Leaderboard

We usually lose here so this is a good point. The onus is on the home team to win these fixtures, particularly when they’re behind in the table, so it’s a better point for us than it is for City. So I’m not disappointed or upset by this, especially as neither side deserved to win the game. The result is fine, the performance was ok and it’s a point gained on the last couple of seasons. That said, we probably should be winning this as, whisper it, Man City are really not that great anymore. They’re still good, on their day very good even, but they aren’t great. If you look at that eleven that took to the field against us, man for man we’re considerably better in most positions, even without Van Dijk, Fabinho and Thiago, who all would have started had they been available. City just aren’t as strong as they were. De Bruyne is phenomenal, Sterling is always a danger and Jesus is a constant goal threat. Other than that their side is very ‘meh’ these days. Still better than most and very easy on the eye, but there's been a big drop off from where they were and where they are. It’s the name and reputation they’ve built up under Guardiola’s time there that scares you rather than that actual line up they put out these days. So really, if this game was played ten times I think we probably should win maybe five or six minimum, with the rest mostly draws and maybe one or at most two losses. So why didn’t we win this then? Lots of reasons but first and foremost because we didn’t make it count enough when we had them reeling in the opening 25 minutes. That was the time to make hay while the sun was shining, but we only scored once. City were always going to come back into the game and have a spell of their own so we needed to get ahead before that happened. Klopp’s surprising team selection caught them on the hop and they couldn’t cope with it in the early stages. All the talk beforehand was whether it would be Firmino or Jota starting but Klopp shocked everyone by picking them both in what was virtually a 4-2-4 formation. Call it 4-4-2 if you like and at times it was, but that’s as close to 4-2-4 as you’ll see in the modern game. Firmino wasn’t playing deep, he was in a traditional front two alongside Mo. That was the big surprise to me. He wasn’t playing a deeply withdrawn striker’s role and he wasn’t a number ten in a 4-2-3-1, he was playing as a second striker just a little bit off Mo. City weren’t prepared for it and we tore into them early on. As Neville pointed out on commentary, virtually every single pass we played was forward as we tried to get in behind them at every opportunity. I loved that. There are two ways to play against City. Let them have the ball and counter attack, or just play direct and get in behind their high line. Playing the first way doesn’t really suit us that much as we’re a front foot team. So the all out attack philosophy is something I’m well on board with. I liked what Klopp tried to do and it worked brilliantly for a while. We led through a well taken Salah penalty after Mané had turned Kyle Walker in the box and been brought down. That was some lovely football on the left. Lots of quick, intricate passing and direct movement that City couldn’t cope with. Roy Keane was absolutely scathing of Walker at half time and it was fucking hilarious. “Mané’s done well but he’s up against an idiot” is arguably the best bit of punditry all season. Closely followed by “I keep hearing that he’s playing well but I don’t see it. He’s torty years old and he’s a train wreck”. I see why Walker gets the stick he does and he does make mistakes but I think overall he’s pretty good and not the disaster some make him out to be. He’s often got a mad moment in him but he’s City’s best defender and he gets them out of trouble a hell of a lot. So I thought Keane’s criticism was over the top but still fucking hilarious. I didn’t think it was especially bad play by Walker in the first instance when he got turned. He just got tricked by Sadio and thought he was playing a one two with Robbo. Instead of playing the return pass though Mané turned and Walker was beat. Dangling the leg out like that was poor judgement though and yeah, kind of typical of what we often see him do. The goal had been coming since the start though. We looked dangerous every time we went forward and Bobby had a couple of early half chances he couldn’t quite convert. Actually, I should probably mention that City wanted a free-kick just before we scored. Sterling was on the attack and was bumped by Jota but he stayed on his feet because he wasn’t in the box. His intention was obviously to keep on running, wait for another challenge in the area and then claim a penalty. That’s what he does. Nevertheless, that was defo a foul and the ref should have pulled play back and given it. He didn’t though, he waved play on and a minute or so later Walker is bring down Sadio. City’s players were angry and confronted the ref but that’s standard stuff for them as they’ve never seen a decision they couldn’t dispute. In this case they had a point though as that was definitely a foul on Sterling. The boy who cried wolf perhaps applies here. The first moment of danger for us was self inflicted as Gini got caught in possession which allowed De Bruyne to get clear on the right. As you’d expect, he delivered a great ball across the box that found Sterling, but Alisson stood big and made a good block before Matip hacked clear from near the line. That brief scare apart it was all going well for us but then one lapse in judgement cost us. I knew we were in trouble the second Gini chose to charge out to close down Walker and left De Bruyne all alone in the middle. You could see that problem develop almost immediately and I actually gave an audible “oh no Gini” as soon as it happened. A few seconds later the ball is in the net. Call it sour grapes if you like but I don’t think Jesus meant that touch at all. Maybe I’m not giving him the credit he deserves and I'm biased because he's permanently got a face like an over indulged kid who's finally been told he's not having ice cream for dessert and he doesn't know how to deal with it. He annoys the fuck out of me because he always looks hard done by and is constantly complaining about something. On a scale of punchable faces he's somewhere in between Jacob Rees-Mogg and Richarlison. So yeah I think it was a lucky touch and he mis-controlled it. He reacted very quickly and finished well with a toe poke, so fair play to him for his sharpness but I don’t believe he meant that touch that wrong footed Trent. Doesn't really matter if he meant or not though does it? I thought Matip could have blocked that if he’d actually made a challenge. It was a timid effort from him as he could have thrown himself in front of it and made a block, but instead he tip toed in there and arrived too late. Probably a lack of match sharpness, which is understandable. Overall he was fucking boss though and it’s great having him back, for however long it may last. As for Gini, I think Carragher’s explanation of it at half time is probably spot on. Usually, in the 4-3-3 system we always play, Gini’s job would be to fly out there and close down the full back if Mané wasn’t in position to do it. So what he’s done is just muscle memory, it’s what he always does. In that split second it’s understandable that he’s made that decision but really he needed to just let Walker have it and ensure the pass to De Bruyne wasn’t on. By and large we did a good job of restricting De Bruyne, but he got in down that right hand side again soon after and it cost us a penalty. I knew it would be given even though clearly that should never, ever be given as a penalty. Unfortunately the cunts in charge of making rules are doing everything they can to kill football, and they’re succeeding. Kev the Red missed the pen so I can say this without it sounding like I’m just angry about it costing us a goal. Football is becoming almost unwatchable because of what the law makers have done with offside, handball and VAR. It’s genuinely shit and it’s ruining games. The penalty given against Wolves earlier that day was a fucking disgrace too. Then there’s the ludicrous offside against my boy Bamford in the Leeds game the day before. This isn’t football. It’s shit. They’re ruining the game with their traffic warned like overly officious, jobsworth fucking bullshit. I’d love to get these cunts in a room and… I don’t know, blow it up. Honestly, these faceless, nameless, busy bastards have taken a great sport and made it almost unwatchable. There is literally nothing Joe Gomez could have done to prevent that ball hitting his arm. In fact, you can see he actually did everything humanly possible to avoid it. His arm isn’t stretched out to make himself bigger. It’s in a natural running motion, but when he realises the ball is heading straight for it he actually pulls it back into his body, turns his chest away and almost manages to avoid being hit by the ball. I’m not going to have a go at Craig Pawson for giving the penalty because I’d be willing to bet if you were able to talk to him privately he’d say it’s not a penalty in a million years and he didn’t want to give it. But he has no choice. Not just because the VAR probably told him he has to give it, but because he himself knows that this is the fucking bullshit that the lawmakers want now. I would like to know how the Gomez one was any different to the Cancelo incident in the second half. VAR looked at that and did nothing. Why? The ball hits Cancelo’s elbow. It wasn’t deliberate, he tried to pull his arms into his body, but it hit him on the elbow and it was a goal bound shot. So how is that not a penalty when the Gomez one was? Of course neither of them should be penalties in a normal world, but this isn’t a normal world. It’s a world where stupid cunts are allowed to make stupid rules that everyone can see are just fucking stupid. Football is basically just a microcosm of normal society I guess. I’m so disillusioned with it all right now and it isn’t specifically about decisions that have gone against us. I mean yeah, that hurts more on a personal level (and there have been some fucking stinking ones) but it’s more than that. It’s the game as a whole. I’m genuinely distressed and irritated when I see a goal disallowed because Bamford is pointing where he wants the ball played and his arm is deemed to be offside even though his feet are on by about a fucking yard. How is that good for the game? I’ve mentioned it before, but I was even fuming when Lindelof conceded a pen for handball a month or so back. It was scandalous and I didn’t even care that it was Man United. This shit is far bigger than club rivalries. It’s about the game we all love and how it’s being ruined by cunts who seem to have no idea about the sport that pays their mortgages. Anyway, thankfully De Bruyne put the penalty wide otherwise we might be talking about another Goodison style screw job. That first half had been played at break neck speed and there were chances at both ends. We had the better of it and Emerson was incredibly lucky to see a shot from Trent squirm loose and under his legs but somehow stay close enough to him that he was able to dive on it ahead of Jota. Just prior to that we had a glorious chance to score when Henderson’s incredible pass over the shoulder of Diaz sent Sadio clear. Ederson came out and for a split second the right foot chip was on as Mané cut inside, but he took an extra touch and the chance was gone. Eventually he worked it to Mo who played in Trent for the shot, but if Sadio could have got that chip away what a goal we’d have been talking about. Ederson got away with another erratic moment in the second half when he needlessly parried a deflected Salah shot straight to Jota, but unfortunately by the time he got it under control his shot was weak and lacked conviction. Frustrating. Jota didn’t look anywhere near as lively as he has done of late, but a lot of that may have been down to the amount of defending he was expected to do, especially after the break when City were much more in control than they had been. We didn’t really do anything in the second half and I thought Klopp should have changed it and got an extra midfielder on. I liked the initial idea of blitzing them with four forwards, but when Guardiola rested to it and changed City’s shape to combat it, that’s when we should have gone back to the normal 4-3-3 I felt. The four up top was worth a try and it certainly caught City on their heels to begin with, but I don’t think I want to see it too often. I thought Firmino played ok and I don’t have anything negative to say about his performance. What I would say is I don’t think he’s special enough that we need to change a tried and trusted set up so we can keep him in the team. He’s either in a front three on merit or he’s on the bench. In fairness to Klopp I think his hand was forced a little by Thiago and Fabinho being out. Do we really think he’d have picked this team if either or both of those two were available? I doubt it myself. After half an hour of this game we lost the initiative. I wouldn’t say that City had it either, but they did take it away from us and after that it was just an even contest. I thought the forwards got a bit wasteful in possession and the rest of the team were trying to hit them too early instead of playing through City a bit more patiently. I’d have switched Jota and Mo at half time. Putting Salah on the right would have forced Cancelo into staying back more and given him a lot to think about, while we saw in midweek how dangerous Jota is running in behind. We definitely overdid that early ball over the top or into the channels and it gave City no trouble in the second half. They were waiting for it and cut it out time after time. You know what this game really needed? Thiago. He’d have made all the difference to us in a game like this. Hendo and Gini were outstanding (although Gini did caught on the ball two or three times) in terms of the ground they covered and how they used the ball, but having an extra man in there would have made it so much easier for them. Ideally that would have been Thiago, but Fabinho was a big miss too. Eventually Klopp changed after about an hour, but surprisingly it was Big Shaq who came on for Bobby. He was good. Very neat and tidy and he helped out defensively too from that right sided position. We just weren’t particularly dangerous anymore and in that second half it looked like both teams were playing not to lose rather than to try and win. City probably pushed harder than we did, but they seemed mainly concerned about not over-committing and filling spaces to prevent us hitting them with our speed. Whatever changes Guardiola made to combat the early storm we unleashed certainly worked and both teams kind of cancelled each other out in the second half. Trent went off with what looked like a torn calf and was replaced by Milner, who did a great job against Sterling. Doesn’t look good for Trent that one as calf injuries are absolute bastards to overcome as when you think it’s fine it often isn’t. Everyone is going to have to get used to this though as players will be dropping like flies over the next few months. This is why Klopp wanted five subs but it was foolishly voted down and now this is going to be the norm. The smaller clubs felt the five subs would be an advantage for the bigger clubs, but it’s actually not. If anything it’s the opposite. You’ve got some teams like, say, Burnley for example, who play the same eleven every week and have very little squad depth. That’s why they didn’t want the five subs, because they can’t bring Shaqiri, Milner, Mahrez, Jesus, Greenwood, Pogba etc off the bench. Understandable, but what happens in the Christmas and New Year period when their players are fucked and starters are pulling up with torn hammy’s all over the shop? The teams with the deeper squads will be able to cope better than the Burnleys and Evertons of this world, but the five subs would have helped the smaller clubs keep their starters fresher. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about that now and Trent is just the latest casualty of what is likely to be a long list. This season is going to be a war of attrition as much as anything else. We’ve lost Virgil, there’s been no sign of Thiago since the derby and now Trent is going to be out for a while. Keita and Matip are back, but for how long? Presumably Ox won’t be too far away now and hopefully Fabinho will available after the international break. Star man is tricky as no-one really stood out that much. Sadio was good, Robbo was Robbo, Gomez and Matip played well but I’ll go for Hendo I think. I wouldn’t argue if any of you say it should be one of the others I just mentioned, but if I had to pick one then it’s the skipper, but only just. Alisson deserves a mention too as we needed him to be alert on a couple of occasions and he was. Some of his kicking was shite though. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Milner), Matip, Gomez, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum; Jota, Firmino (Shaqiri), Salah, Mané:

Saturday Oct 31: L 2 West Ham 1 Sound that. Difficult game, not at our best, dug in and willed our way to the three points. That’s what Champions do. It’s what we did for most of last season. It felt like most of the games we won during that record breaking run last year were single goal wins. I know they weren’t, were did have some comfortable ones in there too but there were loads like this one. It feels like we’re getting back into that groove now. Nice that we’re actually getting penalties again for fouls on Salah. It felt like there was a period of about 12 months where it was open season for defenders to do whatever they liked to him without any punishment. What brought that on? The media and rival manager witch hunt every time he was awarded a pen. And look, it’s happening again tonight. Even though it’s a clear foul and the West Ham player a) didn’t complain when it was given and b) apologised for the mistake on twitter afterwards, we’re still being subjected to absolute bollocks from pundits claiming it’s not a penalty. Even Souness was at it, which is disappointing as he’s normally one of the better ones. He was talking so much shit that Micah Richards stopped laughing for once in his life and was looking at him like “ok mate, whatever”. Then you had baked bean head Shearer talking absolute fucking nonsense on MOTD. It’s easy to dismiss this and say it doesn’t mean anything, but it does. It creates a narrative and eventually it can influence people’s thinking. It’s basically a Daily Mail front page blaming all the ills of the country on immigrants and refugees. Your hear something reported often enough that eventually it can influence your thinking without even realising it. It’s not a co-incidence that Salah stopped getting pens when the narrative became about him diving all the time. The same thing happened to Suarez back in the day too. I wouldn’t mind if it was the same across the board, but Kane and Sterling are literally throwing themselves to the ground without any contact on a weekly basis and fuck all is ever said about it. Mo won’t get another pen now for six months, you just watch (hopefully that reverse jinx kicks in on Sunday) . So, here’s something from today that I found interesting. For the first time in ages the twitter mole who posts the team got it wrong yesterday. He had Thiago and Williams starting. So what happened there? Are the club onto him and feeding false info? Because Nat Phillips said that he knew he was starting on Thursday but clearly the mole didn’t. This feels like a sting to me. We’ll know on Tuesday if we get early team news again. Sunday Nov 1: Normal service is resumed as Everton lose their second game in a row and they can kiss goodbye to ever being top again now. Well, they might do it again at the start of a season, but you’re never going to see a situation where they’re top after, say, ten games. They had their little run, got typically chesty about it and now they’re back to being Everton. They’ll never learn will they? All that “Spirit of the Blues” thing was setting themselves up for a massive fail. I mean come on, the lyrics are “we don’t know the meaning of losing”. You’re Everton. Losing is what you do. It’s who you are. It’s like Steve Davis running around singing “I don’t know the meaning of snooker”. All it took was four games for them to completely forget who they were. FOUR FUCKING GAMES! They’re utterly mental. You’d think after being so shit for so long, and living with constant disappointment and misery, that they’d at least have they guard up a little bit and be somewhat sceptical that it might not last. But no, they go wading in, running their mouths and writing cheques their team can’t cover. When we spoke to one of the lads from Grand Old Team ahead of the derby and asked “what is an obtainable goal” for them this season, instead of saying “well most of the traditional top six look a bit unconvincing this year so maybe we can grab a European place or possibly even sneak into the top four” he said “Don’t laugh…. to be Champions”. Honestly, they’ll never, ever learn. “Don’t laugh?” Come on, lad, some things can’t be prefaced with that. It’s like Del Boy looking into the camera and telling us “don’t laugh” before he went arse over tit in that yuppy wine bar. My mum went right off on one about them today. I don’t even remember what instigated it, we were talking about something completely unrelated and the next thing she’s telling me how horrible Ancelotti is and always has been. I’d said Everton had changed him and she said he’s always been “vile” and his Napoli team were dirty nasty scumbags. Then she said how every single Everton player was horrible. I was like “Oh I’m not sure I’d go that far”. “Tell me one who is ok then” she challenged me. “Leighton Baines wasn’t too bad and Seamus Coleman seems like a decent lad” I replied. “Noooooooo. Baines is your typical bitter Evertonian. I saw an interview with him once and they mentioned Liverpool and he got all defensive wouldn’t even say the word. As for Coleman, I felt sorry for that lad when he got injured but he’s been a right snide ever since he came back. He’s a dirty little thing him.” Then she went on about Pickford, Richarlison, Delph, Calvert-Lewin (she’s hated him from day one, even before the dive against Lovren) and Rodriguez for a bit before again challenging me “Name me one who you can honestly say seems alright? You can’t. Even with Man United there are some who are inoffensive and don’t bother me. Every team will have one or two that you can’t stand but with Everton it’s every one of them”. And you know what, I couldn’t actually name one who doesn’t annoy the fuck out of me. None of the established ones anyway. They’re all varying degrees of snide, dirty, bitter little bastards. I don’t mind Doucoure but he’s only been there five minutes. Michael Keane might be the least offensive of the regulars but I always feel he’s got a two footed lunge in a derby game in him so it’s only a matter of time until he’s on the list. I wasn’t bothered too much by Mina until I saw him acting like a complete cunt today when Wilson was getting ready to take the pen. So yeah, I can’t actually name one who’s ok. So the Everton game today was funny, as was United losing to Arsenal. The best bit about that was Keane afterwards. He said Ole is probably going to be gone soon but he took issue with criticism that he isn’t motivating the players. Keane was fuming about that and (rightly, in my view) claimed that players should be motivating themselves and that he never needed any manager to motivate him. The best was when Cahill started pontificating about how great Arteta is what a great job he’s doing with Arsenal. It was embarrassing how overboard he was going just because it’s his mate and the contempt from Keane was palpable, he kept saying “how many games have Arsenal lost this season?” and Cahill kept avoiding the question. Keane just sat there shaking his head, looking away and generally fuming. He’s great, he should be covering every game on every channel like Micah Richards does. My favourite bit was later on when they asked what Man United need and he sneered “Mikel Arteta as apparently he’s the new messiah”. Great stuff. Monday Nov 2: Wow. I’ve seen some shitty articles and headlines in my time, but this is right up there with the worst of them. Tony Cascarino, fucking hell. “Salah’s dive shamed the memory of Nobby Stiles and the game he loved”. Has there been a more Brexit headline all fucking year? It’s a disgrace on so many fucking levels. I mean the absolute fucking nerve of this fucker. Where to even start. Salah’s wasn’t even the most contentious pen of the weekend. Harry Kane and Jack Grealish to name two were much worse. Callum Wilson’s was similar to Mo’s. Yet one is shaming the game and the other three don’t get mentioned in the headline. There upstanding Englishmen and one dirty cheating foreigner. Shaming the game? Please. This game no longer has any shame and Cascarino never had any to begin with. This is a fella who had an international career based on fraud. And I don’t mean Harry Maguire type fraud where he somehow managed to convince the world he was an international class defender and not just another Lewis Dunk or James Tarkowski. No, I mean an actual fraud who lied about being eligible to play for a country that he had no right playing for. Bringing Nobby Stiles’ death into a discussion about penalties is really fucking low. Millwall cunt. Speaking of low, Ryan Giggs is arrested for allegedly smacking his girlfriend around. I’m shocked. Shocked I tell ya. It’s not like he has history for anything like this. Oh wait, yeah he does. Didn’t he get nicked back in the day for hitting that Davina bird he was seeing in a nightclub or something? He’s a real piece of work this fella. Can’t see Wales sticking with him now. His career in football is surely over now. Tuesday Nov 3: Atalanta 0 L 5. Holy shit, how great was that!! It’s not even that we won 5-0 that has me so excited right now. It’s the way we did it and the throwback to the footy of 2018 when we were just blitzing our way around Europe fucking annihilating teams. We’ve evolved a lot since then and we’re a more well rounded, mature team these days. But it’s great to see that we still have this football in us when the opportunity arises. Atalanta’s gung ho style obviously helped as we won’t be able to run in behind most teams the way we did tonight. It’s hard to run in behind a team camped on the edge of their own box, which is what we face most weeks in the league, but you know who doesn’t camp in their own box and who does leave loads of space in behind. Man City, that’s who. And we play them next. As much as Klopp loves Bobby and will want to show faith in him, he can’t possibly change this front three now, surely? Jota is playing so well currently that he’s outshining Sadio and Mo, and they’re both in great form too. The difference tonight was huge. Having three players running in behind rather than two was just too much for Atalanta to cope with. How would City deal with that? I don’t think they could, to be honest. This front three would create loads of chances against them and the key to the result on Sunday is whether we are clinical enough to take them. And again, that surely means Jota starting as he’s in lethal form right now. I’m also buzzing about how the kids played tonight. Jones and Williams both did really well. It’s mad as they were both playing in the kids CL a couple of years ago (Curtis was playing it last year too while Rhys was playing non-league) and now they’re in the senior side together. This was Jones’ best display of the season so far and he looked more like himself tonight compared to how safe he’s been playing recently. Starting games regularly will only help him as he’ll be more comfortable and won’t always be thinking he has to do something special to impress. He kept it simple tonight but still played the right passes forward when they were there. The one to set Mo clear for him goal was brilliant, even if he didn’t get the credit for it he should have. As for Williams, he’s played, what? Four games now? And I’ve barely noticed him. I can’t really think of anything specific he’s done and that’s brilliant for a teenage centre back throw in at the deep end. To be able to just slot in and not be noticed is really difficult, but he just does the job with the minimum of fuss, wins his headers, keeps it simple, and looks calm as anything. We might have a really good one there. Also, no leaked team news again so I think the mole has been squashed. Good. I don’t see the fascination with having to know the team the day before anyway. Just wait until it’s announced a n hour before. It’s not like it influences our lives in any way, is it? Wednesday Nov 4: The Mancs lose in Turkey to a PL “Legends XI” including Skrtel, Ba and Rafael. I’ve genuinely never seen anything like that first goal they conceded. Not in the first half anyway. It can happen late on when you need to throw everyone forward in desperation, but I’ve never seen it happen like that so early in a game. I honestly didn’t think it was possible for a top flight team to do that. My daughter has been playing a team for about five years now. Even when they first started, when she was seven and not one of them in the team had the first clue about footy or even had any interest in it, yet even then, when they had a corner the girls at the back would decide who - if any - of them would go forward and who would stay back. I’d see it all the time. Adrianna would usually go forward because she was basically the only kid on the team not scared of heading the ball (even five years later not much has changed!). But sometimes, if one of the others had gone forward I’d see Adrianna and the other defender look around and then go and mark the forward on halfway. Even seven year old girls knew that you can’t just send everyone forward and leave the opposing striker all along on the halfway line. Yet that’s what United did. It’s easy to rip into their crap defence and blame Maguire, but this isn’t on the centre backs as those lads are entitled to go forward and assume that there’ll be a couple of team-mates covering. Whoever normally stays back (Wan Bissaka for one I assume as he’s next to no use in the opposition half) fucked up massively and gave us one of the funniest moments of the season. Could have done with them not losing this though as the heat is really being cranked up on Ole now. He might not be at the wheel for much longer so here’s hoping they can snot the Blues this weekend. On the transfer rumour front today, but of a mad one as for some reason people are talking about Haaland coming here. Firstly, why would he leave Dortmund so soon after joining when things are going so well for him there? Secondly, he’s gonna want some kind of serious wedge. Thirdly, we’ve got Jota now, so… Seriously though, I’d love to sign Haaland but just don’t see where he fits in, especially with Mbappe coming next summer. Thursday Nov 5: Fuck all happening today so I’ve got nothing to say. Ok, I tell you what. Here’s something that happened today and I reckon it’s the same for everyone on the planet other than Billy Joel and his most dedicated fans. So one of his songs came on the radio today and I was like “yeeerrrs, this is boss this one”. So I’m singing along and it basically went like this… baba didi bababa duwadidi oompapa doobabadidi babababa Marylyn Monroe… umpapapa baobab duwawaa ooolalah something something bababa England’s got a new queen… we didn’t start the fire, it was always burnin since the world’s been turning… And on it goes, lots of mumbling and humming interspersed with “children of thelidimide”, “Belgians in the Congo”, “British politician sex” and a few choruses. Other than that, no-one has a fucking clue about any of the other lyrics but we still sing anyway as it’s catchy as fuck. Tell me I’m wrong? So yeah, slow news day! Actually I’ll ring my mum and ask her about that Kane / Lallana penalty last week. Should be interesting because she hates Kane even more than she hates poor Adam…. Ok, so she sided with Lallana as I expected. Used the word ‘vile’ to describe Kane, which is standard. One of the main reasons she hated Ads (I’ve taken to calling him ‘Ads’ because it makes her skin crawl) was because he was always injured but today she said “We’ve got a few other invalids for me to pick on now. He’s old news”. I know she’s got beef with "Kiter" so he’ll be one of those ‘invalids’ she’s on about, and Matip will defo be another. I daren’t ask if she’s already got Thiago on the shitlist though as that’s a bit arlarse if so. He’s had Covid and he’s been crippled by that twat Richarlison, so it’s unfair to lump him in with the stiffs just yet. Friday Nov 6: Ok, so this is concerning. Still no Thiago. Anyone else getting the feeling we’ve been lied to and they knew all along he was going to be out for weeks but they wanted to keep it quiet? Could be that they didn’t want to add to the bad news after Virgil, or maybe they’re trying to keep the opposition guessing. There’s no way he’s been 'day to day' though like they’ve been telling us. He hasn’t trained yet and it’s been what, four weeks since the derby? They defo knew it was more serious than they were ever going to let on to us. All Klopp is saying now is that he didn't need an operation and they just had to see how long it took to settle. He’s not joining up with Spain so if he is ready for our next game (which I’m betting he won’t be) that would have been a six week lay off. I hope that’s all it is. Fucking Everton, the dirty shower of bastards. It’s a big game between two of the ‘big six’ this weekend so you know what that means? Combined XI’s all over the fucking internet. They’re everywhere, and they’re usually complete abominations. In terms of this weekend, it’s easy. It’s ten Liverpool players plus De Bruyne, as no-one else from City is getting in. Neutrals can make an argument for Sterling and that's ok, I’m not knocking him as his record speaks for itself, but why would you take him over Mané or Salah? Jota is the first name on the team sheet by the way. I just hope he’s on Klopp’s this Sunday. Finally, Trent is tipped to become ‘the best right back ever’ by a true legend of the game. Sounds great right? Yeah, only that legend of the game is Cafu and he said pretty the same thing about Flanno back in the day, so… *shrugs* He might be right this time though. and that was the week that was….