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Saturday Jan 11: Spurs 0 L 1 We were nowhere near our best today but we were still way better than sorry shithouse Spurs, who went out there just hoping not to get smacked around. Just because Mourinho said afterwards that they did well and deserved a point, a lot of people seem to have bought into it. They deserved nothing. They played like a plucky little underdog in the cup. I was embarrassed for them as they’ve always been able to go toe to toe with us since Klopp has been here. Now look at them. Pitiful. You know the great thing about our lads though? They won at Spurs but they were pissed off. You could see it. They were genuinely disappointed in themselves. Hendo was fuming afterwards and you could see him say to Klopp on the pitch “not good enough. That was fucking shit”. Virgil wasn’t happy either, and Klopp reckons when he went to congratulate Bobby he was met with “I know, I should have scored more. I’m sorry”. The standards they are setting for themselves are the reason that I’m so sure this title race is over. There’s just no way these lads are going to lose six or seven games. There’s more chance that the gap gets bigger rather than smaller. We’ve now officially had the best ever start in the history of the big five European leagues. What we’re seeing it truly historic shit. It’s literally never been done before. 20 wins from 21 games. Incredible stuff. We are a few months away from this team being the reigning champions of England, Europe and the World. Who’d have thought. Even just a couple of years ago it seemed well out of reach, but look at us now. The u18s won again too. They went behind int he first minute and Stoke but equalised before half time and won it with five minutes left. These boys love a late goal even more than the senior lads. Sunday Jan 12: City smash Villa into the middle of next week but Guardiola is still saying the title has gone and we’re too far ahead. Why do so many people think he’s just playing mind games here? Guardiola has a higher opinion of Klopp and his team than pretty much anybody in football. He’s always talking about how good we are, and he was doing it before we were even challenging them. So now he finds himself 14 points behind having played a game more. Of course he thinks it’s over, why wouldn’t he? It isn’t mind games, he just knows how good we are because we matched them stride for stride last season when they had to be absolutely perfect over the last few months to hold us off. He knows they aren’t clawing back a 17 point deficit. Nat Phillips is going back to finish his loan spell in Germany. He’s probably never going to play for us again but what a cool story he’s got to tell, cutting short a loan spell to come back and help us beat Everton, before then giving it the arl Josemi “and now my work here is done”. Great stuff. Almost as great as this story from a London journalist about Berbatov from yesterday… "Dimitar Berbatov came into the media cafe at Spurs about 10 minutes before kick off, looking for food. Grabbed a roll, but the catering manager came over and asked him where his pre-match meal voucher was (all media get given them). "While his colleague argued his case, having taken one himself, explaining who the Bulgarian was, Berbatov casually buttered his roll, stuffed the whole thing into his mouth and stood in front of the woman with it hanging half out as if to say 'what you going to do about it now?' "This sent the catering manager to a new level of outrage at this Bulgarian and his devil may care attitude. While she raged, Berbatov simply smiled with buttered roll still hanging out of his mouth before walking out of the room. Dimitar Berbatov - doing what he wants since 1981." Meanwhile, Fabinho says he wants to welcome his mate Mbappe to Liverpool. You and me both, son. You and me both. Monday Jan 13: Some spectacular footy played by the 23s tonight in a 5-0 win against Southampton. Sensational stuff, especially from the skipper Jones. He’s far too good for this level now and the opposition usually can’t get near him. I know it’s tough with the number of senior lads ahead of him, but we need to get him some minutes, somehow, because he’s special. Elliott and Williams were both class again too, as was Pedro. The new lad up front scored a couple and if this is going to be the regular line up for the 23s now they’re going to be fun to watch for the rest of the season. The midfield has been revamped now with Christie-Davies going out on loan. The trio that played tonight are very easy on the eye. Pedro, Clarkson and Cain are all brilliant in possession Tell you what really grabbed my attention though. Hoever was only on the bench. Maybe there’s a fitness reason for that, or perhaps a message is being sent. He started the season on the brink of the senior squad. He was Trent’s deputy and also an option at centre back. Recently though he’s been nowhere near. He didn’t make the team against Everton and now he’s not making the starting line up for the 23s. International duty has fucked his season right up. He was brilliant for Holland in those youth tournaments but while he was away Neco was flying past him in the pecking order and now he can’t get in at centre back ahead of Van den Berg and Boyes. Tuesday Jan 14: So, a report reveals that Everton have lost a shit load of cash over the last 12 months. £110m in losses or something. Serious shit. They had their AGM tonight and Moshiri didn’t show up. Why? Because he was having a really important meeting with someone who wants to invest in naming rights to their new stadium. Fuck me, not even Evertonians are gullible enough to not see through this shit, surely? Hold on, it’s actually true. Kind of. The investor is his mate Uzmanov (long rumoured to have an unofficial stake in the Blues) and he’s paying £30m just to be given first refusal on the naming rights to the phantom new stadium. Jesus, that’s so fucking blatant even Man City will be looking at that and going ‘dunno about that lads, it’s a bit obvious like’. You know, FFP may as well just be fucked off completely now because teams aren’t playing by the rules and unless you’re an Italian club there seems to be no punishment for it. Actually that’s not strictly true as Championship sides have been hammered in the past too, and Derby are currently looking at a potential 12 point punishment after their chairman bought the stadium for more than it was worth and rented it back to the club. I genuinely don’t get how Everton are being allowed to get away with what they’ve been doing. They lost £110m and yet they’re still throwing all that cash at Ancelotti? If FFP is ever actually enforced in the Premier League, then Man City will be reigniting their rivalry with Macclesfield in League One and Everton will be there right alongside them, blaming that whole shit on us. Wednesday Jan 15: Suarez is out for four months after needing knee surgery. He was indestructible when he was here but age is catching up with him now. Shame for him, but at least it means there’s no chance of him having his heart broken by us again. I really, really hope we get to play them again you know. This time it might be worth playing the FA Cup side just to make it a bit more fair. So the AFCON next year will be back to taking place in the winter. I’m sure there’s some perfectly simple explanation for it, and it will be something to do with FIFA acting in their own self interest. Loads of Reds are up in arms about it because it means no Mo, Sadio or Naby for possibly as long as six weeks. At this point I’m not arsed. It’s so far ahead that frankly next season isn’t something that concerns me at all. I just want that title this year and I’ll worry about anything else afterwards. I’ve long felt that once we win that title I’m not even going to care about what comes next because I just want the monkey off our back. No doubt I’ll feel a lot differently when we’re playing a dozen games with Mané and Salah though. As for Naby, it’s no better than even money that he’d be available to play for us anyway as he must have missed as many games as he’s been available for. I suppose another part of the reason I’m not stressing about this is because I figure that Bobby and Mbappe can hold down the fort until they return anyway. Thursday Jan 16 Roma want Shaq and have had a loan offer turn down. What the fuck is it with Italian clubs and their loan offers? There’s no way we’d be letting Shaq go anyway while there is so much to play for, but they could at least make us an offer that might make us consider it. If they’d come in and offered £30m then who knows. It’s just mad though isn’t it? Why would we let any first team squad member go on loan? What the fuck are they even thinking? It’s actually annoyed the shit out of me to be honest. These fuckers tried to the same shit with Lovren last summer and have clearly learnt nothing. Even Inter Milan are paying actual cash to sign soon to be out of contract 53 year old Ashley Young, so where do Roma get off trying to insult us like this? In other news today, apparently UEFA changed the formation of their ‘team of the year’ just so they could get Ronaldo in. It was meant to be 4-3-3- but Ronaldo was the fourth striker in the voting, so they went 4-2-4 and dropped Ngolo Kante. It’s really not that big of a deal but it is completely baffling to me how Ronaldo needs to be cow towed to like this. He’s had a great career and won a shit tonne of awards both individually and collectively. All things come to an end though. Ronaldo is 35 in a few weeks. I’d say he is undoubtedly the best 35 year old to ever play the game, but Father Time is undefeated and eventually he’ll get Ronaldo too. Why are UEFA so arsed about it though? What do they think is going to happen if he doesn’t make their ‘Team of the Year’? It’s just fucking weird. Meanwhile, Phil Babb thinks we should sign Koulibaly to play alongside Big Virg because it’s the only position where we might actually need strengthening. Initially I rolled my eyes when I saw that, but in fairness to Babb he said his concern was just with the fitness records of Gomez, Matip and Lovren, and he’s right on that score. The problem is what do you do when everyone is fit? If we signed Koulibaly, presumably it would be at the expense of Lovren who would move on, which is fine, but where would that leave Gomez? He could be our centre back for the next dozen years, so why replace him with someone who will play every week? Because Koulibaly is currently better than Joe, but if Joe is playing every week (or at least most weeks) then he’s quickly going to become one of the best around. If we paired Koulibaly with Van Dijk we might never concede a goal again, and it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else. Besides, we need that money for Mbappe. Friday Jan 17: Why is it any time we play the Mancs or Bueshite, we’re subjected to those God awful ‘Combined XI’ things? At least in the past there was a discussion to be had, but but not any more. Even Dave Prentice couldn’t find room for one Everton player in his line up, but ESPN somehow managed to sneak Maguire and Rashford in theirs. Rashford is United’s best player but he got in ahead of Mo Salah. I mean seriously? You can make a case that he could edge Divock out of a spot on the bench, but that’s it. Rashford over Salah is fucking crazy talk. As for Maguire? What’s that based on? Price tag, presumably, because he hasn’t pulled up any trees since going there and there are actually video compilations of his individual performances that are doing the rounds online just ripping the piss out of him. Picking him over Lovren is laughable. Taking him over Matip is embarrassing. Going with him over Joey G is fucking criminal. He’s better than Phil Jones though, I’ll give him that. Finally, the u23s lost 3-0 at Wigan tonight. Shite it was. They were well beaten and I switched off before the end as it was doing my head in. The defence looked awful and the attack was toothless without Elliott and Jones. I’m struggling to see what they saw in Van den Berg because he doesn’t even look as good a player as Morgan Boyes right now. Need to have faith though as we haven’t got too many transfers wrong in the last couple of years, and he is still a kid. ...and that was the week that was

Theres been a lot of bollocks spouted in the aftermath of this game so let me cut through all that before going any further: The truth is that Spurs were shite and deserved nothing. Anyone suggesting otherwise is talking a steaming pile of pure Zlatan. I know they missed chances and some of them are kidding themselves into thinking they were ’unlucky’ (if they want to completely overlook the chances we missed at the other end). That’s the predictable narrative spun by Mourinho, but it’s fucking nonsense. It’s all about trying to justify his cowardly approach to a crowd who have always been staunchly against that type of ‘football’. Maybe some Spurs fans will swallow it, but that doesn’t make it true. Here’s what happened. Tottenham tried to Mourinho the shit out of the game and to some degree it worked, but they lost. Tough shit. If you play with that kind of cowardice you don’t get to cry about what you ‘deserve’, especially when you ‘deserve’ nothing. Maybe if you’d shown even the tiniest bit of ambition you might have gotten something, but you didn’t, and you didn’t. So fuck off. The only time Spurs looked dangerous was when we gave them the ball through our own complacency. Why were we so complacent? Because they were fucking shite and it was too easy for us. They played like a plucky underdog in a cup match. Or to put it another way, they played like a Mourinho team. He did this with Chelsea and Man United and he did it against far less accomplished Liverpool sides than this one. So Jurgen will have known exactly what to expect. This is who he is. It’s what he does. He was probably made up that Kane was injured as it gave him the excuse he needed to park the bus. “Look at us with all of our injuries, trying to take on the best team in Europe so short handed. We had to play like that, aren’t my lads brave”. His brand of football is ten years past it’s sell by date. Enjoy, Spurs fans. This is your new reality. It’s incredible how far we’ve pulled away from Spurs in the last 12 months and with him in charge that’s not going to change any time soon. From the first few minutes of the game I thought it was glaringly obvious just how big the gulf was between the sides. They looked terrified of us. It shouldn’t have been like that because Spurs have got loads of good players and have shown plenty of times they can win without Kane. In fact, Son and Lucas Moura worry me far more than Kane does. We’ve generally edged the meetings we’ve had in recent seasons but they’ve always gone toe to toe with us and given us some of the most difficult games we’ve had. They could have tried to go toe to toe with us again because they know they can do it and besides, what did they have to lose really? The league table shows how much better than them we are but in head to head games it’s always been difficult for us. It’s not as though the result was going to be season defining for them, so they could have given it a go. It says everything about Mourinho though that nobody ever thought for a second they would. This game was too easy for us and that was the thing that caused us a problem. It really shouldn’t have been as close as it was because Spurs played with a massive inferiority complex and we should have buried them by half time. I’m genuinely irritated that we didn’t batter them. It’s frustrating that they were still hanging around like a massive turd we just couldn’t flush, but its a measure of the standards set by this team that I’m having to restrain myself from being too critical over a 1-0 win at Spurs. It’s funny isn’t it? The season has been almost perfect but because we’re so good any time we don’t win comfortably there’s a temptation to have a bit of a moan and nit pick at the performance. It’s not just the fans and pundits doing it either. In the post match interviews Hendo wasn’t pleased, Klopp didn’t look happy either, while Virgil looked like he’d lost a tenner and found a quid. It’s good that they think like that because it’s that hunger to be better that will keep them going. I think the reason they were annoyed with themselves is because of the second half, which was fairly disjointed and riddled with uncharacteristic mistakes. It was all set up to be another Leicester as we were so dominant. Having gone 1-0 up the boys probably expected to turn the screw and finish Spurs off, maybe even picking them off on the break if they came out and tried to chase the game. They never did come out though. Even deep in stoppage time they were passing it around on the halfway line with four defenders and two holding midfielders and all day they seemed content to take their plucky 1-0 defeat against the World Champs. And we got suckered in. It was too easy, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. Because they didn’t come out we had all the time in the word to pass it around and we seemed to lull ourselves into a false sense of security. I mean when do you ever see Wijnaldum losing the ball in his own defensive third? Never. In the first half Hendo was caught in possession twice. That never happens either. They got suckered in by how scared Spurs were playing. It just became so sloppy at both ends. We kept fucking up in the final third and wasting good opportunities to bury them and then we started giving them the ball in our own half. It’s not even as though they pressed us high up the pitch. They sat off 99% of the time but then every now and again Alli or Moura would catch us by surprise by actually trying to make a tackle. Mourinho did what he always does. He parked the bus and waited for a mistake. We made a few and if they’d taken one of those chances we’d be hearing about “another Jose masterclass”. It’s not a masterclass. He’s just Steve Bruce with better players. We played into their hands though in that second half. I didn’t see it coming because the first half was exactly what we would have wanted. From the first minute we stamped our authority on the game with a brilliant, sweeping move that saw Ox release Bobby in the inside right channel. For me Bobby did everything right there and was desperately unlucky. The only reason he didn’t score was because the kid making his debut got back in to a great position to make a block. When you look at the replay, that shot is going in the corner but he came from nowhere to get in the way. Fair play to him, that was quality. Bobby then had the presence of mind to pick up the loose ball and tee up Ox, who went for the same corner and saw his shot hit the inside of the post, come back out and hit Tanganga. It could have gone anywhere and Salah and Bobby were both ready to pounce, but Spurs got lucky and survived. The kid probably deserved that bit of luck following his initial clearance. We were all over them for most of that half and seemed to be able to get in down the left at will. Sadio was electric and Robbo was flying forward on overlaps. For once the final ball just wasn’t there with Robbo. It’s not easy when Spurs had nine players in there most of the time though. The front three were linking up well and Mané shot over after nice interplay between Mo and Bobby had set him up. Then Virgil missed a free header from a few yards out when he put it straight at the keeper. I suspect VAR may have ruled that out though as it looked level, and level now almost always means some part of the body is offside. The goal was coming from the first minute and it’s surprising it took as long as it did to arrive. Brilliantly finished by Bobby and well set up by Mo. Spurs are crying about the throw in that led to it, but how the fuck is any referee in the world supposed to get that right? It’s impossible. It’s unlucky when a decision like that goes against you but it’s also unavoidable and it shouldn’t have been given the amount of airtime it got. But it’s us, LiVARpool, and we don’t win games fair and square remember. It was a slight nick off Mané and the ball may have been already over the line when it hit him anyway. It’s almost certainly a Spurs throw but there isn’t a referee or linesman in the world who is going to see that, and complaining about it is pathetic really. Especially when you can’t even say the word ‘throw in’. Seriously, what the fuck is a “sroo in” Jose? Dick. At least he didn’t complain about VAR not disallowing it. Others have though. Even Danny Murphy tried to suggest there was a handball by Henderson. Fuck. Off. I expect it from that weird Duncan Castles cunt, but Murphy has embarrassed himself there. If I had my way, baldies wouldn’t be allowed to comment on footy as to a man they appear utterly clueless (TLW’s Paul being the notable exception that proves the rule). There is no angle that shows the ball hitting Henderson’s hand so they can’t disallow the goal. It’s simple really. That should have been the end of the discussion. I was annoyed they even looked at it at all because I was under the impression that the new law only applied if the player who handles plays the final pass or scores himself. Hendo did neither, so why were they even looking at it? I asked that question on Twitter and someone replied that it was reviewed just because it was in the box, so I assume that must be the case otherwise they had no business even looking at Hendo there. The point is though he didn’t handle and it smacks of the same desperation we saw after the Wolves game. Not wanting us to win the title is fine, it’s a perfectly understandable viewpoint, especially if you support a rival. When you start crying ‘conspiracy’ though and dissecting every decision in our games you’re just making yourself look like a fucking danger whose hard drive needs checking. Mourinho and others were also complaining that Robbo didn’t get a red card. People were actually tweeting Gary Lineker demanding that they talk about it on MOTD!! They did discuss it and quite rightly said there was fuck all in it. There was nothing wrong with that challenge on Tanganga. He should have been given a yellow for leaving his foot in on Alderweireld late on, but the tackle they’re moaning about was nothing. Every time we win we have to hear complaints about something. Even in our most dominant performance of the season against Leicester we had Schmeichel cryarsing about the penalty we got at 1-0. Guardiola almost gave himself a heart attack complaining about phantom handballs at Anfield (see my earlier comment on baldies and footy) and then there was the Wolves debacle, when everyone was up in arms over VAR being used to get two decisions right. It’s pathetic and it’s virtually every game. “If it wasn’t for VAR they’d only be seven points clear”. So, the argument is that “if all those correct decisions that went their way weren’t given and the incorrect ones were given instead, they wouldn’t be so far ahead”. Everyone is cracking up because we’re so good. We should have slapped Spurs all over White Hart Lane in the second half just to teach them a lesson. All they wanted to do was get everyone behind the ball and hit the deck looking for free-kicks, trying to disrupt the flow of the game. Those Spurs players need little encouragement to do that anyway as they’re the worst divers in the Premier League, but that’s going to be cranked up a notch or two now under Captain Shitbag. No surprise that Martin Atkinson was only too willing to oblige them. What a fucking twat he is. Free kick after free kick went Tottenham’s way, but when they clearly fouled Henderson to spark a dangerous attack he waved it away. And when Wijnaldum was brought down on the edge of their box he saw nothing wrong with that either. Hell, he even decided to play an extra minute and a half of stoppage time at the end in the hope that Spurs might score. It was meant to be three minutes, yet he played well over four. Why was that? It never normally happens, but when it’s Atkinson in charge of a Liverpool game in which we’re hanging on to a one goal lead, suddenly the official with the board is being ignored. Dodgy as fuck. He’s worse than Anthony Taylor. Actually, hanging on was an over statement. We were fairly comfortable for the most part and should have made more of some promising situations we created. Robbo continued to pick out Spurs players with his crosses and they always seemed to have enough players back in to clear the danger. I didn’t like the decision to take off Mané for Origi though. Not so much from the attacking side of it, but because Sadio had been absolutely incredible from a defensive point of view. He didn’t give them a second. So many times their midfielders thought they had time only for Sadio to come chasing back and rob them. He was everywhere. Origi was never going to give us that, and for that reason I’d have subbed Mo instead as we wouldn’t be losing out on anything defensively. I’ll be honest, Div was really doing my head in as he was passive and wasn’t offering anything. Then out of nothing he tip toed around three challenges on the edge of the box and brought a save from the keeper. That was fucking brilliant to be fair, and I felt bad for having previously been moaning at him. Lallana had also been brought on, for Ox, and I thought he made a really positive impact by keeping the ball and just generally doing the smart thing. One touch late on when he plucked a ball out of the sky was fucking glorious too. He’s proving to be a useful asset of late. The final 15 minutes proved to be more stressful than they needed to be but I think what made it more worrying at the time was that the only real moments of ‘danger’ all day had come from our own mistakes, such as when Son blasted over after Wijnaldum was caught in possession, or when Trent and Gomez went for the same ball and we needed Virg to make a great tackle. We were giving them hope by playing into Mourinho’s hands. That’s what he wants. He waits for mistakes and then hopes to punish them. He’s built his career on it. The only chance that was of their own making was when Lo Celso fired wide from close range. That was a much more difficult chance than people are making it out to be. The angle wasn’t good, the ball was travelling at pace and he was on the stretch. He should have scored but I can see why he didn’t. Missed chances like that have been a feature of the season. We’ve been great but things have gone our way a lot more than usual. 20 wins out of 21 games to start a season is almost unheard of. In fact, it is unheard of because it’s never been done before, either in this country or in any of the other major European leagues. A lot of those games have been close and in many of those close games the opponent has failed to take some very clear chances. So we’ve had luck on our side at times this season and I won’t pretend otherwise. Some of those wins could have been draws if the opponents hadn’t missed some very clear opportunities (Sheffield United away is the first one that springs to mind), and maybe next season things will be different. It’s amazing though how the very best teams seem to benefit from that. Perhaps it’s the intimidation factor? Opposing players snatch at chances because they aren’t sure when the next one will come along or just because they know how big a moment it is. A few years ago we seemed to suffer from “one chance one goal” syndrome. It was mad. We’d defend well but as soon as the other team had a chance they scored. It’s partly about the keeper but it’s not just that. Son didn’t even hit the target with a chance he’d normally bury with his eyes closed. The very best teams often have things like this go in their favour and it can’t just be luck. I don’t think what we’re doing right now is sustainable but it doesn’t really matter. Even if two or three of those wins had been draws instead, we’d still be well ahead anyway. 20 wins from 21 games isn’t what I expect to see happening too often. 17 or 18 from 21 is certainly realistic though for this team. They aren’t going to rest on their laurels and they want to get better. The fact they are winning at White Hart Lane and they’re coming off the pitch looking pissed off is great. There’s a clip of Hendo saying to Klopp “not good enough, that was fucking shite”. I can’t tell you how much I love that. What a captain he’s turned out to be. I thought it was his worst game of the season, even though he wasn’t even bad. The standard he’s set is so high though that even a decent game feels like a disappointment, which probably explains how irked he was. As for the star man, Virgil was excellent and Alisson was outstanding in an understated way. He rarely has to do anything spectacular because his positioning is so good. Gini was top drawer too other than that one brainfart that could have cost us. The front three all did well with Bobby the pick of the bunch, so I’m giving it to him, not least because he was the matchwinner. Next up is the Mancs and I expect them to play in a similar manner. Solksjaer will try to nullify our full backs like they did at their place, but this is Anfield and we’re a different kettle of fish entirely than at Old Trafford. We owe them one, so let’s hope we can give them the hiding they deserve. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Lallana); Salah (Shaqiri), Firmino, Mané (Origi):

Saturday Jan 4: Ancelotti talked about how close he came to joining us in 2015 but says we made the right choice in Klopp. He’s a good egg is Carlo, and at the time I wanted him rather than Jurgen. I know, what a fucking goon. It looks utterly insane now, but I think my main reasoning was that footy hipsters all loved Klopp and Dortmund and I just rebelled against that. I also thought there was a boom or bust element about Klopp whereas Ancelotti was more of a what you see is what you get. I was half right on that as things have definitely gone BOOM in a big way under Jurgen. Mad that Ancelotti has ended up on Merseyside four years later though, on the other side of the park. It won’t work out for him but that’s not a reflection on him as a manager. He’s won everything there is to win and his credentials are impeccable. But this is Everton we’re talking about here. Failure is what they do and not even he will be able to change that. The other thing that counts against him is he’s a nice fella who has a soft spot for the Reds. Ask Big Red Ron and Marco Silva how that worked out for them. In other news, hey he broke his Cherry!! Dom Solanke finally scored! He’s been there a year and it’s taken him until now to break his duck. Made up for him though, I always thought he was a really good player and although he wasn’t a fit for us I assumed he’d have a good career elsewhere. He still might, but 12 months without a goal is fucking grim. It must be doing his head in seeing Calvert-Lewin scoring freely even though he’s only half the player Solanke is, but it’s up to him to prove it now. Bournemouth are in real trouble as their squad has been ravaged by injury, so he needs to step up and score the goals that keep them up. Nice little win for the u18s today. 3-0 at home to Blackburn. The team is so young now it’s hard to keep track of who’s who. Most of the regulars have moved up to the 23s but the 18s still seem to keep getting results no matter who they pick. Sunday Jan 5: L 1 Everton 0 That was just one of the most enjoyable derby games ever and it’s one of my favourite games of the season so far. I loved the Arsenal game but this was even better. For all the praise that our lads deserve, you have to take into account how fucking woeful Everton were. I’d like to say that was because of how well we played, but it was mostly just them being massive cowards who bottled it because of Anfield. Poor Carlo is maybe now getting an idea of just what a hopeless task he has on his hands. Still, he’s being well compensated for the hit his reputation is going to take. They actually started well and had obviously taken encouragement by the team we’d sent out, but when they missed those three chances they lost all hope and spent the rest of the game just expecting to lose. It’s what they do. Don’t forget, they’ve had games when they’ve come here on an equal footing in the table (sometimes they’ve been above us) but without fail they’ve shit the bed. Any time there is any expectation on them to do anything they just can’t handle it. You know the one thing that summed Everton up today? They won the toss and chose to change ends, even though they had 8,000 fans in the Anny Road. We could have played the under 9s today and Everton would still have had an inferiority complex. To put this in perspective, this wasn’t our second team, it was more like our third. Several players in this line up would not make a second XI and there are one or two who might not make the third. Richarlison cost more than our entire line up. So did Sigurdsson. This was a derby win for the ages, one we can gloat about for generations. We beat Everton even though we didn’t pick Alisson, Trent, Robbo, Matip, Van Dijk, Lovren, Fabinho, Hendo, Keita, Wijnaldum, Salah, Mane, Firmino and Shaqiri. In addition, Milner only played six minutes and Ox only came on for the last 20. I wasn’t even surprised. Origi plus any ten was always going to be enough. What a goal by Curtis though. Doesn’t get any better for a young Red that. Monday Jan 6: Brewster is going to Swansea on loan but plans to let Jones go may be shelved after his heroics yesterday. I’d defo keep him around as he’s been on the bench lately which shows he’s needed. Besides, he’s 18 so it’s not THAT important that he goes out and gets experience. Some kids don’t need to do that (Trent for example) and Jones has developed massively this season just through training with the senior lads every day. I reckon Jones and Elliott (and probably Williams) will be the type of kids who don’t need to go out because they’ll force their way into the squad and do their developing that way. By all accounts the intensity in our training sessions is basically like a proper game, so the kids are learning more than they would by playing in League One or even the Championship. They’re having to pit themselves against some of the best players in the world, which is why when they then have to play against an Everton or someone it must feel like a relief. Some reports today that the club want Chirivella to sign a new contract. Bit weird like. Why would he do that? He’s 22 and he’s far too good to be playing reserve team football, yet he doesn’t have a hope in hell of forcing his way into the first team. And I say that as probably one of his biggest fans. He’s a lovely little footballer and will be a good signing for someone (but only if they play a possession based game), but he’s not getting past Fabinho, Hendo or Gini for that number six role. I get why the club might want to tie him down because the way he’s played in these last two cup games has probably generated a fair bit of interest and they might think they can cash in on him, but if you’re Pedro why would you do that? Unless the money is too good to turn down, but I can’t see that being the case. I really hope he gets a good move though, he’s a top lad and a lovely player to watch. Meanwhile, we’ve signed a 21 year old striker from ‘Brentford B’ for the u23s. Presumably he has v very little chance of making it, but we needed a striker because Brewster is heading out, Glatzel is injured and Bobby Duncan was a bellend. Anyway, the lad’s name is Joe Hardy and he’s originally from the Wirral. He played for City when he was younger before moving to Brentford. Tuesday Jan 7: City bummed United at Old Trafford and they might just be getting their mojo back now. Tactically they’re doing some things differently and they look a bit less vulnerable to counter attacks, which is a bit of a concern I suppose. Thankfully the gap we have is huge which gives us a cushion in case they go on one of their mad fucking runs. They looked good tonight but you have to factor in the opposition. United beat City a few weeks ago but they have it in them to do that now and again. If they played City ten times, they’d probably lose six or maybe even seven. They’re a badly coached side with some talented players who when they raise their game can look useful, but City should have beaten them by six tonight. Solksjaer though, God love him. His positivity / delusion is great. He was always going to come out and say something about how “we won the second half”. It’s true, they did, but only because City sometimes let that complacency creep in when they get ahead like that. Guardiola was fucking steaming about that afterwards and I would be too. When you have a chance to smash your neighbours in a derby, you need to take it. Wednesday Jan 8: Fucking hell, it’s kicking off at Everton. Fans turned up at Finch Farm demanding to be given an audience with the players so they could tell them how shit they are. That was denied them, but Marcel Brands did let them in and listened to their grievances. The word on the street is they told him that unless things improve soon they’ll be down with 300 lads and will trash the player’s cars. This is just too funny. The soft cunts have been watching too much Gazzetta Football Italia. Thinking they can show up at the training ground and threaten to “burn their Ferraris”. I mean, they’ve got every right to be pissed off, but threatening to bring 300 lads down to smash the players cars in is just too far fetched, even by Everton standards. I don’t believe that happened, but it’s still hilarious seeing the reaction to it all on social media. If they didn’t exist, we’d have to invent them. Staying with the Blues, it’s not just the fans who are revolting. The players are too, and they are also in revolt (never gets old!). It seems that Big Dunc gave them some home truths after Sunday’s game and some of them back chatted him. As far as we know there haven’t been any Everton players admitted to A&E, which tells me that the big man must be going soft. They've got more balls than I thought, because I defo wouldn't back chat him. Most rumours seem to have Delph as the ring leader, which is no surprise as he’d have been number one on my list of suspects. I watched that Man City documentary on Amazon and he’s a mouthy fucker who thinks he’s much better than he is. The suggestion is that he (and other senior pros) took exception to accusations they downed tools and they’re complaining about Ancelotti’s tactics already. After FOUR games. A man who has won every major honour in the game is being questioned by a bunch of losers who three days ago made Pedro Chirivella look like Xavi. Ancelotti has played with and managed some of the greatest players in the history of football. Now look at who he’s having to work with. When he took the job I compared it to De Niro taking a part on Coronation Street. That was really unfair on the cast of Corrie. A better comparison would be Tom Hanks joining ‘Made in Chelsea’. Meanwhile, another player left on loan today, as Isaac Christie-Davies went to Holland. I’ve never really thought anything of him when I watched him for the 23s. It’s not that I thought he was bad, I just had no opinion on him as I barely noticed him. When he played in the cup game at Villa though I thought he was really good, especially in the first half. Good luck to him. As he departs, another one returns. Liam Miller has been at Kilmarnock but he’s been recalled, probably because we have no strikers for the 23s now other than the kid we bought yesterday, Joe Hardy. He actually played tonight as the u23s lost 2-1 at home to Bilbao. The scoreline was harsh but we didn’t create much. Hardy didn’t do a great deal but does look like he’s got talent. Our goal was scored by Jack Bearne, who's a tidy little player with a great left foot. None of the lads who played against Everton in the cup were involved tonight, and it’s things like this that must make Neil Critchley’s job so difficult as there is no continuity to his team selections at all. Not that he’ll care, he must be proud as fuck after what his boys did last Sunday. Thursday Jan 9: Still more fallout from Sunday’s derby, as some Blue wrote a piece on Grand Old Team that might be the most pitiful, cringeworthy thing I’ve ever seen. You probably seen it as it went viral, so I won’t dissect it too much here, especially as I’d be here all day. There was a lot that I could pick apart, but I’ll just stick with the one takeaway I had from it. He compared Liverpool and Everton to a married couple and said that essentially an ‘uncoupling’ is needed because they aren’t getting anything out of it. Sorry sunshine, that’s not how it works. We didn’t CHOOSE to be with you and you didn't choose to be with us. We aren't a couple, we're siblings who don't like eachother. We're like the Gallagher brothers if one of them wasn't a dick and was far more successful than the other. How pathetic was it though? They're sick of us being better than them so they no longer want to be seen as rivals. Newsflash, the only reason you are 'rivals' is because we share a city, otherwise you'd be just as much of an irrelevance as Villa or West Ham. We keep you relevant, the only reason anyone knows who you are is because of the link to us. Be grateful, know your role and shut your mouth. If it's not one thing it's another though. In the week in which our new kit deal was finalised, the Blues look like they’ve got themselves a new kit deal too. And some of their fans aren’t happy. I saw a tweet from one of them that read: "Didn’t even know it was possible to downgrade from Umbro. And now it looks like we are... Liverpool just announced Nike. We’re going to Hummel, I hadn’t even heard of it until today. Fucking Hummel." Not sure I’m buying the ‘hadn’t heard of it until today’ part as Hummel made some class kits in the 80s. They’ve done nothing since, which makes them a good fit for Everton. I get why some Blues see it as another backward step and another sign of how far behind us they are, and I suppose it is. We’re getting £100m a season from Nike, they’ll be getting peanuts. One thing I’d put money on though is they’ll have a nicer kit than we will. Scant consolation like, but they need to cling to any little win they can get. Friday Jan 10: According to reports, Emre Can has turned down a move to United out of respect to the Reds. I still really like Can. I don’t miss him, not one little bit, but I still have time for him because he always put a shift in, even when we were shit. I don’t care that he left on a Bosman because we got Milner and Matip that way. You win some you lose some. I wonder if he ever regrets leaving though? Probably not, because the money he got was mental and he wanted to experience playing in Italy, but the likes of him and Coutinho must surely see what we’re doing and think “I could have been part of that”. If he has turned down United because he doesn’t want to ruin the relationship he has with us, then good for him. He’s misguided, because most Reds don’t give a fuck about him one way or another, but I for one applaud him. Nice one, Big Sexy. The mancs are said to be close to signing that Portuguese midfielder they were chasing last summer though. He was linked with us as well and he’s pretty good. Their fans are all excited about it but I look at it and just see how we were for so many years. We’ve been there so many times. You always think that one player can make all the difference, when the reality of it is that the only thing that really matters is having a great manager. The mancs didn’t win all those titles because of Cantona or Giggs or Keane. Obviously you need great players, but without a top manager you’ve generally got no chance unless you a) spend so much that it’s harder not to win it (Man City before Pep) or b) you get lucky by catching lightning in a bottle in a season when all the top clubs under-achieve (Leicester). The latter almost never happens, and the former is much more difficult now (even for Man United) with FFP. So, it comes down to your manager. And they don’t have one. We do, which is why we are where we are right now. It won’t last forever as these things go in cycles, so I’m just enjoying every minute of this. Finally, Pepe Reina has joined Villa on loan. Fucking hell, why on earth would he do that? Honestly can’t get my head around why he’d swap the bench in Milan for one in Birmingham. Or maybe he’s going to start for them? Even so, at his age and after the career he’s had, I’d rather be sat on Milan’s bench than be playing for Villa. At least he’ll get to play at Anfield again I suppose. that was the week that was….