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Monday Jan 8: Henderson wants to quit Saudi because the weather is too hot, the training facilities are shit and the crowds are pathetic. Apparently there’s loads of others who want out now too one of the reasons being given is the lack of freedom the wives have. I mean, where to even fucking start with this. How thick are these cunts? I assumed they knew all of this beforehand but just wanted the money. There are also rumours that players want to leave because of the human rights issues and how they impact their wives. You couldn’t make this shit up, it’s fucking pathetic. It seems almost incomprehensible that they didn’t know it was hot and that women aren’t allowed to do normal stuff over there, but after that interview Henderson did with the Athletic it’s clear he’s thick as fuck so maybe he didn’t do his homework before he went there. It’s more likely that he fell for the bullshit about how that league was the new happening place to be and that he was going to be playing with / against loads of stars in front of massive crowds, but now that he knows that’s not how it is he wants out. Imagine completely fucking ruining your legacy at Liverpool to go and play six months over there before coming back with your tail between your legs. What a fucking knobhead he’s turned out to be. I don’t really give much of a shit about anyone else who went over there. I didn’t like it, but didn’t judge them too harshly. With him though, I just thought he was better than that so it was a tough scene finding out he wasn’t. And then he did the interview which just made me think he’s a fucking helmet. And now it’s even worse because he’s quitting and didn’t even have the stones to stick it out. I hope he doesn’t come back to the PL because I don’t want to even look at him. There’s talk that Newcastle want him and that he’s interested. As much as I think he’s a fucking gobshite, I don’t think he’s that much of a gobshite. Meanwhile, United beat Wigan in the FA Cup tonight. Fernandes is getting shit for diving to win a pen, but not from Wrighty who called it ‘clever’. I love Wrighty but you’ve got to be consistent on these things or you look like Alan Shearer - in other words a twat. Last week Wrighty hammered Jota but tonight he’s justifying what Fernandes did. Come on, Wrighty, you’re better than that.

This season TLW is once again looking to keep an eye on the younger members of the squad who are continuing their football education on loan. Last season we brought you the insight from Blackburn Rovers fans as Tyler Morton spent the campaign at Ewood Park. While it started brightly for the defensive midfielder, just like the team in general there was a notable drop-off come the end of the 2022/3 season. But all in all, playing a full campaign in one of the most physically intense leagues in Football would have done the 21 year-old the world of good. Now Morton is currently at Hull City, a club who are having a fine season under manager Liam Rosenior, exceeding expectations to sit seventh just one point and place outside the playoff spots. And one of the reasons for that improvement has been the play of Morton who has fitted like a glove into Rosenior’s starting lineup and in his 21 appearances for the club has averaged 1.5 tackles and one interception per game but also looked to develop a attacking side to his game with three goals and three assists. @AntNorthgraves (from @Hull_and_Back) gives our readers a half-season report card on the academy graduate. Tyler Morton has been absolutely fantastic since joining on loan from Liverpool. Liam Rosenior needed to add players to this Hull City side that could enhance the style of play and identity that he has been encouraging the squad to play since his appointment as Manager in November 2022. We like to play out from the back, get the ball into wide areas and dominate possession and since his debut, Tyler has fit straight into what was asked of him. Sitting alongside experienced and classy midfielder Jean Michael Seri, he has gone from strength to strength, growing in confidence each week. As the season has progressed, Tyler has become more of a box-to-box midfielder dropping deep to collect the ball, passing it out wide and then putting himself high up the pitch to create chances and score goals. So, what are Morton’s strengths? Spatial awareness & positioning are a particular highlight as he is always scanning the midfield for open spaces to put himself & provide a passing option, helping link defence to attack and keeping us possession. Passing is another of his strongest aspects. His range of pass & vision are superb, playing pin-point passes to team mates all over the pitch and rarely misplacing one. His assist for Ozan Tufan’s goal against Cardiff was a perfect example of what he can do. These all essentially fall under a similar category but his tenacity, desire, work-rate & willingness to track back make him a manager’s dream off the ball. For all he offers us in possession, he helps us win the ball back & contributes defensively too making him an asset in all areas of the game. What does he have to work on? I’m finding it really hard to think of any weaknesses at the moment, so I guess I’ll scrape the barrel as much as I can. Tyler could perhaps work on his timing when making runs into the box. In a really good week for him in which he made his England U21 debut, scored for them and scored for us in the following game, it looked like Tyler was beginning to flourish in the extra encouragement of going higher up the pitch. His style of play certainly deserves more goals and I can imagine he’ll get a few more before the season is over. This is also really harsh, but maybe delivery from set pieces could be hung into a more dangerous area in the box because his ability to play a superb cross is evident in games, but perhaps not seen enough from dead-ball situations (although this could be down to the positioning of our players too). Overall, Tyler is a fantastic player and from what I’ve seen, he is destined to play in the Premier League. I’m not sure what Klopp’s plans are for him but if I was Rosenior I would certainly at least enquire as to his availability on a permanent basis as, although he is young, he’s at a point of a young player’s career where he needs to decide if he wants to continue being loaned out & hope to get a first team place eventually, or find somewhere to call home and settle playing every week in the same surroundings. Maybe a buy-back clause would be the best way to convince Liverpool, but it will be interesting to see how his career progresses nonetheless.

Jurgen Klopp has once again implored the governing body of the game to be extremely sensitive to the issue of player burnout. The footballing calendar has never been more congested than this current era with. tournaments which were scheduled to be played in the off-season now being played during peak periods of the campaign such as the upcoming AFCON. Players are also seeing their summer breaks greatly reduced due to the implementation of the UEFA Nations League fixtures played during that period. In these days of intense cost of living pressures for the everyday individual, sympathy is never going to be high on the scale especially given the average weekly wage the top players receive. Klopp has been a unrelenting advocate for player welfare since coming to England, where he is often bemused by the lack of a genuine winter break and the frequency of early kick-offs on Saturday that Liverpool are fixtured for. Speaking about the issue at length once again (per the Mirror), Klopp said important decisions need to be made but openly questioning if there is willingness to do so. “The people who decide don’t care. There isn’t one guy deciding who can remember what it was like when he was a player - if he ever was a player. That’s how it is. I won’t be in there deciding and I won’t have the power for that. “At some point, someone will have to press the brake. But we are obviously not in charge because, if football people were in charge, it would look completely different. Not because we are lazy, but because we are the people who really understand the intensity of what the boys are doing." Klopp believes whatever field of work an individual undertakes, it is going to take a toll and he is not underplaying what a general person goes through on a daily basis. However for those who are athletes for a living, he says there is only so much a body can take on a physical level. “The outside world discusses it and say ‘I work eight hour a day, seven days a week’ - and that’s 100 percent true. It’s just that they don’t run, sprint, tackle, sprint. You can’t compare it. If we did compare it, that would be dumb. It’s just a different intensity - and it is really difficult for the human body as we know it, to deal with. “Now UEFA and FIFA are arranging a new tournament - and suddenly getting a winter break in January is the smallest problem. When is the new Club World Cup? Is it 2025? In the summer? I don’t know how to compare that to anything else, where you take time off your best employees and then just think ‘they will go again and play a full season’.” The winter break issue always raises debate whichever side of the fence you sit on. Those teams that are not in European Cup competitions and who do not often progress to the business end of the FA/League Cups would not have nearly as many issues with playing on unabated compared to the elite teams of the division that regularly have two games a week. “I read what Sean (Dyche) said about it - that it just favours the bigger clubs - but I think the facts are on the table. “He said that it would be cool if we could take some games out of a really busy December and put them into January. That might be an idea, but it would then kill the winter break. "There’s so much tradition in this competition. If I, as a German, stood here and said stuff about the FA Cup… I love the FA Cup. It’s just so difficult to stay on your feet and get through these rounds. “You need a top squad to get to the end - and that also means moving other games. If you get through to the final of the Carabao Cup then it takes a league game out and you have to fit it in somewhere where it definitely won’t fit in. It’s unbelievably tricky.” But despite the fixtures coming thick and fast, Klopp was adamant that there would be no weakened side for their clash against Arsenal today. "Can you go to Arsenal and play a team with boys in a situation that Arsenal are in and will probably go all in? Of course not. We are Liverpool we can't go there like that. “Four years ago, we played Everton and it was one of the biggest nights of our lives. We went into an Everton derby game with a very young team and somehow we won. It was great. “All the boys with us in the dressing room are ready for games. That's how it is. There is no doubt about it. That is our life and the life of the boys. We have to make sure we get through.”