Leaderboard

Said this in another thread, but I don't think referees are part of the Illuminati, or on Bill Gates' payroll, or launching chemtrails in their spare time, or having big meetings in Sky boardrooms where the PowerPoint slides are titled "Operation Level Playing Field" or anything like that. I do, however, think they're human, and subject to the same biases and behavioural flaws that we're all subject to. Firstly, they see and hear all the shit that comes through pundits, the football press and likely social media - and there's really clear narratives in there. Some players are divers, some aren't; some players are honest, some aren't. It's just the way things are - look at social media: quite often Salah gets mentioned as a diver in completely unrelated posts - you know, the sort of thing where there's a discussion about the conditions at Anfield or something and somebody pipes up with "yeah the wind was strong at Anfield JUDGING FROM HOW MUCH IT BLEW SALAH OVER." And so on - it's just repeated and repeated and some of it must work its way into the eyes and ears of officials. I should stress - I really don't think they're not giving fouls against Salah because Jermaine Jenas or Rod Liddle or @efc1878nilsatis or @guardiolaholic are saying he's a diver. I just think that this kind of noise has a kind of aggregated subconsious effect, and when Salah does go down they give it just that bit extra scrutiny, and raise the threshold required for a foul just that little bit further, and over the course of 38 games those tiny shifts have a cumulative impact. Secondly, they don't like being wrong and they don't like criticism. So when they get a call wrong the first instinct is to use VAR to prove themselves correct. All of the squiggly lines bullshit and replays of incidents - I've never been anything but convinced that you can use VAR to prove just about anything you want, and what the users want is to be proved right. Thirdly, they like to be told how clever and impartial they are. So when there's a bizarre, "against the rules but not against the spirit of the game" call to be made they'll go down on the former because it means that they're proving their worth: "we're here to enforce the rules whether you like them or not; maybe you don't agree with the rules but that's probably because you either don't understand them, or you're too biased to notice" - and because of the tribal nature of football, there'll never be a consensus against that approach because there'll always be a group of fans who're the victim, and a group of fans revelling in the opposite. Who's involved changes week to week but the figures are always a constant: 90% of fans are laughing, 10% are outraged. The TAA penalty is a classic example of this. Under no circumstances is that a penalty based on how that move developed in real time, but Calvert-Lewin's honesty is a complete given in The World of English Football, Kavanagh is determined to show that he's got a superior grasp of the rules than LFC players, fans or the general football public, and gives the penalty. When it's pointed out that he's probably wrong, he goes over to the monitor and doubles down on his decision. Then sage pundits and commentators twist themselves in knots to agree with such clever interpretation of the rules. LFC fans are outraged, but Everton fans, City fans, United fans - loads of them - are in complete agreement that the interpretation is correct and enjoy the rage. They're all flawed as we all are, but that's the point of putting a system of accountability and transparency in place - to avoid those flaws actually materially affecting the outcome of their jobs. But PGMOL in this country doesn't believe in that - VAR, Elite Referees Panel, all of these things are introduced to ensure that they're never questioned and never accountable. And again - that's the reason they're not going to elite tournaments: because the infrastructure around them, under the guidance of a spineless toad like Mike Riley, is set up to give them a safe, cosy environment where they're free to operate how they've always operated and never be forced to change. Sorry for the long post, but I'm fucking sick of this shit this season. None of the above excuses some of the lame performances we've seen - but when you see your team shafted regularly without any kind of question or cause to solve it, well, it makes you fucking stew.

Where do you live? Bethlehem?

Don't be so hard on yourself mate. The ability to make fire has proved to be extremely useful.

I can't see this working as a stand up routine.

There's a bizarre phenomenon whereby mediocre people try to distinguish themselves as having insights into truths that the herd just don't see. There's no particular distinction if your insights are quite widely shared: for example, whichever side of the Brexit debate you are on, about half the country will agree with you, so you won't stand out as anything special. Instead, you have to pick something that 99% of the population accept as a long-proven self-evident truth (e.g. that the Earth is round; that jet engines emit harmless condensation; that vaccines save lives; etc.) and argue against that. The wackier your claim, the bigger the "herd" who subscribe to the mainstream view and, consequently, the greater the kudos in breaking rank. The internet gives you global access to like-minded inadequates and, hey presto, you can tell yourself you're one of a band of pioneering truth-seekers (instead of just a lonely, stupid cunt).

Remember when Rafa messaged Jurgen after the Champions League win saying "welcome to the club"? Levels.

"Goodison Park is beyond fixing up, as you can see from the extensive use of 19th century wood. Remember - always check the legal pack before buying - something the Everton owners didn't in 1892. 'Now, let's see what's up the stairs."

Started with Thatcher. Or at least at that time. Watch a documentary from the 1970's, and listen to how the narrator talks to the audience as though they are sentient, even intelligent. Same with TV debates. Intelligent, thought provoking stuff. We've had 40 years of cynical dumbing down. It's no wonder the world is so fucking thick that the majority can be distracted by shiny things. Sedated, ignorant, suggestible. There's no fucking escape from it. I blame my generation. We let it happen.

We were gonna lose to the bums one day. Might as well happen when none of us had to be there.

It was the psychopath Stalin who was responsible for those deaths - pretty much state capitalism/despotism from the mid 1920s onwards. It's like blaming all muslims for muslim terrorists.

Haha! A fucking Tory from Surrey lecturing people about day trippers and what it means to support Liverpool. This is peak internet.

Yes, but probably more egregiously, in that the people who really know, the scientists, we're going to fuck them off, because when all is said and done, the most important thing in any politicians life, isn't other peoples lives, its votes. Everything this fucking wobble headed cunt is doing now, he's doing as a long term currying favor exercise to make amends for the shitheawk conduct of 10 months ago and the following months when he didn't have a fucking clue. This cunt is trying to claw back the fuck up of his administration over the last 10 months and lets not get started on the Brexit debacle. The fucking tithead. This cunt has cost lives and so has his dimwitted cronies, they all want taking out, put against a wall and shot and left to the crows.

Did the 20 min run on Saturday. Was ok....i mean i wasn't going fast but managed it ok. In "Week 6" now did first one today...3 runs in week, the 3rd of which is 25 mins....that will be longest yet.

All VAR has done is given refs a ridiculous amount of power to influence games however they see fit. They're running amok now, deciding the results of so many games every weekend. Even games that end up 3-0, sometimes they're settled by a decision they make at 0-0. I watch MOTD every week and it's just fucking relentless. So many games are decided by horrific decisions and then we're told by paedo looking twats like Gallagher that the refs got everything right. I'm just sick of it. I don't enjoy football anymore. Lots of reasons for it but the officiating and the concept (not to mention the implementation) of VAR is well clear at the top. That Maguire incident is just a clear foul and red card. It's indisputable. Yet apparently that's fine, but David Luiz the other week was a penalty and a red card. I don't really want anything to do with a sport in which that is apparently ok. They've killed the game with this shit.

Yeah it’s like when we won the CL and all those top players signed.........

He's pretty much the least likeable pundit on telly, and that's without mentioning the spitting episode. He's also being up as clueless by Neville (!) on most discussions not involving Pogba. He was incredibly lucky to reach the number of games he did for us, and would have been absolutely ridiculed by supporters had he tried to play with the high line we're currently employing. Brede Hangeland (former Fulham defender and Man Utd supporter) is one of the more knowledgeable pundits on telly over here.. He described the LFC CB position as the hardest position to play in football. No wonder a 20-year old with limited pace and a 25-year old Championship defender will struggle with it. There's an argument that we should change our playing style until VVd/Gomez/Matip are back. That will turn everything we've worked with for the last 4 years on its head though. I think personally we need to accept that results will continue to be up and down, and concentrate our efforts on the CL where there's something resembling a level playing field, and where we will meet opponents that play a style that suits our own better. Better not draw Atletio though...

Nil Homes Nisi Hammer.

In fairness to Colonel Kurtz, there's absolutely no way you'd find any tories caught saying anything racist. Particularly not nowadays. I mean, imagine how stupid it would be for the actual, literal, current prime minister to have made undeniably racist comments in print.

I'm not a Marxist nor Leninist but even though I havent read much Marx I do find I agree with him on some points,not on others. As for the username,I joined around the same time as the NSA spying scandal so I chose something to poke fun at it knowing how they love Russians and those usernames would ping their search criteria. I am left wing,probably due to my Merseyside/Irish/Scottish ancestry,which applies to a good portion of Liverpool fans. I think you're smart enough to know that a bit of what you write on here is a bit of incitement to the left leaning of this forum and you know how 'highly' the tories are held in the area. Anyway,carry on.

I knew that mate - I was trying to point out how blaming some chin stroking political theorist for the deaths of millions at the hands of psychopathic despots was a bit of a stretch. Modern Marxism (put simplistically) is the equivalent of working at Waitrose or John Lewis.

I completely agree that we are being screwed on an almost weekly basis by decisions. There are also other teams that have had some very questionable shit go against them, but we seem to be by far the worst hit. What I'm struggling with is why it isn't being screamed from the rooftops by anyone other than us. Why are the club not pointing it out every week it happens? Why is no-one in the media pointing it out every week saying it is unacceptable and has to end? It just all seems so unbelievably shit that you start to wonder if you're going soft in the head! I've been reading your stuff for the best part of 20 years because I respect, trust and generally agree with your opinions, nothings changed there. Keep it coming, we can't let these bastards grind us down. Everything is shite at the moment and the state of footy is compounding it, particularly for us. There has to be a point when all this will be looked at properly and sorted.

Shopping - The Official Body I had never heard of theses guys before.... The Hype First thing that strikes me is how "immediate" the sound is, and quite lo-fi. Not much in the way of studio alchemy but the recording is good. Feel like I'm in the same room as these guys. The bass and guitar grooving here and really complementing each other. Feels quite basic in style but I can't help to nod along. Both singers come from that group of 80s "singers" that couldn't really sing but whose voice suited the music they made. Wild Child Great little bassline here. Before she starts singing I'm picturing this as a Jam track and a load of "mods" bopping. The guys can certainly groove and this is music to dance to. The synth is a nice addition to the chorus. Asking for a Friend Decent riff. Basic song structure again so I guess this is these guys signature. The duelling vocals fitting a tried and tested formula. Repetitive though and not going anywhere. Suddenly Gone Kicking off at somebody in particular. Guitar playing is decent here. Repeats and fades out. Not doing anything for me. Shave Your Head I thought this was a Kaiser Chiefs track when it started. There's nothing I can say about this that I haven't already said above, sadly. Discover OK a slight change of style with a synth start. Slightly electronic punk. Some heavier EDM style additions to the production and this could pass as a Prodigy influenced track (think 'Girls' from Always Outnumbered). Potential here with further production but not grabbing me as it stands. Control Yourself Good theme and one to make us all think about how we live in a disposable world. Fake personas, throwaway world. Very robotic and boring until it kicks in and becomes a little bit of a stomper. Decent track. My Dad's a Dancer Reminds me of a tune I can't put my finger on. Possibly the weakest on the album although I enjoyed the bassline. New Values Synth and drum intro into the vocal. Bit monotonous but I still nod along to it however I'm begging for these to get angry and kick off a bit more. Overtime One of the best tracks. Great intro from the bass, drums and guitar. Quite a frantic yet short album. I like the playing on this but the vocal tempo and range is pretty much the same throughout the album though and didn't really keep my attention. Minimal range and chanting at approx. the same time in each song, duelling vocals - they've a formula that they're not moving from. Wouldn't chose to put this on but I wouldn't be angered to have to listen to it either. 6/10

For the rating part, you just pick a number between one and ten (based on how much you liked the film) and then score it appropriately...

I've said before on here as much as there is so much I love about the Internet if I was given a button to press that would end it, I'd press it.

The worst stand up comedian can be found on Live From the Apollo; any programme, whenever it's on, you will find the worst comedian ever. They're all different comedians too, but when you're watching it you'll swear that you've just seen the worst comedian ever. Every programme, there's going to be one unfunny, deluded, full of misplaced confidence fucker showing you why they're the worst stand up comedian ever. Amazingly, unless it's typical BBC history editing, the audience always seems to find these mirth murderers hysterically funny. Don't get it.

Gone for Pixies & Pulp. Surfer Rosa influenced the majority of 90’s & 00’s guitar music, it was so far ahead of its time. Different class was the first cd album I ever bought. Fantastic pop album, all about J.C getting off his tits and rutting birds.

They've given up. There's no anger in them. They've allowed themselves to be worn down by all the various setbacks they've had and they don't have any fight in them to stop it. After what happened at Goodison those playrs should have been frothing at the fucking mouth yesterday. I understand how hard it is without fans and against Brighton, Burnley etc I can see why it's difficult to play without that emotion and adrenaline that a crowd instills. But yesterday? No crowd was necessary. They should have had this game circled in the calendar for four months. It should have been fire and brimstone and fucking flying into them from the opening whistle. Instead, they went out and just tried to play like it was any old football game in an empty stadium. I'm not saying they didn't try, I'm saying they were meek as fuck and showed no fight or anger or resentment about what those fuckers did to derail our season four months ago. The more I think about what I saw yesterday, the more pissed off I am with Klopp and the players at their lack of emotion and fight. It's symbolic of who we've become when you think about it though. The sight of Virgil sat behind the bench should have served as a reminder to the players about what they were playing for. Revenge. Payback. Justice. Whatever you want to call it. And what did we get? A fucking pathetic, passionless first half in which we went in a goal behind. The second half was fine, all that was missing was a goal, but I'm struggling to accept how they could be so fucking passionless at the start of that game. Go back four months to that game at Goodison and think about what happened and how you felt. Now imagine if someone had told you then that the next time we play Everton, Richarlison will be the match winner and Pickford will be Man of the Match. At Anfield. You wouldn't have believed it because the very idea of it would be preposterous. Yet it happened, because we let it happen. That's what I mean about it symbolising who we've become. The two villains from the Goodison derby, the two players we were all saying would get what's coming to them at Anfield.... they didn't get punished at all. They had it all their own way. They're laughing their fucking bollocks off at us.

After a skinful of beer last night, I was prepared for needing a fry up this morning. I woke and was obsessed with the idea of scrambled egg. So I knocked this up. Scrambled egg, black pudding, tomato & pork sausage, old English pork sausage (both from the butcher's), Ulster fry & bacon. It hit the spot.

I started a healthy eating program on 4th Jan when I went back to work as my weight was ridiculous. 23st 6.5lbs. Constantly felt tired and with heart disease in my family I decided it's time. Upto now with healthy eating and walking 2+ miles in the evenings, I've managed to shift 1st 3.5lbs. Still a long way to go but I can't wait to get back in the gym, lose more, get my hernia repaired and get back into martial arts. Back in 2018 I started at a gym when I was tipping the scales at 22st 7lbs and got down to 20st before I fucked my knee. Downward spiral. It's good to read what others are doing/achieving. Good luck to you all.

I'd not want restrictions lifted until all NHS and School staff have had their first vaccinations. A few weeks after schools returned there was a huge spike and I have zero confidence this wont happen again. I'm acutely aware of the impact this is having on children. You know what else really had an impact? The one day they were back in January, before they had to lockdown again after the spike which started a few weeks after they went back in September. I'm worried about being back in school in contact with 30 kids and their families. Yada Yada kids aren't impacted, well I was when I had it a few days after a kid in my class did as were the other members of our staff who had it. I'm worried a out MrsD coming into. Contact with. 100+ kids in class, kids up to 18 who are adults and aren't socially distancing in corridors There will always be an element of risk, but I can't reconcile just brushing off the continued deaths. I've not yet become numb to it yet. I hope I'm wrong.

For me, its because a group of self serving tory twats think they know better. I cast my mind back to the very outset of this and there was an Irish guy who worked for the WHO during the Ebola outbreak and his impassioned speech went along the lines of - "don't wait for this virus, test, test , test, control the virus and lock it down, it will find a way if you don't get ahead of it" We've played catch-up for 12 months and now we are pulling up on the shoulder of it, at the very fiirst sign of light at the end of the tunnel, we shoot our load and start calling the begging of the end and let loose potential carriers. Fucking knobheads this lot are. The scientists should be dictating what should happen here, not this gang of useless twats.

It's a month too soon. Another month will have seen millions more vaccinated, the R rate reduced further and much less pressure on the NHS. You're right, it is reckless and Mudface is also right about teachers and school staff not being vaccinated. Johnson just doesn't seem to learn. How many more people have to die because of this cunt and his political decisions, because that's what it is, a political decision. The teaching unions should serve notice that teachers and school staff should get the vaccine or they won't return to work. Someone's got to make a stand and they have an excellent reason to do so.

That, and the continued refusal to vaccinate teachers as a priority group.

Who died and made you sole arbiter of anyone's right to support us. Utter tosh.

I'm glad that we'll have fans back - for the team and the actual fans involved, and for the sake of my enjoyment of the game as lockdown footy is the worst and actively allows teams of callow shites an unjustified status. But mostly it just completes the greatest horror the football gods have played on us. We'll be back in stadiums just in time to relinquish our PL title to another team - having never had the chance to properly celebrate our win, we'll instead be treated to see another team do it in front of their underserving fans instead. Honestly, fuck this fucking shitty fucking sport with a big cunty stick.

I once went on a date to a standup show and dropped a pill. First act was ok but the next three were incredible, best I’ve ever seen.

'People 100 years ago were racist bastards shocker.' I wouldn't consider myself a Marxist or a Communist, nowhere near it. What I am concerned with though is what's going on in this country at the moment & it's not fucking great.

Abhorrent views, of course, no excuses, but at the same time you can hold a lot of people guilty of the same. That’s not to brush it away, it’s to nearly state that the world has improved significantly in holding people to account over extreme racist views, or at least we’re improving. Apropos of nothing he’s an article on our current prime minister and his increasing number of racist, sexist and homophobic remarks.

500k dead in the USA from this. Washington Post has an article where they try to show you what 500k people is actually like… https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/500000-covid-deaths-visualized/?itid=hp-top-table-main

Now. Just now. Empty stadiums, terrible refs, VAR, double standards from pundits and the media. No one gives a shit unless its Liverpool suffering. Ive started watching the WRC now, at least people can't be cheated and the sport is about pure skill and competition.

A transparent public enquiry should happen on every penny the government spend, the contracts handed out and MPs links. Its like organised crime but they write the rules. Still pisses me off Robert Jenrick is still allowed to be an MP.

Well if all schools are reopening on March 8th then that means most people will fuck off the rest of the rules. Because what's the point in having your kids mingle with hundreds of other kids each day but still having to stay at home without seeing anyone else all weekend?

A whirlwind at 2:07... so much beauty packed into so little time. Seems almost deliberately rushed. And even time for a 10-second instrumental at the head. Their first solely acoustic track. A lot of complex themes and beautiful lyrical/aural "trompes l'oeils" in just 2:58 here too, that I love:

Interstellar - I’ve got no idea how to rate or explain what I’ve just watched but if you’ve got a daughter it’ll be very emotional.

He's another one who wasn't funny. He got up on stage & told a load of home truths. Quite why he's even classed as a comedian is beyond me, I like what he's saying but it's not funny.

And now I'll go back to completely ignoring anything footy related until our next game. No diary this week. Most of it was done but I don't even want to post it now. Fuck this shit.

Apart from when Rodgers actually played him for the majority of the 13/14 season and he was boss.