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It wasn’t exactly the bounce back from the Arsenal game I hoped for, but a win is a win and in the end I was just relieved we got it. For a while there this wasn’t going very well and there was the potential for us to drop points, which given the opposition would have been unthinkable. You have to beat Burnley at home. And we did, in the end. The first half was awful I thought. Just slow, passive, turgid shite. The goal we scored was a gift from a corner, which we then promptly gifted back to them in similar fashion. I don’t think anyone could suggest that we deserved to be ahead at the break. We never got going at all in that half. Klopp’s explanation for it was that we were in too much of a hurry and kept trying to force it. I thought it was the opposite. There was no urgency in anything we did, everything was slow and laboured and the only time we were able to break out of that was when Nunez was able to run in behind. He was playing with urgency and at his usual level of intensity, not too many others were. That being said, in hindsight there are clearly reasons for that. At the time my feeling was that we just had a massive hangover from last week. Crowd and players both feeding off the others melancholy. I’m almost certainly just projecting my own feelings onto others there though. That Arsenal loss has stayed with me, I wasn’t able to shake it all week and even now as I write this it’s still with me. I definitely think the crowd were feeling it. Not helped by City having already played and gone top. The sense of “here we go again” is hard to escape, and when the team came out as flat as they did it just fed into it. But on reflection I don’t think last week really had much impact on the players, I think other factors affected them. Not least the flu bug that’s gone around the camp and ruled out Alisson and Gomez. We don’t know who else had been suffering from it either. Some of those in the starting line up may well have had it during the week, or may have just been starting to feel it. Then there’s the late changes to the side and players being shifted about. Kelleher came in at the last minute, Quansah replaced Konate but is doing a completely different job to when he’s playing in Virgil’s spot. Playing right sided centre back when Trent is the right back and is wandering infield is tough. Konate makes it look easy, but it’s not. Add to that Robbo making his first start in four months too. Then the midfield had a new look about it. Endo returned, meaning Macca got to play further forward. It looks like he’s forgotten how to do it as it’s been so long. I think he’ll be brilliant in that role but it takes time to learn and he’s been learning to play the six the whole season. It didn’t look fluid. View full article

The front three all found the net as the under strength Reds rallied in the second half to overcome a plucky Burnley side at Anfield to return to the top of the table. TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Julian Richards to reflect on all of the major talking points from this game and to also discuss the exploits of Xabi Alonso in the Bundesliga. The lads also look ahead to a tricky looking 12.30 fixture at Brentford next weekend. View full article

One of the worst weekends in a long time for us. We don’t lose many, only two this season, but when we lose to Arsenal and then basically everyone who we don’t to win, wins, that just makes it much worse. There isn’t one result that even gave me the tiniest little bit of consolation, it’s just proper shit. Chelsea got beat but they're so irrelevant now I genuinely don't care. They're 11th, the deadbeats. I suppose the only result that went the way I wanted it to was at Goodison. Most of you were probably pissed off when that late equaliser went in, and usually I would be. I'm not sure why, but I absolutely did not want Spurs to win, even if it was against the Blues. Just shows you how much beef I still have with them after what happened at their place. They led though Richarlison but the Blues levelled from a corner (of course they did). Richarlison scored again, and Everton almost equalised again from another corner. I’ve mentioned a lot how Dyche has turned them into Burnley, but his own assistant manager described them this week as “Burnley on steroids”. The only “juicing” Everton are doing is with their books, but it’s a fair description. Just not one I’d expect to come from Everton’s assistant manager. Would never have happened on Kenwright’s watch that. From the “School of Science” to “Burnley on steroids”, poor Bill will be spinning in his grave at that. Spurs had chances to win it but they didn’t take them and paid the price right at the death. This might shock you but I wanted Everton to equalise and was laughing when Branthwaite bundled in from a set-piece (of course). Don’t get me wrong, when it went to a VAR check I then began to think how side splittingly funny it would be if it was disallowed, but yes, I wanted them to equalise as I wanted a draw. Not because I’m worried about Spurs catching us. I just hate seeing them win games because I’ve developed an intense dislike for that cunt manager. I can’t even look at him, he makes my blood boil almost as much as Son, Romero and Richarlison. Of course I’d suck all of that up and I’d have been rooting for a Spurs win if it was directly going to send Everton down, but the only way they’re going down is if they get another points deduction, so my gut feeling was that I didn’t want either side to win because fuck Spurs. The whole Richarlison love in is proper sickening though. Everton are such bad cucks where he’s concerned. Clapping him when he scored and getting all emotional because of his fake ‘non celebration / apology’ nonsense. Losers. View full article

Well that was shit. What a time to throw in a performance like that. Losing at the Emirates isn’t the end of the world as it’s one of the two or three most difficult fixtures on the calendar, so the loss in itself isn’t cause to be too despondent. It’s pretty hard to feel anything but demoralised though after seeing the performance. It was bad, bordering on terrible in fact. The first half - as usual away from home - was shocking. Dreadful, clueless, sloppy, disorganised shite. The second half actually started well (as usual away from home) but then Klopp decided to make three changes when we were well on top and looking dangerous, and that was the end of that. We lost momentum, then made schoolboy mistakes at the back and ended up getting exactly what we deserved - nothing. There’s a lot of blame to go around for this one. None of the players come out of it with any great credit but the gameplan and team selection was fucked up too. How is it possible for us to go there and do the exact same shit we did in the first half of the FA Cup game the other week? Even the game at Anfield saw Arsenal take control of us early on. How have we not learned from that? Klopp said “we didn’t play football” in the first half. Well yeah, that’s true, but why is that? Because it was really fucking hard to play football when all of our players seemed to be marked and we had no pace up front to turn them around. So what we got was exactly what we got in the FA Cup game (another one that Darwin was left on the bench for by the way). I’m not going to make too much of it, but I’ve said before that I don’t enjoy watching us when Nunez is not on the pitch as we just don’t look anywhere near as threatening. This is a good example of it. No Darwin no party. The difference in how we look when he’s on the pitch to when he isn’t is night and day. That said, we were just as shite when he did come on in this game, but I’m convinced if he’d started we’d have posed much more threat. We couldn’t have posed any less, could we? We did absolutely nothing in the first half. It was completely inept and Arsenal were in complete control despite not really doing anything special themselves. They were decent and we were shite. Had they been anywhere near their best we’d have been in big trouble. View full article

A deserved defeat and a self inflicted one, as the Reds didn't make the most of a lifeline given to them just before half time and proceeded to hand Arsenal the points with some calamitous defending. TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Paul Natton and Julian Richards to sift through the wreckage of a rare defeat that has let Arsenal back into the race and opened the door for Manchester City. View full article

Monday Jan 29: Virgil said something about not knowing what his future holds and it was turned into a much bigger deal than it should have been. I read his comments and thought it was more or less what you’d expect from a player in his mid 30s with only 18 months on his contract and not knowing who the manager was going to be next season. It was interpreted as him saying “I might leave if FSG don’t get the appointment right” but I took it as him saying he doesn’t know what’s going to happen because the club might not give him the contract he wants and the new manager might not want to commit that kind of money on a 35 year old. He’s right to say there’s uncertainty but I don’t think that him saying he might want to leave because Klopp is going. There is uncertainty in a lot of areas though, not just because of Klopp but because we have no sporting director either. This is the time of year when deals for the summer are sounded out and put in place, and we have no-one to do it and everyone who we might want to bring in will be wanting to know who the manager is going to be. We were linked with some Belgian kid today for £5m but we can’t do it because of uncertainty over the SD and manager and he’s meant to be joining Brentford. Can’t say I’m arsed about that as we’ve got more boss young players than we know what to do with, but this does need sorting sooner rather than later because we can’t be getting to the summer with Trent only having one year left. Not arsed about Virgil or Mo as at their age it’s fine to get down to the final year, but we can’t be fucking Trent about. I’m not saying he wants to leave as I was told today by someone who spoke to him recently that he’s saying he wants to stay here his whole career and dreams of being captain, but Gerrard thought that way too until he was left hanging when he thought a new contract was coming and started to think about moving elsewhere. I’m not going to relax about Trent until he’s tied down for another four or five years. Meanwhile, the Mancs yesterday at Newport was the perfect example of why they’re so fucking shit. Look at Antony smugly celebrating his first goal in 9 months, against a league two side. Utterly shameless and lacking in any self awareness. This is why they fail. The culture stinks. Rashford wasn’t there because he got shitfaced in Belfast the night before he was due back at training and phoned in sick. The whole thing is disgusting. Why is he in another country the night before he’s back at training? Because he had a private jet to fly him back, that’s why. Saint Marcus and his Brontosaurus sized carbon footprint. Didn’t I tell you months ago he’s a fucking fraud? The Mancunian Henderson. View full article

A full round of fixtures in midweek, starting on Tuesday as Everton drew 0-0 at Fulham. Sounds like it was shit but I watched most of it on a stream and it was a good game with fuckloads of chances at both ends. No-one could score though. Pickford made some top saves and Beto missed two great chances right at the end. It’s wild to think that a club in desperate financial trouble that had been told not to spend any money, went out and spunked the best part of £40m on Beto and some kid from Sporting Lisbon who never even sees the field. It’s like having just enough money to pay your leccy bill and going down the shop and buying a couple of fidget spinners. View full article

Another one to add to the “was that our best performance of the season?” discussion. I’ve heard a lot of people say it is, I’m not sure though. Was it better than the Newcastle game? In fact, are Chelsea better than Newcastle? Probably not, beating Chelsea now isn’t the accomplishment it once was, that’s for sure. There’s a reason they’re 10th and we’re top. We’re miles better than them and it showed. We were at this one right from the start. You could tell after a couple of minutes it was probably going to be a comfortable win as long as we didn’t have to wait too long to make the breakthrough. Klopp hadn’t changed the team as much as I thought he might. Trent and Robbo didn’t come back in, but Dom did. I was a little surprised but at the same time Bradley was man of the match last game and Gomez has been one of our best players all season. They deserved to stay in. They probably deserve to stay in at the weekend too, but sports science comes into that to some extent too. Imagine if someone had sent a couple of months back that Trent and Robbo would be fit and available for selection but they couldn’t get in because Gomez was left back and Bradley was right back, both on merit. It’s mad really, but that’s the level they’ve played at. And Bradley upped that level and then some in this game. I don’t want to go overboard, but he might be the best player in the world right now. Ok, I’m joking, but the performance he put in against Chelsea was something really special. It was a performance that Trent would have been happy with, yet this is what, his third league start? Second maybe? Incredible performance from him. I’ll get to that though. View full article

What a night at Anfield. The Reds found the net four times, Darwin found the woodwork four times, and Conor Bradley produced a performance for the ages as the title charge continued. Chris Smith is joined by Dan Thomas and TLW Editor Dave Usher to look back on one hell of a performance in which Bradley announced himself as a star of the present as well as the future, and Liverpool showed Todd Boehly that there's much more to building a great team than just spending more money than everyone else. The lads also look forward to the weekend's trip to Arsenal and answer some more of your questions. View full article

Well, five goals, the youngsters impressing and a successful start to a key part of the season. Can’t really ask for any more than that, given the emotional few days we’ve had. We’re in the hat for the 5th round and that was the order for today. Dan Thomas here with your Norwich report. It’s getting back on the horse having fallen from the saddle. It’s getting back on the bike after falling on your arse. It’s the first game since Klopp’s bombshell announcement and it’s out of the way. Even walking around the ground before the game the mood was quite sombre. There is usually excited chatter of people talking about the upcoming match, the tactics, transfers and some dipshit buying a half and half scarf. But it didn’t feel like that today, there was just nothing. A void. Emptiness. Like the inside of Wayne Rooney’s skull. Other fans (who have no idea what they’re talking about) have poked fun at us this week, but it really does feel like a grieving process, like the passing of something that you have no control over. But when the players and Jurgen walked down the tunnel, we got the applause out of the way. We were ready for business, and it was business as usual. 5-2 was a let off for Norwich if we’re being completely honest. I’d done a lot of thinking about the team and when I read it when it was released, it was a great advert for why talented youngsters should sign for Liverpool. I am always happy to see young lads in the team and it was great to see James McConnell get his first start. I will get to him later but when I was reading the team, I was happy with what I’d seen. Though the LFC Twitter account needs to list people by position and not number. Come on dude, it’s 2024. Let’s be better. I was expecting Robbo to come in from the start or maybe even Owen Beck with Robbo to come on later, and Gomez to drop in at centre half. But no, Konaté played again which I really didn’t expect. It is testament to the Academy and to the pathway to the first team that both Quansah and Bradley are just there now. I fully expected them both to play today and Bradley will be unlucky to not play when Trent comes back in against Chelsea. They are not wet behind the ears kids, these are now established first team lads. They aren’t starters yet of course but they are very definitely a part of the first team squad now – and that is a measure of how calm, composed and grown up their football is. I was a little surprised to see Alisson start but when you think about it, Kelleher has the Carling/Coca Cola/Rumbelows/Carabao Cup and the Europa League. I guess Klopp has told Alisson he has the league and the FA Cup, because it’s not like Kelleher would have been overawed by the occasion today. Some of the football Norwich played was extraordinary. I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way either. We are a lean, mean gegenpressing machine. We hunt as a vicious pack and drag our prey down. So when our prey is not even close to being as good as we are, you’d think they’d try and spend some time with the ball in the air on the halfway line. Not Norwich though – they decided to try and pass out like prime Barcelona. I respect that they have an identity, a style and a way of playing. I almost respect that they are saying “That’s the way we play and that’s all there is to it.” Come on though man, it was obvious inside the first five minutes that they were going to try and go toe to toe with our pressing game and it was obvious we were going to create chances because of it. We had nearly taken the lead early on but Nunez’s curling shot hit the post. He was a menace again today, and was unlucky to not get more than the one he did. He cut onto his right and his shot looked pretty speculative to be honest but it thumped off the woodwork. Again. Feels like poor old Darwin has hit the post hundreds of times this season and here’s another one for the list. Cue the “ShIt AnDY CaRRolL" chants. I was made up to hear those bumpkins start up with that shit because it seems to me that Darwin is increasingly scoring every time it happens. Proper Football League dickhead bantz, and that was Norwich’s schtick all afternoon. Being loud means nothing when you are wearing green and yellow wigs, doing the whole CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN thing 25 years after it was last seen on TV and spending half the game singing about the atmosphere. Which admittedly was mostly very flat. But we aren’t exactly going to be up for it on a Sunday at 2:30pm against a heavily rotated Norwich City, are we? And whilst I’m at it, I hope we’re going to change the away end back to where it was because that has really knocked my karma out of kilter. The away end has been the Main Stand side ever since I can remember. In fact, whilst I’m at it, I resented drawing Norwich in the first place. They have been up and down (nearly as much as I was sitting down and standing up today, what is it with cup games with jabronis constantly going up and down the aisle? I had seasickness two minutes into the second half!) for much of the last twenty years. I never miss them when they’re gone, I don’t acknowledge them when they are here. They’re just there and the same goes for Watford as well, who we’ve drawn in the next round, providing they can get past Southampton in a replay. Not glamour ties but I’ll take the home draw any day of the week. But I digress. When the opener came, it was completely expected and it had been coming. We’d nicked the ball in great positions a few times but didn’t quite make the most of it. But McConnell dropped into space, looked up and pinged a left footed diagonal to the back post. The right back lost Curtis and he swooped in for an easy header. The improvement in him this season has been profound and he is regularly chipping in with goals these days. That one will possibly not live long in his memory but it certainly will for McConnell. He was absolutely fearless today and did not look out of place. He was confident on the ball and put himself about in the tackle. It was nice to see some of our lads go straight to him instead of Jones because it was an exquisite ball that just begged for Jones to do exactly what he did – straight back across the keeper into the corner. Excellent. Norwich continued with their high risk, zero reward approach and I honestly thought we were going to hit them for seven or eight. However, as it turns out, they got a couple of corners and scored a totally undeserved equaliser. I am a little bit annoyed at that goal to be honest because as a Championship team coming to Anfield in a game where they’d have about 30% possession, Norwich will have been working on their set pieces all week – and we should have been doing the same in the training sessions we’ve had. To add to this, Gibson had a free run at goal in the corner a few seconds previous but Jota nicked it away. No such luck second time. It looked a good header, just a glance and not even Alisson can do anything about it. However, it was actually spawn central as it’s flicked off his back and Alisson can still do nothing about it. We looked a bit ropey for five minutes actually, not under any pressure but certainly not showing our considerable attacking teeth. However, Norwich duly obliged us by playing out again. The keeper tried to find the left back with a diagonal which Conor Bradley won back. He then played a lovely 1-2 with Jota the Slotter and suddenly the right back had acres of space to run into. He kept his composure magnificently and played in Nunez. To be honest, his first touch wasn’t great and he hit the ball quite a bit further ahead of where he would have wanted. But the finish, right footed, was straight in the bottom corner and the keeper isn’t getting that. Very good all round. And that was a perfect demonstration of the importance of making the right choice – when you do so, everything opens up. Until half time, all hell broke loose. We should have been out of sight and then some. Norwich kept trying to Beckenbauer it up, we kept swooping in and taking the ball. Bradley cut it back for Gakpo and the latter inexplicably skimmed it well wide with the goal at his mercy. A really extraordinary miss for someone who is usually so composed. And then, Norwich tried to play out yet again and Jones nicked it, played in Gravenberch who rounded the keeper but his shot was weak and was cleared off the line. A truly nuts couple of minutes. Again, I respect you have an identity. You do that against Huddersfield or Southampton or Leeds. You don’t do that at Anfield against a team that actively wants you to try and play your way out. How it was only 2-1 at half time was anyone’s guess. When all the dickheads got back from their half time pie/pint/piss and making me bob up and down like a fat Woolyback meerkat, they would have seen that we carried on the second half as we ended the first. Total domination. However, the third goal was a bit out of nothing – Jones hit a long one looking for Jota, Gibson had to get there but could only head it into the air. Without breaking stride, Jota has kept on going, got the ball into the perfect position and rattled it into the bottom corner with his left foot. He didn’t have time to think, he just did. An absolutely fantastic finish from one of the elite finishers in world football. He’s been back a while now but it’s no coincidence that we’re playing better, looking more dangerous and scoring more goals since his return to the side. Almost instantly, the changes were rung. On came Dom, Virgil and Robbo and off went Jones, Konate and Gomez. It’s genuinely fantastic to have Robertson back but it is a huge testament to how well Gomez has played when you consider we have not missed either Robbo or Tsimikas. Incidentally, can we knock the SHOOOOOT every time Gomez has the ball on the fucking head, please? He will build it and they will come, don’t worry. Leaving that aside though, what a bench eh? Not a bad set of subs to make at all. It didn’t take long for the substitutes to combine actually as Szoboslai’s corner picked out an unmarked van Dijk, who planted his header from the penalty spot. How you leave the best header of a ball on the pitch as open as that, I have no idea but it was a great header unmarked or not. Scoring from that range is a skill. There’s not many sights in football watching a keeper at full stretch being beaten by a header from a corner. One of the lads who sits in front of me called a goal from a van Dijk header before that ball came in, so fair play Mick! On came Trent, off went Darwin as the vice skipper got himself half an hour under the belt before Chelsea in midweek. He nearly scored with his first touch actually as a corner was cleared to the edge of the box, but it was blocked. Interesting that he stayed in midfield mostly and Bradley was left on to maraud down the right. Again I thought Hurricane Liverpool might completely swamp Norwich but it wasn’t quite the case. They had a goal disallowed for offside – there was a VAR check which was a shame as I largely had forgotten it had existed this weekend. It’s no coincidence to me that there has been no talk of high profile refereeing clangers in a weekend where VAR use is limited. I could see in real time it was offside but the check did last a while. A few minutes later, it was 4-2. A long ball wasn’t hoovered up in midfield and Sainz just ran and ran with it. Van Dijk declined to close him down and suddenly, it’s in. There is so much to pick apart about that goal. It’s a good hit don’t get me wrong I am not detracting from the lad. Glen Johnson did the draw for the 5th round and van Dijk demonstrated some Glen Johnson-esque closing down as he…. Well, didn’t. He just let him shoot. And as critical as I have been of Kelleher this season, if that goal goes in with him in net we are asking questions about the goalkeeping. “Alisson would have saved that.” For me, if something goes in from that range you’re entitled to ask questions of the goalkeeper and having watched it back a few times, I am not sure what the problem is. Has he maybe seen it late around van Dijk? If you ask him, he’s probably not happy with himself. Or maybe I am expecting too much because he is the best in the world without question and I hate giving the away fans something to celebrate. I thought that goal demonstrated McConnell was low on batteries because the space in midfield was huge and given he was the holding midfielder he was well behind the play. He lasted another ten minutes before giving way to Diaz. Again, not a bad change to make! Well played young man – see you against Watford on the 28th February. Because that’s how good his performance was. The last ten minutes was no onslaught by them by any means and we could have scored another three ourselves. Long made a great save following a goalmouth scramble, and Jota was having target practice using someone about 10 rows back in the Kop as he absolutely leathered two shots out wide into the exact same area in quick succession. Not one you want to catch in the face. He’s the lad from Portugal He’ll knock your teeth out don’t you know Oh his name is Diogo Jota looked a bit knackered to be honest but McConnell couldn’t continue so 90 minutes for Jota. Obviously the sports science nerds think he’s alright to play 90 now though which is good for us – and we’re going to need big minutes from the four forwards until Salah is back. I thought we were done with the goals given Jota’s fancying of Joe in Row 10 of the Kop but we still had time for one more. A diagonal from Dom to Diaz, a diagonal from Diaz to Bradley who fizzed the ball across goal on the bounce for Gravenberch to nod home right at the death. I don’t think Gravenberch will feel that was the best he could have played but he’s now got three goals for us – more goals coming from midfield is great stuff. Curtis has definitely lifted the bar there and an extra 10-15 from that part of the pitch could be crucial come May. But two assists for Bradley – that’s hugely impressive for a young lad with as little first team football at Liverpool’s level as he has. He was Bolton’s player of the season last year – I know that because my son Jack presented him with the award. Jack is quickly growing into a Red, don’t you worry. He was absolutely superb at League One level last season and he just looks so comfortable. It’s the Jurgen effect obviously but the only thing he has done wrong was get squared up for the Fulham goal on Wednesday night. I reckon he’d have another 7-10 appearances under his belt had he not been injured early in the season. I’ve been waiting to have a good look at him and boy am I glad we have had the chance. So yeah, life moves on. We’ve loved and lost before, we will absolutely love and lose again. I still think there was a bit of a stunned feeling around the ground because it’s all so sudden. We thought we had another season of this at least and yet here we are contemplating where we go from here. The simple answer is onto the next game which is frankly a bigger fish to fry – we will need the crowd more in that game than we ever were going to against these jeering bums. The timing of the announcement is strange, I hope that this is to try and galvanise the crowd to be stronger than ever on the run in. We’re fighting on four fronts and let’s be honest, Watford at home is not a million miles away from what we would have been wanting. We have a chance to go very deep in the FA Cup as well and leveraging the last of our time together with Jurgen is going to play a huge role in our quest for all the gold. Star man – The FA Cup, Roy of the Rovers, Jumpers for Goalposts, Giant Killing, Sheepskin coat wearing cliched gobshite part of me wants to give it to McConnell for his excellent performance on his first start at Anfield. And he’s up there. But I am going to give it to Conor Bradley – two assists, looking so measured and composed and had Gakpo not got the yips it would have been three assists. Honourable mentions to Jones and Nunez as well. Team: Alisson; Bradley, Konate (Van Dijk), Quansah, Gomez (Robertson); McConnell (Diaz), Gravenberch, Jones (Szoboslai); Jota, Nunez (Alexander-Arnold), Gakpo: View full article

The chase for the quadruple goes on as the Reds recorded a comfortable victory over Norwich on an emotional day at Anfield. TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Paul Natton, John Gallagher and John Brennan to reflect on a good afternoon for the Reds and to delve further into the news that Kloppo will be leaving at the end of the season. View full article