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So that’s that then. The end of the road. He’s no longer at the wheel. We had a good run though didn’t we? A lot longer run than anyone had a right to expect, not least Solskjaer himself. In years to come people will look back on this period, shake their heads and ask “how the fuck was he allowed to stay in that job for that long?” Because we all knew when he got the job he was shit. And even when they finished second last year, everyone still knew he was shit. They benefited more than anyone from empty stadiums. That away record they had was the biggest anomaly in football history behind us losing six home games in a row. Last season may count in the history books, but nothing that happened should be used as a barometer for anything meaningful. As soon as fans came back in United went back to being shit. Was anyone even surprised they lost at Watford? I remember talking with the lads before one of our home games about it weeks ago. Everyone in the media seemed to be concentrating on their upcoming games against us, Spurs, City, Chelsea and Arsenal and wondering if they would finish Solskjaer off. My point was that they’re so bad there was every chance they wouldn’t even beat Watford. Other than Norwich and maybe Newcastle, I feel like United should be worried about everyone. They managed to beat Spurs, but we twatted them and City could have too if they’d been arsed to get out of first gear. Chelsea will probably handle them with ease and I actually think Arsenal might…. actually no, I’m taking United in that one because Arsenal will always Arsenal. Watford away was a definite potential banana skin though as if you’re not on it they’ve got enough speed and skill up front to catch you cold. Just ask Everton. Watford had four United rejects in their side which made this even more of a slap in the face for the mancs. It’s not even like they were four lads who did alright for them and who just weren’t quite good enough. They were nowhere near United level. Not back then anyway. Now? Well the standards are not what they were, let’s put it that way. Craig Carthcart could not be worse than Harry Maguire currently. This was another train wreck display from slabhead, capped by a sending off so stupid and shit that even Granit Xhaka will have been watching MOTD, shaking his head and saying “fucking hell lad, that was a bit much”. It was a mad game all round though. The madness started when Watford were awarded a penalty. Even that was a weird incident. Bruno Fernandes miscued a volley and the ball went back towards his own goal. Josh King chased it and McTominay bundled him over because he was looking up at the ball and fell over, taking King down with him. The loose ball fell to Sarr who put it wide but Jon Moss gave the penalty. That little manc faced twat Cleverley was demanding a red card too which would have been fucking ridiculous even by Jon Moss standards. Sarr took the penalty and De Gea saved it, but a Watford player scored from the rebound. He had encroached though, which I think should have resulted in.. I don’t actually know. A free-kick from the spot he touched the ball maybe? I know that Watford shouldn’t have been allowed a retake, and the United players were rightly aggrieved that they were being punished because a Watford player had encroached. What they didn’t know was that one Wan-Bissaka had encroached as well, so because of that Sarr got another chance. And De Gea saved that one too. Crazy. Two fucking awful pens though. You’d think a let off like that would have inspired United to go on and take advantage of it. You’d think wrong. They got fucking battered in that first half. Watford didn’t allow their heads to drop and just kept piling forward creating chances. King scored from close range and then Sarr fired in a second from a tight angle. United got back in it when Sancho crossed and Ronaldo rose like a salmon and unselfishly (yes, you read that right) headed back across goal for substitute Van Der Beek to score. The tide had turned and an equaliser seemed to be coming. Then Harry Maguire happened. He got wrong side of Sarr and clumsily hauled him down on the edge of the box to get his first yellow card. Then he outdid himself with the second one, getting caught dribbling out from the back and lungeing in to foul Cleverley. It’s almost like he’s doing this shit deliberately. Even with ten men United were still threatening an equaliser but they then conceded twice in stoppage time as Pedro and Dennis (who was brilliant) rubbed salt in the wounds. The absolute state of De Gea on some of those goals though. The first was especially terrible. The second I could live with if that was my keeper but the third was pathetic and the fourth wasn’t good either. He’s shite now him. His interview afterwards was a disgrace too. “We don’t know what to do with the ball. We can’t defend. We’re conceding a lot of goals”. All true, but how about “I was fucking shite today and should have saved at least there of those goals. If I had done my job better we wouldn’t have lost”. Roy Keane is right about him. As shit as Solskjaer is, loads of them players have been hiding behind that. That’s why I thought it was interesting to see what happened at full time. Solskjaer went to the United end and seemed to be apologising and basically saying his farewells. Some fans were giving him shit and Fernandes wasn’t having it, shouting back at the fans and gesturing that it’s the players they should be blaming and not Solskjaer. Almost a week on and I’m still not sure what to make of it. My gut reaction is that it’s a stand up move and I want to say fair play to him, because the easy thing to do would have been to skulk away and let Solskjaer take the flak, or do an interview like De Gea which basically screamed “this manager doesn’t know what he’s doing”. It’s a brave move taking on the fans and I want to respect him for that. The problem is I can’t stand the little twat so I’m looking for a reason to not respect what he did. The best I can come up with is that if he’s so bothered about protecting Ole then he should have played better, but then isn’t that exactly what he was saying to the fans by taking responsibility for the bad performances? Compare Fernandes with that De Sea or that Pogba cunt for example. Or some of the others who have just bummed around being shite and letting Solksjaer take the brunt of it. I still hate Bruno Fernandes but he showed some backbone doing that, which is more than most of his team-mates have been doing. So they sacked him the next day and they had him do a farewell interview in which he cried. All about the hits on socials with that club. Fucking clownshow. Long may it continue. Chelsea had a good win at Leicester. Comfortable really. A bit disheartening as this was a game where you'd hope they might drop some points. Chilwell was getting dog’s abuse from the home crowd but almost rammed it right down their throats when he ran in behind and was denied by the crossbar. How come they hate him but still love Kante? Rudiger broke the deadlock with a header from a corner. Similar to the goal they scored at Anfield that one. Not really a great deal you can do to stop those other than obstruct the runner. Kante made it 2-0 with a lovely finish to cap a sweeping move. Leicester rallied in the second half after Rodgers made changes but they didn’t take their chances and Pulisic came off the bench to wrap it up. Chelsea followed it up by twitting Juve and a concerning thing for me is that their goals are coming from everywhere. The wing backs are outscoring the forwards, which would usually be a bit of a concern as you want your strikers amongst the goals, but it’s not like the forwards haven’t been scoring at all. Their goals are coming from all over the park which makes them difficult to deal with. Plus they hardly ever concede, so there is that too. They have lost Chilwell for the season with an ACL, but the just means more games for that Alonso twat who seems to score every time he plays anyway. Leicester aren’t in a good place at the moment though. Something isn’t quite clicking with them and this could be the start of things getting away from Brendan. He was linked strongly with the United job and I’d have loved that to happen as he’d be an absolute catastrophe there. Their fans would hate him in no time and his ego would be inflated so much it would need its own time zone. Shame it won’t happen. I’m calling this one now though. Leicester will sack Rodgers at the end of the season and they’ll appoint Graham Potter to replace him, because Potter is the coach that people think Rodgers is. Meanwhile, Not So Nice Guy Eddie was absent from his first game as Newcastle boss as he caught Covid just after taking it. Karma at it’s best there. It was a good game against Brentford but it ended honours even and Newcastle still haven’t won a game. Lascelles rose highest from an early corner to make it 1-0 but my boy Toney equalised within a minute. Good finish but that Darlow tit channeled his inner De Gea to let it squirm past him. Toney thought he’d made it 2-1 soon after but he was fractionally offside. It’s mad that he used to play for Newcastle as I have absolutely no memory of him being there. I know he only played a handful of games, but their strikers have been shit for years so you have to wonder how he didn’t get more of a chance there. They’d love him there now that’s for sure. Rico Henry stole in at the back post to give Brentford the lead, that Joelint On fella made it 2-2 but Lascelles then deflected a shot into his own net to restore Brentford’s lead. Saint Maximin salvaged a point with a fine equaliser and he went into the crowd to celebrate. As much as I can’t stand Newcastle, I really like that lad as he seems fucking sound. He put one on a plate for Joelinto ’N at the end with a sensational run and pass, but that hopeless dope fell over his own feet and the chance was gone. How much did they pay for him? Bet he ends up at Ajax and turn out to be boss, like that Haller fella who flopped at West Ham. You know how I always said Newcastle are the worst possible set of fans imaginable in this situation? Here’s the latest example of what I meant…. One of the best games of the weekend was Burnley v Palace. Can you believe that? It was a belter though. A six goal thriller. Benteke’s deflected shot gave Palace an early lead and he celebrated with that fucking shitty, lame, thigh slapping thing he does. I have a completely irrational hatred of it. File that one away with “spinning the decks”, the Gareth Bale “heart” thing and anything done by Jesse Lingard. Burnley levelled when Ben Mee got on the end of a Westwood corner. Palace have been bad at defending set-pieces for years now and Burnley are obviously a huge threat from them so this was no surprise. Another set-piece saw them make it 2-1 through Wood. That came just after Benteke wasted a chance to put Palace ahead, and the big striker then squandered another great chance immediately after. Palace kept creating for him though and Gallagher set him up for his second to make it 2-2. Cue the shit celebration again. Grrrrr. Palace went 3-2 up just before half time when Guehi fired him after a scramble from a corner. No more than Palace deserved as they were playing all of the football, but Burnley do have an ace up their sleeve these days in their summer signing Maxwell Cornet. He’s fucking boss. He equalised with a thumping volley and looks well on the way to achieving ‘my boy’ status. Burnley felt that Anderson should have been sent off for dragging down Wood. More often than not that would have been given as a foul and a sending off, but Wood definitely played for that. He got goal side and then just stopped running, initiated contact and collapsed in a heap. The defender couldn’t avoid making contact but there really wasn’t enough there to put him on the floor. As I say though, usually that gets given so I get why Dyche wasn’t happy. Maybe he should start encouraging players to stay on their feet instead of going down so easily all the time? Teams are so often a reflection of their manager’s personality but Palace are a definite exception. They’re vibrant, exciting, entertaining. And then Vieira comes out for his post match interview. He could put a glass eye to sleep that fella. His team is fun to watch though, which is the most important thing. There were Villa fans dressed as Harry Enfield Scousers as Stevie took charge of his first game. What the fuck is wrong with people? They weren’t taking the piss, they were enthusiastically applauding him so this was their way of, actually I don’t even know what it was…. presumably they thought they were showing support for him? There are much worse fans out there than Villa and there isn’t really any malice in anything they do, but they’re just really unfunny cunts who seem obsessed with being “banter kings”. Any time you hear someone talking about banter, or calling themselves “bantersaurus rex” or some shit, there’s at least a 50% chance they support Villa. They see themselves as Only Fools & Horses when in reality they’re about as funny as Casualty. They just make me cringe and they have done for as long as I can remember. They’re the type of fans that will sing about scousers nicking their stereos, but they’ll do it in the kind of self congratulatory way that suggests they think they’re the first ones to do it and that they’re being really funny. They aren’t funny. They’ve never been funny. They’re cringey, embarrassing fucking wankers and going to Steven Gerrard’s first game dressed as Harry Enfield characters might just be peak Villa. Brighton had the better of the first half but didn’t score. Villa improved after the break and a fine individual goal by Watkins put them ahead late on before Mings wrapped it up in the last minute. I wanted them to lose. It wasn’t a conscious decision, I hadn’t really thought about it either way but I had the radio on and when they went over for an update my natural, instinctive reaction was I was hoping Brighton had scored. It surprised me a little that I felt that way. I don’t want to root against Stevie, or at least I didn’t think I did, yet here we are. It isn’t my head making that decision, it’s my gut. You know what had completely passed me by until now? Norwich winning. I didn’t know about that until I just glanced at the table and saw they weren’t bottom. I genuinely thought I must have been looking at the wrong table as my brain was just attuned to them being bottom for the entire season. I hadn’t even considered the possibility they’d ever get off the foot of the table yet here they are, above Newcastle. Dean Smith is their new manager and he brought Gilmour and Cantwell back into the team. Considering they’re probably the two most talented players at the club it won’t have been a difficult decision for him. They fell behind early to a Che Adams goal. Good finish, weak defending. The Southampton fans were chanting at Smith “you’re getting sacked in the morning” and the commentator said “who says humour on the terraces is dead these days”. Me. I do. If this is what you’re calling humour then yeah it’s deader than Thatcher. If they’d been playing Watford then yeah, it’s a valid chant. Norwich aren’t trigger happy like that though so it’s a shit chant and not funny. I’m not even sure Villa fans would think that was funny. Ok, that’s clearly wrong as they’d definitely chant something that lame and then be patting themselves on the backs like they were Dave Chappelle. Wankers. The man formerly known as ‘my boy Pukki’ headed in the equaliser three minutes later. He just goes by Pukki now as I ditched him when they were relegated. Grant Hanley’s first top flight goal in 10 years won it for them late on, but that was some proper De Gea style shit from Alex McCarthy. Watch him turn into Lev Yashin this weekend though. Elsewhere, Wolves were good value for their win over West Ham. They dominated and created almost all of the chances in the game, but they only took one of them when Jimenez fired in from the edge of the box. West Ham did nothing, which is classic Moyes. A good result against us got him to third in the table and then he pisses all over himself because he doesn’t know how to handle any kind of relative success. He said before the game if the season ended now he’d be delighted and would crack open the champagne. That is why you fail. All the time. Onto Sunday and another defeat for Everton. They didn’t even lay a glove on City, it was fucking pathetic but it was also entirely predictable. Rafa is turning them into his Newcastle side. The big difference is he can’t use his minions to brainwash the fans via the media because those fans aren’t going to give him the benefit of any doubt. Everton are so shit now that Guardiola is actually picking teenagers, and that never happens. He’s looking at Everton like they’re a League Two opponent in a domestic cup. City were awarded a penalty when Sterling took a tumble as he ran into the box. VAR told Atwell to take another look because the replays didn’t show any contact. He had a look and changed his mind, much to the anger of Sterling. I actually think that may have been a foul but that it just wasn’t visible on the angles available. Sterling’s reaction was not that of a player who knew he’d dived and been found out, he genuinely seemed wronged by it. Maybe someone should sit him down and tell him the story of the boy who cried wolf. He got a goal soon after anyway when he latched onto a brilliant Cancelo pass. Good player that lad, he’s like a B&M Bargain Trent. Rodri made it 2-0 with a thunderbolt that would have been saved by a keeper with normal sized arms. Sterling then missed his obligatory sitter when he mis controlled three yards from goal. I say this all the time, but for a top player he does a great impression of a really terrible one at times. Bernardo Silva added a late third and based on the highlights I don’t think Everton touched the ball, let alone left their own half. They offered nothing, and Guardiola said “when one team does not want to play it’s difficult”. Not that difficult though, eh? The Blues are without Demerai Gary now for six weeks and he’s been their sole attacking threat all season so that’s huge for them. If we don’t absolutely fucking humiliate them next week I’ll be almost as pissed off as I would have been if we hadn’t beaten Arsenal. They’re fucking SHITE. Finally, Conte got his first win as Spurs boss after a second half comeback against Leeds. Spurs were turd in the first half and were booed off at half time. You don’t get that too often. A new manager usually means the crowd will be more patient and supportive but I’d imagine the booing was nothing to do with Conte and was more about how shit these players have been for most of the season. Leeds went there without Bamford and Raphinha but still led at the break through a Dan James goal. They played well but when you look at the two team sheets that shouldn’t be happening. Conte must have given them a rocket at half time before they were a different side afterwards. The pressure had been building and eventually Leeds cracked as Hojbjerg equalised and Region got the winner. Conte was going way overboard with his touchline antics, the little jack in the box prick. I’d forgotten how irritating he can be. He will definitely make Spurs better because he’s a good manager. What he won’t do is make Spurs a title contender because they’re just too far off that right now and there’s no quick fix. Their immediate goal should be to be better than Arsenal, which shouldn’t be that hard. Conor Coady was one of the guests on MOTD2 and I was initially going to just fast forward when he’s on because he does my head in. In fairness, I thought his analysis on how Leeds play was decent. Probably best get used to him being on TV as he’s almost certainly going down that route when he’s finished playing as he’s pretty good and he’s comfortably in front of the cameras, although when you’re as full of yourself as he is then that’s to be expected. His take on Kane was interesting too. “When he speaks you really listen. When he speaks your ears prick up and you try to listen to what he’s saying”. Yeah, because no-one can understand the slobbering get.

Yep, that’ll do. All things considered that went as well as we could have hoped for. A comfortable enough win, another goal for Mo, a clean sheet, some run outs for players who needed game time and a quietly impressive first CL start for Tyler Morton. We also picked up a big wedge of prize money too, which means nothing to us as fans but will please the Boston bean counters. Klopp made changes but went stronger than many expected. Most of the side made perfect sense, but Joel, Sadio and Mo all started and Alisson was in goal. Somewhat risky but the lack of alternatives probably forced his hand somewhat. Not so much with Alisson. That’s one where you could choose to give Kelleher a run out if you want (and he might play in Milan) but it’s not like you need to ‘rest’ your keeper. I’d have been good either way on that. Matip only played because Gomez was out. Nat Phillips was an option but Klopp probably wanted to see Konate playing with Matip, as that hasn’t happened yet as far as I can recall. What that means for the weekend remains to be seen, as playing Joel three times in a week is definitely a gamble. Maybe Konate will play against Southampton and then Joel comes back for the derby? That seems to the most logical scenario to me The choices up front will have raised the most eyebrows. Sadio and Mo both starting in a dead rubber? It seems needlessly risky but I don’t really think there was much alternative. Yeah, Divock was available but was he fit to play a full game? He’s been injured, ill, and hasn’t trained much for the past week so maybe he wasn’t up to starting? He only came on pretty late so maybe there’s a reason for that? I’m always a bit uneasy about the big names playing in games when they aren’t really needed but I find it hard to be critical of this selection because I look at the bench and I didn’t really want any of them starting (other than Big Nat and Divock). It’s easy to say “just play the kids” and I have done, but Klopp isn’t going to send them out there against top level European opposition as that can do more harm than good. The way to help them along is play them with senior players, as he did with the inclusion of Tyler Morton. He was really good too. He did absolutely nothing flashy or memorable, but that in itself is a compliment as that isn’t the job of a number six in this team. He kept the ball moving, made himself available, just generally played with a real maturity. He’s fucking good isn’t he? He’s got something about him. Very calm, never looks nervous. Actually that’s something that applies to all of these kids who get an opportunity. Neco might be an exception because he had a spell where he looked nervy and lacking confidence, but it wasn’t when he first got in the side. He started brilliantly and looked right at home, it was only when he suffered a slight dip in form he began to look a bit nervous. He looks like he’s over that now though. The point I’m making is that all of these kids who are being brought into the team seem to not show any nerves. I always think back to Rhys Williams last season. He came from fucking nowhere. He was on loan in non-league, then he comes back here for pre-season and within weeks he was playing in the first team. And he looked calm as fuck. Even if he made a mistake, it never seemed to ruffle him. Morton is the same, only we haven’t seen him make any mistakes yet. I don’t think he’s given the ball away in any game he’s played. Thiago had some really nice things to say about him too, and it must be absolutely fucking wild for Morton to suddenly be where he is. He didn’t have any real hype about him, nobody really spoke about him much at u18 or u23 level. He was good, but didn’t stand out as someone who would be involved with the first team so soon. But now he’s training every day with some of the best players in the world and he’s getting advice from them. He probably can’t believe it. He had a first hand view of a Thiago masterclass in this game, capped by an astonishing goal early in the second half. That finally broke the deadlock but there were plenty of chances for both teams in the first half. Porto were so wasteful in that first half that it was obvious we were going to win the game. You can’t miss chances like that against us and expect to still win. It wasn’t even like they were doing much to create the chances either. It’s something we see quite a bit. Most chances created against us come when we give the ball away cheaply and we have loads of players upfield. The nature of our play means we’ll commit players high up the pitch, but if someone then does something daft it causes a problem because we don’t have the players back. One of those chances Porto had came because Konate gave it away cheaply. Diaz raced clear and squared it across for Otavio but he fluffed his shot and put it wide of the empty net. Kostas had made a challenge and may have caught him after the shot. Otavio made a massive meal of it wanting a penalty but VAR wasn’t interested. Big let off though. And we had another soon after when Terani was played in by Otavio and for some reason refused to shoot. He cut it back blindly and Morton was there to clear. It looked like we’d taken the lead when Thiago picked out the run of Mané and he finished easily. I’ve watched it a few times and it’s not offside for me. It’s one of those that without lines is clearly on. His feet are definitely on but when they put those lines on they made it look like he’s almost half a yard off, which he defo wasn’t. The line was drawn from the shoulder but it didn’t look accurate to all. Just a strange one really, as we’ve had goals allowed in this competition that looked more offside than this one. We weren’t particularly good in the first half but I never felt concerned about the result. Possibly because it didn’t matter, but more than that I just saw enough from us to think we’d step it up slightly and that would be enough. We gave away too many chances before the break but I knew that would be tightened up after half time and that we’d more than likely score at the other end. Konate was ropey as fuck in the first half but was fine in the second. It might be a bit of rustiness as he’s not in any sort of rhythm, but he was beaten a few times (he did sometimes get back to make amends) and he picked up a stupid booking too. That was weird as he was in position to just come across and play the ball, but seemed to deliberately slow down just so he could flatten the Porto player. Kostas had one or two scruffy moments defensively as well, but the other side of the pitch was generally rock solid with Joel and Neco holding down the fort well. The second half was just routine really. We scored two, could have had more and rarely looked in any trouble at the other end. Thiago’s goal is one of the most incredible things I’ve seen in a long time. I say that because it’s only just become apparent to me that the ball didn’t bounce off the turf. The first dozen or so times I watched it I thought it had. It certainly looks like it does, but when you look really closely it doesn’t bounce. It may brush the turf really lightly but I’m not even sire it does that. It’s on its way towards the ground and then incredibly it just seems to lift off on its own due to the spin on the ball. I don’t know how it’s possible for the ball to move like that. It might be the best struck ball at Anfield since Babb crashed into the goalpost. Klopp shuffled his pack well and made sure the players who needed minutes got them. Robbo came on and looked sensational. He may as well have had a megaphone with him because everything about him was screaming “oh some of you cunts don’t think I’m still the best left back at the club? Get it right up ye!” He was fucking turbocharged. Can’t wait to see how he plays on Saturday. Hendo on the other hand, that was pretty funny. It was almost like he just took the opportunity to try everything he normally wouldn’t try in a proper game. He was all flicks and back heels and blind passes around the corner. The first couple came off and he got a bit carried away. He seemed to give it away constantly after that and if it had been anyone else he’d have been screaming himself hoarse! He did set up the second goal though. Lovely goal it was too. Ball over the top from Morton, strength and skill from Mo, clever return pass from Hendo and then an exquisite shimmy and finish by Mo. Just absolute quality and that killed the game. Milner and Origi immediately replaced Salah and Mané, with Milner actually playing the false nine. With a few minutes left he picked up the most stupid booking imaginable when he didn’t retreat from a free-kick. That booking means he misses the Milan game. That’s a game he’d probably have started so him missing it seemed like a blow, but the bigger story was Milner doing something unprofessional for the first time in his entire career. Or did he? I thought bookings were wiped out after the group stages but apparently they carry over into the last 16. So if Milner hadn’t been booked here, he was running the risk of missing a knockout stage game if he picked up a booking in Milan or in the first leg of the last 16 game. So the obvious conclusion to draw here is it was deliberate. Sneaky fucker. That’s obviously what Klopp was talking to him with at full time when he pulled the snood over his mouth to say something to him. Whatever he said, Milner found it funny. He also managed to get in a trademark Milner Champions League challenge too, when he flattened the Porto coach’s son with a robust but perfectly fair challenge. Of course the lad rolled around for five minutes because that’s what they do. The Porto players were doing it all night, irrespective of the score. Why waste time when you’re losing? They can’t help it. If that’s how you approach football matches week in week out, it’s hard to just flick the off switch and stop. It must have happened half a dozen times at least, with that Otavio being the biggest culprit. He’d get nudged in the back and go down holding his chest like he was having a heart attack. What a tit. Maybe he should work on his finishing instead of his playacting? I was getting some ‘Poundland Simeone’ vibes from Conceicao. All that angry bouncing around on the touchline and his players milking every bit of contact… all a bit too Simeone for my liking. Mind you, I’d have been bouncing around angrily too witnessing that level of ineptitude in the final third. Porto had some golden opportunities to score when the game was goalless but they blew them big time. Now they need to beat Atletico to qualify, but even that won’t be enough if Milan beat us. We have the chance to become the first English club to win all six group games and by doing that, we’d knock AC Milan out and send either Porto or Atletico through. Now, if you can guarantee me that Porto won’t lose to Atletico then I’m all in on us getting six wins in a row. You know how I love us setting records (I’m still upset at us not getting 100 points) but I’ll happily sacrifice that if it means dumping Simeone and his snarling band of shithouses out on their snide arses. Star man is Thiago. He was just a level above everybody else in the time he was on the field. He always gives off that vibe anyway but this time his performance matched the swagger and he was just different class even without the goal. Special mention for Neco as well who put in a solid shift up and down that right flank. Very tenacious and defended well. He’ll have more productive games offensively but we know he can do that anyway. The big progression we need to see from him is defensively and this was encouraging I think. To steal a phrase from Klopp he’s “in a good moment” and long may it continue. Team: Alisson; Williams, Matip, Konate, Tsimikas (Robertson); Morton, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Henderson), Thiago (Fabinho); Salah (Milner), Minamino, Mané (Origi):