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Not the general election, but if any of you lovely people live in Stockbridge ward in Knowsley, and fancy voting for change, I'm standing for Greens in the council elections again on 2nd of May.

Work-rate. Incisiveness. Nous. I don't ask for much. This is how it's gonna be. Build from the ground up. It's pretty hard to motivate myself to start a match thread after such a chastening evening for the team the night before. Can sort of imagine how Dave must feel when he has to write match reports and other content when you feel so dispirited. They do say though that the best way to get over a setback is to clear your head and get back on the bike. This game, like nearly all of our remaining league fixtures for however long we last in the Europa League, takes place on a Sunday. And boy oh boy do we need to get back on the bike. That said, last year's corresponding fixture saw us in similar form to this past week. It was also a microcosm of our malaise until the last couple of months of the season, as we were too easy to open up at the back. while lacking precision and ruthless efficiency up front. For all our possession football, we struggled to create real chances. Mo fired wide from inside the box, and Darwin was played in only to mishit his effort which bounced off the far post and stayed out. Then we got sucker-punched when Eze got between 2 of our players too easily on halfway and played a ball into Zaha's run. The Ivorian had stayed onside and had space and time to pick his spot, firing his effort into the far corner. The game's biggest talking point came in the second half when Darwin was goaded into retaliating by Palace defender Andersen, who duly hit the deck after being shot. Officials are like WWE refs in these situations, only looking at the retaliatory act rather than the cause. Actually, that's not quite an accurate comparison, and besides, I used to love Eddie Guerrero's shenanigans when the ref's back was turned or if he just so happened to have been 'accidentally' floored. Tierney was the ref, and Darwin was made to walk. His home debut was a dud and it's fair to say he's never really taken off after that. We did eventually get an equaliser, and what a goal it was too. Lucho picked up the ball in his customary left wing spot and dribbles his way through and around 3 or 4 weary Palace legs before hitting a rocket past the Palace keeper. We have seen similar goals from the likes of Sadio and Phil. Anyway, a point only as we continued our winless start to the season. Palace replaced Hodgson with Oliver Glasner a couple of months ago. I don't really know how he's got on as from what I can tell, Palace's general results have followed a familiar trajectory. I know Eze has been in and out with injury issues, and I think Olise is out long term. Whatever they've got, we can't allow them to show it. The crowd may get nervous and edgy if we don't start sharply, but my hope is that the players are so angered by what happened against the Mancs and Atalanta that they want to make every opponent pay for it. Starting with Palace. We've been getting players back from injury, but one or two that have played a lot recently are showing signs of mental fatigue. Those guys need a rest so the ones coming in are hopefully ready. Whoever is selected to start and be on the bench needs to be right up for the fight. I want ruthless efficiency and precision in attack, I want the midfield to dominate and I want the defence to be controlled and impenetrable. That requires maximum motivation, concentration, attitude and application from first minute to last. 3 points please. Get it done!

His campaign video…

If these players allow Klopp to go out like this, with a fucking whimper, then I'm all in on whoever comes in next to just doing whatever he likes and getting rid of whoever wants as I wont care. Don't even want to look at them right now. Something changed after that cup defeat at United, we lost all momentum but they better get it back quick.

Football always seems like a turbocharged microcosm of wider society, and much of that is fucking shit now. Football is now a product for 19 year olds to tweet banter about, for people who need their harddrive checked like that Fabrizio character, and for working class and lower middle class people in the grounds to sing songs about poverty about their respective towns and cities. Oh, and of course VAR to ensure that any last remaining genuine emotion, any last remaining moments of collective exaltation are eradicated. It's incredibly depressing.

No it isn't. If that performance had come the week Klopp made his announcement, that post would still be wrong, but at least it would be within the realms of "not completely daft". Since Klopp's announcement, we've won a trophy and kept competing and turning in a series of great results despite a ridiculous injury crisis. Let's not pretend that last night's shitshow was typical of this season: it's fucking infuriating precisely because we've come to expect so much better from these players this season.

Well, that was unexpected. An abject performance against Atalanta, on a night when Anfield pageantry was already in short supply, left the Reds' Europa League hopes in tatters ahead of next week's second leg in Italy. There were scant positives to take from a monumentally sobering evening, which raised huge question marks over the prospect of this team securing a fitting end to the Jurgen Klopp era. Chris Smith is joined by John Brennan and TLW Editor Dave Usher for this one. View full article

He won nothing. Then he won the league and uefa cup double, then a league and European cup double, then the European cup, then the league, then the league again, the European cup again with a league cup, followed by the league, then the league and league cup. Before fucking it all off because it was too easy. And that's not counting any charity shields and super cups and I might have missed something else out.

…but here are my first tulips

Personally, the way things are going, I'd rather see the club organise some ceremony in the ground for Jurgen, or something more imaginative but self-contained, rather than send him around the city with just the league cup as a send off. There's an air of exhaustion sinking into the atmosphere these days, and it's understandable, but this man has been an astonishing presence these past few years, in so many ways, it shouldn't end in bickering and sneering.

klopp said he was gonna leave months ago. upto a few weels ago,we had won 1 cup and were in the hunt for 3 more. the idea the players have "downed tools" because he is going,is absurd.

The money that increase will bring in is roughly what we pay Thiago every 10 weeks. He's leaving, how about reducing tickets by 2% instead? Just because everyone else puts prices up doesn't mean we have to. Maybe be the ones to actually start to show appreciation to the fans? Who knows, maybe it'll catch on.

Half the team look like they’re running on empty and the cavalry have arrived three weeks late. It looks like the injuries have finally caught up with us.

Feels really sad that what is potentially Klopps last ever European game at Anfield was that performance, that result, quiet fans, no flags.

Taking my lad this....he has never seen us lose....

Win would be great, but I'd really want to see us make a bit of a statement here, we've been shit for ages and managed to grind results out, I think we need something to turn us into believers again, get the fans bouncing and start putting the shits up all our future opponents, because right now every team we play has the belief they can take something off us. Really going be hard to get massively excited about our trophy prospects if we go behind and then win 2-1 yet again, even if it is the 3 points. Big win, take that momentum into the Atalanta game, smash them, then we get all misty eyed and giddy about how Liverpool gives us these big emotional moments, and then we transcend into a higher level as we cruise our way past every team til the end of the season.

Fair point mate, to be honest I'm only a paper candidate again. I'd love to have the spare time to actually campaign as I've seen how well it can work if you put the effort in. We (Greens) are the second largest party on the council now, and the more candidates we can put up every year the better. Between us, the independents and the 3 lib dems we try and keep Labour honest.

Fucking hell, nine months ban coming up.

A really sobering night. Totally agreed with Dave on the pod - I genuinely didn't think this group of players had it in them to be this poor in a game. Yeah they'll get beaten here and there, all (non-financially doped) teams do, but the way we just seemed absolutely off it all over the place? The wife was watching that Scoop film on Netflix the other day and this was like that Prince Andrew interview: ill-prepared, complacent, naive, incompetent, self-destructive and utterly damaging. But the worst thing about it, weirdly, was watching people leaving 10 minutes before the end, like they knew it was up. I'm not having a pop per se; I know it's their right and the team hadn't exactly done anything to make them feel differently, but it felt like both the ghosts of Christmas past and, perhaps, Christmas yet to come. A shoddy, error-strewn and limp performance at home with fans watching on with apathy or acrimony, and with so little belief that they're out before the end. It takes me back to the pre "doubters to believers" phase, and makes me fear more than anything that this whole thing is held together with Jurgen-shaped string. And once that goes? For fucks sake.

He's got a huge amount of potential. He showed that in his first few games. The excessive hype that followed didn't help him one bit - where were the ferocious shots, the corners that went straight in, the aggressive midfield performances? - but give the bloke a break. Next season will see what he can really do, but to dismiss him at this stage is absolutely idiotic.

Really pleased with this little Acer I planted.

I think Bobby of 3 years ago played 3300 minutes and scored 9 goals, one single at home that season that was on the last game day.. he is the last player we need right now

Wish it was that easy. I didn’t know what to do with myself anfter the match Sunday and then Monday I woke up and just didn’t care. Even last night although I commented I’m just not feeling it anymore. I enjoyed it at the ground last night but I also don’t really miss it. I think I’m more affected by the media surrounding it all and the wall to wall coverage across tv, streaming, youtube, social media and print. I don’t think we will win it now, somethings not right with the team, they’ve given it a good go and should never have been in the conversation anyway considering. I just hate footy now, hate it. Oversaturated, greedy, corrupt and bait inducing. It’s actually really bad for your well being, your anger and those around you. Klopp is the last of old school and it’s probably best to go out with him.

There was definitely a sense of complacency shared by players and fans around this one. It was just a box to be ticked. All the road to Dublin for Jurgen’s last game stuff. We just had no idea what to do when we went behind and when they defended well. The immediate spark of Jota aside and Robertson replacing a Tsimikas who was having his worst ever game for us, the substitutes didn’t improve things hugely. I would have kept Elliott and Nunez on for longer as despite their flaws, at least they pose a goal threat occasionally.

If the coffin ain’t great, you must cremate.

Some good news from last night is that result has gone and fucked up the England coefficient. The 5th place finish no longer looks anything like guaranteed CL so Villa can't field their reserves on Sunday.

Reform would take votes away from the tories. I’d welcome a fair electoral process that allowed the Greens, independents and libs to counter the fucking idiot quota.

There are no Tory policies, there are only Tory words, empty words. They don’t have policies, they have been robbing the country blind filling pockets and done fuck all with the public purse other than that. Labour will at least use whatever pennies there are to do some things and then, hope against hope, they do more.

Or we've lost some intensity because the manager is going. I would imagine he would. I might argue with have a better chance of returning with a win with a bunch of youngsters full of energy and players returning from injury wanting their place back in the first team. Some of our players look completely fucked and i don't see how burning them even further over there helps.

For those dedicated pervs who love a ginger, Professor Hannah Fry is presenting HIGNFY at 9 tonight on BBC 1.

Brown shoes go with a dark blue suit. Belt is also meant to match the shoes. Poor style advice here Secs.

Under normal circumstances I'd have leapt in to belittle him for that belter but I couldn't be arsed. I also had something I had been planning to mock Stu Monty with too concerning something he said on the last pod, but it didn't feel like the right time to do that either. Fucking dickheads killing my piss taking mojo.

You can do that, or as Barry mentions, you could do something positive... https://spiritofshankly.com/ticketing/

So, he IS just a shit Andy Carroll after all?

tickets went up last season too. which because they'd been frozen i think most people let slide. they also communicated with fan groups prior to doing this and despite the fan groups saying they thought it wrong in such economic times, they put the prices up anyway. this time they didn't even both communicating with the fan groups. one of the main reasons the club have given is to cover the increase in bills. so we as fans are supposed to pay for that every time. but this is not the only income line to the club. for instance a few years back we installed additional flood lights because TV demanded it. regardless of weather, time or day or any other conditions, we run the flood lights because TV demanded it. Then when it comes to pay for all this, get the dickheads in the ground to pay. The price off football is fucking disgusting. Those cunts in Boston market us as their "12th man". The support is part of the appeal to both sponsors and TV and the singing of YNWA is a centre piece for TV games globally, where it is normal practice for the TV commentary team to be cut off from talking while it is being sung. They have no product without us. Finally, this is nothing more than a price fixing cartel. The clubs get together to discuss the rises and release them pretty much together. It's a proper cunts trick. What we've done isn't even the worst of it. The OAP thing at Spurs is a fucking disgrace. Bottom line - the PL is absolutely fuck all without the fans in the ground. We are part of the product, there's absolutely no need to keep charging more and more to the fan in the ground, there are loads of income streams to exploit, which in turn exploits the fan base. Enough is enough.

Hope I'm wrong, but there's no straws left to be grasped at after last night. We've a fucking horrible run of away games after the 2nd leg, Fulham, bitters and West ham, to play. No point wasting energy by chasing a near impossible result next week.

Fantastically despondent. Listening to others totally down in dumps always helps cheer me up a bit. "A shite performance shared is a shite performance halved" as me old dead granny used to say.

1. Bitch about your sports team being shit. 2, Bitch about politics 3. Look at naked women, Not necessarily in the above order.

I think we thought this would be a bit easier than it was, so arrogance might certainly be part of it.

I thought Atalanta might have tired towards the end of the game as they put so much effort into closing us down, but they were gifted goals at just the right time to allow them to keep up the pressure. Although we know we played well below the acceptable and expected level we can play at, I think they deserve a lot of credit for their plan and how they carried it out. Their supporters were good too, plenty of noise right the way through.

How much is it to get out of the Adelphi

You lucky bastard. Not the being out in Farringdon part but not being able to find a pub showing the game.

Getting walloped and a giant kick up the arse I'm glad it happens in a Europa game rather than the league. Of course a kick up the arse is only useful if we actually learn something from it and this season we don't seem to be learning from any of the lessons we've been given at all.

Did Salah get pushed into an offside position for his disallowed goal? Second time this season?

Said in the match thread, I think he's looked off it for a few games. It's not easy to come in and play game after game at this end of the season when you never do it. He's done his hard work, helped keep us in contention, helped win the league cup and he just needs taking out a bit now. But robbo is almost properly back. Trent will hopefully be back soon and we can freshen him up for some more big moments before the season is out.

Staying at a nice hotel with work for a change, so getting good food for a change too. Unfortunately the restaurant is called Scoff and Banter, which fucking ruins all of it, but still, food was nice. I never eat steak at home now - pretty much avoid beef of all types at home - so a rib eye was a rare treat even if it took £28 of my £30 meal allowance on its own. And who can resist French onion soup? Not me.