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Liverpool returned to winning ways with a impressive 3-0 win against Bournemouth at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.First half goals by Sadio Mane and Gini Wijnaldum was followed by a Mo Salah strike three minutes into the second half.Bournemouth missing the creative touches of David Brooks and strike power of Callum Wilson had no answer and fell to yet another away day defeat which is their eighth in succession.While the win was more than welcome especially after two frustrating draws, another pleasing factor of the victory was the game of Naby Keita.The performances of the Guinea international who turns 24 today (Happy birthday Naby) has been a major talking point throughout the season.While fellow midfield summer signings in Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri have shown encouraging signs, Keita has never really settled as he has battled niggling injuries and inconsistent performances.Jurgen Klopp has pleaded for patience in regards to the £50 million signing saying that he will come good in time.One player who knows all about adapting to a new club and having to be patient is Andy Robertson as he was in the same boat last season.The Scottish captain who on Saturday registered his 11th assist since debuting for the Reds (most of any defender during that span) was very impressed with the performance of Keita and told the Official site that he can gain a lot from that as we move into the crucial last couple of months."I thought that Naby was excellent. He has taken a wee bit of time to settle in but today was probably his best performance in a Liverpool shirt. I’m sure he can take a lot of confidence from that, which he will."He’s young and he’s had to take time. But if you look at all of us, Fabinho had to take time, me, Chambo. There’s a kind of pattern emerging that you need to settle in and you need to learn the way to play and things like that."I think everyone forgets how young Naby is, he’s only a young boy. I thought today he was a different class. I’m sure his confidence will be sky high after today.”"He’s a fantastic player and the more he shows it the more people will start talking about him. In terms of the victory, Robertson said it was pretty much a complete performance, goals from the front line and midfield, and the defence keeping things tight at the back.The left-back also says that every win in the division should be savoured."In this league it is so hard to win games and you have to work for every inch that you get. And you have to work for every goal that you score, and thankfully we did that today."Bournemouth, two games ago, beat Chelsea 4-0. So, they are having a good season, they have a good team and a good manager. But, overall, I thought we deserved the win and we deserved the clean sheet, and it probably could have been more.While winning is obviously vital when aiming for a league title, the other thing you need is the supporters to drive you on during games.Robertson was glowing in his appreciation of the Anfield crowd on Saturday."It was brilliant. The fans got behind us, they were in nice and early and they got behind us from the first whistle. It always makes a difference."But we know we have to put on a performance to match that. We need to put in a performance to get the fans onside; to win our tackles, to score goals, to create chances. "That’s the only way you are going to get fans off their seats and that’s in any league at any time.The squad now heads off to a warm weather camp in Spain for a few days, before a massive stretch of games starting with the first leg of the last 16 Champions League clash against Bayern Munich a week on Tuesday.

Jurgen Klopp has urged his players and the supporters to focus what is ahead of them and forget what has gone before as Liverpool aim to get back on the winning track against Bournemouth at Anfield today.Plenty has been made of the Reds inability to win their last two fixtures against Leicester and West Ham, while their main rivals Man City have made the most of that mini blip and climbed back to the top of the table albeit having played a game more.You would expect a sense of trepidation and panic to creep into the mind of a manager in this kind of situation, however you get a sense that Klopp is loving the challenge.The Liverpool Echo reported Klopp as saying:“The reality is that if you want to be champions of the league, you have to fight until the last matchday. "That is completely normal and what we have to do."To be in that fight is very positive – a big achievement – and we have to make sure the people see that again on Saturday.“We have no influence if people want to be overly critical. We can not change that immediately. What is on offer is a tight race until the last matchday."Make yourself ready. Fasten the seatbelts and let’s go.” The German is fully aware that the current narrative for his side is one of lost opportunities.However, he has been around long enough to know he can't change what people think.“For us, I did not see what they all say they can see in our faces."When I talked to the referee after the game (at West Ham) they said now he is nervous.' I did not think it but I cannot change it."There was never a guarantee this season. People always wanted the biggest gap in the world, pretty much, 25 points, whatever, and then only three games to go. That’s nice, but it’s not the reality."The two clashes against the Foxes and Hammers have seen Liverpool lack any kind of fluency in a attacking sense, while the defence which had previously been the strength this season, has started to look a bit vulnerable under pressure.Klopp knows they have to improve their game once again if they want to realise their title dream this season but maintains there were mitigating reasons behind the sluggish displays. “We are very critical. In the outside world, we can never use any real explanations because it’s then always used as being an excuse."But internally, we have to talk about why it was a bit more difficult. It’s not cool if we cannot train with the team we want to play."We still should have performed better, especially in the Leicester game. The pitch didn’t help. Nobody has to write that any more. It’s just a fact. It made the game really difficult."West Ham was always a tough place to go and a few other teams realised that already. "Getting a point there, and having more chances, stuff like that, which nobody even thinks after the game, it’s like you have to dominate them constantly and they are not allowed to have anything."That’s the situation we are in, but that’s not a problem. We expect ourselves to do better. We are not blind to our problems, but it’s not as serious as people make it. That’s the truth.”There is a view that injuries to members of the back four have contributed the team conceding five goals in the past three games, but the manager was not using that as a excuse.“It is never cool if you have to change but the goals we conceded were not because of the changes to the last line."If you look at the goals and make the analysis, the goal against West Ham and Leicester had nothing to do with the last line. That is the 100% truth."The goals against Palace, maybe, we had to change a lot in the game and had a red card. It is always better if you can keep seven or eight players always playing and change three or four and keep it like this."As Klopp says, when expectations are raised, more questions follow when things don't go to plan.The best way to answer that is to claim the three points in the fixtures ahead.And that is what the Reds aim to do.

Remember what I said last week about not wanting Newcastle to go down because they beat City? Yeah, forget that. I take it all back after watching them hand Spurs three points late on at Wembley. They gave it a good go for a long time and yes, it might seem harsh holding it against the entire club when it was just one howler from the goalkeeper that lost them the game, but tough shit. It’s a team game, so I’ve had one of my trademark changes of heart and now I’m back to wanting them to go down. It could happen too, they’re only a couple of points ahead of the drop zone. Spurs are really doing my head in now. They just won’t die. They’re like Michael Myers. When we got to nine points ahead that was it, they were out of it and there was even a lot of talk that they might struggle to hold onto a top four spot with the injuries they had to their forwards. They lost a couple of cup games which added to the ‘Spurs are fucked’ narrative, but then I look out the window and there they are stood there in their fucking stupid hockey mask after they dug in and found a way to keep scraping wins in the league. They briefly even went above City this week, which is good in one way, because fuck Man City, but bad in another because it keeps them right on our heels. The sooner Jamie Lee-Curtis shows up and finally finishes these fuckers off for good the better. And if she could take care of City for us as well that would be nice. A couple of weeks ago Chelsea would have been fancying their chances of catching Spurs, but then the arse fell out of them completely and all of a sudden there was talk that Sarri might be in trouble. They got back to winning ways on Saturday with a 5-0 romp over Huddersfield in which Higuain bagged his first goals since his loan move from Serie A. Hazard got a couple too, and David Luiz wrapped it up late on with a deflected header. As I’ve said, I’m curious to see how Higuain does over here as it’s always been my suspicion that he’d flop massively if he ever moved to the Premier League. Taking over the cursed Chelsea number nine shirt only added to that feeling, and these two goals do nothing yet to make me change my mind. Why? Because it was Huddersfield. Even slumping Everton beat Huddersfield. There’s no real achievement in Chelsea hammering Huddersfield and it proves nothing about whether they’re back on track or not. The Terriers are game and they’ll try their best, but they pose no threat whatsoeve, which makes them a pushover. It’s like going into the boxing ring against an opponent with no arms. He’s ducking and weaving and he’s brave as fuck, but he’s got no arms so you can just throw everything at him knowing you aren’t going to get hit and that eventually you’ll just beat the shit out of him. So as of now, I’m still saying Higuain is a fraud and I challenge him to prove me wrong this weekend against City. If Chelsea beat City I promise to listen to Madness songs in the car all next week, and I really fucking hate Madness. Those irritating baggy trousered Chelsea pricks did their best to single handedly ruin the 80s. Some of you will be shaking your head at that and saying “I quite like Madness”. You can all fuck off too. You know nothing about music. Anyway, moving swiftly on before I alienate even more of my loyal paying customers… There was fun and games at Goodison as Everton got spanked by Wolves. The only highlight for the crowd was a black cat running across the field. It was on there for nearly three minutes and to its credit did more in that time than Theo Walcott has since he left Arsenal. Having a black cat cross your path is said to bring bad luck, and with City coming to town a few days later this was just what the doctor ordered for the Evertonians. In fact, I reckon one of them smuggled the cat in just so they could let it loose among the players. I’m sure they knew they had no chance of beating City even if they gave their all, but why take any chances? County Road wasn’t safe to drive down all day on Wednesday because of all the broken mirrors lying on the road and no doubt there was a set of ladders lined up outside the home dressing room door for when the players came out of there. I’ll get to their meek surrender against City in due course, for now I’ll just stick with the bumming they got by Nuno Holy Spirit and his boys. Wolves were really good once again. Their first was a pen after Baines had been brilliantly done by the excellent Doherty (defo a best shit player in the league contender). A screamer by Andre Gomez drew Everton level but Jimenez headed Wolves back in front. I like him, he’s a Poundland Bobby, although maybe based on recent form Bobby is a Poundland Jimenez. Dendoncker made it 3-1 after a mistake from ‘the Golden Child’ Ademola Lookman. Told you before, he’s shite him but to listen to the Blues you’d think he’s the next big thing. Not like them to overhype shite kids is it? Branch, Ball, Cadamarteri, Jeffers, Rodwell, Barkley, Rooney. Ok, so Rooney wasn’t bad but he’s the exception that proves the rule. The fight for survival got more interesting this week after Cardiff made up ground on all of their rivals by beating Bournemouth, who failed to build on their brilliant demolition of Chelsea in their previous game. I’m saying nothing about Bournemouth's performance as we’ve got them next. Steve Cook’s bizarre handball allowed Bobby Reid to put the home side ahead from the spot. The players celebrated by holding up a shirt with a picture of poor Emiliano Sala on it. Very sad, those players didn’t really know him but it’s still got to be hard for them as they know it could have been any one of them. Still, it’s a bit galling seeing Cardiff doing all this mourning when according to reports in France it looks like they’re trying to get out of paying the fee. Poor form that. Although saying that, Nantes sending them an invoice and demand for payment while the poor lad is still lying at the bottom of the English Channel is also unsavoury as fuck, as is them dragging all of this out in public. Football is fucking rotten isn’t it? Reid got his second almost immediately after the restart when Cook stepped up to play offside but Clyne was a yard deeper and played the Cardiff striker on. Good finish from him. Afterwards Warnock was in tears on the field (completely genuine) and almost broke down in his interview afterwards as he spoke about Sala. Not entirely sure how genuine that was because just seconds before the interview started he was full of beans and was caught on camera saying to a BBC interviewer “Tell Gary Lineker to fuck off. He’s been calling me ‘Colin’”. Fair enough I think. If Lineker has been calling him ‘Colin’ then he’s entitled to have a pop back. I doubt Lineker gives a shit. He’s probably too busy arguing with Piers Morgan on Twitter to even notice. Cardiff’s win saw them edge closer to Burnley and Southampton who draw at Turf Moor. Ings should have given the Saints an early lead against his old club but his shot was straight at Heaton. Burnley’s record has been really good since Heaton got back in the side, which just goes to show once more than Joe Hart has some sort of curse following him around. He’s played really well this season but they were getting battered. Not through any fault of his, but as soon as he was replaced they started picking up points and now he’s back on bench duty. It’s mad, one moment you’re on top of the world and the next you’re on the bench at Burnley. Maybe he had an encounter with that Goodison cat? There was one massive flashpoint in this game that we’d be hearing an awful lot more about if Burnley had lost. Ashley Barnes was lucky to stay on when he was booked for diving and then he completely lost his shit with the linesman and the ref. At one point he spat at the linesman’s feet, as he delivered a torrent of abuse whilst wildly gesticulating with his arms. Anthony Taylor should have given him a second yellow for such a blatant show of dissent, but Barnes’ protests were so vociferous I reckon Taylor realised he must have gotten that one wrong and shit himself. You don’t react like Barnes did unless you know you’ve been wronged and he had every reason to be furious as it was a staggeringly shit decision by the officials. Anthony Taylor though, so it’s par for the course. Redmond looked like he’d won it with a good finish but Crouchy came off the bench and played his part in a last gasp equaliser. Dyche was no doubt ready to launch into his weekly rant about his team never getting penalties, when, after 67 games without one, Taylor adjudged Jack Stephens to have handled under pressure from Crouch. Barnes held his nerve to get them a well deserved point. Watford and Brighton also played out a well fought draw at the Amex. Ben Foster was sensational. He has a clanger in him but more often than not when I’m watching MOTD all I see is him making loads of worldy saves. Pickford might be "England's Number One" but Foster is by far their best keeper. It's a low bar though to be fair. Special mention for Lewis Dunk too for the best bit of defending all season. He’s lying on the floor having been turned by Andre Gray, and the ball is nestling against his chest. Gray is going to nick it and probably score, and it looks like the only way Dunk can stop him is to handle it. Somehow he managed to make a tackle with his face, and then he grabs the ball between both of his thighs, drags it away from Gray, drops it down on the floor before back heeling it to a team-mate. Take a bow son. Fulham’s revival lasted one game. That great comeback they had in midweek was soon forgotten as they slumped to a limp 2-0 defeat at Selhurst Park against a Palace side missing Wilf Zaha. Palace opened the scoring from the spot. Well of course they did, they’re alternate universe Burnley. Palace and penalties go together like Everton and white flag waving against Mancs. Benteke was back in the starting line up and he hit the bar with a stunning overhead kick. It’s mad how he’s better at overheads than he is with normal shots. I’d back with him an overhead from 18 yards before I would with an unopposed one v one with the keeper any day. Mitrovic should have had a pen when he was shoved in the back, but he wasn’t wearing a Palace shirt so the ref wasn’t interested. Schlupp wrapped up the points with a couple of minutes to go when he fired in a rebound after good work by sub Batshuayi. Onto Sunday now. United won at Leicester. Don’t care. Didn’t watch any of it. Fuck them. City won too. I did watch that one, for my sins. I should have known better than to put myself through that. That Arsenal defence offends me. I mean, I don’t want Arsenal to be good, but seeing their defence as bad as this is actually offensive. I’ve been banging on all season about City scoring most of their goals the same way, but recently it’s began to feel like maybe teams are beginning to figure it out. Not Arsenal. They somehow managed to concede the exact same goal three times. Aguero’s third may have been a clear handball but it deserved to count just so Arsenal got the punishment their staggeringly incompetent play warranted. Absolute fucking losers. The second half from Arsenal was a disgrace. It was like they had eleven Ozil’s on the field. No heart, no fight, they just gave up as soon as the third goal went in. They’ve got some players in that defence who wouldn’t get a game for teams in the relegation zone. And they’re paying them fortunes. Kolasinic is on £120k apparently. Imagine paying that much to a left back who isn’t Marcelo or Andy Robbo? Finally, Wednesday night went as we all expected. The Blues made it look good but got the result they wanted. Hold out for 45 minutes just to show they’re not hopeless, then concede in stoppage time to avoid being booed off. Second half, hold out for 45 minutes to show they can, then let City score in stoppage time just in case goal difference becomes a factor. Marco Silva left out his three best players as Richarlison, Coleman and Sigurdsson all started on the bench. Why do that? Two reasons. Firstly, they’ve got the Z-Cars derby this weekend and Watford are rapidly becoming their main rivals these days. The rivalry with us has lost a lot of its lustre as we play in different leagues now, but the beef with Watford is really gathering pace as that’s a battle they think they can win. It started when they tapped up Silva and Watford weren’t having it and threatened to report them. Watford made Silva stay for a few months and then sacked him for being shit and disloyal. Everton eventually got their man and some Blues are using that as some kind of evidence that they’re a superior club to Watford. “We took your manager because we can”. Watford, for their part, seem to be bearing a grudge against both Everton and Silva. They retweeted something Lineker posted on the day they sacked Silva, where he condemned them for the decision and said they’d be worse off, and they commented “This aged well”. Watford’s CEO apologised for it and joked that he might be going through more social media managers than head coaches at this rate. I reckon that Harry the Hornet was behind it. He’s a case him, remember him taunting Zaha by diving at his feet? The Hodge wanted to kill him that day. That tweet had his fingerprints all over it. Anyway, Silva was clearly prioritising this weekend’s game for personal reasons and had we not been going for the title I expect he’d have been hammered by the fans for not going all out to beat City. But we are going for the title, so they were good with it. I’m not even mad, it’s exactly what I expect. I’m just grateful this game was played at the beginning of February and not the end of April. I hope my boy Troy and the Watford lads tear them a new arsehole this weekend though. In fact, if Watford beat Everton this weekend I pledge to listen to Elton John songs in the car all week. So just like most week’s really. Can’t beat a bit of Elton. Update: My Boy Troy is ready! He had this to say about the prospect of Watford fans giving Silva a hard time: “We’d prefer if you left him alone, it will only motivate them more. Let us kick the shit out of them”. That’s my boy right there. My Boy Troy.

Have you ever watched one of those 5,000 or 10,000 metre races at the Olympics when one of the competitors makes a brave call and breaks away from the pack? It seems to be a considered and calculated call on the face of things, but there is always the risk that they went just a bit too early. While you may not have an emotional interest in who wins, you are holding their breath, hoping their bravery is rewarded with a victory. However the chasing pack is closing in, and working as a team to reign in this individual in. It is like the leader of the race has suddenly become an underdog, and it will take a effort of great strength to hold on when all is against them. At this point of time, it feels a lot like Liverpool are just like that runner, currently leading the race, beginning to feel the heat from behind. What could have been a seven-point gap is now down to three and more than likely come Wednesday evening will have been erased altogether. The psyche of the mind is a remarkable thing. Why does there seem to be a kind of tightness when you leading from the front and an element of freedom when you are coming from behind? For all intents and purposes, who wouldn't want to be leading when you are approaching the critical closing stages of a gruelling season. You are looking to maintain that energy and fine play that got you into the lead in the first place. But it is a bloody tough thing to maintain. Obstacles are appearing all over the place, be it injuries, a sudden lack of confidence, or your opposition starting to find their best form. The gaze from the outside is shining bright, the doubts (be them subconsciously or otherwise) enter the mind. Every slight mistake is documented to the inch of its life and opponents are relishing in your misfortune. It feels like the weight of the world is upon you and the hunters have now become the hunted. How you change that mindset is up to the individual (or this case team.) To the great credit of the squad and management, they are intent on being positive, saying all the right things and not focusing on what they can't control. It might create a sexy story to say that Liverpool are currently crumbling, but that is far from the case. A little wobble most definitely, but at this stage nothing more than that. Good teams manage to contain their sticky spell to a few games and don't let it stretch any further than that. Belief has been the magic word coming from the camp throughout the season. You read any club press release, and it is almost like that word has been drilled into the players’ brain. As we know well, there are a few things you are going to get from Jurgen Klopp on a consistent basis- Complete Loyalty to his whole squad and a positive mindset. Any self doubts are heavily frowned upon and the fanbase have a major role to play in this too. After the West Ham game, their captain Mark Noble raised an excellent point. Although the 'they were scared' quote got all the headlines, the words which really struck a chord were as follows. "They (Liverpool) have got such a great chance, but the fans have to stick by them though. You need to stick together, it will be tough." Now it's human nature to question something when it starts to go slightly astray. Every Liverpool fan would still have some scarring from 2013/4 and certainly don't want to go through anything like that in the near future. But we have shown in the recent past how formidable we can be when we work together as one. There is a view that experience is vital in this situation. Sure that always helps, but on the flip side, the vast majority of the current squad do not carry any mental baggage from failed title challenges. There is also a train of thought that Man City taking back the lead could be the best possible thing to happen. Then we don't have the mantle of 'leader' attached to us and can reset and start again. But personally speaking, that is fraught with danger for many reasons, more so because once they get a head of steam up, they are just as likely to run away with things. We should all look to embrace what is in front of us head on and look it in the eye. At this moment of time, it is still in our hands. It's why I'm on the side of the runner who decides to takes the bull by the horns and believe victory will be obtained in that fashion. In other words, I still think we are a excellent chance of claiming the title. You need to be fearless, don't be afraid of expectation. Don't look back and think about what could have been, do something about it when you have the chance. Certainly all is not lost, far from it. Believe. Jason Harris

Just think, we’ve got three more months of this. I’m not sure I’ll cope. It’s hard watching these games at the moment. The stakes are massive but it’s not just that. The way we’re playing is making it really difficult to stay cool. We’re approaching the most important part of the season and our form seems to have vanished completely. So much for that warm weather training eh? Half the squad got ill or injured and the rest of them look like they’re running in treacle. Whatever happened to “the Red Arrows”? You know, the forward line that terrorised the whole of Europe last season? That was the thought I had watching this as a memory randomly popped up in my head. It was one of our European games last season. Might have been the City game but I think it was before that. Could have been Moscow. Anyway, who it was is irrelevant. The thing that popped into my head was an image of four or five of our lads charging forward against back peddling defenders who were shitting in their shorts, and Steve McManaman making that “Red Arrows” comment. Remember those days when we were just scaring the shit out of everyone with our speed and devastatingly incisive attacking play? What the fuck happened? Now it’s just ponderous, predictable, toothless. Opposing coaches have obviously had time to come up with ways to slow us down and frustrate us, but it seems like more than just that. That might seem like a knee jerk reaction to a couple of draws, and yeah there’s an element of that because I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty fucking despondent today. Clearly we've been doing something right as we’ve got more points than we’ve ever had at this stage of a season and we’ve only been beaten once. What I’m saying is that something isn’t right and in truth it hasn’t been for large parts of the season. Mané even said something last week about how the attack hasn’t really played at it’s best this season. They had a slow start but then looked like they were finding form, but recently it’s all gone to shit again. And now the defence isn't able to compensate for it. This season we’ve had loads of those wins where we’ve just got the job done and found a way, and that’s great, I love it. If you want to win titles you need plenty of those wins along the way and it’s those results that have us where we are. What concerns me is the lack of hammerings we’ve dished out. I remember writing last season that scoring three goals had now become level par. I expected three goals a game. If we got more than that, we were under par. Any less than three and it was an over par round and a bad day. That was the bar that we set. This year we seemed to undergo a change in identity. It was suddenly all about the clean sheets. In the opening months of the season the general consensus seemed to be “this is great, we’re winning without playing at our best. Imagine how good we’ll be when the front three hit form”. Yeah, well it’s February now and we’re still waiting. The clean sheets are becoming scarce and since the turn of the year we’ve dropped seven points in five games. I definitely don’t go into games now expecting us to score three. I miss that feeling but I don’t want to seem too ungrateful as, after all, we’re still top of the table with a three point lead. We should be over the moon about that but I don’t feel it. I should, but instead I’m just becoming consumed by the fear of us being overhauled. After seeing Spurs and City both win at the weekend, I had a feeling of impending doom. I was more nervous about this game than I had been at any point all season. It had nothing to do with the opposition either - West Ham had been battered by Wimbledon and Wolves in their previous two - I was just nervous about us. As it turns out, I was right to be. We were fucking garbage. You could even argue that it was a decent point in the end because we should have lost. I don’t want to hear about injuries either. Spurs have injuries but they continue to win. Hell, they’ve been without Kane and Alli, while Son missed games too. Imagine us without our front three! We look bad enough in attack even with them. Until last week they’d also been having to deal with the strain of playing in both cups too. No mid-season getaway to Dubai for them. So no, I don’t care that Henderson and Wijnaldum were missing. I don’t care than Trent, Gomez and Lovren were out either. Cry me a fucking river. West Ham had more players out than we did (including their star man) and they didn’t have the luxury of bringing in players like Milner, Matip, Fabinho, Keita and Lallana to replace them. So get the fuck out of here putting this down to injuries. Had we lost to a top six side then it’s a valid excuse, but this was a team that had their pants pulled down by fucking Wimbledon a week ago. That team we sent out to play West Ham should have been much better than they were. The team that didn’t beat Leicester last week likewise. But we’re not playing well. Some will say it’s the pressure of trying to win the league but it’s more that we’re just not playing well, both collectively and individually. We look predictable and easy to defend against. It’s not so much about nerves, it’s more tactics and form. The biggest difference between now and a few months ago is that we aren’t keeping clean sheets. We scored first against Leicester and also against West Ham. Early in the season that meant three points. Now, there are no guarantees because we’re conceding goals and giving up chances. West Ham should have scored more than one. So should Leicester. We were fortunate to lead in this one as our goal was so far offside it’s hard to believe how a professional official can fail to spot that. All I can think is maybe he was hypnotised by Lallana’s magic feet. That was brilliant from him, but then control in tight spaces has never been an issue for him. He’ll still be able to do that when he’s 60. It’s the rest of the game that’s now looking like it’s beyond him. Maybe if he had a run of games we’d see him return to what he was, but what are the chances of him getting a run of games? Slim and none. He’s not good enough to be first choice anymore and he’s not durable enough to stay fit for more than three games at a time even if he was. Anyway, he did superbly to work that ball to Milner, who then did well to cut it back to Mané to finish expertly. We’ve been on the wrong end of some bad decisions of late so we were owed this bit of luck with the offside. Just a shame we didn’t make it count. I give credit to West Ham for the equaliser. It was well worked from their point of view and although it was questionable whether Noble should have been allowed to get away with impeding Keita, I don’t have any real complaints about that. Maybe Naby should have took a dive when Noble stepped across him? Antonio does my head in. Shite against everyone else and then turns into fucking Didier Drogba when he faces us. He probably won’t score again all season, the twat. I haven’t seen anybody else mention this, but I don’t like what I saw from Alisson on the goal. I’m not saying he should save it, but just standing there and watching it go in isn’t a good look. Put it this way, Mignolet would have been fucking slaughtered for that. It’s not the most powerful shot in the world and if the keeper’s angles are right he should at least have a chance at reaching it. Standing rooted to the spot isn’t what I want to see from my £65m keeper, but maybe that’s just me. After that equaliser, we looked spent. Lifeless in attack and vulnerable in defence. West Ham missed glorious chances when Rice and Noble both missed the target, while all we had were a few hopeful curlers from Salah that went straight to Fabianksi. There seemed to be no confidence or belief within the team and there was a real lack of urgency in their play. Passing it around on the halfway line in stoppage time summed up the entire night I thought. We probably need to change the approach to defending free-kicks now too. It’s worked great all season as 90% of the time we’ve caught about four players offside. The problem is that some opposing coaches actually do their homework and Pellegrini exposed our set up repeatedly. We always set up for the first time ball in but West Ham didn’t play it like that, they had a player take a touch to throw the timing off and they kept getting in behind us. Klopp said the poor set-piece defending was down to making three changes. Nope. It was down to a coach identifying what we have been doing and figuring out a way to counter it. What will happen now is other teams will copy that approach. I’m not saying we’ll be wide open for an Antonio type goal all the time, but the days of us catching loads of players offside by just holding that high line are probably over. Find another way, Jurgen. And while you’re at it, sort the attacking tactics out too as this is shit and too easy to defend. The build up is too slow and I don’t know how many times I’m going to write this but I’m sick to fucking death of seeing us trying to go through the middle over and over and over. It’s like trying to jam a marshmallow in a slot machine. Utterly futile. The opponents know we’re going to try and play little one twos and they just pack the centre and snuff it out. The space is out wide but we rarely use it. The only width we have is provided by the full backs and when they do manage to get in behind and whip crosses in we always look dangerous. How about giving them a fucking hand, eh? Watch some videos of Man City and study how they do it. 80% of the goals those cunts score come from low balls across the six yard box and they actually managed to score the exact same fucking goal THREE times against Arsenal at the weekend. Granted, Arsenal’s defending is a joke, but the point stands. It’s been going on for most of the season too. For months we were talking about how “it wasn’t clicking” up front but it was great that we were still winning because of our badass impregnable defence. I think we let in six in our opening sixteen games or something. Then the arse fell out of the defence and suddenly we’re dropping points all over the fucking shop because the unstoppable attack of last season hasn’t shown up for most of this year and we don’t have any realistic alternatives to freshen things up. I said after Leicester that I’d rather see Origi come off the bench than Sturridge but ideally I’d rather see neither of them. When Bobby is as horrific as this though we have little choice. He had to come off and he was lucky to last as long as he did. Absolutely fucking brutal he was. I lost count of the number of times he passed it straight to a West Ham player. Inexplicably shit. Origi isn’t good enough and brings back memories of our last two title challenges, when our attacking cover was David Ngog in 2009 and Iago Aspas in 2014. Origi and Sturridge are distinctly better than those two (and both have made contributions) but there’s still too big a drop off between the starters and the back ups. Big Shaq has been quiet of late too, which is worrying as he’s the ‘wild card’ and the only game changer we can call on outside of the first eleven. The less said about Keita the better. The only thing he seems to do well is take the ball effortless past a couple of players in midfield, but there’s little point to that when he either runs into a third and loses it, or passes it to nobody. The fact he was probably our second best attacking player on the night tells you all you need to know about how bad the rest of them were. If Divock had put that chance away in the dying seconds I’d have been over the moon (particularly because of the fume it would have caused given he was a yard offside), but it wouldn’t have allayed the fears I’ve got over how we’re playing. Forget the results for a second, it just doesn’t look right at the moment. It’s a lot like it was earlier in the season except we were keeping clean sheets then and that covers for a multitude of sins. Now we’re leaking shite goals every week and other than the Palace game we’ve been unable to overcome that because it’s not clicking in attack. Last season Salah was a 10/10. Firmino was probably a 9.5/10 and Mané was an 8/10. This year you can knock two points off Mo and Bobby’s score. Sadio is the same or slightly better, but overall the front three haven’t hit the heights they did last season. Part of it is on them, part of it is probably tactical. The switch to 4-2-3-1 hasn’t worked but we don’t look right when we revert to the 4-3-3 either. I don’t have the solutions. I’m not sure Jurgen does either. He looked rattled during this game and his post match interviews did little to inspire confidence. Singling out the officials after that game? We were given an outrageously offside goal and if Origi had taken his chance we’d have also benefitted from a clearly offside last second winner too. Kevin Friend wasn’t even bad. He didn’t get every decision right but on a list of reasons we didn’t win the game he wouldn’t even be on it. Even mentioning him at all smacked of clutching at straws. West Ham had far more reason to be pissed off with the officiating than we did. The linesman who missed the offside for our goal was as woeful as his haircut. He probably shouldn’t be allowed to run the line in a Premier League game when he displays such bad decision making. I mean if he thinks that haircut is acceptable then how can we trust his judgement on anything? There seems to be two camps developing in the fan base now. There are those who are all doom and gloom and terrified that we’re going to blow it (and those who think we already have) and there are those who are getting all pissed off at the negativity from the other camp and are at great pains to point out that we’re top and everyone needs to stop being such bad shithouses. I really wish I was in the second camp. I imagine it’s a much happier place to be than where I am right now. I’m not fully in the first camp but I’ve got one foot in there. I can’t help it. I want to be brave and to believe and to trust the players and if I was in any way encouraged by what I was seeing I would be, irrespective of how many points we’ve dropped of late. I need to see us playing well. We need a convincing win to get things kick started again. We’re still three points clear and we’d all have taken that when the season started. A three point lead having only lost one league game all season is hardly cause for panic but it isn’t telling the whole story either, as form has to be a consideration. Had we drawn our first two games and won both of these last two to go top we’d be buzzing because momentum counts for a lot and right now we’ve got none. Being three points clear in February would have seemed like dreamland back in August, but how would you have felt if prior to the trip to the Etihad (when we were seven clear with a chance to extend to ten) you were told the lead would be down to three in a few weeks time? We won’t even be three points clear for much longer as I’ve never been more sure of any result than I am about City winning at Goodison this week. Even if Everton shock everybody and actually give it a go it won’t matter because they’re a terrible team. Nailed on three points for City, which will put them ahead on goal difference having played a game more. In seven days we’ve gone from having a chance to go seven points clear to probably finding ourselves in second place (albeit with a game in hand and our destiny still in our own hands). It’s torture isn’t it? I want to enjoy being in a title race but it’s just not fun because there’s too much riding on it for us. We want it too badly. There will be twists and turns all over the place between now and May and we’ve still got a great chance of winning it, but only if we snap out of this fucking slump we’ve been in since we battered Arsenal. It needs to happen quickly because if not we could find ourselves out of it in the blink of an eye. On paper Bournemouth should be a routine home win, but the way we’re playing? Anything could happen. They’ve got a style of play and forwards that can hurt us if we show the kind of sloppiness that’s been on display recently, and the crowd are probably going to be a fucking bag of nerves if we’re not two goals up in the first ten minutes. After that we go to Old Trafford, which as I’ve been saying for weeks is something I’m dreading with every fibre of my being, especially now that we’re looking vulnerable and United will smell the blood in the water. These are really testing times and we have to find a way to get through it as unscathed as possible and then hope we run into some form again and get some players back for the run in. Star man is Mané again. He wasn’t brilliant, but he’s one of the few who is playing anywhere near his best level at the moment. Team: Alisson; Milner, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Keita, Lallana (Shaqiri); Mané, Firmino (Origi), Salah:

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes a offside goal which was not seen by the linesman played on the mind of referee Kevin Friend leading to some odd officiating in the second half in the Reds' 1-1 draw against West Ham on Monday night.Sadio Mane scored the opening goal in the 22nd minute, his third in as many matches and his first league goal away from home since September 1st against Leicester.However, that lead only lasted six minutes when Felipe Anderson and Michail Antonio combined to take advantage of a flat footed Liverpool defence which saw the winger break away into some open space and slide the ball home for the equaliser.The 28 year-old has been a real talisman for the Hammers against Liverpool with the strike being his fourth in just five meetings against the Reds, by far his best return against any top flight club.However it was the Mane goal which sparked all the conversation post match, with James Milner appearing to be in a offside position in the lead-up to the opener.It was something that Klopp was made aware of after the game and he had a theory that the referee found out about it during the break.Sky Sports reported the manager as saying.This explains a little bit the second half, because I think the referee knew at half-time." He knew it for sure at half-time, and then you saw a lot of strange situations. "They were not decisive but just rhythm breakers. That obviously didn't help us."If I've made a mistake in the first half, I don't want to open the gap even more as a human being."The 1-1 draw was the second successive time that Liverpool had been held in a weekOn the face of it, the result against a mid table team is a very average result for a club in Liverpool's current position While most would have banked on a comfortable away win, there were some setbacks which caused Klopp to re-jig his line-up on the eve of the game.Captain Jordan Henderson (muscular injury )and Gini Wijnaldum (knee)were late withdrawals, while Milner had not trained for four days due to a virus.It led to a very rare start for Adam Lallana in midfield where he was joined by Naby Keita and Fabinho. Klopp said it was hardly the preparation that the team needed heading into the clash."Last night we trained and after we had to change three positions.""It's just a fact, it's not an excuse. The preparation for the game was far from being perfect and we still got a point."Klopp has been steadfast in keeping everyone on a even keel and maintaining the positive mindset up which served the team so well in the first half of the game.It is message which Milner, who is undoubtedly the 'wise old head' of the squad having been in this situation in his time with Man City is a believer in, saying that the result was ' a point gained.'For his part Klopp knows the performance was well below par, and well is aware that we have reached a part of the season where the spotlight will be shone fairly and squarely on his players.believes they can overcome their small blip in the weeks ahead."We have to accept that [the pressure]. We have to perform better. That's all I'm interested in and concerned about.A couple of players didn't play at the highest level tonight, but it's happened before and it'll happen again. "We will deal with that."As for the accusation by West Ham captain Mark Noble that Liverpool were scared by West Ham, the manager had the perfect response."It was just a normal away game. I don’t know him [Noble] really well so I don’t know why he speaks about us after a game like that."I wish for West Ham fans that Mark Noble and his team would scare more teams and not only us tonight.Time to look ahead to a massive game against Bournemouth on Saturday.

Saturday Jan 26: The u18s are knocked out of the PL Cup by the Macs. Real heartbreaker this. The lads were 2-0 up but then had a defender sent off. They were pegged back to 2-2 and then lost in extra time. Duncan and Glatzel both scored. I’m trying to remember the last time we had two goalscorers like that in the same youth team. We’ve usually had one prolific striker and then a sidekick. The last time we had two like this was back in the early 00’s when John Miles and Ian Armstrong were tearing it up. Armstrong had the big reputation and the England youth pedigree, while Miles didn’t have much hype but matched Armstrong goal for goal. The mad thing is that neither made the grade here and both were eclipsed by an unheralded kid who came up a year behind them. At that time no-one would have predicted Neil Mellor was going to be better than Miles and Armstrong, but that’s how it turned out. Duncan and Glatzel both look really promising, but you just never can tell with these things. Also today, the Blues were knocked out of the FA Cup thanks to a stoppage time winner from Millwall. So so funny this. Millwall’s equaliser was a blatant handball that was missed by Michael Oliver, but I thought we had VAR in the FA Cup? What happened there? The goal was shown on the big screen, prompting Marco Silva to go nuts and call for the referee to use it as VAR and overturn his decision, while Millwall boss Neil Harris was yelling up at the guy in the control room to “facking turn it off”. It’s always funny seeing the Blues lose, especially like this, but fuck Millwall the absolute shower of pricks. Racist chanting, fights, an Everton fan getting his face slashed (although he was far from an innocent bystander), and the saddest part is everyone fully expected it as these prehistoric fucks don’t belong in the modern game. I’d say they don’t belong in society, but sadly they actually represent a big part of today’s society. Millwall might be the only club in England that hate Everton more than they hate Liverpool. It’s a beef that goes back to the early 70s. When that draw was made, everyone knew there’d be chaos but the TV companies still moved it to a 5.30 kick off. Reckless and irresponsible. Hopefully Millwall are drawn away in the next round (just to spare anyone else from having to make that trip) and they get dicked. I keep reading how no club has done more to rid itself of the undesirable element and that might be true. Not all Millwall fans are pricks and every club has it’s knob head element. It’s just Millwall have far more than anyone else and I’m not sure how they can change it. Because of their reputation, it's only natural that the dregs of society are drawn to them. The likes of Palace and Charlton are in the same catchment area but they don’t have all these weirdos following them. They are proper weirdos by the way. A few of us went to watch Dulwich Hamlet play once and we got the tube there. Millwall were at home and a load of their fans got on. There wasn’t any trouble but it certainly was an experience. They were communicating with each other using weird yelping sounds. It was like being surrounded by a tribe of Comanche or Apache. One of them would screech something from another carriage, and someone would respond from the other end of the train with a similar noise. Like I say, they’re fucking weirdos. Sunday Jan 27: Spurs are knocked out of a cup for the second time in four days. Pochettino says finishing in the top four is more important than winning trophies, which causes much hand wringing about how “the games gone”. His exact quote was: “We are going to create a debate that to win a trophy is going to help the club. I don’t agree with that. That only builds your ego. In reality the most important thing is being consistently in the top four and playing in the Champions League.” I see his point but the most important thing isn’t ‘being in’ the top four and Champions League, it’s being in contention to win them. If you aren’t coming close to winning either then you can’t be turning your nose up at cups. It’s not about ego, it’s about the fans. I reckon in ten years time most people will see it the same way he does though. There’s already been a softening of a lot of people’s stance towards the cups, mine included to a degree. The cups are becoming less important with each passing year but it’s not just because of the big clubs prioritising the Champions League. Loads of top flight clubs field weakened sides in the cups, and almost all of them play their back up keepers. Spurs have an excuse for resting players (especially with the injuries and heavy fixture load they’ve had), but most other PL Clubs don’t. Teams like Leicester, Wolves, Palace, Everton etc should be going balls out to win the cups, even it means resting players for league games. Monday Jan 28: PSG have a £22m bid turned down for Idrissa Gana Gueye as Marco Silva says he’s a “very important player”. Bet the lad is fuming. I mean who wouldn’t be? Being involved with Everton in any capacity has to be the most miserable existence in football currently. There is literally no joy or happiness to be had and they’re denying him the chance to return to France and play alongside Neymar and Mbappe. He’s gonna go on strike isn’t he? He’d be mad not to really. One player reportedly wanting to make the opposite journey is Adrien Rabiot. No, I don’t mean he wants to go to Everton, I meant the Paris to Liverpool journey. No-one would willingly want to swap PSG for Everton (I remain convinced Luca Digne thought he was joining the Reds). Rabiot though has long been rumoured to be on Klopp’s radar, and he’s reportedly turned down a move to Spurs because he’s got his sights set on a summer Bosman switch to Anfield. Sounds good to me, I love a good Bosman. Meanwhile, reports in Italy have us strongly in for Serie B wonder-kid Sandro Tonali, dubbed ‘the new Pirlo’. £30m for a kid playing in the second tier of English footy? Nah, not having that. Besides, I don’t think I could ever forgive him for killing Han Solo... Tuesday Jan 29: Well well well. Good ol’ Rafa eh? This was mental. Glorious, but mental. I mean fucking hell, Rafa was sending out a side to be defensive and to try to frustrate City and they conceded after 24 fucking seconds. I know I was not alone in cursing the useless Geordie twats, but I take it all back. Sorry Rafa, sorry Newcastle. I won’t say too much more here as it will be covered in the Round Up, but the main take away I have from this is that those of us who thought City would go on and win more or less every game between now and May were not basing that assessment in reality. It was purely about our own fears and paranoia (which are well justified) because if you examine the season as a whole there is nothing to suggest City are capable of doing that. They did it last year but this season they’ve lost to Palace, Leicester and Newcastle. They drew at Wolves and lost to Chelsea too. These aren’t ‘the Invincibles’ and there’s every chance they’ll drop more points between now and the end of the season. It’s up to us to keep turning the screw, because if we could somehow get that gap up to ten points they might just throw in the towel and focus on the CL. Meanwhile, transfer request from Gana Gueye. Like clockwork. They had a game tonight which obviously he didn’t play in (‘minor injury’ according to Silva!). PSG will come back with a better offer and Everton will cave tomorrow because it would be smart to recoup some of the money they’ve wasted. As for us, well Markovic might be off but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that because he’s not taking a pay cut and there are very few clubs foolish enough to match what we’re paying him. We could subsidise it of course, but it looks like Edwards is using Markovic to set an example that we won’t be lowballed. He’d rather take a hit on this to ensure we’re better off in the long run, and considering how much he managed to screw out of Barca for Coutinho (not to mention what he brought in for the dead wood he sold) then he’s still in credit despite the fortune he blew on Markovic. Wednesday Jan 30: L 1 Leicester 1 Bollocks. A win would have really stepped on City's throat but instead we've basically just given them a wet willy. It's really disappointing but it's difficult to get too mad about it because it's been coming. It's impossible to go through a season winning every single game that you're supposed to, yet that's what we've done to this point. Leicester are a handful and they deserved a point, but they've got Martin Atkinson to thank for it. Not sure what decision was worse, the pen he missed on Naby or the red card he didn't give to Maguire. Two scandalous decisions that have essentially cost us two points. We didn't play well but if he sends off Maguire at that stage of the game when we were 1-0 and looking sharp then it's a different story. People can fuck off going on about the clearing of one goal of snow and not the other. There's no gamesmanship here, I was there watching it and I can tell you that there were not enough groundsmen to do both boxes. They barely managed to get one done before the teams came back out and even then they pretty much only managed to cover the box itself and didn't do anything around it. Klopp says no instructions were given to leave the other penalty area, which I believe as his priority will just have been 'do something about that fucking pitch lads, it's killing us'. The grounds staff will have known to prioritise the end we were attacking, and there's fuck all wrong with that. Have to laugh at City fans getting all high and mighty about it while crying like babies about Martin Keown asking if what they've done is 'financial doping'. Some of these knobs have somehow managed to convince themselves that they've done nothing wrong. It's mad. Whatsmore, most of the country seem to see them as the lesser of two evils. I suppose I can relate to that as I'd rather City win the league than United, but this portrayal of us as 'the enemy of football' is a bit weird like. The main reason hardly anyone wants us to win it is because we'd be unbearable if we did and they'd never hear the end of it. That's true, but it's still hard to take from these same losers who spent all of last summer telling anyone who'd listen that "it's coming home". Thursday Jan 31: We finally fired the Lazar then. Didn’t get a fee for him but it’s reported that we’ve saved £1.7m in wages. Fucking hell, that’s how much we were paying him? Football is mental isn’t it? The amount of shite players who’ve left here as millionaires is sickening when you compare to some of the club legends of the 60s, 70s and even the 80s. I was struggling to understand why Fulham took him on given that their need is for defenders rather than attackers, but it has to be about keeping Mitrovic happy. Lazar is a similar age and they've probably come through the Serbia ranks together, and with them sending that headcase Kamara packing it makes a degree of sense to bring Mitro's boy in. Good luck to him, I hope him and Babel can help them stay up. Gana Gueye didn’t get his move to PSG after all. I’m shocked, but Everton just dug their heels in the end and refused to sell. This has the whiff of their “Money can’t buy you Stones” stance. Remember how they were buzzing off that? Not for long. This is different because Gueye is no John Stones. They should have took the money on offer now as he’s 29 and bang average. Now they’re left with a player who probably won’t be arsed for the rest of the season and will force a move away in the summer, no doubt for less money than PSG offered this week. Friday Feb 1: Kyle Walker tweeted out that Harry Maguire talking to a girl meme with the caption "so yeah they thought they were going to go seven points clear". Knobhead acting like knobhead shocker. It's hardly the worst crime in the world and I can't say I'm bothered about it at all. He's a bit of a tit so I expect this kind of thing. Klopp should have it pinned to the dressing room wall this morning though. Meanwhile, Gomez might need an op as he’s not making any progress. Lovren is out too as he’s done a hamstring. Great. That leaves us with only Matip and Van Dijk, and Big Virg can’t play against Bayern in the first leg. It’s all well and good saying “we’ve got Fabinho as cover if we need him” but if Fabinho plays there then he’s not in midfield is he, and he’s been pretty damn good in midfield. This is exactly why I was against the sale of Klavan last summer. It isn’t being wise after the event either as I wrote something for ESPN in August outlining why this exact scenario we find ourselves in now was a distinct possibility. Loads of people scoffed at that but when you have defenders as injury prone as ours you need an insurance policy, and Ragnar was as good a policy as there is. He was fucking boss, a proper wily old pro defender who could come in from the cold at a moment’s notice and play as though he’d been in every week. To those who say we wouldn’t have needed him, I’d counter that he's always been nothing more than a squad man but he made 40 starts in two seasons, mostly because Lovren, Gomez and Matip miss so many games. This situation was entirely predictable. There’s a fine line between doing what’s best for the player and what’s best for the club. Klopp usually leans too far in the way of the player. He didn’t with Mignolet and that decision was 100% correct. Klavan and Clyne on the pother hand should have been told they were staying. Even if we’d only needed them to play one or two games each between now and May that’s enough reason to keep them because the stakes are so high this year. That was the week that was...

While every league game Liverpool plays from now until the end of the season will be dissected to the nth degree by fans and pundits alike, don't expect Jurgen Klopp to be overwhelmed by the scenario that lies ahead.The passion of Klopp is undoubtedly infectious during the 90 minutes of action, however he is someone who takes a more measured approach away from the gaze of the bright lights.The German has been through his share of title challenges in the Bundesliga when he was manager at Borussia Dortmund and knows exactly what to expect.The Mirror reported Klopp as saying:“I am not a nervous person, so I was never nervous ­before the first title in (2010/11)."That’s how it is. Yes, experience showed me that the way I did it in the past worked. So, I didn’t change.While Klopp admitted that there will be some tense moments along the way which is only natural for a side aiming to win their first league title in nearly three decades, he said keeping things in perspective was always important."People are in a little bit of doubt about this and that, and I understand — we were not champions for 29 years. No one thinks like that at City, but it’s a different ­situation."The people are really desperate. Is that positive? They really want it, with all they have. "But there are no guarantees and, again, I am not a nervous person." Klopp also said that this current squad has dealt with pressure situations in the recent past."Yes, there is pressure. There was pressure last year, a lot of pressure when we played Manchester City away in the quarter-finals of the Champions League — and we dealt with it."Will there be nervous ­moments? Yes, for sure. But don’t make them bigger than they are, because there were nervous situations last year, two years three years ago."Klopp says that the players know the situation and they are mature enough to be focused on the task at hand."We are first in the table. What do we talk about? We don’t have to come in to work every day and point at the table.“We want to finish the season as well as possible – and it looks like we could do ­something special. But, of course, we don’t talk about it. It makes no sense."A marathon runner in April doesn’t talk or think in the race he is running now about the Olympic Games because he has to run this step by step. Win that race. "Try with ­everything you have, and then we will see. Stay healthy, stay fit. Try as hard as possible and then a big smile afterwards."We all have to work very hard to win one Premier League game – and that is what we have to do 14 times.”Wise words from a wise man.

The path to Premier League glory had a untimely obstacle placed in front of it with Jurgen Klopp confirming that central defender Joe Gomez will be out for a lot longer than first thought.The England international had been in career best form during the first few months of the season, teaming up with Virgil Van Dijk to form a formidable partnership at the heart of the Liverpool defence.Gomez has had to overcome some real obstacles in terms of injuries at his time with the club, and the youngster found himself back on the treatment table in early December when he suffered a hairline leg fracture against Burnley after a challenge from Clarets defender Ben Mee.While initial hopes were that the 21 year-old would be out for six weeks, with the injury refusing to heal accordingly, that timeline has since blown out to such a extent where it is unknown when he will play next.When questioned on the issue at press conferences during the past month, Klopp has been particularly guarded about the status of Gomez, basically giving the obligatory answer 'no' when asked if his return was on the horizon.However that changed on Friday when the German was pressed on the issue once again, this time giving a gloomy outlook on his prospects for a return in the near future. The Mirror reported Klopp as saying:" It is about the healing, and we will see how exactly we will do it." Does he need an operation? “I don’t know. We will see. It is possible, probably." It is not exactly going how we want, he needs more time. We will see exactly how we do it. There were different moments we thought we could do this or that and then it was not exactly how we thought (it would be).“It will take time. We cannot say more. But the Bayern game is not a realistic target, no. After that, any time, you will see.”If that wasn't a blow in itself, news came to light that Dejan Lovren had aggravated a hamstring injury that he sustained in the third round of the FA Cup, while Trent Alexander-Arnold will miss the game against West Ham on Monday night as he is still recovering from a knee injury.Lovren was on the bench for the clash against Leicester in midweek, but was a unused substitute.With the news of the injury setbacks to two of our central defenders, it means that the role of Joel Matip has grown in extra importance.Prone to the odd injury at the best of times, it is vitally important the Cameroon international stays fit in the foreseeable future to partner Van Dijk.Failing that, it will be down to a temporary fix such as Fabinho, but the downside to that is you are depriving yourself a midfielder who is growing in confidence in the role that he was brought to the club to do.The discussion about whether we should have reinforced our stocks in January will naturally come to the fore after these setbacks along with the decision to send Nathaniel Clyne on loan to Bournemouth.However we cannot afford to look back and dwell on what could have been done , instead it's time to focus on who is available and the task at hand.As it has been said time and time again, the next three months will be akin to torture.But if we do win the the title come May, overcoming these little obstacles put in our way will make the victory all the more special.

All season I’ve been ripping Newcastle and saying how I want them to go down. After Tuesday night I take it back. I don’t want them to go down. Not this year anyway. I can’t promise anything beyond that though because the fans do my head in. How mad was that result though? I gave them no hope beforehand and when they conceded after 20 odd seconds I wasn’t even mad. Far from it. Better for them to get it over with quickly rather than hold out for an hour, build our hopes up and then concede three. I had heard that they’d conceded early but when it was still only 1-0 after half an hour I decided to stick it on for a bit to see how it was going. Surprisingly, Newcastle were doing alright. They were playing well but just didn’t seem to have the quality in the final third to hurt City. I watched until about fifteen minutes into the second half and then decided I couldn’t be arsed with it anymore. No sooner had I switched it off than the WhatsApp groups started going mad with news of an equaliser from Rondon (always liked him). Now you’d think at this point I’d check back in and watch the rest of the game, but I didn’t. Why? I didn’t want to jinx it. Stupid as it sounds, my line of thinking was that Newcastle had scored while I wasn’t watching so I needed to continue not watching it to help them see it through. It worked too. Not only did the Geordies prevent City from scoring again, they only managed to go on and fucking win it. It was a clear penalty. No doubt about it. Fernandinho was too casual in his own box, didn’t see Longstaff coming and he tripped him up. Matt Ritchie had to wait two and a half minutes to take it because of gamesmanship from that horrible neck tattooed goon Ederson. I fucking hate him you know. When his face comes on the screen I honestly have to turn away. He’s hard to look at, his face and shit tattoos offend me and I wince every time I look at him. I mean just look... He flies under the radar but thinking about it, there are few players in the league I can’t stand more than this prick. Justice was done when he dived over the penalty and didn’t keep it out. It was hard work following the game on WhatsApp but I knew I couldn’t risk jinxing it by putting it back on. Newcastle held out pretty comfortable in the end though as City just looked devoid of ideas. Isn’t it weird that in their last three defeats they’d scored first and thrown it away? They haven’t been good for a month or so now though. Maybe teams have finally figured out that most of their goals come via the same route and they’ve found a way to stop it. Or it could be that they are just a bit fatigued. They don’t rotate that much and have had a lot of games. I saw a stat the other day that I thought had to be bollocks, but apparently it’s not. Since the end of August City have picked up only three more points than Arsenal. Wow. Our natural defence mechanism is to assume City are going to go on a run and haul us in, and that might still happen. Leaving our own paranoia and pessimism aside though, there is actually nothing to suggest they will do that because they’ve not been anywhere near as good as they were last season. They lost to Palace, Leicester and Newcastle. There’s no reason why they won’t drop more points over the closing stretch. We will too though, so the question is who drops more. What this result has done though is shown everyone else that they can beat City. Newcastle are shite. They don’t have the quality that other sides who have beaten City have got. They don’t have a Hazard, Vardy or Zaha, but they still had enough to beat City so if they can do it, then anyone can. Except Everton, obviously. Almost as shocking as the result at St James was Chelsea’s humiliation at Bournemouth. When I heard the 4-0 scoreline I assumed Chelsea must have had a man sent off early or something, but turns out they just got their arses handed to them. They started the game well and had a few decent efforts on goal. When they fell behind though they quit. All four goals came in the second half. It was wild. King got the first when he latched onto a brilliant little cut back from the outstanding Brooks and lashed it home. Brooks got the second when he took advantage of some Sideshow Bob defending from David Luiz. Lovely finish, he’s been a great signing. I see a lot of Adam Lallana in him. Great balance and technique, and maybe he’s someone we should be looking at either this summer or maybe the following one. King made it 3-0 as Bournemouth just sliced right through Chelsea’s backline, and five minutes into stoppage time Charlie Daniels headed in a free-kick to pile on the misery for Sarri. He looks like he’s done there already. As I said last week, the players look like they’ve decided they don’t like what he’s trying to do and he seems to have no intention of adapting his methods. Spurs came from behind to beat Watford. Have to give them credit, every time Kane gets injured we expect them to collapse, but they always seem to be able to just eek out wins until he returns. Cathcart headed Watford in front from a corner. I know this because the commentators said so. I’d never have recognised him because as I said last week, I have no idea what the fella looks like. I still don’t, even though I’ve literally just seen his face on TV seconds ago as I’m watching MOTD. Llorente then missed a sitter when he tried a volley from a couple of yards out but mistimed it so badly that the ball came off his knee rather than his boot and sailed over the bar. A shocker that one. He followed it up by heading wide from three yards. Spurs were all over them and Watford’s goal was living a charmed life. Their luck ran out with ten minutes left when Son bundled his way into the box and lashed one in with his left foot. Seven minutes later Llorente won it with a fine header at the back post. Fucking sick of Spurs. Every time it looks like we’ve finally shaken them off, they somehow end up closing the gap to six or seven again. It’s been happening for months now, I wish they’d just fuck off but I have to give them credit for the way they’re churning out results and hanging on. This is officially the best season they’ve ever had at this point, and they’ve done it with no summer signings, a lot of players being knackered after the World Cup, Kane missing games through injury and Son constantly having to go back to South Korea for shitty international tournaments. Their home crowds are shite too. Less than 30 thousand saw this game. Fair play to them, I actually hope they can knock City out of second spot (only two points behind now), but I’d rather that happened through City losing games than Spurs continuing to win every week. Don’t want them getting too close. Palace and Southampton ended all square. Lots going on in this game though, it was entertaining. Sakho almost gifted Southampton the opener when instead of just putting the ball into the stands he tried some stupid flick and got clattered. It needed a great save from Palace’s new keeper to prevent Hoijberg scoring. Jack Stephens then launched himself into a tackle, missed the ball and his studs went right into Townsend’s shin. Referee’s verdict? Play on. Soon after poor old Andros got nailed again with a shocker from Romeu. Referee’s verdict? Play on again. In fairness it was a good decision because Zaha had picked it up and he lashed it into the bottom corner. Ward-Prowse seems to be enjoying a new lease of life under the new coach and he arrived late in the box to make it 1-1 with an easy finish. He then produced some top drawer shithousing to tip Zaha over the edge and get him a red card. Ward-Prowse clearly fouled him (Marriner again gave nothing) and Zaha took exception to the challenge. Ward-Prowse feined to throw the ball in his face, laughed at him and then attempted to pat him on the cheek, all of which wound Zaha up even more. Marriner decided to book the Palace man, and all the while Ward-Prowse continued to laugh in his face. A now furious Zaha sarcastically applauded the ref so Marriner produced a second yellow and sent him off. Zaha again applauded him and then had to be dragged away. Ward-Prowse was still laughing. I’m a big Zaha fan but Ward-Prowse done him like a kipper there. He’s got to be able to deal with that and not react, but he feels like opponents are kicking the shit out of him and that refs aren’t giving him enough protection. I agree with him to an extent (some of Southampton’s challenges on him were pretty rough), but it goes with the territory if you play the way he does. His biggest problem is that he plays for Palace. If he was at a top club refs would give him a lot more protection than he gets currently. For example, you can’t fucking look sideways at Eden Hazard without a free-kick being given. Hell of a game at Craven Cottage where Fulham came from 2-0 down to beat Brighton 4-2. I’m made up, as I keep saying I really want them to stay up, especially now that they’ve taken the Lazar off our hands. Imagine Babel and Markovic firing them to safety! It’s the other end of the pitch they need to worry about though. They gave up two first half goals to Murray with awful defending and that Tim Ream jabroni was subbed before half time. Ranieri must be mental to keep picking him. They’d be better off with ten men. He is to defending what Laurent Depoitre is to goalscoring. Chambers smashed one in from the edge of the box to give them hope early in the second half, and after that they laid siege to the Brighton goal. Mitrovic scored two proper centre forward’s goals when he overpowered Duffy and then Dunk to head the ball in and turn 1-2 into 3-2. Vietto then wrapped it up from close range after an assist from Babel. Fulham also hit the woodwork twice and they were absolutely brilliant in the second half. Hopefully this is a turning point for them and they can kick on. I expect Huddersfield and Cardiff go, so if I'm wanting Fulham to stay up, it has to be at the expense of someone else. It's not Newcastle anymore, so that leaves Burnley as the obvious one. Fulham are six behind them but that’s going to take some pulling back as Burnley are in a good run right now. Hell, they’re the only team to stop the little Goblin from winning and they were agonisingly close to winning the game. Ashley Barnes took advantage of sloppy play by Jones and Perreira to blast one in at the Stretford End and then celebrated like a fucking boss in front of them. Great stuff. Wood doubled their lead with a header but they capitulated late on and had to settle for a draw. Lingard was pulled back in the box and Pogba scored from the spot. I thought it was a clear penalty, but it’s a bit galling that there isn’t the same kind of inquest into this as there was when Mo was fouled in virtually the same manner against Newcastle. Shearer was up in arms that day, but said this was a clear penalty. No bias there then. Lindelof equalised from a scramble two minutes into stoppage time. There was a time when I’d have been proper pissed about this, but they’re so far back now I don’t actually care. I just think it’s funny how they’re rooted in 6th place no matter what they do. The reason for that is because Arsenal keep doing just enough to hold them off, but Chelsea are threatening to ruin the fun and have now dropped out of the top four on goal difference. They need to sort their shit out. Arsenal have gone above them and now it looks like they're going to let United leapfrog them too. Arsenal weren’t especially convincing against Cardiff but they got away with it. Cardiff had a good penalty shout turned down and then Arsenal were awarded one. Bloody Mike Dean always doing Arsenal favours. Aubameyeng sent the keeper the wrong way and then Lacazette added a fine solo effort for the second. Has anyone else noticed that Lacazette is basically mini-me to LeBron James? Absolute spit of him. Cardiff pulled one back in stoppage time but Warnock was fuming at his defender Ecuele-Manga who conceded the pen. He’d warned him at half time to watch himself as he got away with one in the first half, but the lad didn’t listen and Warnock threw him right under the bus afterwards. The funniest part of the whole thing was Mike Dean though. When he gave the pen, Bennett came over to argue and Dean was just yelling “ASK HIM! ASK HIM!!” and gesturing at a crestfallen looking Ecuele-Manga who knew he was guilty as fuck and likely to be on the end of a Warnock bollocking. I’ll say again, Mike Dean is a bad bell but he’s hilarious. What the hell is happening at West Ham? A couple of weeks ago they were beating Arsenal and looking like a team on the up. They’ve kept hold of Arnautovic (albeit with a huge pay rise) but they got humiliated in the cup by Wimbledon and then followed it up by getting smashed everywhere by Wolves. The 3-0 scoreline flattered them massively. Wolves were brilliant and could have put ten past them. It worries me seeing West Ham this shambolic because they have to produce some kind of response, and guess who plays them next? Yeah, us. The only saving grace is that the Stadium of London ain’t no Upton Park. I’ve saved the Blues until last because that’s where they were on MOTD. Again. They actually won, bless their little cotton socks. 1-0 at mighty Huddersfield. That means they’ve closed the gap on us by two points. Anyone else running scared?

The New Year brings more opportunities for a crop of Liverpool youngsters to continue to experience first team football while on loan. There were some very impressive performances and exciting progress made by some of the players in the first half of the season, along with some setbacks for others along the way. However you take the good with the bad, and as a developing footballer you are bound to learn plenty of important lessons along your journey. One player who has impressed plenty of observers with his attitude and natural ability is Harry Wilson. The Welshman is key to the Rams playoff push and if you take advantage of a Betfred promo code for new customers to bet on a Derby promotion, you could be quids in at the end of the season if Wilson continues in this form. In a recent poll run by Ollie Wright from Derby County Blog, two thirds of Rams fans voted to keep Wilson permanently over fellow loanees Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori (both from Chelsea). In part two of our chat with Ollie, we look at the impact Rams manager Frank Lampard has had on Harry's development, and a possible area of his play which the Welsh international can look to improve.... It must have been a relief for all Derby fans that the loan was not cut short in January and Harry is staying with the club for the rest of the season? Had he gone back, there would have been zero chance of Derby replacing him with anybody remotely as good and I honestly think that it would have knackered our season. He’s been absolutely outstanding and what could initially have been written off as a freak run of stunning goals has simply carried on, remorselessly - he leads the Championship with seven goals from outside of the box and in all competitions, he has nine goals from long range, out of a total tally of 12. Harry is arguably in the best form of his senior career. While he showed positive signs in the first half of the season, it is a different thing altogether to do on consistent basis. What do you believe has made him go to this next level? Simply put, the opportunity to play every week in a competitive team was all he ever needed. Frank Lampard has made him a crucial part of Derby’s midfield and he has risen to that responsibility. It’s abundantly clear that he is loving his football, particularly playing alongside the Chelsea loanee Mason Mount - the duo seem to have struck up a close understanding on and off the pitch, sharing digs as well as a central midfield partnership. You mentioned in our previous chat that the League Cup victory against Man United was Harry's standout performance, has he since surpassed that game in your view? It would be difficult for any player to surpass a goal like that. However, the best team performance of the season so far was definitely the 4-1victory over West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns in October and Wilson was a huge part of that. The fizzing energy and skill of Derby’s front five was too much for West Brom that evening and while the team’s rich promise has only been seen in fits and starts since then and has been too much to reproduce consistently through a gruelling Championship winter, it’s there - with Wilson clearly integral to the fast, technical, pressing style of play Frank Lampard wants to see. It’s worth pointing out that Derby have played four cup games against Premier League opposition this season - Manchester United away, Chelsea away, Southampton home and away - drawing three times (all 2-2) and losing only once (2-3, at Stamford Bridge), with Wilson having started in three of those games. He missed the home draw with Southampton through injury, but came back to score yet another free kick and then assist Martyn Waghorn’s equalising goal at St Mary’s in the replay. As your own performance level increases, naturally the opposition take a fair bit of extra notice. How has Harry handled that extra physical attention? He is still young and we are yet to find out whether he can weather the physical demands of a 46-game league season, plus cup exploits - including a 100 minutes plus at St Mary's and with the fifth round of the FA Cup yet to come. Still, he’s well on the way to proving his durability, having made 25 starts in all competitions for Derby already, so touch wood, his fitness can be managed through the second half of the season. He’s a marked man and, as such, there are inevitably spells in games where his impact is limited - but he only needs one chance to unleash a left-foot Exocet and the game has turned on its head. Harry was injured for your clash with top of the table Leeds a few weeks ago. Was his absence and subsequent defeat in that game a sign that he has become Derby's most important player this season? There's definitely an argument to say that he has been. He’s one of our key players and match-winners, without question, alongside Mount, the striker Jack Marriott and centre backs Fikayo Tomori and Richard Keogh. Losing any of those players for any length of time would be a huge blow to Derby’s hopes of promotion Have you noticed the impact that Frank Lampard has had on his game as the season progresses and can you discuss some of the things he has altered in Harry's game? I don’t know whether Liverpool expected him to be used as a central midfielder in a 4-3-3 system. When he signed, the general expectation was that he would play as a wide forward, but he has proved to be comfortable in the centre and remains just as much of a goal threat, while also putting in more tackles per game than any other regular Rams’ midfielder. He is not a player who is ever going to win much in the air, but he understands that hard graft is not an optional extra - proving that he can flourish in the muck-and-nettles of a Championship midfield battle, for a team who try to play possession football and press the opposition hard when they don’t have it, will be ticking boxes, for Jurgen Klopp’s scouts, I’m sure. While producing a couple of assists in more recent times, Harry has only registered two in the league this season (and one in the FA Cup vs Southampton.) Is playmaking something Harry can look to work on in your view? I tend to look more at ‘key passes’ (shooting chances created) more than assists. An assist, after all, could be a two-yard toe-poke for someone to belt it in from 40 yards, whereas a through ball from heaven could end up being sliced wide - key passes tells you whether a player has been making things happen on a more consistent basis. For key passes, Wilson is Derby’s second highest contributor, with 35, behind Mount (53). He has not been among the top Championship midfielders for this measure, but when you have a shot like Wilson does, you’ve got every right to have a go, instead of looking for a killer pass. 12 goals in 24 appearances is a record most strikers would be pleased with and so it would be churlish to complain about a comparative lack of assists. In terms of the future, you previously spoke about your perfect scenario which sees Harry staying on loan for another season in the likelihood of Derby getting promoted to the Premier League. Knowing Harry's overall feeling for the club, is that a distinct possibility? I would love to think so, but there are a lot of things which would have to fall into place for that to happen. Firstly, we have to fight our way out of the Championship, which we know by now is an incredibly tough task. Secondly, Liverpool would have to be amenable and thirdly, Harry himself would need to weigh up whether it was the right move for him (if he is available again next season, I’m sure there would be no shortage of Premier League, or maybe even Bundesliga suitors). All I can say with certainty at this stage is that he has hugely boosted his reputation and done himself proud with his performances. If he carries on in his current vein of form, he will help to give us a real chance of glory this season.

Just imagine how we’d be feeling today if City hadn’t lost at Newcastle. As it is, things are alright actually. In fact, they’re more than alright. We’ve turned a four point lead into a five point lead. Sound. Yeah, we’d all have been happier if it was seven, but the bottom line is we’ve got a bigger lead than we had going into this week’s fixtures, and we’re one game closer to the finish line too. We didn’t play well against Leicester and a draw was a fair result. That being said, if Martin Atkinson does his job properly then we win the game comfortably. He failed to send off Harry Maguire for a clear red card offence and Maguire then went on to score the equaliser. Atkinson then refused to give the most obvious of penalties when Keita was tripped in the act of shooting. Is it an excuse for not winning the game? Well yeah, it is actually. Of course we could have played better and some will make the point that we didn’t do enough to deserve the points, but as I say, if Atkinson does what he’s paid to do then we’re not having this discussion and instead we’re talking about a good, professional job and another three points. That’s the main difference between the dropped points here and some of the games that we managed to win despite not being at our best. Small details can settle games. A bit of luck here, a refereeing decision there. We’ve had some good breaks this season, but not in this game. City’s loss means it’s easier to be fairly relaxed about this and take an objective view. The way I see it, this was always going to happen sooner or later. We had a 100% record against everyone below 5th place in the table. That’s incredible at this stage of the season but it’s not really sustainable. If anyone was going to ruin that record, Leicester were probably the most likely. Claude Puel has some kind of weird voodoo curse over Klopp and outside of the ‘big six’ I think Leicester are the best of the rest. Wolves might have something to say about that, but Leicester won the league a few years back and still have a number of that side playing now. On their day they can beat anyone and they are particularly well suited to playing against good teams. We should beat them and probably seven or eight times out of ten we do, but there’s always a risk of dropping points against a team like that if things don’t go quite according to plan or if you don’t get the rub of the green. Things certainly didn’t go according to plan and we definitely didn’t get the rub of the green. The first thing to go wrong was the blizzard just before kick off that left the pitch much slower than usual. It’s hard to zip the ball around when it’s dragging in slush. That split second delay can make all the difference when you’re trying to play your way through a packed defence. So that didn’t help, but we still went in front after a couple of minutes. Apart from the opening seconds when they had kick off, I’m not sure a Leicester player even touched the ball before we scored. It felt like we made a hundred passes and had the ball for two whole minutes before Sadio burst into the box and cleverly made space for himself to roll it in the corner. Great finish that. He was boss all night I thought. He was a constant menace but we didn’t utilise him enough. We looked great in the opening stages of the game and Bobby almost scored a stunning goal when he brought the ball down on his chest and immediately managed to shift it to set himself for a shot that was saved by Schmeichel. Incredible technique that. Mané flashed a header just wide from a corner and we were looking dominant until Leicester suddenly started causing us a few problems. A better way of putting it would probably be that we started causing ourselves problems. At this point I’ll refer to something I wrote in last week’s Round Up… “Patricio was almost embarrassed early on by Vardy, who dispossessed him when he was dallying on the ball. Luckily the keeper managed to just about get it away for a corner. It deserved to be punished really though. He took three touches. Even taking two touches is probably unwise when Vardy is around (nobody closes down quicker than him, he’s the closest thing I’ve seen to Rushy when it comes to that), but three? Do these pricks never study the opposition?” Obviously they don’t, and nor does Alisson. Or he just chooses to ignore it. He has to be smarter than this. He was asking for trouble early in this game. Taking too long on the ball and inviting pressure, or playing risky passes. He put Hendo in trouble with a sloppy one that was seized upon by Maddison. He went looking for a penalty but Hendo clearly never touched him, and the incident was just outside the box anyway. All just so unnecessary though and it gave Leicester encouragement. That was nothing compared to the next one though. The ball was played back to Alisson and he could clearly see Vardy steaming in. He either has to clear it first time, or take a quick touch to the side to give himself a bit of space for the clearance. Instead, he acted like he had all the time in the world and his clearance was half blocked. Within seconds Maddison has a free header at the back post which thankfully he made a complete mess of. It’s all very well being a footballing keeper but there are some occasions when you have to remove the risk element. Such as when Vardy is around, because he’s quicker than a hiccup and he can make you look very stupid. The key incident in the whole game though was definitely the Maguire foul on Mané. Sadio was clean through and no-one was catching him, so therefore that’s a clear goalscoring opportunity. There isn’t even any doubt. Not only that, Maguire’s foul robbed Andy Robbo of what might have been the greatest assist by any left back ever. The run from the edge of his own box was fucking ace and deserved to end in a goal. Atkinson bottled it but I wasn’t surprised because refs always seem to take the easy way out on these kind of decisions. If there’s a defender within 40 yards they’ll use that as reason to not produce a red card, but Mané had a ten yard start on Johnny Evans, which means he’d have had time to go and sign a few autographs in the Main Stand and still retrieve the ball and beat Evans to the penalty area. At the time of the Maguire foul we were on top and playing very well. That was a huge turning point though, especially as Maguire took full advantage of Atkinson’s generosity by equalising with the last kick of the first half. It was entirely self inflicted and was such a bad goal for us to give away. We’d given the ball away but Gini had done superbly to chase back and snuff out the danger. Then out of nowhere comes Robbo with a needless, reckless foul. The initial ball in was cleared but Van Dijk switched off and left Maguire, and Matip was unable to prevent the ball dropping over his head to the big goon, who rolled the ball into the corner and then celebrated in front of the Kop. Big ugly goon. It was a terrible time to concede and it clearly had an effect on the players as they started the second half badly and could have been punished twice in the opening ten or fifteen minutes. First Maddison wriggled through but somehow managed to totally fluff his kick. I thought Alisson had saved it initially, but watching the replay it looks like Maddison just scuffs the ball away from goal. Huge let off. We had another one soon after when Bobby almost put one into his own net. Alisson reacted well to get it off the line and the danger was cleared. It should never have come to that though as three Leicester players were well offside when the ball was crossed, including Maguire who won the header at the back post. The linesmen were as shit as the ref. Just awful. The other lino flagged Sadio offside when he was nowhere near. That denied us a great opportunity, which we could really have done with because we weren’t creating much at all. I thought the players settled down after their wobble at the start of the second half, and Leicester didn’t really look much of a threat after that other than one quick counter attack that ended with Gray shooting straight at Alisson. Had he squared it Albrighton would have had a tap in. The lads kept plugging away but Leicester were well organised and weren’t giving much away. We should have had a pen when Naby played a nice one two with Firmino and surged into the box. He was obviously clipped by the full back and Atkinson was looking right at it but gave a goal kick. Disgrace. Bobby had another low shot saved by Schmeichel after good footwork again, but other than that we didn’t really come close. I thought some of the decision making was poor and players were doing stuff they wouldn’t normally do. For example, Robbo trying a 25 yard volley when he could have just brought the ball down and drove into the box. What the fuck? It felt like the pressure was getting to everybody though. If it’s like this in January, how’s it going to be in April? The crowd need to chill the fuck out as that nervy, anxious energy doesn’t help anyone. We’re all worried that we might fuck it up and we all want this so badly that we’re not really thinking straight, but we need to put that to one side as it’s only going to hinder the players. We’re not going to win every game 3-0 so there will be plenty more of these types of games and the crowd really has to be better than this. Grow some balls. Moan afterwards if it’s needed. Be defeatist afterwards if you like. Hell, we’ve all had our wobbles and there are times when I’ll be thinking this is all just a big elaborate set up before we have our hopes crushed by the football gods once again. It’s ok to think that, it’s perfectly natural, but inside the ground when the game is on, show some backbone. There are plenty of negatives to come from this and it would be delusional not to suggest otherwise. There are positives too though, not least the fact that we’ve increased our lead at the top and extended our unbeaten home record. I miss that miserly defence though. Remember a few weeks ago and we’d only conceded six goals all season? Now we’re letting in soft goals all over the place. An unsettled back four hasn’t helped. I thought Matip played quite well but the defence isn’t looking secure at the moment and part of the problem could be that he hasn’t quite got the understanding with Van Dijk that Gomez and Lovren both have. That is concerning me. The right back situation is too. Hendo did alright but for him to be having to play there at all seems irresponsible when we’ve just sent an England international right back out on loan. Weakening a squad that is challenging for the title is an unnecessary risk but we didn’t drop two points because Hendo was playing full back. I’ve seen a fair bit of criticism of Keita’s performance, but I thought he was fine. He was in a midfield two so it wasn’t his job to just go bombing forward all the time and I thought his performance was very similar to that of Wijnaldum. He was unlucky to be subbed, which is more than I can say for Big Shaq. Taking him off was a no brainer as he just couldn’t make any impact on the game. How come all the other forwards are interchangeable and can go where they like, but Shaq is always marooned on the right? I want to see him central, getting on the ball and threading passes through. We’re wasting his talents out there. He was replaced by Lallana, which was completely pointless as he sadly just doesn’t bring much to the table anymore. It’s a shame, I’ve always liked him but the team has just outgrown him now I think. Same goes for Sturridge, who replaced Firmino late on. I wouldn’t have had him anywhere near this game or any game we have in the future. Early in the season he looked sharp and was making a contribution, but he’s hardly played for months and the one game he did get he was shit and looked disinterested. He looked so rusty I could almost hear him creaking from row 19 of the Main Stand. The attempted control of a high ball that ended with a handball and him ruining what would have been a two against one break just made me sad. Such a great player once. Origi isn’t an ideal solution but at least he looks like he wants to play and he’s much more deserving of a chance than Sturridge is. The lack of game changers off the bench is a concern as is the lack of cover for the front three. But we’ve known that for some time. Shaqiri has had some decent games when he’s started but he always looks dynamite off the bench. Given the lack of any other impact subs it might be an idea to keep Shaq there and use him that way. That would also mean we jibbed the 4-2-3-1 which is also no bad thing. Mo was fucking anonymous in this game. He’s done pretty well at centre forward on the whole, but when it’s not working can we not just get him back on the right and let him do what he did last season? It might help Bobby too. He had two brilliant moments when he received the ball in the box, but for a lot of the game he was just a liability, giving the ball away cheaply and dropping deeper and deeper. He hasn’t been as consistent as last season and I’d say there’s a good chance the change of position has a lot to do with it. For all these concerns though, we’re five points clear at the top so these are rich people problems. We’re having a great season and as long as we bounce back with a couple of wins this result is as much a point gained as it is two lost. It all depends on how we react to it. We need to spank West Ham on Monday though just to settle the nerves a bit and to ensure we don’t give City any more encouragement. That’s the frustrating thing about this. I feel as though if we could get to nine or ten points ahead City would throw the towel in and prioritise the Champions League. It’s not going to be handed to us though is it? There are going to be twists and turns all the way to May and we’re going to have to win it ourselves as City (or maybe Spurs) aren’t going to make it easy. We’re wobbling a little bit and January hasn’t been a convincing month, but a couple of wins will set us up nicely for the game at Old Trafford, and after that we’ll have a much better idea of where we stand. Star man is an easy one. Mané. Team: Alisson; Henderson, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Keita (Lallana); Shaqiri (Fabinho), Firmino (Sturridge), Mané; Salah:

Jurgen Klopp has bemoaned some non-decisions by referee Martin Atkinson, but in the main says he couldn't complain about the overall result against Leicester City which finished in a 1-1 draw at Anfield on Wednesday evening.Naturally on a high after their main title rivals Man City lost to Newcastle the previous evening, the Reds got off to the dream start when Sadio Mane scored the opening goal within three minutes in snowy conditions.Harry McGuire pegged back the home team on the stroke of half time sidefooting the ball past Alisson after a looping header by Ben Chilwell from outside the box seeming to catch the Reds defenders off-guard.While there were a few half chances in the second half, Klopp admitted that the result was a fair one. Sky Sports reported Klopp as saying: "They had chances and so it's of course absolutely OK the 1-1."However Klopp says that his side could have been awarded a penalty or two throughout the ninety minutes, along with a red card for McGuire for a deliberate foul on Sadio Mane. "Even when I think everybody agrees that there could have been a penalty, maybe should have been one.I don't know why it was no penalty and then we have the situation with Maguire."It's now the second time in a game where a striker from my team, somebody brings him down at the halfway line and we treat it like it is I don't know where." He would not have been alone through [on goal] because Mohamed Salah would have been around him. "It's a two-versus [Kasper] Schmeichel situation, if that's not a real chance and goalscoring situation then I don't know." But again, Leicester had chances and they had nothing to do with the situation around that.‘ It’s a ref thing and we now have to accept the result, which is no problem."Despite not getting the three points which would have seen the lead return to seven points, Klopp was still content with where his side sat at the end of the evening."We have a point more than before."That's not exactly what we wanted to have but still everything is fine."I know at the moment I don't think anybody further was injured, which helps us obviously a lot and now we have a few days to prepare against West Ham and then Bournemouth and we go again and all that stuff."That's what we're doing, not counting points and hoping for gaps between us and other teams We have to win our football games."That didn't happen tonight and so we are not happy about that. "I don't see it like we've dropped points. It would have been easy for Klopp to dwell on the negatives of dropping two points at home in the midst of a title race.But just like he has been through the campaign, the German is looking to keep things on a level footing, not getting too high when we win or too low when the the three points are not secured. "We take what we get and tonight it's a point and it's more than we had before the game so that's fine. Is it that I'm now overly happy? No, of course not, we wanted to win that game." We all knew there were going to be plenty of twists and turns in the last few months of the season, and this is just the start of it.Buckle up, because it's sure going to be a bumpy ride.