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I’ll start with Friday night’s game and another impressive assist by yours truly. I’m on reverse jinxing fire this season. Last week I talked up Villa and suggested they might actually be good. Less than 24 hours later my boy Patrick Bamford is banging in a hat-trick to inflict a 3-0 home defeat on them. I love it when a plan comes together. Some slapdick called Struijk had to be subbed after 20 minutes as he was just charging around fouling Villa players. He was booked for chopping down Grealish and then booted someone else straight after. The ref was lenient but Bielsa hauled him off straight away. Villa played quite well for a lot of the game and were the better side until Bamford broke the deadlock. Grealish had been brilliant up to that point and but for a save from the keeper he’d probably have already wrapped up the goal of the season award after a run from his own half that took him past four Leeds players. The goal changed the game though. Bamford’s second was a fucking beauty and his third was classy as fuck too. Shocking defending by Villa though as three defenders stood still and watched his fancy footwork. It was a real 'Shot through the Heart' and gave Leeds 'Another Reason to Believe' they’re in for a good season. It’s nice for Bamford to have got off to this kind of start because it seemed like everyone was talking about how “Leeds are good but they really need a striker”. That was the narrative even when they were in the Championship, so when they were promoted it intensified even more. Paddy has dished out some 'Bad Medicine' to all those critics though and I’m happy for him. I am thinking that he’s probably going to be this year’s Timo Pukki though and the goals will dry up in a month or so. Hope I’m wrong though as I’m rooting for him. Any fan of Bon Jovi will do for me and I make 'No Apologies' for it. Oh come on, you knew when he scored a hat-trick that I’d be bombarding you with Bon Jovi song titles. If you weren’t expecting this then you haven’t been paying attention. I could have made lame references to ‘Hatrick Bamford’ but come on, I’m better than that. I can almost hear the collective rolling of eyes from you reading that, so I'll move swiftly on before I lose you all. It was a good result for us at the London Stadium wasn't it? Somewhat unexpected but not a complete surprise either. City usually roll over West Ham with the minimum of fuss but the Hammers are in good form at the moment and City are just a bit off. The MOTD commentator nailed it when he said they look like a Manchester City tribute act at the moment. They look familiar but they just aren’t as good. That talk about tribute acts reminded me of when I saw Bon Jovi play at Old Trafford and then a few weeks later I saw By Jovi playing in Belfast. Great times, living the dream there. My boy Patrick would have loved it. Aaaaanyway, my other boy Antonio broke the deadlock with a stunning overhead kick. Initially I thought Ederson should have done much better with it but the camera behind the goal shows just how great a finish that was. Ederson wasn’t expecting it because it looks like Antonio has his hands full trying to hold off the defender. To get shot away like that was brilliant and it was past the keeper before he even knew what was happening. As I’ve said before, he’s as important to West Ham as Zaha is to Palace. He’s a right fucking menace and not many forwards have been better than him since lockdown ended. He went off with a tight hammy in the second half so hopefully he won’t be able to play against us this weekend. I’ll be honest, the idea of him against Nat Phillips or Rhys Williams fills me with dread. He should have had a pen soon after when Garcia slid in and brought him down. I don’t understand how that wasn’t given because the defender didn’t get anywhere near the ball and he clearly brought Antonio down. Ederson was probably getting there first but what difference does that make? Clear penalty. Foden came on at half time and quickly equalised. I know I say this all the time, but it bears repeating. I really fucking hate his little monkey face. Aside from Bernardo he’s probably the City player I hate the most and it’s 100% because of his face. It’s justified though because it is an absolute twat of a face. Sterling had two one v ones and missed them both. No surprise there really. He’s probably the world’s shittest great player. Because he is a great player, yet he’s still somehow shit as well. That makes no sense but then it makes no sense for a great player who scores 30 a season to miss so many fucking sitters. City look like they’ve got some problems this season. The defence isn’t good, they currently don’t have a centre forward and players who have been impressive for them in the past are not delivering currently. Bernardo and Mahrez immediately come to mind there. On top of that, Guardiola’s expiring contract is bringing uncertainty and, like us, they’ve had some bad luck on the injury front. Whereas we’ve lost centre backs, they’ve lost both front line centre forwards. Guardiola is catching some heat for not signing a forward but his argument is that it’s too expensive to find someone at a similar level to Aguero and Jesus, and then there’s the added complication of them not playing much. It’s rare that I’ll ever say this, but I have some sympathy with him here because it’s pretty much exactly the same problem Klopp faced when Lovren left. You can’t spend massively on a world class player on the off chance that you get two injuries at the same time in the same position. What happens when everyone is fit? It’s not practical, even for Man City, who are now having to reign in their spending somewhat due to the scrutiny they’re under. The other problem we both have is that Aguero is basically Joel Matip isn’t he? Great when he’s fit but spends half of every season on the treatment table. It makes it hard to sign someone else because of how good they are in the half season that they are available. There are few things worse than an injury prone star player as you’re almost in limbo really, not wanting to replace them but spending too much time waiting for them to be fit. Anyway, I still expect City will get their act together and be our closest challengers but the more points they drop before hitting their stride again the better, so this was a nice little result for us. Elsewhere, Fulham lost again, this time to Wilfried Palace. Standard Palace win really. They were second best for most of it but Zaha did some Zaha things and at the end you’re left wondering just how the fuck they’ve managed to go home with the three points. Nearly all of their wins are like this. Riedewald opened the scoring when he ran onto a nice pass by Zaha. I heard on the radio that not only was that his first goal for Palace, it’s actually the first shot he’s ever had on target. Proper shite that. Shameful. Bismark Ngissah was then penalised for a harsh free-kick on the edge of the box and he threw himself face down onto the ground and beat the pitch with his fists. It was glorious! Proper ‘kid having a tantrum in a supermarket aisle’ stuff. I loved it. There’s probably a sink like the Bismark joke in there somewhere too, but I’m not Stan Boardman so I’ll leave it. Zaha made it 2-0 when he arrived at the back post to convert a cross by Batshuayi and it got worse for Fulham when substitute Kamara was sent off after standing on the calf of a Palace player. He lunged and was nowhere near the ball, so ordinarily you would have to assume that was deliberate. Problem is, so many of Fulham’s players lack any technical quality at all so he might just be a clumsy bastard? His tackling is as bad as his finishing. In truth, Fulham weren’t that bad but it doesn’t matter as you just never think they’re capable of getting a win. They don’t score enough and they always concede. In between both boxes they play some decent stuff but it’s not enough. I’m actually amazed they got out of the Championship playing the way they do. Lookman was lively again and was denied by the woodwork twice in the opening 25 minutes. I’m still not having him, but I really hope I’m wrong because it’d be funny laughing at the Blues if he turned out to be boss. I’m not wrong though. Worryingly for Fulham, Mitrovic missed an absolute sitter again and he’s had a wretched start to the season. He’s boss in the Championship though. A Serbian Dwight Gayle if you like. Fulham did grab a stoppage time consolation when Cairney lashed in a piledriver from 25 yards, but it was too little too late. Scott ‘Scotty’ Parker was frustrated that his players are passing the ball too much and not taking chances to shoot. I just can’t take him seriously. I don’t know why, it’s just the way he looks I think. Remember when Stuart Pearce made him England captain ahead of Stevie? I may have mentioned that before, but it’s because I still can’t fucking believe that, a) it happened and b) Pearce has the nerve to even step outside his front door now. An incredibly mental decision that he doesn’t get anywhere near enough shit for. Pearce has always fucking hated Liverpool though, he even admitted as much in his book. He hates the Reds as much as his brother hates non whites (google it). I always remember a game against Forest when I was a kid and the ball rolled out of play as he chased it. It was well over the line and he just fucking leathered it as hard as he could into the first few rows of the Paddock anyway. What a cunt. If it happened now he’d have been sent off and suspended. It nearly caused a riot even back then. Mind you, those games with Forest were always like that. Didn’t help when you had Aldo rubbing the head of Brian Laws after his own goal and then doing the exact same thing after scoring against them at Anfield in the next game. Funny, but again, he’d be banned for that now. I enjoyed hating Forest though. I think I’d like for them to come back up again just so we can smack them about again. Finally on this, I see Loftus-Cheek is at Fulham now. I like him, I don’t know why he’s never really established himself at Chelsea as he’s a good player. He’s not good enough to stop Fulham finishing bottom though. Mind you, unless there’s a way of transporting 1986 Maradona into the present day and putting him in a Fulham shirt, I’m not sure there’s any one player who could prevent that. Speaking of my man Diego, it was his 60th birthday recently and he was asked what would be his idea present. Know what he said? He said “I’d like to score another goal against England. This time with my right hand”. What a man, I fucking love him. Chelsea and United served up a turd butty at Old Trafford. The only talking point from this snooze fest was the incredible decision by VAR to not award a penalty when Maguire put Azpilacueta in a headlock to win a header. The ref couldn’t see as it was won his blind side, but why was he not advised to take a look? Honestly, it blows my mind how an official can look at a replay of that and say it’s not a foul. What the fuck is going on here? United get pens when an opponent so much as farts in the direction of one of their forwards, yet Maguire is allowed to do that? Dodgy as fuck. Cavani came on for his United debut. Over-rated Skeletor looking turd. Speaking of over-rated, Pogba was only on the bench again. Mind you, at least he eventually got on. Donny Van Der Beek can’t get a game at all. Why did they sign him when they have Pogba and Fernandez already vying for that one spot? They probably thought Pogba was leaving, but who’s stupid enough to pay him what United do, as well as forking out for a huge transfer fee? Well, Real Madrid obviously are, but they’re skint. Chelsea’s new keeper did alright, he made a few really good saves. Too early to make any judgement on him but they’d have lost this game if Kepa had been in goal. Onto Sunday now and Leicester finally had a win at Arsenal. 27 games they’d gone since winning away at the Gunners. Arsenal had an early goal ruled out for offside. Everyone seems to think that it was a controversial decision and I see why they think that, as when Lacazette wins the flick Xhaka is not impeding the keeper or even blocking his view. He doesn’t touch the ball and he doesn’t prevent the keeper from reaching it. I still say that shouldn’t count though because Xhaka’s sole intent on that corner was to get in the way of the keeper and stop him getting the ball. So when Arsenal win the initial header he is still in an offside position because he was blocking the keeper trying to gain an advantage. So yeah, offside, no goal, fuck you Arsenal. Chances were few and far between due to how Leicester approached the game. Brendan actually managed to put his ego to one side and played more defensively than usual. Five at the back, four in the middle and just one up front. There was a time when he’d never compromise his principles like that, so that’s progress. Vardy started on the bench and as he took his seat before the game the camera caught a glimpse of his shin pads. He’d written on them “Chat shit get banged” which is a reference to an infamous tweet of his from about eight years ago. He’s fucking boss. My favourite non-LFC player, as I’m sure you’re bored of me saying. It’s true though. He’s great. He’s a genuinely fucking brilliant striker who doesn’t get anywhere the credit he should, for a number of reasons not related to his actual performances and goalscoring record. He might be the most under-rated striker in Premier League history because he’s never played for one of the big boys and he was never an England regular. The second fact is a direct consequence of the first by the way, because if he was playing for a more glamorous club than Leicester he’d have played every game for England. Same with the likes of Maddison and Grealish. If either one of them joined a ‘big six’ club they’d play every game. Vardy’s non-league background also counts against him I think. For example, he’ll never be regarded as highly as Wayne Rooney because he wasn’t the teenage superstar who spent almost his whole career playing at the very highest level. He’s a better striker than Rooney was though. It’s not an apples to apples comparison as they’re different types of players, but it’s a good example of what I’m saying. Jamie Vardy is a world class forward who nobody ever says it world class because he’s not fashionable. He came off the bench with the game 0-0 and he was electric. The game changed immediately due to the threat he brought. He tormented Arsenal with runs in behind and got the winner late on. That goal put him ahead of Crouchy and Ryan Giggs in the Premier League top scorers chart, this despite playing in the top flight for 35 seasons fewer than the Welsh Walking Carpet. Thats three defeats from six games for Arsenal. I’d like to think the fawning over Arteta might stop now but fat chance of that. He’s hoodwinked people into thinking he’s the new Guardiola, which might not be a bad thing if people at Man City think that way too and actually appoint him as the new Guardiola when the old one either fucks off to another cushy job or ends up in the nuthouse. At this point I’d lean towards the latter as he’s defo showing signs of cracking up. He’s either going to PSG or he’ll be sectioned, rambling incoherently about inverted full backs, Liverpool’s front three scaring him, bottles being thrown at buses and writing tactics on the wall with his own shit. It’s not that much different to how he came across on that Amazon doc to be fair, minus the shit smearing. Speaking of shit smearing, Carlo’s been doing a lot of that this week hasn’t he? First it was that bullshit about “Hamez” being a doubt for the weekend after being fouled by Van Dijk in the derby. So, so transparent. Typical Everton but I thought Ancelotti was better than that. Koeman was, he’d never have pulled that kind of shit just to play to the galleries. That’s why they hounded him out. Then we had more shite from Ancelotti after Digne was sent off for a nasty challenge on Walker-Peters. Apparently that red card was because everybody had spent the week talking about what Pickford and Richarlison did against us. Now, even if that were true, just where do you get the balls to essentially complain that you’re being punished because you weren’t punished a week ago and that this “is not fair”. Fucking hell. I’d say it’s the very definition of fair. You got away with murder last week and if, IF, it was in the ref’s mind to make sure you didn’t get away with anything this time, then what the fuck have you got to complain about? Thing is, last week had fuck all to do with anything. Digne was sent off because he deliberately stood on the heel of an opponent. It’s dangerous as fuck and could cause a serious achilles tendon injury. He deserved the red card and if Everton appeal it (they were saying they would, but I haven’t followed it since then) it should be doubled for wasting everybody’s time. There’s no point in just showing the moment when Digne catches him because you can’t tell if it’s deliberate looking at it in isolation. If you look at the few seconds leading up to it you get the full picture, as he had already had two bites at him before connecting with the third one. You can see by his whole body language and how irked he was at losing the ball what his intent was. He’d already elbowed Bednarek in the face just before that and escaped punishment, and it beggars belief that they can make out they’ve been hard done by. Dirty blueshite cunt. This is the same little rat who was joking with Richarlison last week after he tried to put the ref’s red card in his pocket following the wild lunge that has caused Thiago to miss the last three games. Everton are getting a reputation for being dirty, cheating, horrible playacting cunts and it has nothing to do with us, it’s entirely about how their players are conducting themselves. Pickford’s a loon, Richarlison is the biggest cunt in the entire league and Rodriguez isn’t far behind him. Now Digne has shown himself to be a snide twat as well. They were well beaten by Southampton and normal service can now be resumed. Someone described Everton being top of the league as like seeing an elephant on top of a Christmas tree. No-one has any idea how it got there but you know it’s coming down hard. They’re still top on goal difference so they should enjoy it while it lasts. Maybe even bring out a DVD, with half an hour dedicated to how Pickford ended Virgil’s season. MOTD2 had a few Blues talking them up before they showed the highlights. Absolutely fucking deluded bellends. It’s almost worth Everton doing well for a bit just to see how carried away they get, followed by the inevitable lashing out when it all turns to shit like always. The Paddy Power Fan Denial videos aren’t really any good unless they feature Everton. No-one else even comes close to being as funny as Evertonians. I mean just watch this, it’s fucking hilarious…. Credit to Southampton for how they played and a big well done to Ingsy for the two assists. Good finishes by Ward-Prowse and Adams and they could easily have scored more. If only they could defend they’d have a genuine shot at the top six. Prior to the season you’d have said that Wolves would be the most likely to join Leicester by breaking into the top six, but they’re just not getting the results you’d expect. They couldn’t even beat Newcastle this weekend. They went 1-0 up with ten minutes to go thanks to a Jimenez strike from 20 yards, but they couldn’t hold on as Murphy fired in a low free kick in the last minute to give the Geordies a point. Keeper should have done better but he was taken by surprise as everyone thought the left footed Almiron was hitting that. On that Jimenez goal, the Newcastle keeper should have saved it but went with his wrong hand. He was probably posing for the nearest camera. I marked his card last week. Just watch, he’s all about the flashy dives for the camera that cunt. Podense looks like Jota mkII. Easy to see why they cashed in on Diogo when they’ve got him and Neto to step in. I don’t like how he operates but I have to say that Jorge Mendes is a better talent evaluator than most Premier League scouts. Finally, Spurs beat Burnley on Monday night. I didn’t watch it but I’ve done my research and watched some brief highlights on youtube as I’m a pro. Lamela should have been sent off again but got away with it once more. He’s like the cunt in Lethal Weapon 2 getting up to all sorts and then mocking Murtagh and Riggs about “Diplomatic Immunity”. Lamela has apparently never been red carded in his time at Spurs, which staggers me as much as if you told me Lampard has never had a Big Mac for breakfast. You just think ‘nah, that can’t be right’. There’s a sending off in the post for Lamela some time soon, you heard it here first. It was a tight game but once again Kane came up with the assist and Son came up with the goal. Those two are in great form right now and Spurs look like they might have a genuine shot at the top four. Talk of them being title contenders is fanciful as, to quote Chiellini, “it’s Tottenham”, but they look better than Chelsea, Arsenal and United at this moment in time. In fact, I’ve had one of my trademark changes of heart. Forget the top four prediction I made a couple of weeks ago. I’m now going with us, City, Spurs and United in that order.

For many fans, Liverpool conceding one or two goals before half-time is no longer a big worry. They’ve there before and completed a comeback far too many times. Of course, the best come from behinds are those that involved winning a vital game or tournament. In this article, we’ll travel back in time to look at the best Liverpool wins for punters. We mean victories that should you have wagered on and you would have made some decent cash. Sounds good? Let’s dive right in. Liverpool v Man Utd - Sept 13, 2008 The Red Devils had just won their 17th EPL title. They were in great form and had not been defeated by Liverpool at Anfield since 2001. Everyone expected them to win, including the bookies. When the game started, Carlos Tevez opened the score sheet but then a blunder by goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar and last man Wes Brown led to Liverpool’s equalising goal of the game. After that goal, Liverpool gained their confidence and pushed for a winning goal with every opportunity they got. In the 77th minute, Liverpool finally got the winner they had been pushing for thanks to substitute Ryan Babel. With that victory, Liverpool broke a four-year losing streak against their big rivals. Liverpool v Olympiacos - Dec 8, 2004 Predicting a team to win by two clear goals is often a hard task. It’s even more challenging in a must-win Champions League game. But that’s precisely what happened in 2004 when the Reds faced Olympiacos at Anfield. In the usual comeback fashion, Olympiacos opened the scoring. And suddenly, the Reds needed to score 3-1 to advance to the next stage of the UCL. To make things worse, the Greek side kept pushing for a second goal. In the second half, though, the Reds took control. Substitute Florent Sinama-Pongolle scored the equaliser two minutes after the restart and the team began to chase for a second win. Olympiacos did their best to defend but ultimately conceded a second time in the 78th minute when another substitute, Neil Mellor, fired in from close range. With time slipping away, the Reds needed to score their third goal of the game or their CL campaign was over. It didn’t matter who would score or whether it would be great, they just needed a goal. The rest is history, as "a lovely cushioned head by Mellor" was followed by a Steven Gerrard thunderbolt to send the entire crowd wild. What a hit, son. What a hit. Liverpool v AC Milan - May 25, 2005 May 25, 2005 - it’s the worst night for every AC Milan fan and Evertonian. But for Liverpool fans and the rest of the football world, the 2005 UCL Final delivered an improbable miracle. It had never been done before and it will probably never happen again - a team coming back from 3-0 down at half-time to win the UCL title. In-play betting didn’t exist back then. If it did, the best online betting site would have set pretty long odds for the Reds after conceding three goals. And had you wagered at that moment it would have been possible to win five or ten times your stake. The 2004/05 UCL Final started in possibly the worst way for the Reds. They conceded in the first minute, tried to defend and conceded a second goal in the 39th minute. Moments before half-time, Milan added a third goal. And everyone thought the winner was decided. Coach Rafa Benitez claims he never made a big speech during the break. But when the second half started, it became certain that something had happened to Liverpool. They looked different, sharp and aggressive in trying to reduce the damage. Steve Gerrard scored Liverpool’s first goal in the second half. Then substitute Vladimir Smicer scored the second one just two minutes later. With only one goal needed for an equaliser, the mission no longer looked impossible. And indeed, Liverpool levelled with through Xabi Alonso, who fired in a rebound after his initial penalty had been saved. After that, both teams fought hard not to concede for the rest of the game and extra time. But the Reds took the bragging rights in the penalty shootout. Liverpool v Besiktas - Nov 7, 2007 After a miraculous UCL victory in 2005, LFC continued as a dominant force in Europe for the next few years. But when they started the 2007/08 Champions League title push with two losses and a draw, punters were growing impatient. On Nov. 7, the Reds were meeting Besiktas for the return group game. They had lost away and they had pressure to win this time round. And win they did, spectacularly. The game started on a slow start, though, with the first goal coming in the 19th minute. Besiktas fought back but conceded the second goal in the 38th minute. After half-time, Liverpool continued with their dominance, scoring six more goals to record one of the biggest wins in the UCL. To expound more, they also won their next two must-win games to advance into the Round of sixteen. Liverpool v Borussia Dortmund - April 4, 2016 Many football fans expected this game to deliver something special. And it surely never disappointed. The Reds were coming from a 1-1 draw at the Signal Iduna Park. They needed a home victory to advance into the Europa League semis. But after conceding two goals in nine minutes at home, things looked grim. And had you been an in-play punter, you would probably not have wagered on them. By half-time, the scores were 2-0 down in Dortmund’s favour. Then Origi scored in the 48th minute to give the crowd at Anfield a glimmer of hope. Marcos Reus score nine minutes later. And suddenly the Reds needed to climb a mountain for a chance in the semis. But that’s exactly what they did. Philippe Coutinho scored the second goal in the 66th minute. Mamadou Sakho followed with a goal in the 77th minute and Dejan Lovren delivered victory with a stoppage time header. Liverpool v Barcelona - May 7, 2019 After winning 3-0 at Camp Nou, everyone expected Barcelona to score at least one goal at Anfield. Even former Reds striker Luis Suarez had already gave out a warning that he would celebrate gracefully in the semi-finals tie. But thanks to goals from Origi and Wijnaldum, Barcelona faced a shock exit from the UCL while Liverpool went on to win their sixth UCL title.

Slots are one of the most commonly played casino games out there. Players who want to entertain themselves, while having plenty of game choice and as little involvement, love them! As a matter of fact, one can choose among thousands of slots, with different graphics and themes, and from various providers too. Slot fans have tons of best paying online slots UK options to choose from, and all they need is some help in finding the right ones. Let’s take a look at what kind of online lots are available to the residents of the UK. Progressive jackpot online slots in the UK When speaking of progressive jackpot slots, one must know that these slots have good and bad sides. First of all, the players have the opportunity to win the jackpot which accumulates in a prize pool. Sometimes the accumulated amount can be really high, but once a lucky winner gets the prize, the jackpot will be reset. 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Is there any point even writing this? In a few months time I think the only person connected to LFC who will even remember this is Rhys Williams. For the rest of us, it’ll be long forgotten. I tend to not remember most CL group games at the best of times but this one was a real grind. Hardly anything happened, we didn’t play at all well but I don’t actually care in the least. Pick up the points, move on, get out of the group and then we’ll start making some memories in the knock stages. This was proper ugly and it could easily have ended with a bad result. They missed a great chance late on when it was only 1-0 and if that had gone in I don’t think we could have had any complaints. I thought they played pretty well and made it difficult for us. They pressed like madmen and usually had two or three men around the ball at all times. We were awful in the first half and they had the better chances, but I wasn’t worried because we’ve been in this situation countless times and nearly always come through it in the end. Besides, there was no way they could keep up the level of energy they were playing with. They’d tire themselves out eventually, surely? Actually they didn’t. I thought they were still going strong even at the end. We were definitely much improved in the second half but at no point did we ever look like we were even in third gear, let alone anything higher. For the most part I’m not bothered about how we played as it really doesn’t matter. Games are coming thick and fast and we probably won’t play anywhere close to our best in most of them. Winning is all that counts, same the big performances for the games we really need them. However, it is disappointing when players who really had a chance to stake a claim failed to impress. For example, I’m not really arsed how Trent or Robbo play in games like this (Trent was actually brilliant) because we know what they are and that when we need them they’ll answer the bell. Games like though, I’m looking for Minamino, Shaqiri and Origi to show us something. Give us some confidence that if anything happens to the main attackers that our back ups can fill in to a good standard. We didn’t get that. Not from Taki and Div anyway. I thought Shaq played well and I’d have absolutely no concern if we needed to bring him in for an important game. This is the sort of performance we usually get from Origi though and I don’t have any great expectations of him anymore. Minamino on the other hand, yeah I was disappointed. There’s a first team place there for him if we can really shine, but in the limited opportunities he’s had he hasn’t done enough. If he had, Bobby might be really sweating for his place. I think what disappointed me most about Taki is that it looked to me like the whole team was set up just so he could play in the position he prefers. The Bobby role. I mean come on, why else would you stick Origi wide left when there is no natural number nine in the team? I feel sorry for Div. We know he’s generally shite on the left and yet Klopp continually lines him up out there. I don’t get it. Everything else Klopp does makes sense to me. I can always see the reasoning behind whatever decision he makes, but this Origi on the left thing is just way over my head. I can’t see any possible reason to do it unless there is no other choice. In the past that has often been the case. He’s played there because there was no-one else. This time though…. I’m just baffled. When I saw the team on Twitter the night before the game (whoever the mole is, they need to fucking pack this shit in) I assumed it was 4-2-3-1 again with Taki playing Div, Jota left and Big Shaq right. Instead we got Shaq in a midfield three, Jota on the right, Div left and Minamino through the middle. Three players out of position just to accommodate Taki. I suppose if he’d delivered it would have been a worthwhile exercise as it would have shown we had a legitimate alternative to Bobby. He didn’t though. He worked hard, he’s busy, he pops up all over the pitch but he just didn’t really provide any of the quality we need. Yes, it’s hard because Salah, Mané and Firmino are so well established, but put it this way, I look at Jota and think that it’s becoming increasingly hard to leave him out. That’s not the case with the others at the moment. Not that Jota did anything in the first half either. The only player to impress in attacking areas was Trent. Some of his passing was stunning and he was a consistent threat down that side. Other than him there was very little. Shaq was bright when he had the ball, he just didn’t have the ball much. I give Midtjylland a lot of credit. They were in our faces, they chased everything and what they lacked in guile they made up for in effort. They had a big chance in the first half when one of their forwards ran off Robbo and went clean through. Alisson stood tall and blocked him. Not a spectacular save, but they rarely are. That’s why he’s so great. Other than that the only other thing of any note that happened was Fabinho tweaked a hamstring. The last thing we needed really. We started the season with four senior options at centre back and now we’re down to just Joe Gomez. This is the risk when you play twice a week and have to use the same players, although given that centre backs run less than the rest it is a little surprising to me that Fab has broken down. Especially as he’s used to playing in midfield where he does more running and sprinting. It doesn’t look like it’s a bad one but even a mild hamstring tweak is usually 2/3 weeks. I’d be surprised if he was back for the Man City game, put it that way. So on came Rhys Williams. As I’ve said countless times over the years, centre back is the one position (other than keeper) where you can’t really get away with playing kids. Experience is just vital in that position, but as things stand it looks like a choice between Nat Phillips and Williams for the weekend. I’d go with Phillips purely because he’s older and has more experience, but Williams has played so well when called upon that he might actually get the nod. The thing I like most about him is he clearly isn’t scared. He did well in the cup games and when Fabinho went down the kid just looked ready. The expression on his face and his body language as he got stripped and ready to come on just showed that he isn’t fazed by it. I don’t know how good he’s going to be but he plays like he thinks he belongs and that counts for a lot. He didn’t have much to do but that’s in part due to him being in the right positions and making good decisions. The one clear chance they had came when Gomez was skinned in the box and the lad hit the side netting. Williams was solid and has been in every game he’s played. Losing Fabinho is a blow and it was irritating to me that we needed to send on Salah and Mané. The ideal scenario would have been for the backs ups to have gotten us into a three goal lead and been able to play the whole game. They were so ineffective though that the big guns needed bringing on. That’s annoying, although Mo always looks like he’s made up to get on as it means a chance to increase the goal tally. We were 1-0 up when they were summoned from the bench and it was a lovely goal. The best bit of football we played all night. Trent found Shaq and then continued his run into the box, and he was found brilliantly with a deft reverse pass from the little fella. Trent crossed for Jota to tap in and although I celebrated it there was still that nagging fear that VAR would step in. Thankfully Trent had times his run well and Shaq delivered the ball at the perfect moment. 1-0, big relief and time for the big hitters to come on and finish it off. And they did, but it took longer than we all would have liked. Mo added the second goal from the spot in stoppage time after he was brought down while running onto a great ball by Trent. I thought he’d over ran the ball and wouldn’t have scored, but it was still a clear penalty. Interesting that he took it while Milner was on the pitch. Is Mo the number one taker now? I think he probably is, mainly because he’s always on the field whereas Milner’s minutes are far more limited these days. He’s scored enough pens now to lay claim to it permanently, but I’d still back Milner over anyone else when it really matters. I don’t even want to say anymore about this as it was such a dull, instantly forgettable game. Trent was the star man with an honourable mention to Shaqiri. As I keep saying though, I couldn’t care less about how we played as it doesn’t mean anything in terms of the big picture. Spanking these 5-0 wouldn’t have made this weekend’s game with West Ham any easier, so I’d much rather we produce the big performances when they’re needed. We won the game, we’re top on six points and if we can beat Atalanta twice we could send out the u18s for the final group games and get everyone a rest. The PL is the priority right now and West Ham is going to be tough due to the mounting injury list we have. It’d be nice if we had Matip and Thiago back for that, but at least Alisson is back in the side and all the forwards are available. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho (Williams), Gomez, Robertson; Henderson (Wijnaldum), Milner, Shaqiri; Jota (Firmino), Minamino (Salah), Origi (Mané):

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Nice little win this. It won't be one that we remember when we look back on the season but these are the kind of results that all successful teams need. Another one where we were able to dig in, battle, overcome setbacks and come away with the points. That should be three of those wins in a week as we won the derby too even if the record book says otherwise. This was tough. We didn’t play as well as we can and we know from last season that Sheffield United are difficult opponents. It was either Klopp or Ljinders who described the home win over them as tactically our best performance of the season or something. Can’t remember exactly what they said but Klopp is always praising Wilder and his team and he was complimentary again after this. They did make it a slog for us as they work hard for each other, they’re well organised and they’re direct. It helped that they were given a penalty for fuck all too of course. I’ll start with that so I can get it out of the way. I don’t want to get bogged down with refs and VAR and all that shit again, so I’ll keep this brief. It wasn’t a foul and although it was arguably just close enough to the line to be classed as a penalty, it wasn’t a clear error by Mike Dean so why was that overturned? Have they changed the whole ‘clear and obvious’ thing now and not told us? Or is this about the refs putting us in our place after we dared question what happened in the derby? Again, it really felt like that decision was made on the basis of what the ref wanted to do, because if he hadn't given a penalty would anyone have questioned that? If Dean had pointed to the spot there isn't enough to overturn it and give a free-kick, but the same logic applies the other way, surely? The clear error was awarding a foul in the first place, not where it was adjudged to have taken place. Fabinho got the ball but we’re told that VAR only looked at where the incident took place and not whether he got the ball or not. What the fuck? What's going on here? Can they not look at two things at the same time? It's the same bullshit as last week. Just tell Mike Dean to take his pointy little face and bald head over to the touchline to have a look for himself. Actually there’s probably no point as he doesn’t seem the type to go “yeah I’ve got that one wrong” does he, and he’d probably spend ten minutes just watching replays of himself blowing the whistle and pointing, the preening little bald Tranmere fuck. All that said, Fabinho fucked up there because first he mistimed his clearance, and then he dived in trying to retrieve the situation. He did get the ball first, just, but he needs to be less impetuous in that situation and it looked like Hendo had a pop at him for diving in. Rightly so too. Of course Alisson went the wrong way and they scored. I expected nothing else. He’s shite at saving pens (you can thank me when he saves the next one). We’d looked great in the first five minutes but the bright start had fizzled out. The Blades looked more threatening than we did and they had quite a few dangerous looking moments. They had two more penalty appeals too. The handball one against Robbo would have been scandalous but we’ve seen similar awarded already this season (Lindelof and Joel Ward spring to mind) so I was fearing the worst. There was another when McBurnie took a tumble after a bit of a nudge from a defender. Don’t know who it was as my stream froze at that point and I didn’t see any replay. It wasn’t a pen but it was more of a foul than they one they got. I’m just relieved David Coote wasn’t on VAR or Sander Berge would have had a first half hat-trick of pens. We weren’t very good in the first half and it was disappointing because I was excited when I saw the team and we had all four forwards playing. The 4-2-3-1 showed moments of promise but overall I felt it was very similar to the other occasions we’ve played it last season. Disjointed. On paper it looks boss but for whatever reason it doesn’t quite click. I think a big part of it is the lack of a natural ‘number ten’. Bobby generally seems very ineffective in this system and if we persist with it then I’d prefer someone else there. Minamino is probably next in line, although Jones could be a revelation there. It should suit Firmino as when he plays up front he likes to drop off anyway, but any time he’s played in this formation he just seems to float around aimlessly not really knowing how to influence the game. At least he scored in this one but other than that I can barely remember him doing anything. I don’t think this is even about his current form either. He’s looked like this every time we’ve played this set up, regardless of whether he’d been playing well before and after. Maybe it just needs time for him and everyone else to get comfortable with it but that’s only going to happen if we stick it, which seems unlikely given the number of midfield players we have and the success we’ve had with 4-3-3. In theory I like the idea of getting all four forwards in the team and it worked well at times. The other three all made impressive contributions at various points and were able to do their thing, but Bobby just ends up coming deeper and deeper to get the ball and makes little impact on the game. He did score though and that was huge. I don’t care that it was only a tap in. In fact, I’m delighted about that as it showed he was still wanting to get in there. Hendo’s cross was a beauty, Sadio’s header was good and Bobby was in the right place to put in the rebound. He needed that. I hadn’t been particularly worried even at 0-1 as I always felt we’d come back, so when it got to 1-1 I was confident we’d go on to to win it. Thats what we did and deservedly so, but only scoring one more goal left the game on a knife edge and with a bit more composure they might have equalised. Not that they deserved it as we were comfortably the better side in the second half. We played some nice stuff and Mo looked really dangerous. He had one ruled out for offside which was a real shame as the finish was sublime. He was offside though, you could see it from the very first replay even if it was close. No problem with that decision at all. The great thing was the lads didn’t let that knock their belief and a few minutes later they scored a legitimate goal. Very nice it was too. Class by Sadio to beat his man and pick out Jota in the middle, and the header was superb. I love him, he’s just what we needed. This is what I’ve wanted for a couple of years. A third one to complement Salah and Mané. That’s what we’ve got now. He’s not at that level yet but he does look like he has everything he needs to get there, and get there quickly. He’s only been here five minutes and he’s still got a lot of adapting to do, but he’s just slotted in seamlessly. You can play him either side, through the middle, he presses as well as anyone, he can counter attack, he can keep the ball, he scores goals…. he’s perfect for us as he’s already boss and he’s only going to get better. I’ve said for the last couple of summers that if we only signed one player I’d be fine with it as long as he was a Sadio / Mo type that gave us that extra option up there and took some of the load off the main front three. That was the most important thing to me, ahead of strengthening any other position. We’ve done that now and as a result we’re significantly stronger than we were last season. And when you add Thiago into the mix as well, fucking hell. So yeah, we’ve lost Virgil and it’s tough, but the rest of the team is stronger than it was last year which does balance it out at least a bit. We’re still the strongest team in the league and will remain so unless we get any more catastrophic injury situations. There are so many things you miss when someone like Van Dijk isn’t there but some of those things are easier to compensate for than others. Leadership is a big thing but that is something that others may be able to grow into. Gomez for example. He hasn’t needed to do it before because he’s been a kid playing next to more experienced players. He’s 23 now though and has played a lot of games. With Virgil not there maybe he seizes this opportunity to take charge back there? I don’t know if he has that in him or not but he might surprise people. I saw signs of it in this game when he recognised that Fabinho was having some difficulties with the pacy sub they brought on and he began coming across to cover behind him. One instance stands out when Burke knocked it down the line and was going to run away from Fabinho but Gomez was right there to stop him. That came shortly after Burke skinned Fab in the box and looked like he had a clear shot on goal, only for Gomez to get across and make a brilliant block. So yeah, Joe has so far stepped up to the plate in the two (pretty much three really including the derby) games he’s played in Virgil’s spot and long may it continue. There are other things we miss too of course. The passing range Van Dijk has is not something we can really replace but it’s not massively important in the grand scheme of things either. It's a nice luxury to have but not essential to how we play. There was one major weakness we had before Van Dijk came though and it’s going to be the same for a while now until we can sign someone. We saw it against Sheffield United and we’ll see it again. As well as Gomez played overall his aerial duels number was far from impressive. I imagine Fabinho’s wasn’t any better either. It’s difficult to criticise them for that though as it’s not a strength of either player. It felt like McBurnie won every single header and that’s something we struggled with in the past. It’s not that those headers necessarily lead to anything or cause major problems, but it impacts how we play and allows the opponent to get out and relieve the suffocating pressure we apply when we hem teams in. We press high up the pitch and teams often just play long to get out of it. I remember being told at the time that the reason Klopp signed Joel Matip was because he needed somebody who would not only win all of those balls but would head the ball back up the field to our own players so we can continue to keep teams penned in. That is vital to how Klopp wants to play. Matip did it to some degree but he misses too many games. When Virgil came in, that transformed us in a lot of ways but that was one of the key aspects that helped us become so dominant. Teams would knock it long and he’d not only win everything, he’d be nodding it down to Hendo or Robbo to get us on the attack again immediately. Relentless, suffocating pressure. We saw against Sheffield United that wasn’t the case and it allowed them to cause us problems and see much more of the ball in our half than they normally would. We need Matip back for games like this. In Europe Fabinho is great because most of his defending will be done with his feet against more technical players. Domestically it’s going to be trickier at times when he and Gomez come up against Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood for Burnley, Andy Carroll at Newcastle, Benteke at Palace etc. Next week it’s my boy Mikael Antonio and he’s going to be a handful in the air and on the ground. None of those players would worry you when Virgil is back there but it’s a whole new ball game now. Nevertheless, if the rest of the team functions the way it’s supposed to then we should be able to overcome any of those potential problems. We did it against the Blades although it was closer than it ought to have been because we couldn’t get that third goal. Goalscoring isn’t exactly a problem as such, and I don’t know, maybe I have unrealistic expectations of how many we should score, but it often frustrates me that we don’t seem to score as many as we should based on the chances we have. That’s more important now than ever because in any close games we’re going to come under a late aerial assault and we’re now going to be more vulnerable to that than we have been. So if we can just tighten it up a bit more in front of goal and be that bit more clinical, we should be sound. Little things really, like Mo hitting the post and not finding the corner. That was sensational play but he needs to finish it off. Or holding his run that split second longer to avoid being offside. Easier said than done I know but it’s a different game now and - right or wrongly - forwards are going to have to adapt. Same with Sadio in the derby last week actually. To me he wasn’t offside but if he’d made more of an effort to get himself back on earlier than it’s all moot anyway. That sounds like a harsh criticism but it’s not really. I’m not even saying Sadio did anything wrong, it’s just that the game has changed now and close offside calls are going to go whatever way the VAR goon wants to give it. Sometimes the line will be drawn from the top of the arm, sometimes the elbow. Sometimes it will be an inch or two away from the defenders heel / toe and sometimes it will be straight through it. Basically it’s whatever they want it to be. So if Sadio had ran back to get himself onside earlier then you don’t allow bent cunts like Coote to screw you over. We’ve seen it so many times, not just with our games. Bottom line is that on the really tight calls they can give the decision either way and manipulate the line to justify it. Players are going to have to adjust accordingly and give themselves an extra half a yard to be safe. These are the little things that will give us an edge. Klopp has specialised in this sort of thing. If you get all the smaller details right you can give yourself an advantage over those who don’t. That’s why he hired a throw in coach, not to mention the best nutritionists and sports science people. Maybe get the forwards working on being a yard onside at all times instead of playing on the shoulder of the last defender? The reason we defend so high is because we know the opposition will almost always run offside and VAR will catch them even if the linesman doesn’t. So it makes sense to apply that at the other end too, surely? Work on staying a yard onside all the time, that way if you are a fraction early you’ve got the wiggle room to still be on? I’m just thinking out loud there really but there’s some validity to it I reckon. Anyway, in summary this was a great three points because despite their position in the table these are hard to play against and we seem to keep having these VAR created obstacles placed in our way. This could easily have gone wrong but it didn’t because the lads overcame the bullshit penalty decision and found a way to win the game. That’s all we have to do. It doesn’t have to be vintage footy every week and three or four goal wins, although that would be nice as it hardly ever seems to happen anymore. No, we just need to keep winning however we can because all the sides who will be in and around the top of the table in May are all hugely flawed and will be dropping points all over the place. If you offer me another win like this next weekend against West Ham I’ll snatch your hand off right now. The points are all that matters during this hectic spell of playing every three days. Just win and then rest for the next one. Star man is Hendo, who was sensational. Special mention to Gomez too who is answering the bell nicely so far. Robbo was class as usual and Jota, Salah and Mané all had good moments. We might see a few changes for the midweek game. I hope so because I want us full strength for West Ham next weekend. That’s a much tougher game than it would usually be as the Hammers are in a good run. I don’t want Moyes getting anything at Anfield other than his arse kicked. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Gomez, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum; Jota (Minamino), Firmino (Milner), Mané; Salah:

Saturday Oct 17: Everton 2 L 2. I’m too angry to say anything really coherent about this. It will all be in the match report so I’m not going to even comment on the controversial issues from this. If I start I doubt I’ll be able to stop so instead I’m just going to focus on the football side of it. We played well. It was the perfect response to what happened at Villa as you could see the determination the lads had to immediately stamp their authority on this one. From the first whistle they were right at Everton. The two early fouls by Virg showed how pissed off he was with the Villa result and he set the tone as we were on the front foot. It looked like we would blow them away but then you know what happened and the momentum was taken away from us. The reaction was good though and we bossed the first half. The second half was scrappy to begin with but eventually we took control and we were by far the better team. We should be better as we’re the Champions and they’re Everton, but they went into this in the best shape they’ve been in for decades. And we were coming off that Villa game. Then we lost our most important player (we were already without Alisson) but despite all this we’ve completely schooled them. Forget the result, that doesn’t tell the story. This was dominance. Everton know they’re still not even remotely close to being at our level. Maybe that’s why they act like thugs every time we play them? I have always put that down to the crowd and the effect that 30,000 baying bitter bastards has on players, but it turns out that’s got fuck all to do with it. It’s not the fans that make them act like that, it’s the fucking badge. Dirty cunts. Sunday Oct 18: So he’s done for the season then. Grade 3 ACL tear, which basically means his whole knee needs re-attaching. We’re looking at probably 12 months until he’s back at full speed so this is an absolute fucking nightmare. I’m unspeakably angry about it all as the whole situation was a fucking disgrace, and I don’t just mean the tackle. I’m probably in the minority here but I’m angrier about Oliver and Coote not punishing Pickford than I am at Pickford for actually doing it. I’m not defending him at all, but these things do occasionally happen as it’s always been part of the game. What should never happen is for a referee to see it and do nothing. That’s the thing that’s getting to me. David Coote should no longer be in a job this morning, but fuck all will happen to him despite him being guilty of quite literally the worst bit of officiating I’ve ever seen. An on field ref not getting a decision right is one thing, but when you have access to replays and still get it as wrong as Coote did that’s negligence of the highest order. Sack the cunt. Naturally there’s a lot of defeatism around after this. Our title prospects have taken a severe hit and it might be too much to overcome. I don’t think it’s as clear cut as a lot of people are making out though, mainly because everyone else is flawed. Look at Spurs today, 3-0 up and looking great. Looking like title contenders even. Then they conceded three to West Ham and drew. That’s what I’m saying. All the other top teams have their faults and it’s not going to take 99 points to win it this year. Actually it wouldn’t have taken 99 last year. That’s what we got, but 82 would have been enough. Somewhere around that will do it this year too probably (I expect maybe 86/87ish might be enough) and we can get that even without Virgil. His injury means we aren’t going to run away with it again but it shouldn’t mean we can’t be right in the thick of it. We need to pray that Matip doesn’t break down again and that Alisson is back soon. If that happens and we can get to January still in the shake up, we can bring someone in and finish the season strongly. Clean sheets are going to be hard to come by now (they were anyway) and we might see a lot more of those crazy 5-4 type games again, but we were a good side before Virgil and we’re still a good side now. We’re better now than we were before we signed him and although we’ll obviously miss him big time, we have enough strength in other areas of the pitch to keep the rig on the road. I feel worse for Virgil himself than I do for our prospects this season, because I think we’ll be alright. Monday Oct 19: As expected, no retrospective punishment for Pickford. Let’s face it, how could they do anything to him when two referees seen it and did fuck all? They couldn’t charge him without undermining the refs and they were never going to do that. I’m not arsed about Pickford being banned to be honest. It doesn’t help us in any way, if anything it would help Everton as they could bring in the Swedish lad who can’t be any worse than that useless cunt. So yeah, not arsed about what happens to Pickford because that’s no longer the issue anyway. He was the issue at the time when he should have been sent off, but he wasn’t sent off and therefore the situation has moved on from that and the real issue now is that Coote piece of shit and to a lesser extent Michael Oliver. We can’t let this slide. PGMOL are sweeping it under the carpet knowing eventually it will just go away. Well it shouldn’t go away. We should be demanding an apology and an acknowledgement from Oliver and Coote that they completely fucked up. It’s negligent beyond belief. I can’t really stress this strongly enough. I genuinely can’t get my head around it all if I’m honest. That is the worst challenge we’ll probably ever see and it caused serious damage to one of the world’s top players, and yet it went completely unpunished. Honestly, I can’t get my head around how they’ve gotten away with this. As bad as what Pickford did was, the bigger issue here is that the authorities are supposed to be acting to stamp this kind of thing out. They have a duty of care to the players to take action, and despite TWO of their referees seeing it (and one of them having the benefit of numerous replays), THEY DID FUCK ALL ABOUT IT. And now they aren’t even admitting they fucked up. Their story has changed more times than Patrice Evra’s did. First they said there had been no review of it. Then they said there had and the officials decided there was no action needed to be taken (no-one believes that because there is literally not a person on this planet who would see that and not say it was a red card offence) and the latest one is that Coote forgot the rules and thought the offside negated anything that happened after. That is the most plausible explanation I reckon, but it’s not the official word. Not yet. They haven’t responded to LFC’s complaint yet, but I doubt we’ll ever get to know what they say about it anyway If I’m Klopp I’m mentioning this in every press conference and demanding they admit they fucked up. And I’m not stopping until they do admit it, because you can’t just let them hide behind bullshit protocols and refuse to admit the gross negligence involved. Honestly, that Coote should be out of a job. I’m not saying that because it’s one of our players either. I’d be saying this no matter who was involved because it was such a horrendous failure of his responsibility and it was quite literally the easiest decision for any official to make. It was a gross dereliction of duty and it sickens me that he’s still in a job. In fact, he refereed Leeds tonight. Genuinely incredible this. An absolute scandal. In other depressing news today there’s something about a European Super League being mooted by the big clubs, including us and United. I can’t really say anything more about it because I refused to read any of it. Same thing happened last week with that Project Big Picture bollocks. I genuinely have no idea what it is, whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing, and I have no interest in finding out because it just seems to me like grandstanding and posturing by the big clubs to ensure they get a deal they want. Can’t be arsed with any of it. Tuesday Oct 20: Wow, even the mild mannered Gini is fuming. “We were upset. The way Pickford went it on the challenge, in my opinion, was stupid and I believe he didn’t want to injure Virgil but the way he took the tackle he didn’t care what happened after. “We had it a lot in games against Everton, in my opinion, they take it way too far. We know it’s a derby and everyone wants to win but sometimes you go over the top, but it was too much. If you talk about the tackle of Richarlison on Thiago it was also a nasty one, that’s what bothers me the most and most of the other players. “Accidents can always happen in football, you can be unlucky and injure someone but the way they were doing it was completely unacceptable. It makes it harder that they don’t get punished. In this case Pickford after seeing the videos.” Well said that man. Interesting how he referenced previous derbies too. Obviously the lads feel that Everton are out of control whenever they play against us. We know they are, but there’s something comforting to me that the lads have clearly discussed it too. The way to overcome that isn’t to fight fire with fire. It’s to fucking humiliate them every time we face them from now on. Just go out and beat the cunts at Goodison in the same manner we usually do at Anfield. Speaking of cunts…. “I think the process was followed in some ways and it was flawed," Dermot Gallagher told Ref Watch. “When you see this, they have to check for a penalty. There are three steps, is it onside, is it a penalty and is there any further sanction? What they have done, is it a penalty? It is a penalty so they check and it's offside which negates the penalty. "They've gone from step two to step one, step two eliminates step one and it got overlooked to go to step three, which it shouldn't have done, we all know it should have been a red card. It was human error and that's all we can do is apologise for it. There's nothing more that can be said, the process was that they went backwards to go forwards and then stopped at step two and it's as simple as that." So Coote forgot the rules. I’m still not buying it though. Let me put it this way. What if Pickford had seen it was offside and decided to punch Van Dijk in the face. What would Coote have done then? Would he have ignored that because he forgot to do ‘step three’ or would he have said “it’s offside, Michael, but he’s punched him in the face”? Irrespective of steps and processes and offsides, this cunt saw one of the worst tackles in living memory and he didn’t think it was worthy of any further action. Fucking sack him, because he’s either beyond useless or he’s bent as fuck. I’ll be honest, at this point I’m not sure which it is. In brighter news today, a leading French journo says that Mbappe will leave PSG next summer and that there are only two names in the frame. Real Madrid and us. It’s common knowledge that it’s Mbappe’s dream to play for Madrid one day, but he isn’t necessarily in a hurry to do it and maybe a few years playing for Klopp would appeal to him more? The big stumbling block is I don’t know how we could afford it, but I don’t see how anyone else can either unless he takes a significant pay cut. Mind you, by the end of this season Jota might have elevated his game to Salah / Mané levels and there’ll be no room for arl Kylian. What? It could happen. Maybe PSG will take Bobby in part ex to keep Neymar company. Jeez, did I really just write that? Not so long ago it would have been unthinkable and I’d have hated anyone who even mooted the possibility. Mind you, not so long ago I thought Bobby was the best number nine we could be possibly have. Yet now I’d be picking both Jota and Minamino ahead of him. I hate saying that but it’s how I feel. Wednesday Oct 21: Ajax 0 L 1 I’m made up with this. For years we’ve generally been shite in away group games and it’s meant that qualification has often gone down to the last game. This was potentially the toughest fixture in the group (not much between this and Atalanta away in fairness) so to come away with a win and clean sheet is sound. We had some ropey moments but by and large I thought the defence did really well. Fabinho is boss at centre back isn’t he? When I think about the games he’s played there, including tonight, the image that comes into my head is him backing off slowly while a forward runs at him, and then just timing his challenge perfectly to take the ball off them as they try and go round him. He did it repeatedly to ol’ No Finesse Timo at Chelsea and tonight he had one where he robbed two players in the space of about three seconds. Boss. Gomez was good too and he needed this. It’s interesting that he’s been switched into Virgil’s spot and is no longer playing the right sids spot. It might just be that he’s the most adaptable to play there and Klopp would rather Matip and Fabinho play right side rather than left. Or maybe it’s about splitting up Gomez and Trent because that just hasn’t been working. Teams have exploited that quite well of late. I was thinking today though, Virgil’s injury might be the making of Gomez. Putting him in Virgil’s spot might be symbolic. There’s a much greater responsibility on him now Virgil isn’t there and we need him to step out of the shadow of his ‘big brother’. Maybe he’ll emerge as the leader of the defence now that he doesn’t have Virgil to lean on. Thursday Oct 22: Reports today say we’ll move for Ozan Kabak in January. This is the centre back we were rumoured to have bid for a few weeks ago. He’s the one who was buzzing about a signed Van Dijk shirt. This seems pretty nailed on I reckon, We were probably going to do it next summer but that needs bringing forward now and £27m doesn’t seem that excessive given how pressing our need is. Also today, Johnny Giles says Everton could be closest to Liverpool this season. Presumably he means geographically because otherwise he’s talking bollocks. Staying with the Blues, Ancelotti comes out swinging in defence of Pickford. I wouldn’t expect anything else. A manager is always going to say his player had no malice and didn’t mean to hurt an opponent. I wasn’t arsed about anything he said in defence of Pickford, but there was something else that has pissed me right off because I don’t believe it for a fucking second and it smacks of playing up to the bitter gallery. Apparently that Rodriguez cunt is doubtful for the weekend and Carlo says it’s because of a foul made by Virgil in the first couple of minutes of the derby. I remember it. It was a nothing tackle but he stayed down for ages trying to get Virgil booked. When that didn’t happen, he got up and played the rest of the game without any problem. Now he’s injured though and Virgil was the culprit. How convenient. If that little cheating cry baby cunt is injured it’s probably a separated shoulder from all that imaginary card waving. But he’s not injured, he’ll play at the weekend and this is just prime Everton behaviour. Disappointed in Carlo though, I thought he was above all that, like Koeman was. Still, as they say, when Everton touches you… Friday Oct 23: Brace yourselves for this, you’ll be shocked. Are you ready? Ok, so it seems that Rodriguez trained today and should be fine for the weekend. I know, I was stunned too. Who’d have thunk it eh? Honestly, Everton are so fucking smalltime it almost beggars belief. I wonder who it was who talked Ancelotti into saying that shit yesterday. Someone in the press office maybe, or that fucking lunatic Ferguson maybe. Meanwhile, Klopp says he isn’t sure who will be available tomorrow but Thiago, Matip, Keita and even Alisson haven’t been ruled out yet and it depends on whether they can train today. My guess is none of them play, but I hope I’m wrong, especially in Alisson’s case. Klopp also revealed that he and Robbo had a bust up the other night because Robbo got sick of being shouted at and basically must have told Klopp to fuck off. He was laughing his head off about it but the way he was describing it I don't think he was at the time! One of the journos asked him “do you like that it when your players react passionately like that?” and he went “No” but then explained that Robbo was “feeling sorry for himself” because he’d been kicked in the chest and was having trouble breathing. You can just imagine it. Robbo in agony and unable to get his breath, Klopp yelling at him for not overlapping and Robbo completely losing his shit! We might have actually heard it if BT hadn’t funnelled in that shitty fake crowd noise. Meanwhile, Marcus Rashford is still going toe to toe with the government and he’s gaining more and more support by the day now. He’s been on social media most of today co-ordinating a campaign where pubs and restaurants all over the country are volunteering to donate meals. This is actually quite incredible really. I can’t remember any player going to these lengths and putting himself out there like this, let alone one as young as Rashford. It’s a good thing for United fans that the grounds are empty. They better hope that’s still the case when they play at Anfield because imagine how bad they’re going to look when they’re singing “Feed the Scousers” while the Kop applauds one of their own. Finally, Steve Howey says we should make a move for Coady in January and that Coady would be an idiot to turn us down. Fuck you, Steve Howey. Stick to talking shite about Newcastle and keep your nose out of our business. Wait, one last thing. I know some of you are more interested in my mum's take on things than mine, so to keep ll of you ungrateful fuckers happy I'll share a conversation I had with her today. Actually I'll preface it with a conversation I had with her last week, because it relates to todays. It's about Naby. She doesn't like him. He came up in conversation last week and she said "That Keita (pronounced the same way Carra does, "Kiter") is pathetic. He's too small and weak. Mané and Mo are small but they're strong. This fella is always getting knocked over. He's got the right name - "Kiter" - because a gust of wind sends him flying". So onto today, I thought I'd rile her up about by bringing up Naby. Me: "He's meant to be back this weekend." Her: "Where was he last week?" Me: "He had Covid didn't he. He's back now though" Her: "It's a good job he didn't play last week because he'd be DEAD. He's so fragile they'd have killed him the way they were tackling". and that was the week that was....

After what happened at Goodison I just wanted to forget all about football for a while and so I completely switched off until we played Ajax. I had no interest in anything else that was happening and as a result of that I’m now watching Match of the Day with genuinely no clue on how half the games finished. It’s quite refreshing actually. Now I might become one of those fucking weirdos the newsreaders refer to when they say “If you don’t want to know today’s scores then look away now”. Every time that happens I say “if you’re a footy fan how would you not know the fucking scores?” and yet here I am, not having a clue because David Coote, Michael Oliver, Jordan Pickford and that Richarlison cunt completely ruined the weekend and made me want to avoid footy like the plague. I knew City and United both won, but that’s it. Oh wait, I also knew what happened at Spurs too as I saw that tweet from a Spurs fan that everyone (including Declan Rice!) took the piss out of. I’ll get to that in a bit though. I had no idea how any of the other games finished because as soon as the derby finished that was me zoned out completely. I don’t want to even watch them now to be honest as I’m still seething about Saturday and I know there’ll be things in every game that will remind me about it in some way. But I’m a pro and you’re expecting your weekly round up, so I’m gritting my teeth and plowing through it. MOTD actually started with the derby so I had to forward that as there’s no way I want to see any of that shit again. I don’t even want to know what the pundits said about it as chances are it’ll just piss me off even more, especially if they’re talking bollocks. Even if they nailed it though, it’s not going to improve my mood. We know what happened and we know the cunts involved all got away scot free. Except Richarlison I suppose, although his punishment won’t fit the crime and we’ve already had Thiago ruled out for one game and possibly more to follow. Anyway, I’ll start at St James’ Park where Newcastle really ought to be embarrassed after losing 4-1 to that Man United team. No Martial or Greenwood and they still scored four. It says far more about Newcastle that though, because that United team was genuinely turd. Fred and McTominay in midfield. Mata and James playing on the flanks. It had the mediocre stench of a lot of the teams we fielded during that 30 year title drought. Like a final throws of Houllier / Rafa / Rodgers era line up *insert puking emoji* Newcastle have been shite so far though. They made some decent signings but seem to have somehow gotten worse. Now and again you see them and think ‘they’ve got something going on here’ and then they shit the bed like this. They probably miss their home crowd as much as anyone really. Obviously we miss a packed Anfield but we’ve generally coped with it due to the quality in the side. The likes of Newcastle and Palace get great home support and let’s face it, they need it. They actually took the lead early on when fat Luke Shaw deflected a cross into his own net, but that was as good as it got for the Toon. Portuguese Gylfi thought he’d equalised but Mata was offside. Maguire then did equalise but it needed a great save by De Gea to prevent Wilson restoring the Geordies lead before the inevitable penalty arrived. Honestly, they get one every fucking game. It’s incredible. It probably was a pen, albeit a very soft one. Rashford was going nowhere and had lost the ball as he was kicked. It’s like most of the ones they get. It’s not so much that they clearly aren’t penalties (unless it’s Jon Moss producing them out of thin air), it’s just that nobody else seems to consistently get them kind of decisions. We all get them now and again but they get them every fucking week. We have at least the same number of these incidents in the box as they do but we rarely get pens for them. With United it’s like every appeal they have results in that horrible little cunt Fernandes doing his shitty little hop, skip and jump pen and adding to his completely misleading goal tally that suggests he’s far better than he is. All the hype he’s getting? Sigurdsson would have that too if Everton got the same amount of pens as United. And if Sigurdsson hadn’t been dropped for being shit. Only this time Fernandes missed. You can credit me with the assist there for reverse jinxing him the other week. Not that it mattered because the Mancs hit three late goals to put a completely undeserved gloss on the result as Newcastle fell apart. They even allowed Wan-Bissaka to score. Fucking hell. They won in Paris again too in midweek. I didn’t watch that (I mean why would I?) but I can’t say I was surprised because PSG look seriously average this year and haven’t started the season well at all. Of course United got another pen, that almost goes without saying. They’re like the reverse Burnley. What must poor Sean Dyche think every time those cunts are given a pen. Burnley have had one pen in the last ten years (I may be slightly overstating that, but not much) but these fuckers are getting one (sometimes two when Jon Moss is around) every three days. Meanwhile, Theo Walcott is back at Southampton. How did I miss that? Completely passed me by, much like the last eight years of his career passed him by. You know, I can’t even look at him. He makes me sick with his perfectly manicured hairline and designer stubble. Maybe if he spent more time on the training pitch practising his shooting and crossing instead of sitting around in front of a mirror he would have made something of his career, the fucking loser. Kinell, just reading that back and it’s exactly the kind of thing my mum would say. In fact, thinking about it I’m pretty sure she has done and that’s probably where I’m getting it from. Hold on, I’ll call her now and ask what she thinks of Walcott….. So pretty much word for word what I just said. “Can’t stand him. He looks like he should be modelling for moisturiser ads on telly instead of playing football”. Walcott shouldn’t bother me this much but he does. I also think the resentment I have towards him has been cranked up massively because of how pissed off I still am after the derby. Anything that reminds me of Everton is going to be viewed in a much harsher light than normal, but in fairness I have had this beef with Walcott for ages, the under-achieving bum. Anyway, to be fair he actually looked quite lively in what was a hell of a game at Stamford Bridge. Ol’ No Finesse Timo broke the deadlock with the kind of goal that’s his trademark. Running fast, cutting in from the left, feigning to shoot about three times before eventually finding the net via a deflection. No finesse, just head down, run fast, cut inside and shoot. And Southampton let him because their defenders are fucking clowns. I say this all the time though. Everton will have a field day against them this weekend. Grrrr, fucking Everton. Pricks. Werner’s second was decent to be fair. There was at least a little finesse about that one as he controlled it deftly with his arm, lobbed the ball over the keeper before finishing. No idea why VAR didn’t rule that out as the ball hit him just above his elbow. I suppose it depends who the VAR ref is and which team he has money on. The Southampton defending again though. Fuck me. That goal was awful. Bednarek just got done with a straight forward punt over the top by Jorginho for Werner to chase. Just really basic stuff that they can’t do. Chelsea aren’t any great shakes at the back either though and Ingsy pulled one back just before half time after Havertz had lost the ball cheaply. More keystone cops defending by Zouma (and some woeful hesitation by Kepa) allowed Adams to make it 2-2. Chelsea were back in front immediately though after a lovely move. Pulisic found Werner who crossed for Havertz to tap in. With Pulisic back now they’ll be a handful up front and scoring goals won’t be a problem. Keeping them out will be though as Lampard doesn’t have a fucking clue. Southampton had plenty of chances as Walcott and Ings gave Chelsea all manner of problems, and then deep in stoppage time they got the equaliser they deserved when Vestergaard deflected in Walcott’s shot. If Southampton weren’t so horrific in defence they’d be pretty damn good. Mind you, I can say the same about Chelsea. In the second biggest game of the weekend Arsenal ran City close at the Etihad but lost to a solitary goal by Sterling. How shit is his hair by the way? Glad he’s not playing for us anymore as I’d be calling for him to be sold if he turned out for us with that barnet. Awful. The main talking point afterwards was Aguero putting his hands on Sian Massey-Ellis. There’s lot of layers to this one and my opinion on it has changed somewhat after just watching the whole thing now on MOTD. Initially I’d only seen a brief clip of it on Twitter and thought it was being a bit overblown. Having now watched how it unfolded it was defo worse than I first thought, but not for the reasons that a lot of people seemed to be suggesting. To begin with it seemed to me that people were making this out to be a sexual harassment in the workplace type thing. Inappropriate touching of a female colleague etc. I thought that was a bit harsh to be honest. I don’t think he should be putting his hands on her at all, but it’s fairly obvious he wasn’t being a sleazeball. Yet that’s how it was being portrayed by some though on the radio and social media. Come on people, he’s not Bill fucking Cosby. My initial take on it was that he’d been inappropriate without even realising he had and he just needed someone to tell him why that’s just not acceptable in 2020 and then we could all move on, learn from it and then forget about it. Part of the reason I felt that way was I heard City fans on the radio claiming that he’d had a pop at her over a decision he didn’t agree with and then must have felt bad about it as he put his arm on her shoulder in a conciliatory way to apologise for what he said. The still photo of it made that seem plausible and I had some sympathy with Aguero if that’s what had happened. The video tells a different story though. It didn’t look like he was apologising over anything. It wasn’t a “sorry for what I just said” it was more like a “hey, get your act together luv” type gesture. Patronising at best. If he had been apologising I'd have said that while touching her wasn't appropriate and someone needs to tell him that, I wouldn't have wanted him charged for it as I don't think there was any bad intent there and education would be more beneficial than punishment. But this wasn’t so much about inappropriate touching (although that is part of it, irrespective of his intent) because he wasn't doing it in a particularly cordial way. It was more about a lack of respect and an underlying intimidation. There’s no conciliatory look on his face when it happens and he isn’t taking back whatever he said prior to that. So while I don’t think its the most serious incident of the weekend (back to the fucking derby again) it wasn’t comfortable viewing and he’s probably lucky he wasn’t charged. It does open up a whole can of worms now about what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour when it comes to female officials. Is there a difference between touching the shoulder of a male official or a female? Yeah there is. You can argue that technically there shouldn’t be, but there just is and rightly so. It’s just not something you do, not unless you have the kind of relationship with that person that makes them ok with it. You might have female co-workers you know well and might have the kind of relationship where some physical contact is fine. I’ve never been the touchy feely type so it’s not something I have much experience of, and besides, it’s 22 years since I last worked in an office environment, but some people are quite tactile and if you have the kind of relationship with someone where they’re comfortable with it, then sound. We see Klopp and the players hugging Carol and Caroline in the Melwood canteen all the time. I’m sure it’s a similar situation with Mona the nutritionist. So it isn’t a black and white issue here. Nevertheless, there will not be any players in the Premier League who have a close enough relationship with Sian Massey-Ellis that makes touching her acceptable and that probably needs privately pointing out by the FA to every club now to ensure there is no repeat of it. In summary, I think we can all agree here that touching match officials is only acceptable if it’s to put a noose around the neck of David Coote before launching him off the Kop roof. Relax, I'm kidding. No, actually I mean it 100%. Meanwhile, Spurs looked great at home to West Ham. At least they did until they didn’t. Kane and Son were running riot and they combined in the opening minute to put Spurs in front. Kane then added a brilliant second seven minutes later. It only took nine more minutes for Kane to head in a third and West Ham were staring down the barrel of humiliation. Quite funny really as this was Moyes’ first game back after Covid. They’d been flying while he was away but as soon as he’s back they’re 3-0 down inside fifteen minutes. The Moyes effect in full flow. Spurs must have gotten cocky and thought the job was done, because they didn’t add to their lead and then they collapsed in the last few minutes. Hilarious. Bale came off the bench at 3-0 and then the wheels came off. This is boss. Imagine if Bale’s second run at Spurs started the same way as his first, where they didn’t win a game he played in for about three years. Fornels headed in what initially seemed like a consolation goal with eight minutes left, but then Sanchez put through his own net two minutes later to set up a nervous finish for Spurs. And then with the last kick of the game Lanzini hit a thunderbolt from 30 yards. Spurs can blame this on the tit who tweeted “We bring on Bale and West Ham bring on Lanzini lol”. Why would you? You just don’t fly in the face of fate like that because you deserve all you get. Wait until the final whistle and then tweet it. It’s not difficult. As amusing as all of this was, it’s never nice seeing Moyes happy (and he was ecstatic) so this was a little bittersweet really. Early season hot take. Kane is the best player in the league right now and I’m tipping him to be Footballer of the Year. Meanwhile, Villa won again. Fucking hell. 100% record for them. Who saw that coming? Admittedly, Leicester had to play without the injured Vardy, which is basically like Goran Ivanisovic playing without his serve. There’s not really much else left. Nevertheless, credit to Villa who took advantage of it by keeping a clean sheet and then nicking it late on with a goal from Barkley deep into stoppage time. Could Villa actually be good? It’s possible you know. Obviously ‘good’ is relative and I’m not talking ‘top four’ good. But every season there’s always someone who starts well and surprises people, only to usually fall away. Like Sheffield United last year. The one exception was Leicester, who didn’t fall away. Well, they did last year (in the title race at Christmas and nowhere by May) but the year they won it they didn’t. Villa will fall away, but probably not as far as people think. Top half I reckon. Tell you what though, Leicester really ought to have brought in better back up to Vardy, as Iheanacho is like a really shit, massive cunt version of Sturridge. Very similar movement and style, only this wanker isn’t fit to lace Studge’s boots. Poor old Fulham almost won at Bramall Lane but got screwed by a ridiculous VAR penalty. They went ahead with a brilliant goal by Lookman. Sheffield United can blame me for that as I was ripping him the other week. Fulham missed a pen too, when Mitrovic blasted over the bar after Jack Robinson had handled. Scott ‘Scotty’ Parker’s boys were by far the better team but then out of nothing a penalty was awarded. The ball was down the other end of the field and no-one had even appealed for a pen. Next thing VAR is telling Andre Marriner to take a look at something and he points to the spot. Sorry but that’s not a pen in a million fucking years. Robinson and Mitrovic both go for the ball, Robinson gets there first by a fraction and kicks the ball straight up into the air and is then caught by Mitrovic. There’s fuck all in that and I can’t believe a pen was given. That’s a Man United pen that is. Micah Richards said it was the right decision. Really?? He wouldn’t be saying that if it was against City or Villa. Fair play to him though, he gets about doesn’t he? He’s on Sky, BT, BBC and I’ve seen him doing Champions League games on NBC as well. That’s some quality whoring himself around right there. I don’t remember anyone ever having the full set like that before. Maybe Robbie Savage? Don’t think Sky ever had him though did they? Final one on this. I see that Lemina is at Fulham now. I remember the first few times I saw him play for Southampton and he looked like he was going to be fucking boss. Then he disappeared and now he’s at Fulham, so yeah I jumped the gun on that one. Moving on, and it was the “Gus Poyet took a shit on the dressing room floor derby” this weekend as Brighton made the trip to Selhurst to take on Palace. Always amuses me how much they hate each other and how the rivalry just doesn’t make any real sense. Palace were awarded a soft penalty when my boy Lamptey was penalised for having a hand on Batshuayi, who theatrically threw himself to the floor. Can’t believe that was given. Another Man United pen that one. Brighton were the better side (twenty shots to Palace’s one!!!) but they looked to be heading for defeat until MacAllister blasted in a deflected shot from the edge of the box. Dunk was sent off in stoppage time for an ugly over the ball lunge that caught Cahill on the shin. Thankfully Cahill was ok and wasn’t ruled out for nine months, but Dunk will still be banned for three games, unlike someone else I could mention, but won’t because I’m trying to keep my blood pressure down. Finally, Wolves won 1-0 at Leeds. Jimenez got the only goal of the game and afterwards Carra was making mischief by trying to blag Coady that Klopp had said he wants to sign him. Since Virg got injured there has been a lot of lazy talk about us going for Coady. I’ll say it again. Not good enough. Too slow. Would get ruined in a back four. The only reason anyone would talk him up for a move here is because he’s a scouser and a Red. So am I, and I’m nowhere near good enough either. Would have loved to have been in my parents living room when Carra brought that up with Coady in the post match though. I know exactly how it will have played out, but here’s a dramatic representation so the rest of you have some idea…. Carra: Conor, Jurgen Klopp says he’s interested in signing you. Would you fancy going back to Liverpool? My Dad: My Mum:

Saturday evening sees Liverpool look for their first league win in three games as they take on Sheffield United. The Blades were one of the feel good stories from the last campaign coming up from the Championship and finishing in a highly respectable ninth position. This season has certainly not started in the fashion that Chris Wilder and his team would like with just one point from five games, but showed during the last campaign that they were not overawed when facing the top echelon of sides. The team from @Blades_Mad were terrific in giving our readers insights last season and ahead of this fixture, speak honestly about what needs to be rectified that will help get their season on track. Sheffield United were a fantastic addition to the Premier League last year, not only in the way you approached the game, but the honest language and general football philosophy that Chris Wilder displayed. Therefore how difficult do you think it will be for the club to come close to replicating that level the 20/21 season? Going on the opening five games of the season, incredibly difficult. Having been so impressive last season, particularly pre-lockdown, it would always be hard to replicate any similar sort of feat. Admittedly, we have had a more sluggish start than initially had predicted, which is concerning (losing 4 and drawing 1, scoring just two goals in the process and one being a penalty), but who better than Chris Wilder to turn our fortunes around? We do, however, have three of the toughest games the Premier League has to offer coming up. Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea. Anything more than zero points is a bonus, if we're being honest. Having a strong Goalkeeper is essential for a promoted club. And Dean Henderson was certainly in the top echelon of Premier League keepers last campaign. Now that he has gone back to his parent club, how has Aaron Ramsdale filled his big shoes so far? A great question, and a much talked about topic amongst the Sheffield United fanbase. First things first, Aaron Ramsdale is Aaron Ramsdale. He isn't Dean Henderson. Aaron has said this himself having been asked about it plenty of times by the press. Dean was an unbelievable keeper for us who continued to develop and evolve into a top class keeper under the tutelage of Chris Wilder. Ramsdale is a product of our youth academy, and whilst buying him back from Bournemouth for a reported fee of £18.5m a few years after we sold him for £1m might not seem like great business on the face of it, the fee we received when in League One allowed us to build and secure funds for the fees and wages of what would be pivotal signings in the likes of Jack O'Connell and John Fleck. Rammers, at the moment, might not be as polished as Dean Henderson, but time is on his side and hopefully he will turn out to be a brilliant shot stopper for us. The England U21 international is a long-term buy and will hopefully progress with us. Two other players to ask you about. Sander Berge (who was linked with the Reds in late 2019) and someone we know very well in Rhian Brewster. Two exciting young prospects that your club have invested a lot of money in. What do you believe are the expectations on them in the season(s) ahead? Two of our most exciting young prospects, you have to say. Sander is adapting to life in the Premier League more and more as the weeks pass. By his own admission he had a stuttering start to his Blades career when he signed last January. Far from disastrous, but he conceded that the pace of the Premier League was something he had to get used to and mould his game around. Since lockdown, he's arguably been our best player. It can't have been easy for the Norwegian international to have been in a new country for just a few weeks without any family to support him as the country came to a standstill, but he worked tirelessly on his fitness during this time and it is now paying dividends. Initially brought in to play a CDM role, he has flourished on the right of a midfield three, making marauding runs and leaving people in their wake with his physicality and close ball control. When Sander drives forward with the ball he can seem unstoppable at times. Despite our difficult start, Berge has been a shining light and is a fan favourite. As for Rhian, think it would be fair to say that you guys probably know more about his game than we do at the moment, but all Blades fans are excited to see him start in a red and white shirt and hopefully can be the man to bang us in some much needed goals. Not wanting to apply too much pressure to the young man, that wouldn't be fair because his fellow strikers need to take a fair share of the burden also (which they are not doing at the moment), but it is another long-term investment for the club and a big layout fee-wise for us, him becoming our club record signing. We're incredibly pleased the lad chose us having had a few options on the table, and his attitude in wanting to leave Liverpool in search of first team football is one that will fit in well with the fans and management team here at Bramall Lane. Liverpool have been shrewd in the sell on clause and buy back option they have included in the deal, but if it gets to the stage where the Reds want to buy him back he must have done unbelievably well for us! Is there one reason that can pinpoint why points (and goals) have been hard to come by so far in this campaign? It was an issue last season also, scoring just 39 goals in 38 games. Our incredible defensive record overshadowed this massively and was the main reason to our success and a top half finish. Our leading marksmen both finished on 6 goals, which isn't fantastic, and Chris Wilder knew this needed addressing in the summer. He identified a number of targets including Ollie Watkins (who joined Aston Villa) and Brewster, and will be pleased he managed to get one over the line, even if it did take longer than had initially hoped. We're creating some decent openings, but just not taking them. Our strikeforce isn't our strongest weapon and is still in need of further boosting, probably in January, if we are to remain in the Premier League. Other areas of the team also need to chip in more regularly, which just isn't happening at the moment. It wouldn't be truthful if we said we weren't concerned about our lack of goals. Clubs from the Yorkshire region have played a significant role in British Football over the years but for a large part of this century have been absent from the top division. So how important/ significant is it to have yourselves and Leeds flying the White Rose flag in the Premier League flag while still maintaining your bitter rivalry? Yorkshire in general has underachieved hugely since the turn of the millennium. It is a hotbed of English football, with some huge and historic clubs, and yes it is good to see two of us in England's top division once again. I do have to say, I did quite enjoy being the only Yorkshire Premier League out fit last season, but having said that, Leeds will be a good addition to the league. Just a shame we lost to them the other week, but more regrettably of all, the fact that two "fanless" Yorkshire Premier League derbies seem like a distinct reality. That is saddening. Sheffield United showed when they played against the Reds last season that they respect, but are not in awe of them. Do you expect Wilder to employ the same kind of tactics especially with two key pillars of the Liverpool defence missing? Let's be right here, they were two contrasting games against Liverpool last season. The game at Bramall Lane was an incredibly tight affair that I genuinely believe could have gone either way. Despite the loss and the unfortunate circumstances in which it came about, all of Bramall Lane was proud of the lads that day as we ran the then-European champions so close. That was the day where it really felt like we were back in the big time. The game at Anfield at the turn of the new year was pretty different. Probably the most convincing two-nil you are ever likely to see. United barely had a touch of the ball and Liverpool dominated from start to finish. I remember leaving Anfield that night remarking that Liverpool are one of the best sides I've seen live, and I still maintain that. Chris Wilder might take a different approach to this one on Saturday evening, given our indifferent start. We're not playing with the same confidence as we were for large parts of last season. Not saying it's damage limitation for us at Anfield but a point would be a great success for us given the circumstances. It's clear Wilder and Klopp have respect for each other, both commenting on numerous occasions on the admiration they have for one and another, and that's great to see. My favourite two managers in the league, for sure! With the amount of unique results across Europe at the start of this season due to the lack of fans, home ground advantage is not as big a factor as it has been. Therefore are you confident of getting a good result or is the general performance the main thing you are looking to see? The Premier League has been crazy so far this season. That's an understatement! But if you take a look at our results, they've been pretty mundane in comparison to plenty of the whacky results we've seen throughout the division. Home advantage has definitely gone out of the window, particularly if you take ourselves as an example. Bramall Lane is never an easy place for teams to come with the atmosphere, energy (that the players evidently feed off) and hostility generated, which is obviously non-existent with a soulless ground which reflects the scene of a training exercise. Am I confident in getting a result Saturday evening? In all honesty, no. A positive performance would be encouraging, but we are after points. Had you asked me last season and I'd have thought we would have every chance, but things are not the same at the moment and something's not quite right. Hopefully that has to turn around at some point, and what better place than under the lights at Anfield!

Far from perfect but on the whole that was just what we needed. We rarely tend to look great in Champions League away games even at the best of times, especially in the group stages, so I’m not bothered that we made slightly hard work of it. In fact, being able to grind out a scrappy one like this is probably more beneficial to us in the long term than a spanking four or five goal win would have been. Put simply it was a test and we passed. This was an important game for us after a torrid few days and the players came through it well. Specifically, the lads at the back charged with filling the giant void left by Virgil really stood up strong. Fabinho and Gomez were both really good and delivered just the kind of performance we needed. Between those two and ol’ Big Bird we can get by until January as long as they can stay fit (seems unlikely in Matip’s case but you never know). Of course we’ll miss Virgil but everyone now needs to do their bit to make up for his loss. The forwards need to be on their pressing game all the time (not just in the high profile games), the midfielders need to be filling gaps and denying space in front of the back four and the defenders need to concentrate more than ever before. In recent months there hasn’t been enough of any of that. Not consistently anyway. We’ve looked great in some games and then sloppy as shit in others. I mostly put it down to the lack of fans but that’s not going to change any time soon so we need to get over that quickly. And we’ve now got to cope without our most influential player so who knows, maybe that will help them focus better. If they all work together they can get by, but if any area of the team isn’t bang at it then the back four aren’t going to be able to deal with any sustained pressure. We were conceding far too many goals even with Virgil, so maybe now he isn’t there the rest of the team will realise they can’t afford to be at anything less than their best. I thought the concentration levels were mostly good in this game. There were a couple of wobbles (Adrian grrrrrrrr) and some bad moments that came from us losing the ball cheaply. *glares angrily at Firmino* So Ajax had a few chances and we were by no means water tight but I don’t think it’s going over the top to say we defended well. Or is it? Maybe I’m reading too much into it and Ajax were a bit shit, but I was fairly pleased with how we defended. Certainly as a back four anyway. I dunno, we’ll see how things shake out but this was a good start and the more clean sheets we get the less people will talk about what we don’t have and maybe start appreciating what we do still have. We've still got the best team in the land even without Virgil, although obviously the gap has now closed between us and City. As for Europe, other than Bayern I don't see anyone better than us. For all the talk about Van Dijk it's easy to forget that we went into this without Alisson, Matip, Tsimikas, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago as well. Yet the team was still very strong and the bench was too. Jones was something of a surprise inclusion to many, but when you actually think about it there wasn’t really much else Klopp could have done. No Ox, Keita or Thiago while Hendo is only just back and needs managing. Klopp didn’t have much option but to start Curtis. I thought he did alright. He played a little within himself and didn’t try too much, but that’s a sign of his growing maturity. This wasn’t the game for him to be doing rabonas or shooting on sight and he put in a good disciplined performance. Him being subbed at half time didn’t really mean anything as it was clearly pre-planned. Klopp said afterwards the medical people told him Hendo couldn’t play 90 minutes so he decided he’d only play 45. Curtis was getting subbed no matter how he played. We were 1-0 up at half time and bringing Hendo on was going to make it a lot easier for us to see the game out. There’s just a massive authority about him these days isn’t there? He’s a dominant player and personality and it shows any time he’s on the pitch. I expect he’ll step up even more now that Virgil is out and we need leadership. He’s already the leader but expect him to crank up the alpha male even more now because we need it. I’ve said how I thought we were good defensively but it was a different matter at the other end. It didn't click properly even though Ajax looked wide open. It was weird, because I felt as though we were looking dangerous and were likely to score three or four but it just didn’t happen and the one goal we did get was a total fluke. Sadio’s turn away from the defender was world class but the shot he hit after it might be one of the worst I’ve ever seen. It took the defender completely by surprise and he got his feet in a mess and deflected it into his own goal. I don’t blame him at all for that because put yourself in his shoes there. He’s watching Mané get himself into shooting position and then let fly. The last thing he’s expecting is for the ball to come his way as he was more or less level with him. It would have to be the worst shot in the world for the ball to come to him, but that’s what happened. He had Salah immediately behind him and therefore he knew he had to play at the ball, and the next thing you know it’s in the net. The closest we came to a second was also when an Ajax player almost put through his own net while trying to cut out a cross (from Robbo I think). And yet we played some nice stuff going forward. For whatever reason we didn’t test the goalkeeper anywhere near enough, although surprisingly it got better when Klopp brought off the entire front three and replaced them with Shaq, Minamino and Jota. The latter two were very bright (Shaq was quiet I thought) and Jota in particular really looks like he should be starting now. Firmino was shite again and while it’s admirable that Klopp is keeping faith and giving him the opportunity to play himself back into form, there comes a point where that has to stop. That point has been and gone for a lot of fans but we’ll see how much more leeway Klopp gives him. It’s times like this when the lack of fans is really an issue. Bobby would be having having his name belted out to the rafters every home game (away ones too) as the fans would be doing their bit to get his confidence going again. We’ve seen that loads with strikers in dry spells down the years, but Bobby isn’t getting that now and is suffering because of it. I was also thinking how shit it was that we were playing in the Amsterdam Arena and there were no fans there. That place would have been bouncing. Games like this are what playing in Europe is all about, but instead it was a like a ressies game at St Helens. It’s shit isn’t it? Like I said, Ajax did have chances, most notably when Fabinho cleared off the line in the first half and Klassen hit the post in the second. I never really felt like we were in any real danger though, strangely enough. The only real concern I had was that Adrian might do something daft, which he did a couple of times but wasn’t punished. In the interests of fairness it should be pointed that he also made two very good saves. As much as we’ll miss Van Dijk, we’d be worse off if it was Alisson ruled out for the entire season. The sooner he gets back the better as his absence is something we can’t really cope with, especially now Virgil isn’t there either. The drop off to the replacement is far greater in goal than anywhere else on the pitch. Adrian isn’t that bad in terms of a number two keeper. We've had far worse than him over the years. Far, far worse. He actually makes quite a lot of saves, some of them really good ones. The problem is you know a clanger is about to happen at any given moment. You don’t know when, you just know it’s going to happen at some point in the game. He had a couple of really ropey moments here and we could easily have been talking about him costing us another European game. The first cock up was when he took too long to clear and the ball was blocked by the striker. He got away with that, but there really is no excuse for it. This isn’t about a keeper being asked to play out from the back and therefore having to take risks he doesn’t feel comfortable with. This is just a fella thinking he has far more time than he actually has. There’s no need. Just fucking play the ball before the striker gets there. It’s not hard. He got away with another error late on too when he came out for a cross and could only knock it down to an Ajax player who shot over the bar. He must be hard to play in front of because he’s not exactly predictable. He’ll stay on his line all game, not coming for one he probably could get, and then all of a sudden he decides he’s coming for one that he probably shouldn’t. The defenders can’t possibly know what he’s going to do and that’s a problem. He had an early mix up with Gomez too that left Joe just looking at him like "the fuck are you doing?". I don’t usually get mad at players for being injured but I’m making an exception in the case of Alisson. I’m pissed off at him for being injured again. I know he can’t help it but I’m still fucking annoyed with him regardless as he misses too much playing time. He’s a goalkeeper, he shouldn’t be injured as much as he is. It wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t so fucking good, but when you lose the best in the world and replace him with Adrian then it’s going to catch up with you. Everyone blames Adrian for us losing to Atletico but the more I think about it, the more I hold Alisson equally responsible as if he’d been available we wouldn’t have had to pick Adrian, who has no business in the latter stages of the Champions League. I know this is an unreasonable take but that’s just how I feel. I’m fed up of Alisson being injured and he’s one more enforced absence away from entering Joel Matip “can’t be trusted” territory. Yes I'm being unfair, but it is what it is - he's winding me right up. So anyway, Ajax were throwing everything they had at us looking for an equaliser and seemed to bring on about four strikers in place of defenders. That left them wide open to counters and we almost picked them off a few times but didn’t get the final ball right. The one time we did, when Jota picked out Gini, the keeper made a save with his foot. Would have been a great goal that. Eventually Klopp sent on an extra defender to help deal with the aerial bombardment. Rhys Williams was playing non-league last season and now here he is in the Amsterdam Arena playing Champions League footy. Things can change so quickly in football and who knows, maybe he’ll be the one to ultimately benefit the most from Van Dijk’s absence. We’ve got three senior lads covering the two centre back spots but that’s not enough and there will be minutes available for others. At the moment Williams might be in pole position to get those minutes, especially as Nat Phillips is ineligible for Europe as he wasn’t registered in the original list and is too old for the B List. So all in all, a satisfactory night’s work. It’s easy to criticise the performance because it wasn’t great by any means, but over the last few years most of our away group matches have been shite and we’ve lost quite a few of them. To go away and win 1-0 without too much drama is something I’d have happily taken beforehand, especially as we needed to get the events of the past week out of the system and get back to playing again. The players will have been as down in the dumps as we are about what happened to Virg, but they can’t feel sorry for themselves and need to just carry on. The process started with this game and hopefully now they’ll be getting their heads around the fact that they need to play the rest of the season without him. It’s encouraging that Gomez performed well and that Fabinho was the star man (just ahead of Robbo, who was great). Imagine how we’d be feeling if the defence had creaked all over the place and conceded three or four goals. I’m not saying our defence is going to be as good as it would with Virgil as I’m not a fucking idiot. It won’t be. What I am saying is that - more injuries notwithstanding - it should still be as good as any of our title rivals because none of them are great either. Matip needs wrapping in cotton wool though because if he breaks down again we’re down to the bare bones. Fabinho has looked brilliant when he’s played at the back, especially in Europe, so maybe play Matip in domestic games and Fabinho in the CL? There’s no way we can have Matip playing twice a week and it’s a risk having Gomez do it too, so some rotation will be needed that’s for sure, and we’ll also need plenty of luck. I seem to say this every year, but if we can secure early qualification for the group stages then at least that way Klopp won’t need to keep going with his strongest team. And every year we find a way to take it down to the last fucking game. Hopefully this time we can win the first four and then rest everyone for the last two, because that would help massively. Anyway, onto the next one. Sheffield United at home. They gave us two difficult games last year but they’re struggling big time this season. It’s a game we need to win after losing three points at Villa and having two stolen from us by David Coote at Goodison. Just win, it doesn’t matter how. The injury to Virgil almost supersedes performances now. It’s just about getting results until we find some rhythm. Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Gomez, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Milner (R Williams), Jones (Henderson); Salah (Shaqiri), Firmino (Minamino), Mané (Jota):

The shocking loss of Virgil Van Dijk presents Jurgen Klopp with a real problem over the next few months. It isn’t just the absence of the world’s best defender that he has to contend with, it’s ensuring the two remaining centre backs he has aren’t overused to the point where they too are struck down by injury. Joel Matip is already a doubt for Wednesday’s Champions League clash at Ajax, leaving Joe Gomez as the only fully fit centre back available. Fabinho of course is a more than capable stand in and can be dropped back from midfield, but with the games coming thick and fast Liverpool are going to be stretched to the absolute limits at the back. The Brazilian is almost certainly going to be needed to partner Gomez in Amsterdam as Matip now needs to be wrapped in cotton wool. Ajax will provide a stern test for a Liverpool side who have often struggled away from home in Europe over recent seasons. While Liverpool are firm favourites with online bookmakers to qualify from a group that also includes Atalanta and FC Midtjylland, the loss of Van Dijk certainly provides hope to the rest of the group. Wednesday looks like it might be a good time to bet against Klopp’s men and if you want the latest betting tips you can find them by clicking here. Van Dijk was the one constant, a virtual ever present since joining from Southampton in January 2018. While Gomez and especially Matip have proved to be unreliable when it comes to staying fit, as long as Van Dijk was there Liverpool were fine. Anyone could be plugged in next to him and perform at an adequate level. Now everything is up in the air. If Matip and Gomez stay fit until January then between them and Fabinho, Liverpool will probably be fine. Perhaps not as dominant as when Van Dijk is back there, but they should be able to cope. If Matip succumbs to one of his all too frequent muscle injuries then Klopp needs to find another solution. Perhaps it will be the promotion of one of the younger players, such as Rhys Williams, Billy Koumetio or Sepp Van den Berg. Alternatively, a midfielder might be dropped back there. Skipper Jordan Henderson has filled in there in the past but he would be sorely missed in midfield. Gini Wijnaldum is also capable of playing anywhere but his lack of height would leave the Reds particularly vulnerable to the kind of long ball tactic that gave them problems prior to the arrival of Van Dijk. Perhaps the best back up will turn out to be a player most have forgotten. Nat Phillips remained at the club after no suitable offer was made for him prior to the Championship transfer deadline last week. The 23 year old spent last year on loan in the German second division but did make one first team appearance for the Reds in the FA Cup win over Everton. Ordinarily he wouldn’t be considered a viable first team option and it’s telling that the only interested clubs were all in the Championship. These are desperate times though and in terms of stop gap options Phillips looks like he might be the best option if Klopp has to look beyond the trio of Gomez, Matip and Fabinho. You wouldn’t want Phillips playing Champions League games against the likes of Ajax or Atalanta, but he might be a viable option for Premier League games against some of the more direct sides. That in turn would allow Klopp to give the likes of Gomez and Fabinho the occasional rest. It’s not ideal but there is no ideal solution short of playing Matip and Gomez every game, which is almost certainly not going to be possible given the fitness records of both. Losing Van Dijk is a huge blow to Liverpool’s hopes of silverware, but it need not be a fatal one. The team is still packed with star quality all over the park and with one two exceptions the upcoming fixtures are not as difficult as they might have been. Liverpool have eleven league games to negotiate until the January transfer window opens and they can bring in another centre back. If they could pick up 25 points from the 33 available that would be a good return that will likely see the Reds in the mix at the top of the table.

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It’s an hour after the game and I’ve already started the report. Usually I wait at least 24 hours, sometimes longer, but this time I need to get it all down now rather than stew over it. I doubt I’ll feel any differently in a month, let alone a day. The anger will hopefully subside (it better, as right now I’m ready to kill someone) but the sense of injustice won’t. This was one of those games you’ll never forget and the feeling of being robbed never goes away. Funnily enough it was only a few days ago I was thinking back to when Suarez scored a late winner there and it was wrongly ruled out for offside. I’ve never actually got over that, having that moment of euphoria unfairly snatched away. That was bad, but at least the linesman had the excuse of only seeing it at normal speed with the naked eye. This was far worse, and a lot more sinister. Firstly, before I get into all that, I want to make the point that this was a really good performance from the lads to bounce back from what happened at Villa Park. We wanted a response and we got it. The way we started the game I felt as though we were going to absolutely steamroller them. There was an aggression and a desire to play on the front foot, and Everton couldn’t cope. It looked like the lads wanted to make a statement and overall they did. So from that point of view, all good. The anger I’m feeling has nothing to do with anything performance related and I saw a lot of things to make me feel good about the rest of the season, not least how that midfield looked with Thiago and Hendo in tandem. Wow. Our opening goal was beautiful. Slick, sexy football that ended with Robbo skipping past Coleman and pulling it back for Sadio to finish. Prior to the game that’s the area I thought we could really hurt them. That “Hamez” twat has a great left peg but he’s slow as fuck and doesn’t want to chase back. What a horrible little bastard he is. Waving his imaginary cards and constantly being up in the ref’s grid. Fucking over-rated little gel-head turd. Sick of the fawning over him already. He’s being hyped up like he’s some superstar but he’s been a bit part player at every big club he’s been at. If he was that good he wouldn’t have ended up at Everton in his prime years. He’s basically Shaqiri at Stoke, only with more Instagram followers. So that side of the field was always going to be key for us. The opportunity was always going to be there to overload on Coleman and that was happening a lot early doors. It led to the opening goal and should have led to a second when Sadio missed an identical chance after again being set up by Robbo. So yeah, all good to start with. We were already one up and if the officials had done their job we’d have been playing against ten men for most of the game. Pickford somehow getting away with that might be the biggest miscarriage of justice involving a goalkeeper since Harold Schumacher almost killed Patrick Battiston and was only yellow carded. Not even joking. My mind is blown that he was allowed to stay on after that. I don’t know what happened there. I’ve heard Peter Walton say that the offside doesn’t make any difference in that situation and that Pickford should have walked. I’ve also seen a rules nerd on Twitter saying that only applies for ‘violent conduct’ and not ‘serious foul play’. Dermot Gallagher, the baldy Michael Stipe looking bootlicking cunt, obviously defended the decision as that’s what he does. He’s never seen a decision he didn’t agree with. I tell you what I do know. Richarlison was sent off for a lunge on Thiago even though the whistle had actually gone for a free-kick a split second earlier. So how is this any different? Answer; it isn’t. Leaving aside the fact I don’t think it was offside anyway (I’ll get to that shortly), that is serious foul play, endangering an opponent, violent conduct, common assault and a whole lot of other things rolled into one. It’s not up for debate. It’s a clear red card and there is no way on earth Pickford should have been allowed to stay on. So how come he got away with it? Michael Oliver could have given it so he isn’t blameless, but from the replays it looks like he didn’t have an unobstructed view of it and in situations like that he would previously rely on his linesman (who had a great view). Now he has the lino as well as VAR, so if he doesn’t want to give something he didn’t have a great view of then that’s fine. Oliver isn’t the problem here. The technology is in place to help him out and it didn’t. So I’m not holding him responsible in any way as that is only taking the attention away from the cunt who caused all this. And I don’t mean Pickford. Either the VAR ref, David Coote, is incompetent or he’s something far worse. I don’t know, but he’s the same fella who didn’t give the foul on Origi at Old Trafford last season when he was on VAR and he’s the twat that didn’t give a penalty when Robbo was brought down against Burnley. Yeah, remember that one? When Robbo laid into the ref at the end of the game because it cost us our 100% home record? Well Coote was the ref Robbo and Klopp tore a strip off at the end. And now he’s got his revenge. Other than a deliberate show of bias, it’s hard to fathom any possible explanation for why he didn’t tell Oliver to take a look at that challenge. The only reason he was reviewing the offside was because otherwise it would be a penalty. So the initial explanation put forward that “VAR didn’t review the challenge” is bollocks. They must have realised that because they then changed their tune and said it was reviewed and Coote didn’t feel that Oliver needed to look at it. I’d go as far as to say that this should be a sackable offence. Seriously, if you can look at that and not think it’s a red card, you’re in the wrong job. Or if you know it’s red card but ignore it for whatever reason, again, you’re in the wrong job. It was a horrific challenge and it’s no surprise that Virgil’s knee is damaged. When people talk about “career ending tackles” this is the fucking poster child of it. Just look at the impact, the height he comes in at and the force behind it. It really ought to have been even worse only fortunately Virgil’s studs didn’t stick in the turf. I’ve seen similar things happen in NFL games where the player’s knee has completely hyper-extended backwards because his foot had planted in the turf. Thankfully Virgil’s wasn’t as bad as some I’ve seen in other sports, but we now have to wait to see just what kind of damage there is. Because there 100% is some ligament damage there as you can’t absorb contact like that without there being some kind of damage. Virgil is as close to indestructible as you’ll find, but he’s not made of rubber. One thing I will say in defence of Pickford is that he’s not malicious, he’s just shit, impulsive and reckless. He didn’t intend to injure Van Dijk, he was just lunging out trying to make a block. I’ve seen him do that loads of times. Flying out of his goal, completely out of control and endangering opponents. He genuinely isn’t trying to hurt anyone but there’s no doubt that he’s just fucking thick and reckless as fuck. Compare that to Richarlison and it’s chalk and cheese though. Richarlison 100% wanted to do damage and he can stick his phoney insincere twitter apology up his hoop, the fucking animal. If you’ve been reading the round ups you know my hatred of Richarlison is long standing, even going back to his Watford days. Over recent months he’s cemented himself as the player I hate most in the entire world of football. He’s a pure, unadulterated shithouse cunt with the kind of face you’d never tire of smacking. What he did to Thiago was deliberate and fucking cowardly. Pickford though, he wasn’t looking to injure anyone he was just fully committed to making a block and he was totally out of control. It’s standard Pickford though. He’s just reckless and wild in literally everything he does. He’s so amped up all the time, like a kid who’s had too many skittles. I’ve said it before but I’m sure he’s on the spectrum of something. He’s definitely got something going on, and I’m not saying that as a cheap insult, I’m being completely serious. I look at him and immediately think of the kid in school who always has a big green dangly snot rolling out of his nose. The kid whose tongue is always out when he’s writing or drawing. The kid who has to sit at the front of the class because he can’t keep still and is always turning around and talking. That’s Jordan Pickford. I don’t know what condition he has as I’m no expert, but he has something. I’d put money on it. I’m not THAT angry with Pickford though. I am a bit of course, that goes without saying. Virgil is injured as a result of Pickford’s lack of control, but to be honest I’m more pissed off at the cunt in Stockley Park who chose to ignore it. He doesn’t have any excuse for his actions and unlike Pickford you won’t get him apologising for it either. You know the other difference between Pickford and Richarlison? Pickford told Henderson to apologise to Virgil on his behalf. Pretty sure he tried to do it himself while Virg was on the floor getting treatment too. It doesn’t make what he did ok, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m merely highlighting the difference between him and Richarlison. Pickford didn’t make a big public show of apologising because the only thing he wanted to do was get a message to Van Dijk to say he was sorry. Richarlison was the opposite. He didn’t apologise to Thiago on the field when it happened because he was more interested in feigning injury hoping to escape a red card. After he’d been sent off he didn’t go over and apologise then. He just walked off with that horrible face like a smacked arse expression he permanently has. So to then go on Twitter later on and apologise. Nah, fuck off you shady, snide little cunt. I hope Thiago sees straight through that. I’d like to think the Brazilian lads would rethink their friendship with the scumbag too, but no doubt Alisson will have them all “turning the other cheek” and preaching the value of forgiveness. That Van Dijk incident changed the game though. Until that moment we were so much on top and I was genuinely feeling like the lads looked in the mood to make up for two weeks ago by scoring seven of their own. That incident was just a momentum killer because it was a triple whammy. First, it was a penalty. That offside decision was iffy as fuck. I’m aware that the offside rules have changed this season due to tweaking of the attacking handball rule. Whereas last season goals were being disallowed when the ball hit an attacker’s shoulder, this year it’s now been changed to the upper arm, which in turn has affected the offside rule. That’s what Coote used to screw us. The line is drawn not to the armpit as it would have been last year, but now it’s to the bottom of the shoulder / top of the arm area. Even so, that line is not drawn to the right point on Virgil’s arm, and even if it was I still don’t think that’s offside. The problem is when it’s that close the cunt on the VAR can basically do whatever he wants. I’ve said all along that it should be based on feet and nothing else. If your foot is offside then you’re offside. All of this shit about shoulders and chests and heads, it’s needlessly complicating things and killing people’s enjoyment of the sport. So not only were we denied a penalty and not only did we lose Virgil to injury, but we conceded virtually straight away. And it’s a goal that doesn’t happen if he’s on the pitch. When was the last time we conceded like that? It just hardly ever happens. Even after that one we were back on track and defended set-pieces well. But the first one without him, after the reshuffle, we weren’t organised and it cost us. Adrian though. That was fucking terrible. The marking in the box was the first problem, but even so that’s an easy save. Initially I didn’t think it was but after seeing the replay it’s just awful goalkeeping. His footwork gives him no chance of being able to react as he’s moving backwards and crouching down. I’m not scapegoating him, I’m just saying what I saw. If he’s stood normally he saves it easily, but he’s hunched down and off balance and therefore can’t react. They didn’t deserve to be level at the break as we’d been much the better side. I liked how we were playing, even after Virg went off. We were back to looking like Liverpool again. The hunger, the pressing, the sharp movement in attacking areas. At half time I felt good about our chances. Play like that again in the second half and we’ll defo win. Unfortunately we didn’t play like that again. The second half started quite scrappily and we were losing too many second balls. The control we had in the first half had gone and although we were still the team playing the better football, we’d lost something from the first half showing. We eventually got it back but the first 20 minutes or so of the second half wasn’t great. Other than that, top performance I thought. We could easily have conceded in that scrappy spell though as Richarlison headed a Rodriguez cross against the post. I thought Adrian should have come out and dealt with the cross but to be fair I think he would have saved the header with his foot if the post hadn’t gotten in the way. We went 2-1 up with a sharp finish from Mo after the ball fell to him in the box. He’d been a bit in and out all game and had produced two awfully weak shots in good situations, but this was Fowler-esque, controlling a half volley into the corner. This was the point when we should have buried them (Matip went really close with a header and we had other moments) but instead we allowed them to draw level again. Generally we controlled them well and restricted the service to Calvert-Lewin but this time we gave the ball away cheaply (Sadio with a stupid back heel) and got caught. Hendo couldn’t quite cut out the pass and Trent allowed Digne to run off him and deliver a cross for Calvert-Lewin to head home. Terrible from Trent that, I don’t actually know what he was even thinking. It almost looked like he was holding a line to play offside except he was about 10 yards further forward. He needs to track that run and prevent the cross, because once the cross came in it was game over. Robbo might have done better in putting Calvert-Lewin off but he was always going to be in trouble there. The striker hung in the air and headed it back where it came from. Not much you can do about that, the big problem is allowing the cross in the first place. Not to mention giving it away so needlessly to begin with. We reacted well to that and Pickford denied Sadio after he snuck in behind. The rebound fell to Jota (on for Bobby) and his sent it back goal wards. It was going straight at Pickford so Mané correctly decided to try and divert it in with his head, but he put too much on it and it went wide. Then we had the Richarlison assault on Thiago that reduced them to ten men. To be honest I’m surprised it took that long, as both Gomes and Allan had been flirting with red cards all day. That Gomes is proper shite. I’ve been saying it for ages but he’s somehow fooled people into thinking he’s good just because he looks like he should be good. Being handsome and having Barcelona on your CV is enough to fool a lot of people it seems, but not me. I’m onto him. He’s fucking SHITE him. And he’s a snide. Allan is another twat but I will concede that he’s a good player. I couldn’t stand him when he faced us with Napoli as I always remember he seemed to be in the thick of everything, constantly fouling, squaring up to people and getting in the refs face. When the Blues signed him I thought “yep, he’ll fit right in there” and he has. He looks, and plays, like he’s an enforcer for a Brazilian prison gang. With us on top and them a man down, it was just about whether we could find a winner in the short time we had left. And we did. It may not have counted, but make no mistake we won that game. Thiago’s brilliant no look reverse pass found Mané and he cut it back for Hendo to send a shot goal wards. It should have been saved but Pickford made a Pickford out of it and the ball ended up in the net. Everyone went wild. Klopp, his staff, the players, all of us watching at home. There’s nothing like a late derby winner and this was about to be added to the long list of recent ones. And then came the VAR check. You could see on the screen that he was fucking about with the lines, trying to make it look offside. Immediately I knew we were fucked. When the decision came through I lost it. I generally keep a cool head when I’m watching the match at home but this time I lost the plot, punching fuck out of the sofa, shouting and screaming, before I knew I needed to get out of there and headed for the back garden. On my way I booted the sofa in the conservatory and almost broke my foot. It’s hurting today but it would have been worse if I hadn’t realised at the last second that I was going to do myself an injury and managed to take a little something off it. I honestly don’t remember ever being angrier about a football match. I’ve now had 24 hours or so since it ended and I haven’t really calmed down much. I’m not wanting to smash up furniture as I was when it first happened, but I’m in an absolute stinking mood and feel like I could just snap at the slightest little thing. It’s not about the result, it’s purely about the injustice of it and the feeling of being cheated. We conceded seven at Villa and I felt nothing like this. I got over that fairly quickly. This though? It’s going to sting for a long time. I’ve been against VAR from day one because it sucks the emotion out of watching the game. You don’t want to celebrate goals in case they’re ruled out. There have been plenty of times I haven’t celebrated because I didn’t want to jump the gun. Sometimes it was justified because the goal didn’t count, but other times the goal stood and I realised I hadn’t even celebrated it. How shit is that? I celebrated this one, big time. And for what? For some little jobsworth traffic warden cunt to suck the life out of us all by disallowing it. What I resent about this is that it’s only offside if you want to make it offside, and even then it’s not actually offside. This is actually very simple. Had the goal stood there wouldn’t have been anybody other than the most rabid Evertonian saying it was offside. No pundits, no journalists, no fans without any stake in the outcome, no ex referees working for TV. Nobody. Absolutely nobody. So Coote was not in a situation where he knew “I have to disallow this”. He simply chose to disallow it because that’s what he wanted to do. He manipulated the evidence in front of him to justify a decision he wanted to make. The same applies to the Pickford incident, only that one is easier to put down to simple incompetence. The Hendo goal isn’t incompetence, it’s just dodgy as fuck. Liverpool have asked for clarification on what part of Sadio was deemed to be offside. They won’t get clarification because you can see on the freeze-frame there is no part of him offside at the moment Thiago plays the pass. They’ll get a fudged answer about the technology showing his shoulder is ahead of Mina’s foot and Keane’s arse and blah blah blah but it’s nonsense. The footage used with the red and blue lines is bullshit. There’s daylight between Sadio’s shoulder and the blue part of the line, but you could actually drive a bus through the gap between his shoulder and the red line. The reason for the gap is because a vertical line then has to be drawn from the shoulder to the floor, which then gives you the red and blue lines he used to justify it being offside. I’m not having it at all though. He’s messed about with those lines and the point of contact when Thiago plays the ball to come to the decision he wanted to make. It fucking stinks. This is ruining the game and turning people away from it. If it wasn’t my livelihood I feel like there’s a good chance I’d fuck the whole thing off because it seems as though every year there’s something else comes in to make the game a little bit less enjoyable. It’s not even sour grapes relating to things that don’t go our way. I mean fucking hell, I was even angry the other week when a Manchester United player was unjustly sent off. Imagine that! Even thinking about that now makes me even more livid. I mean come on, Martial was sent off for barely touching Lamela (who had provoked the whole thing by being a cunt and then made it worse by rolling around the floor) yet Pickford is allowed to endanger the career of an opponent and escapes scot free. What is the fucking point of having video evidence if it’s actually making worse decisions than the ref on the field would? These faceless cunts in suits are ruining the game with their stupid fucking messing about with the rules. You could probably argue that the actions of Coote in this game are enough for us to actually demand the game be replayed. Obviously that’s not a road you want to go down as we’ll never get any kind of refereeing decision ever again if we embarrassed them in that manner, but this is just cheating, pure and simple. The worst part is how the technology will be used as a crutch to hide behind. It’s not the technology that is at fault, it’s the absolute cunts occasionally implementing it. It isn’t all VAR officials, some of them are doing a good job. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve dropped the “C” bomb in this report but it isn’t even a strong enough word to do justice to some of the horrible fuckers I’m talking about. So what now? We’re waiting on news on Virgil but let’s face it, it’s not going to be good. It’s simply a case of how bad is it going to be. Best case scenario would probably be 4-6 weeks and I don’t even want to think about the worst case. So now we have to make do without him for an undetermined length of time. A lot of people will write us off now, especially all the smug fuckers who’ve been saying “let’s see how they’d do if they were without Van Dijk” but never ask the same question of what happens if any other side loses their most important player. Well we are going to be without him now so it’s up to the others to prove all the naysayers wrong. Whether that’s Matip and Gomez as a pair (for as long as either of them can stay fit) or whether Fabinho comes into the mix, it doesn’t matter. The team should still be good enough to get by unless we get more injuries. Of course we’ll miss Virg for however long he’s out, but we still have the rest of the team intact (or will have when Alisson comes back anyway) and Thiago is going to help us reach another level anyway as he’s sensational. Assuming he to hasn’t been crocked by some dirty blueshite. The mad thing about this is we can’t even say it was the derby atmosphere and the influence of 35,000 frothing at the mouth rabid blues screaming them on. They acted like this without any fans in the ground. Cunts. Star man is Hendo, who was fucking incredible. What a performance, and never would there have been a more fitting match winner than him. It’s a scandal that he was robbed off it by a cunt who if he was in any other line of work (other than politician) would be picking up his P45 on Monday morning for such a gross failing of duty. Klopp’s message to the players this week should be this: Fuck Everton. Fuck David Coote. Fuck everyone who isn’t us. Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk (Gomez), Robertson; Fabinho (Wijnaldum), Henderson, Thiago; Salah, Firmino (Jota), Mané:

Saturday sees Liverpool and Everton clash for the 203rd time in domestic league action. This fierce rivalry that divides a city has had many fascinating storylines over the years and this weekend shapes as another intriguing chapter. Much of that has to do with the fact that Everton have started the new campaign in fine form, winning their first four games and scoring plenty of goals in the process. Now led by Carlo Ancelotti who is one of the most astute managers in all of Europe, belief is rapidly rising amongst the Goodison faithful that he can lead them to something special. The major hurdle that stands in their way is the reigning Premier League champions and this week marks the 10 year anniversary since they last claimed three points in this fixture. While that is a daunting record to overcome, Andy Costigan from the @grandoldteam website explains why this Everton team is cut from a different cloth in comparison to those who have tried and failed in the past. It appeared for a time that Everton were a club without an identity switching between managers and philosophies every 18 months or so. Good managers take their time to assess what needs to be done before developing an action plan. So what do you believe Carlo Ancelotti has been able to alter the most? Without question, the mindset within the first team squad and elsewhere too. The sceptics thought that the Italian had joined Everton simply for the payday, rumoured to be in the region of £9 million a year, but he simply doesn't come across as someone looking for a easy ride and bumper pay out when the wheels come off. He's a vastly experienced manager and with a fantastic pedigree of improving and developing players to suit the tactics he devises. He took his time to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the squad he inherited from Marco Silva, and wisely, didn't go gung-ho in the first transfer window available to him. His most telling comments came at the end of last season when he suggested to the players that they should go away and come back to training with a different outlook and desire... and to be fair to the players, they did and have done. Sure, he's signed some top quality players to boost the squad, but the difference in the mindset of all the players still here from last season is noticeable, they look like they want to be Everton players, look like they want to perform to their best and look like they want to be huge parts of the Ancelotti evolution of the new Everton. When a new manager arrives at a club he regularly identifies a ‘project player’ he believes he can take to the next level. That player for your club seems to be Dominic Calvert-Lewin. What have you noticed that has changed in the striker’s game since Ancelotti’s arrival? DCL has patently been listening very hard to both Carlo Ancelotti on his positional play and Duncan Ferguson on how to play with more physicality, to be stronger on the ball. The real marked difference in his play is he's playing between the posts much more rather than drifting wider, and his first touch is improving with every game he plays. DCL has all the attributes associated with traditional English centre forwards in that he's tall, is good in the air and not afraid to mix it with opposition centrebacks. But it's his positional play and first touch that has come on leaps and bounds since last season, and his mindset is probably the most improved since the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti. On the other hand, the form of Jordan Pickford is regularly up for debate despite being first choice for the national side. What do you think he needs to work on to silence the doubters once and for all? Pickford needs to improve some of his decision-making but his concentration most of all. When he was with Sunderland he was continually involved in the game and as such his concentration level needed to be high at all times, and it was. His form for Sunderland earned him his England call-up and the big money move to Goodison. His first year as a Blue he was kept pretty busy as well and his good form continued. Then the side struggled under Silva and so too did Pickford - he lost concentration and it showed in his game. He allowed outside influences to get to him, most notably in a game at St.James's Park where the Geordie crowd barracked him mercilessly and he reacted. As Ancelotti has looked to strengthen the Blues defence, Pickford is now not quite as involved in the action as he might like to be and it appears when he's not busy, his concentration levels drop and that's when errors creep into his game. He needs to work on that most of all All the great goalies have played behind solid defences that offer the kind of protection the Everton defence is now beginning to afford Pickford... he needs to reward their work by being the last line of defence they have faith in and can rely on. While Calvert-Lewin and James Rodriguez have taken the main plaudits for your unbeaten start, is there an underrated player or two that you feel deserves their share of praise? Three immediately spring to mind... Allan, Doucoure and Richarlison. Allan has given us a genuine ball winner in the midfield, something we've lacked since Gana Gueye left for PSG except Allan is better. Doucoure has brought a real 90-minute engine to the midfield, he covers so much ground and yet appears to do it effortlessly. And I include Richarlison for his all-round contribution. He's a real threat and someone opposition players target but, he's growing up fast. He's cut out the theatrical reactions to being fouled and his willingness and ability to get back and help out defensively demonstrates a real team ethic within him. If I look back to the Everton of the mid-eighties, Allan, Doucoure and Richarlison are our latter day Peter Reid, Paul Bracewell and Trevor Steven. In terms of the league, what do you think is an obtainable goal for Everton this season? Don't laugh... to be Champions. For years, we got tired of hearing David Moyes say the first target was 40 points to guarantee Premier League status, we've had flirtations with Europe that the fans enjoyed and supported massively but, the way to make us regulars in Europe is to win something and as you've asked about the goal in terms of the league, then it has to be to win it. Toffee fans have been naturally desperate for that elusive victory over the old enemy, but that expectation has become a heavy burden to carry especially at Goodison. So do you think playing in front no fans on this occasion could actually be a benefit by giving the players a sense of freedom? That's an interesting question, as I think there are a number of teams who appear to be better without having their home crowds on their back when things don't go well right from the start. Look at the difference with Aston Villa and West Ham for instance. Whether our players feel a sense of freedom with us not being inside Goodison, I'm honestly not sure... I'd like to think that with the start they've made, that they actually cannot wait to have us back there supporting them. While giving glowing praise to a bitter rival is difficult to do, what makes this Liverpool team such a stern challenge to overcome in your view? We're under no illusion that this Liverpool team is a very strong side, well organised and disciplined in the manner that Jurgen Klopp wants them to play. The pace that the Liverpool side has is impressive and in Mane and Salah, two clinical finishers. The high press that Klopp employs appears ideally suited to your team but, I wonder sometimes if he hasn't put all his eggs into one basket... the nature of that defeat at Villa suggests his Plan B isn't up to scratch. Do you feel Ancelotti will stick to what has served you so well this season in terms of his setup for this fixture? We've played four league games and we've been slightly different in each game. We dominated a disappointing Spurs, we overcame setbacks to comfortably overrun West Brom, we battled toe-to-toe to beat Palace and we beat Brighton playing counter attacking football. To me this demonstrates that Carlo Ancelotti genuinely knows more about his players and their attributes and capabilities to adapt to different game scenarios than any of us can imagine. I'm confident that however he sets Everton up to face Liverpool on Saturday, he will get 100% from every player in the game and if no, when he does, the reward will be three more points. What is your prediction for this big clash? I think we can all safely say that this 'derby' will not be a boring scoreless draw, the two teams have goals a-plenty within them. I want a clean sheet for Jordan Pickford and if he gets that, then Everton win because I think our attacking options will create scoring opportunities that Liverpool will struggle to contain. As for a score line, I'd like 3-0 but, I'll settle for 2-0.

It promises to be one of the most fascinating Merseyside Derby games in years this weekend, as top of the table Everton take on the wounded Champions who are seeking to get a humiliating 7-2 drubbing at Aston Villa out of their system. On paper it looks like being the toughest Derby to predict in a long time as for once Everton will go into the game fancying their chances of pulling off an upset. Usually the Blues go into these games with a huge inferiority complex but confidence is as high at Goodison now as it has been at any time since the late eighties. Everton are flying and have won four from four while scoring goals for fun. Liverpool were flying too, until they crashed spectacularly at Villa Park. Up until then, Jurgen Klopp’s men were seen as the runaway favourites to retain their title but conceding seven to Aston Villa has given the rest of the league some encouragement that maybe Liverpool aren’t going to run away with it as easily as they did last year. A quick look at the odds on www.888sport.com shows that while Klopp’s side are fairly strong favourites, it’s certainly closer to call than it has been for some time. Ordinarily you’d just expect Liverpool to bounce back from such an awful loss, but this is one of the worst fixtures they could have as this is a fixture in which Liverpool have rarely performed well since Klopp took charge. Whereas Anfield Derby games have seen the Reds turn on the style and score goals for fun, the return fixture at Goodison has always been a slog, with the last three ending goalless. Under Klopp Liverpool have not been impressive at Goodison and even the one game they won needed a late, dramatic (and hilarious) winner from Sadio Mané. Often Everton will just sit in and play for a draw but with Carlo Ancelotti’s men having made such a good start to the campaign and are currently sitting above the Reds in the table, perhaps they’ll be more tempted to take the game to Liverpool this time? Don’t bet on it though. Ancelotti has had a good deal of success against Klopp in recent seasons, mainly when he was in charge at Napoli, but he also nullified the Reds in the first game following lockdown when Everton probably should have won a dour affair that ended goalless. The Blues have a 100% record going into this fixture and have been playing an expressive 4-3-3 system with James Rodriguez excelling on the right of a front three with licence to roam around. It seems unlikely that Ancelotti will retain that set up against the Reds though. Rodriguez isn’t one for doing much tracking back and helping out his full back, while Liverpool are especially strong down that side of the pitch with Andy Robertson flying forward to support Sadio Mané. So expect Everton to revert to some variation of the 4-4-2 Ancelotti has used to good effect in stifling Liverpool over recent seasons. What will be particularly interesting is how Klopp chooses to react to the loss at Villa. There is a strong case to be made for several regular starters to be dropped, but the German’s plans may be influenced more by external factors rather than just individual form. The Reds have been more badly hit by Covid than most and Klopp’s plans for the derby will no doubt be impacted in some way. While he should be able to welcome back Sadio Mané and Thiago Alcantara after they were forced to self isolated following testing positive, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have now been forced into isolation after positive tests. ‘Ox’ wouldn’t have been in consideration for Saturday anyway as he is still sidelined with a knee problem, but Keita had started all four of the Reds Premier League fixtures so far this season. The likelihood is he would have made way for Thiago or Jordan Henderson this weekend anyway, however. Another player who initially appeared to have been ruled out of the derby is Xherdan Shaqiri, who tested positive upon reporting for international duty with Switzerland. It then turned out to be a false positive and “Big Shaq” should be available this weekend. With Alisson still ruled out the much maligned Adrian will have to continue in goal as Klopp has little choice but to persist with the Spaniard. Other out of form players may find themselves under pressure though, specifically Joe Gomez and Roberto Firmino. With Henderson and Thiago returning to the fold that might see Fabinho move into defence alongside Virgil Van Dijk, while Diogo Jota and Takumi Minamino are both pushing hard for goal shy Firmino’s spot. Klopp certainly has plenty to think about ahead of this game, but hopefully Everton being in such bullish mood will be beneficial to the Reds.