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Monday Oct 14: Trent played left back and scored a free-kick. I’m actually surprised England haven’t tried that before given the problems they’ve had at the position. Adam Clery at 442 has been suggesting it for a while. I wouldn’t do it, I’d put him right back and have one of the other jabronis like Walker or Trippier move to the left, but given Southgate’s unwillingness to do that you’d have thought he’d have taken a look at Trent there. Of course Roy Keane is still trotting out his lazy nonsense. "If you give time to Trent, you can see his decision-making, his quality passing is fantastic but honestly, I still can't believe how bad he is defensively. Against better teams, of course, he'll be found out." We’ve been through his before, but who are these “better teams” then? He plays against some of the best club sides in the world on a regular basis and has done for years. All of those teams would fucking murder any international team you want to line up, and when has he ever been “found out”? He’s had bad games, he’s been at fault for some goals, but guess what, so has every other defender in world football. Trent has played against every top left winger in the world and at no point has it ever been a glaring issue. I like Keane, he’s witty and he tells a great story. He’s brilliant on the Overlap but as a pundit, talking about games, he’s just lazy and takes the low hanging fruit every time. I don’t think he takes his job particularly seriously and I can’t imagine he does anything like the research that Carra and even Neville do. He just shows up, moans about whoever the easiest target is and then goes home. It was telling to me the other week on the Overlap when they were discussing Man City and Keane had absolutely no idea what they were being charged with and what they’d done. Ian Wright knew and he was trying to get a conversation about it going, but Keane and Jill Scott were completely in the dark about it, Rooney didn’t seem to know much either (fair enough as he’s a manager and has other things to focus on) and Neville is a shithouse who knows exactly what City have been up to but has avoided the subject as much as its possible for him to do so. Keane, in the job he’s in, should have made it his business to read up on it and find out exactly how they’ve been cheating. The fact he has nothing to say on the matter is a damning indictment on him I think. We’re being linked with a left back from Benfica. Álvaro Carreras, who is having a great start to the season and is being tracked by United (not a problem), Barca (yeah not worried about them) and…. Real Madrid. Ok, scratch that then.31 points -
Monday Oct 7: New contracts in the pipeline! But not for who we would have thought. Konate and Quansah are being lined up for new deals, with the word from the LFC journos that talks are continuing with the ‘big three’ but no common ground has been found yet, which is really fucking worrying. Richard Hughes has supposedly said it's a really difficult situation he's inherited and that the club are determined not to allow these kind of contract issues to happen again. Mate, you’ve been here five months now, not five minutes. This is as much on you as it is anyone that came before you. Trent is clearly an issue and he may well be using his expiring contract and potential Bosman as leverage to get a better deal, but it's pretty obvious that Virgil would sign a contract tomorrow and is desperate to stay. Mo is giving off those vibes too. None of us really know what the intentions of any of the players are but I don't care too much about that. Bottom line here is Hughes and Edwards are being well paid to do a job that involves solving problems like this. Don't tell me how choppy the water is, dock the fucking boat. In other news, a report emerged today that City had "defeated the Premier League" and shown that the sponsorship rules were illegal or something. Minutes later conflicting reports came out saying the PL were claiming victory. I couldn’t face reading any of it, it’s all so fucking depressing. The initial report, published 25 minutes after a 175 page document was released, came from that fat cunt Martin Samuel. Not only does it take more than 25 minutes to write something like that, it takes hours to read through the relevant parts of a document so clearly this fucking shill was briefed by City beforehand. His son works for them and all he seems to do is write absolute nonsense to justify their cheating. In a profession jam packed with bellends, this fat piece of shit is by far the worst. It’s not even close, the man has no morals, no respect for his profession and no credibility whatsoever. I reckon most of the other journos hate him as there are still plenty who have respect for the profession and see what he’s doing. From what has been reported since, if this were a boxing match then City landed a couple of blows but were otherwise well and truly outboxed and lost on a majority points decision. They were claiming the rules were unfair and not legal, and on a couple of minor points they were proved right which means the wording needs tightening up a little. On all the other points the PL won. Regardless of whether the rules are deemed fair or even legal though, I don’t see how it makes a difference. If City had a problem with the rule, then the solution is to challenge the validity of it and get it overturned, not just fucking ignore it and cheat while everyone else obeys the rule. Absolute fucking cunts. No punishment is severe enough for them and they way they’ve ruined football. Of course Newcastle, Chelsea and Everton all backed them. Chelsea are despicable, vile cunts who are cheating almost as much as City. Newcastle are owned by the Saudi cunts who ruined golf and would love nothing more than to do the same for footy. As for Everton, they’re the worst of the lot, the pathetic sad little cunts. No shame whatsoever. They’ll actually be worse off than anyone if the sponsorship rules are changed.31 points -
My Dad, a massive red would have been 85 today. Three points. Happy Birthday Dad x.30 points
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Ok, it wasn’t good and we can play a lot better, but a win is a win and despite not hitting the heights we’d like to, we deserved this one. Not that it matters what you deserve or don’t deserve, but as poor as we were in attack for large periods of the game, it’s worth pointing out that Alisson had nothing to do and that the goal we conceded was entirely self inflicted. So that’s a good thing as defensively we got it right. The goal apart, we defended well and kept Wolves at arm’s length pretty much all day. Had we been at the races with our attacking play then this would have been one of those comfortable three or four goal margin of victory type games, because Wolves were there for the taking. That isn’t a criticism of them, they actually did pretty well considering they were stretched to the limits defensively due to injuries and illness, but we really ought to have made more of that than we did. The opportunity was there for us to slice through them, but too often we didn’t capitalise. It was one of those days when it didn’t click up top, but the organisation was good and Wolves got no joy at all trying to play through us. We pressed high at times, and then dropped into our defensive shape at others and just blocked off all the passing lanes. This was especially noticeable in the last 10-15 minutes when Wolves were just passing around between Lamina and the keeper while the crowd - and Gary Neville - got increasingly frustrated by it. We were just sitting in position and they didn’t know what to do. If they hit it long then Virgil or Konate just gobbled it up. Wolves did start the game quite brightly though and were marginally the better side in the opening 20 minutes or so. We looked a bit unsettled and it wasn’t helped by Trent picking up the most stupid booking of the season so far. I’d actually fine him for that. He said last week he’s told Slot to be tough on him and to highlight his mistakes in meetings. Well this is one for Monday morning. Show this and ask him what the fuck he’s thinking, because getting booked for something so stupid, so early is how costly red cards happen. Just ask Arsenal.26 points -
Monday Sep 23: No diary last week as I was away for a few days and not that much happened anyway. There were a couple of things I wanted to mention though. Slot’s Friday presser was really good. I thought he struck the right tone with every question. I wanted to mention that because in the previous diary I’d said I was a little unsettled by the way he spoke about rotation. On Friday he was asked a few things which I was interested to hear his response, and each time he spoke I was nodding and thinking that’s exactly what I wanted him to say. There’s a lot of common sense when he speaks. The most interesting thing over the last few days though was definitely Trent’s comments. Lots to unpack there, and I’m not going through it in any real detail but there’s enough there for whichever camp you’re in. If you think he’s staying there’s plenty there you can use to back that up, and if you think he’s off to Madrid there’s enough there to support that too. It all depends on how you want to interpret it. I’m more encouraged than I was before his comments, put it that way. Talking about wanting to captain the club suggests his plan is to stay, but my biggest takeaway from it was the stuff about Slot. He didn’t need to say some of the things he said, as if he’s thinking of leaving (or has already decided) then the easy thing to do is not really volunteer anything you don’t need to. Trent saying he wants to be the defender nobody wants to play against and that he’s asked Slot to be tough on him and to call him out in meetings if he’s made mistakes, I think that’s a big sign that he’s not going anywhere. He was very complimentary towards Slot when he didn’t need to go as far as he did. So overall I’m leaning towards him wanting to stay and it’s on the club to sort it. Meanwhile, City have taken yesterday’s result so badly that they have resorted to saying nice things about us. I say City, but it’s specifically one player. A player who fucking despises us no less. Bernardo Silva was asked about the difference between the rivalry with Arsenal compared to the Liverpool one and said: “Maybe that Liverpool have already won the Premier League, Arsenal haven’t. That Liverpool have won the Champions League, Arsenal haven’t. “Liverpool always faced us face-to-face, to try to win the games, so from this perspective the games against Arsenal haven’t been like the ones we had and have against Liverpool. So yes, maybe a different rivalry.” “There was only one team that came to play football. The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately. But at the end we got a draw, the best we could get considering the context of the last moments of the match. “We’re not happy as we wanted the three points, but personally I’m happy with the way we came to play and faced the game. I’m glad we always enter the pitch to try to win every match. It all started in the very first second. Then the referee allowed a sequence of time-wasting events. “The thing that bothers me the most is having a lot of meetings with the FA at the beginning of each season. They tell us they will control this kind of situation and will stop them, but in the end it doesn’t have any worth. They say a lot but nothing happens.” A City player complaining about rules not being enforced is the height of irony though. Technically everything he says is factually correct though. Oh, one other thing from last week I would have mentioned if I’d done the diary is this video of Curtis and this boss little Red Harry. I mentioned this on the pod after Bournemouth but if you haven’t seen it, check it out as it’s just proper fucking wholesome content.25 points -
Not a bad weekend but it was close to being a great one. City dropped two points and Arsenal needed a late, late show to avoid the same fate. Everton were losing at one point too before turning it around for their first win, so this could have been one hell of a weekend. United lost too, but that almost goes without saying these days. I’ll get to them in a bit. For now I’ll start with City’s trip to Newcastle. Last week I broke my own rule and watched the highlights of their game with Arsenal. I’ve done the same this week too, but only because they didn’t win. I had a feeling they would drop points and I expected them to lose. I think I wrote it in here last week, or it may have been a post on the forum. I thought they were vulnerable after the Rodri injury and Newcastle is a tough place to go. City were lucky to win there last season and they needed a De Bruyne worldie to do it if I remember rightly. He wasn’t in the line up for this and neither was Foden. RoboJack was playing though and he created the opening goal for Gvardiol, who took it really well. Why RoboJack I hear you ask? Because Guardiola has turned him into his little pet robot now by coaching all of the individuality out of him. As great a coach as he is, you have to wonder why would spend £100m on a player like that and then stop him from doing all the things that actually made him a £100m player. No wonder Cole Palmer wanted to get away from the fucking bald weirdo. If he’d stayed there he’d be stuck out wide playing backwards passes all season. The best thing he ever did was get away from that flair draining, obsessive bore. Gordon won a penalty by going around Ederson and then hitting the deck. Usually I’d be slating him, but this wasn’t as blatant as the shit he normally pulls and I don’t think he does anything wrong. You can argue he leaves his foot in to make sure there’s contact with the keeper, but why should he hurdle over him? He’s gone past Ederson who has come flying out at his feet. Any forward who doesn’t do what Gordon did there is an idiot. Don’t think that this is me going all soft on him just because I found out he’s a Red and he desperately wanted to come here. That ship has probably sailed now so I’ll have no qualms calling him out when it’s justified, but as I say, I’d want my forward doing exactly what he did there. He sent Ederson the wrong way from the spot to make it 1-1 and that’s how it finished. I didn’t like the little love in between Howe and Guardiola afterwards. Howe is holding the back of his head and pulling him in while whispering sweet nothings in his ear, and all I could think is that he’s sympathising with him over the cheating ways of his owners, the fucking snivelling little Saudi shill.24 points -
We won this game in the first half, so I’m not particularly bothered that the second half wasn’t the best. I don’t think this is going to be team that regularly hits five or six even when the opponent is ripe for the picking, I think we’ll see more of this sort of thing, just managing the game. Which is fine, but I have no doubt that we could have smashed Bournemouth if we’d maintained full intensity. I get why we didn’t though and I’m happy with what we saw in the first half. It was excellent. I’m happy that Slot finally decided to give Darwin a start too. A week too late, and I wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to do it at all, but it was the right call as Jota hasn’t been pulling up any trees and you can’t just leave Nunez on the bench indefinitely (the same applies to other players too). Slot has been charged with getting the best out of him and presumably lots of work has been done on that, whether it’s on the training ground or via video sessions (hopefully both), but you need to keep his head up and make him feel involved, so this start was a no brainer for me. But then I thought that a week ago. And then again in midweek. Finally it came, and it paid off. But before I get to the Nunez wonder goal, there’s a lot of other stuff to cover, mostly involving his mate ‘Lucho’. He’s been great so far this season but the first half of this game saw him take it to another level. He was absolutely fucking electric every time he got the ball. He’d already gone close twice before he eventually scored. The first was a run past a couple of defenders that ended with a tasing drive that Arrizabalaga tipped over. The second was an incredible run from out wide that took him past three or four defenders before he was denied by the keeper again. He could have squared that to Nunez but I didn’t have a problem with him shooting there because there’s just as much chance of him scoring as there is of him completing the cross when the keeper and defenders are there to possibly cut it out. It would have been one of the goals of the season if he’d finished it, so I’m fine with him going it alone there. We were looking good and playing some lovely stuff, but we did have a major scare after only three minutes when Semenyo slid in and scored at the Kop end after a mis-hit shot by Kluivert. I expected a flag to go up but it didn’t, so I was fearing the worst as they don’t usually get those wrong. Turns out that the Main Stand lino just wasn't very good and that wasn’t the only thing he missed. I expected the goal to be given and had resigned myself to that, but all of a sudden our entire subs bench leapt up and started shouting at the lino that he should have flagged. They were watching the replay on the iPad and they were so sure it was offside that I knew then it would be disallowed. Eventually that was confirmed and the celebrations from the away end were cut short. It's fine though, the last time they were on Merseyside gave them all the celebratory moments they need. I still think we’d have gone on to win even if that had stood but you never know, so it was a big moment. The crowd definitely got a lift from it and I thought the atmosphere was decent in the first half. That was obviously helped by the fact we cored three goals in 12 minutes or something, but I also think it was because the team were playing at a higher tempo than we saw last week.24 points -
24 points
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Yeah not bad. Not great, bit boring, but not bad. The second half was a real chore to watch and we were hanging on for a long spell there, but a win is a win and getting them away from home is rarely easy. Especially when you’re playing the way we are at the moment. It’s not clicking but it is functioning well enough to beat the bottom half dregs we’ve faced so far, so I’m not complaining. Well not too much anyway. Slot said afterwards he was pleased with the first hour because we controlled the game well. He didn’t like that we failed to get the second goal that would have killed it, which is fair, but I’d suggest that we didn’t really show enough urgency to get that second goal. I agree we controlled it. I agree we should have done better with some good chances, but I don’t think we created enough considering how in control we were. Maybe if Jota doesn’t waste two great chances it opens up even more and we run out comfortable winners by three or four, but he did waste those chances and it almost cost us. When you let an opponent hang around, you know that eventually they always have a spell in the game or at the very least they’ll get a really good chance. Palace had several good chances and for 15 minutes they were all over us before Slot made some subs and we calmed it down again to see it out. So it’s mostly positive, especially as its a 12.30 away game after a midweek European fixture. These games can easily go badly so any time you get three points it’s to be celebrated. We’re not really passing the eye test at the moment but does it matter? It feels like it might, and it could catch up with us against better opposition, but maybe better opposition is what we need to raise our own game? We’ll find out soon enough.23 points -
Chelsea’s good start to the season continued with a comfortable win at West Ham, who it must be said were a fucking disgrace. That’s not to take anything away from Chelsea who did what they had to do and *grits teeth* looked good doing it. West Ham though are definitely finding out that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Jackson scored after just four minutes to get the ball rolling. It’s a disgusting goal from a West Ham point of view. He’s played in down the left, but he’s very wide and there’s no immediate danger. But nobody bothers to even go over to him so he just collects the ball, runs into the box and rolls it past the keeper while the entire Hammers defence stands there watching. Actually Alvarez does try to close him down but looks like he’s pulling Marco Boogers’ caravan as he gets nowhere near him. That Mavrapanos jabroni (one of the worst players in the entire league him) just watches it all happen, the big loser. The second goal is Jackson running away from Alvarez and his caravan again. Good play from Chelsea but what the fuck were West Ham doing and where was that Mavrapanos loser? West Ham were denied a clear penalty when Summerville ran into the box and was pulled back. The defender just grabs hold of his wrist and holds on as Summerville is trying to run onto a pass. It’s stonewall for me, but the ref didn’t give it (fair enough) and VAR didn’t intervene (absolutely not fair enough). Scruffy arse Lopategui was kicking off on the touchline in his jeans, but the 4th official wasn’t interested in anything he had to say, and nor would I given how he was dressed. His clobber is fine if he’s sat in the stands watching the game as a fan, but you’re a manager, have some fucking pride. Moyesy would never have dressed like that. A minute after the break Chelsea hit West Ham on the counter and Jackson fed Palmer who finished emphatically. Great goal that. There was a bad tackle in the build up by that Alvarez bum but the ref played a good advantage. They could have gone back and red carded him for that though, the dangerous slow cunt. Given how shit he is and his Ajax background, you’d have to say Alvarez is at the wrong United. Moyes must be watching them with a face on him like that Di Caprio gif. They wanted sexy footy all yet they brought in a fella who was less entertaining at Wolves than Nuno Holy Spirit, who might be the dullest man alive. This fella is not going to be more expansive at West Ham than Moyes but he will be less solid and he won’t achieve the same kind of league positions that Gollum did either. It’s amazing what how many doors are opened by having Real Madrid on your CV though. I reckon he’ll be the first manager sacked this season, because he looked rattled as fuck at Anfield in midweek, kicking off about non-existent penalties and demanding VAR when it isn’t even in use, and then finally pulling his calf and having to leave the stadium on crutches because he was jumping around so much complaining. Absolute helmet. And when your manager is that ill disciplined, it will filter through the team, as we saw with that ridiculous tackle by Alvarez for his sending off. West Ham are a mess right now, but sadly Chelsea look like they’ve got something going at last. They’re the youngest team in the league but finally, despite all the craziness going on higher up in the club, Maresca and the players seem to be steadily getting better. I hate it. I’m not ready for Chelsea to be good as I was quite happy seeing them floundering in the middle of the table. I don’t see them as a threat to us but they may well be back in the Champions League soon. Assuming UEFA let them that is, apparently they aren’t as willing as the Premier League to overlook the blatant financial cheating that’s taken place.23 points -
It’s not a game we’ll be remembering beyond this week, but that doesn’t matter as the group stages of this competition are just about putting yourself in position to make the knock out stages. Other than Olympiakos, I don’t think I could tell you any opponent we faced in the group stages in any year we won it or reached the final. So this wasn’t particularly good (it may have been worse than Wolves at the weekend) but we’re winning games even though we’ve still got a lot of improving to do. As much as we’d love to see the team blowing everyone away and looking fantastic, football isn’t like that and so I’m happy enough that we’re picking up wins without playing particularly well. And as I say, these group games are just about picking up the points to progress, and if you put on a bit of a show then all the better. We’ve not really been doing that so far this season, but there are flashes in these games where we look incredible. We just aren’t sustaining it and there may be reasons for that which are over my head. Take this game for example. The first 25 minutes I thought we were brilliant and it felt like we’d go on to win by three or four. Then it suddenly changed and the rest of the game was pretty even, and they maybe even shaded it. Did they change what they were doing? Because out of nowhere we suddenly started having trouble playing out and they were pushed right up on us. At times I was reminded of Atalanta last season. This wasn’t anywhere near as bad as that but there were similarities in how we struggled against the man to man all over the pitch approach. Atalanta absolutely killed us like that and we couldn’t handle it, but we coped much better against Bologna and played through them quite well I thought (mostly because Gravenberch just glides away from everyone to break the lines whenever he picks it up). The problem was the final ball was usually shite, but it was encouraging that we were able to get into those situations so often. The start was great. We swarmed all over them and it felt like an Anfield European night. By full time it felt like a League Cup night, very subdued. I’ve seen quite a few people saying it’s because the new, more patient, possession based style is just a bit boring and it’s going to take some getting used to. I’m not sure that’s it, because I imagine Slot is every bit as frustrated as we are watching some of these performances. This isn’t how he’s drawing it up on the tactics board, and I also think we forget that there were loads of games under Klopp that were similar to this too. It wasn’t always Metallica, sometimes it was Ed fucking Sheehan.22 points -
Firstly, it's a good result and I'm made up to end another weekend in top spot. However, at the risk of sounding like a spoilt, ungrateful little shit, that felt somewhat unfulfilling and my confidence levels for the coming weeks were certainly not boosted, despite a win over what will probably be a top four or five team that took us to the top of the table. Just reading that sentence back to myself makes me squirm. I know how how it sounds, you don’t need to tell me. I’m fully aware. Here me out though, I'll try to explain why I'm not as thrilled as I probably should be. It’s hard to explain because I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, unhappy, worried or any of that. All of those are too strong. I just think that despite winning yet another game, we’re not necessarily passing the eye test and as such there is a little bit of concern there. Not by the performance as such, more so by the approach. In terms of the performance I think the players probably mostly did what was asked of them, although you’d need to ask Slot about that. I guess what I’m saying is I didn’t see what I would have asked of them, or what Jurgen always asked of them. Yet I’m probably going to have to tailor those expectations accordingly if this game is anything to go by. We treated Chelsea in a way that only Manchester City have been treated at Anfield in the last nine years. And even then, we only played like that against City a couple of times and only at times when we weren’t at our best level and Klopp went more pragmatic than he normally would. While Klopp obviously gave due care and attention to tactics in the bigger games, it was always applied with the mentality of “we’re gonna run all over these fuckers today”. Didn’t matter who it was, if they come to Anfield they’re getting the kitchen sink thrown at them. I think back to what we did to Chelsea at Anfield last season, and then I look at what happened here, and it’s night and day. Granted, both coaches are different and Chelsea are in better form now than they were then. They have a different tactical approach too, so it’s not the same game. I get that, and I’m not suggesting we would have destroyed them the way we did last season. For one thing Bradley was missing this time! I just think we paid them far too much respect and I don’t like seeing us passively sitting off teams and letting them have the ball at Anfield, and then when we have it we just pass it around going nowhere for long spells. That being said, it’s not a criticism, it’s just a personal preference.20 points -
Whenever I see Ferguson these days, I immediately think of this.
20 points -
19 points
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Before you lot totally take the piss out of me and call me an old cunt, hear me out! (and then call me an old cunt) I was walking back with my eldest from his hurling match a few Saturdays ago and walked past the junior soccer training that my lad used to do a few years back and Cillian went over to say hello so I followed over too. One of his old coaches called me over. He’s around 62 or 63 but in good shape. An ex League of Ireland player with Shelbourne and has kept himself relatively fit. He said they had walking football and asked my age. I said “fuck off I’m only 51” and he said it was for over 55s but they are not getting enough people so do I fancy coming down? I again told him to fuck off, but he said just give it a try. That was a month ago. Last night I relented and went down. Holy shite the craic I had. 12 blokes in their 60s of all shapes and sizes, but all good players who played in their youth from all levels up to League of Ireland, and me and another bloke in our early 50s. It’s on an 8 a side pitch so decent space to be able to enjoy the ball, but people still on you quick. We just use a 5-a-side goal and you can only shoot from within 10 metres, so passing and skill and touch are to the fore. You can’t run, but a jog to get back in position is fine, and the walking pace is fast walking that is bordering on a jog. Lots of piss taking. And exercise wise, I have a fitbit and I checked my steps before and after, and for the hour I did a little over 11,000 steps. So good exercise too. So laugh away, but I’m a convert. I can’t wait for next Monday already.17 points
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A return to club football and another very busy period prior to the next international break. In the news this week, FIFpro (the global players' union) and the European Leagues (representing 39 leagues in 33 countries) have brought about a lawsuit against FIFA, arguing that the governing body has prioritised its own events in order to monetise them, while also threatening players and teams who try to pull out. Too many games in the calendar means very little chance for players and coaches to re-energise, and many more games where no-one is at their optimum. While I agree that players are playing too many games these days (it's a much higher level of intensity and there is usually more at stake compared to say the 70s and 80s when some players were also playing a lot of games), it also feels like we've barely played any league games. 7 games out of 38, and we're in mid-October. We welcome the lunatic asylum to Anfield. I think they have more points and goals than signings this time round, but it's hard to tell. It's also hard to tell whether they've return to the median or whether they are outperforming their stats. Under Poch, they did seem to create a lot of chances without converting them. Under their latest head coach Maresca, they have been creating a lot of chances but also converting a lot of them. They've also been quite open in midfield and defence. Their summer transfer activity consisted of trying to force out a lot of their home-grown players to book the whole transfer fee while signing new players on the never-never and only having to book the amortisation for PSR purposes. They also sold the hotel to themselves and tried to sell the women's team to themselves too. The PL and UEFA have actually been wise to the ruse on the whole. Amongst the incomings are Neto from Wolves (injury-prone but dangerous), Felix from Atletico (still yet to show he's the new Kaka), National Trust Estate from Leicester (part of the PSR fiddle than a player they actually needed), plus Sancho on loan from the Mancs (again a player they didn't actually need). Palmer has been their breakout player since the previous summer, far and away their best signing. Cucurella and Fofana both picked up their fifth yellows of the season so miss out through suspension, and they are checking on the fitness of Madueke, Colwill and Chukwuemeka. No idea on the rest. For us, Ali will be missing for the next month at least so we will have Queef between the sticks. He has proved to be more than a capable deputy over the years, and it's understandable that he wants to be a number one. Ali is the clear number one but he's also very injury prone hence why we did the deal for Mamardashvili. We also have Jaros as back-up, who if he was a regular at club level would likely be first choice for his country too. Macca played against Bolivia so his little knock prior to the international break may well have cleared. Mo and Virg got to put their feet up this week, and Curtis returned early from international duty due to the birth of his daughter. The other internationals got a fair bit of game time and chipped in with a fair few goals to boot. That means that as I write, Ali and Harvey are the only absentees. Not heard any updates on Fede's situation. Slot will want to avoid the shitshow against Forest that was the aftermath of our last return to domestic action after an international break. We'll of course need to be wary of Chelsea's attacking threat but we have enough to hurt them like we did last season. It needs the right level of control and intensity, and the substitutions need to have more impact in terms of being effective and not hampering the set-up and putting us needlessly under the cosh. How have our previous managers got on in their first home fixture against Chelsea? It's pretty good on the whole. Souness...05/09/1992...Liverpool 2-1 Chelsea (Saunders, Redknapp) Evans...19/03/1994...Liverpool 2-1 Chelsea (Rush, Burley og) Houllier...16/10/1999...Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea (Thompson) Benitez...01/01/2005...Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea Hodgson...17/11/2010...Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea (Torres 2) Dalglish...08/05/2012...Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea (Essien og, Henderson, Agger, Shelvey) Rodgers...21/04/2013...Liverpool 2-2 Chelsea (Sturridge, Suarez) Klopp...11/05/2016...Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea (Benteke) I don't ask for much. Maximum motivation, control, application, attitude and concentration from minute one. 3 points please. Get it done!16 points
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Didn't want to put anything on here for a while. Niece's funeral on Thursday, 6 months ago had a lump behind her knee. Biopsy and scan showed it was cancerous and had spread to her lungs and was really aggressive. Spoke to her over a week ago and it had spread to her brain. She was only 20. Absolutely shite.16 points
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A nice gesture…
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Has become a father16 points
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Monday Sep 30: Had the radio on today in the car and understandably it was dominated by how fucking shit United are. It’s not a new thing, they’ve been shit for ages, but it’s still always going to be big for media outlets as its basically gold for them. United being shit is great for business as not only are they getting angry United fans listening and calling in, you’re also getting fans of everyone else loving the fact that United are shit and their fans are angry. This was hilarious because Jim White was doing his usual overly dramatic schtick. Callers are ringing in blaming Ten Hag, the Glazers, ‘Sir Jim’ and Ineos etc and then here comes Martin Keown out of nowhere with this absolute belter: “I look at Ruud Van Nistelrooy and wonder what he is doing. Is he helping his manager or trying to take his job”. Seriously, that’s so fucking good. Absolute next level pettiness and world class grudge holding and I’m right here for it. Too many old football feuds have been resolved and everyone is just too friendly these days. Keane and Vieira, Neville and Carra, Keane and Schmeichel… then you’ve got Keown putting the blame on Van Nistelrooy for the complete mess United are in. He’s only been there a few months! I love that, all these years later and Keown still won’t let the beef go. Good for him I say. I thought this was interesting from Virgil on Konate’s fitness today: “He is a fantastic player who still can be better. As you saw, he is important with the goal, he is defensively solid, a bit unlucky with the goal we conceded, but obviously the qualities he has are outstanding in my opinion. He is learning, growing, getting better and looking after himself much better in order to be ready every three days as that's what asked.” Looking after himself much better? What does that mean I wonder? More gym work? Better diet? I was under the impression that this kind of thing was no longer left to the players and they just did and ate what they are told. It’s interesting though as Ibou is playing twice a week now whereas Klopp never really had that luxury. Not good news for Quansah though.16 points -
Warrior performance Yes we didn't play well for the whole 2nd half but 3 games in 7 days, that will happen. Away game, 12.30 kick off, rotated players in, it happens sometimes. They put us under pressure, Jones and Sobolzlai went missing a little and it's a tight pitch. I know everyone will say that was shit 2nd half but we fucking dug deep, weathered the storm and really defended well. Sometimes you don't get time on the ball, sometimes you cant play pretty football. On those days just be fucking rock solid, and we were. We missed too many chances, and when it's 1-0 the other team & fans will always have belief. Especially at that ground. I fucking loved that we won 1-0. Be hard to beat and defend properly. We are really doing that this season. Massive 3 points. I also loved to see Slot going mental at refereeing decisions. He's a winner, he's showing that and the players will feed off that. I don't buy this "easy start" bullshit either. No games are easy in the premier league especially when you're a new manager, new country, new style of play. I had my doubts about him but he's done a fantastic job and he's a really good manager. Absolutely buzzing off that win.16 points
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Yes, it is I, Le Clerc, or at least Dan Thomas, with your match report of the 5-1 swatting of West Ham. That ended up being a load of fun, didn’t it? After 20 minutes and being 1-0 down to a Keystone Kops own goal, it didn’t look like it would be a lot of fun at all. The much changed Reds however roared back in style to complete a 5-1 rout of West Ham, the same result as last season when we went on the lift the Coca Cola/Carling/Capital One/Carabao Cup. A good omen? How is the Pope feeling these days…? We made a lot of changes for this game as we all expected. Arne Slot has been quite rigid with his team selection so far but this was always going to be a game for the Konates of the world to sit out as we balance a pretty heavy calendar over the next three weeks before another accursed jabroni international break. The good thing about making changes for us, is that our squad is so good that we can immediately put out a team that can and will beat most teams even when we make significant changes. It comes to something when the likes of Conor Bradley, Jarrel Quansah, Endo and Curtis Jones have barely featured this season. There was a bit of rust from some which is totally understandable given the lack of football. In years gone by I have viewed the Coca Cola/Carling/Capital One/Carabao Cup as a massive inconvenience, extra games where we don’t need them. It would be easy to have that outlook this season in particular, given the absolute over-saturation of the Champions League and the extra games that brings. However, this competition is a great chance to get the kids their game time and make sure our squad players or players who aren’t currently in the first team get their football. Jurgen took this competition very seriously in his last three or four years and it looks like Slot is going to look to maintain that momentum. The first twenty minutes was a nothing event, we started off reasonably well and controlled the ball but created nothing of note bar a few set pieces. Kostas does throw a lovely ball in but West Ham stood firm. The direction of the game then actually changed, with West Ham really on the front foot without creating much. Danny Ings did have the ball in the net but it failed the eye test immediately and as it turns out he had just gone too soon. I like Danny Ings. It’s so easy to forget he played for us sometimes. He would have been a good signing had he not got injured the way he did I reckon. We still made a tidy profit from him as well. We didn’t heed this warning however, as we were behind not long after. And it was about as scruffy as it gets. We failed to clear a corner either first or second phase, the ball pinged around and Endo was frankly unlucky as his attempt to clear the ball out wide hit Quansah on the shin and dribbled into the net in front of the Kop. It looked comical and inept and that would be fair – but it was unlucky. Endo did well to get in there and I think he's trying to put it out for a throw in near the corner flag. But ho hum. The annoying habit of falling behind that is endemic in the last two years continues then. It was all a bit disjointed but that goal actually sparked us into life. We were level inside of five minutes. Some lovely tight passing down the left saw Jota thread the ball through to free up Gakpo. He drove into the box and lofted it back post to Chiesa, who hit his shot into the floor. However, as Jota does, he got on his bike and was on the right end of the bobble, showing good awareness and movement to get on the end of Chiesa’s effort and nod it past Fabianski. 1-1 and game on, Jota signalling the intent by going to get the ball from the net. Let’s skip to the second half – ultimately it was quite eventful, which the rest of the first half was not. Apparently Lopetegui hurt his calf in one of his several hissy fits with the referee in the second half. West Ham’s string of penalty appeals in the second half verged from ridiculous to Evertonian. We can cite the absence of VAR all we want (very enjoyable by the way) but none of these decisions wouldn’t have been overturned anyway, because they weren’t penalties! At best the appeals were vexatious – at worse they would have made Goodison’s finest blush with…. In fact no, that’s a bit far. The first appeal was for handball against Gomez who had his hands by his side. Never a penalty ever, get in the sea for even appealing. Immediately, we break with good work from Jones who received the ball back and put it on a plate for Jota to sidefoot into the corner. Fabianski will probably be disappointed with himself having got his hand to it but he didn’t get enough on it to keep it out. Squawking from West Ham about the fictional handball but it was a lovely finish and I hope it will gives Jones some confidence as he hasn’t played a lot this season. When he moves the ball quickly, he is potentially a very big asset. We did look like we might be in the mood to go on and score again but come the hour, come the changes. On came Mo and Mac Allister, off came the Slotter and Chiesa. Chiesa didn’t do anything right or wrong, it all feels a bit like building up his fitness at the moment. Also, Paqueta and Antonio emerged from the bench for the visitors. Antonio is past his peak but he is a nuisance and West Ham actually made their way back into the game. There was a string of ridiculous penalty appeals as already mentioned, the referee was rightly having none of it. Kelleher made a couple of sharp saves at 2-1, two crucial interventions within a few seconds of each other. Kilman, somehow, missed from six yards and that was your lot. There was another crazy penalty “injustice” that saw that Lopetegui loser get a booking and that was as good as it got for West Ham. Fabianski beat away a piledriver from Gakpo too, making a save he should. Salah was johnny on the spot with a smart, crisp finish from a Bradley cutback that saw a Mac Allister shot blocked. You can’t keep Mo out of the action can you? Even in a routine League Cup home win he is after goals, after records, after accolades. A goalscoring machine. West Ham’s sense of injustice was only added to when Edson Alvarez was sent off for a second yellow for a frankly ridiculous challenge considering he was on a booking. Absolutely bonkers tackle and off he went. What I liked after this was our pursuit for more goals. I am all for more control in games but this was an opportunity to fill our boots and we did. We got Morton on the field (and he has filled out since his last Anfield appearance) and Robertson came on for Tsimikas. It would have been easy for us to just knock the ball around given the situation but no, we wanted more and we got more. Gakpo was rewarded for his excellent recent form with a late double, firstly firing home from outside the box with a low shot to Fabianski’s right. Even after that, we pushed forward and I fancied we might score another. Gakpo duly obliged with a deflected drive, spinning the ball away from Fabianski to his left. This more aggressive, more direct, more assertive Cody Gakpo is proving to be a massive asset. More of the same, please. So, a comprehensive and comfortable win. Our grip on the Rumbelows Cup is safe for now but away to Brighton is a massive task for us given our recent record there. However, if we turn up in the kind of mood we were for big chunks of that second half then Brighton will struggle to contain us. I usually resent all Premier League ties, especially when Man City usually draw the ghost of Rushton and Diamonds in the knockout competitions. But a trip to the AMEX will actually be a good test for us, the squad and help us to continue to assess where we are at in this transformative season. Great stuff all round, and I am sure Lopetegui will be along in a minute to remonstrate with my Star Man award. The bell. Who is that Star Man? You might know already if you read the top banner, but if not then I'll reveal it here. It could easily have been Jota for his two goals, I thought Endo played well, Jones was classy and skilful. But my shout here is Gakpo. He was lively throughout and looks a million percent more of a player than he did last season. Team: Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Tsimikas (Robertson); Endo (Morton), Jones; Chiesa (Salah), Jota (Mac Allister), Nunez, Gakpo: View full article16 points
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We’ve only beaten teams below us so far.15 points
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And this...15 points
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Not the most interesting of weekends really. It almost was, as at one point both City and Arsenal were losing, but we all knew how those movies were going to end. I didn’t get my hopes up even for a second. That being said, City should have lost at home to Fulham, who apparently gave them all they could handle. The reason City didn’t lose was because Adama Traore missed three one v ones. I fast forwarded through the MOTD highlights of this because, well you know, fuck Man City, but I did see the analysis from Shearer which focused mostly on all the chances Fulham created and missed. Mostly, but not exclusively, Traore. It’s easy to get pissed off about him but it goes with the territory, this is what he’s done his entire career and he’s pushing 30 now so its not going to change. Bottom line, if he could finish those chances he wouldn’t be playing for Fulham, he’d be at Real Madrid. Because other than end product he’s fucking incredible. He gave Walker a five yard start and absolutely fucking rinsed him. I suspect it’s because Walker is finally starting to slow down a bit, but it was still eye opening seeing what Traore did to him. I love that because you know it will absolutely haunt Walker as that’s the one thing he’s always been able to hang his hat on, and now that air of invincibility to speed has gone. As I say though, I never got my hopes up when I heard that Fulham were leading and it was even less so when I heard Southampton had gone ahead at Arsenal. Fulham did have an outside chance of extending their lead and then maybe holding on, but Southampton scored way too early and were always going to get rolled over because they're terrible. They took the lead through Archer and it wasn’t completely against the run of play either as they’d gone close just before. Then they got caught trying to play out and Havertz lashed in the equaliser. I’m saying nothing as I’m boring myself with this shit. It’s Burnley all over again and I’m doing another whole season of pointing out their stupidity. Martinelli tapped in to make it 2-1 but Dibling saw a shot deflected onto the post by Raya. He looks really good that kid. Southampton hit the bar from the resulting corner too, but then more kamikaze play by Southampton in their own box presented Saka with the third.15 points -
We have conceded two goal in the league. Let me repeat that, we have conceded just two goals in the league after seven games. Yet people find reasons to complain, live in the moment, learn to love it.15 points
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Ok so all just scroll past this post I apologise in advance but I just need to vent My son's mum's funeral on Thursday we were separated 10 years and he lives with me but we were still close. He is 16 but has been amazing. His mum told us she only wanted 4 of us at funeral but that changed as she told his sister (my step daughter who I brought up)anyone could come..Anyway my lad wasn't happy with that especially her dad who was a twat but wanted to "show his respects". So my lads response was she was in an hospice for 3 months show your respect/apologies while she was alive it wasn't a shock (he is right) but he is soft as shit like me so didn't want to upset anyone. Long story long I managed to tell her not to invite her dad (bad guy again) I know I'm spouting shit but I'm struggling more than I thought I would. I go to messaged her about stuff and she isn't there. People don't understand because we split up they think it's nothing Like I say sorry for putting this on here13 points
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Part of the reason teams are 10th, 11th 12th and 13th is because they have lost to us.13 points
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Sorry Chris, no. When you’ve shared the City with them for a lifetime listening to the lies about our players, their sad little conspiracy theories, their assumption of the role of the victims of Heysel, the chants of murderers, calling us wall-pushers, feeding the egos of Mancs who chant about burning scousers, and the slowly growing number who think it’s ok to make Hillsborough faces-against-fence gestures, then you can call people out.12 points
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In regards to Virgil - I'm throwing Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher into the conversation. Carragher turned 36 during his final season with us, and Hyypia left a few months before he turned 36. Both absolute defensive legends of the club right up till the end no? Why the reluctance to offer 33 year old Virgil van Dijk a new contract then? He's superior to those 2 in almost every aspect - plus he's got less miles on the clock due to a relatively late start and the year off due to that little cunt over the road. I'll never understand how we've got to this point.12 points
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I don't think anyone is. People are, quite rightly, laughing at the exaggerated claims of "the best stadium in the country"; expressing scepticism about claims that it will miraculously transform their fortunes: worrying about the impact it will have on local traffic, etc. If I had to sum up a TLW consensus, it would be "fair play to them, it looks alright on the outside and I hope it helps regenerate the area; but it's not going to be the magic bullet that fixes all their problems".12 points
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Tomato, red pepper, garlic, mushroom and onion soup. Loads of paprika and cayenne pepper. Best thing about this time of year is getting back on the warming soups
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I have lots of opinions on Mo Salah, but sometimes, I just let the data do the talking. For example: I think this speaks for itself. But how does he maintain such fitness? Well: And I hear people saying he's not as strong on his right side. I'm not sure that's true: There's also the question of his pace slowing with age. I think this is marginal at best, and is up for debate: So, we need to look at his partnerships through the seasons, and who he connected with best: And as for the influence of a new manager: I even hear people question his speed over short, median and equalescent standardised quartiles: See for yourself. It's clear he has a few good years left in him:12 points
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Neg away fuckers, I ain’t cropping shit.12 points
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We’re just north of Brighton in the South Downs
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Saturday lunchtime kick-off after a midweek European game is par for the course with us. Selhurst Park is one of those grounds that makes for difficult television viewing when there's an early kick-off or when the sun's out, because the relatively low camera angle in a stand that is positioned north east puts the afternoon sun directly into the camera. This fixture was an early kick-off last year too, and that one was settled by Harvey deep into stoppage time. The game represents a chance for us to cement top spot in the table going into the international break, and up to now we've been getting results even though we have had spells where things are not quite clicking. Palace got a new manager bounce last season whe Oliver Glassner came in, and were one of the league's in-form sides in the run-in. The very first game of that run-in was the one at Anfield. Eze, Wharton and Mateta in particular have thrived under the new manager even though Palace currently find themselves in the bottom 3. They lost key players Michael Olise and Joachim Andersen to Bayern and Fulham respectively in the summer, and even Jordan Ayew finally left, moving to Leicester. It seemed as though he'd been playing every game for them for the last decade, regardless of form. Marseille winger Ismaila Sarr has joined them (he'd been linked with us in the past but has always been inconsistent), as has defender Maxence Lacroix from Wolfsburg, another player previously linked with us. Eddie Nketiah was signed off Arsenal's bench for big money, and Trevoh (I always wonder if that was a typo on his birth certificate) Chalobah has arrived on loan from Chelsea. I mentioned Ayew before, but Palace's squad in general seemed to give off an air of staleness as it barely seemed to change for years under Hodgson. Maybe the air of staleness was coming off the old boss himself. Anyway, they've freshened up the squad and maybe Glassner is yet to find cohesion as a result. He can wait even longer to find it. For us, we need to continue being a tough nut to crack and coming away with wins. We've been very consistent with results but performances have occasionally wavered, so I guess Slot's process is still one not yet fully established. Harvey is definitely still out, and Fede missed the Bologna game so is maybe another doubt. Other than that, I've not heard of any other potential absentees for this game. Slot hasn't really wavered in his team selections to date so you would think it would be more of the same, even though a couple of players look like they need a breather. Sharpening up in all facets is most welcome. How have our previous managers got on in their first away fixture against Palace? Souness...23/03/1993...Palace 1-1 Liverpool (Rush) Evans...20/08/1994...Palace 1-6 Liverpool (Molby pen, McManaman 2, Fowler, Rush 2) Houllier...N/A Benitez...23/04/2005...Palace 1-0 Liverpool Hodgson...N/A Dalglish...N/A Rodgers...05/05/2014...Palace 3-3 Liverpool (Allen, Delaney og, Suarez) Klopp...06/03/2016...Palace 1-2 Liverpool (Firmino, Benteke pen) I don't ask for much. Maximum motivation, control, application, attitude and concentration from minute one. 3 points please. Get it done!11 points
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Beef Penang with jasmine rice.
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Our first home match of the revamped Champions League see us take on a side we know very little about. Bologna were once one of the leading lights in Serie A, and last won the championship in 1964. Since then, they've flitted between mid-table in the top flight and several spells outside. Last season was their finest season in years as they finished 5th, ahead of the two Rome clubs no less. They are looking to renovate their picturesque Stadio Renato Dall'Ara so the income boost provided by a minimum of 8 Champions League games is a real bonus. As is generally the case with Italian clubs, such developments will heavily involve the local municipality having to foot (most of) the bill, which leads to endless talks and red tape. Juventus built a new stadium, and both Atalanta and Udinese have significantly redeveloped their stadiums, but Serie A stadiums are otherwise extremely dated. Even the big cathedrals like the San Siro, the Olimpico and the San Paolo (now named Diego Armando Maradona) are very much lipstick on a pig. They've had a very patchy season so far. Having lost highly-rated coach Thiago Motta to Juventus, and having sold key players Calafiori and Zirkzee to Arsenal and United respectively, they've had to do a rebuild. They've also been without captain Lewis Ferguson, whose knee injury back in April kept him out of Scotland's Euro 2024 squad. They've signed Swiss midfielder Freuler permanently from Forest (who knows Serie A well from his time at Atalanta), and brought in Dutch striker Dallinga from Toulouse. We know all about him as he proved to be a real pest for us in last season's Europa League group stage. Bologna started their Champions League adventure with a goalless draw at home to Shakhtar Donetsk. For us, we have 3 points on the board after the opening win in Milan, so this is a chance to give ourselves a real footing in the table prior to our next four games against Bundesliga and La Liga sides. Harvey will still be unavailable, and Robbo will be assessed having come off with a knock late on in the win at Wolves. I would expect that Slot will go with a similar line-up to the one that faced West Ham in the League Cup. Whatever the side that is put out, it badly needs to ditch the inkling of complacency and poor concentration that characterised the performance at Wolves. We also mustn't take Bologna for granted, as even though new coach Vincenzo Italiano doesn't have the settled system and experience of Gian Piero Gasperini at Atalanta, he has shown that he can get results in Europe with a mid-table outfit. Italiano was Fiorentina coach for the previous 3 seasons and they were Conference League runners-up twice. How have our previous managers got on in their first game against Bologna? Well, for both Slot and the club this will be a first as we've never played against Bologna before, not even in a friendly. I don't ask for much. Maximum motivation, control, application, attitude and concentration from minute one. 3 points please. Get it done!11 points
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My wife an I have been through the adoption process twice and we adopted a little girl who was 3 and a boy who was 18 months old. They are both 20 and 15 years old now and we have been through a lot of ups and downs with them but not really any more so than you would with a biological child. It is the most rewarding thing we have ever done and hopefully we have made a positive difference to their lives and given them a stable and happy childhood. Once our two children leave home we are looking to foster as there are so many children out there who need help so if anyone is thinking about adoption I would advise you to do it. If anyone wants to know more about adoption then send me a PM and I will be happy to have a chat about it.11 points
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This is the United I remember as a kid. A cup team in Adidas kits spending big on new signings every year yet generally abject in the league. Ten Hag does not have a plan for how to coach them to dominate the ball and break teams down. It's all counter-attack at pace, a great deal of spawn and a helping hand from Howard Webb's minions. Do not change a thing Jim Brexit.11 points
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One of the games that's stuck with me from a long time ago was the last home game of the promotion season. There was nothing on the game, we were already promoted as champions but the presentation of the trophy and the medals was to take place and we wanted to preserve our unbeaten at home record for the season. With 2 minutes to go we were losing 1-0 to Charlton when Alan A'Court shot and the keeper pushed it out to Sir Roger who netted the equaliser. A minute later the Saint found A'Court who found the net and the day had been memorably saved. I can still remember looking from the Boy's Pen into the Kop and the unbridled scenes of joy. The first of many late shows I was to witness over the years.11 points
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Dave dont care about diaries, Dave dont care about fans, the Liverpool Way, its in the wrong hands!11 points
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Yes, it is I, Le Clerc, or at least Dan Thomas, with your match report of the 5-1 swatting of West Ham. That ended up being a load of fun, didn’t it? After 20 minutes and being 1-0 down to a Keystone Kops own goal, it didn’t look like it would be a lot of fun at all. The much changed Reds however roared back in style to complete a 5-1 rout of West Ham, the same result as last season when we went on the lift the Coca Cola/Carling/Capital One/Carabao Cup. A good omen? How is the Pope feeling these days…? We made a lot of changes for this game as we all expected. Arne Slot has been quite rigid with his team selection so far but this was always going to be a game for the Konates of the world to sit out as we balance a pretty heavy calendar over the next three weeks before another accursed jabroni international break. The good thing about making changes for us, is that our squad is so good that we can immediately put out a team that can and will beat most teams even when we make significant changes. It comes to something when the likes of Conor Bradley, Jarrel Quansah, Endo and Curtis Jones have barely featured this season. There was a bit of rust from some which is totally understandable given the lack of football. In years gone by I have viewed the Coca Cola/Carling/Capital One/Carabao Cup as a massive inconvenience, extra games where we don’t need them. It would be easy to have that outlook this season in particular, given the absolute over-saturation of the Champions League and the extra games that brings. However, this competition is a great chance to get the kids their game time and make sure our squad players or players who aren’t currently in the first team get their football. Jurgen took this competition very seriously in his last three or four years and it looks like Slot is going to look to maintain that momentum. The first twenty minutes was a nothing event, we started off reasonably well and controlled the ball but created nothing of note bar a few set pieces. Kostas does throw a lovely ball in but West Ham stood firm. The direction of the game then actually changed, with West Ham really on the front foot without creating much. Danny Ings did have the ball in the net but it failed the eye test immediately and as it turns out he had just gone too soon. I like Danny Ings. It’s so easy to forget he played for us sometimes. He would have been a good signing had he not got injured the way he did I reckon. We still made a tidy profit from him as well. We didn’t heed this warning however, as we were behind not long after. And it was about as scruffy as it gets. We failed to clear a corner either first or second phase, the ball pinged around and Endo was frankly unlucky as his attempt to clear the ball out wide hit Quansah on the shin and dribbled into the net in front of the Kop. It looked comical and inept and that would be fair – but it was unlucky. Endo did well to get in there and I think he's trying to put it out for a throw in near the corner flag. But ho hum. The annoying habit of falling behind that is endemic in the last two years continues then. It was all a bit disjointed but that goal actually sparked us into life. We were level inside of five minutes. Some lovely tight passing down the left saw Jota thread the ball through to free up Gakpo. He drove into the box and lofted it back post to Chiesa, who hit his shot into the floor. However, as Jota does, he got on his bike and was on the right end of the bobble, showing good awareness and movement to get on the end of Chiesa’s effort and nod it past Fabianski. 1-1 and game on, Jota signalling the intent by going to get the ball from the net. Let’s skip to the second half – ultimately it was quite eventful, which the rest of the first half was not. Apparently Lopetegui hurt his calf in one of his several hissy fits with the referee in the second half. West Ham’s string of penalty appeals in the second half verged from ridiculous to Evertonian. We can cite the absence of VAR all we want (very enjoyable by the way) but none of these decisions wouldn’t have been overturned anyway, because they weren’t penalties! At best the appeals were vexatious – at worse they would have made Goodison’s finest blush with…. In fact no, that’s a bit far. The first appeal was for handball against Gomez who had his hands by his side. Never a penalty ever, get in the sea for even appealing. Immediately, we break with good work from Jones who received the ball back and put it on a plate for Jota to sidefoot into the corner. Fabianski will probably be disappointed with himself having got his hand to it but he didn’t get enough on it to keep it out. Squawking from West Ham about the fictional handball but it was a lovely finish and I hope it will gives Jones some confidence as he hasn’t played a lot this season. When he moves the ball quickly, he is potentially a very big asset. We did look like we might be in the mood to go on and score again but come the hour, come the changes. On came Mo and Mac Allister, off came the Slotter and Chiesa. Chiesa didn’t do anything right or wrong, it all feels a bit like building up his fitness at the moment. Also, Paqueta and Antonio emerged from the bench for the visitors. Antonio is past his peak but he is a nuisance and West Ham actually made their way back into the game. There was a string of ridiculous penalty appeals as already mentioned, the referee was rightly having none of it. Kelleher made a couple of sharp saves at 2-1, two crucial interventions within a few seconds of each other. Kilman, somehow, missed from six yards and that was your lot. There was another crazy penalty “injustice” that saw that Lopetegui loser get a booking and that was as good as it got for West Ham. Fabianski beat away a piledriver from Gakpo too, making a save he should. Salah was johnny on the spot with a smart, crisp finish from a Bradley cutback that saw a Mac Allister shot blocked. You can’t keep Mo out of the action can you? Even in a routine League Cup home win he is after goals, after records, after accolades. A goalscoring machine. West Ham’s sense of injustice was only added to when Edson Alvarez was sent off for a second yellow for a frankly ridiculous challenge considering he was on a booking. Absolutely bonkers tackle and off he went. What I liked after this was our pursuit for more goals. I am all for more control in games but this was an opportunity to fill our boots and we did. We got Morton on the field (and he has filled out since his last Anfield appearance) and Robertson came on for Tsimikas. It would have been easy for us to just knock the ball around given the situation but no, we wanted more and we got more. Gakpo was rewarded for his excellent recent form with a late double, firstly firing home from outside the box with a low shot to Fabianski’s right. Even after that, we pushed forward and I fancied we might score another. Gakpo duly obliged with a deflected drive, spinning the ball away from Fabianski to his left. This more aggressive, more direct, more assertive Cody Gakpo is proving to be a massive asset. More of the same, please. So, a comprehensive and comfortable win. Our grip on the Rumbelows Cup is safe for now but away to Brighton is a massive task for us given our recent record there. However, if we turn up in the kind of mood we were for big chunks of that second half then Brighton will struggle to contain us. I usually resent all Premier League ties, especially when Man City usually draw the ghost of Rushton and Diamonds in the knockout competitions. But a trip to the AMEX will actually be a good test for us, the squad and help us to continue to assess where we are at in this transformative season. Great stuff all round, and I am sure Lopetegui will be along in a minute to remonstrate with my Star Man award. The bell. Who is that Star Man? You might know already if you read the top banner, but if not then I'll reveal it here. It could easily have been Jota for his two goals, I thought Endo played well, Jones was classy and skilful. But my shout here is Gakpo. He was lively throughout and looks a million percent more of a player than he did last season. Team: Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Tsimikas (Robertson); Endo (Morton), Jones; Chiesa (Salah), Jota (Mac Allister), Nunez, Gakpo:11 points -
I just want everyone who isn't us to be unhappy.11 points
