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Monday Feb 19:

 

Klopp said something to the press on Friday in amongst all the Alonso stuff that I thought was a little odd. I didn't include it last week because there wasn't really anything to say about it, it was probably nothing. It was about Mbappe and the quote was 'Obviously, I'm not involved in that, but I can tell you I'd be surprised if all the top clubs were,' Klopp said. 'The top clubs I know, for most of them it will be tricky. Wages, signing-on fee.'

 

The reason I thought it was odd is because the market will set the price. If Mbappe is a free agent he has to sign for someone and if nobody is willing to pay him what he's on at PSG then he has to either sign a new deal there or take the best offer out there. I expected him to rule us out, but why was he talking about how tricky it will be for the other big clubs?

 

Then over the weekend I saw a report that Mbappe's people met with City before the announcement was made that he was leaving PSG. Is Klopp putting this out there so people will question how the fuck City can afford it, especially when they already have Haaland on close to a million quid a week (most of it off the books of course). You can bet your life's savings that meeting with Mbappe centred around some sort of ambassadorial role in Abu Dhabi while he makes 200k a week from City.

 

The media are so culpable in this shit though. They'll report that City are the only English club that can afford him but they won't tell you how they can afford it. A club with no world wide fanbase to speak of, that has empty seats every home game (despite the books showing that they are selling out), that is already paying incredible amounts of money to its players, yet they can match what PSG have been paying Mbappe. And fucking nobody in the media says its dodgy because "they've got rich owners".

 

Here's the thing though; it doesn't matter how rich your owners are. That's got nothing to do with how much a club is allowed to spend. Jeff Bezos could buy Luton Town but they wouldn't be able to sign Mbappe and pay him £1m a week, so how come no-one questions how City can afford it? You don't need to see the books to know they're cheating, you just have to look at the players and manager they have and the fact that they are able to attract and keep them when they aren't a big club. It's cheating in plain sight and it's still happening now despite the narrative that they've somehow now "gone legit". 

 

I don't think Mbappe is going there but that isn't the point. The fact it's even seen as normal for them to be in there offends me greatly. He's going to Real Madrid though, it's an open secret and Konate even mentioned it on Saturday when he was asked about it. He just laughed and said "everyone knows where he's going".

 

Nike probably won't be happy about him joining an adidas team though....

 

Speaking of dumb, I see Gary Neville is now saying United will finish top four. Interesting that, he must think either us or Arsenal are dropping out because it was only a few weeks back he was telling us that Spurs were going to challenge City for the title. Honestly, this tit is king of the terrible takes yet is still seen as a serious pundit. Actually that's unfair, he's not the king, he's the prince of the terrible takes. That dope Rio is the king. Neville is wrong so often though I might start keeping track of all the stuff he says just for a laugh. You'd think he'd have learned to hold back after embarrassing himself last summer saying Klopp would happily take United's midfield over the new one he'd assembled. Soft get.

Meanwhile, reports in Portugal suggest Jota will miss two months but he will be back before the end of the season. It isn't confirmed but it seemed quite reliable. Mixed feelings if this is true. It's good that his season isn't over but fucking hell, he's going to miss some of our most important games and it's proper shit for him and us as he's been in great form.

 

I don't really see it as us having a front three anymore, we've got five and when we have all of them and we're able to use all five to rotate and make substitutions, we look damn near unbeatable as few teams can live with that firepower. As long as Nunez isn't injured we've still got four and that's good, but we're down to the bare bones in midfield at the moment. Trent, Dom, Thiago, Stef and Curtis all out, leaving us with just Endo, Macca, Grav and Harvey. I think McConnell is going to feature over the next week or so because we can't keep putting the same lads out there every game.

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For the second time this season Man City were unable to beat Chelsea. The last time they met was 4-4 but this wasn’t as dramatic. Chelsea probably should have won as they took City to the cleaners on the counter attack several times but only made it pay once, when Sterling send Walker for the Manchester Evening News and curled one in against his former club.

 

He sort of celebrated but also sort of didn’t. The gaps in behind City were begging to be exploited and Sterling and Jackson got in behind regularly, with Palmer pulling the strings behind them. He was fucking ridiculous and it’s genuinely hard to comprehend why City would let him go. I know I’ve referenced this before, but seriously, what’s gone on there? Local lad, came through the Academy, is clearly fucking brilliant but they sold him to a fellow “Sly Six” club. It has to be some kind of FFP dodge as you just don’t do that. It’d be like us suddenly deciding to sell Curtis to Spurs. It’s weird.

 

Anyway, he was the best player on the pitch but he was booed by City fans. They booed James Milner though so that says it all. Sterling almost made it 2-0 but was denied by the boot of Ederson. Had that gone in City were not coming back and it was the pivotal moment in the game.

 

City had created some good chances but the blowfish was uncharacteristically wasteful. Not for the first time this season Rodri came to their rescue when he equalised with seven minutes left. Thankfully they didn’t spawn a late winner, despite them trying to cry in a penalty appeal when a loose ball landed on the hand of Colwill. Never a pen in a million years.

 

Chelsea were good value for the point but City took in the good grace we’ve come to expect. Guardiola throwing wobblers on the touchline at every decision they didn’t get and then Rodri going on TV afterwards to complain about the ref and VAR giving “so many” big decisions against them. Then that petulant cunt Haaland shoved the camera away at the end. The camera man should have fucking launched the camera into his stupid bloated fucking face, the cheeky ugly cunt.

 

Absolute fucking cunts. Entitled cunts. So used to getting their own way they convince themselves they should get every decision and when they don’t they stamp their oil soaked cheating feet. I despise everything about these cunts. A million times more than I’ve ever hated United. Guardiola is somehow an even bigger cunt than Ferguson ever was, as impossible as that would have been to believe at one point.

 

What were they kicking off about after this? The absolute nonsense penalty shout against Colwill and an even worse shout when Walker fouled Sterling and tried to claim a penalty for himself. That was one of the most egregious bits of cheating I’ve seen all season. Not so much that he tried to buy the penalty by initiating contact, but the way they all reacted when Andy Madley wasn’t fooled and correctly gave the free-kick to Chelsea.

 

They’re the fucking worst. I hate every single one of them. Every player. The manager. Every coach. Every cunt in the press office. The owners. The board. The tea lady. The kit man. The bus driver. The sad cunt DJ who introduces the players to the couple of dozen forty something single mums hanging around hoping Kyle Walker might ask if he can sniff their knickers…. basically everyone and everything connected with them. The worst thing to ever happen to football in this country. CUNTS.

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I wonder how many more players we need to lose before it actually becomes a problem? You can make a convincing argument that only two of the eleven that thrashed Luton would make it into Klopp’s preferred line up when he has a full squad to choose from.

 

That doesn’t mean these lads are ‘reserves’ as it’s very much a squad game these days, but Alisson, Trent, Konate, Robertson, Jones, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Salah and Jota are all probably starting if they’re available. They weren’t available though (or in the case of Konate and Robbo they were being rested for the weekend) and yet I thought that starting eleven still looked good. Not great, and you wouldn’t want to be playing that eleven every week, but it’s a sign of how strong the squad is that we can be without all of those players (I haven’t even mentioned Thiago, Bajcetic or Doak either) and still field a line up that didn’t have any glaring weaknesses.

 

Going into the game I was a little concerned simply because Luton never get battered and they’re in every game they play. If they lose, it’s usually by the odd goal and they normally score. If they scored in this one, would we have the firepower to get the win? That was the worry I had, but even though we went in at the break a goal down that worry had gone based on how the first half went.

 

I couldn’t believe how open it was. Right from the first couple of minutes we were getting in behind them and it’s not at all what I expected. I thought Luton would be deep and compact and force us to try and play through them, but they seemed to just go man for man all over the park and although we went in a goal down, it felt like a game we should have been leading by two or three.

 

It started early on. We’d already forced a couple corners in the first minute or two and then Diaz ran clean through from a ball over the top by Kelleher. I’m not sure how Luton allowed that as it’s the kind of chance you’d never expect to get against a side at the bottom, because they usually play a deep low block and won’t allow anything in behind.

 

Yet Kelleher plays a ball over their high line and Diaz runs clear. He should score, it’s an easy chance really. One of the easiest chance you can get when running through on goal as it’s a bouncing ball and the keeper is coming out. Knocking it over him and getting it up and down is so easy and I couldn’t understand what Diaz was even thinking. He hesitated and as soon as he did that the chance was gone.

 

I’ve watched it back and I think the problem is his first touch didn’t get it out of his feet and he never really got his body in position to just lob the ball over the keeper. And once he hesitated, that was that.

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Luton Town were caught in a second half whirlwind as the Reds overcame a half time deficit to blow away the plucky Hatters. Goals from Van Dijk, Gakpo, Diaz and Elliott completed a terrific turnaround that Jurgen Klopp compared to *checks notes* erm, the win over Barcelona.

 

TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Paul Natton and Dan Thomas to look back on a great night at Anfield and look forward to what will be a great afternoon at Wembley on Sunday.

 

 

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Massive win, potential banana skin avoided and we extended our lead over City by two points. That’s the good news. The bad news is we may have lost two key players for the foreseeable future, but we have to cross our fingers and hope for the best on that.

 

This was a great win and while maybe the scoreline flattered us a little, it was a comfortable, deserved win in a fixture that has given us problems in recent years. I think we were assisted by how shit they were at the back but I also think we spotted things in their game that we could exploit, and we did. It wasn’t a co-incidence how we created so many chances by knocking the ball forward early and turning them around, or the way we countered them on their set-pieces.

 

That was a big weakness of theirs and we exploited it. It was quite strange to see really. In open play they had a compact shape, five across the back, three sat in front and Maupay dropping off to get turned and start counter attacks. It was tough to break down, as we thought they would be. But then they’d get a set-piece and turn into Keegan’s Newcastle, throwing everyone forward and having all of their players in our final third.

 

They started well and although I didn’t think we were playing badly, they were the better side in the early stages. They were quite slick on the counter attack and had a few chances. One counter attack they had ended with a Toney shot that Kelleher saved comfortably, but it was lovely football. Konate did well to put Toney off in the end but that was proper incisive stuff from them.

 

Toney had another chance that he dragged wide after being found by Maupay, and those two were really lively early on. I felt as though we were looking decent enough though and had some good situations ourselves. Unfortunately we lost one of our better players when Curtis went down after an innocuous looking challenge. It’s a good tackle by their lad and it’s not reckless or overly physical, Curtis just landed awkwardly. He was in agony and it’s a big worry.

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Monday Feb 12:

 

Reports today say Postecoglu won't be joining us at the end of the season. In other news, I can confirm that I won't be taking up a membership at Augusta National. Seriously, how the fuck is he even being linked with the job? Because he's a fan? So are all of you reading this and you won't be getting the job either. Ok, I'm being flippant as he's clearly got something about him, but that's not anywhere near enough to be qualified for this job. If we appointed him I'd be fucking livid. I don't care for that guy.

 

I've been watching loads of tactical analysis videos of Alonso's Leverkusen and I'm all in on this. I was even before I'd seen all the tactical stuff, but that was based on the fact he's Xabi Alonso, he's top of the Bundesliga and he's taken a team from 2nd bottom to being unbeaten in all comps this season. I knew very little about how he'd done it.

 

Now that I've seen what he's actually doing, fucking hell. It's proper high end, ahead of the game shit. He's not unbeaten because he's got the best players, it's because he's got the best tactics and motivational skills. Some of his key players were free transfers like Xhaka and Grimaldo. He's got another lad who was at Southampton and Burnley and pulled up no trees. He hasn't done this by buying boss players, he's done it by coaching.

 

There was another team that took it to Bayern Munich in similar fashion in recent times. You might be familiar with their manager.... This is the biggest no brainer decision any club could ever make. Don't overthink it, this is just so obvious.

 

Of course there's risk involved and none of us can know how it would turn out, but there's risk with any appointment as there are never any guarantees. You just have to make the decision that gives you the best chance of success, that's all you can do. And if it doesn't work, there's no regrets because you made what was the best decision you could have made at that time with all of the information available to you.

 

It's almost like the NFL draft in some ways. The Bears have the number one pick this year and there are a lot of arguments going on about what they should do. There's a quarterback available who is being touted as a generational talent and half the teams in the league would kill to get him. He might turn out to be a flop, but if you don't take him you'll always be kicking yourself in case he becomes what the experts are saying he could be.

 

We're in that unique situation this summer. We've basically got the number one pick in the draft as we're in a position where we can choose ANY manager we want (nobody is turning down this job, it's the most attractive available job in the world other than maybe Real Madrid, but I just don't see Xabi wanting to join them over us at this point in his career). Alonso is the clear stand out star of the draft, yet you've got people suggesting we pass on him and take De Zerbi, the Sporting fella or even Eddie fucking Howe (ok, that was Agbonlahor who said that so it doesn't count).

 

If we took anybody else other than Alonso the risk would be much bigger than giving it to him and it's a decision we might live to regret forever. Like when the Bears traded up to draft Mitch Trubisky instead of Patrick Mahomes. It takes years to recover from mistakes like that.

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A big win that looks to have come at something of a cost. The Reds made a tricky fixture look easy but lost three players to injury and at least one of them looks to be very serious, but Salah was back with a goal and we're still top of the league.

 

Chris Smith is joined by Ian Brown and TLW Editor Dave Usher to pick the bones out of an eventful game down in West London in which Nunez showed his finishing prowess, Salah returned in style, Cody bagged himself a goal and Macca chipped in with a lovely strike.

 

 

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Another pretty shitty weekend really but it never feels as bad when we win, so at least there’s that. Wasn’t great in terms of other results though, but I think we need to get used to that as it’s going to be like this most of the time now.

 

The Blues lost but that was the most nailed on result of the decade. City are going for a title, nothing takes priority over that if you’re a Blue, not even the looming prospect of relegation and possible end of days. As long as the Redshite aren’t winning titles.

 

Ok, it’s a little more complex than that these days since Everton were caught cheating. All of a sudden, they’ve gone from revelling in City’s financial doping to pointing and screaming “look at them, they’re cheating too, why are we getting punished?”.

 

Ask Evertonians if they want their ten points back but the condition is that City get the deduction instead and let’s see how they vote on that. Would be interesting.

 

They kept it tight for a while at the Etihad but at no point did I allow myself to hope. I wasn’t even paying any attention to it until John started running his mouth outside the chippy about how “City haven’t had a shot on target yet”. The rest of us all looked at him like he’d just announced that he’d voted Tory. “Why the fuck would you say that you jinxing cunt?”

 

Less than a minute had passed before he’s holding his hands up and accepting blame. It finished 2-0 with the blobfish getting both of them. There is no punishment severe enough to deal with these cunts.

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Monday Feb 5:

 

Lots of talk about the Arsenal celebrations and loads of people are completely missing the point. “They’ve won, why shouldn’t they celebrate”. Oh fuck off. They should celebrate, of course they should. We’d have celebrated too. We celebrate after every win and no-one enjoys a celebration more than Klopp.

 

The problem with Arsenal is the WAY they celebrate, it always just makes me want to die of cringe, and it’s not just me and it’s not just Reds. Everyone takes the piss out of Arsenal and there’s a good reason for it. It just all feels so forced and lame, especially Arteta. That cunt does not have an authentic bone in his body. He’s the anti-Klopp. He’s worse than Sadio when it comes to stealing celebrations too. Little bit of Mourinho running down the line, a touch of the Guardiola’s sideline antics and a big dollop of the Klopp fist pumps. Fuck that guy, he’s just an embarrassing little ex Everton knobhead.

 

It’s not just him though, it’s the players. It’s the Arsenal culture and it has been for years. They haven’t moved on from the “4th placed trophy dressing room selfies” and everything about them just makes me squirm. So yeah, celebrate all you like, but act like you’ve been there before because otherwiseyou look like a lower league club who’s just sprung an FA Cup upset. That Odegard with the cameraman was pure cringe. You know what that was? It was the kind of thing players do when they’re acting daft when they’re doing the lap of honour after they’ve just won a trophy. I could see Sadio or Kostas doing something like that, but not after winning a fucking league game. Fuck off Arsenal you sad cunts, you deserve every bot of ridicule you’re getting and it’s not about being the ‘celebration police’ it’s more about being the ‘cringey bastard police’. I hate the fact that this was what we served up for Klopp’s last game against Arteta.

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It wasn’t exactly the bounce back from the Arsenal game I hoped for, but a win is a win and in the end I was just relieved we got it. For a while there this wasn’t going very well and there was the potential for us to drop points, which given the opposition would have been unthinkable. You have to beat Burnley at home. And we did, in the end.

 

The first half was awful I thought. Just slow, passive, turgid shite. The goal we scored was a gift from a corner, which we then promptly gifted back to them in similar fashion. I don’t think anyone could suggest that we deserved to be ahead at the break. We never got going at all in that half.

 

Klopp’s explanation for it was that we were in too much of a hurry and kept trying to force it. I thought it was the opposite. There was no urgency in anything we did, everything was slow and laboured and the only time we were able to break out of that was when Nunez was able to run in behind. He was playing with urgency and at his usual level of intensity, not too many others were.

 

That being said, in hindsight there are clearly reasons for that. At the time my feeling was that we just had a massive hangover from last week. Crowd and players both feeding off the others melancholy. I’m almost certainly just projecting my own feelings onto others there though. That Arsenal loss has stayed with me, I wasn’t able to shake it all week and even now as I write this it’s still with me.

 

I definitely think the crowd were feeling it. Not helped by City having already played and gone top. The sense of “here we go again” is hard to escape, and when the team came out as flat as they did it just fed into it. But on reflection I don’t think last week really had much impact on the players, I think other factors affected them.

 

Not least the flu bug that’s gone around the camp and ruled out Alisson and Gomez. We don’t know who else had been suffering from it either. Some of those in the starting line up may well have had it during the week, or may have just been starting to feel it.

 

Then there’s the late changes to the side and players being shifted about. Kelleher came in at the last minute, Quansah replaced Konate but is doing a completely different job to when he’s playing in Virgil’s spot. Playing right sided centre back when Trent is the right back and is wandering infield is tough. Konate makes it look easy, but it’s not. Add to that Robbo making his first start in four months too.

 

Then the midfield had a new look about it. Endo returned, meaning Macca got to play further forward. It looks like he’s forgotten how to do it as it’s been so long. I think he’ll be brilliant in that role but it takes time to learn and he’s been learning to play the six the whole season. It didn’t look fluid.

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The front three all found the net as the under strength Reds rallied in the second half to overcome a plucky Burnley side at Anfield to return to the top of the table.

 

TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Julian Richards to reflect on all of the major talking points from this game and to also discuss the exploits of Xabi Alonso in the Bundesliga. The lads also look ahead to a tricky looking 12.30 fixture at Brentford next weekend.

 

 

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One of the worst weekends in a long time for us. We don’t lose many, only two this season, but when we lose to Arsenal and then basically everyone who we don’t to win, wins, that just makes it much worse.

 

There isn’t one result that even gave me the tiniest little bit of consolation, it’s just proper shit. Chelsea got beat but they're so irrelevant now I genuinely don't care. They're 11th, the deadbeats.

 

I suppose the only result that went the way I wanted it to was at Goodison. Most of you were probably pissed off when that late equaliser went in, and usually I would be. I'm not sure why, but I absolutely did not want Spurs to win, even if it was against the Blues. Just shows you how much beef I still have with them after what happened at their place.

 

They led though Richarlison but the Blues levelled from a corner (of course they did). Richarlison scored again, and Everton almost equalised again from another corner. I’ve mentioned a lot how Dyche has turned them into Burnley, but his own assistant manager described them this week as “Burnley on steroids”. The only “juicing” Everton are doing is with their books, but it’s a fair description. Just not one I’d expect to come from Everton’s assistant manager. Would never have happened on Kenwright’s watch that.

 

From the “School of Science” to “Burnley on steroids”, poor Bill will be spinning in his grave at that. Spurs had chances to win it but they didn’t take them and paid the price right at the death.

 

This might shock you but I wanted Everton to equalise and was laughing when Branthwaite bundled in from a set-piece (of course). Don’t get me wrong, when it went to a VAR check I then began to think how side splittingly funny it would be if it was disallowed, but yes, I wanted them to equalise as I wanted a draw. Not because I’m worried about Spurs catching us. I just hate seeing them win games because I’ve developed an intense dislike for that cunt manager. I can’t even look at him, he makes my blood boil almost as much as Son, Romero and Richarlison.

 

Of course I’d suck all of that up and I’d have been rooting for a Spurs win if it was directly going to send Everton down, but the only way they’re going down is if they get another points deduction, so my gut feeling was that I didn’t want either side to win because fuck Spurs.

 

The whole Richarlison love in is proper sickening though. Everton are such bad cucks where he’s concerned. Clapping him when he scored and getting all emotional because of his fake ‘non celebration / apology’ nonsense. Losers.

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Well that was shit. What a time to throw in a performance like that. Losing at the Emirates isn’t the end of the world as it’s one of the two or three most difficult fixtures on the calendar, so the loss in itself isn’t cause to be too despondent. It’s pretty hard to feel anything but demoralised though after seeing the performance. It was bad, bordering on terrible in fact.

 

The first half - as usual away from home - was shocking. Dreadful, clueless, sloppy, disorganised shite. The second half actually started well (as usual away from home) but then Klopp decided to make three changes when we were well on top and looking dangerous, and that was the end of that. We lost momentum, then made schoolboy mistakes at the back and ended up getting exactly what we deserved - nothing.

 

There’s a lot of blame to go around for this one. None of the players come out of it with any great credit but the gameplan and team selection was fucked up too. How is it possible for us to go there and do the exact same shit we did in the first half of the FA Cup game the other week? Even the game at Anfield saw Arsenal take control of us early on. How have we not learned from that?

 

Klopp said “we didn’t play football” in the first half. Well yeah, that’s true, but why is that? Because it was really fucking hard to play football when all of our players seemed to be marked and we had no pace up front to turn them around. So what we got was exactly what we got in the FA Cup game (another one that Darwin was left on the bench for by the way).

 

I’m not going to make too much of it, but I’ve said before that I don’t enjoy watching us when Nunez is not on the pitch as we just don’t look anywhere near as threatening. This is a good example of it. No Darwin no party. The difference in how we look when he’s on the pitch to when he isn’t is night and day. That said, we were just as shite when he did come on in this game, but I’m convinced if he’d started we’d have posed much more threat. We couldn’t have posed any less, could we?

 

We did absolutely nothing in the first half. It was completely inept and Arsenal were in complete control despite not really doing anything special themselves. They were decent and we were shite. Had they been anywhere near their best we’d have been in big trouble.

 

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A deserved defeat and a self inflicted one, as the Reds didn't make the most of a lifeline given to them just before half time and proceeded to hand Arsenal the points with some calamitous defending.

 

TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Paul Natton and Julian Richards to sift through the wreckage of a rare defeat that has let Arsenal back into the race and opened the door for Manchester City.

 

 

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Monday Jan 29:

 

Virgil said something about not knowing what his future holds and it was turned into a much bigger deal than it should have been. I read his comments and thought it was more or less what you’d expect from a player in his mid 30s with only 18 months on his contract and not knowing who the manager was going to be next season.

 

It was interpreted as him saying “I might leave if FSG don’t get the appointment right” but I took it as him saying he doesn’t know what’s going to happen because the club might not give him the contract he wants and the new manager might not want to commit that kind of money on a 35 year old. He’s right to say there’s uncertainty but I don’t think that him saying he might want to leave because Klopp is going.

 

There is uncertainty in a lot of areas though, not just because of Klopp but because we have no sporting director either. This is the time of year when deals for the summer are sounded out and put in place, and we have no-one to do it and everyone who we might want to bring in will be wanting to know who the manager is going to be. We were linked with some Belgian kid today for £5m but we can’t do it because of uncertainty over the SD and manager and he’s meant to be joining Brentford.

 

Can’t say I’m arsed about that as we’ve got more boss young players than we know what to do with, but this does need sorting sooner rather than later because we can’t be getting to the summer with Trent only having one year left. Not arsed about Virgil or Mo as at their age it’s fine to get down to the final year, but we can’t be fucking Trent about. I’m not saying he wants to leave as I was told today by someone who spoke to him recently that he’s saying he wants to stay here his whole career and dreams of being captain, but Gerrard thought that way too until he was left hanging when he thought a new contract was coming and started to think about moving elsewhere. I’m not going to relax about Trent until he’s tied down for another four or five years.

 

Meanwhile, the Mancs yesterday at Newport was the perfect example of why they’re so fucking shit. Look at Antony smugly celebrating his first goal in 9 months, against a league two side. Utterly shameless and lacking in any self awareness. This is why they fail. The culture stinks. Rashford wasn’t there because he got shitfaced in Belfast the night before he was due back at training and phoned in sick. The whole thing is disgusting. Why is he in another country the night before he’s back at training? Because he had a private jet to fly him back, that’s why. Saint Marcus and his Brontosaurus sized carbon footprint. Didn’t I tell you months ago he’s a fucking fraud? The Mancunian Henderson.

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A full round of fixtures in midweek, starting on Tuesday as Everton drew 0-0 at Fulham. Sounds like it was shit but I watched most of it on a stream and it was a good game with fuckloads of chances at both ends. No-one could score though.

 

Pickford made some top saves and Beto missed two great chances right at the end. It’s wild to think that a club in desperate financial trouble that had been told not to spend any money, went out and spunked the best part of £40m on Beto and some kid from Sporting Lisbon who never even sees the field. It’s like having just enough money to pay your leccy bill and going down the shop and buying a couple of fidget spinners.

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Another one to add to the “was that our best performance of the season?” discussion. I’ve heard a lot of people say it is, I’m not sure though. Was it better than the Newcastle game? In fact, are Chelsea better than Newcastle? Probably not, beating Chelsea now isn’t the accomplishment it once was, that’s for sure.

 

There’s a reason they’re 10th and we’re top. We’re miles better than them and it showed. We were at this one right from the start. You could tell after a couple of minutes it was probably going to be a comfortable win as long as we didn’t have to wait too long to make the breakthrough.

 

Klopp hadn’t changed the team as much as I thought he might. Trent and Robbo didn’t come back in, but Dom did. I was a little surprised but at the same time Bradley was man of the match last game and Gomez has been one of our best players all season. They deserved to stay in. They probably deserve to stay in at the weekend too, but sports science comes into that to some extent too.

 

Imagine if someone had sent a couple of months back that Trent and Robbo would be fit and available for selection but they couldn’t get in because Gomez was left back and Bradley was right back, both on merit. It’s mad really, but that’s the level they’ve played at. 

 

And Bradley upped that level and then some in this game. I don’t want to go overboard, but he might be the best player in the world right now. Ok, I’m joking, but the performance he put in against Chelsea was something really special. It was a performance that Trent would have been happy with, yet this is what, his third league start? Second maybe? Incredible performance from him. I’ll get to that though.

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What a night at Anfield. The Reds found the net four times, Darwin found the woodwork four times, and Conor Bradley produced a performance for the ages as the title charge continued.

 

Chris Smith is joined by Dan Thomas and TLW Editor Dave Usher to look back on one hell of a performance in which Bradley announced himself as a star of the present as well as the future, and Liverpool showed Todd Boehly that there's much more to building a great team than just spending more money than everyone else.

 

The lads also look forward to the weekend's trip to Arsenal and answer some more of your questions.

 

 

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Well, five goals, the youngsters impressing and a successful start to a key part of the season. Can’t really ask for any more than that, given the emotional few days we’ve had. We’re in the hat for the 5^th round and that was the order for today. Dan Thomas here with your Norwich report.

 

It’s getting back on the horse having fallen from the saddle. It’s getting back on the bike after falling on your arse. It’s the first game since Klopp’s bombshell announcement and it’s out of the way.

 

Even walking around the ground before the game the mood was quite sombre. There is usually excited chatter of people talking about the upcoming match, the tactics, transfers and some dipshit buying a half and half scarf. But it didn’t feel like that today, there was just nothing. A void. Emptiness. Like the inside of Wayne Rooney’s skull. Other fans (who have no idea what they’re talking about) have poked fun at us this week, but it really does feel like a grieving process, like the passing of something that you have no control over.

 

But when the players and Jurgen walked down the tunnel, we got the applause out of the way. We were ready for business, and it was business as usual. 5-2 was a let off for Norwich if we’re being completely honest.

 

I’d done a lot of thinking about the team and when I read it when it was released, it was a great advert for why talented youngsters should sign for Liverpool. I am always happy to see young lads in the team and it was great to see James McConnell get his first start. I will get to him later but when I was reading the team, I was happy with what I’d seen. Though the LFC Twitter account needs to list people by position and not number. Come on dude, it’s 2024. Let’s be better. I was expecting Robbo to come in from the start or maybe even Owen Beck with Robbo to come on later, and Gomez to drop in at centre half. But no, Konaté played again which I really didn’t expect.

 

It is testament to the Academy and to the pathway to the first team that both Quansah and Bradley are just there now. I fully expected them both to play today and Bradley will be unlucky to not play when Trent comes back in against Chelsea. They are not wet behind the ears kids, these are now established first team lads. They aren’t starters yet of course but they are very definitely a part of the first team squad now – and that is a measure of how calm, composed and grown up their football is.

 

I was a little surprised to see Alisson start but when you think about it, Kelleher has the Carling/Coca Cola/Rumbelows/Carabao Cup and the Europa League. I guess Klopp has told Alisson he has the league and the FA Cup, because it’s not like Kelleher would have been overawed by the occasion today.

 

Some of the football Norwich played was extraordinary. I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way either. We are a lean, mean gegenpressing machine. We hunt as a vicious pack and drag our prey down. So when our prey is not even close to being as good as we are, you’d think they’d try and spend some time with the ball in the air on the halfway line.

 

Not Norwich though – they decided to try and pass out like prime Barcelona. I respect that they have an identity, a style and a way of playing. I almost respect that they are saying “That’s the way we play and that’s all there is to it.” Come on though man, it was obvious inside the first five minutes that they were going to try and go toe to toe with our pressing game and it was obvious we were going to create chances because of it.

 

We had nearly taken the lead early on but Nunez’s curling shot hit the post. He was a menace again today, and was unlucky to not get more than the one he did. He cut onto his right and his shot looked pretty speculative to be honest but it thumped off the woodwork. Again. Feels like poor old Darwin has hit the post hundreds of times this season and here’s another one for the list. Cue the “ShIt AnDY CaRRolL" chants.

 

I was made up to hear those bumpkins start up with that shit because it seems to me that Darwin is increasingly scoring every time it happens. Proper Football League dickhead bantz, and that was Norwich’s schtick all afternoon. Being loud means nothing when you are wearing green and yellow wigs, doing the whole CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN thing 25 years after it was last seen on TV and spending half the game singing about the atmosphere. Which admittedly was mostly very flat.

 

But we aren’t exactly going to be up for it on a Sunday at 2:30pm against a heavily rotated Norwich City, are we?  And whilst I’m at it, I hope we’re going to change the away end back to where it was because that has really knocked my karma out of kilter. The away end has been the Main Stand side ever since I can remember.

 

In fact, whilst I’m at it, I resented drawing Norwich in the first place. They have been up and down (nearly as much as I was sitting down and standing up today, what is it with cup games with jabronis constantly going up and down the aisle? I had seasickness two minutes into the second half!) for much of the last twenty years. I never miss them when they’re gone, I don’t acknowledge them when they are here. They’re just there and the same goes for Watford as well, who we’ve drawn in the next round, providing they can get past Southampton in a replay. Not glamour ties but I’ll take the home draw any day of the week. But I digress.

 

When the opener came, it was completely expected and it had been coming. We’d nicked the ball in great positions a few times but didn’t quite make the most of it. But McConnell dropped into space, looked up and pinged a left footed diagonal to the back post. The right back lost Curtis and he swooped in for an easy header. The improvement in him this season has been profound and he is regularly chipping in with goals these days. That one will possibly not live long in his memory but it certainly will for McConnell.

 

He was absolutely fearless today and did not look out of place. He was confident on the ball and put himself about in the tackle. It was nice to see some of our lads go straight to him instead of Jones because it was an exquisite ball that just begged for Jones to do exactly what he did – straight back across the keeper into the corner. Excellent.

 

Norwich continued with their high risk, zero reward approach and I honestly thought we were going to hit them for seven or eight. However, as it turns out, they got a couple of corners and scored a totally undeserved equaliser. I am a little bit annoyed at that goal to be honest because as a Championship team coming to Anfield in a game where they’d have about 30% possession, Norwich will have been working on their set pieces all week – and we should have been doing the same in the training sessions we’ve had.

 

To add to this, Gibson had a free run at goal in the corner a few seconds previous but Jota nicked it away. No such luck second time. It looked a good header, just a glance and not even Alisson can do anything about it. However, it was actually spawn central as it’s flicked off his back and Alisson can still do nothing about it.

 

We looked a bit ropey for five minutes actually, not under any pressure but certainly not showing our considerable attacking teeth. However, Norwich duly obliged us by playing out again. The keeper tried to find the left back with a diagonal which Conor Bradley won back. He then played a lovely 1-2 with Jota the Slotter and suddenly the right back had acres of space to run into. He kept his composure magnificently and played in Nunez.

 

To be honest, his first touch wasn’t great and he hit the ball quite a bit further ahead of where he would have wanted. But the finish, right footed, was straight in the bottom corner and the keeper isn’t getting that. Very good all round. And that was a perfect demonstration of the importance of making the right choice – when you do so, everything opens up.

 

Until half time, all hell broke loose. We should have been out of sight and then some. Norwich kept trying to Beckenbauer it up, we kept swooping in and taking the ball. Bradley cut it back for Gakpo and the latter inexplicably skimmed it well wide with the goal at his mercy. A really extraordinary miss for someone who is usually so composed. And then, Norwich tried to play out yet again and Jones nicked it, played in Gravenberch who rounded the keeper but his shot was weak and was cleared off the line.

 

A truly nuts couple of minutes. Again, I respect you have an identity. You do that against Huddersfield or Southampton or Leeds. You don’t do that at Anfield against a team that actively wants you to try and play your way out. How it was only 2-1 at half time was anyone’s guess.

 

When all the dickheads got back from their half time pie/pint/piss and making me bob up and down like a fat Woolyback meerkat, they would have seen that we carried on the second half as we ended the first. Total domination. However, the third goal was a bit out of nothing – Jones hit a long one looking for Jota, Gibson had to get there but could only head it into the air. Without breaking stride, Jota has kept on going, got the ball into the perfect position and rattled it into the bottom corner with his left foot.

 

He didn’t have time to think, he just did. An absolutely fantastic finish from one of the elite finishers in world football. He’s been back a while now but it’s no coincidence that we’re playing better, looking more dangerous and scoring more goals since his return to the side.

 

Almost instantly, the changes were rung. On came Dom, Virgil and Robbo and off went Jones, Konate and Gomez. It’s genuinely fantastic to have Robertson back but it is a huge testament to how well Gomez has played when you consider we have not missed either Robbo or Tsimikas. Incidentally, can we knock the SHOOOOOT every time Gomez has the ball on the fucking head, please? He will build it and they will come, don’t worry. Leaving that aside though, what a bench eh? Not a bad set of subs to make at all.

 

It didn’t take long for the substitutes to combine actually as Szoboslai’s corner picked out an unmarked van Dijk, who planted his header from the penalty spot. How you leave the best header of a ball on the pitch as open as that, I have no idea but it was a great header unmarked or not. Scoring from that range is a skill. There’s not many sights in football watching a keeper at full stretch being beaten by a header from a corner. One of the lads who sits in front of me called a goal from a van Dijk header before that ball came in, so fair play Mick!

 

On came Trent, off went Darwin as the vice skipper got himself half an hour under the belt before Chelsea in midweek. He nearly scored with his first touch actually as a corner was cleared to the edge of the box, but it was blocked. Interesting that he stayed in midfield mostly and Bradley was left on to maraud down the right.

 

Again I thought Hurricane Liverpool might completely swamp Norwich but it wasn’t quite the case. They had a goal disallowed for offside – there was a VAR check which was a shame as I largely had forgotten it had existed this weekend. It’s no coincidence to me that there has been no talk of high profile refereeing clangers in a weekend where VAR use is limited. I could see in real time it was offside but the check did last a while.

 

A few minutes later, it was 4-2. A long ball wasn’t hoovered up in midfield and Sainz just ran and ran with it. Van Dijk declined to close him down and suddenly, it’s in. There is so much to pick apart about that goal. It’s a good hit don’t get me wrong I am not detracting from the lad. Glen Johnson did the draw for the 5^th round and van Dijk demonstrated some Glen Johnson-esque closing down as he…. Well, didn’t. He just let him shoot.

 

And as critical as I have been of Kelleher this season, if that goal goes in with him in net we are asking questions about the goalkeeping. “Alisson would have saved that.” For me, if something goes in from that range you’re entitled to ask questions of the goalkeeper and having watched it back a few times, I am not sure what the problem is. Has he maybe seen it late around van Dijk? If you ask him, he’s probably not happy with himself. Or maybe I am expecting too much because he is the best in the world without question and I hate giving the away fans something to celebrate.

 

I thought that goal demonstrated McConnell was low on batteries because the space in midfield was huge and given he was the holding midfielder he was well behind the play. He lasted another ten minutes before giving way to Diaz. Again, not a bad change to make! Well played young man – see you against Watford on the 28^th February. Because that’s how good his performance was.

 

The last ten minutes was no onslaught by them by any means and we could have scored another three ourselves. Long made a great save following a goalmouth scramble, and Jota was having target practice using someone about 10 rows back in the Kop as he absolutely leathered two shots out wide into the exact same area in quick succession. Not one you want to catch in the face.

 

He’s the lad from Portugal
He’ll knock your teeth out don’t you know
Oh his name is Diogo

 

Jota looked a bit knackered to be honest but McConnell couldn’t continue so 90 minutes for Jota. Obviously the sports science nerds think he’s alright to play 90 now though which is good for us – and we’re going to need big minutes from the four forwards until Salah is back.

 

I thought we were done with the goals given Jota’s fancying of Joe in Row 10 of the Kop but we still had time for one more. A diagonal from Dom to Diaz, a diagonal from Diaz to Bradley who fizzed the ball across goal on the bounce for Gravenberch to nod home right at the death. I don’t think Gravenberch will feel that was the best he could have played but he’s now got three goals for us – more goals coming from midfield is great stuff. Curtis has definitely lifted the bar there and an extra 10-15 from that part of the pitch could be crucial come May.

 

But two assists for Bradley – that’s hugely impressive for a young lad with as little first team football at Liverpool’s level as he has. He was Bolton’s player of the season last year – I know that because my son Jack presented him with the award. Jack is quickly growing into a Red, don’t you worry. He was absolutely superb at League One level last season and he just looks so comfortable. It’s the Jurgen effect obviously but the only thing he has done wrong was get squared up for the Fulham goal on Wednesday night. I reckon he’d have another 7-10 appearances under his belt had he not been injured early in the season. I’ve been waiting to have a good look at him and boy am I glad we have had the chance.

 

So yeah, life moves on. We’ve loved and lost before, we will absolutely love and lose again. I still think there was a bit of a stunned feeling around the ground because it’s all so sudden. We thought we had another season of this at least and yet here we are contemplating where we go from here. The simple answer is onto the next game which is frankly a bigger fish to fry – we will need the crowd more in that game than we ever were going to against these jeering bums.

 

The timing of the announcement is strange, I hope that this is to try and galvanise the crowd to be stronger than ever on the run in. We’re fighting on four fronts and let’s be honest, Watford at home is not a million miles away from what we would have been wanting. We have a chance to go very deep in the FA Cup as well and leveraging the last of our time together with Jurgen is going to play a huge role in our quest for all the gold.

 

Star man – The FA Cup, Roy of the Rovers, Jumpers for Goalposts, Giant Killing, Sheepskin coat wearing cliched gobshite part of me wants to give it to McConnell for his excellent performance on his first start at Anfield. And he’s up there. But I am going to give it to Conor Bradley – two assists, looking so measured and composed and had Gakpo not got the yips it would have been three assists. Honourable mentions to Jones and Nunez as well.

 

Team: Alisson; Bradley, Konate (Van Dijk), Quansah, Gomez (Robertson); McConnell (Diaz), Gravenberch, Jones (Szoboslai); Jota, Nunez (Alexander-Arnold), Gakpo:

  

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The chase for the quadruple goes on as the Reds recorded a comfortable victory over Norwich on an emotional day at Anfield.

 

TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Paul Natton, John Gallagher and John Brennan to reflect on a good afternoon for the Reds and to delve further into the news that Kloppo will be leaving at the end of the season.

 

 

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‘I will leave the Club at the end of the season’. The eleven worst words, to paraphrase Kenwright. Everyone’s shocked by this – especially given what Klopp has managed to build in the last few months.

 

Bascombe wrote a piece in which he said almost flippantly (but no less true for that) that the players were essentially ‘too good, too soon’, and that’s why the manager felt he could leave now. Imagine Diaz’s goal had stood against Spurs?! He’d be gone already!

 

Klopp has asked for the rest of the campaign not to be about him – good luck with that one, Jürgen! Everything will inevitably be couched in a ‘his last’ narrative. His last Title run-in. His last head-to-head with Guardiola. His last game at Anfield. His last final. But far from being a bad thing, it could well give us that extra couple of per cent which could be so crucial as we battle on four fronts.

 

Looking back on the last few weeks, since beating Burnley on Boxing Day, makes for pleasant viewing. In the League, for starters, we’ve got six points out of six, scored eight and conceded just two. It was important to win at Anfield again after the two draws against United and Arsenal. What we do at Anfield in the rest of the season will go a long way to deciding where the Title goes. We’ve got 26 points from 30 so far; 22-24 from the remaining nine games should give us every chance of being in with a shout of the Title. The ‘six-pointer’ against City is already looming, already massive.

 

Some of the football we played against Newcastle and then against Bournemouth was sparkling. Goals galore and defensively really solid. The second-best attack and the best defence adds up to the best goal difference. The front five are now up to 55 for the season and will go close to 100. The team is up to 79 and will go through the 100 barrier sometime in early March and could hit 130 or more by the end of the season.

 

We’ve done this before and not got the rewards we deserved in terms of trophies, so there are no guarantees, but with those numbers, we are going to be in contention – and the supporters likely on valium – for the rest of Klopp’s reign.

 

Not only have we kicked on in the League, we’ve done it while also progressing in the Cups. Arsenal away was particularly satisfying, because it was them and because of the manner in which we won. And January has also seen another final under Klopp – his third League Cup final to go with three European Cup finals, an FA Cup final, a Europa League final and a World Club Championship final. People may belittle the League Cup but every August we only get four shots at a trophy and should – to the extent it’s possible – go for them all.

 

This competition, just like the Europa League and FA Cup, has been vital in terms of blooding new players and in so doing rotating the squad. That, in turn, has helped us in the League as the frenetic rhythm of Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday is no longer a factor.

 

We’ve played 33 games in all competitions and 16 players have played in 20 games or more! Kostas, Matip, Quansah and Kelleher are all in double figures. This is a luxury we didn’t have before and will continue to be vital, even more so than in the first half of the season as the games will come thick and fast. Speaking of what awaits, well it’s going to be tense and intense – in four competitions.

 

If we go all the way in the FA Cup and the Europa League, there is a maximum of 30 games remaining. I know, only 30 more games – at best – with Jürgen at the helm… The intensity will really ramp up in Feburuary and March. Three League games, the League Cup final and a possible FA Cup 5th round tie before our very own version of March Madness with – take a deep breath – four League games, a possible FA Cup quarter-final, a two-legged Europa League tie and, as if that wasn’t enough, an international break. It’s exhausting even thinking about it.

 

We are well-equipped though, given the depth of the squad and its freshness which is down to the rotation referenced earlier and really good in-game management.

The run-in was always going to be full-on – there is no other way with Klopp and his teams. But this week’s news has upped the emotion and intensity a notch or two. Hopefully that’ll will translate itself into a rabid Anfield until the end of the season and allow us to give the manager the send-off he so richly deserves.

 

John Brennan

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Monday Jan 22:

 

The kids beat Arsenal 7-1 in the youth cup at the weekend. I love the youth cup, always have, going right back to my playing days when I scored against United in this competition. The kids will be buzzing about this, especially as last season there was that well publicised u16 game when they conceded double figures against Arsenal in a game when we didn’t have a goalkeeper. Some of these lads will have played in that game and I reckon that will have been a motivating factor in giving them a spanking.

 

In other news, Forest have written to PGMOL again. They’re unhappy because… *checks notes* Ivan Toney moved the ball eight inches to the right before he scored from a free-kick. Hmmm. Couple of things here, and far be it for me to be defending refs and VAR, but this is ridiculous. Number one, the ref doesn’t have eyes in the back of his head. He doesn’t know what Toney did as he didn’t see it. Number two, VAR is actually not allowed to get involved in this. The rules prevent it. So if Forest have a problem, write to FIFA.

 

But this isn’t the first time. Last season they told the press that they had put together a dossier of decisions that had gone against them, but when PGMOL asked to see it, it contained clips of only two incidents, which were both from the same game. Fucking babies. You know what, dock them 10 more points just for this cryarse behaviour. They’re undermining the clubs who have genuine cause for complaint. These cunts will be writing letters about not getting a throw in soon, it’s genuinely pathetic.

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Jurgen Klopp dropped a bombshell on us this morning with the news he was leaving at the end of the season, so we recorded this emergency podcast to try and make some sense of it all.

 

TLW Editor Dave Usher is joined by Julian Richards and Stu Montagu, while there are drop ins from a couple of other lads as we discuss the whys, wherefores and what nexts. 

 

What started out as a serious, sombre discussion descended into chaos thanks to interruptions from cats, home smart speaker systems and the distraction of a Xabi Alonso press conference.

 

 

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Short one this week as there were only a handful of games, one of which was ours and has already been covered. So four games to get through, starting with the return of my boy Ivan Toney against Forest.

 

Cracking game. Danilo volleyed Forest into an early lead but Toney levelled in contentious circumstances. Firstly, it looked like a dive by Damsgaard to win the free-kick, but the thing that had Forest so angry they wrote to PGMOL about it (I’ll get to this) was Toney moving the ball a foot to the right to give himself a bit more leeway to bend it around the wall and into the bottom corner (which he did, superbly).

 

It’s not just that he moved the ball, it’s that he waited until the refs back was turned and also moved the spray foam so it looked like the ball was where it was supposed to be. I’ve seen loads on twitter (most of them not Forest fans, some where Reds, bizarrely enough) really going after Toney and calling him a cheat. Fuck off you huge snowflakes!!

 

Is it cheating? Technically yeah. It’s also crafty, sneaky, clever, streetwise, whatever you want to call it. Good luck to him if he can get away with that. He probably won’t next time as there’s been so much hysterical whining over it that everyone is going to be watching him from now on. Toney himself said “you can move it half a yard either side and if I hadn’t scored no-one would care”. Can you move it half a yard either side? I don’t think that’s right you know but he seemed pretty sure of himself.

 

The ref doesn’t have eyes in the back of his head so it’s not his fault. And VAR isn’t allowed to get involved in something like that, so it’s not their fault either. The Forest players should have spotted it and moved the wall accordingly, but they weren’t paying attention and paid the price. Shit happens.

 

But then Forest, not for the first time, took their grievance to a completely unacceptable level and fired off a letter of complaint. Soft cunts. So many teams have suffered far worse than them but this is the second time they’ve leaked to the press that they’re putting in an official complaint. I’m embarrassed for them, especially as like I said, VAR is literally not allowed to intervene in this as it’s against the rules set out by FIFA. If anything they should be writing to FIFA. Never mind the PSR charges, dock them 10 points just for being massive babies.

 

A thumping header by Ben Mee gave Brentford the lead but Wood equalised from a Hudson-Odoi cross. Maupay won it with a really nice finish. He’s done alright since going back there, he’s got five goals now which means he’s reverted to the mean. He was always good for 8-10 goals a season until he ended up in the black hole that is Everton. He must feel like a released P.O.W. right now, just enjoying life again.

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It might have seemed quite close in then end, but this to me never felt in any doubt. We had another gear to go to if needed but we just did what was required to get the job done and now we’re in another final. I’ve lost count of how many we’ve had under Klopp, I heard someone say this was his 10th semi final and I can’t remember us losing any, so presumably this is final number 10. It doesn’t matter, it’s a lot anyway.*

 

I expected more from Fulham but for once we actually started well and played a good first half. I thought Fulham would come flying at us but they didn’t really get the opportunity as we smothered them in that first half. Their players had no time on the ball and we just kept them penned in for most of the half. It’s the best we’ve started an away game in ages.

 

We even scored early! That never happens these days. There was an element of fortune about the goal but Diaz can argue that he made his own luck. The cross field ball by Quansah was ace but it shouldn’t have led directly to a goal. The reason it did was because aggressively attacked it with his chest which took Castagne out and gave him a run into the box. Fulham still had two defenders covering, which ended up being costly as the ball deflected off both of them which might have been why Leno made such a mess of it. He has to save that, but he didn’t and Diaz won’t care in the slightest how it went in.

 

It was interesting that Diaz lined up on the left. When I saw the line up I assumed he’d be on the right again but instead we saw Gakpo over on that side. That doesn’t necessarily suit him but Gakpo is almost like the attacking version of Joe Gomez, he just gets moved around all over the place. He isn’t currently as good at it as Gomez but he’s doing his bit and I like his willingness to get stuck into whatever job he’s given.

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