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Report by Dave Usher We needed this. Needed it badly. While it was premature to be talking about a crisis, there has been a simmering discontent bubbling under with the fans of late, and although it will take more than this to pacify those who are understandably disgruntled, there would have been open revolt if we’d lost again. The two defeats in a week were a concern, but most of the frustration and anger was about the weakening of the squad we’ve seen during this transfer window. The last two games merely highlighted concerns that were already there. Those results were seen by many as a consequence of our lack of incomings to compensate for the significant outgoings. Those valid concerns won’t go away just because of a win over Huddersfield, or even a win over Spurs this weekend. They probably won’t go away at all actually. Every setback and poor result we have between now and the end of the season will be attributed to the inexcusable weakening of our attacking options this month. The trick for Klopp is to make sure those setbacks are so few and far between that we begin to talk about the progress on the pitch rather than the lack of spending. Klopp is taking a huge gamble and only time will tell if it pays off or not. Personally I’m highly sceptical and more than a little pissed off, but the next week or two will be crucial because there’s a chance for us to put some significant daylight between ourselves and the two North London clubs in the battle for fourth place. And fourth now seems to be the height of our ambition after this month. A few weeks ago I was confident of second, but this window has changed all that and just hanging onto fourth will be difficult enough now. I’m happy with the three points but I don’t think there was too much in the performance to change the perception that we’re going to continue to struggle against this type of approach. We found it hard to create too many clear chances but it at least looks like Klopp has been working on some ways to do it. Twice we saw a diagonal run inside from Mané and a ball over the top to pick him out from Can, and that really ought to have paid off more than it did. The same ball has seen Salah get in on a few occasions recently too, and it must be something they are working on in training as it’s the one thing we’ve done in the Swansea and Huddersfield games that has worked consistently. The finishing touch has been missing the but it’s been our most productive method of creating chances. This was a straightforward win in the end but really it’s such a fine margin between this and what happened at Swansea. Was this performance that much better? The result certainly changes how we view performances, hence why the Swansea performance was seen as being completely unacceptable while this is viewed as a good solid professional job. In many respects it was the same performance though, the only difference was the goals and much of that was down to contrasting fortunes (for example, Firmino hits the inside of the post in both games, one goes in the other stays out). Such is football. Huddersfield understandably tried to copy what Swansea did and for 25 minutes or so it was working. Despite hardly having any of the ball they somehow still had the two clearest attempts. Karius made a save (make a note of that in your diary) to deny Depoitre and was relieved to see a free kick from Lowe go inches wide soon after. We must have had something like 80% possession by that point, yet they had the two best chances. How many times have we seen that? In fairness that was as good as it got for them as they created nothing after that and we took the lead soon after, albeit in fortuitous circumstances. Can’s shot from distance was well struck but it was the deflection that allowed it to beat the keeper. We caught a break there, and that’s the difference. Swansea got the bounce of the ball all night against us, whereas Huddersfield didn’t. The margins between a 1-0 defeat and a 3-0 win in this type of game really are fine. Credit to Can for his performance and credit to Klopp for picking him when the easiest thing would have been to leave him out after his stinker at the weekend. He was the best player on the pitch and seemed to be invigorated by the freedom to get forward. He’s been playing the number six role recently but his preference is the box to box position. With Henderson available again he got to play where he feels he is most effective and he was the biggest reason we won the game. He scored, he won a penalty, he made some surging, powerful runs forward and created a couple of chances for Mané with terrific cross field passes in behind the defence. Good job by Big Sexy. The first goal is always important in these games, but more so when we concede it than when we score. If we concede then the job becomes even more difficult, as we found out last week. If we score first though, you still feel like we need at least one more to be safe anyway, as one goal doesn’t change the opposition’s tactics in the slightest. That crucial second goal came just before half time and was superbly crafted by Firmino, who managed to convince everyone in the stadium (as well as everyone watching at home) that he was going to cut the ball back, only to then lash it in off the near post. Poor from the keeper, but he just got done by the eyes. Bobby loves a ‘no look’ finish doesn’t he? That goal gave Huddersfield a big problem because at 1-0 they could just keep doing what they were doing and hope for a set-piece. They wouldn’t have opened up until the last ten minutes, but going 2-0 down changes things. At least is usually does. As it turned out, they still didn’t really come out of their deep defensive shell and the second half continued in the same pattern as the first. It was comfortable, we were passing it around under no real pressure but we weren’t creating too many chances. In fairness, as that stage we didn’t really need to. The best one we had fell to Salah but he spurned an easy tap in with his right foot and instead tried to prod it goalwards with the outside of his left, but only found the side netting. A bad miss but he made amends soon after when Can won a penalty and he grabbed the ball ahead of Milner and sent the keeper the wrong way. It was an awkward moment initially as Milner clearly believed he was supposed to take it, but the last thing you need in those situations is players arguing over it as it puts too much pressure on whoever takes it. Milner is a consummate pro and he quickly stepped aside to make things easier. Salah buried the pen but as soon as it hit the net he was pointing at Milner and heading towards him saying “I’m sorry”. It was quite comical really, but it’s only funny because he scored. If he’d missed Klopp would have gone nuts I think, and rightly so. At 3-0 that was the game over as a contest now and perhaps that explains why we eased off a little and Huddersfield had some decent pressure in the last ten minutes. Prior to that they just couldn’t get out of their own half as our counter pressing was dynamite (it was at Swansea too). Henderson was terrific on his return and Milner and Can were both excellent without the ball. Can was excellent with it as well of course, whereas most of the others were just ok. Firmino played well enough and put in a hell of a shift as usual, but Salah and Mané weren’t anywhere near their best. The big concern is they have to play more or less every game now because we have so little cover. Ox has been better in midfield than in the front three, so there is no rotation option that allows us to rest ‘the Dangerous Brothers’ without there being a significant drop off. That said, Mané is struggling at the moment so we might not miss him that much in his current state. We badly need him back in top gear because the next few months are really going to be tough for us. I thought the goal he scored against City would kick start things for him but he just doesn’t look like himself at the moment. The game this weekend should suit him as he enjoys playing against Spurs. That's a massive game for us now because if we can win we'll open up a significant gap between us and both North London clubs, especially as they play eachother next week. It's going to be interesting to see what team Klopp selects this weekend, especially in defence where Lovren probably deserves a change alongside Van Dijk. Picking him against Harry Kane after what happened last time would be a big call though, so I'll be intrigued to see what Klopp decides to do with that. I'd expect Wijnaldum to come in for Milner too, as that's the kind of game where the Dutchman regularly shows his worth. Aside from that, I wouldn't imagine there'll be any other changes. Team: Karius; Gomez, Matip, Lovren, Robertson; Henderson (Wijnaldum), Can, Milner; Salah (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Firmino (Solanke), Mané:

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield After the Swansea defeat I was annoyed and frustrated more than anything else. After this loss, my biggest feeling is worry. It's only two games, but even so, it just feels like things might be getting away from us, just like they did this time last year. Losing to West Brom is bad enough, but the way we lost has to have set massive alarm bells ringing off for Klopp. I’m trying not to panic because I said earlier in the season that the way the team responded to the loss at Spurs means they deserve the benefit of the doubt the next time they let themselves down. An impressive 18 game unbeaten run means they deserve some slack. Two bad results does not undo all the progress we’ve seen this season and I don’t want to be a massive shithouse and jump overboard at the first sign of trouble, but I’d be lying if I said my confidence hasn’t been shaken by the events of this past week. Not so much the Swansea game as that was just one of those things that can happen to anyone. They wanted to defend for their lives and play for a goalless draw, but they took advantage of a set-piece and then rode their luck to hold on for a win. We didn’t play well but we didn't get any of the breaks in that game either. You could argue it was unlucky. This defeat was much worse because we did get virtually all of the breaks and still lost. Deservedly. West Brom didn’t just sit back and they were good value for their win. It wasn't a park the bus smash and grab. They actually looked like they’d score every time they got anywhere near our box. It was a chastening experience and we looked an absolute shambles. Klopp has occasionally taken liberties with his team selections in the cup competitions but you can’t accuse him of not taking this one seriously. He picked more or less his strongest team, which makes the defeat even more alarming really as we can’t even use the ‘weakened side’ excuse. We threw the best we had at the team that is second from bottom in the table, and we came up short. What went wrong? I don’t even know. The easiest thing is to say everything. Not much went right, that’s for sure. The forwards aren’t at their best right now, but they weren't that bad though and did put two goals on the board, which should be enough to win. Defensively we were a joke and the midfield didn’t help out at either end of the pitch. It was just a mess. I’d like to think that Klopp knows what the problems are and how to fix them, but I suspect he was just as fucking perplexed at what went on as the rest of us were. Talk about the loss of Coutinho all you like, and clearly that hasn’t helped, but it’s much more than that. It wasn’t the absence of Coutinho that allowed West Brom to score three times in the first half. Four if you count the one that we were fortunate to see ruled out by the video ref. I’ll get to that whole farcical situation in due course though, as there’s a lot I want to say about it. Going back to the team selection for a second, the only thing I could take issue with was the choice of goalkeeper. I know this is how it usually works, with one taking the league games and the other getting the cups, but the situation changed when Mignolet was dumped the other week. This wasn’t like before, when he knew he just needed to bide his time and fight to regain his place. He’s finished here now and he knows it, so why play him? What possible benefit is there in that decision? If Karius turns out to be shite that doesn’t change Mignolet’s situation at all, as it just means Klopp will buy another keeper in the summer. He almost certainly will anyway but in the meantime he may as well have a proper look at Karius just to see if he’s worth keeping around. The Mig is done here though, so why bring him back in to play in the cup? Is he going to get the Champions League games now too? I’d assume not. Mignolet wasn’t the reason we lost, but he certainly didn’t help as he was crap. Then there’s Moreno. He came in for Robertson but looked rusty after his lay off. Robertson should be - and hopefully is - first choice now, but he’s played a lot of football lately and I’ve got no issue with him being rested for this one. Similarly on the opposite flank, Trent coming in for Gomez made sense, as the plan was to be on the front foot and his delivery should have given us a more productive outlet down the right. Should have, but didn’t. He was terrible, but the decision to start him was the right one. So overall I’m happy that Klopp tried to go as strong as possible and that he took the game seriously. We need to win trophies and if I thought he’d prioritised the Huddersfield game in midweek I’d have been pissed off. He didn’t do that, but having lost the game anyway we would have been better off if he had done. Now we go to Huddersfield with some heavy legs. West Brom had half a dozen players missing with flu, but Pardew still went with two strikers and although their 4-4-2 looked pretty defensive on paper, that’s not how it played out as they were not hesitant in getting midfield players forward when possible. Credit to them, they played well. We were garbage though, despite getting off to the perfect start with an early goal. The goal was a gift and did not come from good build up play, but no-one was complaining. Johnny Evans looked to be in no trouble as he chased a through ball ahead of Salah, but for some reason he decided to leave it for his goalkeeper who had no chance of getting there. Mo nipped in and although Foster did well to keep out his low shot, Bobby pounced and dinked the rebound over everyone and into the net. Lovely finish that. It was a present though and just what we needed after the Swansea game, but we failed to take advantage of it and immediately allowed them to equalise pretty much right from the kick off. Brilliant finish from Rodriguez, but defensively it was poor. Very poor. Wijnaldum lost possession, Trent failed to win it back, Can didn’t react quickly enough and Moreno was too slow to get round on the cover. It quickly got worse as Rodriguez pounced again. The defending was crap once more. Can was beaten far too easily and then didn’t get back in quickly enough, while Moreno was once again napping and didn’t get round on the cover in time. Too often Moreno just doesn’t think like a defender in those situations and that was the case on both goals, although the second was more egregious than the first. It was just a collective mess though. I’ve been saying since the summer that Van Dijk wouldn’t stop the goals going in against us because much as some people like to blame Lovren for anything that goes wrong, it’s never been about one player and if anything, we probably concede more when Lovren isn't there (I don't have stats to back that up, it's just a general feeling so if I'm wrong it won't be the first, or last time). Van Dijk should help, otherwise there was no point shelling out all that dough on him, but one player isn’t going to make us water tight even if he’s Hansen, Lawrenson, Carragher and Hyypia rolled into one. We were all at sea any time they got near our box, it was just shambolic and depressing. This was West Brom, not fucking Man City. It then looked like they’d scored a third from a corner but that’s when all the video nonsense began. Dawson headed in from about three yards out and the whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion. Mignolet and a few defenders appealed for something so the ref called for the video. It took an eternity but eventually the verdict went in our favour. No-one in the ground seemed to know why it had been disallowed and most around me assumed Dawson had been punished for going over the back of Firmino, but then I got a message from a mate saying it was offside. Having since watched a replay of it I’d say we got lucky. That’s not to say the decision was wrong, it was right because Barry’s big fat arse was marginally offside and as he was stood in front of the keeper technically he was interfering with play. The goal was given initially and had that been a league game we’d have been 3-1 down. So yeah, we got lucky. It was weak from Mignolet. He should have been coming out and dealing with that, and although I accept that Barry’s arse could block out the sun, you still need to find a way around him to deal with the cross and frankly it was pitiful from the Mig, as he didn’t even really try to get past him. Also, what the fuck was Firmino doing ducking underneath the ball instead of heading it away? That was shite too. The amount of time that was wasted for them to get to that decision seemed a bit excessive but it chalked off a goal against us so no-one inside Anfield was complaining. Apart from Pardew, his players and the Albion fans in the Anny Road of course. They were even more pissed off soon after when Salah went tumbling in the box and immediately started yelling at the ref to go to the video. He did, and this is where it got confusing. On the previous one he waited until he was told in his headset that the goal shouldn’t stand. On this, he waited for a while and then decided to go over to the touchline himself and have a look at the screen. Why didn’t he do that on the first one? Did the video ref tell him he needed to look for himself? I honestly have no idea how the fuck any of this works. No-one sat around me had a fucking clue what was happening, but then he came back on the pitch and pointed to the spot so again, no complaints from us. It was the right decision too. Mo milked it a bit but he was cleared pulled back by Livermore and having seen a replay of it the ref had to give it. Great this VAR thing isn’t it? Well no actually, but I’ll get to that in a second. Firmino was the obvious choice to take the pen as he’d be the one I trusted most of those on the field. I didn’t trust him much though if I’m honest, and I wasn’t shocked that he missed. I think Bobby’s problem is trying to be too precise. The last one he missed hit the inside of the post, this one hit the underside of the bar. Both close to being perfect, but both missed, and both costly. It proved to be a massive turning point as in first half stoppage time West Brom scored a third. I’m not happy at all about this one as it should never have stood. Firstly, the free kick that led to it was never a foul. Mané got the ball and Barry bought a free-kick by feigning contact when there didn’t look to be any. Secondly, when the free-kick is played forward Dawson is offside. I thought he was at the time and the replay confirms it, as the below screenshot (taken at the moment the free kick was taken) shows. Not only that, but when he won the header the player in the middle who went for it was definitely offside (see the second screenshot), but because Van Dijk beat him to the ball the linesman didn’t flag. Sorry, that’s bollocks. Is Van Dijk supposed to leave it in the hope that the linesman has spotted the offside and puts his flag up? He headed the ball away to stop it reaching a forward in an offside position. Dawson was trying to pick him out, the player himself moves towards the ball, it’s FUCKING OFFSIDE. I even thought Dawson was offside when it came back to him the second time, but it turns out he was level. He hit the ball across Mignolet but Matip’s attempted clearance was fucking shocking and it hit him and went over the line. Because it looked like Dawson may have been offside they went to the video again but this time the goal stood. What were they looking at, because as shown above there were two offsides in the build up. Do they not count? How far back are they allowed to go when reviewing it? Load of shite. That isn’t even the reason I’m not down with the VAR though. I hate it because it completely kills the moment. West Brom went 3-1 up at Anfield but couldn’t celebrate it because it went to the video and they'd been burned twice by it already. By the time the officials looked at it and gave the goal, the moment had completely passed and it was embarrassing looking at the Albion players because they didn’t know what to do or who to celebrate with. It’s shit and if this comes in for every game it will completely kill the emotion of the moment. When the ball hits the net you go wild. Occasionally, if there's something a little bit iffy you may have a quick look at the ref or linesman to see if they aren’t signalling anything before you completely lose it, but generally it's a split second emotional response and that moment of unbridled joy is the best thing about watching football. This shit is going to take that away from us though. Ask West Brom fans how they felt about that third goal. Going 3-1 up at Anfield should have been an amazing moment they'd remember for the rest of their lives. They still will I suppose, but for all the wrong reasons. Tell you what else was fucked up. Four minutes stoppage time at the end of the half? There was four minutes for the first VAR alone, at least two minutes on the second and in between that West Brom had two players need treatment on the pitch for hamstring injuries that forced them off soon after. There should have been at least eight minutes added on, but that would have been embarrassing for the officials so they cut it in half to save face. And those hamstring injuries.... bit of a co-incidence they came so soon after the game was stopped for those decisions, don't you think? Pardew blamed the stoppages for the injuries and I reckon he’s got a case. So in short, I’m not on board with VAR and hope it doesn’t come in full time. It probably will though, and it'll be yet another nail in the coffin of football. Anyway, the second half started the same way the first had ended and West Brom had a couple of dangerous moments in the opening minutes. The crowd were ready to turn now but in fairness the players then got a grip of the game and forced West Brom back. Not that they needed much encouragement to sit back, as it reached a point where they decided a two goal lead was enough and they battoned down the hatches and prepared for a siege that didn’t really come. We had a few moments here and there but never built up a proper head of steam. For once Klopp didn’t fuck about with his subs and he made a triple change just after the hour. It didn’t turn the game for us but it did see some improvement. Ox and Can were obvious candidates for the hook but I’d have dragged Wijnaldum off too. Instead it was Mané, who in fairness couldn’t really have any complaints. His performance was weird. I felt in the first half that he looked quite sharp but he kept taking the safe option and was always looking to lay it off instead of go himself. There were several opportunities for him to drive at his man, cut inside and shoot, but he was reluctant to do it. Then in the second half he just wasn’t doing anything. Ings was more of a threat in the short time he was on. At least he wanted to work the goalkeeper. Henderson came on and was immediately about five levels up from anything we’ve seen from the rest of our midfield since the City game. He passed the ball with purpose, with a bit of zip on the ball and - most importantly - ahead of his intended target so they were able to take the ball on the run and not have to wait for it or go backwards to collect it. It’s a basic thing but some of our players just don’t seem to bother with it. I'm fed up of seeing the ball passed behind people. By passing it with pace in front of someone it gives them that extra split second of space before the opposition shuffle across. I’m sick of seeing our players having to wait for a pass to arrive at their feet because it’s not been hit crisply enough. Henderson didn’t do anything special and yet it still elevated our play, which goes to show how little those other crabs had contributed. Big Sexy had an absolute ‘mare. Don’t ever make him captain again. He’s had the armband twice and we’ve lost to the bottom two teams in the league. Even allowing for the valid argument that a player refusing to sign a contract should not be captain, the lad is a fucking jinx anyway. I like him and I think he’s had a solid season, but he was proper shite in this game. The midfield now concerns me deeply. Losing Coutinho has left a massive creative void in there but with a fully fit Lallana available between now and May we’d be able to cope. That’s not going to happen though is it? He’s been missing virtually all season and then just as it looked like he was ready to come back in, he’s fucking injured again. It’s always muscle injuries with him and it’s never a short term thing either. We can’t count on him, and if we can’t count on him then we’re in trouble. Realistically, is this midfield going to have enough to secure a top four spot? We concede too many goals and when teams deny the front three space to run into it reduces their effectiveness by at least 50%. When that happens we need the midfield to help out but they’re basically all just water carriers. Where the inspirational player in there? There isn’t one. Not paying that extra to get Naby Keita is understandable on a matter of principle, but this midfield really needs help right now and it doesn’t look like the cavalry are coming any time soon. When we got back to 3-2 there was plenty of time left and we had momentum. We should have got something out of the game from there but it quickly fizzled out and went flat again. The delivery from out wide was shocking, whether it was Trent slinging in high hopeful balls that provided nothing other than catching practice for Foster, or Ox and then Milner delivering shite corners, it just wasn’t good enough. But I have some sympathy for those putting in crosses because what did they have to aim for? Ings and Firmino were usually the only ones in the box but I doubt if Trent and Moreno could even see them given all the height West Brom had in there. Not least that big Egyptian fucker who looks like he should have been running out at the Royal Rumble this weekend rather than at Anfield. What Foster didn’t catch he was just heading away. Until stoppage time when finally, FINALLY, Van Dijk went up top and hey, guess what, he almost scored with a header. This is what is doing my fucking head in at the moment with Klopp. The other night at Swansea we needed a goal and there was zero chance of a counter attack as Swansea were in all out defence mode. Yet Van Dijk only went up right at the end. He was the one who picked the ball up in the box and crossed for Firmino to almost grab us a point. This time he goes up and almost scores himself. Next time we’re in this situation, get him up there with ten minutes to go and throw the fucking kitchen sink at them. If teams want to defend their own box and deny us space to play through, fine, let’s take advantage of that and sling some crosses in to the big man. Don’t be too proud to do it, Jurgen, don’t forget it wasn’t that long ago you were throwing Steven Caulker on as a battering ram late in games (and having some success with it too). We need to get the rig back on the road now because we saw this time last year how quickly a season can be derailed. We just about managed to rally and sneak fourth spot last season but it’s going to be harder this year as the competition is so fierce. A couple of weeks ago we looked shoe ins for the top four, but then Coutinho was sold, we’ve had two terrible performances and all of a sudden it feels as though we’re the ones most at risk. We have to beat Huddersfield this week and then at the very least not lose to Spurs, otherwise a couple of bad results could turn into slump and a crisis of confidence. A couple of wins and we can just put this down to a minor blip. As I said though, I'm worried. Star man is…. hell I don’t even know. Henderson, Ings, Firmino and Van Dijk weren’t terrible but two of them weren’t on long enough for me to justify giving it to them and the other two were just ok, nothing more. Can I give it to the video? Team: Mignolet; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Moreno; Can (Henderson), Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Milner); Salah, Firmino, Mané (Ings):

Emre Can’s future continues to be the source of much speculation, but the likelihood of him remaining a Liverpool player beyond this season appears to have increased as Juventus this week admitted they are having difficulty persuading the player to sign a pre-contract agreement with them. Juve general manager Beppe Marotta told Italian broadcaster Premium Sport “We want to try and bring him to us, but we cannot do it because he currently has a contract with Liverpool. He could renew it and, moreover, there are other teams interested in him”. This is encouraging from Liverpool’s perspective as for several months most reports coming out of Italy had suggested that Can already had one foot in Turin. A deal had been agreed and would be announced in January, so said most of the Italian press. So far Can has signed no pre-contract agreement and insists that no decision has been taken on his future and that talks are still ongoing with Liverpool. The sticking point appears to be Liverpool’s unwillingness to allow the German a buy out clause. The club are trying to get away from deals like that having been powerless to prevent Luis Suarez from joining Barcelona when they met the terms of his buy out. This is something that can make an impact on sports betting. The loss of important players can affect the general playing ability of the squad, which in turn decreases their chances and odds of succeeding in the Premier League. While the fans are chanting and cheering whatever happens, a few football betting sites will not view things so optimistically. The Reds learned from the loss of Suarez and although Philippe Coutinho this month joined Suarez in Catalonia, the La Liga club had to pay a king’s ransom to get that deal over the line because Liverpool had ensured there was no buy out figure in the contract Coutinho signed a year ago. Liverpool could easily grant Can’s demand for a buy out clause because he is not likely to ever be as in demand as Suarez or Coutinho, and he will never be as difficult to replace as a star attacking player. That isn’t the point though. By giving Can a release clause, it opens the door for other players to look for a similar arrangement, and with Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane both due for talks on a contract extension, that isn’t a road Liverpool want to go down. So it appears that talks are at an impasse, but while no deal is agreed with Juventus or anybody else, Liverpool still have hope that they can reach some sort of compromise with the 24 year old. To Can’s credit, he has never let the uncertainty over his future impact on his form. He’s been one of the Reds’ most consistent players over the last 12 months and has even played through illness and injury to do a job for his team. Klopp has frequently spoken of how the contract issue is not important and that he will continue to selection his young compatriot as long as he shows the right attitude. He even gave him the captain’s armband for Monday night’s loss at Swansea, although not too much stock should be put into that as Coutinho captained the Reds in the weeks before his departure. Over the busy Christmas period Klopp was able to rest all of his starters at some point, but an injury to Jordan Henderson left Can as Liverpool’s only fit ‘number six’ and he started every game during that hectic spell. So while his future remains in doubt, his commitment does not. Emre Can is far from irreplaceable, but to do so would cost a fair amount of money. Surely then, it makes sense to find a way to keep him and invest the funds it would take to replace him on strengthening other positions in the squad? If the only way to get him to sign a new deal is to grant him a release clause, then although that isn’t ideal, surely it’s a better option than allowing a 24 year old player yet to hit his prime to walk away for nothing?

I was about to describe this as an “Ed Sheeran of a week”, but that wouldn't be right as Spurs dropped points, so unlike Sheeran it wasn’t all bad. It was fucking shit and made me miserable though, so maybe more of a Sam Smith? Had we taken care of our own business against Swansea it would have been Olly Murs (some good, more bad) as there had been no reason to think that any of our rivals would drop points anyway. Us shitting the bed at the Liberty puts a much more negative spin on things though. There really wasn't much to feel good about this week unfortunately. First the worst - United winning 1-0 at Burnley. Well of course it had to be 1-0, what else would it be? The only was it was ever going to be anything other than 1-0 to either side was if it was 0-0. I didn’t watch any of it, why would I? I wouldn’t watch United even if they were playing someone entertaining, but I avoided this one in the same way I avoid salad. Honestly, this is defo the way to go. Not the unhealthy eating part, the bit about not watching Mourinho's United. Don't watch United unless you know they've been beat and your life will be that little bit more enjoyable. Fuck Mourinho, fuck his team, fuck Alexis Sanchez and his dogs, and fuck Burnley too. Moving on, and one team who nobody could ever describe as dull, either on the pitch or off it, is Arsenal. They were doing Arsenal things again this week. Supposedly in crisis and on the brink of collapse, they blew away Palace and then beat Chelsea to reach a cup final. They're just so predictably unpredictable. When they’re doing well you know they’ll trip themselves up when you least expect it, but when it looks like the sky is falling on them they win some games at a canter and give a collective gallic shrug as if to say ‘what’s all the drama about?’ They put three past Palace in the opening 13 minutes on Saturday. Hell, they were even scoring from corners, and even bigger HELL, Alex Iwobi scored (can't just be me who thinks he's shite?). The fourth goal came on 22 minutes and it was the pick of the bunch. Absolutely brilliant football that was. Not that any of this should have been too surprising after the Hodge’s pissing on chips speech after Palace had won last week. I could imagine his team talk before this one. “Now lads, I know you’ve been on a good run lately but don’t let that fool you. You’re still crap and nobody expects you to do anything against the Arsenal today (note: Roy always calls them ‘the Arsenal’) so just go out there and try not to embarrass yourselves too much”. Palace did show some fight in the second half and Benteke missed his customary one v one with the keeper before Milovojevic eventually grabbed a consolation. Roy was actually delighted with that and was pleased that having gone 4-0 down his team not only didn’t fall further behind but actually got the margin down to three. The fact that Arsenal stopped playing with the game already won seems to be lost on the old boy. Arsenal had looked to be in disarray and plenty had already written their epitaph, but they seem to actually have been lifted by the sale of Sanchez and you'd be a fool to dismiss their chances of gatecrashing the top four, especially if they get Aubamayeng to go with Mkhitaryan. There were a lot of rumours that his team-mates had grown sick of Sanchez (which is understandable), so him going has probably galvanised them all and they followed up the win over Palace by beating Chelsea in the league cup semi to set up a date with City at Wembley. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if they won that game. Speaking of City though, they got back to winning ways following the loss of their unbeaten record at Anfield the week before. Earlier this season Newcastle had produced the most negative display by any team not coached by Mourinho in many a year, but they had a bit more go a go this time and could have taken the lead early on. It didn’t take long before they retreated into a defensive shell though and Aguero headed City in front from a De Bruyne cross. He added a second from the spot after Sterling had been fouled, and that was a perfect illustration of what I mentioned in the Swansea report. The most effective way to break down these shithouse teams is by getting around them, not by constantly trying to get through the middle. Sterling went out wide, played a one two and got in around the back and cut into the box where he was fouled. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do this with our full backs, let alone Mané and Salah, but we so rarely get in those positions for some reason. I know City have more creative players in midfield than we do, but I don’t see why we can’t take a leaf out of their book against all these bus parking cunts we come across. We've got the talent to do it. Newcastle immediately pulled one back through Murphy on a break through the middle, but the funny thing about that was it only came about because that bum Joselu accidentally trod on the ball and in doing so wrong footed half the City team which allowed Murphy to run clear. The Geordies gave it a go trying to force an equaliser and they went close after Ederson dropped a ball right at the feet of Diame, but the keeper cleaned up his own mess and Aguero killed the game by completing his hat-trick following an amazing run by Sane. He's brilliant him. Sane I mean, not Aguero. He's brilliant too though, obviously. Guardiola had wanted to replace him with Sanchez, but it's easy to tell Sanchez to shove his wage demands up his arse when you've got Aguero still there banging in hat-tricks. Chelsea had some key players missing for the trip to Brighton but Eden Hazard was there so that was enough. He fired them ahead inside three minutes and they never looked back. Willian made it 2-0 with a fine finish to round off an even better move that included back heels from Hazard and Batshuayi. Goal of the weekend that. Hazard added a third with a trademark run and finish before Moses made it 4-0 with another good goal. Good result for Chelsea but they followed it up by losing to Arsenal in midweek and all is clearly not well there. Conte said afterwards “No wonder we lost, did you see our subs bench? All we had was fucking ‘breeze block head Barkley’ and you know he’s going to do fuck all”. I’m paraphrasing but that is basically what he said. Chris Hughton - who I quite like - was crying afterwards about a penalty that was not awarded to his team (they actually should have had two), but that’s really clutching at straws as they got their arses kicked and Chelsea were a delight to watch, especially Hazard. What a player. Surely Madrid will be looking at him to replace Ronaldo before long. Hopefully they’ll take Kane as well. Actually let’s not kid ourselves, it’ll be Mo, won’t it? Fucks sake. Paul Lambert got a win in his first game as Stoke boss as they comfortably saw off Huddersfield at the Britannia (I know its not called that anymore, I just don’t care). Wee Joe got the first and Diouf wrapped it up with a second that was almost Chelsea-esque, as Shaqiri back heeled the ball into Diouf’s path and he stroked it past the keeper. Elsewhere Leicester are looking good to meet my pre-season prediction of finishing as ‘best of the rest’ as they moved above Burnley into 7th spot with a win over Watford. Vardy won and converted a pen to give them the lead and then Mahrez scored a great solo effort to make the game safe. How has no-one come in for him? Even allowing for the diabolical hairstyle, there’s just no reason I can see why he isn’t at a top club as he’s fucking quality. And whisper it, because that’s what he likes to do, but Claude Puel has done a good job getting Leicester back on track and made a mockery of all those ‘why aren’t good young British coaches getting these jobs?’. Good young British coaches aren't getting jobs because of the old boys network that sees Hodgson, Hughes, Pardew, Allardyce, Pulis, Lambert, Bruce etc just hope from one job to another. The same loser clubs hiring the same loser managers in an endless loop. It's like a fucking soap opera and impossible to keep track of. You don't really watch it but you'll walk in the room when it's on, and you'll say to your missus "hold on, I thought she was with the other fella" and she goes "yeah she was, but he left her for her sister so now she's with this guy, because his wife caught him shagging her best mate and through him out". At least Watford aren't part of that incestuous little clique. Don't get me wrong, they sack managers like no fuckers business but they always bring in some random foreign fella for six months before they get bored with him. The Hornets didn’t fuck about after the Leicester defeat and not only did they sack Silva, they appointed his replacement the same day. I did comment last week about how Silva was the poster boy for not making someone stay at the club against their will, so this wasn't entirely a shock. It's still mad though when you think that Watford could have had £12m if they’d let him join Everton, but now they’ll get nothing when he takes another job. Rich businessmen do not like throwing money away so what does that tell you about what must have been going on behind the scenes? Silva must have completely mailed it in to ensure they had no choice but to sack him. He’s probably been sat in his office, drinking and smoking, watching Loose Women while the lads are out training. Bet he's been shitting in the chairman's office too and not flushing afterwards. Or better yet, he's done it in his desk drawer. Whatever he's done, it must have been bad because Watford are out £12m plus whatever they've had to pay Silva in compensation. The worst part is they've hired a fella who can't even spell his own name properly. Javi Gracia? Sorry, not buying it, there's clearly been a typo somewhere along the line that the culprit was too embarrassed to own up to. "What do you mean I've spelt Garcia wrong? No I fucking haven't, how thick do you think I am? Yes, that's right, G-R-A-C-I-A, ok? Now fuck off". *thinks* Oh shit, guess I'm stuck with this now. Come on, we've all done it in some shape or form, as no-one likes to admit they are wrong. "No my hat isn't on backwards, that's the fucking fashion these days, do you not know anything? Kinell". *thinks* "Oh shit, now I'm gonna have to wear it like this all the time. The real question now is if Everton don’t go for Silva, what the fuck does that say about them? They were prepared to pay £12m for him a couple of months ago, and now he’s a free agent. Yeah they’d have to pay off the big fat slug they settled for when they couldn’t get Silva, but it’ll cost a lot less than £12m so what are they waiting for? The Blues were held at home by West Brom at the weekend, but on the bright side they did at least manage a couple of attempts on target, their first of 2018. Rodriguez gave the Baggies the lead and they dominated the first half and should have scored more. The failure to take those chances cost them as Niasse came off the bench and scored with his first touch. James McCarthy left the field on a stretcher after suffering an horrific leg break when he nipped in front of Rondon just as he was taking a shot, and the Baggies striker kicked the back of his leg, snapping it in two places. Sickening stuff and Rondon was distraught, he was in floods of tears, the poor lad. I felt really bad for him as that's something that would stay with you for a long time afterwards. As for McCarthy... *shrugs*. What? Look, I’m not happy it happened and I certainly wouldn’t wish it on him, but I’m not going to pretend I’m arsed either. I felt bad for Coleman when it happened to him, and it’s good to see him on the way back now. I don't feel the same empathy with McCarthy because he's a dirty little bastard and I don’t like him. I didn't feel bad when Funes-Mori got hurt either for the same reason. In fact I thought 'serves you right, you cunt'. I'm not like that with McCarthy but I don't feel sorry for him either. If that makes me a twat, then so be it. Tell you what, West Ham and Bournemouth must have been really bad because it kept both the Mancs and Everton out of the last spot on MOTD. Ryan Fraser put Bournemouth in front but Hernandez equalised about ten seconds after the restart. You’d think I’d hate him bit less now that he’s older and doesn’t play for the Mancs anymore, but sorry, any 30 year old man who refers to himself as ‘Little Pea’ is clearly just a massive cunt. Seriously, fucking grow up you helmet. He’ll be 70, turning up at the Post Office to get his pension, they’ll ask him his name and he’ll go ‘Chicarito’. Fucking bellend. I hate him. Onto Sunday now, and the Long Pork Sausage (now there’s a nickname that is completely ageless) did us a favour by taking a couple of points off Spurs. Southampton are a funny old team. They’ve looked terrible at times this year but then on other occasions they’ve looked like they could rival Leicester and Burnley as the best of the rest. There's some good players there still, we haven't pilfered them all. Not yet anyway. They played well against Spurs and deserved the point that they got. They took the lead when Sanchez put through his own net, but Kane headed Spurs back on level terms three minutes later with his 29th of the season. There’s still four months left too, he might get 50 this year. Both sides had chances to win with Spurs coming the closest late on. Thankfully the chance fell to Eric Lamela and he fluffed it. No surprise there. He belongs in a fucking boy band, not a football team. If he played in the 80s his team-mates would defo call him ‘Face’, but players are so fucking dull and unimaginative nowadays he’s probably known at Spurs as ‘Eric’.

Report by Dave Usher There was so much wrong with this performance it’s difficult to even know where to start. With the notable exception of Joel Matip (and the keeper who had virtually nothing to do) it was just varying degrees of shite. Some, such as Emre Can, were only a little bit shite, while others, like Wijnaldum, Salah and Mane, stunk the place out. Usually I’d have been half expecting something like this, because losing to the worst teams in the league has been a speciality of ours over the last decade. Doing it a week after beating the best team in the league just makes it all the more typical. It shouldn’t have been a shock but it was. We were on an 18 game unbeaten run and I thought we’d put this kind of performance behind us. Sadly not. I think part of the problem was that the game seemed too easy in the opening stages and that threw some of the players off their game and bad habits crept in and they lost focus. Swansea just fucking turtled up on us and seemed too scared to even come out of their own half. That meant we had virtually all of the possession and it felt like only a matter of time before we made it count. We had a few half chances and it was all going fine, but then we just seemed to lose our sense of purpose after about 25 minutes and the game began to drift. Swansea had one little spell of about five minutes where they were able to spend a bit of time in our half, and in that period they scored with the only chance they had. It’s easy to over analyse the goal and point fingers, but it was just one of those things. They got the bounce of the ball and we didn't. Van Dijk was right to try and head the ball away, and the other players we had in the vicinity couldn’t exactly just move out of the way, but that caused big Virgil a problem getting a clean head on it. That was a little unfortunate, but more unfortunate was that his header hit one Swansea player and then fell perfectly at the feet of another, who was able to find the bottom corner. Maybe there were things we could have done slightly differently but sometimes a goal is just a goal and it’s not really anybody’s fault. That’s how I feel about this one, and rather than focus on that we should be more concerned at how toothless we were at the other end. Conceding like that was annoying, not least when the goalscorer sounds more like a fucking East End chimney sweep from the 1800s than a professional footballer, but there was so much time for us to get back into it so there was no need to be too concerned at that stage. Worryingly though, the players showed a total lack of composure in attacking situations in the second half. Panic seemed to set in a bit as they began shooting from outside the box, and they seemed to get edgy and hesitant in possession too, with the exception of Firmino, who was nowhere near his best but was at least brave enough to try and take some risks and play his normal game. Too many of the others were overthinking it and not playing the early pass when it was on. There was far too much sideways and backwards passing and a general lack of ideas throughout the team. The front three were way below par but all of them had chances to score that they failed to take. If one of those had gone in we’d probably have ran out comfortable winners, but it was just one of those wretched nights you sometimes get. Salah volleyed over after a lovely ball from Van Dijk had picked him out. Mané volleyed wide on the stretch and we had a few other openings in the first half too but didn’t test the goalkeeper anywhere near enough. The second half was more of the same to my untrained eye. Klopp felt the second half was better than the first but I didn’t see too much difference to be honest. He’s looking for different, specific tactical things though whereas I’m judging it on end product and overall performance. Wijnaldum said the same thing. "We didn't do what we were supposed to in the first half". It can't be just me that thinks the second half was even worse, because that was the time when we needed to show more urgency, but instead it was either too ponderous and predictable, or too panicky and rushed. People will naturally ask the question ‘how can the same players who performed so well to beat Man City go and lose to the league’s bottom team?’. It’s simple really. One team let us do what we’re good at, the other stopped us doing that and challenged us to come up with a different solution, which we failed to do. The players didn’t do themselves any justice and Klopp’s comments afterwards suggested he was unhappy that they didn’t play to the instructions he gave them. He kept talking about them not holding their positions in their attacking movements and not using the half spaces and various other stuff that is basically a coach’s way of saying ‘that was shite’. Klopp also takes his share of the blame for me though, not least because of his poor in game substitutions. It’s the one, perhaps only, major flaw he has. When the game isn’t going our way he very rarely does anything to successfully turn the tide. Plan A not working? Ok, let’s try Plan A again. And again. And again. Still not working? Let’s try Plan A again then. He took far too long to bring on Lallana (who actually made a significant difference when he did get on) and for the life of me I cannot understand how Joe Gomez stayed on for 90 minutes when he was offering nothing at all in the final third. That’s not really a knock on Gomez, it’s more a gripe about Klopp’s use of him. We know that Joe isn’t the most natural going forward and most of the time that’s fine. When everyone else is on song he doesn’t need to be. In games like this though, it’s like playing with ten men. Nine when Wijnaldum is on the field too. I probably wouldn’t have even started Gomez, but that’s beside the point. On a similar note I thought leaving Lallana out was odd too, considering we knew exactly how Swansea were going to approach the game and that ‘Invisible Gini’ was going to do fuck all because it’s an away game against shite opposition, and we know that’s like Kryptonite to him. Despite those misgivings I had with the starting eleven, Klopp keeping faith with ten of the team that beat City (Van Dijk for the unwell Lovren being the only change) was completely understandable and the team he put out should have been enough to fucking batter Swansea. At half time though it was clear how the game was going and it baffles me that Lallana was not introduced there and then. Not only that, but we just kept doing the same fucking thing over and over and over. They packed the middle and left loads of space out wide. So what did we do? Tried to go through the middle of course, even though there was no space and we had no cutting edge to do it. It was like trying to jam a marshmallow into a slot machine. Swansea’s manager compared our team to a Formula One car but made the point that if you put it in traffic it’s basically just another car. Spot on that, we thrive on space but had no room whatsoever to run into because they were so deep. That nullified the pace of Salah and Mané but it shouldn’t have nullified their threat altogether. They largely did that themselves, although they weren’t helped by the way those around them played or that their manager played right into Swansea’s hands. We looked dangerous on the two or three times we got Robertson in behind and he was able to drill the ball across the face of the goal, and that’s the best way to break down teams like this. Man City do this shit continually when they come up against this kind of opposition. Slinging in high crosses into a packed penalty isn’t going to work unless you’ve got some big bastards attacking it, but getting to the byline and drilling it across the six yard box will get you results if you do it often enough. Robertson did it, but nowhere near as often as he should have done. He was disappointing for me, he played far too safe at times and didn’t drive into the space that was there. Other times he was forced to go back to Van Dijk because he had no-one close enough to him as Mané had gone so far inside. Maybe that’s partly what Klopp was referring to about people not holding their positions long enough. Whatever the reason, Robbo didn’t give us enough but he wasn’t alone in that. Klopp can’t legislate for Robertson’s lack of production, but having Gomez out there was utterly pointless and that is definitely on the manager. Gomez had virtually no defending to do so you would have thought that his primary job was to attack, certainly in the second half anyway. Klopp mentioned that Mo was supposed to play on the wing to leave space in the inside right channel for Ox, so that being the case, it wasn’t down to Gomez to provide width at that point. In the second half though? That’s where all the space was and so we should have exploited that. What we were doing wasn’t working so do something different. We needed someone capable of getting in behind and whipping the ball across the six yard box. That’s not Gomez. Maybe on a very good day he can give us what we need, but more often than not in those situations he’s not going to be effective enough. Yet we’ve got Trent sitting there on the bench, and bombing down the line and whipping in crosses is what he’s good at. Hell, Milner was there too, he could have given us exactly what we needed out there. Another option (and the change I’d have made with first) would have been to play Ox there and get Lallana on in the middle. Swansea didn’t try to attack at all in the second half so there’s no reason Ox couldn’t have played as an attacking right back. Admittedly this is partly hindsight talking, but it’s also because I’ve seen this movie before and know how it usually ends. I wanted Lallana on at half time and I’d have brought Gomez off with at least half an hour to go as to me they seemed to be obvious decisions. And when Swansea just set up camp between the width of their 18 yard box and challenged us to put crosses in, why not through Van Dijk up front for the last ten minutes and given them something different to deal with? We shouldn’t be too proud to do that. All of that said, we were incredibly unlucky to lose the game and there’s certainly no need for any over reaction. We were on an 18 game unbeaten run prior to this so we’re in good shape as long as we don’t allow this to be the start of a slump like we had this time last year. It’s irritating as fuck to lose such a record to the worst team in the league though. It shouldn’t happen, but as badly as we played we can still consider ourselves unfortunate to have lost. The performance was terrible, there's no getting away from that, but when the opposition score from the one chance they have it’s tough to take, especially when we missed several good chances of our own. Nothing went our way and the night was summed up when the in the very last seconds Firmino hits the post with a header and Lallana’s follow up was deflected over after a miraculous block by Mawson. Sometimes it’s just not your night, but that doesn’t excuse just how fucking shite we were. We’ve always got a performance like this in us, and it always seems to be against the worst teams. Granted, we’d only lost twice before this and those defeats were against good sides, but how many shitty draws have we had against these park the bus deadbeats? It’s a problem we still haven’t solved. The worst thing is the cunts usually only need one chance to score against us. Statistically our goalkeepers are dreadful but I just can’t put any stock in that ‘goals to saves’ ratio thing. Karius had absolutely no chance of keeping out Swansea’s goal. He then had a routine stop in the second half, which (unless there’s one I’ve forgotten about) gives him a 50% save ratio on the night. Would he be a better keeper if Swansea had managed another three or four efforts that gave him easy saves? Statistically he would, but in reality it wouldn’t change a thing. The opposition scored with their only real chance and it was un-saveable, so that’s not on Karius (as so often it wasn’t on Mignolet either). I don’t know what it is, we don’t give up many chances but most of the ones we do allow end up in the net. It’s so frustrating. But we move on, this one is gone now and the important thing is how we react to it. The sole point of emphasis in training this week should be on how to deal with these type of opponents, especially because we’ve got West Brom next and you know they’ll do exactly the same thing, not least because it helped them to a 0-0 at Anfield the other week. We had Coutinho playing in that one by the way, just in case anyone wants to blame this loss on him not being here. Of course the odds on us winning would have been shortened if Coutinho had been playing, but he’s not fucking here any more and the players that are here should have been good enough to get the job done. It’s somewhat disconcerting that they weren’t good enough to get the job done but lessons need to be learned from it because we’ll face far more teams like Swansea between now and May than we will teams like Man City. Star man is Matip, who didn’t have to do much defending but who was purposeful in his passing into the forward players and made some excellent forays forward into the box. Lallana was good when he belatedly got on, and Ings was lively too. Aside from them, must do better. Team: Karius; Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Can, Wijnaldum (Ings), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Lallana); Salah, Firmino, Mane:

A current RB Leipzig team-mate of Naby Keita has described the Anfield-bound midfielder as ‘the best I’ve played with’ and says Liverpool made a shrewd move agreeing a deal for the Guinean last summer, as he would have had his pick of big clubs at the end of this season. Speaking on "Sat Af" on tv3sport.dk, Danish international Yussuf Poulsen was glowing in his praise of Keita. “He's the best player I've ever played with,” he said. “He is insane." High praise indeed, particularly from a man who plays his international football alongside Tottenham star Christian Erikssen. Initially Liverpool thought their chances of landing Keita were around 50 percent, akin to what you'd get when using your starspins promo code, but Leipzig proved steadfast in their resolve and refused to allow their prize asset to leave last summer. The Reds took the somewhat unusual step of agreeing a compromise deal which allowed Keita to remain in Germany for one more season before moving to Merseyside in the summer of 2018. A shrewd move according to Poulsen, who explained: "Liverpool are lucky to have got him because if they'd waited until the summer he would have gone to an even bigger club.” Having sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona this month, Jurgen Klopp attempted to bring forward Keita’s arrival but Leipzig were again reluctant to lose their star man and a suitable compensation agreement could not be reached, meaning that barring an unexpected turn of events before the end of this month Keita will remain a Leipzig player until the summer. While that was bad news for the Reds, who now look a little short of drive and creativity in the middle of the park, it was a boost for Poulsen and the rest of Keita’s Leipzig team-mates as they look to secure Champions League qualification while also chasing Europa League success. ”I rate him very highly," Poulsen continued. "I've played with him for about a year and a half now. You can't take the ball off him. In training or during games. He plays like he's playing in the yard. “He's physically strong, quick, such good technique. You can't take the ball off him. If he's decided that he's going past you he'll go past you. Nothing you can do." While this bodes well for Liverpool's prospects next season, it remains a source of frustration that the Reds were unable to bring Keita in this month to help fill the void left by Coutinho.

Virgil Van Dijk will return to the Liverpool squad for Monday night’s trip Swansea City, while doubts remain as to where Daniel Sturridge will be playing his football at the end of this transfer window. Van Dijk missed last week’s win over Manchester City with tightness in his hamstrings resulting from the intensity of training. He’s now fit and raring to go as the Reds look to continue their excellent recent form with a win over the Premier League’s bottom club. Skipper Jordan Henderson and left back Alberto Moreno are back in full training but Monday’s game is likely to come too early for them and the FA Cup clash with West From a week on Saturday is a more likely date for their return to action. Sturridge, meanwhile, has also been absent in recent weeks but having regained fitness he is reportedly looking to quit Anfield before the end of the month as he seeks the regular first team football he needs to force his way into England’s World Cup squad. Inter Milan and Sevilla are leading the chase for the former Chelsea man but any move looks like it will only be on a temporary basis, with no-one currently prepared to meet Liverpool’s £30m valuation. Sturridge’s opportunities have been limited this season and with the front three as good as set in stone now and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain offering an alternative to Sadio Mané or Mohamed Salah, the only way back for Sturridge would be if Roberto Firmino were to be injured. Allowing him to leave would be a gamble by Jurgen Klopp as it would leave only Dominic Solanke and Danny Ings as cover at centre forward. Speaking of gambling, if you fancy a flutter on Monday night’s game then why not download the bet365 app for android direct to your smartphone or tablet? Meanwhile, Sunderland’s hopes of landing Ben Woodburn on loan look to be over after the Reds decided he is needed as cover following the sale of Philippe Coutinho. Woodburn has barely had a look in this season but could be needed over the coming months and Klopp also feels his development would be best served by training with Liverpool’s first team squad. “In all the sessions he is improving constantly,” said Klopp. “That we think we would miss him in our training group – with this quality squad – is maybe the biggest compliment you can give to him.”

The main event may have been at Anfield on Sunday, but there were a few decent bouts on the undercard too. It was a decent weekend for us as both Chelsea and Arsenal dropped points, but Spurs and United both rolled over hapless losers in the shape of Everton and Stoke respectively. I’ll get to all that in good time though. I’ll kick things off with West Ham, who are having something of a surprising revival under Moyes. I have no idea how that is happening, and let’s be honest, Moyes probably doesn’t either. Nevertheless, they’re picking up points and no longer look to be in too much trouble. Huddersfield conceded the stupidest goal of the weekend when their determination to play out from the back presented Mark Noble with a gift to make it 1-0. It was fucking ridiculous. West Ham had pushed right up to the edge of the box to prevent the keeper passing it out, everybody was marked, but he just went and did it anyway, putting the wonderfully named Joe Lolley in all sorts of trouble. He lost the ball and Noble fired the Hammers in front. Lolley made amends soon after when he curled in a brilliant equaliser, but West Ham ran away with it in the second half as Arnautovic found the net 10 seconds after the restart and they never looked back. Lanzini scored twice but that’s probably not enough to make up for the ludicrous showboating he’d been guilty of earlier when he tried to lob the keeper with a rabona from 20 yards. I’d have wrung his neck if I was his manager there. He’s a good player, I quite like him, but that’s a massive red flag that. He’s one of the players we might be looking at to replace Coutinho and apparently there are people at the club who do like him, but imagine Klopp if one of his players wasted a chance by doing that shit? Anyway, moving on. Everton’s revival has hit the skids and they had yet another game without a shot on target as they were spanked by Spurs. Son and Kane did most of the damage, while Eriksen also got on the scoresheet late on. It was embarrassingly one sided and Spurs just had their own way without even really breaking sweat. Son was great and everyone seems to love him. I like him too, but these stupid fucking handshakes are turning me off. I think he might actually have been the criminal mastermind behind that shit that Kane and Alli were doing last season Speaking of handshakes, this might be the worst video I've ever seen, and bear in mind a few weeks ago I saw a video of some poor defenceless lad being shot and killed by a copper in the US. You'll hate me for inflicting this on you, but one of my mates inflicted it on me so tough shit.

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield I’d had this fixture circled in the calendar for months. Ever since that farcical game at the Etihad when Jon Moss ruined what was shaping up to be an absolute classic, I couldn’t wait for another crack at toppling City. Along with drawing Barcelona in the Champions League, it’s the thing I've wanted more than anything else this season. I was convinced we’d have won that game at the Etihad had Mané not been sent off and for months I've been convinced we’d win this one too. That said, I’d be lying if I said the late withdrawal of Van Dijk didn’t shake my confidence a little, but I still felt we’d win the game. Not because I think we’re better than City, but because our style is best suited to beating them and because Anfield has been a miserable venue for them. When City conceded a stoppage time penalty at Selhurst Park recently, I was desperately hoping Palace would choke and I was made up they did. I wanted it to be us who inflicted their first defeat. I daresay Guardiola and his players would prefer it this way too, as surely it’s more preferable to lose their unbeaten streak to a team who are worthy adversaries than to a dodgy penalty against a side coached by Roy Hodgson. This was a pulsating game between the two best teams in the league. Whether we actually finish second or not doesn’t change that for me. The only team right now who are better than us are City, and as long as we steer clear of injuries I expect the league table will reflect that in May. We fully deserved the win and it’s a little annoying that the scoreline ended up as close as it did considering we were 4-1 up for a brief, glorious, spell. That said, City didn’t deserve to be hammered either so a one goal margin of victory is probably right all things considered. It’s just disheartening to concede three again, especially considering how well we defended as a team right up until the last five minutes when it started to unravel. Why did that happen? Tired legs and nerves I’d say. I mean, how could players not be tired after the phenomenal amount of work they put into this? I’d be interested to see the distance covered stats for the team as a whole, and also for the midfield three in particular. Wijnaldum seemed to get though an unbelievable amount of work and still looked fresh even at the end. Amazing stamina and desire from him. It’s not just about running though, there’s an intricacy about our pressing game that is way beyond my limited comprehension. It looks easy to the untrained eye. Basically it looks like everyone just charging around closing down the man with the ball, but it’s so much more than that. It’s all about closing off angles and pressing at the right moments. We got an insight into it last week when Ox spoke about how it took him a while to get it all figured out, and how if one man doesn’t do it properly then he’s hanging everyone else out to dry. What we saw in this game was probably the best example of Klopp’s press since he’s been here. From what I recall he said the game in Maribor was the best ‘counter pressing’ performance, but there’s a big difference between doing it against Maribor than being able to sustain it against Guardiola’s previously invincible juggernaut. The second half of this game was wild. It was just fucking electric from start to finish and is as good a 45 minutes of football as you’ll see anywhere this season. Two brilliant teams just going at each other hammer and tong, we hardly ever see that these days as too many managers are just massive shithouses. The second half was where we did most of our damage but I felt that our first half performance was superb. City had plenty of the ball but they couldn’t get it into the areas they wanted as we were so energetic and disciplined that their forward players hardly saw the ball. The pressing was relentless and as soon as we won the ball everyone just went straight at them. I also liked that we didn’t try to beat them at their own game and there was not too much unnecessary passing it round at the back. When the chance was there we played, but when it wasn’t Karius had no qualms about kicking it long. That actually led to our first goal funnily enough. Firmino challenged for a high ball and it ended up being picked up by Ox, who powered through and scored with a low shot that seemed to catch the keeper a bit by surprise. I love it when Ox just has these moments where it’s as though he just thinks “right, that’s enough of this shit I’m off” and he just bulldozes forward past people. He should do it more but he’s definitely getting there now and every game he seems to get better and look more comfortable. This was a goal he made himself just by showing determination, purpose and aggression. Three things the entire team were full off all game. We didn’t create too many clear chances in the first half, but neither did City. We had loads of nearly situations after winning the ball and getting it forward to Mané and Salah, but City generally defended those situations well or we were just lacking with the final ball. Defensively we were brilliant though. The only time City really threatened was when Aguero failed to reach a brilliant cross by De Bruyne. Other than that, they offered nothing (other than a typical Sterling dive that the referee saw right through) until just like that, they scored out of absolutely nowhere. Waker’s cross field ball was superb it has to be said. Gomez thought he could cut it out but the pass was quite literally inch perfect and dropped over his head. The wind may also have played a part too, but as soon as Gomez missed it I knew we were in trouble, as Sane is fucking boss. The winger immediately took it on his chest which took Gomez out of the play completely and left the German with the opportunity to run into the box and drive at Matip. He skipped round him with ease (hard to criticise Matip for that and Sane is almost impossible to stop when running at pace like that) and then blasted a shot past Karius. The keeper should have saved it. Any time a keeper is beaten at the near post you always want to have another look at it because more often than now it is a mistake, but sometimes the shot is just so good that there is nothing that can be done about it. I wondered if this was one of those occasions, but then I saw the replay from behind the goal and it’s pretty damning. He has to save that. I prefer Mignolet, that’s not a secret, but I’m not up in arms over Klopp wanting to give Karius a run now, even though I doubt he’ll prove anything other than what we already know. The thing is though, we know exactly what Mignolet is and don’t need to see any more to form an opinion. To me he’s a good keeper and there aren’t too many better in the Premier League (which tells you how poor the standard is), but ideally we need to upgrade on him. That means we’ll almost certainly be in the market for a new keeper this summer, but in the meantime it makes sense to have a proper look at Karius now and see if he can be the answer. I’m fairly certain he isn’t, but may as well find out for sure. He isn’t off to a good start but let’s see how he does. That goal was a real gut punch though. We’d defended so well all over the pitch and done a great job of keeping City at arms length, but just like that, out of nothing, all that good work was undone and we went in level at half time, with our balloon well and truly popped. The second half didn’t start too well as City came out of the traps quickly, although we had some nice moments too, specifically when Ox jinked his way into the box and then put a shot into the side netting. Sometimes we’re at our best when a team thinks they’re on top of us and are committing men forward, because all it takes is for us to win the ball quickly and we can kill anyone with what we have up front. The second goal was a great example of that. Ox and Gini crowded out De Bruyne and Ox once again picked up possession and drove forward into City territory. The ball he played in behind was clever but it looked as though Stones would get there and snuff out the danger. He should have done, but he misjudged it a little and also underestimated Firmino, who caught him unawares and just powered him off the ball before producing a Fowler-esque dink over the keeper to send Anfield crazy. There has been some discussion as to whether it was a foul on Stones. It wasn’t, but many a referee would have taken the easy way out and blew the whistle there. The fact that Stones didn’t hurl himself to the floor when he felt contact was a big factor in that I think. Someone like that Johnny Evans cunt would have hit the deck like a sack of shite and probably earned a free-kick there, but Stones was honest and the referee was strong. Andre Marriner had a hell of a game actually. Every week across the Premier League we see abysmal refereeing, so it’s nice to be able to praise a referee for once. The goal had Anfield rocking and for the next ten minutes or so we were unstoppable as the players were like a shark that had got a whiff of blood in the water, and the crowd urged them on in their feeding frenzy. It was fucking wild, the most enjoyable spell of football I’ve witnessed since that 19 minute spell when we put four past Arsenal a few years back. Even in the face of such relentless, almost maniacal, pressing, City continued to do what they do and were undeterred by the ferocious chasing and harrying they were subjected to by our front six, and that would ultimately prove to be their undoing. First, Fernandinho passed the ball straight to Mané who hit the post when he would have expected to score, but you could see how rattled City were. Mané didn’t let the miss affect his confidence and soon after he was lashing one into the top corner with his left foot after being set up by Mo. That goal the perfect illustration of Klopp’s style. We had five players in a ten yard area and they forced the City players to work the ball back to Otamendi, who found Salah on him immediately. The defender tried to get rid of the ball but it was too late, Mo pounced and squared it Mané, and suddenly it’s 3-1. This is what they work on in training and we’re now seeing the “heavy metal football” we were promised when Klopp arrived. This was the kind of thing his Dortmund team did when they were in their heyday, and he’s really close now to putting us in position to do what Dortmund did. Really close. There’s just a couple of weaknesses that need ironing out and we’re right in business. After a slightly subdued first half I thought Mané looked back to his best in the second period. He put in one hell of a shift too. They all did. Mané was involved in the fourth goal too, as he raced in behind the defence looking to get onto another pass from Salah, who had been found beautifully by Wijnaldum who, surrounded by five city players, calmly dinked the ball over them to Mo. His pass was slightly overhit and the keeper was quick off his line. This time Sadio opted to hang back and not boot him in the head, and that decision paid off as Ederson’s clearance went straight to Salah, whose first touch was heavenly. His second touch wasn’t bad either, but I already knew he’d scored even before he hit the shot. As soon as he managed to control the initial clearance and I saw the keeper was stranded, the outcome was never in doubt there. What a player. He was brilliant again. This front three is something really special, they’re all fucking class in different ways, but they compliment each other so well and seem to really enjoy playing together. That keeper is shite though. I’ve been reading about what a great signing he’s been but I’m not having him at all. He flapped at every single corner that came in and although he’s generally brilliant with his feet, ultimately it was his poor clearance that cost City their unbeaten record, as that was the decisive goal. Tell you what though, in the first half he hit a clearance from inside his own six yard box that landed in our box. It was unreal, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ball kicked that far before. It may have been wind assisted, but it was still fucking impressive like. He’s got an absolute sledgehammer for a left foot. Shame about his hands. It says everything about this team of ours that even at 4-1 I didn’t feel safe. For a while it looked like a lot of City’s players were just waiting for the final whistle, but De Bruyne kept driving forward and the rest of them drew from that. I said to my Dad with about 15 minutes to go that we needed to get through the next five minutes without conceding because as soon as we let in one it would be panic stations, as usual. We did that but with seven minutes to go City pulled one back. A big reason for that as far as I’m concerned was that Milner had replaced Can with ten minutes left. While that change was probably necessary (Big Sexy was flagging after playing through illness) it really had a negative impact on us and the control we’d had in the middle of the park was lost. To clarify, by control I don’t mean possession, I mean the control we had over what City were trying to do. They went from posing no threat to looking like they’d score every time they got the ball. The goal that got them back into it came about because Milner over committed to a challenge on Gundogan and was skinned by him. A path opened up for Gundogan to run right at the heart of the defence and play a one two. Gomez got across to make a good block on him but the loose ball fell to Bernardo Silva who rifled it home. Silva had replaced the ineffectual Sterling, and that change had as much of an impact on the game as Milner replacing Can. Prior to those two substitutions we never looked in any danger, but now it was going to be brown trousers time for the last five minutes or so. As for Sterling, he was shite and once again looked like the occasion got to him. He couldn’t do a thing right and Robertson was all over him like a rash, which was clearly pissing him off and eventually saw him lose his rag and pick up a booking. Subbing him was a kindness, but it didn’t help us because Silva was much more of a threat. Sterling was booed from start to finish, which is fine as he deserves it. The “one greedy bastard” chant doesn’t well with me though. It makes us look like bitter knobheads because even if we disregard the gigantic pay rise he got, from his perspective he’s clearly bettered himself by joining City and he’s about to win the title. We were shite when he left and I’m sure he has no regrets. So boo him to your hearts content, but lay off the ‘greedy bastard’ chants because it makes us sound like fucking Villa or some other nomark club. Anyway, City had the bit between their teeth at 2-4 and I felt like we’d lost our composure a little, particularly Lovren, who had been fantastic for 85 minutes but was now all over the place. He went walkabout trying to win a ball he should never have even thought about and he left a huge gap through the middle, but fortunately he got away with that one. Then he came out to close down De Bruyne and ended up following him all the way across the box without being able to win the ball. No real harm done as he got back in the middle to defend the cross, but then he couldn’t get off the ground and the ball dropped over his head for Gundogan, who had time to chest it down and then score. You know what I think happened there? I reckon Lovren’s legs went after chasing De Bruyne, and he just didn’t have anything in them to get off the ground and win the header. At the time I thought he’d been shoved in the back, as his whole body shape looked like he’d been fouled. No-one appealed though and having seen the replay there was nothing in it at all, he just didn’t get off the floor. He’ll now be castigated, as usual, but in this case I think it’s a little unfair as he’d put so much into that game and for 85 minutes he was fantastic. I just think a combination of tiredness and the general panic we always feel in those circumstances caused him to lose it a bit at the end. He was trying too hard and that led to some questionable decisions. This is where Van Dijk will hopefully help us. If he can settle everyone down, organise and generally inspire confidence in those around him then the defenders we already have, including Lovren, should be fine. Whether it’s Lovren or Matip alongside him won’t matter too much if Van Dijk is as advertised. The last few minutes were horrible as we’ve blown so many leads that it felt inevitable we’d concede again in those four minutes of stoppage time. In the end though we saw it out with no real scares. Milner did give away a stupid free-kick with a reckless late challenge for which he was booked, but the defence held a great line and Aguero would have been given offside if his header had gone in, which it didn’t. So the final whistle goes and it was just a joyous feeling, combined with a fair amount of relief. Days like this are fucking boss. I keep saying this, but some of things we almost take for granted are things that fans of other teams never get to see. We’ve won 7-0 in Europe twice this season. We’ve spanked Arsenal 4-0 and we’ve just deservedly beaten the unbeatables. It’s pretty good being a Red right now. If people want to complain about the goalkeeper, the late defensive collapse or the lack of a Coutinho replacement after a game like this, that’s up to them of course. I’m not telling anyone how to be a fan, and they are valid concerns, no doubt about it. I just feel like by dwelling on the bad you’re not going to fully enjoy the good, and there’s an awful lot of fucking good at the moment. This was a great game, our lads played out of their skins and pulled off a memorable win. It wasn’t perfect but so what, it was good enough. Klopp can worry about how to fix the defence, it’s not my problem and there’s nothing I can do about it other than put my trust in him to sort it. I’m just enjoying the ride now. I fucking loved this, I was absolutely buzzing afterwards and despite the loss of Coutinho I’m excited about what we might do in the next few months. This now, for me, is definitely the best team we’ve had since we last won the title. It’s unfortunate that City are so far ahead this year because in any other season we’d be in a title challenge right now, I’m not sure many people have cottoned onto how good we actually are yet, even a lot of our own fans, but I genuinely believe this is the best team we’ve had in 25 years or so. We just have to hope that we can continue to improve and that next year City don’t set such a blistering pace. While I have no respect for City’s achievements as it’s come off the back of blatant financial doping, the one thing I would say is that I do respect the way they play. Guardiola might have a blank chequebook to sign whoever he likes, but other managers have been in that situation too and they have never played this kind of football. Yes Mourinho, I’m looking at you here, you game spoiling little fucking turd. Everyone knows what our strength is and most teams are so fucking terrified of what we can do that they completely change their own style. No-one plays it out from the back against us because it’s football suicide. Yet here come City, rolling into Anfield, dicks swinging, saying “we’re not going to change for anyone. We’ll do our thing, you do yours and may the best team win”. And the best team did win, but good on City for standing in the middle of the ring and trading punches instead of running away and covering up. I give Guardiola and his players all the credit in the world for that approach and I’m struggling to remember coming up against a better team than this one. Maybe one of the great Arsenal teams, or the United side of Cantona, Hughes, Giggs, Kanchelskis etc I dunno though, I think this City team is probably better than all of them. We won and we deserved to win, but we had to play out of our skins to do it and even then we were hanging on at the end. City won’t lose another game this season, and going into this one I genuinely felt that if we didn’t beat them then nobody would. Usually after beating a rival team there’s a real having of “have that you fucking knobheads” but I didn’t feel like that after this one. It was just a great game of football, played in a great spirit and it was a privilege to be there to see it. There isn’t the sense of satisfaction there’d be after beating Mourinho’s United, it was more a pride at how well our team played against a brilliant opponent. City will bounce back from this and increase the huge lead they already have at the top and the rest of us are playing for second. There’s no shame in that and if we got second this year it would almost feel like winning it because what City are doing means you kind of have to disregard them completely. They’ll probably pick up more points than any team in English top flight history and this loss won’t phase them in the least because they know they won’t have to come up against anyone like us again this season. They knew before the game this was the most difficult game on their fixture list and they won’t have been shocked by anything that happened. Players know. City players knew what a tough game they were in last time until to the Mané red card made it a procession for them. They wouldn’t have been fooled by that and despite their great record they won’t have been complacent ahead of this game. I’ve heard a lot shite being spoken about how City weren’t at the races, City didn’t play well, City looked tired, City had too many players who didn’t show up. All kinds of fucking nonsense. City were brilliant, the best team we’ll play all season irrespective of who we might get in Europe. They had something like 70% possession, at Anfield, in a game where we played fucking brilliantly. So don’t tell me that City were below par. For most of the game we managed to keep that brilliance in check and if City didn’t look as good as they usually do, that’s because we didn’t let them play the way they usually do. Some may now suggest that we’ve laid down the blueprint for others on how to beat City, but unless you have players that can do what our lads did then City will just play through you and take you apart. And nobody else - with the possible exception of Spurs and maybe Chelsea - have players that can do it. They are quite literally in a league of their own this season, which they should be given the financial advantage they have over everybody else other than their neighbours, who are doing it by the book and spending money they generate themselves, but are being held back by a snivelling little tit of a manager not fit to even breathe the same air as Guardiola or Klopp. In any other year we’d be in a title race and it’s frustrating that we aren’t, but it is what it is. It might actually work to our benefit because we’re probably not quite ready to win it and could do without the disappointment of another narrow failure. The target now has to be top three, perhaps even top two, and success in one of the cups we’re still in. Whatever happens, we’re in better shape right now than anybody other than City. Arsenal fans are miserable, United fans are bored shitless, Chelsea fans don’t know what’s going on with their club. Then there’s us and Spurs enjoying ourselves and playing great football. Coutinho will be missed of course, but only in certain games. He had a great record against City but I didn’t think for a second we’d miss him in this game, because the high octane style we were always going to play with probably means we were better off without him in this one. I thought Lallana would have played, but Ox got the nod and that proved to be a masterstroke by Klopp because he was probably our best player. I say probably because it’s such a tough call. All the outfield players were excellent but Ox, Robbo, Firmino, Wijanldum and Can (given the fact he played through illness) really stood out. Even the defence were terrific until those last few minutes. Gomez was fucking monstrous aside from the one misjudgement that let Sane in. Everyone was boss, I don’t really want to nitpick at any of them over specific errors they may have made because they all did so much right during the game. You can’t beat City without everyone doing their bit, and everyone did. It wasn’t so long ago that I was largely indifferent to this group of players. It wasn’t so much that I disliked any of them, I just didn’t really like many of them too much because I was getting fed up of them letting us down. It’s different now. They will probably lose a couple of games they shouldn’t do between now and May, but I no longer see them as untrustworthy losers. They’re an honest group of lads who will run through brick walls for their manager and for the fans. There’s a lot to like about this squad. It’s easy to pick out the stars like Mané and Salah, but lads like Firmino (who's heading towards becoming another Suarez the way he's progressing this season), Ox and Andy Robertson are fucking boss and I’ve really warmed to the so many of this team now. You see Robbo going on a mad fucking charge down the pitch, forcing one City player after another to pass the ball backwards until they ended up by their own touchline, and how can you not love that? It was fucking awesome, and soon after his name was belting around all four sides of the stadium. That crazy charge from Robbo has probably taken over from an exhausted Lallana collapsing into Klopp’s arms after being subbed at Spurs as the most iconic Klopp football type moment for me. I was fuming the ref gave a foul against Robbo in the end because it was never a foul in a million years, Otamendi just shit himself as this wild Scotsman came flying at him. I like to think Robertson was screaming some kind of Braveheart warcry as he chased him down, because Otamendi seemed terrified and just fell over wanting the ref to take pity on him, which he did. Thankfully Firmino didn’t score from the loose ball because if that had been disallowed it would have ruined the entire day, win or no win. Andy Robertson, what a guy. I don’t know what’s in store for us between now and May, but I tell you what, I can’t fucking wait to get some of Europe’s big boys at Anfield because this team are better equipped for those situations than they are playing against some of the shite the Premier League has to offer. Let’s get past Porto and then hope the draw sends those Catalan cunts here for a second leg under the lights. I also have a a feeling we haven't seen the last of City this year either. Maybe a two legged affair in Europe, or an FA Cup Final at Wembley. It just feels like we're destined to meet again. Team: Karius; Gomez, Matip, Lovren, Robertson; Can (Milner), Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Mané (Klavan), Firmino, Salah (Lallana):

Ask any Reds fan who they thought would be one of the first out of the exit door come the end of the 2016/7 season and Alberto Moreno would have ranked very high on the list. There was a good reason for that line of thinking. After a shaky start to last season, Jurgen Klopp made the big call to play James Milner in the unfamiliar left-back role. It would have been a bitter pill to swallow for the Spaniard, who had been the incumbent in the role since arriving at the club from Sevilla in the summer of 2014. However it was not a surprise that he was on the outer. To put it kindly, the 25 year-old was consistently the weakest link in an already vulnerable back four. Due to his defensive naivety, he was regularly targeted by the opposition. Basically it was up to him to either 'shape up or ship out' after a season spent on the periphery of the squad. In Football just like in everyday life, you are bound to get your ups and downs. It is when you hit a low point in you career where you get a opportunity to show the character that you possess. To his full credit, the Spaniard raised his game accordingly. Moreno's confidence was evident from the pre-season friendlies where he made his move to claim to his starting spot again. It was enough to win back the support of Jurgen Klopp who obviously still saw something he liked by not selling him in the summer. His encouraging league form won a fair share of plaudits including a re-call to the Spanish squad for the first time in three years. While the mistakes which had plagued his Reds career to date were not completely eradicated (most notably against former club Sevilla), it became clear that the Spaniard had matured and had a better balance about his game. It had all the hallmarks of a feel-good story, the vast improvement of a long time maligned figure. However the bump in the road came against Spartak Moscow in the Champions League when he suffered a serious ankle injury and the tears of Moreno in the aftermath of the incident spoke volumes. While undoubtedly the frustration came from the fact that he was going to miss games, he also knew he was giving a golden opportunity to his main rival for the left back position. The man waiting in the wings was Andrew Robertson. Robertson was a £8 million signing from the relegated Hull side from last season. Fans could be excused for not tuning into the highlights of the Tigers games in their spare time to know the strengths and the weaknesses of the left-back, but if the signing meant releasing Milner back into the midfield then it was a positive step. While Robertson came to the Reds with little fanfare, what became evident was that he was a diligent worker in an attacking and defensive sense as well as a quick learner. The Celtic junior made the rapid progression from Scottish third division football with Queens Park to Premier League with Hull in just two seasons. There he learnt what it was like to be part of a defence under a fair degree of pressure and was part of a side who was relegated twice in three years. Robertson made a very promising league debut for the club against Crystal Palace in August and followed it up a few weeks later against Burnley. However Moreno's form and his ability to be physically ready for the next fixture, meant that Robertson had to wait patiently for his chance. The competitive 23 year-old openly admitted it was not in his makeup just to be happy to be sitting on the subs bench, but he knew not a lot could be done due to the form of the Spaniard. Naturally you never want to see your teammate suffer an injury, but it provided an ideal opportunity for Robertson to show what he can do. The crowded fixture list at the end of 2017 has seen Robertson make a strong case for the starting left back role even after the return to fitness of Moreno in the next few weeks. Robertson has faced stern tests since his inclusion in starting XI, most recently coming up against Everton's Yannick Bolasie, a player who was a menace to the Reds defence many times in his Palace days. However from the opening stages, you could see he wasn't going to get much joy out of the tenacious Scot who had his measure throughout the 90 minutes. That level of performance gives Klopp a selection headache of the pleasant variety. Personally speaking while the team and individual are playing well, then I am more than happy to keep things as they are. Not a lot separates the two players, and despite his improvement at this point of time I don't believe Moreno is one of those players who can expect to just walk back into the side. It means that the Spaniard will have bide his time in a reversal of what occurred in the first half of the season. Whether Klopp decides to go in that direction or maintains a rotation policy between the two players remains to be seen. However, having two specialised left-backs battling it out for the one position is a sign of strong depth in the ranks, and a major improvement of what we had in place 12 months ago. Jason Harris @JayHarry80