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It’s football, enjoy the ride, don’t stress out for that. We are lucky enough to follow the last games of the Klopp’s era. We shall remember those days with happiness for years to come. It may not turn out the way we want but we can still make it and that’s great to have the chance to be part of it right ?

Thanks, Babbs and good luck. There really does appear to be increasing recognition of the prevalence of neurodivergence and also the hereditary nature of AS conditions. I’m at the stage of testing almost all behaviour through the prism of neurodivergence on a personal and professional level. In a work setting it is quite easy to identify the ‘there in plain sight’ explanations of parents’ difficulties managing their children’s behaviour and equally their difficulties engaging successfully with ‘support’ services. I wonder about myself sometimes but couldn’t justify taking up a place on overstretched waiting lists. I’m probably largely an ‘introvert’ with ADHD traits trying not to be too hard on myself

Rebuild talk is way premature, but a few of these players need to understand how fast they'd be bombed out if they do this with the next manager. Some of them should already know they need to play well to stay. It's not good enough to tap it around and wait for someone else to win you the game, YOU have to do something. Whether it's hit the target, take care of the ball, make sure you hit the pass properly or even just fucking move,.we have been well off it recently.

Should've kept Elliott on.

They've all been bad, Dave. Everyone's been bad, Dave.

Despite the shocking performance and result, Atalanta are not a top team. If we turn up in the 2nd leg we can still win the tie. Won't be easy but we can do it.

Hopefully a new manager will get us to learn to defend again first and foremost. Also we should be playing the kids. Their effervescent nature really helped out the team. We’ve been fucking stale since they stopped getting a look in.

I bet Dave didn’t go the fucking chippy

No he hasn’t. He had to stretch for both headers.

Elliott’s a bit unlucky. Tsimikas and Jones less so.

Just lacking that wee bit of absolutely fucking everything.

They aren't that rare, I bought 3 from Cheetham Hill for a tenner.

Missed this post. Having gone this route after my wife suffered 7 miscarriages, it worked great and now I’m the miserable parent of a 5 and 6 year old. The very best of luck mate. I’ve everything crossed for you including my now unemployed penis.

No worries. My nephew's autistic, and this lead my sister to do a lot of research into neurodiversity. She realised loads of her own personality traits mirrored his, and got assessed. Bingo. She pointed out some stuff to me and sent over one of the preliminary questionnaire forms. I"d always thought she was pulling my leg when she said certain things I did were textbook ADHD, but I was ticking all the boxes. Been on antidepressants since I was 17, social anxiety, suicidal periods, thought I might be bi-polar, but this probably makes more sense. My brain just never shuts up. I'm trying not to research it myself though, as I worry it could affect an accurate assessment. I'd rather go in blind, so to speak. Been waiting since August. I said I'd go via Right To Choose, but they must have a massive waiting list.

My daughter and her mate have been reading the lemony snicket books and so wanted to cook pasta putanesca, which I'd never heard of. They've absolutely smashed it, honestly.

Work-rate. Incisiveness. Nous. I don't ask for much. This is how it's gonna be. Build from the ground up. A European quarter final against an opponent we have faced in Europe previously, and one which is on the fringes of the top 4 in Serie A. Atalanta in recent seasons have been a bit like Italy's version of Brighton. They have a squad that gets picked apart by wealthier clubs each summer, and the replacements seem to slot in seamlessly and try to make a name for themselves. The coach Gasperini is settled there, having been in charge for almost 8 years now - a rarity in the modern game, and particularly for Serie A where club presidents are notoriously trigger-happy. I know they have the likes of former Premier League players Lookman and Scamacca in the side. Dutch midfielder Koopmeiners has been linked with us over the past year or two, and young Italian central defender Scalvini is getting raving reviews and is another we have previously been linked with. In short, they are a side we should be beating, but one that can cause a world of issues for us if we are not at it. That was the case in the Champions League group stage back in 2020/21 when we faced Atalanta. Fans were not allowed in the stadiums. We'd travelled to Bergamo (effectively Europe's ground zero for Covid infections at the start of the pandemic) a couple of weeks earlier, and completely dismantled them on the counter attack. We'd won 5-0 but had almost completely switched off for the last 10 minutes, somewhat fortunate not to let in a consolation. The bad thing is, that total half-arsedness in those last 10 minutes reared its ugly head in the return fixture at Anfield. We lacked any kind of focus or intensity for the entire game, creating nothing resembling a chance all game. It was the first time I can recall our players going out onto the pitch with that sort of mindset under Jurgen since he'd built his own squad. I think we've had a few really shoddy displays under him over the years, but very very few at Anfield, and most of the shoddy games didn't include a lack of effort like we saw here. This was awful stuff, and Atalanta were well worth the 2-0 win given to them by Ilicic and Gosens in the second half. While we made it safely through to the knockout stage, we could have done so a little sooner without an aberration like this. We are slowly getting numbers back to give Jurgen more options, but the concern is that sloppiness at the back and a lack of ruthlessness in attack is causing us to have to go to the well in every game to get something out of it. The 2 games at Old Trafford showcased this most notably. Away goals in Europe aren't as key following the rule change but that doesn't mean we should not be looking to tighten up at the back. Some of the defensive lapses in 2024 are inexplicable, and some of the choices made by our forward players when we've worked promising situations border on laughably casual. Secure that shit, Hudson! I demand nothing less than maximum concentration, motivation, attitude and application from first minute to last. Let's put on a performance and get a result that means the trip to Bergamo for the second leg is merely an exercise in control and concentration rather than needing to dig deep yet again. A good win please. Get it done!

I think a rebuild is way wide of the mark especially as any new manager will have a look first. But some will be under pressure now to perform, we are not getting the best out of a few and a few look overcooked currently. A CB, MF and Forward are still needed, Endo does a good job but he can be improved on. Left back could also be looked at by the new manager. Sounds like a rebuild? More a strengthening of the first team and squad.

To be fair he probably doesn't know if he's coming or going - left back, right back, centre back, midfield, wing back.

I'm genuinely sick of our dreadful finishing and poor decision making in the final third. It's been an issue throughout the season despite all the goals we've scored, but it seems to have been ramped up to 11 ever since the first trip to Old Trafford. The Brighton game should have been so much more comfortable than it was. Sunday's league game at Old Trafford was an absolute joke. As bad as we were tonight, we had more than enough chances to end the game with a very different score line. It's infuriating that just as we hit the business end of the season and need players to step up, instead the forwards seem to be suffering a collective confidence crisis.

A rude awakening and then some. We need a fucking miracle in Bergamo now. We were not quite as poor as in the Anfield fixture against this lot back in 2020 (we created nothing all night in that one), but here we were wasteful with the handful of decent chances created. There was so much tiredness of mind on display out there, it's frankly alarming. So many players just not at the races. Kostas looked like a player who hasn't had much game time recently. Joe was making too many poor decisions on the ball and could never offer us an outlet. Virg wanted to coast through a game against a side looking to pin us down. Poorest performance from Endo in a while. Curtis, like Kostas, was off the pace and conceded possession cheaply too many times. Darwin was making daft decisions without offering his unique brand of chaos to compensate. And for once, the subs couldn't make a telling impact. Mo looks like he's holding back a little. Lucho was game but couldn't affect the game. Diogo got into some good positions but never had the ball drop favourably. Dom's dithering proved very costly. I thought Cody looked up for it at the start and he was the pick of our forwards line, but that's not saying much as ultimately he never got himself into any goalscoring situations. When Jurgen summoned the cavalry, Cody faded away. Ibou put himself about but was far busier than he would like to be. For all the goals we score generally, we are pretty wasteful as a whole. So many attempts that are on target lack either the power or the precision to test a goalkeeper. They looked scuffed. The ones that are hit cleanly also lack direction. If you are Joe Gomez, you should not be attempting a shot at goal from 30 yards. That decision was as stupid as Lovren's 40-yarder into orbit all those years ago when we were chasing an equaliser. You have to try and find some positives from somewhere. Something that we can cling on to. It will take something monumental in Bergamo for that to happen. Right now I would rather we make the right decisions and be crisp and clinical when attacking, and cut out all the stupid shit defensively.

*Morgan Freeman narrating* But it did not get better.

A long time since I’ve hated nothing about a team who beat us, we got what we deserved. Nowt.

They were excellent. I always thought that was going to be a risk. Clark and Danns should have been getting minutes in recent games. They proved their worth. And though he’s probably exhausted, we missed Bradley tonight.

We've lost momentum and energy since we stopped using the kids.

See you on Sunday.

Mcmanaman can go fuck himself as well. Embarrassing that a former player of ours always sounds so happy whenever we're losing.

Gomez is doing my fucking head in

Elliott a bit unlucky to be hauled off with Jones and Tsimikas.

He’d think a blue strip for a ref is the woke agenda gone mad so probably not him.

I think we would have won the title had we beaten United. Don't see it now.

We could be approaching Peak Everton here. Dodge relegation through dumb luck, get a paltry points deduction for rule breaking from the weak Premier League, but then voluntarily jump into bed with the Big Bad Wolf. Everton's Event Horizon.

No flags, under estimating the opposition, arrogance you name it. Fucking criminal.

Are the semis played on neutral ground?

Let's try playing our first team for a change.

In the face of some stiff competition. Beyond awful. But Gomez ran him close

No they wouldn't.

Look, some people said it when they were drawn; do you really want to play a team like this, who press, who are physically strong at this point in the season? Got exposed there, pure and simple. Just too difficult winning matches in the last 15 minutes so often. This is a strong team mentally, we wouldn't have gotten in contention in the league without that, but the performance level is just not good enough.

He reminds me of a badly groomed Tokyo Joe. Nowhere near as handsome though

Lots of poor performances. But Tsimikas is operating on a whole new level of shit.

Never missing an opportunity to post this as it’s fantastic.

Noticed in the latest report that they were due to repay MSP $200 million by April 15th. The league has stipulated they must do that but 777 are trying to extend the repayment date. Thing is they are being sued in the states by some Russian guy who they owed a loan to and they had repeatedly extended even though he wanted it repaid. The report on it seemed to indicate it this was how they operated. If MSP know that and don’t let them extend then they’ll need to find that money otherwise I can’t see the league approving them.

"In Philadelphia, its worth 50 bucks!"

Tells the time the same as a Casio. Watch blert.

I'm confused - who exactly is paying for the stadium build? 777? But it's a loan? But 777 want to buy Everton next month? So they're loaning the money to their future selves?

We’ve been accepted onto IVF and have our first proper appointment tomorrow. She’s been on a health kick for months, no booze and barely any carbs so has been a right pain in the arse. A few weeks ago she came back from a dog walk banging on about some woman she’d met in the park who she got talking to about angel healing and all sorts of earth and crystal stuff. This afternoon she’s just been to an appointment with her. 90 minutes of massage, oils, soothing sounds etc. apparently the woman has told her she can see us having twins etc. She’s just brought this home and is now convinced not only that it will work but that we’re having twins because some ex-pillhead turned spiritual guide has told her. Whatever works I guess