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That was hard work. Not what I was expecting and certainly not what I hoped for. In an ideal world we’d have been able to play the second string in this game, get the job done with no drama and have everyone fresh for the final on Saturday. Good job we didn't rest everyone. Klopp clearly didn’t see it the way some of us did and he picked a strong team. Not his strongest, but some changes were enforced (no Virg or Gini) and some were just prudent due to the number of games we’ve had and are due to have (Sadio, Bobby and Trent). The selection of Alisson in goal shows you how seriously Jurgen took this game. It would have been easy to just give Adrian a run out, but thankfully he didn’t because Alisson was the main reason we didn’t suffer an embarrassing loss. Defeat in this game would have been virtually unthinkable considering what we’ve given up to be out there. Sending the kids to play Villa was the right decision (the only decision really), but if we’d fallen at the first hurdle in Qatar that would have rendered the whole trip meaningless. It’s not even like we’d have been able to come home and have some time off either; there’s a third / fourth place playoff game that would need to be played. This game was in the balance right up until the end and Monterrey carried a goal threat all night. I was surprised at how dangerous they were, especially as they’re 8th in their domestic league and have lost seven out of 18 games this season. By rights they shouldn’t have even been on the same pitch as us, yet they gave us all sorts of problems. We didn’t play well but we weren’t awful either. There were several moves of genuine quality and the two goals we scored were brilliant. They defended really well though, while their shoot on sight policy at the other end meant we could never relax. They raised their game massively due to the opposition and the prestige this competition has outside of Europe. We went ahead with a delightfully worked goal. Milner did well to feed Salah and his pass in behind to Keita was world class. Naby finished well for his third goal in three starts. He could easily have doubled that tally and his breaking into the box has given us a nice little extra that we haven’t had in a while. He’s in great nick now and he's a joy to watch, very easy on the eye the way he glides into the box. The lead didn’t last long though, as we failed to clear a free-kick and the twin brother of that dirty ex Everton twat Funes Mori was able to equalise. Few thoughts on him. Firstly, he’s much better than his twin. Secondly, isn’t it weird how they’re identical twins, but one is a striker and the other is a centre back? It’s kind of like how the De Boers were like a mirror image of each other, with one being right footed and the other left. The whole twin thing fascinates me, I can’t get my head around it all. It's just weird to me. Like, if you have an identical twin, why would you choose to go and get the same fucking haircut? This Funes Mori has the exact same stupid 1930s haircut as his cunt brother. I don’t get why you’d do that. Do they WANT to look the same, or is it a case of not wanting to back down? Any twins out there who can shed some light on this, I'm all ears. Anyway, that made it 1-1 and the rest of the half was a struggle. We looked threatening whenever the ball was anywhere near Salah but we also looked vulnerable at the other end and Alisson needed to get a fingertip on a brilliant low cross from their lively right winger to prevent a tap in at the back post. He made some other saves of note too, usually from that right winger who packs a hell of a punch. Milner brought a save from their keeper after more glorious set up play from Mo, while Keita went close to a second just before the break but he too was foiled by the keeper. At half time I felt as though we’d be ok as long as we got more from Origi and Shaq, neither of whom had done anything in the first half. Ox had been quiet too, while Monterrey had done a brilliant job restricting Robbo’s raids down the left. The second half was better in terms of us dominating the ball but otherwise it was just more of the same really. The odd chance here and there for us, the odd dangerous break from them. Naby burst through into the box again and was denied by the keeper, Ox shot wide from 20 yards and Origi had a goal rightly ruled out for offside. At the other end Alisson made a few more sharp saves and they seemed to force a lot of corners and free-kicks. It was just really uncomfortable and their antics off the ball were only adding to the tension. Any time one of them was touched he’d be on the floor pretending to be hurt. It was a fucking joke. They were dirty bastards too, always leaving their foot in late. Gomez was deceived by a high ball and inadvertently brought down Funes Mori. Their coach (more on him in a sec) wanted a red card, but that was never happening as it was a long way from goal and Henderson was right there covering. It put Joe on a knife edge though and they seemed to be targeting him all night. When he miscontrolled the ball and it bounced up and hit his hand, their coach went apeshit and was waving an imaginary card wanting Joe sent off. That’s never a yellow card in a million years and Jurgen saw his arse, mimicking the guy and then looking like he wanted to fight him. That coach looked like a right bellend. I’d heard Tim Vickery on the radio earlier in the day talking about how he is known for his quirky fashion sense, and as soon as the camera went on him at the start I instantly knew he was a twat. I keep telling you that I’ve got a rare skill for this. I can spot them a mile off. To be fair this wasn’t difficult. All you need was a working pair of eyes to know he was a massive helmet. Just look at the fucking state of him. I admit I’m throwing bricks from the world’s biggest greenhouse here as I buy most of my clobber from Matalan, Primark or George at Asda. If I’m going to push the boat out then occasionally it’ll be Next. So yeah, I’m not in much of a position to be criticising when it comes to fashion, but I’m sorry, that fellas outfit, beard and haircut just screamed “mid-life crisis” to me. The skinny jean wearing dope. Jurgen should have stuck one on him and his defence only needed to be “just fucking look at him!”. Anyway, it was really becoming edgy and eventually Klopp sent on Mané. Then it was Trent, and finally Bobby. In the closing stages we looked the more likely winner but it felt to me like we’d have to go through extra time to eventually wear them down. Thankfully it never came to that, as two of the subs combined for an absolutely delightful goal in stoppage time. Mo did well in the build as well, but the weighted ball in by Trent was just…. I dunno, I don’t think it’s being talked about anywhere near as much as it should be because that was something special. Virtually anyone else in that situation would just try to whip the ball in hard or just drill it into the box. Trent just eased it into an area that he knew would cause problems, but he did it at just the right pace to allow our lads to get in there and attack it. If he blasts that ball in then Bobby wouldn’t get there in time. You can’t teach that, it’s just natural world class talent. Even after that goal they came right back at us and had chances in the 90 seconds or so that remained. They looked a really good side, but the truth is they’re not. They’re shite. But this competition is huge to the non-European clubs. They want it so badly, and the chance to knock off the Champions of Europe is such a big thing for these other teams that it’s never going to be easy. There are some Reds (including some of my mates) who see this competition as a major inconvenience and would rather we weren’t out there. Personally I don’t see it that way at all. The timing of it isn’t ideal, but I’ve always liked the option of the European Champions playing the South American Champions. I don’t particularly like the format, and these other sides have no real business being it (even though both ourselves and Flamengo were really tested by these ‘lesser’ teams). I’d love to see it as a two legged tie where the European Champs take on the Copa Libertadores winners home and away. Imagine going to play Boca Juniors or River Plate away. Imagine their fans at Anfield. Spine chilling. But that’s not how it is. FIFA want to make as much money as possible and don’t really care about how inconvenient it is for the teams involved. That isn’t enough reason for me to shun the competition though. I badly want to win this. Not as much as I want to win the league obviously. And if we do win it, it’s not going to feel anything like it feels to win a European Cup. There'll be no open top bus parade. So I’m not putting it in that bracket, but I don’t think it’s like the Charity Shield or Super Cup either. Put it this way. Every other team in this competition sees it as the absolute pinnacle, which means when we play them we’ll get their best effort and then some. By rights Monterrey shouldn’t be able to even give us a game. It should be easy for us, yet it was anything but. They went toe to toe with us and Alisson probably made more saves then their keeper. Don’t expect Flamengo to be any less motivated, or to shithouse any less than the Mexicans did either. Saturday is going to be a war because it’s all they’ve been thinking about for weeks. Shit, they beat us nearly 40 years ago and have been singing about it ever since. That’s right, they’ve got a song about beating us back in 1981 and they still sing about it now. They didn’t want the easier game against Monterrey, they wanted us. This game means everything to them and if we don’t treat it seriously then we’ll lose. I don’t want them singing about beating us twice. Fuck that. Let’s take care of business and win this trophy, and if we do then let’s not be embarrassed about revelling in it because it’s a bigger deal than anyone in this country seems to realise. Let people up and down the country dismiss the importance of it. They’ll never see their team play in it so of course they don’t care. The Mancs enjoyed winning it back in the day, and so they should. We’ve lost three times to South American times and it’s about fucking time we set that record straight and added the title of 'World Champions' to the roll of honours. Roll on Saturday, I can't fucking wait. Team: Alisson; Milner (Alexander-Arnold), Gomez, Henderson, Robertson; Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Keita; Shaqiri (Mané), Salah, Origi (Firmino):

If ever a scoreline didn’t reflect a game then it was this one. Our team of kids had more possession, more corners and more shots. Somehow they lost 5-0. Don’t get me wrong, Villa deserved to win the game but that scoreline was grossly unfair to the young lads. They played like a Liverpool team. The shape and style of play was just like the first team and you can see the identity that runs right through the club. They fought for everything and Neil Critchley couldn’t have asked for any more from them. Ultimately what did for them was a big gulf in ‘know how’ and a huge difference in luck. Nothing bounced the way of our lads all night while Villa had all sorts of lucky breaks. There was zero percent chance that the team we put out would win the game but without the incredibly shitty luck they had they would have kept it fairly close. Villa would have won because they had that extra bit of experience, especially in the final third when it came to playing the decisive pass and in the middle of defence when it came to preventing it. The way the young lads started the game was incredible. Sharp passing and movement, great pressing and Villa looked like they didn’t know what had hit them in that opening ten minutes. They couldn’t get the ball of us and we were carving them open. Kane, Elliott and Christie-Davies all had efforts at goal and the travelling fans were loving it. The noise from the away end was as loud as anything you’d hear even when the first team are playing. And then, it all came crashing down. A free-kick out wide was whipped in dangerously and Kelleher was beaten low down. Difficult one for the keeper as he can’t commit to it fully in case an attacking player gets a touch on it. Their striker went for it and may or may not have gotten a touch. Either way, it made life difficult for Kelleher and we were a goal down completely against the run of play. Minutes later it was 2-0, and if the first was unfortunate then this was just fucking outrageously unlike. Elmohamady tried to cross from the right but it was blocked by Boyes. The ball looped up off his boot and over the head of the helpless Kelleher from the tightest of angles. That was a 1000/1 chance at best of that ending in a goal. Elmohamady didn’t even have the good grace to just walk back to the halfway line. He fucking stood there like Russell Crowe in Gladiator, the absolute cunt. I mean fucking hell, acting like you’ve actually done something good when all you did was attempted a fucking cross that hit the defender. I’m still seething about that even having slept on it. I mean come on, this nomark celebrated that goal in the exact same manner Salah did after scoring in the Etihad in a Champions League quarter final. Their centre forward then took advantage of a fortunate ricochet to run through and make it 3-0, and he completed his hat-trick with a close range finish from a right wing cross. I can’t even be arsed looking up how to spell his name as I’ll never have reason to mention him again. I’d never heard of him before this game and I expect I’ll never hear of him again. He was another one over-celebrating and showing no awareness of the situation. He was aptly named something that sounds like ‘codger’. A 30 year old slapdick playing against teenagers and celebrating like the teacher in Kes. Yep, stupid arl codger indeed. 4-0 at half time was just a staggering scoreline given the way the game went. We’d created plenty of chances but their keeper just kept making saves. It was infuriating. At one point the stats came on the screen and it said we’d had seven attempts to Villa’s two. The scoreline was 3-0 to them. Fucking hell. Neil Critchley says the lads got a message from Klopp at half time that just said something like ‘stay brave and keep playing football’. They did. They were outstanding, I can’t praise them enough. They played it out from the back (and were rarely caught out) and the midfield lads were always demanding the ball and showed no fear whatsoever. Villa understandably eased off after the break as they knew the game was over, so that at least ensured the scoreline didn’t get completely out of hand. It’s just a shame the kids couldn’t manage to get a goal back, as that was the least their performance deserved. They went close a few times but Villa’s keeper just wasn’t going to be beaten. I thought he was man of the match actually, which shows just how well our kids played. Elliott was brilliant and the experienced Neil Taylor looked scared stiff any time Harvey had the ball at his feet. He created several good chances and went close himself. He’s going to be something very special and he could go straight into the first team now and not look out of place. With better players around him he’ll thrive. The fact that Curtis Jones is ahead of him in the pecking order tells you just how good Jones has been this season. I thought Hoever was brilliant too. He broke down with cramp and was forced off, but it’s not surprising given how much ground he covered up and down that right flank. The link up between him, Elliott and Christie-Davies caused Villa all sort of problems, particularly in the first half. The one player I was slightly disappointed with was Herbie Kane. It’s not that he had a bad game, it’s just I expected more from him as he’s a really good player and other than Chirivella he was the most experienced player in the side. He played a full season in League One last year so this wouldn’t have fazed him. He got himself into some good positions but his finishing was just shite and it was hugely frustrating. A really big problem for us was that we didn’t have a natural centre forward. Louis Longstaff has been playing there this season, mostly through necessity because of the injury to Paul Glatzel and because Bobby Duncan is a massive tool, but he isn’t a number nine and it showed. When he was replaced, Jack Bearne came on and he’s not a number nine either. Rhian Brewster’s injury was most untimely because this would have been a great game to see him in. Honestly, I feel if we had Brewster, Lewis, Larouci, Jones and Williams available we might have even won this game. It’s all moot though as we didn’t have them available and we lost 5-0. There are no negatives to come from this though. Losing really doesn’t matter because like I said, the line up we picked did not have any chance whatsoever of winning the game. The result was determined before the game, it was only the scoreline that was to be determined, so going out isn’t a negative as it was beyond our control. Jurgen is probably relieved not to have to play two more games in January, but the benefits of this game to some of the young players can’t be over-stated. For those who aren’t going to make it, they’ve had a chance in the shop window which will help them and perhaps also increase any transfer value. For those who might make it, this game will have helped them immeasurably. I loved how gutted Elliott looked at full time for example. He’s a winner that kid. The travelling Kop spent a lot of the night chanting “fuck the Tories” “Maggie’s in the mud” and “We’re gonna have a party when Boris Johnson dies”. I fully endorse all of those sentiments but it’s a bit counter-productive I think. For example, I didn’t like all the attention that was paid to our fans in Austria chanting for Corbyn last week, because given the petty nature of rival footy fans up and down the country there will be loads who would vote Tory just because “it pisses off the scousers”. The same twats who buy the S*n for that very reason. It’s not a big deal and it’s not something that bothers me, but that’s what I was thinking when I heard the chants so I’m just mentioning it here. Villa fans were Villa fans. At one point they were singing “top of the league, you’re having a laugh” which would have been mildly amusing coming from anyone else. The problem with Villa is that they’re such humourless, thick twats that it’s not entirely certain they were being ironic. I’d lean towards giving them the benefit of the doubt this time, but I’m far from sure about it. Other than the over-celebrating by a couple of players, Villa were alright I thought. It was a no win situation for them really. No-one is giving them credit for winning 5-0 but if they’d lost or been held to a close scoreline they’d have been hammered for it. When our lads went down with cramp it was usually Villa players who were first on the scene to help them, even while the game was still going on. Afterwards, Dean Smith and John Terry went into our dressing room to offer some encouragement to the kids, which was nice because they didn’t need to do it. I was going to make a joke about Terry just for old times’ sake, but I’m not going to because he did a nice thing and it would be a bit snide of me to rip him for it. So I won’t. But if I were to make a joke about it, I’d probably say something like; “Kids did good. Mongo impressed.” Tell you what has irked me though. The talking media heads debating whether Klopp was out of order selecting the team he did. There was some shite written in one of the papers yesterday by some fucking chin stroker about how surely supporters would rather win the League Cup than the World Club Cup. Presumably we should have sent the kids over to Qatar then? I’m sure FIFA would love that. Besides, why the fuck should we not go all out to win a title we’ve never won before and that the rest of the world actually takes pretty damn seriously. Real Madrid love strutting round with their dicks swinging calling themselves World Champions. If it’s good enough for them, then why should we feel embarrassed about it? That’s before you even take into consideration the vast difference in prize money available for winning in Qatar as opposed to winning the League Cup. I put the radio on this morning and the main topic of discussion was Klopp and whether he ‘got it wrong’. In fairness, Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist both said he did the right thing, as did Ian Holloway when they had him on the phone. The night before though, those two goons on the late show (Goldstein and Cundy) had apparently slaughtered Jurgen for “hanging those kids out to dry” and that has set the tone for the discussion today. Fuck me, what an absolutely terrible take that is. Did they even watch the game? Those lads won’t have left Villa Park with their confidence destroyed. If anything, they should be feeling proud of how they acquitted themselves and confident about their ability to play at senior level. The suggestion that Klopp has in some way let them down is just stupid. Most of those lads would never have gotten an opportunity to represent Liverpool’s first team, but now they have and no-one can ever take that away from them. They’ve played in a cup quarter final for Liverpool in front of a crowd of forty thousand or whatever it was. Lads like Tom Hill, Isaac Christie-Davies, James Norris, Jack Bearne, Morgan Boyes, Tony Gallacher etc could never have dreamed that they’d be playing for our first team this season. Ok, technically you can argue it wasn’t a first team as there were no senior players involved, but it was a competitive senior fixture and the record books will show they played a senior game for Liverpool Football Club. You think they feel “let down” by Klopp? The idea that he had any other choice but to do what he did also irks the fuck out of me. Fans of other clubs dismissing the World Club Cup can fuck off because barring one or two exceptions those clubs have never been - nor will ever be - in this situation. And if by some miracle they were, none of them would prioritise the league cup. Not fucking one of them. United were in this situation and had to pull out of the FA Cup, and that was back when the FA Cup meant something. I get that people feel that this was a mis-match and I have sympathy for the Villa fans who paid full price to see their team play a team of unknown teenagers, but you know who should feel most hard done by here? Us, that’s who. Klopp didn’t want to put out a team like that but because of poor planning by the organisers he was left with no choice. We had a chance to win this cup and it was taken away from us because no suitable date could be found for us to play the game with something resembling a senior side. We’re the injured party here, and if neutrals are pissed off because they didn’t see a ‘competitive game’ then tough shit. Star man is Elliott, just ahead of Chirivella. Pedro is such a nice little player. So cultured and classy. It’s a sad indictment of scouting around Europe that this lad is stuck here and doesn’t have teams beating down his door. He’s a really good player and any time he’s played for our first team he’s been class (he was brilliant at West Ham a few years ago). I hope he gets a decent move in January, he deserves it. Team: Kelleher; Hoever (Norris), Van den Berg, Boyes, Gallacher; Chirivella, Kane, Christie-Davies (Clarkson); Elliott, Longstaff (Bearne), Hill: