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Saturday Oct 26: Danny Murphy says Liverpool would take Harry Kane over Bobby. Go home, Danny, you’re drunk. If he’d said Kane is better than Firmino then that’s a discussion that can be had. They’re totally different players but both are world class at what they do. murphy didn’t say that though, and what he said displays a staggering ignorance of how Liverpool play. I hate Harry Kane, but I’m not going to try and undermine how good he is. Similarly, I’m not claiming that Bobby is the best striker on the planet, but he is 100% the best striker on the planet for the system and style we play. Murphy should know that, and probably does. But making a daft statement like that has got people talking about him so job done, I guess. Danny Murphy the pundit is as bad as some of his critics unfairly labelled Danny Murphy the player. Meanwhile, the u18s got spanked 4-0 by City today. Not really a surprise as we’ve got a really young side this year and City are always very strong. The u23s drew 0-0 at home to Blackburn. They had no strikers as Elliott is still banned for calling Harry Kane a ‘fucking mong’ and Brewster was left out, presumably with an eye on Wednesday night. Curtis Jones only played an hour, which suggests he’ll be involved on Wednesday but won’t be starting. Neco Williams and Sepp Van den Berg didn’t play either so expect to see them against Arsenal too. Sunday Oct 27: L 2 Spurs 1 A big boy win that. Spurs may have been shite this season but we know what they can do when they’re on, and they were more up for this game than I’ve seen them all season. We were still by far the better side but they made it difficult, not least because they were time wasting from minute two. Not that I blame them, we haven’t lost at home for two and a half years so having gotten in front it made sense for them to waste as much time as they could. Of course Anthony Taylor allowed it. He also fell for the constant diving from Kane and Rose, but no surprise there. He did give us a pen, but it was so blatant that not even he could have turned that one down, especially as VAR changed tack this weekend and is now over-ruling incorrect calls (as well as some correct ones, like at Arsenal today). I thought we were outstanding today. 2-1 doesn’t reflect how well we played, but we’re just fucking relentless and never ease up until the job is done. Only for their back up keeper having the game of his life this would have been a rout. Great performances all over the pitch, but Fabinho… fucking hell. The destroying aspect of his game is the thing that gets him noticed, but not enough is made of his passing ability. So many times he was hitting those little diagonal balls out wide, and we scored from one of those. What a player. Monday Oct 28: Both Bascombe and Maddock wrote articles today highlighting the importance of Hendo in yesterday’s win (and to the team in general). I made the mistake of looking at the replies to their tweets and once again it showed that we’ve got some proper fucking joyless, sad, clueless cunts ‘following’ us. I’m sick of it to be honest. Genuinely sick of it. I’m not sure what bothers me most. The complete lack of understanding of the role Hendo (and Gini & Milner) plays and the importance of what he does bothers me, not least because more than anything it shows a lack of trust in a manager who has us top of the league, who won 97 points last season and who brought us number six. Basically if Klopp wants Henderson in his team and he’s getting results, then frankly just who the fuck are you or I to whine about it? I think what angers me more though is the lack of respect and affection - yes, affection - for a lad who has only ever given his absolute all any time he’s put the shirt on, and who has come through all kinds of adversity and criticism to become a successful captain of this club. I’m not telling you Jordan Henderson is the best midfielder in the world, but I am telling you that I fucking love the lad. What is football if you don’t have some connection and empathy with the players in the team you love? I’ll tell you what it is, it’s the NBA or the NFL where players are seen as ‘assets’ and (for the most part) their only value is how much they’ll fetch on the trade market. It always amazes me how fans of US sports teams have this detached attitude towards their stars, but much of that is because the players see it the same way. You’ll always hear players and fans of US Sports teams using the expression “it’s a business”. The emotional attachment to players just isn’t as strong as it is here, even if the term “it’s a business” now rears its ugly head now and again over here too. When I see some of these absolute tools constantly whining about Henderson and wanting him ‘upgraded’, I just think “fuck off you crying, ungrateful, never satisfied cunts”. The justification for it is completely fucking warped. “We could be doing even better if we improved on Henderson”. Even better than what? A European Cup, 97 points and a six point lead over Man City after 10 games? Do people really think we’d be doing better than that with Keita in there instead of Hendo? Because we wouldn’t. We’d almost certainly be doing worse. I’ve read that shit today from loads of different pricks on twitter and several times I’ve typed out responses along the lines of “Just fuck off you know nothing, arrogant, disrespectful FIFA generation twat and go and ‘support’ Arsenal where it’s ok to boo your captain off the field. I bet you’d love that wouldn’t you, you fucking virgin”. Then I’ve deleted the tweet without sending because it wouldn’t be a good look for TLW. I’m going to explode one day though, I won’t be able to help myself. Just have a look at these. Fucking hell. And this is only a small selection, I could have included shitloads more. This kind of shit was understandable when we were miles off the pace and knew we needed to get better all over the pitch. It’s not acceptable now, and it’s embarrassing. These cunts don’t deserve a successful team because they don’t know how to handle it. Meanwhile, Matip is out for six weeks. Well, reports say he is, but I expect Klopp will deny it and say it’s week to week. Then six weeks later he’ll return. In other news, our game at Villa will be refereed by Fat Jon Moss, while Blind Martin Atkinson is working the VAR. That unbeaten run was nice while it lasted. Tuesday Oct 29: A few weeks ago when we played MK Dons I wrote that it might be a good idea to just let Ljinders take charge of the League Cup. He did the press conference for that game and it felt like it was ‘his show’. Klopp was away that week at the FIFA awards, but this week Ljinders seems to be in charge again. He did the press conference today and he fucking nailed it. I love listening to him as he gives you insight you wouldn’t normally get. For example, he was asked about what the young players need to do to force their way into the first team. Usually you’d get the soundbites about working hard and being patient, but Pep spoke for a couple of minutes about the Spurs game and what it was that allowed us to dominate. It wasn’t what we did with the ball, it was “the 30%” of time when we didn’t have it. He pointed out that our front three were responsible for six Spurs players when we didn’t have the ball (and also mentioned the tactical and positional discipline of the middle three) and said that is what these kids have to learn because talent isn’t enough. It was great, as was him quoting Shankly and declaring that “our identity is intensity”. He’s great, I love his passion and after watching this he had me believing that not only will we win tomorrow night, we might just win this trophy even while playing kids the whole way through. Kelleher, Elliot, Brewster, Van Den Berg and my boy Neko Williams are all set to start tomorrow, while Jones should also play some part as it would be harsh leaving him out given how well he played last time. I’m looking forward to it. With all of those lads involved tomorrow, the u21s were badly under-strength against Accrington’s first team tonight and they lost 5-2 away. Entering this competition was a good idea, but it’s not worked out how we’d have wanted because ideally you’d want the strongest u21 side facing these lower league clubs as it’s good for their development. Instead, because of the clash with the League Cup, we’ve twice had to send out makeshift sides. Now we’re out. Good idea in theory but in practice we could probably have done without it. Wednesday Oct 30: L 5 Arsenal 5. What an amazing night. The stakes might not have been high, but this was just so much fun that I’ll be buzzing about it for a good while. Seeing the kids going out there and showing the kind of never say die, fight till the end mentality they’ve picked up from the senior side was just fantastic. I loved it. We made so many mistakes and gifted Arsenal four of their five goals, yet nothing could dampen their enthusiasm for the game. In the last 20 minutes of the game, it was Jones, Elliott, Brewster and Williams leading the charge and forcing the issue. They were the ones on the ball, driving us forward. It was just brilliant to see. Of course it was Big Div who delivered for us yet again, but without the contributions of the kids we couldn’t have pulled this off. Williams was terrific. Man of the match for me. Brewster didn’t have the kind of game he probably wanted as he didn’t get many sights of goal, but his work rate and appetite for the game were phenomenal. He impressed me and I’ve not really been as big a fan of him as most seem to be. Elliott just looks the business, and I thought the game turned for us when Jones replaced the completely ineffectual Keita. Jones is seriously talented, it’s just about finding his best position now and then allowing him to develop. Klopp said he didn’t care about conceding five or the mistakes that caused it. That’s easy to say when 1) we won and 2) the stakes aren’t high and no-one would be that arsed if we lost. I bet Emery doesn’t feel like that. At least I’d hope he doesn’t. Arsenal should be embarrassed at the way they were outplayed by a team with six teenagers in. I know it wasn’t their first choice line up either but they had more experience than us and this side has been playing together in the Europa League. We had more shots and almost double the amount of possession. And four of their goals were gifts, they actually created fuck all themselves. Now we’ll see who we get next. Oxford or Colchester would be nice, but one of those has already been earmarked for City of course. I wouldn’t mind getting Everton at Anfield. We could play the u16s and still win the game. Thursday Oct 31: Villa away then. Not the worst draw we could have had but it’s not far off it. The toughest game would have been City but there’s no chance of that happening because we’re not some lower league slapdicks and therefore that makes us ineligible to face City in the cup. Of course they got Oxford, I don’t even know why they were even in the draw. In future, save us the charade and just take out the names of City and the weakest team left in, and then draw for everyone else. Getting Villa would not have been bad if it was at Anfield. Our kids could have beaten them with the crowd behind them. The team that played last night though is not beating their first team at Villa Park, so this is probably the end of the road now. That’s if we even play the fixture. We might just pull out depending on when they want us to play it. It clashes with the World Club Cup, and there has been some suggestion that we could play both games with two different teams. Sorry, but that doesn’t work. We play two matches in three days in that World club thingy, which means we need to take a squad of twenty odd players. So that’s the first eleven plus the lads who played last night. So who the fuck is going to be left behind to face Villa? We can’t send our u18 side out against Villa’s first team as they might get humiliated. So unless they rearrange that game we should pull out of the competition. Friday Nov 1: Klopp got shirty today with a reporter who asked him about the fixture problems. His argument is that any time he answers a question like that it is spun to sound like “Klopp is moaning again about how we do things over here”. He’s right, but it’s a bit unfair on the journos in that room as they’re all largely pro-LFC and sympathetic to his plight. It’s the talking heads you see on Sky and the knobs on Talksport that are the issue here. Klopp shouldn’t be the one pointing out how ridiculous this situation is, or that the Nations League competition is a terrible idea that simply means a lot of players are being run into the ground. It’s a discussion that SHOULD be taking place regardless of whether Klopp speaks about it or not, but that’s not how the world works and for the reporters in that press conference, the only way they’re going to be given licence by their editors to write about this issue is if they’re running quotes from Klopp about it. Another thing of interest from his presser was how he handled the question about possibly leaving out Fabinho tomorrow to ensure he avoids a booking and is free to face City next week. He said he hadn’t decided but if he plays then he’ll be told “no challenges!”. He’s joking obviously, but for me I think it’s an easy decision. Fabinho gets the day off. That’s not about taking Villa lightly as I think it’s a tough game. It’s just that Fabinho would be one of our most important players against City. Would he be one of our most important against Villa? Not for me. We could play Gini at the six and bring Ox or Lallana into midfield tomorrow. If Fabinho plays and gets a yellow I’ll be fucking seething. Meanwhile Jamie O’Hara (former Spurs for those of you who have understandably forgotten him) says that Scott McTominay would get in our side because he’s better than Henderson. He said it on Talksport, you won’t be shocked to hear. It’s like they’re having a contest to see who can make the most ridiculous claim. We’re getting more and more like US sports coverage now, where having a hot take gets you noticed and therefore makes you more ‘marketable’. If you follow American sports you know what I’m talking about. The likes of Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless have made a good career from talking absolute shite and getting people riled up. It’s getting like that over here, only whereas it used to be people like Adrian Durham doing it, now it’s people who actually played the game and should know better. Danny Murphy was at it last week. I refuse to believe he’s as stupid as he often comes across, but if you get people talking then that’s half the battle these days. McTominay better than Henderson. Fucking hell. I’m not going to search twitter though as the sight of loads of so called Reds agreeing with him would tip me over the edge. …..and that was the week that was

That was so much fun. It might only be the League Cup, but this is a game that will be remembered for a long time. It was great wasn’t it? We know the first team can pull off results like this, but seeing a bunch of teenagers doing the same was just brilliant. Winning this cup isn’t something I dream of or even care about. I mean it’d be nice if we did win it and I want us to win every game we play. What I’m saying is I wouldn’t risk any first choice players in an attempt to win the thing because it’s just not that important. It’s not worth risking our star players, and besides, there’s something special about seeing the young lads given an opportunity and grasping it like this. Despite not being bothered about winning the competition, I badly wanted to win this game and I think everyone felt the same. The crowd were into it, the players put everything they had into it and Klopp looked like he was going to cry with joy afterwards. It was fucking great. I wanted to win the game but I wouldn’t have lost any sleep about going out of the competition. Something changed during the game though and all of a sudden it began to feel really important and I desperately wanted us to turn them over. I know why. It was because of the reaction of Arsenal’s players when they scored and then listening to their fans crowing like this was a proper game. All of a sudden it started to feel much more important than it was. Arsenal were acting like they were beating Big Virg, Bobby, Sadio, Robbo, Mo and the boys. In reality, they were facing half a dozen teenagers and some senior lads who needed game time. Hearing the gloating coming from the away end just made me want us to stick it to the fuckers, and we did. The second half display was great. The first half was a bit of a train wreck. It started well enough, with Ox running onto a nice ball from Neco Williams and picking out Mustafa in the middle for a close range finish. With that clown in the box it’s just as profitable putting the ball near him than your own strikers. It was a confident start from the lads but then it started go wrong after Arsenal equalised. We brought it on ourselves by losing the ball cheaply. Ox I think it was, lost the ball with a sloppy pass and it put us on the back foot. We never really recovered from it, though Torreira was offside when he put the ball in the net. No VAR in this competition though. No matter, I’m not going to complain about the absence of VAR as I fucking hate it. One concern I have though is that the linos might become sloppy because they know VAR is there to bail them out in league games. The guy who didn’t give this should be doing a better job on that call, even if it wasn’t the easiest one to get right. Soon after it was 2-1 as Origi fell asleep at a free-kick and allowed Maitland-Niles in behind him. Van den Berg got a foot on the cross and the ball was going behind for a corner when Kelleher pushed it back into play and straight into the path of the Arsenal striker who smashed it in. We were all over the place at this point and we gave away a third with yet more sloppy play. It was Elliott who gave the ball away with a careless pass under pressure, but it was symptomatic of how we were overplaying at the back. It felt as though we were just inviting pressure on ourselves. We were in real trouble at that point and another wild 3-6 scoreline looked like it might be on the cards. We got back into it before the break when Elliott won a penalty and Milner converted it. If we could sort things out at the back I felt that we’d win it because Arsenal are just bottlers. You put pressure on them and they crack. The problem was instead of putting pressure on them, we relieved it by handing them three goals. They hadn’t had to work for any of them, which was the most disappointing thing. All presents handed to them, gift wrapped with a nice big bow on them. Surprisingly, the senior players were our biggest problem in the first half. Not Lallana, he was fine and did everything he could. But Origi was poor, Keita did fuck all and Ox wasn’t much better, although unlike Keita at least he looked interested. For once even Milner wasn’t good and I wasn’t overly impressed with Gomez either. He was fine in terms of his own responsibilities, but there didn’t really seem to be too many senior players looking to help out Van Den Berg, who at times had a rabbit in the headlights look about him. Shades of Danny Ayala against Norwich. You know what though, the kid is 17 and playing in the most difficult position on the pitch. Put it this way, it’s much easier if you’re Elliott playing on the right wing than if you’re a kid playing centre back. He struggled but he didn’t get enough help. He’s clearly not ready for this but then anyone who has watched the u23s this season already knew that. If Hoever had been available then Van den Berg wouldn’t have played but he stuck at it and in the second half I thought he did better, much like the rest of the side. Except Keita. I was disgusted by his showing if I’m honest. This is a game where he had a chance to really lay down a marker for a first team spot, but he was just so fucking passive and half arsed. Where is the human wrecking ball we saw playing for Leipzig? He sometimes shows flashes that gets people far too excited but so far, the truth is that he’s done fuck all. I’m not writing him off because Klopp doesn’t get it wrong very often. I tell you something though, if Henderson had performed like Keita did in this game then twitter would have exploded in a fury of rage from the “LFC Family”. Keita eventually cried off injured but the truth is he never looked like he fancied it anyway. I was calling for him to be replaced by Jones ten minutes before it happened. I didn’t expect it to happen and had he not picked up an injury then it probably wouldn’t, but to me that substitution turned the game in our favour. We were 4-2 down at that point after Milner had made a shocking error to gift Arsenal yet another goal. Truly appalling stuff again and we were really our own worst enemies all night. Jones coming on changed things massively though. He was demanding the ball and he was positive with it. He got in and around the box and he made things happen. He was everything that Keita wasn’t. Ox blasted us back into it out of absolutely nowhere. Incredible strike. We had Arsenal on the ropes and soon after Jones found Origi in the box and he turned and lashed in the equaliser. We were flying around the pitch now and the crowd was bouncing, but yet again we conceded. This one wasn’t a gift, it was a fantastic individual effort from Willock, who carried the ball forward and hammered one in from 30 yards. Not really anything Kelleher could do, but I reckon Alisson keeps that out. Not sure Adrian would have, but I don’t see Alisson being beaten by that as he’s just bigger and more agile. Maybe I’m wrong, but either way I’m not criticising Kelleher as it was a great goal. So once again having clawed our way back we were behind again. I said to my Dad with five minutes left that I was sure we’d equalise. The names on the team sheet are different but the mentality was clearly the same and you could just feel the goal coming. Plus we had the miracle man Origi in there. This game wasn’t anywhere near as important as some of the others that he’s won for us, but it is yet another memorable game we’ll be reminiscing about in years to come that he has played a central role in. He had a poor first half but came up huge in the second. The keeper probably should have saved both of his goals, but he didn’t and once again Origi was the hero. Well, one of them. This night mostly belonged to the kids, who all did themselves proud. Some stood out more than others but the attitude and mentality from all of them was outstanding. One player who was good from start to finish was my boy Neco Williams. He was a surprise selection and has almost come from nowhere really. He’s only been with the first team for three weeks but he’s been having a good season with the 23s. He’s been on my radar for a couple of years, I really like him. I may have written this before, in the diary, but around 18 months I was talking to someone well connected at the Academy and I mentioned that Neco was probably my favourite player in the u18s. I was told “He was Stevie’s too, he loves him”. Gerrard had just left his job with the 18s to go to Rangers but I was told that Neco was his blue eyed boy, even though there were more highly touted kids in that set up (including Jones and Brewster). Now we see why. I thought he was outstanding. The problem for someone like Neco is that he’s a genuine, traditional full back. He’s good at everything and in any previous era he’d have a real chance at making it. Now though? The way we play, the full backs are actually the main creative force. Being good going forward isn’t enough. You need to be great. Trent is the best attacking right back you’ll find, while Robbo is the best all around left back in the world. It’s going to be virtually impossible for anyone to break through. Converted wingers have more chance of making it, although Larouci not being selected for this game shows that defensive nous is still valued too. Williams had put in a few poor crosses but he delivered when it mattered most, picking out Origi in stoppage time for the equaliser. It was a highly accomplished debut from him. Of the other youngsters, Elliott impressed with his maturity and confidence once again. He just doesn’t play like a 16 year old. He wants the ball all the time and he’s always looking to make something happen. He stood a ball up perfectly for Origi to attack in the first half (should have scored, poor header) and he won the penalty that got us back into it. Van den Berg I’ve mentioned. The game will do him good but we might not see him for a while as he has some developing to do. Jones looks like he could contribute now if given the opportunity, but with so many players ahead of him chances are going to be hard to come by. He looks like the natural replacement for Lallana when he moves on though. And what of Brewster? I’ve said before that I’ve never seen anything from him to make me think the hype is justified, and I still haven’t. I’ve seen enough from Elliott to know he’s special, and I’ve seen glimpses from Jones that suggest he might be too. Brewster though? I’ve not seen it yet, but he can be proud of what he did in this game. I loved his determination and drive in that second half. He refused to accept we would lose this game and he simply never stopped. He was Firmino-Like in his work-rate and his willingness to drop deep and get involved. He didn’t score but he more than played his part. And of course he stepped up and buried a penalty, showing once again that he’s got a strong mentality. It was just great to see the kids doing what they’ve seen the senior lads doing. In the last 20 minutes or so of this game, Elliott, Jones, Williams and Brewster were relentless and just grew stronger and stronger and were demanding the ball all the time. I was so impressed with their mentality. It’s really encouraging to see that the time spent at Melwood, in and around the squad, sat on the bench on matchdays, all of that stuff has paid off. They know what it means to be Liverpool players. You could see it in the way they kept pushing and pushing. This was their “Barcelona”. Arsenal must have been completely demoralised when it went to penalties. They kept thinking they’d delivered the knockout blow but we kept sitting back up like the Undertaker. Twice we came back from two goals down, and when they made it 5-4 they must have thought they’d finally ended our resistance. Nah, sorry lads, this is Klopp’s Liverpool. This is Anfield. Doesn’t matter if it’s a team of kids or not. We scored all five penalties, with Jones showing the confidence (cockiness even) to insist on swapping with Origi and taking the decisive fifth pen. It was decisive because Kelleher made a brilliant save from Ceballos. The scenes at full time were great. Wasn’t it just fucking boss seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces? It reminded me of when we beat Spurs with a team of kids. Mellor, Potter, Raven, Pongolle, Whitbread etc To me, that’s the magic of the league cup. That’s what it should be about now. The first team winning games in this competition would mean virtually nothing to me, but when the young lads get a chance and do something like this, it’s fantastic and brings smiles to everyone’s faces. Klopp must have been so proud. I knew exactly what he’d say afterwards because you could see it in his face during and immediately after the game. “I loved it”. “I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun at a game”. Yep, that’s about right. He’s the ultimate football man, he just loves it, and seeing the kids come in and play like that will have had him buzzing almost as much as beating Barcelona. It’s different of course. It’s not as important, it wasn’t the high stakes, high pressure occasion and it obviously won’t be as memorable. But in terms of pleasure there will have been a similarity for Klopp in how much he enjoyed it, not least because there was no pressure concerning the result. Losing wouldn’t have had any real consequences, so that makes it much easier to have fun. It was almost like a free hit, there was more pressure on Arsenal because although they also fielded a weakened side, they would have been expected to win given the respective strengths of the two teams. This was Arsenal’s Europa League side. They’ve had experience of playing together and their fans will have expected them to win. Yet we battered them. The score was 5-5 but in terms of chances and possession, we were dominant. Most of Arsenal’s goals were gift wrapped from our mistakes rather than from them playing through us. Klopp said afterwards that he doesn’t care about the mistakes because it was such a great night for us. I feel the same. Without those mistakes we wouldn’t have had the drama of a 5-5 draw and a win on penalties. If I was an Arsenal fan though I’d be fucking seething at my side for conceding five goals to a team containing half a dozen teenagers. They’re soft as shite though Arsenal, so the fans probably expect this kind of thing now. The draw for the next round hasn’t been kind. Had it been at Anfield then this team could beat Villa. Can they go and win at Villa Park against a full strength team though? I doubt it, but you never know. They certainly deserve the chance, and with the amount of other games we have around that time then no doubt they’ll get it. They might be joined by more kids too, as the likes of Ox, Gomez, Milner and Origi are going to be needed in the more important games. Regardless of what happens at Villa Park, it’s great that these lads will have another chance to play and I for one can’t wait to watch it. All hail the mini “mentality monsters”! Team: Kelleher; Williams, Gomez, Van den Berg, Milner; Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Chirivella), Keita (Jones); Elliott, Brewster, Origi: