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Not really sure what to think about this. First and foremost I’m relieved we won and contrary to what many seem to be saying, it was completely, totally, 100% deserved. We were by far the better team and created a shitload more chances than Leeds did. We made it unnecessarily hard for ourselves but as this team so often does, they came through to take the points. So that’s a good thing. The ability to just ‘find a way’ is great and that’s what separated us from Man City last year. When the going gets tough, they lose matches whereas we win them. It would be nice if we didn’t make it so hard for ourselves so often though, and just what the fuck has happened to the defence? We’ve gone from being by far the tightest unit in the league to looking like Brendan’s 2014 vintage. Since lockdown the amount of goals we’ve shipped has been alarming. At the back end of last season we could put it down to the lack of intensity after winning the league, but what’s the excuse for this one? Rustiness maybe, but I think it’s deeper than that. We’re conceding loads of goals since fans were no longer allowed in to stadiums. It’s hurting us more than anyone and I don’t just mean the ‘Anfield atmosphere’ thing either. Even having a hostile crowd helps with focus, intensity and concentration. With no fans these games look like training sessions at times and as a result we’re making stupid mistakes and generally not being as switched on as we normally would. That edge that everyone has when playing in front of a packed stadium isn’t there and it’s causing a casualness and lack of focus. The lack of intensity in games also doesn’t help us. We’re great when we’re full throttle but when we drop off a touch we’re not as good with or without the ball. I just don’t think this game plays out like this in front of a full house, but there’s no way of proving that one way or the other I guess. In fairness to Leeds, two of their goals were excellently worked. I can pick holes in how we defended them but it was nice football by them. One of their goals was a gift though, an absolute disgrace in fact. There’s been a real stench of complacency about our defensive play since football returned a couple of months ago. I’m not sure if that’s going to go away until fans are back, but hopefully this serves as the kick up the arse that we need, The back four looked ropey for all of the first half and parts of the second. It wasn’t just because of them though. Leeds players seemed to be picking the ball up in space between our midfield and defence much too easily. There were gaps everywhere and the absence of Fabinho was noticeable. Why that was I can’t say. Maybe Hendo was a little rusty or maybe it was because Naby was in the midfield three? Fabinho not being selected didn’t surprise me at all. Normally it would, but as I wrote in the diary this week, Klopp had a right go at him last week against Blackpool and subbed him at half time. I wondered if there was something to that, and him not starting this game tells me there was and that a message was being sent. The message might have been more effective if we hadn’t had to send him an SOS to go on and shore up the midfield, but hopefully whatever issue there may have been has been sorted, because we’re a better team with both him and Hendo playing rather than just the one of them. Fab was belatedly brought on to replace Keita. I was a little surprised by that, more so because I didn’t expect Hendo to last as long as he did. Naby could have no complaints. This was one of those games where both factions in the “Keita wars” saw the game completely differently. I saw people outraged that he was subbed and I saw others who couldn’t believe he lasted as long as he did. I don’t really know where I stand on this, because I didn’t think he had a bad game as such, but it does concern me that whenever he plays we seem to be wide open and the opposition finds all sorts of space in front of our defence. He’s really good at winning the ball high up the pitch and did it a few times in this game. They would have led to chances too if the forwards had made better decisions (mostly Bobby). Yet there always seem to be gaps when Keita is on the pitch. Maybe I’m imagining that and it’s more how I perceive it than it is reality, but that’s how it feels. I can see plenty of positive things with him but I don’t get how his fanboys can be so vociferous about how great he is. The jury is still well and truly out and if we had to lose one midfielder to make room for Thiago I’d rather it was Keita than Wijnaldum. I’m not saying I’d sell him, by the way, just that he’s the one I’m least convinced by. Anyway, I’ve gotten a little sidetracked. So let’s get back to the game and go through the goals. We drew first blood from the penalty spot. Amazing that there are people disputing that decision as it’s just blatant. I’m one who generally gives the defender the benefit on handball decisions, but when the arm is outstretched like that, away from the body, then it’s just a pen all day. So what if it hit his knee first? His arm is still needless out well away from his side. Apparently they’ve changed that law anyway so this was undoubtedly a pen. Mo stepped up and buried it right down the middle. I’m not a fan of the down the middle pen as generally it’s risky if you do it too often. For example, I reckon I’d save half of Troy Deeney’s pens just by standing still and letting it hit me. Mo occasionally goes down the middle but he’s also gone everywhere else too. He mixes them up nicely though and with that wide run up he has it’s almost impossible to read where he’s going. So if a keeper saves a pen from him it’s because he made a lucky guess as there’s no way you can tell from his run up where he’s going. Leeds levelled when their left sided player got away from Trent, cut inside and then beat Alisson with a low shot. Initially I thought it was weak as fuck from Trent. He should have made a challenge but held off. Then I watched the replay and he only held off because Gomez arrived on the scene and kind of got in his way while not making a challenge either. Needs better communication from them really. Good goal from the lad though. Virgil then headed in from a Robbo corner to restore our lead. Some nice movement in the box to clear a path for him and the header was so powerful that the keeper caught it on the line and ended up three yards behind it. Virg then undid that good work with an appalling piece of defending to gift a goal to my boy and fellow Bon Jovi enthusiast Patrick Bamford. I Always hated him until I realised that he was just Misunderstood and that he has the same excellent musical taste as me. Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White, but Patrick does. It’s been a Roller Coaster ride for him at Leeds but it hasn’t exactly been a Bed of Roses for him lately with constant speculation about him being replaced. He’s Unbreakable though is Patrick. When he’s feeling like a Monday he tells himself “Someday I’ll be Saturday Night”. This was Saturday night for him and he dished out some Bad Medicine to us. There’s not enough patience in football These Days and this could be the Last Chance Train for Bamford, but I can’t help thinking it might be a Breakout season for him if Leeds Keep the Faith. Ok ok relax, I’m done with the Bon Jovi references now but I have No Regrets about any of them and I make No Apologies. Virgil though. Jesus. Talk about over-confidence. I know he’s done shit like this before and it’s come off, and to be fair we all buzz off it when it does, but this was different because he was too close to his own goal and Alisson was completely stranded because of it. Just fucking head it away and stop showing off. Mo then rifled in a stunner to make it 3-2 before half time. Ridiculously good strike that, right into the top corner. He’d looked dangerous every time he had the ball and you could see how up for it he was. Sadio had some good moments too but he faded the longer the game went on I thought. Anyway, at 3-2 I just assumed we’d run away with out, especially having had the half time break to sort out the defensive sloppiness and get everyone refocused. If we’d have scored the next goal I think that’s how it would have played out. The second half was going well. We were creating chances and - especially after the introduction of Fabinho - looked to have taken the sting out Leeds. Then Henderson was replaced by Jones and immediately we conceded. The change had a direct impact on it too as Curtis didn’t track the runner into the box. It’s not a strength of his and this is the kind of thing he obviously needs to work on, but he had literally just stepped onto the field so it’s understandable that there may have been confusion as to who should have been picking the guy up. It may have been partly on Gini too, although he had his back to the runner whereas Curtis could see him, so it’s mostly on the kid. As I say though, he had only just come on and it’s difficult to be immediately in tune with everything that’s happening. He was terrific aside from that. Demanding the ball, showing great confidence and composure and generally being really positive. It was a real vote of confidence in him that he was sent on ahead of Milner and Minamino and he’s got to be very close to getting a start soon. And not just a “let’s give the kid a game and see how he does” type of start. I mean a genuine, “he deserves to be starting ahead of the senior lads” kind of start. He’s getting closer to that with each week now. Prior to that goal I didn’t think Leeds had really threatened at all, but because we squandered chances to get the fourth goal there is always the risk that something like that could happen. The lad took the goal superbly and one thing Leeds did all day was flood the box when they had the opportunity. They’ll score goals this season but they’ll probably conceded a ton as well. Had we been sharper in front of goal they’d have been utterly embarrassed in this game. All this talk about how well they played and how unlucky they were. It’s being hugely overblown. Had we been more clinical we’d have put seven or eight past them. We weren’t clinical though, and we haven’t really been for some time. Is Bobby becoming a problem? No-one wants to really say it because we love him and he still does enough to remind us all of what he’s capable of and how important he can be, but he’s definitely not playing at the level he was. Even in this game when he struggled, there was some lovely stuff from him. Not least the graceful turn away in his own half to start a counter attack that would have been a contender for greatest goal ever if Sadio had found the top corner instead of the middle rows of the Kop. Is it enough though? I suppose the obvious answer to that is yes it is, because we won the league. When outsiders question him I’m the first to become defensive and dismiss the criticism, yet I do feel like it’s starting to becoming a thing and he needs a few goals just to nip this in the bud. I know what he brings to the team can’t always be measured by goals, but I don’t think he’s even doing those things especially well of late (by ‘of late’ I’m talking the best part of a year). The one thing I do know is that since the beginning of last season I’ve lost count of the number of games where he’s either been subbed or he was lucky he wasn’t. There was a time when you’d never even consider bringing him off, but now it feels as though half the games he plays I’m thinking “Bobby needs hooking” before we even reach the hour mark. Why is that? Firstly, he’s actually become TOO unselfish. The thing that made him so great is now holding him back because his first instinct in any given situation now seems to be to look for the pass. Shooting is almost a last resort. The early chance when Keita played him in and he tried to square it is a perfect case in point. Secondly, when he does have clear chances himself he isn’t putting them away with the regularity he did a couple of years ago. I know I go on about this all the time and I’m even boring myself with it now. But the fact is he scored 26 goals in 17/18 while still doing all the things that we love him for. Bottom line, he needs to sharpen up his finishing. The chance he missed not long before we got the winning penalty was a fucking disgrace. I don’t even think that shot was hitting the target before the defender blocked it. You have to take chances like that, there’s just no getting away from it. He’s incredibly fortunate that we won the penalty almost immediately, because if we’d dropped points here then that miss would be the big thing people would be looking at. Thankfully Fabinho forced Rodrigo into a lazy, careless challenge and we were awarded our second penalty of the game. Again, it was blatant and no more than we deserved, especially after Van Dijk had seen a perfectly good goal ruled out for a phantom foul by Jones. That pissed me right off because it was beautifully crafted by us. Virgil spun away and ran around the back of a pack of players. There was nowhere for the defender to go so he tried to squeeze through a tiny gap between Jones and his marker and tripped over. Fuck all wrong with that. It didn’t matter in the end because Mo buried another penalty with aplomb (this time putting it in the corner) to give us the points late on. We shouldn’t have to score four goals to win but it’s nice to know we can when it’s needed. It’s hard not to be at least a little worried about Firmino though, while at the other end Alisson isn’t having his most productive period either. I’m not saying the goals that we’ve conceded since lockdown ended are his fault by any means. It might just be a statistical anomaly but he isn’t making many saves. According to a statto I follow on Twitter, he’s saved 17 of the last 35 shots he’s faced, which is really not good. For perspective, there was a period last season when he saved 50/54. Obviously there are various factors that contribute to this, not least the quality of shot he’s facing. It’s the kind of thing that used to happen all the time under the Mig though. Teams would have three shots on target and two of them would go in. Leeds actually scored three from three in this game. Were any of them Alisson’s fault? No. Would he normally save at least one of those? Quite possibly, but who knows really? I suspect it’s just one of those weird statistical thing that happen now and again and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s the hero against Chelsea or Arsenal in the coming weeks. So all in all, I’m made up with the win if not necessarily the way it was achieved. It wasn’t an enjoyable experience at all though. It would have been had I been sat in my seat in the Main Stand. I’d have come out buzzing and the focus would have been on what a thrilling game it was in what would no doubt have been an electric atmosphere. It’s shit that we’re missing out on this. The first home game of the season is one of the best days of the year. I fucking love it. The sun is always shining, meeting the lads before the game and catching up after the summer, and then there’s the buzz of walking up to the ground. Even better is the buzz of walking up the steps and seeing the immaculate pitch. Then YNWA before kick off. It’s just fucking great, and we’ve been robbed of it this year. And this year would have had an extra edge because it was Leeds. So yeah there’s a lot of depressing aspects of not being able to go the match, but near the top of it is being subjected to Martin Tyler. He’s the fucking worst, I hate him. He may as well have been wearing a Leeds shirt, a flat cap and had a ferret down his trousers while breeding whippets and racing pigeons. Actually, is a ferret down the trousers an actual Yorkshire stereotype or did I just make that one up? Whatever, you get the point. Tyler was rooting for Leeds with every fibre of his being. Which would be fine if he has the same approach when they play City or United, but he won’t. The cunt. Then there was his constant over pronunciation of “Hhhhhhockkkkkkkkk” just because he didn’t want to say ‘cock’, the fucking cock. He ruined my enjoyment of this game even more than our wretched defending did. The sooner he’s put out top pasture with ‘Motty’ the happier I’ll be. To be fair he wasn’t the only one going completely overboard about Leeds. You’d think they had stood there and gone toe to toe with us, creating chance after chance and just being desperately unlucky to be beaten by a late penalty. That’s not how it was. Yeah they had a go and played some nice stuff, but they had three chances and scored from all of them. That’s not going to happen very often. So while I find their style to be refreshing and I actually hope they do alright, I’m not buying the Leeds hype yet. In fact, I won’t be forming any judgement on them for at least another month because I had my fingers burnt last year with Norwich and I won’t be falling into that trap again. Yeah, Norwich. Remember them? The newly promoted team that came to Anfield on opening night last year and conceded four, just like Leeds did. Norwich were brilliant that night and created a lot more chances than Leeds did. They didn’t take any of them though. Still, everyone said “well if they play like that against everyone else they’ll do just fine”. How’d that work out for them? Most newly promoted teams start off like a runaway train because they’ve come from a division in which they’ve been top dogs and are used to playing attacking football. You don’t get promoted by parking the bus, so it stands to reason that when these teams come up they’re going to do what got them to the dance in the first place. It’s only after a few tonkings they realise that they need to tighten it up a bit. In the case of Fulham two years ago and Norwich last year, they never realised it at all and just kept on entertaining (and losing). So yeah, Leeds looked lively against us but we’ll see how they do when they go to Bramall Lane or how they fare when they have to break down Sean Dyche’s lads. So anyway, we started with a win and perhaps we’ll benefit from the sloppiness. Maybe it’s a wake up call we needed, because the fixtures over the coming weeks are more difficult than this one and we can’t afford to be so lax in defence against better sides, because we might not be able to score four against them. Star man is Mo, who was fucking sensational from first minute to last. He looks like a man on a mission to regain the Golden Boot and to put himself back into the Balon d’Or conversation. I’m seeing a lot of talk of him not getting the credit he deserves and how now he’s going to show everyone. I reckon that’s bollocks to be honest. He gets the credit relating to what his performances merit. The season he scored 44 goals he was the king of the world. He was the name on everyone’s lips and arguably the biggest global star in the game. Since then he’s been scoring around half that amount, so yeah he isn’t being spoken about in the same glowing terms but no-one is saying he isn’t a top player. He didn’t make the PFA Team of the Year because he didn’t deserve to. He was probably close and it wouldn’t have been out of line if he had, but he can’t have any complaints about not getting in ahead of the likes of Sadio, Vardy and Aubameyeng. So let’s put all this “Mo is disrespected” talk on hold shall we. I hope as much as anyone that he goes on another goal rampage this season and hits forty again, but I’m not going to put the cart before the horse just because he scored a hat-trick (including two pens) against Leeds. I made that mistake late last season when he looked like dynamite against Bournemouth and I said he’d chase down Vardy for the Golden Boot. I don’t think he scored another goal after that. So yeah, one swallow doesn’t make a summer and I’ll need to see him put a consistent run of games together before I start declaring that “King Mo” is back. This was a great start though as I thought he just looked head and shoulders above everybody else on the pitch. I’m excited by it, I just hope he can keep it up and doesn’t go and miss three one v ones next week at Chelsea. As for the rest, some were alright, some were below par and some (Trent and to a lesser extent Hendo) were rustier than a 10 year old patio set that’s been left out in the rain all that time. That’s to be expected though really and it might be another month before everyone is fully back in the groove as pre-season was basically a non-event this year. If we can get through the first five games unscathed then we’ll take some stopping again, but I’d feel a lot more confident about that if the stadiums were full. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Matip), Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson (Jones), Wijnaldum, Keita (Fabinho); Salah, Firmino, Mané:

Saturday Sep 5: L 7 Blackpool 2 The scoreline doesn’t really tell the story here, as we were shite for a significant part of this game and only really ran away with it when Blackpool started to make changes. We deservedly went 2-0 down. Koumetio was caught out for the opener but that was as much on Salah as it was him. The pass to the kid was shite and put him in a difficult spot. Then Alisson was culpable for the second goal. It might not have been in the box but it was close enough that he can have no complaints that a pen was given. Of course he got nowhere near the spot kick because he never does (hopefully there’s some nice reverse jinxing going on there). Matip headed us back into it just before the break and the second half was massively improved as the goals flowed. Nice for Elliott to get a goal and for Taki to get himself another. He looked lively again. I’m not reading anything into the poor first half performance as it’s pre-season and we had our entire back four away on international duty, but there’s just a weird vibe about us at the moment, on and off the pitch. Considering we should be on such a massive high, it doesn’t feel like that does it? Loads of fans are unsettled about the lack of transfer activity and the team looks a bit flat, although it is pre-season and it’s stupid to form any opinions - good or bad - based on these friendlies. I do have concerns about the front three though, as I’ve written quite regularly over the summer. Minamino has been our liveliest forward recently while Jones looks like he’s the most creative player in the squad right now. Hopefully when the season kicks off we’ll see the ‘big three’ step it up a gear but I’d feel a lot better about things if we added another one into the mix. Bobby looked very good today though, at least. Klopp wasn’t happy at all in the first half of this and the pitchside mic picked him up having a go at Fabinho telling him “make a challenge, be in the right places”. He subbed him at half time too. Don’t know if there’s anything sinister in that or if it was pre-planned. By the way, I’ve skipped a few days since the end of the last diary as I want to get back to the Saturday/Friday format now that the season is upon us again, and there’s been virtually nothing of note to talk about this past week anyway. The one significant bit of news was Messi staying put, which surprises no-one really as it felt like a power play right from the start, and as soon as it became clear that he wasn’t going to be allowed to just walk away this was always the most likely scenario. Tell you what though, he’s a proper scheming little fucking diva isn’t he? Ronaldo was always the one who got pilloried for his arrogance and selfishness but this fella is just as egotistical on the sly. Hope we play Barca this year so we can make him cry again. Sunday Sep 6: I saw Robbo was trending on twitter and I panicked and thought he might be injured. Turns out it was just a load of ‘Tierney Nonces’ posting about how shite he is when isn’t surrounded by the great players he plays with for us. If you think Kieran Tierney is better than Andy Robbo then you need to start watching a different sort, because footy isn’t for you. Meanwhile, Neco scores a last minute winer for Wales on his home debut. Nice. That’ll be great for his confidence as I don’t think he’s been at his best in the last few first team games he’s had for us. He was fucking brilliant to start with but just the last two or three times he’s played he’s had some struggles. He’ll come back flying now after this hopefully. Sheyi Ojo joins Cardiff on loan. Anyone even remember that he was still our player? I’d completely forgotten about him. I thought he was permanent at Rangers but he was only on loan. I’d imagine this will be his last loan deal and then he’ll just be sold for whatever we can get for him. Talented player but really inconsistent. Moving on, and the latest on Thiago is that he’s now saying stuff like “I’ve never said I’m leaving Bayern” and he made a comment about “going home” after international duty. Home being Bayern. Proper bored of this now. Reports in Spain today claim that Barcelona want him. You know what, they can fucking have him and we’ll keep Gini. I’m good with that. Monday Sep 7: Foden and Greenwood are sent home from international duty after bringing a couple of local girls to their room. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a big deal (unless you happen to be Foden’s long time girlfriend of course) but pulling this shit when in a bubble, in a foreign country and under strict orders to follow the rules is pretty fucking bad I reckon. It just shows a total lack of respect for Southgate. If I was Southgate I wouldn’t pick either of these upstart cunts again for a long time. Not that he’ll be there for a long time of course, but if by some miracle he is. They wouldn’t have done this if they feared or respected Southgate. That’s probably as much on him as them actually as he’s such a fucking wet lettuce. This is his chance to set an example. This wouldn’t have happened under Capello. Or Sven, albeit for completely different reasons. Capello ruled with an iron fist, whereas it wouldn’t have happened on Sven’s watch because those birds would have already been in his room, the smooth old bastard. Meanwhile, “Hamez” has signed for the Blues. Quite the fall from grace that. One minute you’re the young superstar of the World Cup and signing for Real Madrid, and then six years later you’re being unveiled at the Pit. Still, at least he’s got experience of dealing with disgusting little fucking creatures clinging onto him, so he’ll be sound when the fans are allowed back in. So Power Shift FC have won the transfer window again and they’re also declaring themselves the social media kings now because “Hamez” has around 14m more instagram followers than LFC. Mostly Real and Bayern fans who simply haven’t unfollowed him yet, but regardless, they can have this one. When’s the parade? Oh wait, hold on a second, news just in…. turns out that a lowly minority stakeholder in the Reds has…. *checks LeBron’s page* 71.8m followers. Better cancel that parade then. Unless they can somehow pull off the signing of Taylor Swift maybe? She’s got 140m followers and is probably a better keeper than Pickford. Tuesday Sep 8: Trent is PFA Young Player of the Year. I’m relieved, because if anyone other than him had won it I’d never have been able to get over the ridiculousness of it. I don’t think there has ever been a more obvious decision in the history of this award as he was soooooo far ahead of everyone else. Take Trent out of the equation and it would have been close (I’d have probably gone for Shagger Greenwood), but Trent was so far ahead of the rest that not even the PFA members could fuck this one up. Meanwhile, as expected, De Bruyne got the senior award. Hendo might have won it if it hadn’t been postponed, but post lockdown he didn’t play and De Bruyne was fantastic so this was the right call too. Congratulations to him, great player and a top fella. Deserves better than to be associated with that absolute cunt of a club. Probably the only person less arsed than me that Hendo didn’t win it is Hendo himself. He actually comes across as the type of fella who’d rather not win any individual award as the team is the only thing that matters to him. We had four players on the shortlist of six, which probably did Hendo’s chances no favours as the LFC vote was split whereas KDB was City’s best player by light years. Five of our lads made the team of the season too, which is about right I’d say. The only one who missed out who probably should have made it was Alisson, although the two injuries he had probably counted against him. I don’t begrudge Nick Pope his spot in the team, and Vardy and Aubameyeng getting in is fine too. Soyuncu though?? Much like his team, he had a great first half to the season and a poor second half. Still, him getting in is another slap in the face to the Mancs for spending so much on Maguire only to see his replacement at Leicester do even better. Of course it would have counted for much more if Leicester hadn’t completely fucking choked away a top four spot and allowed United to sneak in the back door. ‘Spanish Scholes’ getting in was the thing that really pissed me off. It was a team of the season, not a ‘let’s pay tribute to someone who’s had a good career and is leaving for pastures new XI’. Absolute joke that he got picked. Most charitable selection since Giggs was named Player of the Year when he was 45 or something. Fuck David Silva, the little gobshite. Wednesday Sep 9: What the fuck? Reports from the LFC patch journos claim that Brewster can go out on loan for the season but that if anyone offers £25m then we’re prepared to sell him. Look, if you’ve been reading this feature for a while you’ll know I’m not completely sold on Brewster and if you put a gun to my head and ask me if he’s good enough or not then I’d say ‘not’. But selling him before he’s even really had a chance to show what he can do? I would most definitely NOT be on board with that, mainly because I’d question the reasoning behind it. Would he be being sold for football or financial reasons? It would seem to be the latter. I don’t think it will happen but if it does LFC Twitter will go fucking mental and for once I wouldn’t blame them. Also today, Lovren posts a picture of a letter and present sent to him by Hendo, and it’s fucking awesome. Everyone should have a friend like Hendo. What a guy. The season starts on Saturday and frankly I couldn’t possibly be less excited. I think it has to be that we’re not allowed in to games. It just doesn’t feel like a new season is starting. I should be looking forward to meeting up with the lads before the game and strolling up to Anfield in glorious sunshine. There's nothing quite like the opening home game of the season. Instead I have no buzz whatsoever and from talking to a lot of other Reds I’m not alone. Maybe it will all change with a thumping win over Leeds, but right now I’m just not feeling it. Thursday Sep 10: Klopp does an extended interview on BBC 5 Live and it seemed to confirm the fears fans have that we won’t be signing anyone. Lots of talk about how ‘there are other ways to strengthen a squad without new signings’ and ‘we do things differently to other clubs’ etc I’m not getting as worked up about it as a lot of people are but it’s really not what we want to be hearing as we prepare for a title defence. In fairness Klopp admitted that himself, he knows that there’s some anxiety over the lack of transfer activity. He's probably feeling it himself but he accepts the situation. We all know we aren’t owned by a country or an oligarch and I don’t think fans are expecting us to compete with City’s (or even Chelsea’s) spending but you can’t blame fans for wondering what the fuck is going on when Everton are throwing loads cash around for the third year running. Yes, I know it’s got them absolutely nowhere so far, but that isn’t really the point. Every club has been impacted by Covid yet we seem to be the only ones who can’t buy players as a result of it. Other than the Thiago crap virtually the only transfer talk surrounding us is about players leaving. Gini, Origi, Shaqiri, Wilson, Grujic and now Brewster. All said to be available at the right price. Meanwhile you have the likes of Villa spending £34m on a striker from the Championship, Newcastle buying Bournemouth and Wolves signing every Jorge Mendes player in Portugal. Why can't we do anything? From what I’ve been told it’s not specifically a result of what COVID has cost us so far (estimates are anywhere between £75-100m) but what it might cost us in the future. Other clubs are borrowing against future earnings on the assumption that fans will be back in stadiums sooner rather than later. Rightly or wrongly, FSG aren’t prepared to do that. I can’t say I’m happy about it or that I’d make the same decision if I were in charge, but equally I can’t say with any confidence that I can see fans being allowed back in as normal at any point this season. I expect limited attendances at best and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if at some point football ended up being suspended again. And if that happens, some clubs might be sweating a bit based on what they’ve spent this summer. So I see why LFC are being cautious even if I don’t necessarily agree with it. What else was going on today? Oh yeah, Simon Jordan referred to Ryan Fraser as a ‘turd’ on the radio. He also called him ‘a wretched individual’. Bit strong perhaps, but it’s not entirely unfair either as Fraser has been talking about how he could have really helped Bournemouth survive if he’d stayed and played for them in the run in. Jesus Christ, I get that he’d think that because every footballer needs to have that belief they can make a difference, but the fact is he didn’t play for them. He walked out in their time of need because he was looking after his own self interests (he was entitled to do that even if it was a bit cunty to a club that had given a little fat kid the chance to become a star), but having left them to fend for themselves it’s a proper turd move to then say “I could have saved you if I’d wanted to”. Anyway, this was pretty entertaining I thought, so check it out.. Friday Sep 11: The FIFA ratings were announced yesterday so all the spotty virgins are now arguing with each other about why ‘Auba’ doesn’t have a higher rating than ‘Kun’ and why Pogba isn’t a 99 instead of having the same rating as Henderson. Pathetic. Yeah I’m old, I get that. But if being young means acting like these sad cunts then… oh who am I kidding, yeah I’d love to be young again but *shrugs* whadayagonnado? I think Lukaku made a good point about all this. He said “Fifa just mess with the ratings so we players start complaining about it and give them more publicity… I ain’t with this shit. I know what I do.” He’s right, but the irony of him tweeting about it and giving them publicity seems to be lost on him. Ben Woodburn has joined Sparta Rotterdam on loan for the season. It’s a step up from Oxford I suppose but I’d be surprised if this went well. Very few of these loans work out when you actually think about it. Harry Wilson has done well and so did Brewster, but most of the other kids who go out don’t have a good time of it. Woodburn deserves some better luck though so hopefully this can kickstart his career again. Other reports today claim that Gini held positive talks with Klopp and might be staying. Hope so, but how the fuck would anyone know what was said in those talks? Smells like guesswork to me, but we’ll see I guess. Tell you one thing though, if the club announce a new deal for Gini this week then the FIFA virgins in our fanbase will have a fucking meltdown if it means no Thiago. Jamie Redknapp thinks Thiago is coming though. “He isn’t fazed by anything. He’s already played for two of the biggest clubs in the world in Barcelona and Bayern. He would give the midfield an extra dimension on top of Henderson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum and Keita. They are all brilliant players but technically Thiago is on a different level.” All true, but Jamie forgot to mention Milner and Jones. Neither are playing ahead of Thiago of course, that’s not my point though. My point is we already have six midfielders competing for three spots (seven if we don’t get the asking price for Grujic). So unless someone leaves, Thiago ain’t coming people. I’ve just been catching up on videos on LFCTV and I have some observations. Firstly, it looks like Shaq has shamelessly slid into Lovren’s role as Mo’s sidekick. Actually it wouldn’t surprise me if big Dej left instructions with Shaq when he left to make sure Mo doesn’t get too depressed without him. Secondly, they were doing laps of the training ground and Milner left everyone in his wake as usual. It wasn’t the lactose test thing they do each summer it just looked like they had to do a few laps of the pitches but no surprise that it was the old man leading the way. He’s a machine he is. Thirdly, the u18s have been smashing everyone in pre-season and they beat the Macs 4-1 at the Academy this week. I watched the highlights today and Oakley Cannonier caught the eye. If he made it here it would be quite the story as he’s the kid whose quick thinking helped Trent take the famous corner. I’d love to see him come through but I also want to see the other kid make it. You know, the one who ran on and gave Messi the V’s at full time. The official word on him has always been that he was just a kid from the crowd, but it sure looked like he was a ballboy, and all the ballboys were Academy kids, so..... Maybe one day we’ll find out who he was, the little fucking hero. Finally, have any of you ever watched a Klopp press conference live on youtube? It’s fucking mental. Not because of Klopp, but because of the live comments on the chat. I just sat there today watching as hundreds (thousands maybe) of comments were flying in while he spoke. I don’t get it. I don’t really know what people get from this as it’s not like they’re even making any salient points. They're just firing out random words. It’s just hundreds of goons posting shit like this: “Thiago” “Sign Thiago” “Thiago *load flame emojis* “Keita” “De Bruyne to Liverpool” “Sign Messi” “GO GET IT BABY” “Get Mbappe in at LFC” “I’M A PROUD RED FIFA. ARE YOU?” “Bale” “we don’t want Bale he plays too much golf” “Chelsea” “J-U-R-G-Y-A-N-K-K-L-O-P-P” “thiago is blue” “Bale is golfer” “salah salad” Every one of those is legit and there were hundreds more I could have thrown in too. It’s actually quite fascinating in a weird way. It would make for a good social study I think. Oh yeah, there’s one last thing. Klopp was clearly not happy today about the voting down of the proposal for 20 man match day squads and five allowed subs. I’m with him. I like the idea because when it was brought in after lockdown it allowed us to get some kids on the bench. They wouldn’t have been involved otherwise. How is this a bad thing? I’ll tell you why it’s seen as a bad thing and why it’s been voted down. It’s because cunts like Man City and Chelsea would abuse that and end up bringing on five subs who had a combined cost of a half a billion. That’s the only objection people have to it. “Oh it favours the big clubs” they say. Not really, and it would be easy enough to add a little rule change that means you have to include a certain number of under 19s in the 20 man squad and at least one of the five subs has to be a kid. Fucking Man City ruining everything with their big spending cheating ways. and that was the week that was….