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Virgil Van Dijk has hailed Liverpool's statement of intent as they sent a clear message to their title rivals that they are in it for the long haul after a comprehensive 5-0 thrashing of Watford on Wednesday evening. Having beaten the Hornets 5-0 and 6-1 in the previous two meetings between the sides at Anfield, the result was perhaps somewhat predictable and this would have been an ideal opportunity to cash in using betting bonuses.With the absence of Roberto Firmino due to a ankle injury, it was up to the likes of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane to carry a bit more responsibility.The Senegalese star took the lead role scoring twice in the opening 20 minutes one with a close range header and his second courtesy of a piece of outrageous individual skill.Divock Origi made the most of a rare start by scoring his second league goal of the season midway through the second half when he cut inside and fired a low drive in between three Watford players and past Ben Foster's near post.The cream on a pretty tasty cake was delivered by Van Dijk when he was in the right place to head home two pin-point crosses from Trent-Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson in the space of just three minutes.While it has been a season of impressive performances, this was arguably one of the best of the season with players all over the pitch playing their role to perfection.The big Dutchman doubled his goal tally for the club on the evening and while admitting while it is always nice to be on the scoresheet, he was much more impressed with the overall performance.The Official site reported Van Dijk as saying:“It was a great performance overall, we dominated and had a lot of great possession." Especially in the first half, we played very well. "They couldn’t really find a solution for our press. We scored some great goals and obviously it was very nice to be on the scoresheet.” There has been a lot of chatter about the lack of goals and loss of form of key players over the past few games.It is easy to get swept into the whirlpool of opinions that surround the game, but Van Dijk said the players and manager only had one thing on their mind and that was defeating Watford."Everyone has their opinion on the race."For us, it’s just a case of focusing on the game ahead of us and it was Watford. We prepared it very well, even if [the preparation] was very short."We were all ready for it and up for it – we wanted to show our fans and ourselves we play like this the whole season. We have to enjoy it. "I’m not worried about anything apart from what’s [going on] in the dressing room and the guys that have influence on our performance. "Other than that, I’m just enjoying every bit of it.”Van Dijk also paid tribute to the performance of Trent Alexander-Arnold who contributed a hat-trick of assists on the evening."His crossing and delivery is top-class, he has been showing it throughout the season. To get three assists is special.”This game loomed as a danger game when you took in the recent impressive form of the Hornets and their campaign as a whole.With that box ticked in emphatic style, the Merseyside Derby now looms large on the horizon.

Jurgen Klopp has showered praise on his players describing the performance in the 5-0 rout of Watford as a 'fantastic night of brilliant goals and sensational moments of football.'After the dour 0-0 draw against a injury hit Man United outfit on Sunday, there seemed to be a growing view that the Reds were vulnerable ahead of this midweek clash against a opponent who were enjoying a very solid campaign of their own and sitting in seventh before kick off.However Klopp has maintained staunch confidence in his players and that things will click in the near future.After the game he addressed those doubts as well as his great satisfaction over what the Reds produced on Wednesday evening.Sky Sports reported Klopp as saying:"We drew against Manchester United and Bayern Munich and I think most teams would wish they had these problems." But you have to be really stable, you cannot always be sensational. Tonight we were stable and sensational." We have 69 points, we could have had 75 that's possible. "But we are playing a really good season. "Let's enjoy the ride and see as far as it takes us." With Roberto Firmino missing due to a ankle injury sustained on the weekend, it was up to the likes of Sadio Mane to cover the loss of the Brazilian.The Senegal star wasted no time in putting the Reds on the front foot scoring two goals in the opening twenty minutes which set the tone for the rest of the contest.Divock Origi who replaced Firmino in the front three, scored his second league goal of the season midway through the second half, and Virgil Van Dijk put the exclamation mark on the fine performance with two headed goals in the span of three minutes.It was clear that Klopp was a proud man afterwards."It was a fantastic night. "Brilliant goals, outstanding atmosphere, sensational moments of football, good set-pieces, football intelligence, big passion and desire, it was a good performance."I loved the game a lot, we want to see that more often. "The boys have showed things like this all season but tonight it was for different reasons very important."While Klopp would love every game to go to plan like it did against the Hornets, he is well aware the challenges are going to be much tougher, starting with the Merseyside Derby on Sunday." Now we go to Everton. They are not there to give us presents. We will try it again and hopefully it works out."

Andy Robertson says that Liverpool should view the way that the opposition are currently setting up against them as a clear sign of respect.The Reds have fired blanks in their last two fixtures against against Bayern Munich and Manchester United with both opponents being extremely well organised and Liverpool have not been able to find a way to break them down.A worrying statistic is that since the start of 2019 Liverpool have scored multiple goals just twice from nine games (vs Crystal Palace and Bournemouth).The left-back freely admits that the side is currently lacking a spark in attack which needs to be rectified if the side want to lift the Premier League trophy come May.However, Robertson is aware that every game will be a real grind from now until the end of the season and it is all about finding a way to pick up the three points.Liverpool Echo reported Robertson as saying:"We need to start getting back to playing better and attacking better."But that's why it’s harder to win a Premier League instead of a Champions League because it’s over 38 games. "You can’t play well in every game and it’s about grinding out results.“We might well look back on these games and say, ‘You know what, a time we weren’t playing our best we ground out results and that’s what won us the league’.Robertson pointed to the tactics of recent opponents, and said it while it was incredibly frustrating not to pick up the victory on both occasions, it was a genuine sign that the opposition feared the attacking weapons that the Reds possessed. “It’s two top top-quality teams have done that to us in the last week - Bayern Munich and Man United, it doesn’t get much bigger than that."I think something we’re struggling with is that we need to start respecting ourselves. " These teams are showing us the respect and we need to use that as a positive.They’ve shown us the respect of sitting back and being a bit more defensive than they have been since the manager’s took over, we need to use that as a positive rather than a negative. "It’s maybe something we need to work on.“It’s something you have to deal with, if you’re going to win the league you’re going to need to beat the rest. "Whatever way you do it, you have to do it. The Scottish captain said rather than the squad looking over their shoulder at every turn, they should embrace the challenge of the upcoming couple of months with open arms."We won’t be looking at City’s fixtures, we need to look at our own and need to concentrate on winning our games because if we take our eye off the ball that’s how we’ll lose it. We’ve got to be strong, we’ve got to enjoy it, and I’m sure we will".After just one win in their last four league games, Robertson knows the next two fixtures are crucial to the outlook for the rest of the season."We’ve got big tests coming up, Watford just beat Cardiff 5-1 so that’s not going to be an easy game, and then obviously we’ve got the derby."It’s a big week so we need to recover now and then look forward to Wednesday and hopefully we can be a bit more clinical with the last pass.” While Liverpool have not been as successful against their top six rivals compared to previous seasons, against the second tier clubs and below, they have been close to faultless and is one of the major reason behind the success of the team this season. That is why the next couple of games are of vital importance as we edge towards the final two months of the season.

Considering how much I’ve been dreading this fixture for months I’d have definitely taken the draw beforehand. Even now, despite all that went down on the day, I’m not despondent about the result. We needed to avoid defeat to go back to the top of the table and we did it, so I’m good with that. The performance though, that’s something else entirely. Results don’t always tell the story of a game. This one did. Two teams who did absolutely fuck all in attack and would not have scored if they played until May. There are different ways to draw a game and some are more palatable than others. A draw in which the two teams had gone at each other hammer and tong and had to settle for a share of the spoils is easy to feel good about. The “Great game for the neutral” draw. There’s also the draw in which you batter the opponent but just can’t score because of bad luck or the keeper having a worldie. That’s frustrating as hell but still provides reason to feel encouraged. The “We’ll get ‘em next time” draw. Then there’s the draw when you get your arse handed to you and somehow escape with a point. You look at that as a point gained, stolen even. The “Great Escape” draw. This though? Klopp summed it up perfectly when he greeted the Goblin at full time and said “fucking hell, what a shit game”. It really was. For us especially. Not so much for United, the plucky underdog looking to throw a spanner in the works of our title challenge. They’ll see this as a good day, and to an extent it was. They had a lot to overcome on the day, yet David De Sea probably hasn’t had an easier game all season. That’s really disappointing from our perspective. That being said, it is Old Trafford and given the amount of times we’ve gone there and suffered all manner of misery, coming away having gone top of the league has to go down as one of our best ever trips there, despite the utterly woeful play in attack. It’s hard for me to be objective here as I’ve had a harrowing week on a personal level. Having barely avoided a family tragedy on Tuesday, we were not so lucky a couple of days later. I’m not going to dwell on it here, some of you will know from Twitter and also the Members Forum, but the point I’m making is that in my present state of mind I’m unable to see the positive in anything, let alone a performance in which we didn’t seriously threaten the United goal even once. I mean fucking hell, in a game in which we were the only side actually trying to win, they still somehow had the better chances and went closest to scoring. It’s hard to see anything positive in that, other than that they didn’t put those chances away. Normally in this fixture they would, and I fully expected them to get a late winner. Thankfully Smalling fluffed his lines. Up until an hour before kick off I wasn’t sure whether to watch it or not. In the end I decided I’d watch it, as it was impossible to feel worse than I already did, but I’d made up my mind that if United went ahead it was going off. That never happened but on at least three occasions I almost switched it off anyway as it was clear from a pretty early stage that we were never going to score. I knew in the first half we weren’t going to score and although the hope in these situations is that half time adjustments and a kick up the arse from Klopp can turn things around, ten minutes into the second half it couldn’t have been more obvious that we weren’t going to score. In fact, despite adopting Jose’s parked bus tactics and having a centre forward playing on one leg, United somehow still managed to look the more likely winners. They didn’t have many chances, but it was still more than we had. Alisson made a brilliant save to deny Lingard and then a more straightforward one to keep out a Lukaku header. Credit to Robbo there for doing enough to put the striker off, and for somehow managing to get up and continue to play after having the full weight of Lukaku land on top of him. There was an Andy Robbo shaped imprint in the six yard box after that, and for a while it looked like he might join a casualty list that included Herrera, Mata, Firmino and Lingard. Mad really, so many players off injured and not a bad tackle in sight. Thankfully Robbo survived, as no-one needs to see Moreno starting any of our upcoming games. Set-pieces were a problem for us too. Well actually they weren’t, but it felt like they might be. Matip put the ball in his own net but Smalling was correctly ruled offside. There were other dangerous looking situations that were correctly given offside. We defended them excellently but it wasn’t good for the nerves. We gave away too many silly free-kicks and that high line that West Ham were able to exploit was tested to the absolute limit. United clearly had a plan to counter it (which basically involved touching it to another player first rather than just taking it) but the discipline of the lads remained strong and thankfully the linesman did his job. The idea of taking that extra touch is to throw off our timing and hope that someone loses their discipline and doesn’t hold the line. That never happened and you could see the concentration from all the lads. It’s always worrying when you’re relying on the officials to get close decisions right though. As for our set-pieces, the less said the better. We did have one chance when ol’ Big Bird Joel got his 50p head on the end of a corner, but no surprise it ended up six yards over the bar. It’s staggering that we’ve scored the most goals from set-plays this year. How shit must everyone else be? The general cause for people’s displeasure seems to be that although a draw at Old Trafford is fine in theory, it was an opportunity missed because of how injury ravaged United were and that they had to use all three subs before half time. Klopp actually used that as the main reason for us not winning, saying that the stoppages disrupted our rhythm and we never got it back. Are also said that the changes forced United to change what they would normally do, and therefore made them play differently to what we had prepared for. I understand the “they were there for the taking” grievance and sort of agree. But it’s not the missed opportunity aspect that bothers me, it’s just how utterly shite we were. Graeme Souness tried putting a positive spin on the performance on the basis that we dominated possession and generally kept United well away from our goal. Two points to counter that. 1. It’s easy to dominate possession when you’re the only team trying to win. Additionally, that United midfield was more worthy of the u23 league than the biggest fixture in English football. McTominay and Perreira?? Kinell. That’s the equivalent of us playing Ovie Ejaria and Herbie Kane. 2. It’s easy to keep the opposition away from your goal when they’re playing for a 0-0 and are effectively playing with ten men because the centre forward is injured and was only still on the field because they had no subs left. So no, sorry, you don’t get credit for those things as they were as much down to United’s lack of ambition (and personnel) than anything we did. It says a lot about the current state of both clubs that they can play like that, at home, and have the full support of their crowd in doing so. Stopping us winning was all that mattered and they were made up with the 0-0. Is that a victory of sorts for us? Maybe, I couldn’t really care less though. What they do is up to them. Besides, we’ve been in their situation too many times to mention over the past 30 years for me to get all superior about it now. It’s not nice when the only thing you have to play for is to try and throw a spanner in the works to prevent your most hated rival from winning the title. So I don’t care how they approached the game or how happy they are with a 0-0. What concerns me is how utterly fucking shite we were going forward. As I said, maybe my current state of mind is warping things for me a little, but to me this was as bad as anything we’ve seen all season. Ok, we were probably worse in Belgrade (and Naples was bad too), but other than that we haven’t seen anything to rival this. United’s approach didn’t make it easy for us, but we come up against shite teams who just want to defend all the time, so we’ve had more than enough practice. For some reason though when we go to Old Trafford the forwards all stink the place out. None more so than Salah. That’s twice now he’s gone there and arguably been the worst player on the pitch in both games. I was actually glad when he got subbed. In fact, it probably should have happened sooner and no doubt would have done if our bench wasn’t so weak. How many times is Mo going to try the same thing before he realises it’s not working? Get the ball, back to goal, turn straight into the defender. Over and over and over. Fucks sake. Here’s a thought, maybe go a little bit wider, isolate your man and try and get a one v one instead of staying so narrow and running into a packed box all the time. Or hey guess what, maybe work a little triangle or two out wide. Yeah you know what’s coming next but I don’t care. That’s right, I’m gonna bang on about Man City getting around the sides and how we don’t do it enough. I don’t think we did it once in this game. Not fucking once. I’ve got no doubt whatsoever that City would have put three or four past this United team playing like that. We’re not City though and it’s an unfair comparison in many ways. We’re not financially doping the shit out of everything. We don’t have Sane, Mahrez and Jesus to bring off the bench if it’s not going well. We lost one player and the whole thing turned to shit. Bobby going off should have seen Salah and Mané step up their game to compensate. Instead they both took a massive dump on the edge of the box and then rolled around in it. As for Sturridge? What’s the point anymore? I mean why was he brought on? Jurgen couldn’t seriously have thought he was going to get anything more than what he got from him, surely? Last ten minutes when you need a goal it makes sense. Starting him at home against a bottom half team is something you can get away with too. He’s still got magic in his boots around the box, but asking him to come into this game early on and do anything is only going to end in disappointment and frustration. Bobby going off screwed us completely and if he’s out for any length of time then, quite honestly, we’re fucked. We might get away with it against Watford and possibly even Everton, but we need him back asap. Sturridge’s first involvement was to ridiculously shoot from about 40 yards. I’m not even going to condemn it though because it was the only shot we had on target in the whole fucking game. Yeah, it was a pea roller and didn’t trouble De Gea, but there was maybe a one in a million chance it might have gone in. Remember Collymore against Tim Flowers? If you don’t shoot, you don’t score. That’s not to say I want everyone taking pot shots from 40 yards, but I’m not going to take Sturridge to task for it when he was basically the only one who took a shot in the entire fucking game. Of course, after that he disappeared completely and probably should have been subbed. Klopp had plenty of choices as to who to bring off, and not enough good options in terms of who to replace them with. He subbed a furious Henderson, causing an unsavoury little scene on the touchline when the skipper blanked him when he offered a customary handshake. Klopp went back and told him off, and a suitably chastised Henderson then shook his hand. I kind of see why Hendo would be annoyed as it’s not as though he was having a bad game. He was alright, but the forwards were all shite and we needed to try something a bit different. Klopp understandably felt there was little point in bringing Shaqiri on for one of the front players as that’s not going to shake anything up, so a midfielder had to go and it was Hendo. It could just as easily have been Gini but it wasn’t, and Hendo didn’t like it. Personally I’d have moved him to right back and subbed Milner instead. He was on a yellow card and although he was getting forward and finding space regularly, his deliveries into the box were shite. Broadly speaking though, I have no real issue with Hendo being taken off and neither should he. Klopp looked agitated and pissed off throughout. I get it. He was watching that performance and wondering just what the fuck they were doing. You could see how bemused he was at times by what he was watching. His changes did nothing to help the situation though. Bringing Sturridge on first was definitely a mistake and it was a mistake that should have been corrected, even if it meant making Sturridge look like a tit by subbing him. Shaqiri should have been the one to come on for Bobby, with Mo moving inside. Alternatively, if keeping Salah out wide was non-negotiable, then go with Origi. At least he’ll run and put himself about. All Sturridge did was pick the ball up 50 yards from goal and lay it off five yards to whoever was nearest to him. When Shaqiri belatedly came on the game had completely drifted into nothingness anyway. He was never going to make the kind of impact he did in the meeting between the sides at Anfield and other than one sweeping 40 yard ball to Robbo I barely remember him doing anything other than fouling someone and getting booked. He almost seemed to be playing as a second right back with Milner at times. You want him around the box but he spent most of his time nearer the halfway line. Same as Sturridge really. They were coming deeper and deeper to get the ball because we couldn’t sustain any possession high up the pitch. In a game like this, you need something different. Someone who can get beyond the forwards, make a run to either get the ball or drag defenders away and create space for Salah or Mané. Ox was great at that, but isn’t that why we bought Keita? How he didn’t get on the pitch in a game like this is staggering to me. He’s been improving game by game and this was perfectly set up for him to come on and at least try to make the difference. Instead we got Sturridge, Shaqiri and eventually Origi. Did anybody think for a second any of them were going to do anything? Keita probably wouldn’t have either, but at least that would have been a logical change. The sooner Ox comes back the better. It would also help if Trent rediscovered his best form and stayed fit for the rest of the season too. I don’t blame Klopp for not picking him in this game because he looked rusty as fuck against Bayern and we’ve got two more games coming up this week. He needs to come back in and play well, because he gives us an added dimension that we can’t replace when he isn’t there. This is all pretty negative so far, which I don’t think is solely due to the dark place I’m in. It was a dire performance, there’s no getting away from it. You can’t dismiss it as just being an off day either, because since the turn of the year we’ve been bad more than we’ve been good. “Oh we’re top of the league, why are people not happy?” some cry. I get it. I really do. No-one expected us to be where we are and it almost seems ungrateful not to just be falling at the feet of the team and praising them for what they’ve done so far. There is another side to it though. Having done so well to put themselves where they have, that brings hope, expectancy, and a higher standard of judgement. When they fall below the standards they’ve set for themselves, people will worry. We’re top and that’s an incredible effort considering what the lads are up against. You can’t really blame fans for being agitated though when it wasn’t that long ago we had a chance to go ten points clear. TEN POINTS! Imagine that. Now it’s one. Ok, the ten point gap never happened because we didn’t get the rub of the green at City and suffered our only defeat. No cause for alarm there. We had a chance to go seven clear a few weeks later. All we had to do was beat Leicester at home. Didn’t do it though. Oh well, beat West Ham and remain five clear, that’ll do, no need to be greedy after all. Nope. Lucky not to lose that one actually. And just like that, we’re in a situation where we needed at least a draw in what is traditionally our worst fixture of the season just to avoid being overtaken. So yeah, we’re top and nobody should try to diminish what a phenomenal effort it has been to get there. But we’ve drawn four of our last five games in all competitions. Since the start of 2019 (disregarding Wolves in the cup when it was a scratch eleven) our record is P 8 W 3 D 4 L 1. Only one of those wins was convincing and it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’re spluttering along and just hanging on grimly. The hope is that we can now kick on again and sprint for the line. The worry is there might not be anything left in the legs for the sprint finish. The truth is though none of have any idea. For weeks I’ve been saying we’ll have a clearer idea of where we are after that United game. Now I’m not sure. Position wise it looks good, sure. That was the game in hand and we took something from it to ensure we have a slender advantage over City. If we were playing well I’d be somewhat more relaxed about things and if we beat Watford and Everton this week I’ll be much, much more relaxed about things. Carra made that point after the game and he’s right. If we can come out of United, Watford and Everton and still be ahead of City, we’re in great shape as that’s a massive test we’d have come through. The draw with United won’t look bad at all providing we win the next two, but then I said the same thing after Leicester and we went and fucked it up at West Ham. The odd draw doesn’t do you any harm, but if you bunch them together it catches up with you quickly. Spurs have lost seven games this season and they’re only six points behind us. Seven defeats? They should be miles back but they haven’t had any draws so they’re still just about in touching distance. I look at the league table and it’s great. Looking down on everyone with only 11 games left? Hell of a job so far by Jurgen and the lads. Only one defeat all season and that was a knife edge game against the reigning Champs. Brilliant effort, I might be wrong but I think this is still the best season we’ve ever had points wise. I watch the games though and more often than not I’m thinking “what’s wrong with the attack?” It stems from last season and the high bar they set themselves. Maybe it was always going to be impossible to repeat that but I genuinely thought they could. They’re all in their mid 20s and coming into their prime and last year was their first season together, so if anything they’d only get better, right? Hasn’t happened though. That’s not to say it won’t, but they’ve taken a couple of steps backwards this season. Thankfully the rest of the side have taken a couple forward. Maybe it’s just a dip in form. Maybe it’s tactical (have we been found out?). Maybe it’s tiredness. After all, they were all at the World Cup and none of them are ever rotated. Maybe last year they caught lightning in a bottle and this is just a natural reverting back to the mean. It’s probably varying degrees of all of the above. The defensive side of the game is why we are where we are but if we’re going to stay there then the forwards need to step the fuck up now, starting this week against Watford and Everton. Star man? *Blows out cheeks* That’s hard. Fabinho and Gini were decent and Alisson made a decisive save when we needed him to, but I’ll go with Van Dijk. Not even sure why, it’s not like he was exceptional or anything, but he did what he needed to and I can’t think of anyone who was better. Team: Alisson; Milner, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson (Shaqiri), Wijnaldum; Salah (Origi), Firmino (Sturridge), Mané:

Jurgen Klopp has bemoaned a missed opportunity as Liverpool failed to claim all three points as they played out a dour 0-0 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.The clash between two of the giants of English football was a disjointed affair with all four substitutions in the first half due to injury.The home team was hit hardest with Ander Herrera and Juan Mata each succumbing by the 25 minute-mark to hamstring injuries.Roberto Firmino made it 2-1 on the injury front when the Brazilian had to be replaced by Daniel Sturridge on the half hour mark due to a ankle injury.Man United then responded in kind when substitute Jesse Lingard who was a considerable doubt for this fixture, only lasted 18 minutes before he aggravated his suspect hamstring and was replaced by Alexis Sanchez.If that wasn't bad enough, key attacking outlet Marcus Rashford was clearly hampered by a ankle injury picked up from a Jordan Henderson challenge early in the game.Even though it was a nightmare 45 minutes for the home side, they managed to limp their way to a stalemate at the interval.While controlling possession, the Reds were lacking poise in the attacking third, a issue which also arose against Bayern Munich in the midweek Champions League clash.After the game, the manager was a frustrated figure and was clear in his view that Liverpool let a great opportunity go to waste.Sky Sports reported Klopp as saying:"In this game, on days when United are beatable you have to do it and we didn't do it."It was intense, that was clear, but in the situation today that's a point won for United and we lost two."Klopp also believed that the constant stoppages killed the flow of the contest and therefore affected the momentum of his side who had started strongly. "It was a strange game. We started really well, we started exactly how we wanted to start."Then the injury crisis started, and it obviously cost us the rhythm. It happened to us with Bobby and that was a catastrophe."We lost the rhythm and couldn't get it back. We played, they had set pieces, not really counter-attacks, it was a game without a lot of highlights I would say.While the Reds had 65% of overall possession, they only conjured up seven shots for the entire contest, with a long range Daniel Sturridge strike the only shot on target.Mo Salah had another under-par performance and it was clear he was disappointed by his display especially as he prides himself on keeping to particularly high standard of play.While the point takes the Reds back to the top of the summit, they need to be on guard in the midweek game against a buoyant Watford outfit with the Merseyside Derby following on next Sunday.There is likely to be some changes of personnel for those games with the fitness of Firmino certain to be monitored in the next day or so.

There is a view that you learn a lot more from defeat than victory and how you respond from that setback says a lot about your overall character.This time last year saw Trent Alexander-Arnold's star well and truly on the rise, impressing observers at large with his level of confidence and overall quality for someone in his first full season of senior football. However, the football landscape is one that when you start to make a name for yourself, it naturally gets noticed by the opposition.They are quick to identify what your strengths and weaknesses are, and then devise a plan of action when they come up against you.A veteran manager like Jose Mourinho doesn't leave any detail to chance, so when Man United came up against Liverpool in March last year he used a specific tactic involving Marcus Rashford to fine effect, exploiting the defensive naivety of the then 19 year-old.It was a galling experience for the right-back as Rashford's two goals were the difference between the sides on that occasion.Nearly a year on, Alexander-Arnold reflects on that time and says that lesson has served him very well in the long run.The Guardian reported Trent as saying:"I still use that game as a learning point. That is probably the best thing to do; look back on the harder games you’ve had, the tougher games, learn what I didn’t do well and what I could have done better."The Manchester United game was definitely one of those games but rather than let it get me down, or put me down and think that maybe I am not good enough at this level, it was important to use it as a positive and see it as a learning step to improve.To the great credit of the youngster, he did not take that poor performance lying down.Instead he looked to speak to one of his mentors in Academy director Alex Inglethorpe who helped put the youngsters' mind at ease and help him focus on the next challenge."It was about getting back to basics, not to overthink things and think you are not good enough at that level, that maybe the level is too good for where you are at."It is important to put it behind you. Alex helped me with that, the manager as well and also the people around me who support me. I would probably say it was the hardest point of my career up to then. "Obviously the Champions League final came afterwards which was tougher than that, but it is something that has helped me learn, progress and move forward.” It is clear that Alexander-Arnold has grown in stature both in a domestic sense, and on the European and international stage since that moment.You needed no greater example of his resilience than the clash against Brighton in mid January when the youngster sustained a knee injury in the warm-up.While it looked like he could be replaced at any moment, Alexander-Arnold managed to shrug off the obvious pain and play the full 90 minutes.He didn't realise the full extent of the injury which turned out to be a knee ligament Issue which saw him on the sidelines for the next few weeks."It was probably the adrenaline that got me through but after the game the pain got worse and I had to go for a scan."Tomorrow, Alexander-Arnold will come face to face with his nemesis from that clash 11 months ago in Rashford.The pair are close mates courtesy of time spent together in the English set-up, a far cry from times past when club rivalries were in the forefront of the Liverpool and Man United players' minds when it came to international football.The 20 year-old is a big fan of Rashford's game."He is a fantastic player and someone who has got bags of potential. "If he is not a world-class player now, then he is someone who can definitely reach that level. I think he’s going to be a really special player." However, Alexander-Arnold has put the friendship well and truly to one side for this contest."There will definitely not be any texts before the game. "You focus on your job and on the day there will be no smiles. We will go into battle with them and hopefully come out on top.It has been a remarkable two years for the youngster and in that time, he has achieved things that other players have struggled to do in a whole career.Tomorrow shapes as another important step in Trent's development as a player, and hopefully he can put those bad memories well and truly to bed with a starring performance.

The old adage "like a new signing" has been trotted out by many a manager over the years when describing a player returning from a long term injury.In the case of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, it could be just the boost the squad needs as we enter the crucial period of the title run-in.The English international joined in several sessions with his teammates at Liverpool's training camp at Marbella last week as well as in the build-up to the last 16 first leg clash against Bayern Munich.Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered the cruelest of blows when arguably in the form of his career last April, when he sustained multiple ligament damage to his knee in the first leg of the semi final Champions League clash against Roma.Not only did it cost him the chance of playing in a Champions League final for the Reds, but also the opportunity to play in a World Cup as he was a near on certainly to be picked in Gareth Southgate's 23-man squad.The rehabilitation has been long and gruelling and no doubt the thought of 'why me, why now' has crossed the mind of the 25 year-old.But to the midfielder's great credit, he has got on with the job. Initially it was thought that he would miss the whole season, Oxlade-Chamberlain is a fair chance to make a few appearances before the season has concluded. Sadly this Sunday's massive game at Old Trafford comes to soon for the former Arsenal man. The Premier League football betting markets have this game as too close to call, and having Ox to call on would have been a huge boost to the Reds. Just having him back on the training field has given the entire squad a lift though according to skipper Jordan Henderson. Speaking to the Official site, Henderson said that the return to the training pitch by 'the Ox' had given everyone a real boost."It was obviously a massive moment for everyone but [especially] for him to be back from a bad injury. "He has been out for a while now and I’m sure he’s been thinking about that moment for a long time.“It was great to have him back. He is a great character around the lads and he is obviously a fantastic player, so to have him back within the squad was a big plus for us."Hopefully over the next few weeks he can keep progressing and build his fitness up. "Who knows, hopefully he can get some minutes before the end of the season – that would be a huge boost for the team.”It was a sluggish start to Oxlade-Chamberlains' Liverpool career, made harder by the fact that he joined close to the August transfer deadline.Therefore he did not yet have the camaraderie and general feel for the game plan that a player would normally have when doing a pre-season with their new team.However, when he clicked into gear, Oxlade Chamberlain gave the team a dynamic edge from midfield with his boundless energy and creative mind and his ability to produce in the big games. While this season has been such a impressive one in many ways, Ox's absence has certainly been felt at times.Henderson said Jurgen Klopp will take a 'softly, softly' approach with Oxlade-Chamberlain that gives him the opportunity to show his very best form."The manager will be [careful] – he is with players who have been out for a long time, he knows how difficult it is to come back."But Ox has looked good in training and I’m sure over the next few weeks, as he builds fitness, the manager will keep a close eye on him because he is an important player, a fantastic player for this team.As Liverpool fans, we greatly look forward to the Number 21 returning to competitive action in the near future.

In the days leading up to Liverpool’s Champions League Round of 16 match at home to Bayern Munich, the German giants’ boss Niko Kovac sang the hosts’ praises, claiming that being paired with Liverpool represented “the most difficult draw. There was one element of the coming clash, however, of which the Croatian was particularly confident. “Tomorrow we probably won’t see 0-0,” Kovac predicted. “I can’t imagine that.” As we seek to make sense of an unlikely goalless draw at Anfield, these five takeaways reflect five additional elements of the match that would have seemed as likely as a 0-0 result before kickoff. Bayern Munich Fail to Register a Single Shot on Target, while Robert Lewandowski Manages one Attempted Shot. Over two months ago, when Virgil van Dijk earned a booking for a lunging challenge on Dries Mertens, the Dutch colossus’ subsequent suspension seemed a surprisingly underreported element of Liverpool’s otherwise triumphant victory over Napoli. While the result sent the Reds into the Champions League Round of 16 for the second straight year, I shuddered at the thought of Liverpool playing the first leg against a European giant without the man I believed to be not only our most important player, but the player of the year to date in the Premier League. My fears only grew as Liverpool drew Bayern Munich, Joe Gomez underwent surgery on his broken leg and Dejan Lovren struggled to regain fitness after a hamstring injury. Fourth-choice Joel Matip and midfielder-by-trade Fabinho seemed the obvious choice at the centre of defence, but with Lewandowski leading the line with a record of six goals in his previous three European matches, Kovac’s prediction appeared a safe bet. Instead, Matip burst out of the gate with an uncharacteristically physical challenge near midfield, and from there he and his Brazilian partner set about aiming to replicate the impact of their absent teammate. Both Matip and Fabinho were guilty of a few errors you’d never expect from van Dijk – most notably when a bizarre Matip backheel (after a poor ball out from Alisson) gifted the ball to Kingsley Coman in a dangerous area and when an error from Fabinho played in Serge Gnabry on the opposite side of Liverpool’s box. However, both defenders were instrumental in holding the Bavarians to the lowest attacking output seen at Anfield in European competition since 2015. Both centre backs were called into action to deal with the threat of Gnabry down Liverpool’s left flank. Matip slid across to prevent the German from capitalising on Fabinho’s error, before stepping in front of the German’s dangerous cross late in the first half, while Fabinho cleared out for a corner after Gnabry burst past Andy Robertson in the second half. But the most van Dijk-esque moment of the day belonged to the Brazilian, whose sliding challenge against Lewandowski inside Liverpool’s six-yard box was perhaps the most vital contribution in securing the clean sheet. Van Dijk’s return will be eagerly anticipated as Liverpool head to Old Trafford – and to Munich next month – but his deputies can pat themselves on the back after a job well done in his absence. Serge Gnabry Poses Bayern’s Greatest Attacking Threat, with Three Shots and One Chance Created. Between Lewandowski’s sparkling European form and the absence of van Dijk at in central defence, it was the Polish striker who featured most heavily in my pre-match nightmares. And while Bayern’s pacy pair of Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman were sure to keep Liverpool’s fullbacks on their toes, I felt confident that Andy Robertson would shake off a few recent subpar performances to contain Gnabry as effectively as he’s done so many other wingers during a sparkling campaign. Instead, while Fabinho and Matip helped to keep Lewandowski quiet, it was the German winger who provided the sternest test for Liverpool’s defence, getting the better of Roberston on a handful of occasions. Gnabry repeatedly burst past the Scotsman into dangerous positions, and Robertson was fortunate for the aforementioned cover provided by the centre backs, as well as the company of Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita, who repeatedly tracked back to deal with the threat of Gnabry. Kovac’s men will surely aim to attack Robertson in Munich – where Gnabry will be able to count on much more support from Joshua Kimmich. In the meantime, however, Roberston should count himself fortunate an uncharacteristically poor showing went unpunished. One of Liverpool’s best players this season, the Scotsman steps up his game more often than not in the big matches, and he’ll need to return to form quickly in order to avoid counting on fortunate to keep Manchester United off the scoresheet on the weekend. Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita are Roundly Applauded by Liverpool Fans and Pundits. The Liverpool Captain has divided opinion across the club’s fanbase for years. Some supporters appear determined to accept nothing less than Gerrard-level production and temperament from the midfielder, lampooning Henderson’s conservative pass selection while aiming to place the smoking gun behind any Liverpool setback squarely in the hands of our square-jawed skipper. On the other side of the Henderson Fault lie those who echo the man who first gave him the armband in waxing poetic about the midfielder’s character, while glossing over the player’s limitations in and out of possession. While Naby Keita’s career – and the arguments about its merits – are much younger than those of his fellow midfielder, the battle lines have been drawn over recent weeks as fans debated the Guinean’s place in the side. While many preached patience, drawing comparisons to Robertson, Fabinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as examples of recent acquisitions whose extended bedding-in periods payed dividends when the players hit their respective strides, others appeared adamant that the diminutive dynamo was an overpriced foreign flop. In contrast to the other entries in this article, neither player’s performance was itself a particular surprise. While one or the other would surely have started the match on the bench had Fabinho remained in his natural midfield role, both players performed admirably alongside Gini Wijnaldum in Liverpool’s three-man midfield. Henderson was near his best in possession, quickly shifting the ball out wide to set Liverpool on the counter and creating one of the best chances of the game when his defence-splitting longball found Mohamed Salah bursting in on Neuer’s goal. Offering much-needed penetration between the lines, Keita was at the heart of much of Liverpool’s best attacking play, bursting through midfield and popping up around the box. His 33rd-minute blast, blocked by Sule, fell kindly to Mane for perhaps the game’s best scoring opportunity. In addition to their exploits on the ball, however, both midfielders chipped in defensively to help secure the clean sheet. Both players made decisive contributions while tracking back, as Keita supported both fullbacks, retreating towards Liverpool penalty area and offering much-needed support to Alexander-Arnold against Coman in the first half. Similarly, Henderson can be credited with helping the reserve centre backs cope with the Bavarians – most notably when he rushed into action to dispossess Gnabry inside the box after a poor turnover from Mane. While the duo’s contributions – alongside Wijnaldum, who was typically solid, if a touch below his recent sparkling form – were crucial in preserving the tie, more will be required of them both if Liverpool are to achieve their aims this season. Both will likely be called into action more on the defensive side of the game in Munich, as the hosts will be sure to attack with greater numbers than those with which the Reds dealt comfortably at Anfield. At the other side of the pitch, with the Reds seeking at least a goal to stave off penalties, Liverpool may well need greater cutting edge in midfield – particularly from Keita, whose final ball was lacking in the first leg – to support the front three. For now, at least, I’ll savour the rare détente amongst Liverpool supporters – that is, until the debates begin on who should make way as Fabinho returns to midfield to face United. Manuel Neuer Attempts more Passes, with 62, than all but Two Liverpool Players. While much has been made of Liverpool’s stylistic changes this season, they remain one of the most potent pressing sides in Europe, and it’s on these European nights, with the Anfield crowd in full throat and adrenaline coursing through the veins of his charges when Jurgen Klopp seems most inclined to turn the Reds’ tactical volume back up to “heavy metal” levels. So it was on Tuesday, as Klopp’s men – including an ailing Roberto Firmino – pressed and harried, often deep inside the visitors’ penalty area. While Bayern Munich – with “sweeper keeper” extraordinaire Manuel Neuer, flanked by a pair of fullbacks in Kimmich and David Alaba who are as accomplished in possession as they are out of it, and supported by Mats Hummels, who made his passing range known to Liverpool in the Europa League classic at Anfield – would be a tough nut to crack, one need only recall Salah’s switft punishment of an error by accomplished ball-playing ‘keeper Ederson last year to conclude that no player is immune to the Liverpool press. Sixty-two attempted passes later, at a near-70% success rate (according to @natefc) and one can’t help but wonder if Neuer is the exception to the rule. Led by their ‘keeper, Bayern dealt comfortably with Liverpool’s press as the German #1 calmly surveyed his options – at times from within his own six-yard box – before successfully finding one of them, more often than not. In Munich, the Reds will likely need to play a bit more conservatively, particularly as Kimmich and Alaba are likely to venture much farther up the pitch – meaning the visitors may need to look to more traditional methods of chance creation. But even away from Anfield – and even with Neuer marshalling the Bavarians’ efforts to break the press, I wouldn’t count out Firmino and Company from nicking the ball back in a dangerous area. Liverpool head to Munich for the Second Leg with a truly Blank Slate. The biggest – and most consequential – surprise of all lies in the scoreline, which pits Bayern Munich as slight favourites as they prepare to host the all-important second leg. While Bayern’s defence – which tackled and intercepted well and often deep in their own defensive third – deserves a great deal of credit, this feels a missed opportunity for Liverpool. Liverpool took fifteen shots (to nine, according to @natefc), yet put only two on goal. Liverpool registered 2.2 expected goals (to 0.5, according to @Caley_graphics) and of course ended up with a goose egg on the scoreboard. Liverpool’s attack – the irresistible driving force behind last year’s run to Kiev – failed to capitalise on a host of chances and were unable to create the types of clear-cut opportunities upon which they’ve feasted for much of the past two years. Sadio Mane was particularly wasteful and while Firmino was bright, dropping deep to link play and creating opportunities around the edge of the box, Salah was unable to shake free to the deep-defending Germans to add to his collection of European tallies. The result is far from calamitous; having not surrendered an away goal, the Reds need only a score draw to advance, and while the prospect of visiting the Allianz for a European match shouldn’t be underestimated, Liverpool’s attackers will likely find at least a bit more room in which to operate than they did in the first leg. With van Dijk returning, the visitors can hope to replicate the clean sheet they achieved at Anfield, but keeping Lewandowski quiet will be a different proposition with the home crowd baying and the likes of Kimmich, Alaba, Thiago and James playing much farther forward in support, while the result may rest on the ability of Liverpool’s front three to create and finish the game’s decisive chances. As Liverpool supporters, there’s not much more we can ask for than to have everything to play for – in the League and in Europe – over the final three months of the campaign, three months that will be filled with a host of surprises and perhaps one or two pieces of silverware. Joel Tracy @RambleOnReds

Not the result we hoped for but it’s fine. Considering there were no goals, it was a cracking game. A classic European tie. We played well for a while but couldn’t capitalise on it and eventually we ran out of ideas. Bayern seemed happy to take a goalless draw and showed little interest in trying to nick an away goal. Hopefully they will live to regret that. Our defence played well, the midfielders were all impressive and Bobby was outstanding for someone who should have been tucked up in bed with a lemsip or a pack of immodium (depending on what type of virus he had). Had we been able to get one maybe we’d have gotten more, as some of the football we played was great (in the first half especially). Sadly we couldn’t finish it off and it allowed Bayern to become more and more comfortable. The finishing was poor but the final ball was often even worse. I’d say that was the only thing wrong with what was otherwise a good performance. If Sadio had been able to finish or if Mo had not continually ran into cul de sac’s we’d have been fine. I don’t think there’s any need for people to feel disappointed and there’s certainly no cause to be disheartened. Disappointing is drawing at home with Leicester or away to West Ham. This is Bayern Munich, serial winners, and a team who a couple of years ago would have been seen as being light years ahead of us. Now we’re facing them on an equal footing. In fact, we’re facing them as slight favourites. You could see the respect they have for us in how they approached the game. They were much more defensive than anyone expected and to be fair I thought they were very good, very composed and they passed it around nicely. That might have changed if we’d scored, but we’ll never know because we didn’t. They defended well, rode their luck at times and eventually they looked largely untroubled. I felt as though they had a goal in them too after how they played in that first half, but after the break they didn’t do much and seemed content to just sit in and keep what they had. It’s a first leg away from home against a very good side, so it's long been a tried and trusted approach. In their shoes though I’d be thinking this might just be a missed opportunity. No Van Dijk. No Gomez. No Lovren. No away goals. That's the biggest positive we can take from the night, the makeshift pairing of Matip and Fabinho stood strong and the clean sheet could prove to be the most decisive aspect of the tie. We'll see. The first half was a cracker. Chances galore and lots of nice football from both sides. Salah had a good chance that he couldn’t convert when Hendo picked him out with a glorious ball over the top. Not an easy one, and I’d have probably tried to head that in if it was me. But then I don’t have a left peg like Mo so that would be why. A diving header would have been easier than attempting what he did though I reckon. Bayern hit back straight away and almost took the lead with a freak own goal. Gnabry did brilliantly to skin Robbo and drill a low cross into the box. Lewandowski missed it under pressure from Matip, but the defender didn’t have time to react and side footed it straight into the chest of Alisson, who knew nothing about it. Bad moment there for 'Big Bird', and he had another one not long after. In fairness, it was more on Alisson than him, as the keeper dawdled on the ball (as he tends to do far too much) before just about smuggling it away to Matip, who was not expecting it and was caught completely on his heels. His feeble flicked attempt at clearing the ball was seized upon by Coman who struck the side netting. Mané then shot wide following the best move of the game. The way the lads worked that opportunity out of some tight spaces on the right was outstanding. Shame Sadio couldn’t finish it off. He’d have been better cutting inside and then releasing the overlapping Robertson, but instead he moved to his left and dragged his shot wide of the near post. He then wasted an even better chance when he didn’t realise how much time he had when a loose ball fell to him after Keita’s shot had been partially blocked. He could have taken a touch and picked his spot but he rushed it, tried to hit it on the turn and scuffed it wide from 8 yards. It felt like all our chances were falling to Mané, and he missed another opportunity from another blocked Keita shot, as this time his overhead kick went well over. Difficult one that though in fairness. Salah missed a great chance too when he headed wide at the back post after a gorgeously flighted ball in by Trent, while Matip put one wide after lovely interplay between Mo and Bobby had created the chance. So we had our chances, we just didn’t take any of them. The second half wasn’t anywhere near as good, mainly because the final ball kept screwing things up for us and because Bayern became more defensive. The longer it went, the more frustrating it was and the more inevitable the goalless draw became. Part of the problem was that Bobby eventually ran out of steam and had to go off to be replaced by Origi. With him went the link between the midfield and attack and it all became a bit too much about individuals rather than the collective. Not Divock’s fault by any means - it was others who were guilty of not passing - but the understanding isn’t there between him and the others and the dynamic understandably doesn’t function as well. There was one situation late on when he made a great run in behind and Mané just refused to pass it and instead went himself and lost it. That pissed me off because had he slipped him in we may have seen a repeat of Origi’s goal against Dortmund, as it was in the same area of the field. He could just as easily have fucked it up of course, but we'll never know because fucking Sadio didn't pass it to him. There was no excuse for not playing that pass and had it been Firmino or Salah making the run I expect he would have done. The closest we came to a second half breakthrough was a diving header from Mané that the keeper tipped around at his near post. Other than that it was just a lot of set-pieces that never really threatened to come to anything. The delivery wasn’t the best (Salah in particular is terrible on corners), but the real issue was the massive height difference between the sides. I looked at our lads in the box any time there was a corner and it was obvious that unless Big Bird somehow got his 50p head on the end of something we weren’t going to win any headers against them. We didn’t miss Virgil at the back, but we missed him on our attacking set-pieces. 0-0 isn’t a scoreline anyone expected but this is big boy football. It’s the European Cup; it’s not supposed to be easy. Just because we made it look easy last year doesn’t mean that’s now the norm. It isn’t. This is hard fucking work. It’s Bayern Munich, one of the giants of the game, and they’re not going to just come here and shit the bed. The ‘power of Anfield’ can work in two ways. It can intimidate the opposition and it can inspire our lads. Sometimes it does both. Bayern are too long in the tooth to allow themselves to be unduly affected by the crowd though. Mats Hummels was on the wrong end of it a few years ago so he knew what to expect (same with Arjen Robben) and he will have briefed the rest of them. The crowd were up for it but this wasn’t an all or nothing, high stakes, everything on the line game. It was a first leg, and we’re not big underdogs. That makes a difference and the intensity was perhaps not quite what it has been on other occasions. Maybe if it had been at fever pitch it might have unsettled Bayern, but probably not. The crowd were right into it in the first half and YNWA before kick off was great. I don’t know if George intentionally played it when he did but I’m not sure that turning it off after the opening chorus will be enough to stop UEFA from handing out a charge as the fans totally drowned out their anthem, and we know how they don’t take kindly to that. In the second half when the game began to drift, the crowd seemed to become increasingly resigned to the fact that we weren’t going to score but because this wasn’t a do or die type situation that’s almost to be expected. There wasn’t the frantic, manic atmosphere to drive the players on in the closing stages because this is essentially only the first half. The last thing we needed was to over commit and give away an away goal, which could decide the entire tie. I'd say there has been an over-reaction to the performance in some quarters. Watch the first half again and then tell me we didn’t play well. Yes it dropped off after the break and the second half wasn’t a good performance from an attacking perspective, but the defensive side of it was fucking boss. Almost flawless in fact. Alisson had nothing to do because the defending (and by that I don't just mean the defence) was great. Goal number one is to win the game. Goal number two is to keep a clean sheet. We achieved one of those so all in all it’s not a bad night’s work. I mean come on, we can’t win every tie in the first leg. We did last season but it’s not always going to be that way. The important thing is to not lose it in the first leg *cough* Man United *cough* , which we haven’t. The general consensus seems to be that this is a better result for Bayern than it is for us. Not for me, Clive. At worst it’s 50-50 but it might even be slightly in our favour thanks to the clean sheet. We don’t need to win in Munich. We just need to score and to not lose. Easier said than done of course, but it’s difficult for Bayern as well. They need to win (or hold out for pens and cross their fingers). They’re clearly a good side and there’s an aura of calmness and professionalism about them. They’re vastly experienced, been there and seen it all. You could tell. They never panicked and stuck to their gameplan well. It’s worth pointing out though that they didn’t muster a single shot on target. They had their threatening moments of course (mainly through the lively Gnabry), but they never seriously troubled a defence missing it’s top three central defenders. That’s being overlooked by many I think. They got to face a Liverpool defence missing Virgil and they couldn’t score. We had our number four and five centre backs out there against Lewandowski and he barely got a kick. It’s probably not going to be any easier for them in the return leg either, although the big difference there I suspect will be in their attacking ambition. At Anfield they seemed happy to keep everyone back and keep it tight. That’s not an option in the second leg and that will leave us more space to play in. Their right back is suspended now, which might unsettle their defence a little. He seems like a tit, and I don’t just mean because that jarg muzzy he was sporting. Did you see him shouting like a fucking loon in Sadio’s face after he made a tackle? Mané just laughed at him. It’s almost a shame he’s not playing in three weeks because I’m sure Sadio would be looking forward to having another crack at him, especially as he knows if he had his shooting boots on he’d have been going home with the match ball. Yet this prick tackles him once and is giving it the arl Marco Tardelli? We could easily go over there and lose. Only a fool would suggest otherwise. We could turn in a performance like we did in Paris or Naples and if we do then we’ll lose convincingly. It all depends on how we perform on the night and also whether we get the bounce of the ball. I’m not telling you we’ll definitely go through, I’m saying is that 0-0 is fine and that I saw nothing at all in this game to make me any less confident of progression than I was going into the tie. Star man is Hendo. A stonking performance from the skipper which I’d like to think will silence his doubters for a while, but I’m not that naive. Maybe if he follows it up with an equally impressive display on Sunday that will help. He’s got great performances in him but he just struggles to produce them consistently, partly because he seems to pick up injuries at the worst possible times. We need this Hendo for the rest of the season. Both centre backs were very good too (once Matip got over a couple of initial wobbles) and Naby looked lively again. The full backs weren’t at their best though. Trent was wasteful in possession while Robbo really had his hands full with Gnabry, who probably beat him more times than every other opponent he’s faced over the last year combined. Hopefully Mo and Sadio will be sharper in the second leg too, and more importantly (to me anyway) on Sunday. As big as these Champions League games are, they don’t even come close to what is at stake this weekend. I’m nervous already, whereas if I’m being completely honest I’d barely even given the Bayern game a second thought until kick off approached. I’ve had this United game on my mind for months though. I just want it out of the way so we’ll know exactly where we stand for the run in. By that I mean, every time we look at the table and see City above us, the consolation is always “we’ve got a game in hand”. It makes us feel better. It’s a comfort blanket. Until you actually stop and think about it and realise that the game in hand is THEM, and it’s THERE. It’s the least enjoyable fixture on the calendar at the best of times, but the stress factor is cranked up like never before this year. So come on Reds, let’s have you looking sharp in the final third, play to your best and let’s fucking do these bastards. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Fabinho, Robertson; Henderson, Keita (Milner), Wijnaldum; Mané, Firmino (Origi), Salah:

Liverpool played out a scoreless draw against Bayern Munich in the first leg of their last 16 clash at Anfield on Tuesday evening. It was a cagey affair with both teams lacking their usual fluency in the attacking third of the pitch, but in a defensive sense it was a first class display by both sides.Heading into the eagerly awaited clash, one of the big talking points was the absence of Virgil Van Dijk through suspension.With Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren out through injury, the question was who was going to fill the sizeable void that the Dutchman left.While captain Jordan Henderson put his hand up for the role, Jurgen Klopp went with Fabinho who had played at centre back with former club Monaco, and also for the Reds against Brighton last month where he looked right at home.Partnering Joel Matip, the defensive midfielder had to face the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry but instead of shying away from the responsibility, he took it all in his stride.One teammate who was keen to highlight the performance of the Brazilian after the contest was Andy Robertson.Metro reported the left-back as saying:" Yeah, different class."The good thing is we haven’t had a game in ten days so me and Fab have been working together in training and trying to work on a partnership."Of course he would prefer not to be playing there but I thought he did a great job for us."He put in some great tackles in the box but of course we’ve got Virg back for the next leg but Fab did the job we needed to do. "We all stuck by him, we all protected him. But he didn’t need it." After needing time to find his feet in a new league, the performances of Fabinho have been on a rapidly upward curve during the last few months which is a major bonus as we head into the crucial final months of the season.What is also a bonus is the fact that the 25 year-old is so comfortable playing in multiple positions of the pitch which in the modern game is so vital.While the overall result was not what Jurgen Klopp and his players would have wanted before kick-off, it was certainly not a disaster either.Klopp knew that his team was not at their best on the evening, but is well aware that there is plenty to play for when they meet again in three weeks time."On the game, we made our life a bit difficult today with the last pass. "I don’t know how often, maybe 10 to 12 times, there was a promising situation either a counter-attack or on the edge of the box but we immediately shot [the ball] into their legs, it doesn’t make too much sense. "The positive of course is the result, it’s the best possible draw you can get but we can play better, we should play better.After not playing for 10 days, perhaps it is a blessing we got that sort of performance out of our system before we play our most important game of the season to date on Sunday.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson is confident his side has what it takes to last the distance in the title race while competing strongly on the European stage.While title rivals Man City were in action in the fifth round of the FA Cup on the weekend, the Reds were taking part in a training camp in Marbella which came at the perfect time with so many big games just around the corner.In the past, Liverpool sides have routinely struggled when they have had more than one competition on their agenda.As recently as 12 months ago, the team were taking all before them in the Champions League, but in terms of the league it was another story where they dropped 10 points immediately following a Champions League fixture from the round of 16 onwards.The drop off in league form saw Liverpool make extremely hard work of top four qualification, which was only sealed with victory on the last day of the season against Brighton.The Mirror reports Henderson saying that a repeat is not on the cards:“I feel as though we have got a good enough squad to cope with the games when they are coming thick and fast."It is down to us to keep performing, no matter what competition it is. We will give everything and just be mentally ready for the next few months."It is why Marbella was such an important week for us to get ready." Naturally there is a lot of outside noise at this time of the season, both with fans growing in expectation, and the football pundits analysing every facet of the title race.Henderson says they cannot focus about what has been said and it is all about striking the right balance between light hearted banter and keeping their mind firmly on the job.“Whatever is being said outside, you can’t get into all that. For us, it is about focussing on the next game. We are in a good place at the minute, so hopefully we can put on a good show."We have just been the way we always are and we have just enjoyed going to work every day with a smile on our face."We have been having a joke but as soon as we go on to the training field, it is down to business and we are focused on what we need to do and it is very serious. "That is the way it should be.”The captain has had a stop-start campaign due to some niggling injuries and extra competition in the midfield has meant that he is not a automatic selection when fit. But being a leader means that you sometimes have to sacrifice your own game for what is good for the team. In more recent times, Henderson has been deployed at right-back covering for Trent Alexander-Arnold. The 28 year-old is more than willing to play at centre-back in the absence of Virgil Van Dijk for the first leg of the last 16 clash against Bayern Munich but it is believed that Jurgen Klopp will use Fabinho in the position.Whatever the position he plays between now and the rest of the season, Klopp will be relying on the experience of Henderson to keep the ship steady and steer it over the line in first place.

Saturday Feb 2: L 3 Bournemouth 0. Yes! There you go. The Reds are back. 4-3-3, Bobby and Mo back where they should be and just like that we’re back to the 17/18 team that scared the shit out of everybody. Results wise we’ve been incredible this season, but the performances have generally taken a bit of a dip. If we’re going to stay ahead of City then we need the fire and brimstone, tear your a new arsehole attacking football from last season. This performance was a big step on the road to where we need to be. The opposition has to be taken into account, as Bournemouth aren’t the most difficult side to play football against, but on this form anybody would struggle to deal with us. The front three were dazzling, the full backs were great and the midfield was probably as good as we’ve seen it all season. This was Naby’s best game, Fabinho was terrific and Wijnaldum was the best player on the park. Gini actually had the wildshites in the build up to the game and said he was worried he might shit his shorts during the game. Imagine being able to play as well as that under those circumstances. I won’t even leave the house when I’ve got the shits. When he plays with this freedom to get forward and make runs he’s a brilliant player. His problem is because he’s so good at everything and can adapt his game to do whatever Klopp needs him to, sometimes we don’t see him making those runs. I want to see him given license to do that every game because when we have midfielders breaking beyond the forwards (Ox does this brilliantly and we’ve missed him) it gives us an added dimension and makes the front three even more difficult to handle. If we play like this at Old Trafford then I’ve been worrying over nothing. Sunday Feb 10: Mo has shaved off his beard. Not sure I’m a fan of this as I tend to not like change, and I’m also superstitious. Why risk it now, with so much at stake? I don’t want him turning into ‘Chelsea Mo’ and never scoring any goals. The pictures did make me laugh, as although he’s clean shaven he’s still got a 5 o’clock shadow. Like when Homer gets a shave and within a second or two it grows back. That was the only thing that made me smile today, as Spurs won again and those Chelsea losers let in six at Man City. How the fuck does one of the big teams let in six goals when they have all eleven players on the field? It shouldn’t happen. Ever. It’s Arsenal behaviour that. Chelsea started the season well and Sarri’s methods were being lauded. Seemingly all it took was for opposing teams to stick someone on Jorginho and stop him getting on the ball, and the whole thing fell apart. Doesn’t take much for that squad of players to become disillusioned with a manager’s tactics though does it? And when it happens, they just stop playing. That was a disgrace today and it’s not all Sarri’s fault. He’ll be the one to carry the can though, and those players will all live to kill off another manager in the next year or two. I just hope Reds don’t get disheartened by this result today. Other than goal difference, it doesn’t matter if they won 1-0 or 6-0 as its three points either way. Psychologically it might have an impact as it fuels the whole “oh look how scary Man City are” narrative. To me it changes nothing though. This doesn’t make them any better or worse than we thought. They’re the same team that lost to Newcastle two weeks ago. It says a lot more about Chelsea than it does City. I don’t feel any differently about our title chances today than I did yesterday. City will win most of their games, we knew this. Hopefully they slip up once or twice and then the rest is up to us. Monday Feb 11: Ramsay is getting 400k a week to join Juve. This is a joke. This kind of shit is not doing football any good. Players getting stupid money as a reward for running down contracts doesn’t help anyone except the players. Juve pulled this exact same shit with Emre Can and while I’ve barely even given him a second thought this season and I don’t think we’ve missed him one jot, that’s not the point. Other players will see the eye watering salaries Can and Ramsay are getting and it will encourage more of them to let their contracts run down. Not just that, you’ll always get the dickhead copycat clubs that will see Juve doing this and think that’s what they need to do to compete. When you have good but not great players like Can and Ramsay making that kind of dough, it only makes the great ones think “what the fuck? How’s he getting more than me?”. And that’s not going to end well for the clubs. The rest of Europe’s big clubs need to get together and beat the shit out of Juve and steal their lunch money, the absolute weapons. Meanwhile, the squad fly to Spain for their warm weather training. Gomez is left behind but everyone else based at Melwood has travelled, meaning there are places for some lads who some of you won’t really know anything about. Hell, I’ve always made it a point of pride to keep abreast of what’s going on with the reserves and youth teams, but even I couldn’t tell you anything about what type of player Isaac Christie-Davies is. It’s a good chance for some of the lads to stake a claim for next season though. My boy Adam Lewis in particular really needs to catch the eye, because Moreno is off and there’s a vacancy there for the back up job to Robbo. The main thing is they don’t come back with the fucking ebola virus or whatever it was that swept through there camp after their last little jaunt to warmer climes. Tuesday Feb 12: Ok, so those reports were wrong yesterday. Gomez isn’t the only one to miss out, as Lovren was not in the travelling party either. This makes him a big doubt for Bayern next week. Even if he recovers in time it’s not Klopp’s way to throw players in when they haven’t had at least a few days of high intensity training. So it’s going to be Matip and Fabinho playing in that game. Not ideal, but it’s the home leg and hopefully we’ll be more on the front foot anyway and won’t have to defend too much. The bigger problem is that means no Fabinho in midfield, and he’s becoming more important by the week in there. By the time we play the away leg Virgil and Lovren should both be back in the mix so fingers crossed we’ll have a good result to take over there. Unlike the Mancs, who have to travel to Pais chasing a 2-0 deficit after being taken to school by the oil cheats tonight. The Goblin’s unbeaten record went up in smoke as PSG thoroughly outclassed them. This is interesting to me because they did it without Neymar and Cavani. They exposed United for what they are; a flawed team with a shite defence. They’re dangerous in attack and because of that Solskjaer has been able to get them punching their weight in a way that Mourinho never could. They have too much quality for the shit teams but tonight showed what can happen when they face genuine quality. There’s a blueprint there for us when we go there the weekend after next. I feel a little less dread about that game now, especially as Martial and Lingard both look like they’ll be out for a while. Losing to them would be a horrendous feeling regardless, but it would definitely be worse if Lingard and his cunt face was out there celebrating. Wednesday Feb 13: I see Keita and Mane both tapping up Werner through the press. Don’t like this at all. We’ve been on the receiving end of this shit from Barcelona and it’s annoying as fuck, so it’s not cool having our lads do it. Especially as I’m not sold on Werner. If they were tapping up Mbappe then I’d be right on board with that, which makes me a stinking hypocrite but that’s ok, most football fans are and I’m no different. Keita says Werner is one of his best mates. That’s fine then, WhatsApp the shit out of him every day telling him how boss it is here. Get Sadio in the group too seeing as how he seems to love Werner so much. Just don’t be saying shit to the press about it. On the field tonight, Spurs beat Dortmund 3-0 at Wembley. Mad how they’re just grinding on relentlessly even without Kane and Alli. I’m putting it out there now though. Dortmund are still going to knock them out. 5-1 over there. You heard it here first. As for us, well the kids are through to the next round of the Youth Cup after a 2-0 win over Wigan. No surprise that Glatzel and Duncan got the goals. I switched it on at half time but I could only take 20 minutes of the second half before I switched it off, as it was awful. They’ll need to play much better than this if they’re going to go any further. Don’t know why Hoever and Jones aren’t playing in this either. I know they’re in the 23s now, but they’re still eligible and at one time the Youth Cup was seen as such a big deal that clubs would always put their strongest teams out. Sometimes you’d even get lads who’d played first team football moving down to play. I guess it’s suffering in the same way as it’s big brother, the FA Cup. No-one's arsed anymore. Thursday Feb 14: Really interesting stuff from Ljinders today in an interview with Neil Jones on goal.com in which he revealed the reasoning for the formation change we’ve seen this season. It was about getting Fabinho in the side, as he wasn’t ready to play 4-3-3. “For Fabinho, to play in a midfield three as we did at the start of the season, we knew it would take time. His impulse of defending forward is absolutely of the highest level, elite. The question as a No.6, though, is that you are moving more side-to-side than forwards. “Then, of course, you have to adapt to the league and the team. We found a good solution to change to 4-4-2 (4-2-3-1). And from that moment it helped so much, and then you saw the real Fabinho.” We did, but it came at a cost. Not in terms of results, but it really hasn’t helped Bobby. Or Salah either, although it hasn’t hurt him as much as it has Firmino. Mo’s done well and is still scoring, but sometimes he just gets marked out of the game when playing through the middle, and Bobby as a 10 has just not worked in the way many thought it would. He’s played there before and at one time it was seen as his best position, but in that ‘false nine’ role he’s as good as anybody. Now that Fabinho looks to have fully adjusted to 4-3-3, I’m excited to see whether we can go on the kind of tear that we did this time last year. Also today, there’s some discussion about our wage bill and how it is now apparently higher than Man City’s. The Echo ran an article on it outlining how the Reds have double the amount of staff working in various admin roles and maybe that has played a part. Really? That annual amount probably accounts for a week’s wage for Aguero. It’s irrelevant. This is simple really. The reason our wage bill is higher is because our wages go through the books. Arsenal lost to BATE in the Danny Welbeck Cup tonight. This is great, not because they’ll get knocked out as no doubt they’ll win the home leg and go through, but it’s still dead funny seeing them losing. I saw on Twitter that BATE have only ever beaten English clubs twice (the other one was Everton 10 years ago) and that Mustafi was playing in both games. He should have that on his headstone, the absolute bum. Friday Feb 15: Allan moves on loan to Fluminense after Eintracht Frankfurt terminated his spell with them (he played four games). What’s the point in this then? He’s been loaned all around Europe since we signed him in a bid to help him qualify for a work permit for next year, but he’s not pulled up any trees and now it seems the only option was for him to go back to Brazil? Not that I’m arsed. Klopp has said plenty about how talented this lad is, but his performances on loan clearly haven’t backed that up. There's as much chance of him playing for us as there is of the other loan ranger, Taiwo Adeyemi, ever coming back and forcing his way in. Conor Coady signs a new deal at Wolves to apparently ‘end speculation of a return to Anfield’. Who was speculating that then? He’s a good lad, a massive Red and he’s done well at Wolves, but he’s nowhere near the level of player we’ll be looking at this summer if we're in the market for a partner for a Matip (or maybe Lovren) replacement. He plays in a back three for one thing, and how do you even scout a centre back who plays in an entirely different system and style to your own? It’s virtually impossible. Good luck to him though, I hope he’s been given a good wedge there as its nice to see Academy lads doing well for themselves. Case in point, we’re being linked with Ajax wondered De Ligt again. £75m apparently. Juve are said to be interested to, so presumably nobody has told them he’s still under contract. Speaking of everyone's least favourite scabby bastards, according to Tuttosport, they want Mo and are prepared to send Dybala (who they value at £135m despite him scoring only two goals all season) here in part ex. Gee, that’s nice of them, eh? Fucking hell. I know nothing about ‘Tuttosport’ other than when I hear the name I’ve always thought it sounded like the Italian version of the Sunday Sport, and stories like this do nothing to change my mind. I bet their front page was “Genoa man turns into frog after sucking off man in Kermit costume”. Have to admire the delusion of it though. The only reason way leave top PL clubs to go to Juve is when they’re available on freebies and Juve can completely distort the market with insane wages. File this one away with Genoa man / Kermit the frog. and that was the week that was...

Watford edged the Z-Cars derby thanks to an Andre Gray strike. My boy Troy's pre-match pleas fell on deaf ears as loads of fans brought rubber snakes with them to show what they think of Marco Ssssssilva. Or should that be $ilva? Either way, they think he’s a twat. There was all sorts of aggro after the game too as Everton fans reportedly began attacking Watford fans as they came out of the stadium. There's two sides to every story of course, but let's just say that Watford aren't exactly known for the reputation of their 'firm'. Probably Millwall's fault though. The goal came from a corner that shouldn’t have been given, which just makes it all the more amusing. The ref should have known that wasn't a corner as Pickford was never going to get a touch on that shot. Not with those little arms. Zouma was sent off after the final whistle for getting in the refs face to complain about it. That derby game really did do irreparable damage to this Everton team. Only for the fact they’d picked up a fair few points earlier in the season, they’d be in the relegation mix right now as they’re free falling. The countdown to the second coming of the Moyesiah is well under way now. The Mancs extended their unbeaten run under the Goblin with a routine 3-0 win at Fulham. The Londoners started brightly and had a couple of great chances to take the lead but, as usual, their car crash defending would prove to be their undoing. I hammered Ranieri recently for picking that Tim Ream bum, but after seeing the performance of Maxine Le Marchand I now have some sympathy with arl Claudio, as if this is the alternative no wonder he went with Ream. The Frenchman was more like Tim Ream than Tim Ream himself. You'll do well to find a worse performance from anyone all season. Then there’s the keeper, allowing Pogba to score at the near post like that. Shite. Fulham basically handed this game to United with the kind of defending (and goalkeeping) that has no business in any of the top four divisions in England, let alone the top one. I’m officially giving up on Fulham now. You can’t defend like they do and hope to have any chance of doing anything. Not even Lazar can save them. Cardiff though, they continue to defy the odds. Their win at Southampton was huge for both teams. As much as everyone (including me) seems to just be assuming they will go down, their players seem to believe otherwise. Going to Southampton in a six pointer and coming away with a stoppage time winner says a lot about them. And maybe says even more about Southampton. That little bounce they had when ‘Useless’ was sacked and the new fella came in seems to have gone now. This result puts them right back in the mix to go down. I don't believe they will, but losing at home to Cardiff suggests it might be trending that way. Sol Bamba put Cardiff ahead and immediately charged straight into the away end to celebrate with the fans. He’s boss him. He was having a laugh with some of them on twitter afterwards too, as one of them broke his glasses in the celebrations. If you’re a team at that level you’d love someone like him, he's a proper leader. It looked like that would be the winning goal but then Stephens equalised in stoppage time. Huge blow for Cardiff, but incredibly they went down the other end won it through Zohore. Their first back to back wins in the top flight since the 1950s. Mad that. Not sure I’m comfortable with all this “we’re doing Emiliano proud” talk though. Warnock was giving it all that afterwards, and while I understand that he’s trying to pay his respects in his own way, the lad didn’t know anyone at the club, hadn’t played a game for them and if he’s up there somewhere watching footy, chances are he’s watching Nantes and not Cardiff. Cardiff's win tightens things up down there, especially as Brighton lost to Burnley and are now only three points above the drop zone. The Seagulls are struggling, which only serves to show just what an amazing job Hughton has done there. Player for player, they are probably in the three worst squads in the league along with Cardiff and Huddersfield. They were last year too, but they finished mid-table because Hughton did a great job. They fell behind to a Chris Wood strike after the striker was left in the clear when Lewis Dunk fell over. He added a second after the break and then Barnes made it 3-0 from the spot after being felled by the keeper. Duffy pulled one back but Burnley were comfortable winners and are now level on points with Brighton. Stuart Atwell though. Fucking hell. At 2-0 Brighton should have had the clearest of penalties. Somehow both he and his linesman missed it, and 15 seconds later he’s giving one at the other end. The Burnley pen is a little dubious for me. Barnes was brought down by the keeper, there’s no doubt about that, but Wood picked up the loose ball and put it wide of an open goal. The ref brought it back and gave the pen, but my question would be; if Wood had scored would he have ruled it out to give the pen instead? I suspect he would have allowed Wood’s goal to stand, so by that logic it probably shouldn’t be a pen. Fucking sick of Burnley and their dubious pens though. Two in seven days now (or two in two years depending on your point of view!). They’re getting as bad as Palace. Arsenal won away. Not something that happens too often. It was only Huddersfield though, and as I said last week it’s almost as though that shouldn’t even count now. Iwobi’s deflected volley put the Gunners ahead but Huddersfield could have had a pen when my boy Puncheon’s shot was blocked by the hand of Koscielny. The defender hit the deck holding his balls and the ref fell for it. Defo hit his hand first though. Lacazette fired in Arsenal’s second after good work by Maitland-Niles and that proved decisive, as Huddersfield pulled one back in stoppage time when Kolasinic put through his own net. The Huddersfield fans are great. They’re still making noise and getting behind the team. They get a corner when they're losing 4-0 and they're still roaring encouragement. They’ve never turned against the players or lost enthusiasm, even though they’ve basically been down since around October. Fair play to them, no doubt they'll have plenty to cheer about next season as I'd be surprised if they're not in contention to come back up again. They need a couple of goalscorers though. Over at Selhurst Park, Wilfried Palace missed a shedload of chances in a 1-1 draw with West Ham, whose fans taunted Zaha by chanting “you’re not good enough for England”. I saw something on Twitter in response to that which made me laugh. Zaha isn’t even English but he’s represented England more times than Mark Noble. I’m a big fan of Wan Bissaka but I saw something from him in this game that really concerned me, and I don’t mean his hair. He was just ambling back when Anderson was running clear. He could have caught him if he had sprinted, but there was absolutely no desire from him to get back in there and defend. Alarming that. West Ham took the lead when the keeper flattened Antonio and Noble despatched the spot kick. Benteke was denied by Fabianski and McArthur and Batshuayi both missed sitters before Zaha eventually squeezed in the equaliser with the aid of a deflection. He almost won it right at the death too but was denied by Fabianksi. Onto Sunday now, and a game I saw someone refer to as 'El Plastico'. Very good that. Just what the fuck were Chelsea playing at though? Not football, put it that way. I was fairly sure they'd lose, but not like this. Top sides should NEVER lose like this, no matter who they are playing. Not unless they have a player or two sent off anyway. Chelsea are a disgrace and although it's partly on Sarri and his one dimensional tactics and unwillingness to compromise on them, the big problem is that toxic group of players. How many managers are they going to see off because someone at Chelsea realises they have a problem with the culture at the club? Loads more hopefully, because as things stand they're no threat to us. At 0-0 Higuain fluffed a chance. So much for proving me wrong eh? Man’s a fraud. Always has been, always will be. F-R-A-U-D. Of course he’ll probably score against us now that I’ve said that, but it won’t change anything. Kevin Lisbie once scored a hat-trick against us and he was shit too. A minute after that miss City had the lead. Of course it came from someone getting in behind and firing in a low cross to Sterling at the back post. Chelsea’s defending on that was Fulham-esque. So amateurish. Minutes later they were undone again. Bernardo Silva down the side, low cross to the back post, but Aguero incredibly put it wide. That must have pissed him off because the next time he got the ball he lashed it into the top corner from 25 yards. It was 3-0 almost immediately as Barkley headed the ball back towards his own goal straight to the feet of Aguero. Once a Blue always a Blue eh, you breeze block headed cunt. Gundogan made it 4-0 and there wasn’t even half an hour gone. Carra summed it up perfectly when he said that Chelsea have morphed into Arsenal. Of the top clubs, only the Gunners have it in them to get their pants pulled down like this against a rival. Aguero made it 5-0 from the spot after Sterling had been hacked down. Hat-trick for him, but the funny thing is that all anyone wanted to talk about was the dramatics of Mike Dean as he pointed to the spot. He’s a massive tool that fella but he’s hilarious. Sterling bagged the sixth and I’m not even going to tell you how it came about. Textbook City, and further proof of how badly prepared so many teams are. That keeper is fucking shite as well. How come no-one is talking about that? Imagine the media coverage if Alisson had been shit. This lad cost even more money and has been a shambles so far. I see Aguero still doing interviews in Spanish because he’s just flat out refused to learn English despite having played over here for about ten fucking years. Lazy cunt. Sarri refused to shake Guardiola’s hand afterwards. No idea what his reasoning was, but I wouldn’t want to shake his hand either as he’s a fake nice guy twat. Sarri will be getting a handshake soon though. A golden one. Also on Sunday, Claude Puel left out Vardy at Spurs because he “wants to develop other options”. How about you develop them against someone else, you whispering fucking prick. He compounded that fuck up by then bringing him on to take a penalty (after the latest Maddison dive), which of course he missed. That would have made it 1-1 after Spurs had led through a first half goal from Sanchez. Minutes after the penalty miss Eriksen made it 2-0. Vardy pulled one back but with Leicester pushing hard for an equaliser they got caught on the break and Son made it 3-1. Spurs just keep spawning wins despite hardly ever looking any good. The only time they haven’t managed to do it was against United. They were the better side that day but their spawn isn’t as strong as United’s. Son was booked for diving, which is par for the course with Spurs as it happens every week. If it’s not Son it’s Kane, or Alli, or Lamela. All diving bastards. But let’s talk about that Mo Salah fella eh? Finally, Wolves and Newcastle on Monday night. I almost shit a lung at the finish to that game. So, so funny. Newcastle deservedly led and looked like they would pick up a massive three points on their fight to stay up, but a crazy passage of play in the dying seconds ended with Boli heading the ball out of the hands of the keeper as he tried to catch a cross that had been completely mis-hit. Was it a foul on the keeper? I don't know. Maybe. The keeper should have done much better, but usually refs will take the easy option and give the free-kick. This ref didn't, and Rafa looked like he was gonna keel over as he was so red faced and mad. That's not why I thought it was funny, I felt kind of bad for him as he'd done a number of Wolves tactically. It was funny because all night was that the cameras kept showing the away end and all the shirtless knobheads in there. They thought they were going back up the North East with three points, but instead all they got was a kick in the nuts. Laughing at Geordies is one of the joys of being a football fan. They're not as funny as Evertonians but they're a distant second. Finally, have you seen the state of Newcastle’s new signing? Some Paraguayan lad they bought from the MLS. He came on as a sub and I was like "what the fuck is that?". He looks like a worm with eyebrows.