Leaderboard

Considering this “isn’t a big deal” it sure felt like kind of a big deal. In fact, as the game wore on it began to feel like the most important game in the history of the club, so desperate was I to win it. Of course I knew it wasn’t but it’s easy to get caught up in the moment like that when the opposition are carrying on like Flamengo were and when the referee was as bad as this fella was. We’d been there before of course. This competition doesn’t have happy memories for us. I can’t speak too much for what happened in the 80s when we lost to Flamengo and Independente, but the loss to Sao Paolo in 2005 still stings because of the controversial manner of it. We missed loads of chances, had THREE goals disallowed, they were massive shithouses and the referee that night was almost certainly bent. History seemed to be repeating itself. With every missed chance, every bit of Brazilian playacting and every inexplicable decision from the ref, my desperation to see us win the game grew. I really wanted this trophy anyway, but I know not everyone was as enthusiastic about it as I was. Surely though, even those who were largely indifferent to it would have been gutted if we hadn’t won? I wrote after the semi final that this was likely to be a similar type of close game against horrible opposition. As usual though, by the time kick off arrived I’d convinced myself we’d hammer them because their high line wouldn’t be able to deal with our front three. The way the game started suggested I was right, but after some early scares they adjusted accordingly. Bobby missed an absolutely sitter inside the first 40 seconds when Trent’s ball over the top put him clear. That was a terrible miss but the ease with which he got in was a good sign. A couple of minutes later Mo got in behind them and cut it back for Keita, who leaned back on his shot and side footed it over the bar. Just needed to put his foot through that one. Trent then went within inches of a brilliant goal from distance. His shot was curling inwards and if he’d been another five years further out it would probably have crept inside the post. Those first five minutes were great and I thought we were going to wipe the floor with them. And then it all just fell flat. They were arguably the better side in the first half as we just got worse and worse the longer it went. We defended well and Alisson wasn’t exactly over worked, but we were wasteful with the ball and they looked a little more settled with the ball than we did. Salah was especially wasteful while Bobby was hit and miss. The midfield was the real problem though. The balance wasn’t right with Ox and Keita both in there. Henderson was great but they seemed to be finding a bit too much space in there and that stopped us from dominating. Keita had some good moments but Ox generally did nothing until he was forced off with an ankle that hopefully isn’t as bad as it looked. Their left winger was their main threat and Trent had some difficult moments against him. Fortunately Gomez was always there covering behind him and he got across to make a fantastic block on the one occasion the winger got through on goal. Brilliant defending that. Trent seemed to figure the lad out the longer the game went on and he stopped being as much of a nuisance. The biggest frustration for me though was the referee. He was hopeless. To begin with I was angry with him. I didn’t like his demeanour and the sneering way he was addressing the players. Like a jobsworth prison guard ordering inmates around. He was shit and his attitude was terrible, so he was winding me right up. As the game developed though it dawned on me that the poor fella was just in way over his head. It’s not his fault, it’s FIFA’s. I don’t blame the ref at all. He wasn’t qualified to do the job, it’s as simple as that. It’s like asking me to fly a plane or the general public voting for Boris Johnson to run the country. The results are never going to be good. When you play teams from this part of the world you need a strong, streetwise ref who isn’t going to fall for their shite. This fella was just so naive and Flamengo’s players took full advantage of it. Especially Rafinha who played him like a fiddle. He was acting the cunt all night and Mané in particular was in danger of losing his rag with him. Any time Sadio went near him he threw himself to the ground and got a free-kick. Just before half time we had a break away and Rafinha grabbed Sadio to prevent him joining the attack. Sadio shrugged him off and he hit the deck like he’d been shot. That clown ref stopped our attack, gave them a free-kick and booked Mané, who was so angry about it he could have landed himself in real bother. A few of the lads went to speak to him to calm him down and as they left the field Robbo walks over and in clear earshot of Rafinha says to Mané “Sadio let me deal with it. I’ll get him, don’t worry”. Rafinha’s reaction shows he heard every word. Seven minutes into the second half Robbo did indeed get him. The beauty of that was that hardly anyone even noticed until replays of it were put on social media afterwards. A free-kick wasn’t even awarded. Robbo is just the man isn’t he? As soon as the final whistle went, there was Robbo right in Rafinha’s face letting him know what the score was. You know how when you’re a kid you idolise these players and put them on a giant pedestal? That changes as you get older. Paul Walsh was my hero when I was a kid, but you grow out of that once you hit your twenties or (in some cases) thirties. I certainly did. Then Andy Robbo came along. He’s my hero, there’s no-one else like him. The second half started exactly the same way as the first, with Bobby missing a sitter. He did everything right this time but his shot came back off the inside of the post. Really unlucky that one. Alisson then had to make a smart save to deny the dangerous Henrique. It’s a save you’d expect him to make but the impressive thing was the strong hand he got on it to push it away from danger. As I said earlier, that Henrique was good. So good that I’m not even going to poke fun at his ridiculous hair cut. Everton lived up to his name and was completely ineffective against us, while “Gabigol” was more like gabagool. He did nothing other than look for free-kicks and eventually got stretchered off with cramp, although he did come back on. Not that anyone noticed as he did nothing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player go off on a stretcher with cramp before, but then I’ve never seen a goalkeeper get cramp either so it was a night of firsts. Funny how all those cases of cramp stopped when they fell behind though. It’s almost as if there was actually nothing wrong with them at all. As the game reached the latter stages it looked quite obvious that we were stronger and they were getting tired. They were hanging on for pens at that point, you could tell by the time wasting and fake cases of cramp. We were turning the screw but the goal wouldn’t come. And then right at the end Bobby sent Sadio scampering clear and he was caught on his foot in the act of shooting. The ref signalled for a pen and when it went to VAR my first though was “wait, we’ve got VAR for this game?”. How come it took until 90 odd minutes before they used it? For example, when Henderson was dragged down in the box, how was that not looked at? Keita was taken out on the edge of the box too as he tried a one-two with Mo. Those non-calls paled into insignificance compared to the penalty incident right at the death though. Bobby played Sadio through and he was tackled in the act of shooting. The ball missed the target by about 20 yards, which tells you something wasn’t right. The ref pointed to the spot and VAR officials told him he needed to take a look to make sure it was in the box. The replay wasn’t 100% conclusive really. I’d say it was almost definitely outside but Sadio’s toe was touching the line and I think (I’m not sure) that means it’s a pen. Whatever, I wouldn’t have been complaining if that had been ruled outside the box and as I watched the replays that’s what I expected to happen. I also thought that if it was outside the box then Rafinha would have to be given a straight red, as ‘double jeopardy’ no longer applies min that instance. So I thought it would be a free-kick right on the edge of the box and a sending off for Rafinha. What I didn’t expect was for him to decide that actually there was no foul at all. I mean really? You think Mané is missing the target by that much if his foot wasn’t kicked from behind? The replay clearly showed Rafinha lunging in from behind and hitting the sole of Sadio’s boot just as he went to shoot. But ok, if that’s what he thought then it is what it is. I mean, he’s wrong, clearly, but for argument’s sake let’s say that hypothetically there was no foul. That makes it a goal kick, right? It looked to me like he gave an uncontested drop ball though. Amidst all the confusion the commentary team didn’t pick up on that, so when the full time whistle went I rewound it back to see how he restarted the game. After he signals that there’s no penalty or free-kick, he’s stood there holding onto the ball sending everyone away, and then he drops the ball at the keeper’s feet. The camera moves away for a few seconds and is showing various players, and when it pans back to the action, the keeper is kicking the ball downfield from the edge of the box. What the fuck? You can’t just restart the game like that, surely? If play had been stopped for VAR then yeah, a drop ball at the scene of where the ball was when the game was stopped would make sense (and I believe is the actual rule). But he didn’t blow the whistle for a foul until after the ball had gone behind, so this just seems like he was making it up as he went. Fifa want this competition to be seen as the pinnacle of club football. It never will be, because the Champions League is always going to be bigger in the eyes of fans and the clubs in Europe. There is merit to this competition though, as it pits the best in Europe against the best in South America. How can you have that though and then put a ref from Qatar in charge? I understand that a South American team wouldn’t want a European in charge, and vice versa. But don’t tell me that this fella was the best of the rest. There has to be refs from other, more competitive leagues around the world that are more qualified than this hapless clown. You demean the credibility of the competition by putting these shit refs in charge of games. The only thing I can say in possible mitigation for him is that he did not see the same replays we did because VAR were satisfied that it was a foul and just wanted him to decide if it was in or out. That meant the replays did not show the contact, just where it took place. They presumably didn’t think for one second he was then going to say ‘actually that’s not even a foul, I’ll give nothing’. It was beyond farce. This game is second only tot he World Cup Final in the eyes of FIFA, so this would have been hugely embarrassing if it had decided the outcome of the game. That it didn’t decide the outcome shows once again just how mentally strong this bunch are. That overturned decision at such a crucial stage of the game was such a hammer blow and most teams would have struggled to deal with it. We went from having Mo stood with the ball on the spot waiting to take a stoppage time penalty to win us the trophy, to having to play half an hour extra time. But what did these lads do? They scored within five fucking minutes, that’s what. Mentality Monsters. Nothing seems to faze them. Nothing at all. They’re just relentless and never let anything get in their way of winning. Klopp says he couldn’t be any prouder, and he’s right. Imagine being their manager? Every game you’d just be beaming at what they manage to achieve, often in the most trying of circumstances. I thought Bobby got lucky with the finish because it was so nearly blocked by the defender. He’s being praised for how calm he was and the way he took his time, but I thought he was too casual and got away with it. Maybe I’m being harsh, but look how close that was to not being a goal. That would have been three sitters missed in one game. We know there’s more to his game than goals but it would be nice if he started scoring a bit more regularly, like he did two years ago. The build up was quality though. Brilliant ball by Hendo and great awareness and unselfishness from Mané. That’s the thing with this team. Eventually they’re going to get you. To beat us the opposition need to perform at their absolute best for the entire game, and that’s hard to do. And sometimes it’s not enough. The way we took control of this game in the second half and in extra time was typically impressive. Flamengo did nothing until the very last minute of extra when they should have equalised only for their young substitute to balloon one over the bar. Other than that we defended with such an assurance and organisation that at no point did I ever feel they’d score. I’m made up we beat them and equally made up that we hardly ever have to play teams from this part of the world, as if they’re not booting lumps out of you they’re shithousing like Mourinho’s Porto side. They’ve been singing about beating us for nearly 40 years, which is fine as it’s an achievement they are rightly proud of. I don’t have a problem with that but I didn’t want them having another victory to sing about for decades. Fuck that. Going all this way and not winning would have been a sickener. I wanted to be crowned World Champions, but more than anything I just didn’t want us to go over there and lose. The fear of losing outweighed the desire to win. It was the same in the Champions League final actually. I feel it’s going to be different from now on though. Having won these trophies it changes things and maybe in future that fear of losing won’t be as prevalent. We no longer have to hear about Klopp’s record in finals or Liverpool not being able to get the job done. That’s gone. We might not always win but the next time we don’t we shouldn’t have to hear any of that crap again. You can throw any obstacle in front of this team and they just shrug it off and keep marching on. Nothing fazes them at all. The way they dealt with all the shite that went on in this game and didn’t lose their composure shows just how mature they are these days. They don’t let things like that put them off their game and they just put it to one side and play their football. European Champions. World Champions. Hopefully soon to be English Champions. What’s next? Is there an inter-galactical tournament we can go and win? There’s probably some big alien fucker out there now just begging to feel the wrath of Robbo. With this now out of the way we can concentrate solely on domestic matters. Leicester away on Boxing Day is going to be seriously tough coming off the back of the energy sapping exploits in Qatar. It would have been a whole tougher if Leicester had won at the Etihad though. We could have been going there knowing that defeat would have cut our lead at the top to just four points. Now we go there ten ahead and with a game in hand. We’re eleven ahead of City with a game in hand on them too. The games we have coming up are tricky though and some points might be dropped. At least we’ve got a decent sized cushion if that proves to be the case. The addition of Minamino could be just the little shot in the arm we need in this busy time though. Can’t wait to see him play. Star man is Henderson who was head and shoulders above everybody other than the magnificent Joe Gomez, who ran him fairly close. After 90 minutes I would probably have given it to Gomez, but Henderson just dominated extra time and seemed to constantly be around the ball, whether we had it or not. He was everywhere. It’s staggering that there are still people out there who doubt him. He’s our fucking captain for a reason. He’s even got his own trademark trophy lift. How many people can say that? Here’s hoping we see it at least a couple more times before the season is out (I was going to say three but I don’t want to be too greedy and demand an FA Cup as well). Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Keita (Milner), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Lallana); Salah, Firmino (Origi), Mané:

Saturday Dec 14: L 2 Watford 0 That was shite. Watford deserved something from this game but if you’re going to get anything against the Reds you can’t afford to waste the kind of chances that Watford did. It was a typical early kick off following a midweek Euro away type game though really. These are never good, not when you’re playing a struggling team anyway. These are the games we’ve always drawn or lost in the past. Go back over the last couple of decades and they are littered with letdown games against shite. The last couple of years though we seem to have completely eradicated them. These days we just win whether we play good, bad or indifferent. This one was somewhere between bad and indifferent, but the goals were class, especially the first one. Mo loves playing Watford. You’d never believe they were bottom of the table based on this performance, but then in a way I suppose maybe you would. Scoring goals has been a huge problem all season, and we saw that today. I hope they get out of the bottom three but it’s not looking likely. My boy Troy loves the Reds doesn’t he? See him on the pitch at full time being matey with all the lads? He was chatting with Sadio in the tunnel too, it was captured on camera as Sadio wished him Merry Christmas and told him to “look after my boy (his Senegal team-mate Sarr) because he’s shy”. Love that. Deeney had a little tussle with Virg in the first half too which was funny. He was chasing a through ball and Virg stepped across and gave him a little elbow in the ribs. Deeney looked genuinely upset about it, he was looking at him like “how could you? You’re my hero”. Virg immediately gave him a friendly little pat and they had a hug and all was well with the world again. It’s funny because if that was, say, David Luiz or Mustafi, Deeney would have had fucking murder with them because of the disdain he has for weak defenders. He fucking loves Virg. Who doesn’t though? Sunday Dec 15: The u23s drew 1-1 with Chelsea today and the line up revealed a lot about who is likely to play at Villa. It was basically Curtis Jones plus 10 under 18 players. Jones scored a brilliant goal (his 13th of the season) but only played a half before being withdrawn. He’s travelling to Qatar and won’t play against Villa. Nor will Neco Williams. The lads who played today did a pretty remarkable job though all things considered. Chelsea had loads of highly rated kids out there, some of whom are on the fringes of Lampard’s senior squad, while we had a number of 16 year olds, so this was a hell of an effort. In the big league today, City had a predictably easy win at Arsenal but the interesting thing was that the game wasn’t shown in China because the Chinese have seen their arses over a tweet by Mesut Ozil and as a result of that they pulled the game and showed a repeat of Wolves v Spurs instead. Ozil spoke out about the treatment of Muslims over in China, and Arsenal shit themselves and were at pains to point out that these were Ozil’s views alone and don’t represent what Arsenal as a club feel. They didn’t do this when Bellerin (the big fucking hero) tweeted “Fuck Johnson” the other day. Why? Because like most other sports teams, Arsenal are terrified of upsetting the Chinese because of how much money is at stake. Same thing happened with the NBA a few months ago. LeBron James is something of a social justice warrior and is generally great when it comes to speaking on important issues. When an NBA exec from another team condemned China for their human rights issues though, LeBron wasn’t having it and said the guy ‘was not educated’ on the China situation. Why would he do that? Because the NBA is fucking massive in China and LeBron & co are wetting their beaks. just like Arsenal. Good for Ozil for speaking out, although he’s best mates with the Turkish president and they’ve got some shit going on over there themselves, so Ozil is leaving himself a bit open to claims of hypocrisy. A bit like when Guardiola preaches about Catalan independence while taking the Abu Dhabi money. I don’t actually know where I’m going with this now as I’ve started rambling. I suppose the point is just, fuck Arsenal. Monday Dec 16: Atletico it is then The draw I want the least really but it’s a worse draw for them than it is us. I don’t know what to expect because I don’t watch La Liga and until this week I didn’t know just how many players have left in the last year or two. I immediately think of Atletico as that ruthless team of defensive minded, spoiling bastards led by Diego Godin at the back, but apparently they aren’t that team anymore. I’m still taking nothing for granted though because Simeone will have them defending for their lives and shithousing all over the gaff. I expect two horrible games. In other news, there’s a lot of talk that Ancelotti is going to take the Everton job. This blows my mind really and I compared it on Twitter to Robert De Niro accepting a part on Coronation Street. Immediately I was inundated with replies on how De Niro did adverts for Warburton’s bread. Ok, smart arses, so that comparison doesn’t work. Let’s just replace him with Al Pacino, ok? Happy now? Meanwhile, former Everton boss Fat Sam was on Talksport this morning talking about the Arsenal job. He said he knows he’s got no chance of getting it but that if he did go in there he’d sort out that defence and make them harder to beat because he’s done that at every club he’s been at. Imagine falling so far that Allardyce is telling people he could make you better and he isn’t talking through his arse. Arsenal are so shit these days that I can’t even take pleasure in, I just find them grossly offensive. Allardyce is actually right. He would make them less shit. It tells you all you need to know about just how fucking shit and spineless Arsenal are currently that they could actually do a lot worse than Allardyce, and they probably will. Tuesday Dec 17: Ancelotti is actually taking the job, the fucking loon. Mind you, they must be paying him something utterly obscene for him to agree to it. He’s a good manager and perhaps even more importantly he’s a hugely respected figure within football, which instantly gives Everton some much needed credibility, but he’s something of a specialist who is suited to specific types of situations, and this ain’t it. Expect him to go the way of Koeman. That severance pay off is gonna be huge. Meanwhile, Villa 5 L 0. I’v e got mixed feelings about this. Going out of the cup doesn’t bother me because it was always going to end this way. The scoreline is upsetting though as it just doesn’t reflect the game. Villa deserved to win as they were far more clinical and their experience (and physicality) was always going to prove decisive, but the kids did brilliantly I thought. The bravery on the ball and the way they went out there and just played ‘Liverpool football’ was great. Harvey Elliott was the best player on the pitch and Neil Taylor was genuinely worried any time Harvey had the ball at his feet. He could play for the first team now and wouldn’t look out of place. He’s the best 16 year old we’ve had since Michael Owen. Pedro Chirivella was class too. How on earth is he still stuck here in our u23 side? Don’t tell me there aren’t hundreds of teams who couldn’t use a player like him, because I’m not having it. That lad is a quality footballer who plays with his head up. Of course we’re getting flak from some for the team we picked, even though there was no viable alternative. That soft twat on Talksport who does the show with Jason Cundy was kicking off that Origi, Shaqiri, Lallana, Milner and the other squad players weren’t involved. They’ll be playing tomorrow night, because there is no way on earth we go full strength against Monterrey with the injuries we have and the games we’ve got coming up. All in all, I see this as a positive because there are some kids who would never have gotten to play for our first team who can now say they have, while for the likes of Elliott and Hoever it’s more valuable experience. Wednesday Dec 18: L 2 Monterrey 1 Jesus, that was tough. It shouldn’t be, because these are 8th in the Mexican league and would struggle in the Championship, but this competition means so much to these clubs that you get an almost superhuman effort from them. We struggled without Van Dijk, but that’s to be expected as Hendo has never played there before. Not only did the defence suffer, but the midfield did too because Hendo wasn’t in there. Lallana, Ox and Keita is not a midfield three anyone ever expected to see, but needs must. Keita played well and scored for the third game in a row. Salah was sharp too, but without the contribution of the subs we were never winning this. The amount of late goals we get is incredible, but it’s almost a self fulfilling prophecy now. We know we’re going to score and the opponents are fearing the worst. The pass from Trent to pick out Bobby for the winner was just sublime. Anyone else would have blasted that cross into the middle, but Trent just eased it in there into the perfect spot. He gets a lot of media recognition and seems to be highlighted on MOTD every other week, yet I still feel like Trent is widely under-rated. He’s a genuine superstar talent and does things most other players can only dream of. I suppose playing in a team with loads of other stars means there’s only so many plaudits to go around. Thursday Dec 19: Arteta takes the Arsenal job and City aren’t happy about how it was handled. Seems they’re always complaining about something lately. One might even say they’re always the victims of something. They want £2m compensation from Arsenal, which seems a bit steep for a fella who puts the cones out and fetches Guardiola’s coffee. He’s hardly Pep Ljinders is he? I think City are most upset that he’s gone to Arsenal and not Everton, thus denying them the chance to ring the Blues and ask “where’s the Arteta money, Bill?”. You like that one? Me too, I was going to tweet it out but I thought nah, that’s so good people shouldn’t get that for free. That’s what you pay your money for folks. Imagine thinking that Mikel Arteta has enough about him to sort out the absolute shambolic mess that it Arsenal right now. Then again, other than Klopp I don’t think there is anyone out there who can fix them any time soon. Meanwhile, Minamino is now officially a Red and will reportedly make his debut against Everton in the FA Cup. Can’t wait, hope it goes the same way as Big Virg’s debut against them went. Friday Dec 20: Origi is asked what his favourite goal from last season was and he said it was the Everton one. This is just some top trolling. I mean, the lad scored one of, if not THE most iconic goal in club history with that winner against Barca, and he also scored in a Champions League final. Yet he picked a scruffy little header from a yard out against a mid table team. You’ve got to hand it to him, he knows his audience! In other news today, the kids came from 2-1 down in the last minute to beat PSG 3-2 with two stoppage time goals. Gotta love this mentality running right through the club. Some of these lads played at Villa only a few nights earlier, including Tom Him who came on a sub to score the equaliser. The winner came from another sub, Larouci, who is back from the injury that kept him out the other night. Arsenal are linked with a move for Ndidi. They’re rumoured to be ready to offer Leicester a deal of Granit Xhaka and £40m. Ah, the old £40m plus one pound bid again. ….and that was the week that was