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After what happened at Goodison I just wanted to forget all about football for a while and so I completely switched off until we played Ajax. I had no interest in anything else that was happening and as a result of that I’m now watching Match of the Day with genuinely no clue on how half the games finished. It’s quite refreshing actually. Now I might become one of those fucking weirdos the newsreaders refer to when they say “If you don’t want to know today’s scores then look away now”. Every time that happens I say “if you’re a footy fan how would you not know the fucking scores?” and yet here I am, not having a clue because David Coote, Michael Oliver, Jordan Pickford and that Richarlison cunt completely ruined the weekend and made me want to avoid footy like the plague. I knew City and United both won, but that’s it. Oh wait, I also knew what happened at Spurs too as I saw that tweet from a Spurs fan that everyone (including Declan Rice!) took the piss out of. I’ll get to that in a bit though. I had no idea how any of the other games finished because as soon as the derby finished that was me zoned out completely. I don’t want to even watch them now to be honest as I’m still seething about Saturday and I know there’ll be things in every game that will remind me about it in some way. But I’m a pro and you’re expecting your weekly round up, so I’m gritting my teeth and plowing through it. MOTD actually started with the derby so I had to forward that as there’s no way I want to see any of that shit again. I don’t even want to know what the pundits said about it as chances are it’ll just piss me off even more, especially if they’re talking bollocks. Even if they nailed it though, it’s not going to improve my mood. We know what happened and we know the cunts involved all got away scot free. Except Richarlison I suppose, although his punishment won’t fit the crime and we’ve already had Thiago ruled out for one game and possibly more to follow. Anyway, I’ll start at St James’ Park where Newcastle really ought to be embarrassed after losing 4-1 to that Man United team. No Martial or Greenwood and they still scored four. It says far more about Newcastle that though, because that United team was genuinely turd. Fred and McTominay in midfield. Mata and James playing on the flanks. It had the mediocre stench of a lot of the teams we fielded during that 30 year title drought. Like a final throws of Houllier / Rafa / Rodgers era line up *insert puking emoji* Newcastle have been shite so far though. They made some decent signings but seem to have somehow gotten worse. Now and again you see them and think ‘they’ve got something going on here’ and then they shit the bed like this. They probably miss their home crowd as much as anyone really. Obviously we miss a packed Anfield but we’ve generally coped with it due to the quality in the side. The likes of Newcastle and Palace get great home support and let’s face it, they need it. They actually took the lead early on when fat Luke Shaw deflected a cross into his own net, but that was as good as it got for the Toon. Portuguese Gylfi thought he’d equalised but Mata was offside. Maguire then did equalise but it needed a great save by De Gea to prevent Wilson restoring the Geordies lead before the inevitable penalty arrived. Honestly, they get one every fucking game. It’s incredible. It probably was a pen, albeit a very soft one. Rashford was going nowhere and had lost the ball as he was kicked. It’s like most of the ones they get. It’s not so much that they clearly aren’t penalties (unless it’s Jon Moss producing them out of thin air), it’s just that nobody else seems to consistently get them kind of decisions. We all get them now and again but they get them every fucking week. We have at least the same number of these incidents in the box as they do but we rarely get pens for them. With United it’s like every appeal they have results in that horrible little cunt Fernandes doing his shitty little hop, skip and jump pen and adding to his completely misleading goal tally that suggests he’s far better than he is. All the hype he’s getting? Sigurdsson would have that too if Everton got the same amount of pens as United. And if Sigurdsson hadn’t been dropped for being shit. Only this time Fernandes missed. You can credit me with the assist there for reverse jinxing him the other week. Not that it mattered because the Mancs hit three late goals to put a completely undeserved gloss on the result as Newcastle fell apart. They even allowed Wan-Bissaka to score. Fucking hell. They won in Paris again too in midweek. I didn’t watch that (I mean why would I?) but I can’t say I was surprised because PSG look seriously average this year and haven’t started the season well at all. Of course United got another pen, that almost goes without saying. They’re like the reverse Burnley. What must poor Sean Dyche think every time those cunts are given a pen. Burnley have had one pen in the last ten years (I may be slightly overstating that, but not much) but these fuckers are getting one (sometimes two when Jon Moss is around) every three days. Meanwhile, Theo Walcott is back at Southampton. How did I miss that? Completely passed me by, much like the last eight years of his career passed him by. You know, I can’t even look at him. He makes me sick with his perfectly manicured hairline and designer stubble. Maybe if he spent more time on the training pitch practising his shooting and crossing instead of sitting around in front of a mirror he would have made something of his career, the fucking loser. Kinell, just reading that back and it’s exactly the kind of thing my mum would say. In fact, thinking about it I’m pretty sure she has done and that’s probably where I’m getting it from. Hold on, I’ll call her now and ask what she thinks of Walcott….. So pretty much word for word what I just said. “Can’t stand him. He looks like he should be modelling for moisturiser ads on telly instead of playing football”. Walcott shouldn’t bother me this much but he does. I also think the resentment I have towards him has been cranked up massively because of how pissed off I still am after the derby. Anything that reminds me of Everton is going to be viewed in a much harsher light than normal, but in fairness I have had this beef with Walcott for ages, the under-achieving bum. Anyway, to be fair he actually looked quite lively in what was a hell of a game at Stamford Bridge. Ol’ No Finesse Timo broke the deadlock with the kind of goal that’s his trademark. Running fast, cutting in from the left, feigning to shoot about three times before eventually finding the net via a deflection. No finesse, just head down, run fast, cut inside and shoot. And Southampton let him because their defenders are fucking clowns. I say this all the time though. Everton will have a field day against them this weekend. Grrrr, fucking Everton. Pricks. Werner’s second was decent to be fair. There was at least a little finesse about that one as he controlled it deftly with his arm, lobbed the ball over the keeper before finishing. No idea why VAR didn’t rule that out as the ball hit him just above his elbow. I suppose it depends who the VAR ref is and which team he has money on. The Southampton defending again though. Fuck me. That goal was awful. Bednarek just got done with a straight forward punt over the top by Jorginho for Werner to chase. Just really basic stuff that they can’t do. Chelsea aren’t any great shakes at the back either though and Ingsy pulled one back just before half time after Havertz had lost the ball cheaply. More keystone cops defending by Zouma (and some woeful hesitation by Kepa) allowed Adams to make it 2-2. Chelsea were back in front immediately though after a lovely move. Pulisic found Werner who crossed for Havertz to tap in. With Pulisic back now they’ll be a handful up front and scoring goals won’t be a problem. Keeping them out will be though as Lampard doesn’t have a fucking clue. Southampton had plenty of chances as Walcott and Ings gave Chelsea all manner of problems, and then deep in stoppage time they got the equaliser they deserved when Vestergaard deflected in Walcott’s shot. If Southampton weren’t so horrific in defence they’d be pretty damn good. Mind you, I can say the same about Chelsea. In the second biggest game of the weekend Arsenal ran City close at the Etihad but lost to a solitary goal by Sterling. How shit is his hair by the way? Glad he’s not playing for us anymore as I’d be calling for him to be sold if he turned out for us with that barnet. Awful. The main talking point afterwards was Aguero putting his hands on Sian Massey-Ellis. There’s lot of layers to this one and my opinion on it has changed somewhat after just watching the whole thing now on MOTD. Initially I’d only seen a brief clip of it on Twitter and thought it was being a bit overblown. Having now watched how it unfolded it was defo worse than I first thought, but not for the reasons that a lot of people seemed to be suggesting. To begin with it seemed to me that people were making this out to be a sexual harassment in the workplace type thing. Inappropriate touching of a female colleague etc. I thought that was a bit harsh to be honest. I don’t think he should be putting his hands on her at all, but it’s fairly obvious he wasn’t being a sleazeball. Yet that’s how it was being portrayed by some though on the radio and social media. Come on people, he’s not Bill fucking Cosby. My initial take on it was that he’d been inappropriate without even realising he had and he just needed someone to tell him why that’s just not acceptable in 2020 and then we could all move on, learn from it and then forget about it. Part of the reason I felt that way was I heard City fans on the radio claiming that he’d had a pop at her over a decision he didn’t agree with and then must have felt bad about it as he put his arm on her shoulder in a conciliatory way to apologise for what he said. The still photo of it made that seem plausible and I had some sympathy with Aguero if that’s what had happened. The video tells a different story though. It didn’t look like he was apologising over anything. It wasn’t a “sorry for what I just said” it was more like a “hey, get your act together luv” type gesture. Patronising at best. If he had been apologising I'd have said that while touching her wasn't appropriate and someone needs to tell him that, I wouldn't have wanted him charged for it as I don't think there was any bad intent there and education would be more beneficial than punishment. But this wasn’t so much about inappropriate touching (although that is part of it, irrespective of his intent) because he wasn't doing it in a particularly cordial way. It was more about a lack of respect and an underlying intimidation. There’s no conciliatory look on his face when it happens and he isn’t taking back whatever he said prior to that. So while I don’t think its the most serious incident of the weekend (back to the fucking derby again) it wasn’t comfortable viewing and he’s probably lucky he wasn’t charged. It does open up a whole can of worms now about what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour when it comes to female officials. Is there a difference between touching the shoulder of a male official or a female? Yeah there is. You can argue that technically there shouldn’t be, but there just is and rightly so. It’s just not something you do, not unless you have the kind of relationship with that person that makes them ok with it. You might have female co-workers you know well and might have the kind of relationship where some physical contact is fine. I’ve never been the touchy feely type so it’s not something I have much experience of, and besides, it’s 22 years since I last worked in an office environment, but some people are quite tactile and if you have the kind of relationship with someone where they’re comfortable with it, then sound. We see Klopp and the players hugging Carol and Caroline in the Melwood canteen all the time. I’m sure it’s a similar situation with Mona the nutritionist. So it isn’t a black and white issue here. Nevertheless, there will not be any players in the Premier League who have a close enough relationship with Sian Massey-Ellis that makes touching her acceptable and that probably needs privately pointing out by the FA to every club now to ensure there is no repeat of it. In summary, I think we can all agree here that touching match officials is only acceptable if it’s to put a noose around the neck of David Coote before launching him off the Kop roof. Relax, I'm kidding. No, actually I mean it 100%. Meanwhile, Spurs looked great at home to West Ham. At least they did until they didn’t. Kane and Son were running riot and they combined in the opening minute to put Spurs in front. Kane then added a brilliant second seven minutes later. It only took nine more minutes for Kane to head in a third and West Ham were staring down the barrel of humiliation. Quite funny really as this was Moyes’ first game back after Covid. They’d been flying while he was away but as soon as he’s back they’re 3-0 down inside fifteen minutes. The Moyes effect in full flow. Spurs must have gotten cocky and thought the job was done, because they didn’t add to their lead and then they collapsed in the last few minutes. Hilarious. Bale came off the bench at 3-0 and then the wheels came off. This is boss. Imagine if Bale’s second run at Spurs started the same way as his first, where they didn’t win a game he played in for about three years. Fornels headed in what initially seemed like a consolation goal with eight minutes left, but then Sanchez put through his own net two minutes later to set up a nervous finish for Spurs. And then with the last kick of the game Lanzini hit a thunderbolt from 30 yards. Spurs can blame this on the tit who tweeted “We bring on Bale and West Ham bring on Lanzini lol”. Why would you? You just don’t fly in the face of fate like that because you deserve all you get. Wait until the final whistle and then tweet it. It’s not difficult. As amusing as all of this was, it’s never nice seeing Moyes happy (and he was ecstatic) so this was a little bittersweet really. Early season hot take. Kane is the best player in the league right now and I’m tipping him to be Footballer of the Year. Meanwhile, Villa won again. Fucking hell. 100% record for them. Who saw that coming? Admittedly, Leicester had to play without the injured Vardy, which is basically like Goran Ivanisovic playing without his serve. There’s not really much else left. Nevertheless, credit to Villa who took advantage of it by keeping a clean sheet and then nicking it late on with a goal from Barkley deep into stoppage time. Could Villa actually be good? It’s possible you know. Obviously ‘good’ is relative and I’m not talking ‘top four’ good. But every season there’s always someone who starts well and surprises people, only to usually fall away. Like Sheffield United last year. The one exception was Leicester, who didn’t fall away. Well, they did last year (in the title race at Christmas and nowhere by May) but the year they won it they didn’t. Villa will fall away, but probably not as far as people think. Top half I reckon. Tell you what though, Leicester really ought to have brought in better back up to Vardy, as Iheanacho is like a really shit, massive cunt version of Sturridge. Very similar movement and style, only this wanker isn’t fit to lace Studge’s boots. Poor old Fulham almost won at Bramall Lane but got screwed by a ridiculous VAR penalty. They went ahead with a brilliant goal by Lookman. Sheffield United can blame me for that as I was ripping him the other week. Fulham missed a pen too, when Mitrovic blasted over the bar after Jack Robinson had handled. Scott ‘Scotty’ Parker’s boys were by far the better team but then out of nothing a penalty was awarded. The ball was down the other end of the field and no-one had even appealed for a pen. Next thing VAR is telling Andre Marriner to take a look at something and he points to the spot. Sorry but that’s not a pen in a million fucking years. Robinson and Mitrovic both go for the ball, Robinson gets there first by a fraction and kicks the ball straight up into the air and is then caught by Mitrovic. There’s fuck all in that and I can’t believe a pen was given. That’s a Man United pen that is. Micah Richards said it was the right decision. Really?? He wouldn’t be saying that if it was against City or Villa. Fair play to him though, he gets about doesn’t he? He’s on Sky, BT, BBC and I’ve seen him doing Champions League games on NBC as well. That’s some quality whoring himself around right there. I don’t remember anyone ever having the full set like that before. Maybe Robbie Savage? Don’t think Sky ever had him though did they? Final one on this. I see that Lemina is at Fulham now. I remember the first few times I saw him play for Southampton and he looked like he was going to be fucking boss. Then he disappeared and now he’s at Fulham, so yeah I jumped the gun on that one. Moving on, and it was the “Gus Poyet took a shit on the dressing room floor derby” this weekend as Brighton made the trip to Selhurst to take on Palace. Always amuses me how much they hate each other and how the rivalry just doesn’t make any real sense. Palace were awarded a soft penalty when my boy Lamptey was penalised for having a hand on Batshuayi, who theatrically threw himself to the floor. Can’t believe that was given. Another Man United pen that one. Brighton were the better side (twenty shots to Palace’s one!!!) but they looked to be heading for defeat until MacAllister blasted in a deflected shot from the edge of the box. Dunk was sent off in stoppage time for an ugly over the ball lunge that caught Cahill on the shin. Thankfully Cahill was ok and wasn’t ruled out for nine months, but Dunk will still be banned for three games, unlike someone else I could mention, but won’t because I’m trying to keep my blood pressure down. Finally, Wolves won 1-0 at Leeds. Jimenez got the only goal of the game and afterwards Carra was making mischief by trying to blag Coady that Klopp had said he wants to sign him. Since Virg got injured there has been a lot of lazy talk about us going for Coady. I’ll say it again. Not good enough. Too slow. Would get ruined in a back four. The only reason anyone would talk him up for a move here is because he’s a scouser and a Red. So am I, and I’m nowhere near good enough either. Would have loved to have been in my parents living room when Carra brought that up with Coady in the post match though. I know exactly how it will have played out, but here’s a dramatic representation so the rest of you have some idea…. Carra: Conor, Jurgen Klopp says he’s interested in signing you. Would you fancy going back to Liverpool? My Dad: My Mum:

Far from perfect but on the whole that was just what we needed. We rarely tend to look great in Champions League away games even at the best of times, especially in the group stages, so I’m not bothered that we made slightly hard work of it. In fact, being able to grind out a scrappy one like this is probably more beneficial to us in the long term than a spanking four or five goal win would have been. Put simply it was a test and we passed. This was an important game for us after a torrid few days and the players came through it well. Specifically, the lads at the back charged with filling the giant void left by Virgil really stood up strong. Fabinho and Gomez were both really good and delivered just the kind of performance we needed. Between those two and ol’ Big Bird we can get by until January as long as they can stay fit (seems unlikely in Matip’s case but you never know). Of course we’ll miss Virgil but everyone now needs to do their bit to make up for his loss. The forwards need to be on their pressing game all the time (not just in the high profile games), the midfielders need to be filling gaps and denying space in front of the back four and the defenders need to concentrate more than ever before. In recent months there hasn’t been enough of any of that. Not consistently anyway. We’ve looked great in some games and then sloppy as shit in others. I mostly put it down to the lack of fans but that’s not going to change any time soon so we need to get over that quickly. And we’ve now got to cope without our most influential player so who knows, maybe that will help them focus better. If they all work together they can get by, but if any area of the team isn’t bang at it then the back four aren’t going to be able to deal with any sustained pressure. We were conceding far too many goals even with Virgil, so maybe now he isn’t there the rest of the team will realise they can’t afford to be at anything less than their best. I thought the concentration levels were mostly good in this game. There were a couple of wobbles (Adrian grrrrrrrr) and some bad moments that came from us losing the ball cheaply. *glares angrily at Firmino* So Ajax had a few chances and we were by no means water tight but I don’t think it’s going over the top to say we defended well. Or is it? Maybe I’m reading too much into it and Ajax were a bit shit, but I was fairly pleased with how we defended. Certainly as a back four anyway. I dunno, we’ll see how things shake out but this was a good start and the more clean sheets we get the less people will talk about what we don’t have and maybe start appreciating what we do still have. We've still got the best team in the land even without Virgil, although obviously the gap has now closed between us and City. As for Europe, other than Bayern I don't see anyone better than us. For all the talk about Van Dijk it's easy to forget that we went into this without Alisson, Matip, Tsimikas, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago as well. Yet the team was still very strong and the bench was too. Jones was something of a surprise inclusion to many, but when you actually think about it there wasn’t really much else Klopp could have done. No Ox, Keita or Thiago while Hendo is only just back and needs managing. Klopp didn’t have much option but to start Curtis. I thought he did alright. He played a little within himself and didn’t try too much, but that’s a sign of his growing maturity. This wasn’t the game for him to be doing rabonas or shooting on sight and he put in a good disciplined performance. Him being subbed at half time didn’t really mean anything as it was clearly pre-planned. Klopp said afterwards the medical people told him Hendo couldn’t play 90 minutes so he decided he’d only play 45. Curtis was getting subbed no matter how he played. We were 1-0 up at half time and bringing Hendo on was going to make it a lot easier for us to see the game out. There’s just a massive authority about him these days isn’t there? He’s a dominant player and personality and it shows any time he’s on the pitch. I expect he’ll step up even more now that Virgil is out and we need leadership. He’s already the leader but expect him to crank up the alpha male even more now because we need it. I’ve said how I thought we were good defensively but it was a different matter at the other end. It didn't click properly even though Ajax looked wide open. It was weird, because I felt as though we were looking dangerous and were likely to score three or four but it just didn’t happen and the one goal we did get was a total fluke. Sadio’s turn away from the defender was world class but the shot he hit after it might be one of the worst I’ve ever seen. It took the defender completely by surprise and he got his feet in a mess and deflected it into his own goal. I don’t blame him at all for that because put yourself in his shoes there. He’s watching Mané get himself into shooting position and then let fly. The last thing he’s expecting is for the ball to come his way as he was more or less level with him. It would have to be the worst shot in the world for the ball to come to him, but that’s what happened. He had Salah immediately behind him and therefore he knew he had to play at the ball, and the next thing you know it’s in the net. The closest we came to a second was also when an Ajax player almost put through his own net while trying to cut out a cross (from Robbo I think). And yet we played some nice stuff going forward. For whatever reason we didn’t test the goalkeeper anywhere near enough, although surprisingly it got better when Klopp brought off the entire front three and replaced them with Shaq, Minamino and Jota. The latter two were very bright (Shaq was quiet I thought) and Jota in particular really looks like he should be starting now. Firmino was shite again and while it’s admirable that Klopp is keeping faith and giving him the opportunity to play himself back into form, there comes a point where that has to stop. That point has been and gone for a lot of fans but we’ll see how much more leeway Klopp gives him. It’s times like this when the lack of fans is really an issue. Bobby would be having having his name belted out to the rafters every home game (away ones too) as the fans would be doing their bit to get his confidence going again. We’ve seen that loads with strikers in dry spells down the years, but Bobby isn’t getting that now and is suffering because of it. I was also thinking how shit it was that we were playing in the Amsterdam Arena and there were no fans there. That place would have been bouncing. Games like this are what playing in Europe is all about, but instead it was a like a ressies game at St Helens. It’s shit isn’t it? Like I said, Ajax did have chances, most notably when Fabinho cleared off the line in the first half and Klassen hit the post in the second. I never really felt like we were in any real danger though, strangely enough. The only real concern I had was that Adrian might do something daft, which he did a couple of times but wasn’t punished. In the interests of fairness it should be pointed that he also made two very good saves. As much as we’ll miss Van Dijk, we’d be worse off if it was Alisson ruled out for the entire season. The sooner he gets back the better as his absence is something we can’t really cope with, especially now Virgil isn’t there either. The drop off to the replacement is far greater in goal than anywhere else on the pitch. Adrian isn’t that bad in terms of a number two keeper. We've had far worse than him over the years. Far, far worse. He actually makes quite a lot of saves, some of them really good ones. The problem is you know a clanger is about to happen at any given moment. You don’t know when, you just know it’s going to happen at some point in the game. He had a couple of really ropey moments here and we could easily have been talking about him costing us another European game. The first cock up was when he took too long to clear and the ball was blocked by the striker. He got away with that, but there really is no excuse for it. This isn’t about a keeper being asked to play out from the back and therefore having to take risks he doesn’t feel comfortable with. This is just a fella thinking he has far more time than he actually has. There’s no need. Just fucking play the ball before the striker gets there. It’s not hard. He got away with another error late on too when he came out for a cross and could only knock it down to an Ajax player who shot over the bar. He must be hard to play in front of because he’s not exactly predictable. He’ll stay on his line all game, not coming for one he probably could get, and then all of a sudden he decides he’s coming for one that he probably shouldn’t. The defenders can’t possibly know what he’s going to do and that’s a problem. He had an early mix up with Gomez too that left Joe just looking at him like "the fuck are you doing?". I don’t usually get mad at players for being injured but I’m making an exception in the case of Alisson. I’m pissed off at him for being injured again. I know he can’t help it but I’m still fucking annoyed with him regardless as he misses too much playing time. He’s a goalkeeper, he shouldn’t be injured as much as he is. It wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t so fucking good, but when you lose the best in the world and replace him with Adrian then it’s going to catch up with you. Everyone blames Adrian for us losing to Atletico but the more I think about it, the more I hold Alisson equally responsible as if he’d been available we wouldn’t have had to pick Adrian, who has no business in the latter stages of the Champions League. I know this is an unreasonable take but that’s just how I feel. I’m fed up of Alisson being injured and he’s one more enforced absence away from entering Joel Matip “can’t be trusted” territory. Yes I'm being unfair, but it is what it is - he's winding me right up. So anyway, Ajax were throwing everything they had at us looking for an equaliser and seemed to bring on about four strikers in place of defenders. That left them wide open to counters and we almost picked them off a few times but didn’t get the final ball right. The one time we did, when Jota picked out Gini, the keeper made a save with his foot. Would have been a great goal that. Eventually Klopp sent on an extra defender to help deal with the aerial bombardment. Rhys Williams was playing non-league last season and now here he is in the Amsterdam Arena playing Champions League footy. Things can change so quickly in football and who knows, maybe he’ll be the one to ultimately benefit the most from Van Dijk’s absence. We’ve got three senior lads covering the two centre back spots but that’s not enough and there will be minutes available for others. At the moment Williams might be in pole position to get those minutes, especially as Nat Phillips is ineligible for Europe as he wasn’t registered in the original list and is too old for the B List. So all in all, a satisfactory night’s work. It’s easy to criticise the performance because it wasn’t great by any means, but over the last few years most of our away group matches have been shite and we’ve lost quite a few of them. To go away and win 1-0 without too much drama is something I’d have happily taken beforehand, especially as we needed to get the events of the past week out of the system and get back to playing again. The players will have been as down in the dumps as we are about what happened to Virg, but they can’t feel sorry for themselves and need to just carry on. The process started with this game and hopefully now they’ll be getting their heads around the fact that they need to play the rest of the season without him. It’s encouraging that Gomez performed well and that Fabinho was the star man (just ahead of Robbo, who was great). Imagine how we’d be feeling if the defence had creaked all over the place and conceded three or four goals. I’m not saying our defence is going to be as good as it would with Virgil as I’m not a fucking idiot. It won’t be. What I am saying is that - more injuries notwithstanding - it should still be as good as any of our title rivals because none of them are great either. Matip needs wrapping in cotton wool though because if he breaks down again we’re down to the bare bones. Fabinho has looked brilliant when he’s played at the back, especially in Europe, so maybe play Matip in domestic games and Fabinho in the CL? There’s no way we can have Matip playing twice a week and it’s a risk having Gomez do it too, so some rotation will be needed that’s for sure, and we’ll also need plenty of luck. I seem to say this every year, but if we can secure early qualification for the group stages then at least that way Klopp won’t need to keep going with his strongest team. And every year we find a way to take it down to the last fucking game. Hopefully this time we can win the first four and then rest everyone for the last two, because that would help massively. Anyway, onto the next one. Sheffield United at home. They gave us two difficult games last year but they’re struggling big time this season. It’s a game we need to win after losing three points at Villa and having two stolen from us by David Coote at Goodison. Just win, it doesn’t matter how. The injury to Virgil almost supersedes performances now. It’s just about getting results until we find some rhythm. Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Gomez, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Milner (R Williams), Jones (Henderson); Salah (Shaqiri), Firmino (Minamino), Mané (Jota):

Saturday evening sees Liverpool look for their first league win in three games as they take on Sheffield United. The Blades were one of the feel good stories from the last campaign coming up from the Championship and finishing in a highly respectable ninth position. This season has certainly not started in the fashion that Chris Wilder and his team would like with just one point from five games, but showed during the last campaign that they were not overawed when facing the top echelon of sides. The team from @Blades_Mad were terrific in giving our readers insights last season and ahead of this fixture, speak honestly about what needs to be rectified that will help get their season on track. Sheffield United were a fantastic addition to the Premier League last year, not only in the way you approached the game, but the honest language and general football philosophy that Chris Wilder displayed. Therefore how difficult do you think it will be for the club to come close to replicating that level the 20/21 season? Going on the opening five games of the season, incredibly difficult. Having been so impressive last season, particularly pre-lockdown, it would always be hard to replicate any similar sort of feat. Admittedly, we have had a more sluggish start than initially had predicted, which is concerning (losing 4 and drawing 1, scoring just two goals in the process and one being a penalty), but who better than Chris Wilder to turn our fortunes around? We do, however, have three of the toughest games the Premier League has to offer coming up. Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea. Anything more than zero points is a bonus, if we're being honest. Having a strong Goalkeeper is essential for a promoted club. And Dean Henderson was certainly in the top echelon of Premier League keepers last campaign. Now that he has gone back to his parent club, how has Aaron Ramsdale filled his big shoes so far? A great question, and a much talked about topic amongst the Sheffield United fanbase. First things first, Aaron Ramsdale is Aaron Ramsdale. He isn't Dean Henderson. Aaron has said this himself having been asked about it plenty of times by the press. Dean was an unbelievable keeper for us who continued to develop and evolve into a top class keeper under the tutelage of Chris Wilder. Ramsdale is a product of our youth academy, and whilst buying him back from Bournemouth for a reported fee of £18.5m a few years after we sold him for £1m might not seem like great business on the face of it, the fee we received when in League One allowed us to build and secure funds for the fees and wages of what would be pivotal signings in the likes of Jack O'Connell and John Fleck. Rammers, at the moment, might not be as polished as Dean Henderson, but time is on his side and hopefully he will turn out to be a brilliant shot stopper for us. The England U21 international is a long-term buy and will hopefully progress with us. Two other players to ask you about. Sander Berge (who was linked with the Reds in late 2019) and someone we know very well in Rhian Brewster. Two exciting young prospects that your club have invested a lot of money in. What do you believe are the expectations on them in the season(s) ahead? Two of our most exciting young prospects, you have to say. Sander is adapting to life in the Premier League more and more as the weeks pass. By his own admission he had a stuttering start to his Blades career when he signed last January. Far from disastrous, but he conceded that the pace of the Premier League was something he had to get used to and mould his game around. Since lockdown, he's arguably been our best player. It can't have been easy for the Norwegian international to have been in a new country for just a few weeks without any family to support him as the country came to a standstill, but he worked tirelessly on his fitness during this time and it is now paying dividends. Initially brought in to play a CDM role, he has flourished on the right of a midfield three, making marauding runs and leaving people in their wake with his physicality and close ball control. When Sander drives forward with the ball he can seem unstoppable at times. Despite our difficult start, Berge has been a shining light and is a fan favourite. As for Rhian, think it would be fair to say that you guys probably know more about his game than we do at the moment, but all Blades fans are excited to see him start in a red and white shirt and hopefully can be the man to bang us in some much needed goals. Not wanting to apply too much pressure to the young man, that wouldn't be fair because his fellow strikers need to take a fair share of the burden also (which they are not doing at the moment), but it is another long-term investment for the club and a big layout fee-wise for us, him becoming our club record signing. We're incredibly pleased the lad chose us having had a few options on the table, and his attitude in wanting to leave Liverpool in search of first team football is one that will fit in well with the fans and management team here at Bramall Lane. Liverpool have been shrewd in the sell on clause and buy back option they have included in the deal, but if it gets to the stage where the Reds want to buy him back he must have done unbelievably well for us! Is there one reason that can pinpoint why points (and goals) have been hard to come by so far in this campaign? It was an issue last season also, scoring just 39 goals in 38 games. Our incredible defensive record overshadowed this massively and was the main reason to our success and a top half finish. Our leading marksmen both finished on 6 goals, which isn't fantastic, and Chris Wilder knew this needed addressing in the summer. He identified a number of targets including Ollie Watkins (who joined Aston Villa) and Brewster, and will be pleased he managed to get one over the line, even if it did take longer than had initially hoped. We're creating some decent openings, but just not taking them. Our strikeforce isn't our strongest weapon and is still in need of further boosting, probably in January, if we are to remain in the Premier League. Other areas of the team also need to chip in more regularly, which just isn't happening at the moment. It wouldn't be truthful if we said we weren't concerned about our lack of goals. Clubs from the Yorkshire region have played a significant role in British Football over the years but for a large part of this century have been absent from the top division. So how important/ significant is it to have yourselves and Leeds flying the White Rose flag in the Premier League flag while still maintaining your bitter rivalry? Yorkshire in general has underachieved hugely since the turn of the millennium. It is a hotbed of English football, with some huge and historic clubs, and yes it is good to see two of us in England's top division once again. I do have to say, I did quite enjoy being the only Yorkshire Premier League out fit last season, but having said that, Leeds will be a good addition to the league. Just a shame we lost to them the other week, but more regrettably of all, the fact that two "fanless" Yorkshire Premier League derbies seem like a distinct reality. That is saddening. Sheffield United showed when they played against the Reds last season that they respect, but are not in awe of them. Do you expect Wilder to employ the same kind of tactics especially with two key pillars of the Liverpool defence missing? Let's be right here, they were two contrasting games against Liverpool last season. The game at Bramall Lane was an incredibly tight affair that I genuinely believe could have gone either way. Despite the loss and the unfortunate circumstances in which it came about, all of Bramall Lane was proud of the lads that day as we ran the then-European champions so close. That was the day where it really felt like we were back in the big time. The game at Anfield at the turn of the new year was pretty different. Probably the most convincing two-nil you are ever likely to see. United barely had a touch of the ball and Liverpool dominated from start to finish. I remember leaving Anfield that night remarking that Liverpool are one of the best sides I've seen live, and I still maintain that. Chris Wilder might take a different approach to this one on Saturday evening, given our indifferent start. We're not playing with the same confidence as we were for large parts of last season. Not saying it's damage limitation for us at Anfield but a point would be a great success for us given the circumstances. It's clear Wilder and Klopp have respect for each other, both commenting on numerous occasions on the admiration they have for one and another, and that's great to see. My favourite two managers in the league, for sure! With the amount of unique results across Europe at the start of this season due to the lack of fans, home ground advantage is not as big a factor as it has been. Therefore are you confident of getting a good result or is the general performance the main thing you are looking to see? The Premier League has been crazy so far this season. That's an understatement! But if you take a look at our results, they've been pretty mundane in comparison to plenty of the whacky results we've seen throughout the division. Home advantage has definitely gone out of the window, particularly if you take ourselves as an example. Bramall Lane is never an easy place for teams to come with the atmosphere, energy (that the players evidently feed off) and hostility generated, which is obviously non-existent with a soulless ground which reflects the scene of a training exercise. Am I confident in getting a result Saturday evening? In all honesty, no. A positive performance would be encouraging, but we are after points. Had you asked me last season and I'd have thought we would have every chance, but things are not the same at the moment and something's not quite right. Hopefully that has to turn around at some point, and what better place than under the lights at Anfield!