dijk but blasted a shot miles wide from a decent position. As fir us, we couldn’t really get anything going in attack and I was wondering why we were playing so many long balls. Maybe we were just keeping them honest, stopping them from pushing up to deny us space, or maybe it was a deliberate ploy to get Mané in, because he was making those diagonal runs in behind for most of the first half. Eventually one of them paid off as he raced onto a brilliant ball by Van Dijk and with everyone expecting the net to bulge, he sliced horribly wide. That’s not like him, he’s become much more clinical over the past 12 months so that was a surprise. Looking at the replay I think what happened is he just misjudged the bounce off the slippery turf. Still, even though he missed I felt better about the situation because at least we’d created something and it felt like we were starting to turn the screw. Mané missed an even better chance soon after. We won the ball and hit them quickly. Vintage Reds footy that. Salah initially messed up the intended pass to Wijnaldum, but the ball broke kindly to him and he fed Bobby. He could have shot, but unselfishly rolled it to Mané who was in a better position. His shot came back off the post and rebounded to Firmino, but he delayed his shot and a defender smuggled it clear. Really frustrating that we didn't score but I just assumed that we'd get to half time and Klopp would sort them out and we'd be fine. It didn't really go like that though. We didn't come out firing and in truth there wasn’t much happening in the second half, but they were looking more dangerous than us. Adrian made a decent save from a long range shot that was probably going wide, and then Robbo made a heroic block to deny Fleck after a superb move by the home side. Klopp eventually decided it needed shaking up. Origi came on for Hendo, although it could just as easily have been for Wijnaldum. We didn't ned both of them in a game like this. Another forward or maybe Ox breaking forward from midfield would have been much more use against this kind of opponent. It probably should have been Gini that went off based on who was contributing more to the game, but Hendo had taken a couple of heavy knocks and that may have influenced Klopp’s thinking. It worked out well because the change in system to 4-2-3-1 definitely helped us, and Gini was the one who scored the goal, albeit with a huge assist from their keeper. Absolute howler that, but I’ll take it. Salah then went clean through with the chance to ice the game but he was denied by the keeper. You have to score those, but the keeper did brilliantly and when you look at the replay there’s not really too much of a gap for Mo to hit. You still expect him to finish that though. Generally we defended well and didn't have too many scares, but the excellent Fleck did produce a sensational cross that Clarke ballooned over the bar from close range late on. That was their moment and they didn't seize it. When you win games like this it feels bigger than when you wipe the floor with someone. For example, City beat Watford 8-0 last week and it didn’t bother me at all because I fully expected them to win easily. They’ll have expected us to win this one without too much trouble too, so when the game unfolds like this and it looks like we might be in trouble, it’s much harder to take for City when we find a way out of it. Put it this way, I’d have been pretty disheartened if I watched City win a game like this. Hell, I've seen them win games like this and it's horrible. The other reason it’s bigger is because the more of these close, nervy games you can win, the easier it is to keep your cool next time you’re in that situation. We're good at this though, and it's an important weapon to have in the armoury. I’ve said before that one of the things we have over City is we’re battle hardened and have come through loads of these hairy games. They usually win so comfortably that on the rare occasions they find themselves in an actual game, they tend to struggle to get the result. They lost four or five games last season and they’ve already lost one this year. Flat Track bullies, just like their manager. Us on the other hand, we know how to get down and dirty, to work hard and graft and fight for everything we get. Just like our manager. So on we go, seven games gone and seven wins in the books. The next three are going to be tough because Leicester are a good side and although United aren’t, we do have some kind of mental block when it comes to Old Trafford and we always play shite there. Then it’s Spurs at Anfield, and our games with Spurs are always on a knife edge. We’re in a difficult stretch in the fixture list and City are coming to Anfield soon after. After that it gets easier so we just need to try and get through this run unscathed and with our five point lead still intact or even stretched. Star man was Van Dijk by some distance. Robbo defended well (not great at the other end though), Fabinho and Matip both played well and Big Div more than played his part when he came on, but Van Dijk was imperious. I also want to mention Adrian. Not because he did anything special, but just because I like the cut of his jib. He’s got a confidence and assuredness about him and he looks very much at home now. Alisson will come back in when he’s ready, but Adrian has at least ensured there’s no need to rush the big man back and we can err on the side of caution with him. Champions League next, and it's a game we must win because of the result in Italy a couple of weeks ago. I'd like to think Klopp will make a few changes, but probably not too many. Origi probably deserves a start so we can rest either Mané or Salah. Maybe we'll even see all four of the forwards starting? I doubt it, not against a decent European side, but the 4-2-3-1 might well be a useful option in some league games. Personally I think we need to get Ox or Keita integrated back into the side asap because the 'three grafters' approach is fine when the forwards are clicking, but on those days when they're a little off we just need a bit extra in midfield. Salzburg look decent but it's a good opportunity to get a few of the bench players some minutes and to mix things up a little to keep the legs fresh for the more difficult challenges that lay ahead. Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson (Origi), Wijnaldum; Salah (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Firmino, Mané (Milner):

Saturday Sep 22: So six years ago we paid City a million quid after it turned out that one of the scouts we took from them still had all their log ins and was able to keep an eye on who they were scouting. How do we know this? Because City have decided to leak this info now, six years after the fact. Officially their stance was ’no comment’ but they defy fed that story to the Times. These cunts are so transparent. Last week there was a Premier League meeting with all the clubs. Obviously I don’t know what was said, but it’s a safe bet that we’ve brought up the whole FFP thing and this is how they’ve reacted. The funny thing is though nobody gives a fuck about it. And why should they? It’s not like we hacked into their system. The daft bastards didn’t follow the first law of business. When an employee leaves for a rival, you make sure you change all your passwords and disable all their log in privileges. We don’t know exactly what went on here but if it had been a hacking then they wouldn’t have just accepted a settlement, because that’s really serious and it’s the kind of thing you get heavily sanctioned for. This just looks like City being careless. Let be fair, if you’re a scout that has moved to a new job and you log in to your account and you still have access to everything from your old club, of course you’re going to have a look. It would be weird not to. Here’s the thing though, when you look at the players we actually signed that year then we either took no notice of who they wanted, or they should be fucking paying us for the shite they inadvertently recommended. Sunday Sep 23: Chelsea 1 L 2 Get the fuck in. Massive three points. Don’t care if we deserved it or not and anyone who says Chelsea deserved a point will get no argument from me. It doesn’t matter, we won. We got the three points and we’ve safely negotiated one of the most difficult games we’ll have to face. In terms of talent, Chelsea re probably the third best team in the country. They might not finish third, but its between them and Spurs as to who has the third best talent level. They showed it today. We had problems with them but I suspect a big part of that was because we were leggy after the Napoli game. We were flagging in the last 20 minutes and couldn’t keep the ball. That’s not really us, so that’s why I put it down to fatigue. The added bonus of this win is that as well as picking up three points, we’ve kicked Man City in the bollocks. They won 8-0 yesterday and will have been thinking there was a good chance this would be the weekend when they started to make inroads on us. When we had the lead last year, we had a few performances like this that ended up being draws and it cost us. They’ll have been watching this with a massive sense of frustration. In other news, Bernardo Silva is in trouble after a ridiculous tweet he made taking the piss out of his mate Mendy. I can’t believe he did that you know. I mean, in this day and age how daft do you have to be to think you can do that and not cause a massive shitstorm? Spare me all the “Bernardo is a racist” shite though. He’s not racist, he’s just fucking stupid. Incredibly, inexplicably stupid. He’s not “a racist” though and it’s just fucking lazy to throw that at him. How many racists have a black best mate? Mendy seemingly didn’t have a problem with the tweet and there was obviously no malice intended. That isn’t the point though. It was a joke between friends, so text him the fucking picture, don’t put it on social media for the entire world to see. As soon as you put it out there for millions of people, it no longer matters if Mendy is offended or not, as there’ll be countless other people who will be. I also wonder what Sterling thought? More to the point, I wonder what he’d think if it was some random fan sending the image and not his team-mate. I actually feel sorry for Bernardo here but ignorance isn’t really a defence. Has he been living under a rock? How can he not know that this kind of thing is no longer acceptable? It’s bizarre, but it’s not just this tweet either as there was some instagram stuff that was staggering as well. Intentional or not, he has to be banned for it otherwise the FA are leaving themselves open to all kinds of shit. Kick it Out are all over it, and I’m sure that Piara Power twat will kick up a stink to get himself a bit of publicity like he did with the Suarez thing. It’s an unfortunate situation but it should be a teaching point, and not just for Bernardo. Hopefully someone at LFC will use this to re-enforce with all of our lads that they need to think long and hard before they post anything on social media. Monday Sep 24: Klopp gets the FIFA coach of the year, Virgil is defender of the year and Alisson is the keeper. Big Virg didn’t get the Balon d’or though, Messi did. It’s disappointing and he probably should have won it, but it’s hard to argue too much about Messi getting it as right up until he came to Anfield he was incredible all season. Usually these awards are influenced by who won the big trophies, so Virgil can feel aggrieved. This shows that defenders are never going to win it when there’s a superstar forward involved. Maybe when Messi and Ronaldo are gone there’ll be a chance for a defender to win it, but probably not as Mbappe will be cleaning up by that point. At least Messi has taken the high ground and voted for Ronaldo the last couple of years. Prior to that he never had, and Ronaldo has still never voted for him even though you have to name there players, not one. It’s shameless behaviour, especially as Ronaldo has recently commented about how they are the two greatest players ever. So in all the years he’s voted, he’s never had Messi in the top three. Neither of them voted for Virgil this year, which is telling as they obviously didn’t want to help the competition. Messi didn’t vote for Klopp either, the snide little cunt. In his own way, he’s as much of a twat as Ronaldo. He’s just less obvious about it. Ronaldo didn’t even bother showing up, as he tends not to do when he knows he hasn’t won. The real bone of contention wasn’t who won the Ballon d’or, it was the fucking abomination that was the team of the year. Sergio Ramos, Marcelo and Modric all got in there. What the fuck? Madrid were shite last year. They didn’t win their league and they were embarrassed in Europe. Yet three of their underachieving ‘stars’ got in while Trent, Robbo and Sadio all missed out, and not a single player from Man City got in. Absolutely fucking bizarre that. Tuesday Sep 24: Also from last night, Megan Rapinoe reckons Virgil should have won it “just because of how cute he is”. Fucking hell, where to even start with that. If these awards were handed out based on “cuteness”, then sorry luv, you’d be watching Alex Morgan winning it ahead of you every year. I really can’t stand Rapinoe, the insufferable twat. Women footballers are in a constant battle to be taken seriously and to be judged on their skill and not their looks. Look at the comments any time there’s a women’s footy match on and there are always loads about who is the best looking or who has the best tits. It’s infuriating for those girls, yet here you have the most high profile female footballer doing exactly that. Yes, she was almost certainly being ironic (unless Virg is so hot that even lesbians can’t help but comment on it), but no-one got it and all she’s done is caused social media to go full on “yer da” with the “imagine if a man had said that” hot takes. Meanwhile, Klopp does a piece for the Player’s Tribune that was just incredible. The Rocky stuff in particular was brilliant, but the whole thing was just sensational. Not quite as great as the one Robbo did, but it was stirring stuff. He was absent from press conference duties today though and Ljinders stepped in. I enjoy listening to him, he’s so enthusiastic and gives you interesting tactical stuff. With Klopp having been away yesterday it’s almost as though Ljinders is in charge for this MK Dons game. I wonder how much say he’ll have in the starting line up? Just thinking aloud here, but it might be a good idea to actually let him discreetly take charge of these games to maybe groom him as Klopp’s eventual successor. Klopp himself is still talking about how Gerrard should replace him when he leaves. Firstly, I wish he’d stop referencing ‘when’ he leaves as it upsets me. Secondly, I’d rather have someone completely familiar with Klopp’s style and methods taking over if and when that time comes (otherwise you’re looking at a rebuild and fresh start, and we know that doesn’t tend to go well), and Ljinders would be top of that list. Maybe give him more responsibility now and see how it goes? Wednesday Sep 25: MK Dons 0 L 2. Good that. Entertaining game and just the outcome we wanted. In the next round, some useful run outs for the fringe players and a successful evening for most of the kids (Brewster the only one who didn’t excel). Jones looks a different player this season to the one we saw last year. He’s got his mojo back now. Elliott though, he was brilliant wasn’t he? 16 years old and he’s playing like that. Other than Milner he was the best player on the pitch and with a bit more luck he’d have had a hat-trick. Can’t wait to see him play again. Hopefully in the next round against Arsenal, but if Shaqiri is fit for that then Harvey will probably miss out. In other news today, the FA are looking into the Bernardo tweet, but Guardiola has gone on the offensive (quite literally, as what he said today was more offensive than what Bernardo did. Apparently it’s fine because the cartoon actually looks like Mendy and if this was a white fella no-one would be arsed. Well he’s right about the second part but there’s a reason for that. The fact he doesn’t seem to know what that is, is worrying. He should be charged as well, the twat, as his crime is more sinister than Bernardo’s. Thursday Sep 26: It was kind of lost in the shuffle because of how well the kids did last night, but the u23s had an EFL Cup game against Fleetwood last night and they drew 1-1. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually a hell of an effort from the kids because it was basically our u18s playing against a League One side. Right back Neco Williams got our goal. I think he scored in their last EFL Cup game too. I’m a big fan of his and have been for a couple of years. He’s really good, but he’s a natural right back, and to make it here you almost need to be a converted winger or midfield player. So it’s going to be hard for Neco but he’ll have a good career somewhere I reckon. Talented kid with a great attitude. There was a penalty shoot out (which we lost) even though it was group game and not knockout. That meant Fleetwood got an extra point. I don’t like that, I hope they don’t bring it into Champions League games. It’s ok to have draws, this isn’t America. Meanwhile, in the Mirror: “Liverpool bottled the title last season and won’t win it this year either” claims El Hadji Diouf. Meanwhile, on TLW: “El Hadji Diouf is a useless spitting cunt, the worst number nine in our history, and his opinion shouldn’t be given any kind of publicity whatsoever” claims Dave Usher. Friday Sep 27: Barca are fined €300 for tapping up Griezemann. That’s not a typo. Its actually just three hundred. Incredible. The funniest thing is they’re appealing it! The balls on them. All this Nike v New Balance thing is a bit distasteful. Everything is about money these days. We had a good relationship with NB, they were happy to match Nike’s offer but because Nike are offering a percentage of all sales we want to go with that. I mean I get it, it’s probably worth more cash and Nike is a more prestigious name. It’s just such a “modern football” story isn’t it? Guardiola has doubled down on his defence of Bernardo, once again repeating the “it looks like Mendy” and “no-one would be arsed if he was white” nonsense. I’ll double down too. This twat should be charged for these comments. Finally, the club have had their application to trademark the word ‘Liverpool” rejected.... ....and that was the week that was