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Saturday Nov 23: Palace 1 L 2 Another week another arse twitching win. Feels like almost all of our games this season have finished 2-1 and loads of them have seen us win it late. We can’t do that indefinitely but it won’t matter if we’ve built up a big enough lead. We’ve already won loads of games that we could easily not have and it feels like we haven’t really played well for a lot of the season. That's probably not true but it feels like that because so many of our games have ended up on knife edge. Our record is incredible but the performances have not always been. There are two ways to look at that. Maybe we’re pacing ourselves and will come on stronger in the second half of the season (we usually do) or maybe this is who we are now. Maybe we aren’t that wildly exciting crazy team that would win 4-0 or 5-1 virtually every week but then lose a stupid one completely out of the blue to undermine it all. Maybe now we’re just a winning machine, grinding out three points week after week without ever really crushing anybody like we used to but also never dropping stupid points. The front three are definitely not the unstoppable force they were two years ago and that’s the main difference I think. Sadio is better than he was two years ago but Bobby and Mo aren’t producing the same numbers and that’s the main reason we’re winning 2-1 every week instead of hitting four or five. Recently I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit. Are they not playing as well or have teams just figured out ways to restrict us? I wouldn’t say we’ve been 'found out', because we’re European Champions and have only lost one league game in 18 months!! Something has changed though. Those devastating length of the field counter attacks we were seeing all the time have all but disappeared. I can only assume it’s because teams are much more careful against us now because the fear factor is there. We’ve had to adapt because we get less space and as a result of that we’re less of a counter attacking side and more of a patient build up one. It’s working for us and the points speak for themselves, it’s just not as thrilling to watch and it's a lot more stressful when games are in the balance right up until the final whistle. Still, if it brings us the title though then I’ll take a 2-1 win every week thanks. Sunday Nov 24: Eden Hazard says a Liverpool player should win the Balon d’Or and his choice would be Sadio. He’s defo getting more and more traction now and it wouldn’t be undeserved if he won, but the problem is that he’s taking votes of Virg and that will no doubt open the door for Messi. Let’s not kid ourselves, he’ll win it again because he’s "the world’s best player". By that rationale though, he should have won it pretty much every year that he’s played. The reason he hasn’t is because it has often been determined that someone else (usually Ronaldo) - while being an inferior talent - has had a better year than him. Just like Virgil in 2019. Messi will win it though. I doubt Virg gives much of a fuck about it anyway. The fans will be more upset about it than him. Meanwhile, Naby Keita is one of the nominees for African Player of the Year. Who the fuck is voting for this? If it’s the public then that can be explained away by the lack of TVs in many African households, but if it’s the players and / or coaches then what the fuck?? He’s barely played for club or country and when he did he usually got injured. Monday Nov 25: Jadon Sancho has reportedly decided he wants out of Dortmund at the end of the season and we’re one of four clubs linked to him. I’ll be honest, I’ve seen virtually nothing of him because I don’t watch the Bundesliga and I sure as hell don’t watch England games. He’s meant to be class, but to me he’s very much the consolation prize if we don’t get Mbappe. Kind of like failing to pull Kylie but ending up with Danni. Neil Critchley is going to take charge of the League Cup semi. Makes sense, as it’s going to be his team taking the field. I’d guess the line up will be something like Kelleher, Williams, Hoever, Van Den Berg, Larouci, Chirivella, Lewis, Kane, Elliott, Brewster, Jones. I can’t wait actually. They’ll probably lose and might even lose heavily. But imagine they won? How exciting would that be? Villa have said they “fully respect” our decision to field the kids. Of course they do, it’s virtually given them a bye to the semis, but even if they did have a problem with it so what? There’s literally nothing else we can do here, unless people actually think we should send the kids to the World Club Cup instead? FIFA would love that! Even if you take the prestige out of it, take a look at the prize money for both competitions and that tells you all you need to know. I actually think Klopp would privately admit he doesn’t want to reach the league cup semis anyway as that’s two games he could do without. Personally I’d love us to get there just so the kids could have another run out, but the downside to that is we could end up getting City. It wouldn’t be fair to play the kids then, which would mean extra games for senior players. So yeah, I reckon Klopp is hoping we give a good account of ourselves at Villa but lose. Speaking of Klopp, he and Guardiola both gave speeches at the Footy Writers Awards do and they were both really good. You expect that from Jurgen, he’s a funny guy, but I’ll give some grudging praise to Guardiola too as he was good. I may have said this before, but there is one thing I have to give him credit for, and that is that he never tries to hide his fear / admiration of Klopp and the Reds. A lot of managers would downplay it but he’s the opposite. He’s secure enough in his own skin that he’ll admit the effect we have on his psyche. In this speech he joked about how much our late goals are doing his head in and it was funny. He even managed to joke that “Man City will pay for all this (the cost of the bar etc) because we are rich” and somehow it didn’t make him sound like a twat. I still can’t stand him, but if he wasn’t at City I probably wouldn’t mind him. Tuesday Nov 26: He’s at it again. ”Liverpool have six (European trophies) and this club have one semi-final. We are far away from the 'You'll Never Walk Alone' team and that is the reality. But I like the Premier League because when you win a lot in the league you live eleven months of the year happy.” See, this is what I mean. If that was me, I’d be saying fuck all to acknowledge that the Reds have more pedigree and prestige than City, but Guardiola doesn’t have any problem being complimentary. I bet City’s press office are having fucking kittens over it though, the sad, obsessed losers. Meanwhile, Brewster will reportedly be allowed to go on loan in January. It’s a no brainer really, the lad was supposed to be going to play a significant role this year but he can’t even make the bench most weeks. Keeping him around in case of emergency might be prudent, but it’s not really fair. Let him go and play and let’s see what he’s made of. We’ve got four others who can play centre forward and we’ll have Shaqiri and Elliott to come in if either Sadio or Mo has to move central. I want to see Brewster playing every week, ideally in the Prem but more likely in the Championship. Wednesday Nov 27: L 1 Napoli 1 Shite that. Didn’t deserve to win and it’s really annoying how Napoli continue to make us look bang average. They aren’t even that good, but put them up against us and they raise their game about 200%. They know how to stifle us so let’s hope Ancelotti stays put and doesn’t end up back in this country, where he can do this shit to us twice a year. I'm sick to death of Napoli, their shithouse fans, shithouse players (I'd never tire of punching that Allan in his stupid face), shitty kit and their kryptonite like effect on us. Thankfully they're doing shite in Serie A so with any luck they won't qualify next year and we won't have to play them again for a while. Mind you, we could get them in the knock outs this year. If we make it that is. It’s annoying as fuck that we can never make things easy for ourselves. Winning tonight would have allowed us a night off in Salzburg, but now we need to go there and get something against a side who are dangerous because they’re so free-scoring and fearless in how they play. They won’t give a fuck about our reputation, they have nothing to lose and they’ll just fly at us over there. We should still have enough to go through, but we’ve made it needlessly difficult by not winning tonight. The kids fared better though, slaughtering Napoli 7-0 at the Academy. It was 5-0 inside half an hour. Curtis Jones bagged a hat-trick and frankly it wasn’t really fair letting him play in this game, because he was so far ahead of everyone else on the pitch it was frightening. You know when you watch Messi just take the piss and people can’t get near him? Jones was like that in this game. He was just far too good for Napoli and completely ran the show. Neco Williams was brilliant at right back too. He’s had a spectacular couple of months and might just be one good game against Villa away from becoming Trent’s understudy, especially based on Joe’s struggles tonight. Villa should be shitting themselves if they watched this, as our kids looked like superstars. The best bit was defo Jones and Elliott having a disagreement over who was taking a penalty. Jones pulled rank as captain (and scored) but Elliott had the hump. As Jones made his way back to halfway he put his finger to his lips and shouted across the pitch “Harvey, shut your mouth or I’ll take the next one as well. Shut your mouth”. He later posted a photo of them hugging and said “thanks to my little brother for the pass for my second”. He never mentioned the penalty incident. I find this hilarious though, as it’s the kind of thing a big brother would do to his younger brother. “Shut your mouth or I’ll take the next one as well”. Tremendous. Thursday Nov 28: What an utterly heartbreaking day for the Hillsborough families. I can’t say I’m shocked by the verdict because it’s exactly what I expected. When people allowed themselves to believe that justice was finally going to be done, my view was that I’ll believe it when it happens. The establishment in this country doesn’t answer to anyone. They do what they like, to whom they like, without any comeback. They did it back in ’89, and they’re still doing it now. At the inquest Duckenfield admitted his actions caused the disaster and he admitted he then lied about it. The verdict was that the fans were completely blameless and that the 96 were unlawfully killed. For some stupid legal reason, none of that was deemed relevant to this case, so Duckenfield and his fucking scumbag cunt lawyer took advantage and did a complete about face, taking no responsibility for it and went back to blaming the fans again. Imagine being one of the family members, sat in court listening to that? I hope Duckenfield dies a slow, painful death and fucking rots in hell, along with all the other cunts responsible for the deaths and subsequent cover up. I just don’t really know what else to say about it. The burning anger and feeling of helplessness I feel is nothing to what the families must be feeling. I wish there was something we could do to ease their suffering, but there isn’t. We’re powerless. I hate this country and the cunts who run it. In fact, people in general these days just suck. So many of the world’s population are just horrible, uncaring, vile bastards. For example, the PL put out a tweet today in support of the rainbow laces campaign and the replies to it were just thoroughly disgusting. Just what the fuck is wrong with people? Why would you be arsed about other people’s sexual preferences? The objection to the laces seems to be that this “gay thing” is being forced upon them. Footballers are wearing rainbow laces, they’re not sucking each other off on the field in front of you. Get a grip you fucking bellends. Even if you think that way, why would you be that arsed that you feel the need to share that view with the world? Fucking weirdos. The reason the rainbow laces campaign is necessary is because of the exact same cunts who are objecting to it. If they weren’t so intolerant, this wouldn’t even be a thing. It’s symptomatic of everything that is wrong with the world that something like this can illicit that kind of a response from people. Imagine being upset because of a rainbow laces campaign. Fucking hell. Friday Nov 29: Fabinho is out for up to eight weeks. Not great news like. We’ve never lost a game that he’s played and he’s probably second only to Van Dijk in his importance. Most of the games we’ve got shouldn’t be too challenging but Leicester away is going to be extra tough and Salzburg is going to be even more tricky and those pesky little bastards will be running at us from all angles. I expect Gini will be the main one to fill in more often than not, but Hendo and even Lallana (but only in the easiest of games) will see some time there too. What it does mean is that one of the box to box spots will be available more often now, so either Ox or (don’t laugh) Keita are going to have to step up. Meanwhile, I watched a youtube interview with Klopp today where he was talking about his time at Mainz. I’m not sure if I knew this or not, but if I did I’d forgotten it (happens a lot since I turned 40). Mainz missed out on promotion by one point and the next year they missed out by one goal. That would have killed a lot of teams but the next year they did it. Klopp described it as his greatest achievement, as he said doing that with Mainz was more difficult than winning the Champions League with Liverpool. Which was the more difficult task isn’t really important. What I took from it was that this goes a long way to showing how we won the European Cup a year after losing the final in heartbreaking circumstances, and why we’re now top of the league after missing out last year despite finishing with 97 points. Setbacks that would destroy a lot of people just make Klopp even more determined. He calls his team “mentality monsters” but really it all stems from him. They’re just following his lead. What a guy. Finally, that advert with the CGI Bob Paisley? No. Just no. Pure cringe. ….and that was the week that was

Last week I wrote about how stressful these 2-1 wins have been and that it would be nice to finally have a routine 4-0 for a change. I had hoped this might be it, but no, it was another 2-1 in which we had to watch the closing stages with clenched arse cheeks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. What’s to complain about? I read that we’ve taken 67 points from the last 69 available, which is an astonishing achievement. So yeah, this is great. I’d just like to have a relatively stress free game once in a while. For a team this good it really shouldn’t be too much to ask. In theory we should be thumping Brighton at Anfield. Over recent seasons we’ve generally spanked the ‘lesser’ sides and haven’t had much trouble with any of them. For a while this looked to be going the same way as we raced into a two goal lead, but it ended up being a real slog even before the late drama with the sending off and the scandalous situation around the free-kick. So what went wrong? A combination of things I’d say. Brighton are better than I realised. They lack quality but you can see they are extremely well coached. With better players they’d be quite dangerous. They reminded me of Swansea under Brendan. Everyone knew where he should be when they had the ball, and the way they played out from the back through our press time and again was very impressive. That coach knows what he’s doing, but theres only so much you can do to bridge a massive gap in quality and we could easily have scored more than the two we did. We didn’t get the third goal which would have made it comfortable and from about half an hour onwards I thought we looked leggy. Maybe the midweek game against Napoli caught up with us. Still, up until Alisson’s moment of madness we didn’t look in any danger. That, combined with them scoring from the free-kick, was the turning point and after that it was all hands to the pump. We were hanging on a bit, but the defence held out without any real drama. It all started so well as we peppered Matt Ryan’s goal. He denied Bobby twice and Ox once, but was powerless to stop Big Virg twice heading in pinpoint deliveries from Trent. There’s virtually nothing you can do to stop those goals. Maybe on the first they could have held a high line and played offside, but the second goal is impossible to prevent. Perfect ball in that is met by the tallest man on the field. Whaddayannado? The longer the game went on though the more laboured we began to look. Brighton had loads of the ball and looked impressive without really being dangerous. We had a couple of clear chances in the second half but Lewis Dunk was on hand to make terrific blocks. I watched him closely in the second half because I was sat in the Kop for this one and had a good view of his performance. He was outstanding. He’s the player that people think Harry Maguire is. He even got himself on the scoresheet, although he could - maybe should - have matched Virgil and bagged a couple. The one he got was well taken but from our point of view was a complete shambles. Leaving aside the disgraceful intervention of Martin Atkinson for a second, the incident that led to the free-kick was amateur hour stuff. I don’t know how that happened. Virgil was miles out of position and Lovren somehow had two runners to deal with. He may have got back to cover the danger but we’ll never know. I don’t know what Alisson was thinking. It wasn’t that he came charging out needlessly, it was that he was already out there. His starting position was so high that he was caught in no mans land. If he came out he wasn’t going to get it, but if he ran back it would be easy for the striker to lob him. So in the end he did neither. He half came out and ended up blocking the shot with his hand. Clear red card and there can be no argument about that. What happened after that though, fucking hell. Honestly, it was an absolute disgrace and for the life of me I don’t know why more hasn’t been made of it. Apparently that goal shouldn’t have stood because Brighton had players in / around the wall and the law has changed now so that isn’t allowed. I didn’t even know that until I saw Keith Hackett tweeting about it so that’s not why I was spitting feathers about it. Even now I’m not really too arsed about that oversight because I’m fucking steaming about Atkinson basically conspiring with Dunk to screw us over. Yes, that’s right, I said it, he conspired with Dunk. The Brighton defender saw Adrian on the post lining up the wall and he asked Atkinson if he could take the free-kick. Not only did he give him permission, he then blew the whistle unexpectedly to let him go. We had no wall and Adrian was stood on the post trying to line them up. Dunk didn’t even hit the free-kick with any power, he just cleverly passed it into the far corner. Heads up play by him but it’s a fucking disgrace that was allowed to happen. It’s either incompetence or cheating, take your pick. When do you ever see a referee allow something like that to happen? Virtually never. They either allow a quick one or they wait until everyone is ready. There is no in-between. As I said, I can’t believe more hasn’t been made of it because this is a fucking scandal, especially given the recent history with us and this referee. It genuinely blows my mind that this was allowed to happen and that no-one other than Hendo (and Adrian) really seemed as outraged by it as I am. It was sinister as fuck. I’ll say again, that shit just doesn’t ever happen, so why now? Because Martin Atkinson is continually trying to shaft us for some reason, that’s why. I was pissed off at the time but having since watched the replay of the game again and saw how the whole thing unfolded, I’m way beyond that now. Pissed off doesn’t even come close. This shit needs investigating. I’ve watched it again in full a few times to get the full picture of how it unfolded, and it gets worse every time. Adrian had to come on to the field unexpectedly, so he isn’t warmed up and he’s been thrown into a difficult situation. He should be given a bit of leeway for that, but it’s not like he’s taking the piss with how long he took. He runs onto the field and as he reaches the box he tells Hendo that he wants five in the wall. Then he goes to the goal to put his towel in the net and then immediately prepares to line up the wall. At this point Atkinson though is still getting them back ten yards so Adrian can’t really do anything until that’s done. Atkinson then walks back towards the ball, so Adrian is then lining up the wall and telling players to move across to cover the side of the goal he’s on. The opposite side is his responsibility so it’s completely unguarded. Then while this is happening - and we’re talking a matter of seconds here - Dunk asks if he can take it. What the fuck is Atkinson thinking by telling him “yeah go on then”. Not just that, but look at Atkinson’s position. He’s right next tot he ball when he’s supposed to be away from it so he can see everything happening in the box. Like I say, it’s fucking scandalous and the club should be reporting him. In the last few weeks we’ve had him not giving the foul on Origi that cost us a goal at United, we’ve had him in the VAR booth disallowing a perfectly valid goal by Firmino and now this. He’s also the same twat who last season didn’t send off Maguire (who later scored) and who failed to give a penalty for the most blatant of fouls on Keita, both decisions that contributed hugely to costing us two points. He’s a cunt. He’s screwed us out of the title last season and he’s trying to screw us over again this time at every opportunity. It couldn’t be clearer as far as I’m concerned and I just wish the club would call him out on it and demand he’s kept away from our games. That goal changed everything. We had tired legs, we were a man down and Brighton had their tails up. It was a proper grind after that. We couldn’t get out of our own half and the ball kept coming back at us, not least because of Origi’s inability to even compete for aerial challenges let alone win any. The lads defended stoutly though and did a great job shuttling across and filling gaps. Lallana played a key role in that I thought, even though the fella behind me was repeatedly calling him “a fucking shithouse” and complaining that “he hasn’t made a tackle since he came on”. He wasn’t there to try and make tackles you soft cunt. His job wasn’t to over commit himself and let Brighton play around him. It was to fill space, close down angles and protect his full back. He did that, and he was sprinting from the second he came on until the second it was over. The midfielders did a great job in that last ten, as did the back four. Adrian was there when he was needed too and barring one fumble that for a heart stopping moment looked like it would squirm into the net, he was great. That was such a difficult situation he was thrown into but he did what we needed him to. It’s a huge three points but then they all are. I seem to be saying this every week, but it’s more due to how we are winning than anything. If we’d won 5-0 would we be saying what a huge three points it was? Probably not, but because so many of these games have been in the balance until the final whistle, the wins feel so much more important. I love the fight and character this team show in all manner of different situations though. They’re going to need it in spades over the coming weeks because legs look a little heavy already and the fixture list hasn’t even really kicked in yet. Maybe we need to rotate a little as most of these lads have played every game. Mo hasn’t been at his best for a while. Maybe the injury is bothering him or maybe he’s just not in the best of form. Bobby is hot and cold as well. Gino and Hendo seem to play every single game and get very little rest. Leaving any of them out is a big risk but we can’t just keep sending out the same group of players every three or four days. Something has to give, but when we made changes against Napoli (even though it was only two of them) the team didn’t play well and for some people (not me) it was the changes that were responsible for that. It’s a difficult needle to thread and it will be interesting to see what Klopp does for the derby. Origi has tormented Everton at Anfield and he’d be full of confidence if he started. I’d be tempted to roll him out there as he’s like the fucking bogeyman as far as Everton are concerned. I don’t know what to expect on Wednesday. My gut instinct is it’s going to be another tense, tight, stressful one but maybe they’ll surprise us and deliver the kind of beating we haven’t seen since… I dunno, Norwich on opening night was probably the last one. We really could do with a couple of those performances where we have an early blitz and the game is over by half time, as it must be mentally (as well as physically) exhausting having to be at maximum concentration right down to the last second every week. So can we just spank Everton this week please lads? Pretty please? Star man is Virgil, obviously. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Adrian), Wijnaldum; Salah (Lallana), Firmino (Origi), Mané:

It is the fixture that divides the city but it is fair to say the gap between Liverpool and Everton has not been this large for many a year. The Toffees come to Anfield in 17th place with a manager in crisis and a fanbase fearing relegation if things do not improve quickly. For this Opposition View, TLW tried something a little unique. Instead of an individual answering the questions, we thought it would be worthwhile to gauge the opinion of a range of Blues supporters from the Everton FC fan forum. What you see is brutal honesty and quite a fascinating insight into what has gone wrong for our neighbours this season. In your opinion, what are the main reasons behind Everton’s inconsistent form over the past 18 months? Rob Preece: Poor signings and management. An over reliance to stick with a system that doesn’t work. Zonal marking. No striker of any great note and a lack of creativity from midfield. David Holroyd: Look at the money Liverpool spent on Salah and Mane. We got Gylfi for almost same price. We should be looking for a better manager than Silva. Benitez would be a better choice, don't be afraid because of what he said in the past let him see for himself. Andy Kay: 30 years of mismanagement from the start of the Premier League era. Wasted money, the stadium, merchandise, kits, players and directors who don't care for the club.... We've become a laughing stock while Liverpool have embarrassed us in every way possible. We are Espanyol, Torino and 1860 Munich rolled into one. Once the pride of Merseyside is now a shambles. Elaine Dutton: A pick and mix squad of players brought in by Koeman, Allardyce and Silva to play specific roles and as each new manager comes in with his own style we have players who don't fit in to that way of playing. There is no heart to the team with Jags, Baines, Coleman, Gueye and Lukaku no longer at the club or past their prime Why do you think Marco Silva has struggled so much to get the best of his squad? Matthew Thompson: Not replacing Zouma and Gueye and also having injured midfielder (Jean Philippe) Gbamin out for 2/3 months, Gomes for likely the rest of season and not once being able to play his strongest 11. He also wanted a left footed right-winger. We all knew before the season started that we were short at the back and that has started to become too much of a gamble. We have a good crop of players but we lack that finishing touch. Dan Lawrence: Square pegs and round holes. He's stubborn the way he wants to play and wedges players into formation when main players are unavailable. Also I don’t think he knows his best 11 and the zonal marking doesn’t work but he still insists on using it. He’s a nice guy but as a result we are too nice on the pitch. Everton have looked to be big players in the transfer market of late bringing in skilled players like Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson. But do you believe you have lost some of that grit and graft that was part of your DNA under David Moyes? Mark Hayes: The initial downfall was appointing Martinez. I know there will be a lot that disagree because they have fell for the Spanish stains’ bullshit and seem to forget the state the team were in when he left, but here's a reminder... a team that were so unfit because of his training ideas, that they struggled to even see out a game. A team that couldn't defend because Brown shoes didn't think defence was that important and training to defend set-pieces wasn't even a consideration. Finishing 5th with what was Moyes' team (apart from a young hungry Lukaku) was a one off and we all saw the real Martinez team the following two seasons. Unfortunately the club did not learn by their mistake and carried on making them with Koeman and now Silva. Mark Mellor: Unfortunately yes, for me passion is as important as talent? Look at Norwich and Sheffield U, on paper we should be better because we have a more expensive team but they both play as a team and are really up for it? We need more of what they have? Commitment!! Which player(s) have impressed you this season and who needs to raise their performance? Jon McCarthy: (Djibril) Sidibe has been a decent signing, Bernard has done well when fit, but as for the rest of the team.... shambles. Gylfi hasn't shown even a glimpse of the 'talent' he has. Anthony Gray: Mina has surprised me as i didn't think he was any good but he's actually not that bad... Bernard, Gomes, Sidibe all done ok.... Completely in shock over Digne, where’s he gone?? Siggi has always been defended by me, but now there's no argument for me to defend him. He's too slow and does not look interested. Pickford is just a little fat prick who thinks he's class when he is far from it. Mark Killey: Not one of our players would get into a normal top 6 team and that just shows who has impressed. We have a squad who play average to poor football week in week out. Silva was never the man for the job, but with that team off mercenaries I can't see anyone getting us out off this shite where in now. What would be your ultimate Footballing nightmare. Relegation or Liverpool winning the Premier League title? Mark Quinn: Not being bottom 3 is the priority of course. It's sad when the obsession with the other lot blurs our own priorities. Kenny Almond : Bottom 3 100%! Don't get all these fans who want us to lose games so it helps others who are challenging. I want us to win every game we play! As much as I hate the red shite we seem to be more bothered about them. At the end of the day whatever team manages ends on top after 38 games wins the league and probably deserve it. We need Silva out and kick on up the table at this point. I would take a mid table finish and only Everton matter to me. Alan James Martyn: Let's be positive; it's not over until the final whistle. The Reds haven't won yet and we ain't down. We are true blues and have more home grown fans then them. Who is someone that you believe can take the game to Liverpool and conversely who do you need to contain? Kyle Marsh: Our wingers against their fullbacks. They're both good going forward but not great defensively. Dan Malone: Five at the back. Start Kean. Robert Cruikshank: Everything comes from Trent and Robertson. Nullify them, that gives us a chance. Do you have a score prediction for this fixture? Mike Warren: We either going to get battered or lose by 1 absolute stinker of a decision. Hope they surprise me with a win though. Wes Hershberger: 2-2 draw, Moise Kean equalizer on 92’ Graham Weedall: My heart is saying 1-2. But my head is saying 3-0.

Saturday Nov 16: Jesus, Dom Matteo is seriously ill. There’s some talk that it was a brain tumour and he’s already been operated on. Scary shit. He was only on LFC TV last week and looked fine. Hopefully he comes through this. Awful business. Stay strong, Dom. Meanwhile, a mad week for Gomez ends with him being sent home from the England squad with a knee injury after an accidental clash with Trippier, who will no doubt get a standing ovation by the England fans tomorrow. Hendo has been sent home too, as he’s still suffering with the virus that caused him to miss Genk and only last for 60 minutes against City. He’s had that for over a week and still isn’t right, so that makes his display against City all the more impressive. I can’t even get out of bed when I’m ill (and sometimes when I’m not), but here’s Hendo running wild against City. What a guy. As for Joe, as long as this injury is nothing serious then this is a good thing. Get him back to Melwood into the loving arms of Klopp and the lads. Apparently he was pretty upset about the booing and I daresay he’s still shaken up about having to deal with all the other unexpected shit too. Being back around Carol and Caroline and the rest of the staff at Melwood will help, and I’m sure Milner will be there ready to take the piss out of him and make light of it all. Wouldn’t be surprised if Milner has the lads greet him with boos when he walks in. Virg is away with Holland but was asked about it all as Gomez is his boy. You could see the disapproval all over his face. I reckon Virg thinks Sterling is a cunt. I always remember the way he just dumped him on the floor last year when Sterling had landed on top of him. There was utter disdain in that and I’m sure he also remembered Sterling not voting for him for Player of the Year last season too. And there was that snide challenge on Sunday of course. Next time we play City I can see Virgil launching Sterling into orbit. Sunday Nov 17: Virg is coming back early too, having left the Holland squad due to ‘personal reasons’. Maybe he’s coming back to beat the shit out of Sterling for messing with his little bro? Also today, Lallana is said to be interesting PSG. Probably bollocks, but he’s a free agent in the summer and if they are now having to cut their cloth according to FFP rules then their days of big spending are over. Lallana would probably thrive over there, but West Ham on a 150k a week deal still seems most likely. It’s what they do. I’m still amazed they didn’t take Sturridge. Speaking of whom, has anyone heard anything of him since he went to Turkey? I hear more updates on Karius than Studge, which seems weird. Probably been injured. Wow, Everton finally won at Anfield today, as Liverpool Women continued their winless start to the season. That’s it, don’t let them play at Anfield again. Completely unacceptable. Monday Nov 18: Ireland played Denmark tonight and I saw from a journo on Twitter that some Irish fans taunted Christian Eriksen by singing “Jan Vertonghen, he’s shagging your wife”. I dunno, maybe it’s an age thing but I just don’t find that funny or acceptable. And I say that as someone who went to Old Trafford and sang about Gary Neville shagging his ma. And his dad. And his sister. And his brother. I’m not proud of it and wouldn’t do it again. I’m assuming the Eriksen / Vertonghen thing is not true because if it was there’s no way Eriksen would still be playing in the same team as him, but who knows. I don’t know how many were singing it but I hope it doesn’t get picked up on by fans over here. Eriksen is a completely inoffensive lad who just gets on with his football. If it was some horrible, cocky twat then I’d understand (although not necessarily condone) the chanting, but what reason to the Irish have for stooping to that level? You’re not England, you ought to be better than that lads. Hey, we’ve got a transfer rumour today. Sander Berge, from Genk. I don’t remember too much about him other than the commentators seemed quite impressed with him. I seem to recall Klopp talking him up too, and Virgil swapped shirts with him. Berge said that he’d asked for the shirt before the game and that Virg waited 10 minutes for him to make sure he got it. Don’t really see the point of it to be honest, if we need another midfielder (which we don’t, unless Keita leaves) then give Curtis Jones a go or bring my boy Grujic back. Tuesday Nov 19: Gini bags a hat-trick for Holland. He’s scored eight goals in the qualifiers now. It’s incredible how different he is to when he plays for us. You often get players who are unrecognisable for their country when compared to their club form, but it’s usually because they’re much better for one than the other. Gini isn’t better or worse, he’s just completely different. The biggest difference is - like Hendo - he never wants to shoot for us, it’s almost like it’s a last resort. And when he does, there’s rarely any conviction in it. Yet for Holland he’s lethal. It’s weird. Wales won tonight too and clinched their qualification for the Euros. Good for them. And good for Gareth Bale, who posed afterwards with a Welsh flag that said “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order”. I love how he just doesn’t give a fuck about upsetting Real now after the complete lack of respect they’ve shown him. It’s great. Brazil won too, as Bobby and Fabinho both played. They both seemed to be very friendly with Son at full time too. I’m not saying it means anything, but it seemed a lot more than just ‘hey we all play in the Premier League, we should say hello’. Meanwhile, Mo and Robbo are both doubts for Palace, but Shaq is now back in full training. The game is probably coming a week or so two early for him though, so presumably Big Div will play if Mo doesn’t make it. I’ve got mixed feelings on that, because he’s better coming off the bench than starting, but then the flip side is that Ox in the front three is a complete waste of time. If Mo doesn’t play, I’d roll with Origi. Fucking hell, Spurs have sacked Poch. He’s done a great job there but they cut his balls off by not letting him strengthen the squad. It went stale, as can happen when you keep exactly the same players for more than a couple of years (and especially when you underpay them to the point that half the squad won’t sign new deals) but he’s a top manager and Spurs won’t get anyone better. That being said, it was clearly going in the wrong direction and they had to do something. In the long run, I reckon Pochettino will fare better than Spurs will. Wednesday Nov 20: Spurs haven’t wasted any time mourning his departure. They’ve appointed Mourinho, which staggers me to be honest. You complain that your manager has lost the dressing room and then appoint a manager who is a specialist in pissing off his players. You won’t pay big wages to players, or spend money on new signings, yet you appoint a man who sanctioned a 450k a week for Alexis Sanchez and has demanded shitloads of money to spend everywhere he’s been since leaving Porto. Good luck with that. Do they think it’s 2008? This won’t go well and we won’t have to worry about Spurs again for a while. My mate John disagrees and reckons Jose will break Spurs’ trophy drought. I reckon there’s no chance, we’ve had a little bet on it. I didn’t want the League Cup to count as that’s the only thing he has a chance of winning (not this year), but John cried it in and I relented. He might win a League Cup, or he maybe a Europa League (assuming they qualify, which is by no means certain), but my prediction is he pisses too many people off with his abrasive style and shit on a stick style of football, and he’ll be sacked before he wins anything. He'll get them above United and Arsenal within a few weeks though, but that says as much about them as it does Spurs. Thursday Nov 21: There’s more talk of us being in for that Leeds centre back who is on loan from Brighton. It’s been rumoured for a while now and there might be something in it. If we did sign him he’d have to go out on loan for a couple of years at least. Lovren is back in the picture now so he’s unlikely to want out like he did last summer, and besides, if this lad is as good as people are saying then Brighton will want him back, surely? Besiktas want to make Karius’ loan move permanent. Yeah, ok, that’s what they say this week. Next week they’ll be threatening to send him back here again. They say football fans are fickle, but no-one is as fickle as Besiktas football club. How many times have we read that they were sending him back here? At least three or four. So I’m not buying this story. No way are they giving us £8m for Karius. I wouldn’t deal with them again, they’re a pain in the arse. I didn’t know that the South American Champions hadn’t been crowned yet. We play them in the World Club Cup, and I assumed it had already been decided, but the final is this weekend and it’s between River Plate and Flamengo. That makes me even more excited about the opportunity to play either of them. It’s mad to me that there are fans (including some of my mates) who value the league cup higher. I badly want to win this, and I want to win it even more now that I know we might play Flamengo. They’re a big reason why I’m so desperate to win it, because I remember listening to the radio as a kid when they beat us 3-0. It stayed with me, I’ve never forgotten it, so to be able to play them again would be brilliant. And if they don’t win the Copa Libertadores, then River Plate would be glamorous as fuck too. I love the idea of this, I just wish it was a two legged game, as imagine us playing away at River or Boca, and then having 5,000 of their fans in the Anny Road. It’d be fucking amazing. Instead it’s in fucking Qatar, because FIFA want to line their grubby little pockets. Friday Nov 22: Suarez has backed us to win the league but added this odd caveat to it: ‘We were close to winning the league at Liverpool with young players. ‘We almost managed it without the budget they have today. ‘Given everything Liverpool are now, to have won it then would have had more merit.’ Eh? The budget we have today? Listen to him, he sounds like Rafa. Check your facts, you mad bastard. We sold your little mate Phil and used the cash to buy Virg, Alisson and Fabinho. You played in teams that had Carroll and Downing in them, and between them they cost almost as much as Salah and Mané. What Klopp has done is fuck all to do with budget, so you can knock that shit off. And newsflash Luis, Man City weren’t that good when they beat you to the title. They aren’t the juggernaut they’ve turned into over the last two or three years. I mean, they were managed by Pellegrini for fucks sake. So how about you either give credit where it’s due, or just shut up and say nothing. Really hope we get Barca again this year so we can put him and Messi over our knee and spank them again. I can’t wait to see that fly on the wall Barcelona documentary that shows the behind the scenes stuff from when we snotted them. There’s a clip out there this week of Shakira and her kids watching it, and it’s fucking boss. I can’t get enough of all this. The clip they showed is Gini’s header from Shaq’s cross to make it 3-0 on the night. Bit disappointed she didn’t break into song to be honest…. “He’s Swiss, short and wide… his chips don’t lie, from the left hand side. He’s Xherdan, he’s class an’ he’s Liverpool’s Swiss man. Shaqiri Shaqiri!” When that show comes out I’ll be watching it all day, just revelling in Messi and Suarez being devastated in the dressing room. Not Phil though, I don’t get any extra pleasure from that. I know loads of you will and that’s fair enough, but I bear him no ill will at all. I feel sorry for him actually. What must he be thinking now? Meanwhile, Curtis Jones bagged a couple as the u23s won 5-3 at Brighton. He’s having a great season and he and Harvey Elliot ran riot in this game based on the reports I’ve seen. They could both hold their own at Premier League level right now, but the problem for them is they play for the best team in the world so it’s tough getting an opportunity to play. You know what would be fucking boss? If we somehow managed to beat Villa and got to the semis. Not because it would mean we are in the semis and close to silverware, but because it would mean more opportunities for these two, and Hoever, Williams, Brewster etc I don’t think we have much chance of winning at Villa, but I’m really looking forward to seeing the kids give it a go. …..and that was the week that was