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The FA Cup fourth round takes place this weekend and the Reds make the journey to New Meadow to play League One side Shrewsbury Town. The Shrews also made this round in 2019 taking Wolves to a replay after previously knocking out Stoke. This season they have defeated Bristol City and will be certainly up for the challenge in taking on the best team in Europe. @B_and_A_Fanzine creator and Podcast host of @salopcast Glyn Price talks us through the recent history of the club, which players to keep an eye on and his recollections of being at Anfield for some memorable moments. Can you talk a bit about Shrewsbury Town and the ups and downs you have been through as a club over the years? The last ten years or so have been one of an upward trajectory for Shrewsbury Town. Having been relegated to the conference we escaped after one season, then established ourselves as a league club. We progressively got better in League Two, as well as building a new stadium, incurring no debt and finally achieving promotion to League One. After a yo-yo period, we have now settled in League one and starting to consider ourselves better than constant relegation battles. Paul Hurst took us ninety minutes away from the Championship, but that last hurdle alludes us. It has been well documented how tough it is for clubs in the lower leagues to make ends meet in the current Football environment. So can you explain what this tie means for a club like Shrewsbury? Like most clubs, the TV money is the big one for us, and it’s one of a few televised games we have had in the last few years, which is more than welcome. But one thing we pride ourselves particularly in this climate is that we are one of a handful of clubs doing things the right way and not gambling with our future. We are debt free with money in the bank and a decent turn over and great grasp of wage controls as well as a stadium we entirely own. We work smart and there is little worry whether will have a club to support in 10 years. It’s not the most exciting, but as clubs have gone boom and bust in lower leagues; we have slowly edged ourselves up. So games like this are an added bonus to secure our strategy. We won’t waste it; it will be reinvested in infrastructure and the right players who will have a sell-on fee. Supporters are so often the lifeblood of clubs like yours, so how excited are they and can the Reds expect a hostile reception? It’s a great reward for us as club and fans for digging through from round one and of course fans are looking forward to playing Liverpool. More so I guess due how good Liverpool (and your reserves) are at the moment. It will be a sell out and due to how we have sold tickets it will be pretty much all STFC fans in the home end. Last year against Wolves the tickets were sold differently and loads of Wolves fans got in and no one enjoyed that! In terms of the reception, it will be loud and passionate for our team. When we get these games the club pulls together and both our singing areas get in tune. It likely won’t phase any experienced pros though. You have a very young manager in charge in former Bolton Wanderers and Hull City full-back Sam Ricketts. Have you been pleased with his tenure so far and what is his customary style of play? Tough one. In the league the form since he took over has been pretty average. We don't score many as we play a very defensive formation. But we are very hard to break down and that’s something to be proud of with three experimental centre backs. But he does deserve credit for his FA cup management. Last year he brought us back from 2-0 down at half time against Stoke to win 3-2. Then he came very close to masterminding a win over Wolves. We were 2-0 up with not long to play before Wolves brought on 40 million pounds worth of players to rescue a draw. Even the replay was a good battle. No reason why the same can’t happen this week! In general though, the fans are content with Ricketts this season as long as he keeps us well clear of relegation trouble. Who are some of the players that Liverpool fans should keep an eye on during this fixture? Arron Pierre is a Centre back we signed in the summer, who’s running away as our player of the season and capped it all with the winner late in the game in the last round. He’s all action. Piles forward and is as solid as a rock at the back. We also have a striker called Jason Cummings who if we are to do anything, he could be the one to find a bit of magic. Natural finisher, tricky and mad as a box of frogs to be honest. If we play him up front with the equally impressive (former Liverpool junior) Callum Lang then we might have some joy! Do you keep half a eye on the Premier League and if so, what do make of the work of Jürgen Klopp and the progress of Liverpool under his tenure? Yes and a bloody brilliant job he is doing. As a kid I grew up with football in the blood. My Dad took me to all the Shrewsbury games, but as Liverpool was my Prem team growing up he regularly took me to Anfield as a kid. Was at both Newcastle 4-3 games (where as a young lad my dad tells me it was the first time he heard me swear when Collymore scored) saw loads of UEFA cup games and the Cup Winners Cup semi final against PSG. So growing up in the Man United dominated era, which along with Salop being rubbish at times kind of ruined being at school. I’m more than happy to see Liverpool back on their perch. Klopp seems like a rare breed, a manager who is perfect for the club. Is there one particular Reds player that you admire the most? They are all pretty good, but I have a very big soft spot for Firmino. Absolutely love the way he plays, skill, determination and fun. A joy to watch when he’s at his absolute best. Big fan of the Andy Robertson story too, particularly his shithousing. They are all great to watch at the moment though, I think it’s an era for Liverpool fans that will be up there with their very best when it is all said and done. And for a club with the history of Liverpool, that’s saying something. The majority of football loving fans across the nation will be cheering on The Shrews on Sunday. What are your realistic hopes regarding how the game will play out? Depends on just who turns up but it’s going to be very tough. We won’t come out and attack other than the occasional structured counter attacks, so the game will come down to how long (or if) Liverpool can score. A replay would be absolute magic. It’s a long shot but we have to dream of that and more. Would love to score at least one, and that player will go down in folklore for us likely. Probably it will be 3-1 or 3-0 as we are hard to break down, but if you don’t score into the second half, that spark of the dream draw will fire our fans up massively!!! Either way, I can not wait.

Another step closer and another game that has probably taken a month or two off the end of my life. The stress of these games is draining. The funny thing is, it should be a time for relaxing and enjoyment. We’re 16 points ahead with a game in hand. The title is done, has been for weeks, yet I’m still watching these games with both arse cheeks tightly clenched. Why? It’s not because of the title, it’s because I don’t want us to drop any points. A defeat would feel terrible, even though in the grand scheme of things it means virtually nothing. It’s a peculiar sense of entitlement we’re feeling at the moment. Usually, even the very best teams will lose a few games on their way to the prize but if these lads were to lose a game it would really upset me. I want us to go unbeaten. I want these boys to break the points record. I want them to win every home game and go 100% at Anfield. I want my cake and I want an extra helping of it, with double chocolate icing and yeah of course I want to eat it too (never understood that saying, it makes no sense). I want to gorge on that cake. And when it looks like I might have to share it, I don’t like it. So bollocks to defeats, and even draws can fuck right off. Its that simple really. Every game we play in now has great meaning and it wouldn’t make any difference if we were forty points clear with only ten games remaining. It’s not the fear of being caught, it’s the desperation to win every game that is making these games almost unbearable at times. What this game showed me is that the players feel exactly the same way. They won’t say it. They’ll talk about focusing on the next game and not thinking of anything else. I’m sure they are doing that, but I’m just as sure that no matter how far ahead they are they badly want to win every game regardless. You could see it in this one. When this game was threatening to get away from us after Wolves equalised and were piling on the pressure, it would have been easy for the players to buckle. After all, they’ve got such a huge cushion that a draw or even a defeat wouldn’t really cost them. It had all the ingredients of the end of the streak. We were not playing well, we’d lost Sadio, we were changing formation seemingly every ten minutes or so and we were up against an opponent who were hellbent on turning us over. It was all set up for us to drop points and to perhaps even lose. All good runs have to end sometime and I said last week this was the toughest game we had left. There would have been no shame in drawing - or even losing - at Wolves but this squad don’t think that way. They’ve forgotten how to lose. Shit, I think they’ve forgotten how to draw too. We shouldn’t have won this really. Against any other side, Wolves would have won this game because they were like men possessed. They’ve beaten City twice this season but I bet they didn’t play this well in either game. They put everything into it and gave us all we could handle. Yet somehow, some way, once again we came out of it unscathed. It’s not that we deserved to lose the game, but it was nip and tuck and could have gone either way. The second half we were hanging on at times, but we rode the storm and came through it to get the winning goal. Another test passed with flying colours. I thought everything was going great until we lost Mané. We were on top, we had the lead and it was only a matter of time before we scored again. Wolves did have a couple of good chances from set-pieces and I always felt they had a goal in them, but I expected us to score two or three at least prior to Sadio going off. I was surprised to see Minamino get the nod over Origi. All things being equal it would make sense, but we’ve seen time and again that it’s not easy for new signings to come straight in and adapt to how we play. Origi knows the system, he knows what’s required, he knows the speed and intensity of the Premier League and he knows the opponent, having played against them a few times. None of that applies to Minamino, and it showed. Klopp joked afterwards that it was such a shock to the system that Minamino’s calves were hurting even at half time. It was one hell of a tough game to be thrown into, and Origi would have been a far safer choice. In fact, so would Curtis Jones. I understand the desire to get Minamino involved as quickly as possible and I’m all for getting him minutes where possible. Next time though, in a situation like this, I’d prefer to see the tried and trusted until Takumi is a little more bedded in. To me that substitution changed the entire flow of the game. Prior to that we looked good. Hendo has given us the lead when he head and shouldered in a corner from Trent and we had other chances too. Mo was in one of those wasteful and greedy moods, but I still felt as though it was only a matter of time before he got one. Losing Mané really hindered us though. At times it felt like we were playing with ten men as Minamino made no impact at all. Not only that, but I believe the change in formation was a direct result of Klopp trying to make the new boy more comfortable. He wasn’t coping in the 4-3-3 so we switched to 4-2-3-1 (or 4-4-1-1, difficult to tell) and then 4-5-1. Minamino started on the left but ended up playing on the opposite side and he couldn’t get into the game in either role. He wasn’t the only problem though in fairness to him. For example, Ox had a stinker. I barely remember him doing a thing right and Hendo was on his case a lot, especially in the second half. Gino was below par too, while this was by far and away Robbo’s worst ever game for us. I think he was traumatised by having to deal with Traore. He never looked comfortable all night. Traore is fucking terrifying. The only player I can remember who scared me this much when he had the ball is Messi. I'm not comparing the two as players, obviously, but in terms of the fear factor when they have the ball, I can't think of anyone who struck that kind of panic in me for a long time. Eden Hazard maybe, but the difference there is you can stop Hazard. It's hard, but you can do it if you defend well. Traore's speed and power are game changers. You can defend perfectly but that's not enough to stop speed. I keep seeing people saying he’s not all that but I can only assume they haven’t been watching him much this season. Until fairly recently, he was just an erratic speed merchant who who didn’t have to worry about too much as he was relatively easy to contain. We've contained him with relative ease previously. Now? He’s a fucking nightmare. I’ve watched him closely and the transformation in him has been incredible. At the start of this season he was miles better than he was last season, and right now he’s miles better than he was at the start of the season. He’s getting better every week. He used to play with his head down but that’s all changed. He’s aware of where team-mates are and his decision making has improved tenfold. I don’t think I’ve heard Klopp ever speak so glowingly about an opposing player, both before and after the game. He described him as ‘unplayable’ and he is. We just couldn’t stop him. I was shitting myself every time he got the ball. When he gets it and starts running you’re not going to be able to stop him. If he wants to get down the line and cross it, then that’s what he’s doing and there’s fuck all you can do to prevent it. You just have to then prepare to deal with the cross. We didn't do that particularly well really, which is not like us. Robbo looked a bit shell shocked and it showed when we had the ball. He was uncharacteristically sloppy in possession and wasn’t the factor he usually is. Can’t really blame him. Every time he crossed the halfway line he was probably shitting himself about what would happen if we lost it. And that was the problem. We kept losing the ball too easily. Traore wasn’t much of a factor in the first half because we controlled the game and kept the ball quite well. When things got ragged after the break, suddenly Traore came into the game. Sometimes the only real way to stop a player is to cut off the supply line. We’ve done this brilliantly with Vardy for example, and in the first half we did it with Traore. As soon as we lost control of the game and began giving the ball away though, they were able to find him on the right before we got ourselves set and he caused havoc. He set up the goal for Jimenez with a brilliant cross. He created two or three more moments of real danger with quality crosses. He brought a great save out of Alisson and he slipped Jimenez through on goal with a great little through ball. Thankfully Alisson stood strong and saved with his beautiful face. But Traore caused fucking mayhem, and it’s baffling me to see so many Reds downplaying it as though he’s just fast and nothing else. Lads, 2018 called, it wants it’s Hot Take on Traore back. He’s actually the real deal. It’s not as though it was one way traffic though. Even when Wolves had their best spell we were still trading blows with them. It’s just that we aren’t used to seeing this. Usually we’re in control, and clearly we weren’t. Not until Fabinho came on anyway, and things settled down a bit. It was still a bit fraught even after Fabinho’s introduction but he made a big difference. Great to have him back, especially for situations such as this when you need that calm, controlling presence. Hendo has been doing that job superbly, but the problem he had in this game was the rest of the midfield didn't match his level. When Fabinho came on to help, between the two of them they largely stemmed the flow. Some of the officiating annoyed the shit out of me though. Michael Oliver is the best ref in the league but for some reason he wanted to let the home crowd referee this game. There were at least half a dozen daft decisions he made because their fans were baying for it. There were two fouls against Gomez that were an absolute fucking joke, especially the one late on when the Wolves player held him and then fell down. We were almost undone by the linesman too. One of many problems I have with VAR and it’s use in offside decisions is that it’s understandably made the linos err on the side of caution more often. They don’t put the flag up because they know if it’s an offside and leads to a goal, VAR will deal with it. Where that falls down is in incidents like the one when Robbo was yellow carded. I’m fairly sure Traore was offside, although it was close. The linesman didn’t flag, either because he wasn’t sure or because he just wanted to let VAR deal with it. So what happens then is Traore runs towards the box and is fouled by Robbo. VAR can’t review that for offside so the yellow card stands and Robbo has to play the rest of the game on a tightrope. To top it off, Wolves then get a free-kick in a dangerous position. What if they’d scored from the free-kick? Or Robbo then picked up a second yellow? The way he played was definitely impacted by it because he couldn’t foul Traore again even on the off chance he managed to get near enough to do it. It’s not an ideal situation but I don’t know what the solution is. But anyway, enough of the officiating as overall it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I’ve come to expect. Everyone can have an off night, and Oliver's performance was probably on a par with Oxlade-Chamberlain. Doesn't make him bad at his job. The game looked to be headed towards an entertaining draw that would have been a fair result for both teams, but then up popped Bobby to win it. He’d minutes earlier been denied by the keeper but he didn’t let it impact his confidence and the way he took that goal was glorious. Fantastic finish. It was a well worked goal too. From a throw in. To think there were people *cough* Andy Gray *cough* who mocked Klopp for hiring the throw in coach. It’s the little details that make all the difference. We score more from set-pieces than anyone now because Klopp identified that as one of the areas we could gain an edge and close the gap on City. Such attention to detail is one of the many things that separate Jurgen from the rest. When Bobby’s goal went in I was confident that was the winner, but Wolves had a great chance after that and should have equalised. Traore’s cross to the back post was knocked back by Jimenez and Jota completely fluffed the opportunity. Lucky? Maybe. But it’s like I’ve been saying lately, this is happening a lot. Perhaps too much for it to be a co-incidence. For whatever reason, teams are missing glaring chances against us and that might not carry on forever. If and when they do it won’t be enough to stop us winning titles if we maintain this level, but it will ensure we don’t ever see the likes of this winning run again. Can we keep it going for the rest of the season? Probably not. We’re surely going to drop points at some stage between now and May, but you never know. Nobody would have thought what we’ve done so far was possible, but here we are. Looking at the games we have coming up it's difficult to see us dropping any points before we travel to City, which might be the day we clinch the title. Imagine that. Fucking hell. Star man is Hendo who was sensational again. A goal, an assist and an all round fucking barnstorming performance from the skipper. I said a few weeks ago that my Dad reckons he should be player of the year. Since then, there’s been a little bit of momentum building towards that with a few in the media championing his cause. Whether or not it happens remains to be seen, but if it did you’d struggle to find a more deserving person to ever get that honour. Gomez was great too, as was Alisson. Also credit to Bobby for coming up huge when we needed him to. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Fabinho), Wijnaldum; Salah (Origi), Firmino, Mané (Minamino):

Loads to get through as there’s the weekend game plus a full midweek schedule to cover. Ideally I’d like to just skim through everything else and spend the whole article discussing Everton shitting the bed against Newcastle, but I’m a pro so I’ll resist the temptation and stick to the usual format. So, where to start then? May as well kick things off with the second funniest thing to happen this week. The Etihad. City against Palace. Pep vs Roy. Roy actually coming out of it winning on points. Again. It’s mad how much trouble his Palace team have given City over the last few years. Other than us, they’ve probably done better against City than anyone. Maybe that’s why Roy was so offended when he was asked what he can learn from Guardiola. “How to lose” was his somewhat bizarre, hilarious and completely unwarranted response. I have no idea if he meant to say that or if he was trying to make a different point, but it was fucking funny nonetheless. Only David Moyes has a bigger distance between opinion of ones own abiltity versus actual ability. I’ve been saying it all year. Palace are a bottom six team at best but somehow they keep getting results they shouldn’t and more often than not they look dreadful in doing so. Add this one to the list. Having taken the lead completely against the run of play (through Cenk Tosun no less! Bet that went down brilliantly across the park) they held out for a long time. They even survived the award of a penalty which was then correctly overturned by (Li)VAR(pool). Just as it was beginning to look like they might pull off another shock win, Aguero popped up twice in the final eight minutes. That looked to be that. Except it wasn’t. Deep in stoppage time Zaha escaped down the left, drilled in a low cross and there was Fernandinho to blast it past his own keeper. Too fucking funny. Speaking of funny, that stoppage time winner from Newcastle at home to Chelsea was comedy gold. Not just because Chelsea lost with the last kick of the game. Obviously that’s enough to make anyone smile, but it was what followed that was so hilarious. Hayden scored (look at that Kepa loser trying to keep it out though) and ran to the corner to celebrate. Matt Ritchie followed and - as he’s known to do - booted the corner flag. Except this time the corner flag took off and torpedoed into the crowd, where it hit some baldy arl fella in the bollocks and prevented him from celebrating. It’s a sign of me getting old that my take on this is that while it’s side splittingly funny because it hit him in the nuts - and people getting hit in the nuts is the funniest thing in the world along with farting - I couldn’t help thinking what if it had hit him in the eye? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but “pack that in, Ricthie. You could take someone’s eye out with that”. Yep, I’m now officially old. Newcastle’s players are dropping like flies and they just lost Willens and Dummett for the season. All things considered, they really should be losing every week, but somehow they’re not. It’s kind of funny when you think how the general perception was that Rafa was the only thing standing between Newcastle and the Beezer Homes League (is that still a thing?), but Steve Bruce has come in and got them picking up even more points despite an injury list longer than Joelinton’s goalless streak. Wolves had a great come from behind win at in form Southampton. Jan Bednerek put the Saints ahead with a fine finish and Shane Long headed in to make it 2-0. That was his first goal of the season. It’s one of life’s great mysteries how Long scores so few goals. Some will say it’s because he’s shit, but I rate him, always have, so either I’m wrong or it’s a mystery. In other words, it’s a mystery. I'll never not rate Shane Long just like I'll never rate Dominic Calvert-Lewin. My mind ain't for changing on either. Neto collected a cross from my boy Traore to pull one back and give Wolves hope. Then Jonny was fouled to allow Jimenez to level from the spot. Ralf Hassenhu… Hasselhoo… Hasselhoff wasn’t happy about the decision but fucking hell, that was as blatant as it gets so I don’t know what he was watching there. At this point it could have gone either way as both sides went for it. Redmond hit the bar with a 30 yarder but Traore then escaped to find Jimenez for the winner. Harsh on Southampton but a much needed win for Wolves who had been on a bit of a dodgy run having gotten themselves into top four contention. You know who isn’t in top four contention? Arsenal, that’s who. They’re closer to the bottom three than the top four and they were held at home by Sheffield United on Saturday. Martinelli has got his chance due to Aubamayeng’s suspension and he opened the scoring from close range when he got on the end of a deflected cross by fellow youngster Sako. The Blades pushed hard for an equaliser in the closing stages and eventually forced it when my boy Fleck drilled one into the corner on the half volley. They’re such a tough nut to crack . Sick of Arteta already, dressing like the fucking Milk Tray man in his black polar neck jumper. The Moyes Derby ended honours even as the Blues came from behind to nick a point at West Ham. Diop headed the Hammers into the lead but Calvert-Lewin nodded in an equaliser four minutes later. That’s how it finished and Ancelotti looks bored shitless already. Who can blame him. There was a VAR incident when a West Ham player flicked his head back in the direction of Holgate’s face. The contact was minimal but Holgate sold it like Ric Flair having his head smashed into the corner post. Not like him to use deception to try and get an opponent in trouble. VAR checked and said no red card, which I like to think is purely due to Holgate being a twat, because the West Ham lad should have been sent off. Final point on this one. What the fuck was Pickford doing with that ridiculously over the top save? The ball is straight at the cunt but instead of just gathering it, he swings his little arm and lashes it over the bar before yelling a stream of obscenities at his defenders. Jordan Prickford. See what I did there? His name is Pickford, but he’s a prick, so I changed it to Prickford. That’s what you pay your money for right there, people. Pepe Reina was back with a great save and a bad goal conceded as Villa picked up a valuable point at Brighton. Trossard fired across him to put Brighton in front, but Grealish lashed in a terrific equaliser that Matt Ryan probably ought to have saved. Pepe then made a flying stop late on to preserve a point for his new side. Grealish was brilliant again. This national media obsession about whether Grealish should be in the England squad is laughable. It’s as ludicrous as a ‘debate’ as the Trent v Wan Bissaka thing. Of course he should be in, but somehow he’s behind Lingard, Alli, Maddison and Barkley even though he’s better than all of them. He plays for Villa so that goes against him. If a big club signs him he’ll walk in, not just to the squad but to the starting eleven. Spurs drew 0-0 at Watford and still haven’t scored in 2020. They were lucky not to lose as my boy Troy uncharacteristically missed a pen. Mourinho was crying afterwards about red cards and penalties that weren’t given. There’s always something when he doesn’t win. It’s so transparent. Deflect. Deflect. Deflect. He’s “box office” though so its fine. Norwich got a rare win at home to free-falling Bournemouth, who shot themselves in the foot spectacularly when their captain and most experienced player got himself sent off early on in the most ridiculous of circumstances. To be fair Steve’s Cook’s save was incredible and most keepers would be proud of that. If he’d done it in the last few minutes then I’d be lauding him for it as it’s well worth the risk. But you’re playing Norwich away. It’s the first half. The score is 0-0. If they score then you’ve got loads of time to pull it back. What the fuck are you doing man? Chances are they’d score the pen anyway so where is the benefit to that action? Even if they’d missed the pen it would have been the wrong decision as Bournemouth would have to play the rest of the game a man down. He’s their captain and he’s pulling shit like that. This is one of many reasons I could never be a manager, because if I’m Eddie Howe then I’d have fucking killed him, the irresponsible fuck. At the very least I’d have stripped him of the captaincy on the spot and I’d have slated him publicly. You can’t do that though. Managers need to be able to refrain from that kind of impulsive reaction and I wouldn’t be able to do it. Cook left his team-mates out there to try to clean up a mess he created. And don’t tell me it was ‘instinctive’ because it fucking wasn’t (Nice Guy Eddie of course said it was). It’s instinctive if you’re a goalkeeper, as stretching to tip away a ball going over your head is by it’s very nature your natural instinct (unless you’re Jordan Prickford). It isn’t a natural action of a centre half though, and Cook let his team, the fans and his manager down big time. Pukki smoothly converted the pen and although Bournemouth gave it a go and Norwich were later reduced to ten men themselves when Godfrey was sent off for a late lunge, the Cherries slipped to yet another defeat that has plunged them into further trouble at the bottom. I hope they stay up, but then I hope Norwich stay up too. The Canaries are great to watch (I really like Pukki, Buendia and Aarons, but Cantwell can fuck off as he looks like an Eton educated Jack Grealish) but if they get out of this it would be miraculous. Bournemouth don’t need a miracle, they just need their best players back in the team and to get back to doing what they’re capable of. I’m rooting for them, not least because they’re such a valuable stream of income for the Reds. Onto Sunday and a surprise result at Turf Moor where Burnley came from a goal down to beat Leicester 2-1. Brendan’s boys are in a difficult period at the moment but they’re still way above where they were expected to be. They’re going to lose some games, but this wasn’t one I saw coming because Burnley have been in a dreadful run. Harvey Barnes broke the deadlock with a fine run past Ben Mee and a scruffy finish but Burnley equalised with a trademark Burnley goal - a set-piece that ended with that cart horse Wood scoring from a yard out. Barnes then skinned Mee again and was clearly brought down. The ref gave it, VAR took ages checking it (no idea why as it was blatant) and then Vardy missed. Leicester looked the more likely winners and Pope denied Maddison and Vardy, but with ten minutes to go Westwood smashed home the winner after a weak clearance by Johnny Evans. The midweek games now. I actually watched all of City’s game at Sheffield United because I smelled an upset. For a while it looked on too. City had the better of the chances in the first half but were never really dominant and they couldn’t find a way past Henderson, who was brilliant. He made a stunning save to keep out Sterling, he saved a penalty from Jesus and pulled off another cracker to deny Otamendi. All of those saves were in the first half and after the break not much really happened. It had 0-0 written all over it until that little cunt Aguero came on and did what he does. Of course it was from a De Bruyne ball right across the box too. Feels like that accounts for half of their goals these days. Having De Bruyne is like having Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield. Laporte was back which should help them tighten up a bit, but they don’t have anyone decent to play alongside him so I doubt it will make THAT much difference. Fernandinho is still having to play at the back, meaning that crab Rodri is filling that defensive midfield spot. Not having him at all. Bang average. One of the TLW lads described him as “a Spanish Eric Dier” which is pretty fucking savage, albeit accurate. Chelsea v Arsenal was way better than I expected it to be. I put the second half of that one on after the City game had finished and it was really enjoyable. Chelsea had led thanks to the usual horror show from the Arsenal centre backs. Mustafi fucked up and Luiz made it worse and got himself sent off while conceding a pen. Normally I’d expect Arsenal to just fold like a cheap tent but they didn’t. In fact, whisper it, they actually showed some bollocks for the first time in years. I was actually mildly impressed with their fight. They dug in and they looked like they wanted it more than Chelsea. Their first goal had a huge element of luck about it as Kante fell over which allowed Martinelli a clear run on goal. He finished it really well though and it was no more than they deserved as they’d been threatening since the start of the second half. They were giving it a right good go but I was convinced it would all end in tears for them, because they're Arsenal. Sure enough, Chelsea made it 2-1 and I was still busy patting myself on the back when Arsenal only went and equalised through Bellerin. They deserved it too. They’re still shit but they aren’t making me irrationally angry anywhere near as much now because at least they’re trying. They’re definitely less cowardly than they have been, but it doesn’t sit right at all when you have Xhaka giving it loads about “see, we do have character so you can all shut the fuck up”. Not his exact words but close enough. Let’s get this straight. Every bit of criticism that has been thrown at Arsenal over recent years, EVERY SINGLE BIT OF IT, has been justified. There’s nothing that has been said that is too harsh because they’ve been a fucking spineless disgrace for years. Now they have one game where they actually show a little something and Xhaka thinks they’re proving their critics wrong. Look at the table you soft cunt. Bournemouth had a HUGE win at home to Brighton. If ever a team needed three points it was them, as the run they’ve had has been fucking horrendous. The fact they were playing a team close to them in the table made it even more vital. Harry Wilson set them on their way with a goal made in Anfield, as Solanke provided the assist. Seven league goals so far for Harry in a struggling side. That’s pretty good going that. If we do sell Shaqiri next season maybe Wilson will get a chance. He’d probably only be a bridge until Harvey Elliott is a bit older, but Wilson has shown enough to suggest he could do a job for us in Shaqiri’s squad role. A Pascal Gross own goal extended Bournemouth’s lead but they needed a stellar performance from their young keeper to preserve their lead. He made three brilliant saves before Callum Wilson made it 3-0. Solanke with the assist again, albeit this one was spawn as fuck. Brighton pulled one back through Aaron ‘formerly my boy’ Mooy and overall they probably deserved a point. They didn’t get it though, and they’ve been dragged right into the shit alongside Bournemouth. Villa did themselves a power of good with a dramatic late home win over Watford. My boy Troy headed Watford into an early lead and milked it for all it was worth in front of the Holte End. Deeney’s disdain for Villa just makes me like him even more. What a guy. Douglas Luiz equalised when he followed up from a Foster save, and Mings won it in stoppage time when he inadvertently got the faintest of touches on a goal bound shot by Konsa. Watford were furious because Mings had somehow earlier managed to stay on the field when he avoided a second booking for a blatant handball. Poor refereeing, but it’s Martin Atkinson so, *shrugs shoulders*. Southampton continued to close the gap on the top five (seriously, they’re only three points back now) with a good win at Palace, who as I keep telling you are dogshit. Nathan Redmond’s screamer set them on their way and Zaha was lucky not to be sent off after he poked Ward-Prowse in the face. There’s history there as Ward-Prowse provoked him into a red card this time last year. Armstrong made it 2-0 straight after the break and Southampton held on comfortably for a fourth successive away win. Redmond does my fucking head in because there are times when he looks like a top player, but then he’ll do nothing for six weeks. That’s why he’s playing for Southampton I suppose, as if he could show his top form every week he’d be playing for a top side. Mind you, the way it’s going Southampton might end up as one of the top clubs this season by default. Three points off fifth place!!! If they’d held on against Wolves at the weekend they’d be level. Madness. Onto Wednesday now. Spurs struggled to a 2-1 win over Norwich and they look utter turd at the moment. All put them ahead, Pukki levelled from the spot and Son won it from close range. Eton Jack Grealish was lucky to stay on after a high lunge. The ref gave him yellow and VAR went with that, but if the ref had sent him off I doubt it would have been overturned. There are legitimate reasons why all the other top clubs have dropped off so much but Spurs generally have the same players they had when they were good. They’re a shadow of what they were and Mourinho isn’t going to change that because it’s not 2006. Leicester saw off West Ham easily enough but they lost Vardy to what looked a pulled arse cheek. Barnes vultured a goal from Ricardo to set them on their way but he then made it up to his full back by setting up the second for him. West Ham were given a lifeline with a really soft pen that I can’t believe was upheld by VAR. Noble buried it, as he almost always does. Leicester were then given an equally soft pen of their own when that Iheanacho cunt went tumbling. That Ayoze Perez loser scored from the spot and then added another late on to wrap it up. I’m happy with this result as I want Leicester to keep the heat on City for second spot as I just think it would be funny if Brendan finished above Guardiola. There’d be no living with him if that happened. I also want West Ham to go down because fuck David Moyes and fuck their Tory owners. I think they will too. The run of games they have coming up is brutal and they’ll be in the bottom three at the end of it. Onto Old Trafford now. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! So much for those strides Ole reckoned United made at Anfield then. A 2-0 home defeat and their worst start in about 30odd years. How the fuck are they fifth?? This is even more mind boggling than when Mourinho got them second. A trademark Burnley goal saw them go ahead at Old Trafford. Mee with the flick on and Wood with the finish. To give the big useless lump some credit, it was a really nice finish. Their second was an absolute belter though, Jay Rodriguez leathering one in the top corner with his left peg. There were plenty of empty seats at Old Trafford, and I don’t just mean in the last ten minutes when it seemed as though 90% of the crowd fucked off. No, there were loads of empty seats even before that, which is not something we’re used to seeing but it’s the way it’s going to be now. For so long they were on top and playing to sell out crowds, but look at them now. All those fucking glory hunters who jumped on the bandwagon when they were winning will all just slowly melt away if this carries on they’ll be playing to crowds of around 50,000 once the tourists stop spending fortunes to go and watch them. And the ones who are still there will be singing non-stop about the Glazers and blaming them for all their woes. The anti-Glazer chants were out in force against Burnley. Hilarious. Whatever happened to those protests back in the day? Oh yeah, they fucked them off because they were winning and Ferguson told them the Glazers were sound. Now things are bad they’re lashing out at the owners again. “Green and Gold, unless we’re good”. Fucking bums. I hope this shit carries on forever. In fact, I hope they get relegated again. With Rashford back heeling the goal that relegates them while wearing a Man City shirt. Cunts. What goes around comes around. All those years of sneering arrogance.... "You've only come to see United" "We're Man United we do what we want" etc etc etc Now look at you, you're fucking pathetic. So I’ve saved the best until last. Tuesday night, Goodison Park. Wow. Just wow. Everton. Fucking hell. Just when you think they couldn’t possibly be any more Everton, they go and out-Everton themselves. That was some top class Evertoning against Newcastle. How is that even possible? Because they’re Everton, that’s why. There’s an image on social media of a TV screen showing the score as Everton 2 Newcastle 0, with 93 minutes played and only four minutes stoppage time having been signalled. The question was asked “how can you explain that Everton did not win this game?”. The answer is simple #evertonarentwe This is the kind of thing they do. They find the most excruciating and embarrassing ways to torture their own fanbase. I’m starting to suspect they’re doing this deliberately now. It’s some kind of social experiment to see how people cope with repeated anguish, heartbreak and humiliation. I mean how else can you explain this: Their official Twitter put that out before the game and then the team go and do that in stoppage time. They were going to have the piss taken out of them anyway after that collapse, but by putting those images out beforehand they’ve made it a hundred times more embarrassing for themselves. I think my personal favourite was this: Although this was also a belter..... They’re fucking nuts. This is like seeing a gang moving towards you menacingly and instead of running away you start handing out baseball bats and knives. I keep saying this, but I had to give up writing piss take articles about them because their reality was funnier than any punchline I could write. This is another classic example of it. I can’t get over it. Who else would do that? The drawings are fucking hilarious but the best one by far is Walcott. Whoever drew that nailed it perfectly. It isn’t even a person, they just drew a big pile of shite. And Everton published it. It’s mind boggling. They must be doing it deliberately. There's no other explanation for it. Newcastle were never in that game at all but somehow scored twice the very depths of stoppage time to steal a point. The fact it was a substitute centre half who scored both goals makes it even funnier, but as if all of that wasn’t enough you then have the clownshow that is Pickford saving the ball a yard behind his own goal line. Let me state this clearly for the record. Jordan Pickford is shit. Genuinely shit. I’m not speaking in relative terms and I don’t just mean he’s over-rated. I mean he’s shit. Proper, 100%, unadulterated shit. He might be the worst goalkeeper in the Premier League now that West Ham have disposed of that Mafia looking fella. It took me a little while to realise this and I freely admit that I thought he was class at Sunderland. My Mackem brother in law loved him (still does actually) and would constantly tell me how promising he was and how great his kicking is and about all these incredible saves he’d make. Chris Kirkland would rave about him too, having worked with him at Preston. I’d watch Match of the Day and see him pulling off loads of saves and I bought into it too. It’s been obvious for a couple of years now though that he’s a complete myth. The eye catching saves are because his positioning is shit and because he seems to feel the need to make every single thing he does look spectacular. The truth is, he’s fucking shit. Some Blues are starting to realise it but loads are still being fooled by the camera saves. In fairness, my eyes were only truly opened when we got Alisson. Some of the things I’m seeing Blues say about Pickford not being the problem are eerily similar to things I’d written about Mignolet. “Not his fault” “He couldn’t have saved that” “He isn’t the problem” “It’s a collective thing”. Sometimes that was true, but the arrival of Alisson has educated me massively on goalkeeping. He rarely has to do any of that acrobatic shit we see from Pickford because his positioning and reading of the game is so good he’s usually one step ahead and can make everything look easy. In his last couple of seasons here Mignolet hardly made any mistakes to be fair to him, but he didn’t make many saves either. Goals would go in and you’d think “he had no chance of saving that”. Those goals aren’t going in now though, even though Alisson isn’t necessarily having to make great saves to prevent them. That’s what makes him great. Pickford is now just a walking meme. A laughing stock. He’s Phil Jones with goalie gloves. Just like Jones, virtually every time he plays he’s trending on Twitter and it’s rarely for anything good. He’s continually being mocked and it’s going to kill his career, just like it did Jones’. To top everything off Ancelotti revealed afterwards that he told the players that losing leads happens and that he was once 3-0 up in a Champions League Final and didn’t win. Yeah, that’ll make them feel better, Carlo. The old ‘remember Istanbul’ never fails to cheer Evertonians up. Like I say, this has to be deliberate, surely?

Another one down, another step nearer. Nothing was decided by this victory but some people seem to be seeing it as “the day the title was won”. I’m not sure why, to be honest. Remove the name of the opponent and the situation is just that we beat an average team at Anfield. Would the reaction have been the same if we’d beaten Palace or West Ham? No. But because it’s United we’ve got Gary Neville talking about the Salah goal as “the moment the title was decided”. That goal didn’t even decide the game as we’d won anyway. In terms of results that showed the title was heading to Anfield, this is way down the list for me and it’s giving United far too much credit to suggest that this was some kind of ‘signature win’. United are a mediocre team right now and to be completely honest I’m frustrated we didn’t beat them by more goals. I suppose City dropping two points the day before plays a part, but we’re miles ahead anyway and, funny as it was, I don’t think the Palace equaliser was especially significant. Hopefully City continue to drop points though just so we can wrap this up as soon as possible. It’s hilarious listening to Solksjaer trying to cling to little positives. “We did better than in the game here last year”. Not really. It was pretty much the same type of “please don’t hurt us” type of performance that we’re seeing from virtually every opponent we come across these days. In terms of what we’ve seen at Anfield of late, United’s display was slightly better than Sheffield United and significantly worse than Watford and Wolves. If they want to take some positive little crumbs from that, let them. I think it’s fucking hilarious. Ole is hilarious. He’s so deluded and so cheerful I just don’t have it in me to dislike him. He’s a funny guy. Like a clown. He amuses me. I mean come on, “They don’t carve you open” is an all time classic. The stuff about us being direct and playing a lot of long balls is 100% true, but to suggest we don’t carve teams open is embarrassing for him. Almost as embarrassing as his lowering of expectations and attempts to give himself credibility with claims like “it shows how much we’re respected that Man City didn’t rest players against us”. He’s like a little goblin faced Norwegian Hodgson. The long ball thing is interesting though. I think it was more of an observation than a dig, but ‘long ball’ has a stigma attached to it as it immediately makes you think Tony Pulis alehouse footy. The long ball has become a really useful weapon for us. Look at how we destroyed Everton with it for example. It’s been a definite ploy, especially this season, and it’s made us even more dangerous than we were before. Remember when we couldn’t break down the shit teams who just wanted to sit back? That doesn’t work anymore, because we’re constantly turning them around with balls over the top. It doesn’t even matter if it works. Just the threat of it is enough to stretch teams because they have to drop off. And when they drop off, Bobby can find space between the lines. Basically, we can hurt teams in every conceivable fashion now which makes us virtually unstoppable. We’ve scored in every single league game and now we’re not conceding any at the other end. We’re so fucking good now that ‘big’ teams are actually getting credit for not getting walloped and for having a ten minute spell where they looked alright. This was almost exactly like last week at White Hart Lane. United were marginally less cowardly than Spurs, I’ll give them that. But this was still men against boys and on another day the scoreline would have reflected that. I’ve never been less concerned about a game with United. I couldn’t have been any more relaxed about it beforehand. I expected us to not only beat them, but to embarrass them. To humiliate them. To slap them all over Anfield and put them in their place after they had the temerity to take points off us earlier in the season. The only reason that didn’t happen was some poor finishing, great goalkeeping and a VAR ref with ideas above his station. We dominated for forty minutes, had a bad five minute spell before the half and then came out flying after the break before we ended up having to just see it out for the last 15. I thought we started a little slowly but that may well have been down to United surprising us by pressing high up the field rather than just sitting back. I’m not sure we expected that, and it was a little uncomfortable at times seeing us playing out from the back and taking risks. We gave the ball away a few times but they weren’t good enough to do anything with it. Rashford not playing was a bad deal because he’s the only United player who I felt could have potentially hurt us. He’s their best player and he’s been carrying their whole team for weeks. No wonder his back is fucked. Once we adapted to what they were doing we took complete control. Virg powered in a header to give us the lead and Bobby should have made it two soon after but put his shot wide after being picked out by Mo. He did have the ball in the net shortly after and a finish of that quality deserved better than to be chalked off by VAR. That disallowed goal has genuinely irritated me, more because of the manner it was ruled out than the injustice of it not being a foul. Had Craig Pawson actually blown for a foul I’d have been ok with it as to me that was a call that could have gone either way. Virgil didn’t foul him but any time there’s contact with a keeper and he flaps at the ball, a whistle usually follows. So had the ref given it as a foul then no problem. Where the problem occurs is that the tit watching the video somehow decided that was a clear and obvious error. He’s perfectly entitled to look at that and think “I reckon it’s a foul”, but that’s not his remit. His job is to ask “is that a clear mistake by the referee?” and the fact is that it wasn’t. It was a subjective call that could have gone either way, so in that scenario they’re supposed to go with the decision on the field. The question I have is that given it wasn’t a clear error but it may have been a foul, why didn’t they just ask Pawson to take a look at it to see if he still felt the same way? Just say to him “that’s a 50-50 call that Craig, do you want to take a look to make sure you’re happy with it?”. If he takes a look and then decides he made a mistake, then fine, I’m good with that. The way it actually went down though was wrong. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I didn’t celebrate the ‘goal’ anyway. I mean, I stood up and applauded the brilliant finish, but I didn’t fully let myself go because even if the goal would have counted there was always first going to be a VAR check to see if Virg fouled De Gea. Bobby celebrated though, he’s not missing out on a chance to bring out the finger guns. A lot of teams would feel sorry for themselves after that but I looked at our lads and you would never have known that a major decision had gone against them. The body language right across the team was as though it had never happened. Even afterwards when Virg spoke about it he said “I didn’t think I fouled him but you have to go with what VAR says”. If that goal had stood I’m thoroughly convinced we’d have wiped the floor with United and scored four or five. We just needed that second goal to break their resistance and open the floodgates. We had the ball in the net again through the magnificent Wijnaldum, but he’d strayed an inch or two offside. The linesman flagged on that one so the celebrations were cut short immediately. Still, there was always the possibility he’d gotten it wrong and VAR would intervene. Sadly not. Mané should have scored after being released by Salah but his shot was too close to De Gea who saved with his foot. He saves more with his feet than he does with his hands, that prick. He’d been booked for his protests when Pawson had initially given the goal, and he’s lucky it was only a yellow considering how aggressive he was. Shame he’s not that aggressive when challenging for aerial balls, the fucking lightweight. It’s a source of immense frustration to me that the second goal didn’t come. Obviously winning is the main thing and I’m happy about that. I just think that one of the few things this team is yet to accomplish is to deliver the absolutely fucking mullering of United that’s been coming to them for a couple of seasons. The last five minutes of the half were sloppy and United enjoyed much more possession than they had previously. They didn’t do much with it and the only clear chance they had was when Wan-Bissaka stole in at the back post and his cross-shot was almost converted by Andreas. I thought Wan-Bissaka was offside anyway, but I haven’t seen any replays of it so I’m not sure. Andreas had a speculative shot from distance that Alisson saved comfortably but other than that Alisson’s goal was rarely threatened. They only had one chance in the second half too, which Martial bottled and smashed over the bar. I mentioned this last week, we’ve been lucky at times this season because other teams are getting chances but not taking them. It’s partly luck and partly the pressure opponents are under. Chances are few and far between against us so when they come there’s a greater pressure to convert. Martial buries that more often than not. That being said, we miss plenty of chances ourselves. The number of close games we’ve had this season is mainly due to an inability to kill teams off when we’re on top. It’s the one weakness we have. We’ve been wasteful on too many occasions. Frankly it was ridiculous that United were still in with a shout late on in this game. The start we made to the second half was blistering and should have been enough to blow them away. No-one can live with us when we do that and it’s a miracle United managed to survive that spell. Salah missed a sitter when he failed to convert a Robertson cross. Mané then fired over after being brilliantly found by Firmino. Hendo was denied by an incredible save by De Gea who somehow managed to tip his shot onto the post. Sadio then got in behind them but dragged his shot just past the post. It was an incredible sequence of play but United somehow managed to weather the storm. Klopp made his first chance when he sent on Lallana for Ox. I thought Ox had been decent without ever really making that much of a mark on the game. Lallana never got going though. He fell over the first time he got the ball and it took him a while to get with the pace of the game. Origi and Fabinho both came on late, replacing Mané and Bobby. Those changes were a response to the way the game had gone and the fact we were now on the back foot protecting a one goal lead. We’ve seen that before, with Mo sent through the middle for the counter attacking threat. It works well because we defend so resolutely and because Virgil seems to head away every ball that comes into the box. He won header after header and that’s the main difference between us now and us a few years ago when we would so often find it difficult to hold onto leads. Teams would just keep putting it in the mixer and eventually it would pay off. Now they do it and Van Dijk just heads it straight back out. Every. Time. He was imperious and I’m not going to argue with anyone who had him as man of the match. He wasn’t my choice, but he was flawless. Hendo got the award on Sky but he wasn’t my choice either, although it was a toss up between him and Wijnaldum. Gini gets it for me because in these big games he just nips off into the phonebox and changes into his Superman costume. In these high profile games he seems to become stronger, quicker and more skilful. It’s amazing to see and that’s why he just shades it for me. Robbo deserves a mention too just for the sheer amount of running he did. He was up and down the flank all day, whereas on the opposite side Trent was not the factor he normally would be. United clearly decided they were going to remove that threat and they packed that side of the field with two left backs and also had Martial hugging the left flank. Salah’s performance was the most interesting talking point I think. My feeling while watching the game was that once again he was having a stinker against United. On reflection, I completely over-stated that as he was a constant danger. Not everything he tried came off but he did create chances for others and he deserved his goal at the end just for his sheer persistence. It’s disappointing that once again we didn’t give them the beating they deserve but I’m not blaming anybody. It’s just one of those things. The ball didn’t break for us on the day and they rode their luck. If the second goal had come in the first hour, more would have followed. It didn’t come, and just like last week at Spurs it then becomes edgy. Not because of anything we’re doing, but just because the situation is precarious and the opponent then has to come out and have a go in the last 15 minutes. It’s happened loads of times this season but we defend really well and it’s not like we ever look as though we’re hanging on. There’s always the risk that they’ll get a flukey goal or someone will hammer one in from 30 yards though, so it makes for a stressful ending to the game. It felt edgy at the time but watching it back again United created virtually nothing late on despite dominating possession. We had them at arm’s length and wasted a couple of very good opportunities to kill them on the break. Eventually we got them though with the last kick of the game. What a moment that was. The more pragmatic thing for Alisson to have done once he claimed the ball was to keep hold of it and waste time. There were only seconds left after all. It just shows how alert he is though that he knew they’d thrown everyone forward and that Mo was all alone. It was the smart move to leather the ball up to him because even if it didn’t lead to a goal, the ball was going to end up deep in United’s half anyway. It did lead to a goal though. An iconic, live long in the memory type of goal. A David Ngog if you will. Ok, forget that, this was way more iconic than Ngog’s goal but it was similar in the way it was taken and the celebrations that followed. Credit to Salah because it was brilliantly taken. That really wasn’t easy because as good as the pass from Alisson was, Mo had to wait a second before gathering it and that slowed him down long enough to allow the lightning quick Dan James to get back at him. The way Mo just held him off and prevented him getting close enough to make a challenge was superb. The finish itself wasn’t great and I thought De Gea should have saved it, but everything else about that goal was glorious, including the celebration. Off came the shirt and out came the abs. As a rule, I’m not one for condoning the shirt off celebration as it just means a needless booking that might prove costly somewhere down the line. When it’s a last second goal at the Kop end against United though, then all bets are off. He could have taken his shorts off as well if he’d wanted and he’d get no criticism from me. It was funny seeing Alisson doing a Pepe Reina and arriving first on the scene for the celebrations. It’s even funnier when you watch the replay of him running and realise he wasn’t actually moving that fast, it’s just that everyone else was too exhausted to be arsed running to Mo. Alisson is gesturing “come on!” at them all as he runs past, and they’re all just standing around like “nah you’re alright, lad. We’re fucked”. Eventually I think he shamed them all into joining in. I looked at the rest of the players and a lot of them were seriously considering just staying in their own half as they were out on their feet. In the end they ambled over to join in at their own leisure. I’m running out of things to say about this season we’re having. The points total, the records being broken and the historic stuff we’re seeing. We’re almost over the line and it’s only January. It’s unprecedented what we’re seeing and it’s not about if we win the title now, it’s only a case of when we win it. The questions still to be answered are whether we can break the record for the most points and if we could go undefeated. I’m not thinking about either of those as there are so many games still to be played, and next up for us is the toughest fixture we have left. Yes, I’m saying Wolves away is a more difficult game for us than a trip to the Etihad. We know how to play against City and they fear us. Wolves don’t fear us and they’ll still be steaming about the perceived injustice they feel about their recent loss at Anfield. They’re a tough nut to crack when they face the better sides because it suits their counter attacking style. It’s a tough game and to me it’s the biggest threat remaining to our unbeaten record. The good thing is that it’s a Thursday so we have an extra day to prepare for it and we should be at full strength. I’m looking forward to it but I have more trepidation about this game than I’ve had all season. On a final note, I want to mention the atmosphere. It was great. The Kop was loud all day and I can only remember hearing the United fans once or twice all day. I could see from my seat that they were signing and making noise, but I genuinely couldn’t hear them because the noise from our crowd drowned them out. I think the new Main Stand may have changed the acoustics of the stadium too because I used to always be able to hear the away fans and what they were singing, but often this season I’ve barely heard a peep. The main reason though is the noise from our fans has increased. In some of the quieter games you can hear the away fans, but in the two games against United and Everton I’ve barely heard a peep. I can imagine the Mancs went through their full repertoire of scummy chants, but the only things I heard all day was “United” and “Always the victims”. The rest of their shite was completely drowned out by the Kop. Actually wait, I tell a lie. I did hear them giving it the “where’s your famous atmosphere” at one point, which is right up there with Solskjaer and his “they don’t carve you open”. It’s great, they’re completely deluded and have no idea just how far away they are from where they were. We’re back on our perch and there’s fuck all they can do about it now. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Lallana); Salah, Firmino (Origi), Mané (Fabinho):

Saturday Jan 11: Spurs 0 L 1 We were nowhere near our best today but we were still way better than sorry shithouse Spurs, who went out there just hoping not to get smacked around. Just because Mourinho said afterwards that they did well and deserved a point, a lot of people seem to have bought into it. They deserved nothing. They played like a plucky little underdog in the cup. I was embarrassed for them as they’ve always been able to go toe to toe with us since Klopp has been here. Now look at them. Pitiful. You know the great thing about our lads though? They won at Spurs but they were pissed off. You could see it. They were genuinely disappointed in themselves. Hendo was fuming afterwards and you could see him say to Klopp on the pitch “not good enough. That was fucking shit”. Virgil wasn’t happy either, and Klopp reckons when he went to congratulate Bobby he was met with “I know, I should have scored more. I’m sorry”. The standards they are setting for themselves are the reason that I’m so sure this title race is over. There’s just no way these lads are going to lose six or seven games. There’s more chance that the gap gets bigger rather than smaller. We’ve now officially had the best ever start in the history of the big five European leagues. What we’re seeing it truly historic shit. It’s literally never been done before. 20 wins from 21 games. Incredible stuff. We are a few months away from this team being the reigning champions of England, Europe and the World. Who’d have thought. Even just a couple of years ago it seemed well out of reach, but look at us now. The u18s won again too. They went behind int he first minute and Stoke but equalised before half time and won it with five minutes left. These boys love a late goal even more than the senior lads. Sunday Jan 12: City smash Villa into the middle of next week but Guardiola is still saying the title has gone and we’re too far ahead. Why do so many people think he’s just playing mind games here? Guardiola has a higher opinion of Klopp and his team than pretty much anybody in football. He’s always talking about how good we are, and he was doing it before we were even challenging them. So now he finds himself 14 points behind having played a game more. Of course he thinks it’s over, why wouldn’t he? It isn’t mind games, he just knows how good we are because we matched them stride for stride last season when they had to be absolutely perfect over the last few months to hold us off. He knows they aren’t clawing back a 17 point deficit. Nat Phillips is going back to finish his loan spell in Germany. He’s probably never going to play for us again but what a cool story he’s got to tell, cutting short a loan spell to come back and help us beat Everton, before then giving it the arl Josemi “and now my work here is done”. Great stuff. Almost as great as this story from a London journalist about Berbatov from yesterday… "Dimitar Berbatov came into the media cafe at Spurs about 10 minutes before kick off, looking for food. Grabbed a roll, but the catering manager came over and asked him where his pre-match meal voucher was (all media get given them). "While his colleague argued his case, having taken one himself, explaining who the Bulgarian was, Berbatov casually buttered his roll, stuffed the whole thing into his mouth and stood in front of the woman with it hanging half out as if to say 'what you going to do about it now?' "This sent the catering manager to a new level of outrage at this Bulgarian and his devil may care attitude. While she raged, Berbatov simply smiled with buttered roll still hanging out of his mouth before walking out of the room. Dimitar Berbatov - doing what he wants since 1981." Meanwhile, Fabinho says he wants to welcome his mate Mbappe to Liverpool. You and me both, son. You and me both. Monday Jan 13: Some spectacular footy played by the 23s tonight in a 5-0 win against Southampton. Sensational stuff, especially from the skipper Jones. He’s far too good for this level now and the opposition usually can’t get near him. I know it’s tough with the number of senior lads ahead of him, but we need to get him some minutes, somehow, because he’s special. Elliott and Williams were both class again too, as was Pedro. The new lad up front scored a couple and if this is going to be the regular line up for the 23s now they’re going to be fun to watch for the rest of the season. The midfield has been revamped now with Christie-Davies going out on loan. The trio that played tonight are very easy on the eye. Pedro, Clarkson and Cain are all brilliant in possession Tell you what really grabbed my attention though. Hoever was only on the bench. Maybe there’s a fitness reason for that, or perhaps a message is being sent. He started the season on the brink of the senior squad. He was Trent’s deputy and also an option at centre back. Recently though he’s been nowhere near. He didn’t make the team against Everton and now he’s not making the starting line up for the 23s. International duty has fucked his season right up. He was brilliant for Holland in those youth tournaments but while he was away Neco was flying past him in the pecking order and now he can’t get in at centre back ahead of Van den Berg and Boyes. Tuesday Jan 14: So, a report reveals that Everton have lost a shit load of cash over the last 12 months. £110m in losses or something. Serious shit. They had their AGM tonight and Moshiri didn’t show up. Why? Because he was having a really important meeting with someone who wants to invest in naming rights to their new stadium. Fuck me, not even Evertonians are gullible enough to not see through this shit, surely? Hold on, it’s actually true. Kind of. The investor is his mate Uzmanov (long rumoured to have an unofficial stake in the Blues) and he’s paying £30m just to be given first refusal on the naming rights to the phantom new stadium. Jesus, that’s so fucking blatant even Man City will be looking at that and going ‘dunno about that lads, it’s a bit obvious like’. You know, FFP may as well just be fucked off completely now because teams aren’t playing by the rules and unless you’re an Italian club there seems to be no punishment for it. Actually that’s not strictly true as Championship sides have been hammered in the past too, and Derby are currently looking at a potential 12 point punishment after their chairman bought the stadium for more than it was worth and rented it back to the club. I genuinely don’t get how Everton are being allowed to get away with what they’ve been doing. They lost £110m and yet they’re still throwing all that cash at Ancelotti? If FFP is ever actually enforced in the Premier League, then Man City will be reigniting their rivalry with Macclesfield in League One and Everton will be there right alongside them, blaming that whole shit on us. Wednesday Jan 15: Suarez is out for four months after needing knee surgery. He was indestructible when he was here but age is catching up with him now. Shame for him, but at least it means there’s no chance of him having his heart broken by us again. I really, really hope we get to play them again you know. This time it might be worth playing the FA Cup side just to make it a bit more fair. So the AFCON next year will be back to taking place in the winter. I’m sure there’s some perfectly simple explanation for it, and it will be something to do with FIFA acting in their own self interest. Loads of Reds are up in arms about it because it means no Mo, Sadio or Naby for possibly as long as six weeks. At this point I’m not arsed. It’s so far ahead that frankly next season isn’t something that concerns me at all. I just want that title this year and I’ll worry about anything else afterwards. I’ve long felt that once we win that title I’m not even going to care about what comes next because I just want the monkey off our back. No doubt I’ll feel a lot differently when we’re playing a dozen games with Mané and Salah though. As for Naby, it’s no better than even money that he’d be available to play for us anyway as he must have missed as many games as he’s been available for. I suppose another part of the reason I’m not stressing about this is because I figure that Bobby and Mbappe can hold down the fort until they return anyway. Thursday Jan 16 Roma want Shaq and have had a loan offer turn down. What the fuck is it with Italian clubs and their loan offers? There’s no way we’d be letting Shaq go anyway while there is so much to play for, but they could at least make us an offer that might make us consider it. If they’d come in and offered £30m then who knows. It’s just mad though isn’t it? Why would we let any first team squad member go on loan? What the fuck are they even thinking? It’s actually annoyed the shit out of me to be honest. These fuckers tried to the same shit with Lovren last summer and have clearly learnt nothing. Even Inter Milan are paying actual cash to sign soon to be out of contract 53 year old Ashley Young, so where do Roma get off trying to insult us like this? In other news today, apparently UEFA changed the formation of their ‘team of the year’ just so they could get Ronaldo in. It was meant to be 4-3-3- but Ronaldo was the fourth striker in the voting, so they went 4-2-4 and dropped Ngolo Kante. It’s really not that big of a deal but it is completely baffling to me how Ronaldo needs to be cow towed to like this. He’s had a great career and won a shit tonne of awards both individually and collectively. All things come to an end though. Ronaldo is 35 in a few weeks. I’d say he is undoubtedly the best 35 year old to ever play the game, but Father Time is undefeated and eventually he’ll get Ronaldo too. Why are UEFA so arsed about it though? What do they think is going to happen if he doesn’t make their ‘Team of the Year’? It’s just fucking weird. Meanwhile, Phil Babb thinks we should sign Koulibaly to play alongside Big Virg because it’s the only position where we might actually need strengthening. Initially I rolled my eyes when I saw that, but in fairness to Babb he said his concern was just with the fitness records of Gomez, Matip and Lovren, and he’s right on that score. The problem is what do you do when everyone is fit? If we signed Koulibaly, presumably it would be at the expense of Lovren who would move on, which is fine, but where would that leave Gomez? He could be our centre back for the next dozen years, so why replace him with someone who will play every week? Because Koulibaly is currently better than Joe, but if Joe is playing every week (or at least most weeks) then he’s quickly going to become one of the best around. If we paired Koulibaly with Van Dijk we might never concede a goal again, and it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else. Besides, we need that money for Mbappe. Friday Jan 17: Why is it any time we play the Mancs or Bueshite, we’re subjected to those God awful ‘Combined XI’ things? At least in the past there was a discussion to be had, but but not any more. Even Dave Prentice couldn’t find room for one Everton player in his line up, but ESPN somehow managed to sneak Maguire and Rashford in theirs. Rashford is United’s best player but he got in ahead of Mo Salah. I mean seriously? You can make a case that he could edge Divock out of a spot on the bench, but that’s it. Rashford over Salah is fucking crazy talk. As for Maguire? What’s that based on? Price tag, presumably, because he hasn’t pulled up any trees since going there and there are actually video compilations of his individual performances that are doing the rounds online just ripping the piss out of him. Picking him over Lovren is laughable. Taking him over Matip is embarrassing. Going with him over Joey G is fucking criminal. He’s better than Phil Jones though, I’ll give him that. Finally, the u23s lost 3-0 at Wigan tonight. Shite it was. They were well beaten and I switched off before the end as it was doing my head in. The defence looked awful and the attack was toothless without Elliott and Jones. I’m struggling to see what they saw in Van den Berg because he doesn’t even look as good a player as Morgan Boyes right now. Need to have faith though as we haven’t got too many transfers wrong in the last couple of years, and he is still a kid. ...and that was the week that was

I’ve got a mate who is a Leicester fan and I told him on Friday that they’d have their hands full with Southampton. The most obvious result of the weekend was City winning at Villa, but the next best bet was that Leicester wouldn’t beat Southampton. When you beat a team 9-0 they’re going to be like men possessed when you face them again. We know that from experience. Southampton are a hugely different kettle of fish to the side that were embarrassed at St Mary’s by Brendan’s boys and there was no way they were going to lose to Leicester again. Leicester did take the lead though when Vardy crossed for Praet to finish from close range, but Southampton equalised soon after when Armstrong’s shot deflected in off Maddison. Vardy had a goal ruled out for offside and Ings hit the bar as both teams traded blows. Ings then hit the bar again with a fucking thunderbolt, having earlier been denied by a double save from Schmeichel. Southampton were awarded a penalty when Shane Long did a Shane Long. He got in front of the defender then just stopped running and allowed the defender to clatter into him. Classic Long. VAR showed him to be fractionally offside though so no pen. The Saints went ahead when Evans released Ings and he toe poked it through Schmeichel’s legs for his 16th of the season. He was then denied again by the keeper, while Leicester had two more goals disallowed by VAR, including what would have been a stoppage time equaliser by Evans. Leicester aren’t a threat to us but they were second in the table going into this game so in one respect the more games they lose the better for us. Really though, I think I want them to keep winning for the time being at least just to keep Man City occupied. Southampton’s turnaround has been remarkable. They’re level on points with Everton and Arsenal now. Their goal difference is -12 which when you consider they lost one game by nine goals is pretty impressive. This is the level they should be. It’s why I was saying they needed to bin that manager because they should never have been as shit as they were. He’s got them flying now though and they aren’t a side you’d want to face at the moment as they’re full of energy and Ings is scoring every week. He’s in such electric form right now. Leicester should probably be looking at him as a partner / alternative to Vardy, as he’s miles better than that Iheanacho cunt. Not sure Ings would want to leave Southampton though as that’s his boyhood team so he’s probably loving life at the moment. So pleased for him and long may it continue. Next up, Norwich. They’ve been very competitive of late but haven’t had any luck. There was nothing unlucky about the spanking they got at Old Trafford this weekend though. Mata crossed for Rashford to put United ahead but Cantwell was close to an equaliser just before half time when he was denied by De Gea. Rashford made it 2-0 after Brandon Williams dived to win a penalty from Tim Krul, who had flown out recklessly, and the second goal ended any resistance from the Canaries. Martial headed in number three and substitute Greenwood scored with his first touch after coming on. He seems to score every week that cunt. I don’t care for him much. Solskjaer was cock-a-hoop afterwards, seemingly not realising that not only are Norwich bottom of the table but were also riddled with injuries. He was bigging up United on the basis that Man City went full strength against them in the league cup. When’s the parade? Over at Stamford Bridge Burnley thought they’d taken the lead against Chelsea but VAR foiled them. Willian then bought a penalty out of Lowton when he lured the defender in and then went down. Reckless from Lowton, smart from Willian. Kevin Friend doesn’t need a second invitation to award decisions to Chelsea. Jorginho calmly buried the spot kick. Burnley threatened from a couple of set-pieces but then Kevin Abraham’s header somehow went through Nick Pope. Proper weird one that, but it changed the game as it allowed Chelsea to relax and enjoy their football. They’ve lost a lot of home games to shite recently so they’ll have had some nerves until that second goal went in. There was more than a hint of fortune about it as not only did Pope make an inexplicable error but Abraham had nudged Tarkowski in the back as the cross came in. Hudson-Odoi made it 3-0 with his first ever Premier League goal. Just me who thinks he’s not all that? He’s talented but he’s definitely overhyped. I like that Reece James a lot though. Good player him. Second best right back in the league behind Trent. Do you reckon Burnley might go down this year? I’m starting to lean that way. Earlier in the season it looked like they’d gotten back to where they were a couple of years ago but they’ve slumped back into the sort of run they had to start last season. Also on Saturday, Everton just about edged out Brighton at Goodison. The Blues have actually been on a decent run of late but the derby loss to our kids has put a massive cloud over everything and no-one seems to care about the points they’ve picked up since Silva was sent on his merry way. Walcott thought he should have had a penalty when Dunk impeded him in the act of shooting. Not sure why Dunk did that as surely everyone knows by now that the best option when Walcott is in the box is to just stand back and watch him fuck it up. Pointless cunt. Richarlison got the only goal of the game and it was a cracker. Everton were just about good value for the points although Brighton had some great chances. Trossard was within a whisker of doing a Curtis Jones but his shot came back off the bar, while Murray had two great chances that he failed to take. Calvert-Lewin had a goal ruled out for handball and was yellow carded for his troubles. That was harsh as fuck as he didn’t deliberately handle, he was trying to get it with his shoulder and it hit the top of his arm. Disallowing the goal was correct, but he shouldn’t be booked for that, Fuck him though, the diving twat. I’ve changed my mind on Lewis Dunk. I’ve been impressed with him a few times this season and he was brilliant at Anfield, but Walcott and Calvert-Lewin both made him look a bit Harry Maguire-ish so my opinion of him just fucking plummeted. Arsenal and Palace drew 1-1 at Selhurst. Aubamayeng put the Gunners ahead but Ayew equalised with a shot that deflected off two Arsenal defenders. Aubamayeng was then sent off for a high, late challenge that could have caused serious injury. The ref initially gave a yellow but VAR correctly over-ruled. Even with ten men arsenal could have won but for a great double save from the Palace keeper. I’ve said it before, he’s sneaky good him. I couldn’t pick him out of a line up and I can’t spell his name, but he’s one of the best in the league. It feels as though Arsenal have been marginally less shit in recent games but Aubameyeng is the only one who ever seems to score and if they lose him for three games then it’s going to be a slog for them. Arteta’s touchline demeanour looks like it’s based on his mentor Pepe, albeit a Pep with a lego man haircut. Needless to say, I don’t like him. One of the more surprising results of the weekend came at Molyneux were Wolves were held by injury hit Newcastle. Almiron has scored three goals in three weeks now. Good for him, he kept plugging away and now things are finally going his way. This was a lovely goal too. Very nice team goal and no more than they deserved after a lively start. They were pegged back when Dendoncker volleyed in a corner. Dubravka then made an incredible save to keep out a point blank header from Jiminez and then did the same to deny that little Neto arsewipe. Great point for Newcastle who had thirteen players unavailable through injury. Bad result for Wolves though who still seem to have problems when teams sit back against them and force them to make the play. I almost forgot about Friday night’s game and how funny that was. McBurnie took advantage of a howler by poor Dave Martin to give the Blades the lead and they held onto it until deep into stoppage time when my boy Snodgrass equalised to spark wild celebrations in the away end and on the touchline, where Moyesy was giving it loads. And then VAR disallowed it, and he looked absolutely crushed. Glorious stuff. The higher Sheffield United finish the better as far as I’m concerned. Their fans have been by far the least wanker-ish to come to Anfield all season and their manager is sound. Contrast that with West Ham, who have Moyes. The winner who never wins. The more misery that is heaped upon him the happier it makes me. Everyone is kicking off about that goal and complaining about VAR and the new handball rule. Declan Rice was crying about how unfair it is and most people seem to agree with him. Not me. There have been occasions this season when that new handball rule has been applied and it’s been ludicrous. This isn’t one of them. The defender comes across and wins the ball. He’s heading it away from Rice and if it doesn’t hit his hand there’s no danger at all as the ball is cleared. The only reason Rice was able to maintain possession and run through to set up Snodgrass is because he blocked the clearance with his hand. It wasn’t deliberate, but that doesn’t matter. Good decision, and not just because it upset Moyes. Onto Sunday now, and Bournemouth’s slide down the table continued as they were beaten at home by resurgent Watford. Harry Wilson brought a great save out of Foster with a trademark free-kick and if Bournemouth are going to get out of this then our boy is going to have to really play well between now and May. Doucoure broke the deadlock when Bournemouth’s young keeper played a bad pass straight to Sarr who picked him out in the middle. Bournemouth were their own worst enemies, trying to play out from the back even though their first choice keeper and best central defenders are all missing. My boy Troy made it 2-0 when he smashed in a loose ball after Sarr had skinned Cook, and Pereyra added a third late on. Watford are out of the bottom three for the first time this season while Bournemouth now have only Norwich below them. 13 points from six games for Pearson. For once, Klopp might actually have a rival for manager of the month this time. Doucoure was asked afterwards what the manager has done to turn this around and he said “not as much as people think. Just the basics. We were a good team and were always going to get it together”. Does he know nothing about his new manager? Doucoure is either very brave or very stupid. Ben Foster obviously knows. He said "we needed someone to stick a rocket up us. Simple as that. It's almost like you're dealing with schoolkids at times. If they give them an inch they'll take a mile. This manager doesn't give an inch". Finally, Man City pulled Villa’s pants down and put six past them at Villa Park. This is one of those where you go into it hoping that somehow Villa might do something, but when it becomes clear they won’t, its a case of just wanting them to get bummed into oblivion. They’re lucky it was only six. They never tried to get close to City or to put tackle in, they just stood off and let City rip them apart. And if they weren’t doing that they were gift wrapping the ball to Aguero or Mahrez. Danny Drinkwater turned up in Villa’s midfield and thoroughly embarrassed himself. Tell you what, Ngolo Kante is a great player with a hell of a CV, but I don’t think many people realise that his greatest achievement in football was making Drinkwater look like a good player. That little man is way better than anyone realises. Villa were so bad that some of their fans left with an hour to go. Not sure why you’d do that. Maybe they had a birthday party to plan for one of our players again? The sixth goal was the funniest. Villa’s fans were giving it the ole’s as their players completed a few passes, and then one of their centre backs passed it straight to Mahrez who set up Aguero for the hat-trick. Comedy gold. City look like they’ve got their swagger back and some of their injured players are nearing full fitness now. No doubt we’ll see a lot more of this kind of result from them, but the difference this year is that even if they win every game between now and May 6-1 it will only be enough if we suffer some kind of unprecedented collapse. Thy won’t win every game 6-1 though because not every side is as fucking hopeless as Villa are at the moment. Really hope they go down, but it’s 100% about the fans. And because of that Elmohamady chump giving it the “are you not entertained?” celebration after scoring with a deflected cross against our kids.

Theres been a lot of bollocks spouted in the aftermath of this game so let me cut through all that before going any further: The truth is that Spurs were shite and deserved nothing. Anyone suggesting otherwise is talking a steaming pile of pure Zlatan. I know they missed chances and some of them are kidding themselves into thinking they were ’unlucky’ (if they want to completely overlook the chances we missed at the other end). That’s the predictable narrative spun by Mourinho, but it’s fucking nonsense. It’s all about trying to justify his cowardly approach to a crowd who have always been staunchly against that type of ‘football’. Maybe some Spurs fans will swallow it, but that doesn’t make it true. Here’s what happened. Tottenham tried to Mourinho the shit out of the game and to some degree it worked, but they lost. Tough shit. If you play with that kind of cowardice you don’t get to cry about what you ‘deserve’, especially when you ‘deserve’ nothing. Maybe if you’d shown even the tiniest bit of ambition you might have gotten something, but you didn’t, and you didn’t. So fuck off. The only time Spurs looked dangerous was when we gave them the ball through our own complacency. Why were we so complacent? Because they were fucking shite and it was too easy for us. They played like a plucky underdog in a cup match. Or to put it another way, they played like a Mourinho team. He did this with Chelsea and Man United and he did it against far less accomplished Liverpool sides than this one. So Jurgen will have known exactly what to expect. This is who he is. It’s what he does. He was probably made up that Kane was injured as it gave him the excuse he needed to park the bus. “Look at us with all of our injuries, trying to take on the best team in Europe so short handed. We had to play like that, aren’t my lads brave”. His brand of football is ten years past it’s sell by date. Enjoy, Spurs fans. This is your new reality. It’s incredible how far we’ve pulled away from Spurs in the last 12 months and with him in charge that’s not going to change any time soon. From the first few minutes of the game I thought it was glaringly obvious just how big the gulf was between the sides. They looked terrified of us. It shouldn’t have been like that because Spurs have got loads of good players and have shown plenty of times they can win without Kane. In fact, Son and Lucas Moura worry me far more than Kane does. We’ve generally edged the meetings we’ve had in recent seasons but they’ve always gone toe to toe with us and given us some of the most difficult games we’ve had. They could have tried to go toe to toe with us again because they know they can do it and besides, what did they have to lose really? The league table shows how much better than them we are but in head to head games it’s always been difficult for us. It’s not as though the result was going to be season defining for them, so they could have given it a go. It says everything about Mourinho though that nobody ever thought for a second they would. This game was too easy for us and that was the thing that caused us a problem. It really shouldn’t have been as close as it was because Spurs played with a massive inferiority complex and we should have buried them by half time. I’m genuinely irritated that we didn’t batter them. It’s frustrating that they were still hanging around like a massive turd we just couldn’t flush, but its a measure of the standards set by this team that I’m having to restrain myself from being too critical over a 1-0 win at Spurs. It’s funny isn’t it? The season has been almost perfect but because we’re so good any time we don’t win comfortably there’s a temptation to have a bit of a moan and nit pick at the performance. It’s not just the fans and pundits doing it either. In the post match interviews Hendo wasn’t pleased, Klopp didn’t look happy either, while Virgil looked like he’d lost a tenner and found a quid. It’s good that they think like that because it’s that hunger to be better that will keep them going. I think the reason they were annoyed with themselves is because of the second half, which was fairly disjointed and riddled with uncharacteristic mistakes. It was all set up to be another Leicester as we were so dominant. Having gone 1-0 up the boys probably expected to turn the screw and finish Spurs off, maybe even picking them off on the break if they came out and tried to chase the game. They never did come out though. Even deep in stoppage time they were passing it around on the halfway line with four defenders and two holding midfielders and all day they seemed content to take their plucky 1-0 defeat against the World Champs. And we got suckered in. It was too easy, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. Because they didn’t come out we had all the time in the word to pass it around and we seemed to lull ourselves into a false sense of security. I mean when do you ever see Wijnaldum losing the ball in his own defensive third? Never. In the first half Hendo was caught in possession twice. That never happens either. They got suckered in by how scared Spurs were playing. It just became so sloppy at both ends. We kept fucking up in the final third and wasting good opportunities to bury them and then we started giving them the ball in our own half. It’s not even as though they pressed us high up the pitch. They sat off 99% of the time but then every now and again Alli or Moura would catch us by surprise by actually trying to make a tackle. Mourinho did what he always does. He parked the bus and waited for a mistake. We made a few and if they’d taken one of those chances we’d be hearing about “another Jose masterclass”. It’s not a masterclass. He’s just Steve Bruce with better players. We played into their hands though in that second half. I didn’t see it coming because the first half was exactly what we would have wanted. From the first minute we stamped our authority on the game with a brilliant, sweeping move that saw Ox release Bobby in the inside right channel. For me Bobby did everything right there and was desperately unlucky. The only reason he didn’t score was because the kid making his debut got back in to a great position to make a block. When you look at the replay, that shot is going in the corner but he came from nowhere to get in the way. Fair play to him, that was quality. Bobby then had the presence of mind to pick up the loose ball and tee up Ox, who went for the same corner and saw his shot hit the inside of the post, come back out and hit Tanganga. It could have gone anywhere and Salah and Bobby were both ready to pounce, but Spurs got lucky and survived. The kid probably deserved that bit of luck following his initial clearance. We were all over them for most of that half and seemed to be able to get in down the left at will. Sadio was electric and Robbo was flying forward on overlaps. For once the final ball just wasn’t there with Robbo. It’s not easy when Spurs had nine players in there most of the time though. The front three were linking up well and Mané shot over after nice interplay between Mo and Bobby had set him up. Then Virgil missed a free header from a few yards out when he put it straight at the keeper. I suspect VAR may have ruled that out though as it looked level, and level now almost always means some part of the body is offside. The goal was coming from the first minute and it’s surprising it took as long as it did to arrive. Brilliantly finished by Bobby and well set up by Mo. Spurs are crying about the throw in that led to it, but how the fuck is any referee in the world supposed to get that right? It’s impossible. It’s unlucky when a decision like that goes against you but it’s also unavoidable and it shouldn’t have been given the amount of airtime it got. But it’s us, LiVARpool, and we don’t win games fair and square remember. It was a slight nick off Mané and the ball may have been already over the line when it hit him anyway. It’s almost certainly a Spurs throw but there isn’t a referee or linesman in the world who is going to see that, and complaining about it is pathetic really. Especially when you can’t even say the word ‘throw in’. Seriously, what the fuck is a “sroo in” Jose? Dick. At least he didn’t complain about VAR not disallowing it. Others have though. Even Danny Murphy tried to suggest there was a handball by Henderson. Fuck. Off. I expect it from that weird Duncan Castles cunt, but Murphy has embarrassed himself there. If I had my way, baldies wouldn’t be allowed to comment on footy as to a man they appear utterly clueless (TLW’s Paul being the notable exception that proves the rule). There is no angle that shows the ball hitting Henderson’s hand so they can’t disallow the goal. It’s simple really. That should have been the end of the discussion. I was annoyed they even looked at it at all because I was under the impression that the new law only applied if the player who handles plays the final pass or scores himself. Hendo did neither, so why were they even looking at it? I asked that question on Twitter and someone replied that it was reviewed just because it was in the box, so I assume that must be the case otherwise they had no business even looking at Hendo there. The point is though he didn’t handle and it smacks of the same desperation we saw after the Wolves game. Not wanting us to win the title is fine, it’s a perfectly understandable viewpoint, especially if you support a rival. When you start crying ‘conspiracy’ though and dissecting every decision in our games you’re just making yourself look like a fucking danger whose hard drive needs checking. Mourinho and others were also complaining that Robbo didn’t get a red card. People were actually tweeting Gary Lineker demanding that they talk about it on MOTD!! They did discuss it and quite rightly said there was fuck all in it. There was nothing wrong with that challenge on Tanganga. He should have been given a yellow for leaving his foot in on Alderweireld late on, but the tackle they’re moaning about was nothing. Every time we win we have to hear complaints about something. Even in our most dominant performance of the season against Leicester we had Schmeichel cryarsing about the penalty we got at 1-0. Guardiola almost gave himself a heart attack complaining about phantom handballs at Anfield (see my earlier comment on baldies and footy) and then there was the Wolves debacle, when everyone was up in arms over VAR being used to get two decisions right. It’s pathetic and it’s virtually every game. “If it wasn’t for VAR they’d only be seven points clear”. So, the argument is that “if all those correct decisions that went their way weren’t given and the incorrect ones were given instead, they wouldn’t be so far ahead”. Everyone is cracking up because we’re so good. We should have slapped Spurs all over White Hart Lane in the second half just to teach them a lesson. All they wanted to do was get everyone behind the ball and hit the deck looking for free-kicks, trying to disrupt the flow of the game. Those Spurs players need little encouragement to do that anyway as they’re the worst divers in the Premier League, but that’s going to be cranked up a notch or two now under Captain Shitbag. No surprise that Martin Atkinson was only too willing to oblige them. What a fucking twat he is. Free kick after free kick went Tottenham’s way, but when they clearly fouled Henderson to spark a dangerous attack he waved it away. And when Wijnaldum was brought down on the edge of their box he saw nothing wrong with that either. Hell, he even decided to play an extra minute and a half of stoppage time at the end in the hope that Spurs might score. It was meant to be three minutes, yet he played well over four. Why was that? It never normally happens, but when it’s Atkinson in charge of a Liverpool game in which we’re hanging on to a one goal lead, suddenly the official with the board is being ignored. Dodgy as fuck. He’s worse than Anthony Taylor. Actually, hanging on was an over statement. We were fairly comfortable for the most part and should have made more of some promising situations we created. Robbo continued to pick out Spurs players with his crosses and they always seemed to have enough players back in to clear the danger. I didn’t like the decision to take off Mané for Origi though. Not so much from the attacking side of it, but because Sadio had been absolutely incredible from a defensive point of view. He didn’t give them a second. So many times their midfielders thought they had time only for Sadio to come chasing back and rob them. He was everywhere. Origi was never going to give us that, and for that reason I’d have subbed Mo instead as we wouldn’t be losing out on anything defensively. I’ll be honest, Div was really doing my head in as he was passive and wasn’t offering anything. Then out of nothing he tip toed around three challenges on the edge of the box and brought a save from the keeper. That was fucking brilliant to be fair, and I felt bad for having previously been moaning at him. Lallana had also been brought on, for Ox, and I thought he made a really positive impact by keeping the ball and just generally doing the smart thing. One touch late on when he plucked a ball out of the sky was fucking glorious too. He’s proving to be a useful asset of late. The final 15 minutes proved to be more stressful than they needed to be but I think what made it more worrying at the time was that the only real moments of ‘danger’ all day had come from our own mistakes, such as when Son blasted over after Wijnaldum was caught in possession, or when Trent and Gomez went for the same ball and we needed Virg to make a great tackle. We were giving them hope by playing into Mourinho’s hands. That’s what he wants. He waits for mistakes and then hopes to punish them. He’s built his career on it. The only chance that was of their own making was when Lo Celso fired wide from close range. That was a much more difficult chance than people are making it out to be. The angle wasn’t good, the ball was travelling at pace and he was on the stretch. He should have scored but I can see why he didn’t. Missed chances like that have been a feature of the season. We’ve been great but things have gone our way a lot more than usual. 20 wins out of 21 games to start a season is almost unheard of. In fact, it is unheard of because it’s never been done before, either in this country or in any of the other major European leagues. A lot of those games have been close and in many of those close games the opponent has failed to take some very clear chances. So we’ve had luck on our side at times this season and I won’t pretend otherwise. Some of those wins could have been draws if the opponents hadn’t missed some very clear opportunities (Sheffield United away is the first one that springs to mind), and maybe next season things will be different. It’s amazing though how the very best teams seem to benefit from that. Perhaps it’s the intimidation factor? Opposing players snatch at chances because they aren’t sure when the next one will come along or just because they know how big a moment it is. A few years ago we seemed to suffer from “one chance one goal” syndrome. It was mad. We’d defend well but as soon as the other team had a chance they scored. It’s partly about the keeper but it’s not just that. Son didn’t even hit the target with a chance he’d normally bury with his eyes closed. The very best teams often have things like this go in their favour and it can’t just be luck. I don’t think what we’re doing right now is sustainable but it doesn’t really matter. Even if two or three of those wins had been draws instead, we’d still be well ahead anyway. 20 wins from 21 games isn’t what I expect to see happening too often. 17 or 18 from 21 is certainly realistic though for this team. They aren’t going to rest on their laurels and they want to get better. The fact they are winning at White Hart Lane and they’re coming off the pitch looking pissed off is great. There’s a clip of Hendo saying to Klopp “not good enough, that was fucking shite”. I can’t tell you how much I love that. What a captain he’s turned out to be. I thought it was his worst game of the season, even though he wasn’t even bad. The standard he’s set is so high though that even a decent game feels like a disappointment, which probably explains how irked he was. As for the star man, Virgil was excellent and Alisson was outstanding in an understated way. He rarely has to do anything spectacular because his positioning is so good. Gini was top drawer too other than that one brainfart that could have cost us. The front three all did well with Bobby the pick of the bunch, so I’m giving it to him, not least because he was the matchwinner. Next up is the Mancs and I expect them to play in a similar manner. Solksjaer will try to nullify our full backs like they did at their place, but this is Anfield and we’re a different kettle of fish entirely than at Old Trafford. We owe them one, so let’s hope we can give them the hiding they deserve. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Lallana); Salah (Shaqiri), Firmino, Mané (Origi):

Saturday Jan 4: Ancelotti talked about how close he came to joining us in 2015 but says we made the right choice in Klopp. He’s a good egg is Carlo, and at the time I wanted him rather than Jurgen. I know, what a fucking goon. It looks utterly insane now, but I think my main reasoning was that footy hipsters all loved Klopp and Dortmund and I just rebelled against that. I also thought there was a boom or bust element about Klopp whereas Ancelotti was more of a what you see is what you get. I was half right on that as things have definitely gone BOOM in a big way under Jurgen. Mad that Ancelotti has ended up on Merseyside four years later though, on the other side of the park. It won’t work out for him but that’s not a reflection on him as a manager. He’s won everything there is to win and his credentials are impeccable. But this is Everton we’re talking about here. Failure is what they do and not even he will be able to change that. The other thing that counts against him is he’s a nice fella who has a soft spot for the Reds. Ask Big Red Ron and Marco Silva how that worked out for them. In other news, hey he broke his Cherry!! Dom Solanke finally scored! He’s been there a year and it’s taken him until now to break his duck. Made up for him though, I always thought he was a really good player and although he wasn’t a fit for us I assumed he’d have a good career elsewhere. He still might, but 12 months without a goal is fucking grim. It must be doing his head in seeing Calvert-Lewin scoring freely even though he’s only half the player Solanke is, but it’s up to him to prove it now. Bournemouth are in real trouble as their squad has been ravaged by injury, so he needs to step up and score the goals that keep them up. Nice little win for the u18s today. 3-0 at home to Blackburn. The team is so young now it’s hard to keep track of who’s who. Most of the regulars have moved up to the 23s but the 18s still seem to keep getting results no matter who they pick. Sunday Jan 5: L 1 Everton 0 That was just one of the most enjoyable derby games ever and it’s one of my favourite games of the season so far. I loved the Arsenal game but this was even better. For all the praise that our lads deserve, you have to take into account how fucking woeful Everton were. I’d like to say that was because of how well we played, but it was mostly just them being massive cowards who bottled it because of Anfield. Poor Carlo is maybe now getting an idea of just what a hopeless task he has on his hands. Still, he’s being well compensated for the hit his reputation is going to take. They actually started well and had obviously taken encouragement by the team we’d sent out, but when they missed those three chances they lost all hope and spent the rest of the game just expecting to lose. It’s what they do. Don’t forget, they’ve had games when they’ve come here on an equal footing in the table (sometimes they’ve been above us) but without fail they’ve shit the bed. Any time there is any expectation on them to do anything they just can’t handle it. You know the one thing that summed Everton up today? They won the toss and chose to change ends, even though they had 8,000 fans in the Anny Road. We could have played the under 9s today and Everton would still have had an inferiority complex. To put this in perspective, this wasn’t our second team, it was more like our third. Several players in this line up would not make a second XI and there are one or two who might not make the third. Richarlison cost more than our entire line up. So did Sigurdsson. This was a derby win for the ages, one we can gloat about for generations. We beat Everton even though we didn’t pick Alisson, Trent, Robbo, Matip, Van Dijk, Lovren, Fabinho, Hendo, Keita, Wijnaldum, Salah, Mane, Firmino and Shaqiri. In addition, Milner only played six minutes and Ox only came on for the last 20. I wasn’t even surprised. Origi plus any ten was always going to be enough. What a goal by Curtis though. Doesn’t get any better for a young Red that. Monday Jan 6: Brewster is going to Swansea on loan but plans to let Jones go may be shelved after his heroics yesterday. I’d defo keep him around as he’s been on the bench lately which shows he’s needed. Besides, he’s 18 so it’s not THAT important that he goes out and gets experience. Some kids don’t need to do that (Trent for example) and Jones has developed massively this season just through training with the senior lads every day. I reckon Jones and Elliott (and probably Williams) will be the type of kids who don’t need to go out because they’ll force their way into the squad and do their developing that way. By all accounts the intensity in our training sessions is basically like a proper game, so the kids are learning more than they would by playing in League One or even the Championship. They’re having to pit themselves against some of the best players in the world, which is why when they then have to play against an Everton or someone it must feel like a relief. Some reports today that the club want Chirivella to sign a new contract. Bit weird like. Why would he do that? He’s 22 and he’s far too good to be playing reserve team football, yet he doesn’t have a hope in hell of forcing his way into the first team. And I say that as probably one of his biggest fans. He’s a lovely little footballer and will be a good signing for someone (but only if they play a possession based game), but he’s not getting past Fabinho, Hendo or Gini for that number six role. I get why the club might want to tie him down because the way he’s played in these last two cup games has probably generated a fair bit of interest and they might think they can cash in on him, but if you’re Pedro why would you do that? Unless the money is too good to turn down, but I can’t see that being the case. I really hope he gets a good move though, he’s a top lad and a lovely player to watch. Meanwhile, we’ve signed a 21 year old striker from ‘Brentford B’ for the u23s. Presumably he has v very little chance of making it, but we needed a striker because Brewster is heading out, Glatzel is injured and Bobby Duncan was a bellend. Anyway, the lad’s name is Joe Hardy and he’s originally from the Wirral. He played for City when he was younger before moving to Brentford. Tuesday Jan 7: City bummed United at Old Trafford and they might just be getting their mojo back now. Tactically they’re doing some things differently and they look a bit less vulnerable to counter attacks, which is a bit of a concern I suppose. Thankfully the gap we have is huge which gives us a cushion in case they go on one of their mad fucking runs. They looked good tonight but you have to factor in the opposition. United beat City a few weeks ago but they have it in them to do that now and again. If they played City ten times, they’d probably lose six or maybe even seven. They’re a badly coached side with some talented players who when they raise their game can look useful, but City should have beaten them by six tonight. Solksjaer though, God love him. His positivity / delusion is great. He was always going to come out and say something about how “we won the second half”. It’s true, they did, but only because City sometimes let that complacency creep in when they get ahead like that. Guardiola was fucking steaming about that afterwards and I would be too. When you have a chance to smash your neighbours in a derby, you need to take it. Wednesday Jan 8: Fucking hell, it’s kicking off at Everton. Fans turned up at Finch Farm demanding to be given an audience with the players so they could tell them how shit they are. That was denied them, but Marcel Brands did let them in and listened to their grievances. The word on the street is they told him that unless things improve soon they’ll be down with 300 lads and will trash the player’s cars. This is just too funny. The soft cunts have been watching too much Gazzetta Football Italia. Thinking they can show up at the training ground and threaten to “burn their Ferraris”. I mean, they’ve got every right to be pissed off, but threatening to bring 300 lads down to smash the players cars in is just too far fetched, even by Everton standards. I don’t believe that happened, but it’s still hilarious seeing the reaction to it all on social media. If they didn’t exist, we’d have to invent them. Staying with the Blues, it’s not just the fans who are revolting. The players are too, and they are also in revolt (never gets old!). It seems that Big Dunc gave them some home truths after Sunday’s game and some of them back chatted him. As far as we know there haven’t been any Everton players admitted to A&E, which tells me that the big man must be going soft. They've got more balls than I thought, because I defo wouldn't back chat him. Most rumours seem to have Delph as the ring leader, which is no surprise as he’d have been number one on my list of suspects. I watched that Man City documentary on Amazon and he’s a mouthy fucker who thinks he’s much better than he is. The suggestion is that he (and other senior pros) took exception to accusations they downed tools and they’re complaining about Ancelotti’s tactics already. After FOUR games. A man who has won every major honour in the game is being questioned by a bunch of losers who three days ago made Pedro Chirivella look like Xavi. Ancelotti has played with and managed some of the greatest players in the history of football. Now look at who he’s having to work with. When he took the job I compared it to De Niro taking a part on Coronation Street. That was really unfair on the cast of Corrie. A better comparison would be Tom Hanks joining ‘Made in Chelsea’. Meanwhile, another player left on loan today, as Isaac Christie-Davies went to Holland. I’ve never really thought anything of him when I watched him for the 23s. It’s not that I thought he was bad, I just had no opinion on him as I barely noticed him. When he played in the cup game at Villa though I thought he was really good, especially in the first half. Good luck to him. As he departs, another one returns. Liam Miller has been at Kilmarnock but he’s been recalled, probably because we have no strikers for the 23s now other than the kid we bought yesterday, Joe Hardy. He actually played tonight as the u23s lost 2-1 at home to Bilbao. The scoreline was harsh but we didn’t create much. Hardy didn’t do a great deal but does look like he’s got talent. Our goal was scored by Jack Bearne, who's a tidy little player with a great left foot. None of the lads who played against Everton in the cup were involved tonight, and it’s things like this that must make Neil Critchley’s job so difficult as there is no continuity to his team selections at all. Not that he’ll care, he must be proud as fuck after what his boys did last Sunday. Thursday Jan 9: Still more fallout from Sunday’s derby, as some Blue wrote a piece on Grand Old Team that might be the most pitiful, cringeworthy thing I’ve ever seen. You probably seen it as it went viral, so I won’t dissect it too much here, especially as I’d be here all day. There was a lot that I could pick apart, but I’ll just stick with the one takeaway I had from it. He compared Liverpool and Everton to a married couple and said that essentially an ‘uncoupling’ is needed because they aren’t getting anything out of it. Sorry sunshine, that’s not how it works. We didn’t CHOOSE to be with you and you didn't choose to be with us. We aren't a couple, we're siblings who don't like eachother. We're like the Gallagher brothers if one of them wasn't a dick and was far more successful than the other. How pathetic was it though? They're sick of us being better than them so they no longer want to be seen as rivals. Newsflash, the only reason you are 'rivals' is because we share a city, otherwise you'd be just as much of an irrelevance as Villa or West Ham. We keep you relevant, the only reason anyone knows who you are is because of the link to us. Be grateful, know your role and shut your mouth. If it's not one thing it's another though. In the week in which our new kit deal was finalised, the Blues look like they’ve got themselves a new kit deal too. And some of their fans aren’t happy. I saw a tweet from one of them that read: "Didn’t even know it was possible to downgrade from Umbro. And now it looks like we are... Liverpool just announced Nike. We’re going to Hummel, I hadn’t even heard of it until today. Fucking Hummel." Not sure I’m buying the ‘hadn’t heard of it until today’ part as Hummel made some class kits in the 80s. They’ve done nothing since, which makes them a good fit for Everton. I get why some Blues see it as another backward step and another sign of how far behind us they are, and I suppose it is. We’re getting £100m a season from Nike, they’ll be getting peanuts. One thing I’d put money on though is they’ll have a nicer kit than we will. Scant consolation like, but they need to cling to any little win they can get. Friday Jan 10: According to reports, Emre Can has turned down a move to United out of respect to the Reds. I still really like Can. I don’t miss him, not one little bit, but I still have time for him because he always put a shift in, even when we were shit. I don’t care that he left on a Bosman because we got Milner and Matip that way. You win some you lose some. I wonder if he ever regrets leaving though? Probably not, because the money he got was mental and he wanted to experience playing in Italy, but the likes of him and Coutinho must surely see what we’re doing and think “I could have been part of that”. If he has turned down United because he doesn’t want to ruin the relationship he has with us, then good for him. He’s misguided, because most Reds don’t give a fuck about him one way or another, but I for one applaud him. Nice one, Big Sexy. The mancs are said to be close to signing that Portuguese midfielder they were chasing last summer though. He was linked with us as well and he’s pretty good. Their fans are all excited about it but I look at it and just see how we were for so many years. We’ve been there so many times. You always think that one player can make all the difference, when the reality of it is that the only thing that really matters is having a great manager. The mancs didn’t win all those titles because of Cantona or Giggs or Keane. Obviously you need great players, but without a top manager you’ve generally got no chance unless you a) spend so much that it’s harder not to win it (Man City before Pep) or b) you get lucky by catching lightning in a bottle in a season when all the top clubs under-achieve (Leicester). The latter almost never happens, and the former is much more difficult now (even for Man United) with FFP. So, it comes down to your manager. And they don’t have one. We do, which is why we are where we are right now. It won’t last forever as these things go in cycles, so I’m just enjoying every minute of this. Finally, Pepe Reina has joined Villa on loan. Fucking hell, why on earth would he do that? Honestly can’t get my head around why he’d swap the bench in Milan for one in Birmingham. Or maybe he’s going to start for them? Even so, at his age and after the career he’s had, I’d rather be sat on Milan’s bench than be playing for Villa. At least he’ll get to play at Anfield again I suppose. that was the week that was….

“We expected to win” said Adam Lallana afterwards. So did I. Seriously, I did. Even after I saw the team we picked I was confident we’d win. Why? Because it’s Anfield, it’s Everton and because every player who in this squad is a mentality monster, even the kids. Any time they’ve been selected we’ve seen the confidence in the younger players, so it shouldn’t really be surprising. It’s unusual and it’s rare that you see kids performing so well in limited appearances, but there is a simple explanation for it. Part of it is that Klopp can make players feel ten feet tall, but it’s not just that. It’s about how these kids are integrated into the group and how they are made to feel. Let’s say you’re Harvey Elliott for example. You’ve probably spent a lot of time up against Andy Robbo in training. Why would you then be even the slightest bit fazed about facing any other left back? It goes right throughout the squad. Curtis Jones trains every day alongside and against people like Fabinho, Henderson, Milner, Wijnaldum. As if he’s going to be even the tiniest bit intimidated coming up against Schneiderlin or Sigurdsson. I think Yasser Larouci is the only one not with the seniors on a full time basis, so Neco Williams and Nat Phillips for example, are used to coming up against Salah, Firmino and Mané every day. Seriously, it must almost be a relief to face Richarlison, Walcott and Calvert-Lewin. And I’m not saying this to be derogatory about the Blues’ players. They’re seasoned Premier League footballers, but most of our young lads train with the best team in the world day in day out so why would they be nervous about facing inferior players to those they pit themselves against every day? That no doubt sounds arrogant but it’s true. Those young players train with and against some of the world’s best players every single day, and even when they aren’t involved in the match day squad they are still there in the dressing room, or travelling to away games. Watch those ‘Inside Training’ videos on LFC TV and you’ll see that there isn’t an “us” and “them” situation. The senior lads are always joking around and mixing with the kids, and the result of all this is that the lads see themselves as Liverpool players and not just reserves. In the past it was often intimidating for a young player to be plucked out of the reserves and thrown into the first team. Now they’re so close to it every week they’re just desperate to be involved. They aren’t scared, they’re just hungry as fuck and they’re completely comfortable in their surroundings. Curtis actually said afterwards that he’s been “frustrated” sat on the bench. He’s 18 years old and the team are European Champions, miles clear at the top of the table and quite literally wins every single game. Yet he’s frustrated that he is only a substitute! Why is that? Partly because he’s the most confident kid in the world, but also because Klopp has these lads so close to the action they can almost taste it. If they were training with the 23s at the Academy and not really around the seniors much, they wouldn’t even be thinking about playing for the first team. When you’re with them every day though, travelling to every game as part of the squad and (in the case of Jones and Williams especially) sometimes even making the bench, you’re desperate to play. And when you do play you want to show Klopp that you should play more often. By all accounts every training session is like a game anyway, such is the intensity. So if they can handle that they can handle anything, as we’ve seen against MK Dons, Arsenal and now Everton. That winning mentality just runs right through the club now. It’s trickled down from the first team to the rest of the squad, and even the Academy sides have massive jones by scoring shitloads of late goals. It’s most evident with the kids who are constantly around the senior lads though. Not only did we win the game, we thoroughly deserved to win it. The start was a bit mad and Everton had three chances in the first 25 minutes. After that though, once everyone calmed down and just played the way they were supposed to, we completely bossed it. The second half was embarrassing for Everton as they were taken to school by a team full of kids. The Blues looked fucking terrified. You could see the fear in their performance. Ancelotti must be wondering just what the fuck happened because playing Liverpool doesn’t scare him. He’s already beaten us once this season and also nicked a draw. I think they smashed us in pre-season too. You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. The spectre of Anfield must haunt Evertonian dreams because the mental block they have when they come here is just so obvious. In the 20 years since they last won here, their biggest disappointments have probably been when there was expectation on them to do something. The one that always stands out to me was when Gerrard was sent off early doors and suddenly the onus was on them to win the game, and they completely shat themselves. This was a similar situation I suppose. When the teams were announced, the Blues were made odds on favourites. They must have thought this was the day they finally put that hoodoo to bed. And then an 18 year Kopite in his first home game sunk them with a goal of a lifetime. They must feel like they’re cursed. Maybe they are, but the more obvious explanation is that they’re just shit and mentality midgets. A few weeks ago Everton were at such a low ebb that I didn’t even have it in me to take the piss any more. I said in the last Derby report that ripping on them in the state they’d found themselves in was almost like mocking a disabled person. I couldn’t do it, it was too arlarse. That changed when they appointed Ancelotti though. They were fair game again as that gave them some credibility and something to feel good about, so I have no qualms mocking them now. What a bunch of fucking losers. They’ve had some brutal Derby defeats over the years and lost in pretty much every conceivable manner. I didn’t think last year could be topped but this might be the worst of the lot from their point of view. The cockiness from some of their fans when they saw the team we’d picked just makes me think they must not have been paying attention. I’m sure you’ll have seen the best comments posted all over social media. My personal favourite was the one declaring that they would win 8-0 just to punish us for the disrespect we showed them with the team selection. How can any Blue be that full of hubris after 20 years without an Anfield win? It’s mental. They deserve everything that comes their way. Some were pissed off we rested players because it put them in a “no win” situation. Don’t worry about who we pick, just win the game and worry about that shit afterwards. The smart ones took the view that they didn’t care if we played the under 9s, they’d still celebrate like mad because it’s us and it’s Anfield. That’s how they should have looked at it as beggars can’t be choosers. Maybe next time we will play the under 9s? I’d still back us to at least take it to a replay. The team selection was controversial I suppose, given the opposition. Even if we’d lost this game though I wouldn’t have said anything critical of Klopp’s team selection. It was the obvious thing to do. Had we been playing anybody else I wouldn’t have even contemplated going with a stronger side, it was only that 20 year unbeaten home derby record that muddied the waters. I didn’t want to lose that record and because of that I can understand why a lot of fans wanted a stronger team. Klopp isn’t influenced by anything like that though. He doesn’t let emotion or sentiment come into it and thank fuck that’s the case or who knows who else we might have lost to injury. A lot of people don’t seem to understand how this works. The six day break before our next game doesn’t even come into it. It’s not about the next game, it’s about the last game. And the ones before it. As soon as Klopp mentioned Newcastle losing four players to injury on New Year’s Day I knew he was leaving everyone out. If he’d fielded most of the first choice players you can almost guarantee some of them would have gotten injured. In my mind there’s no doubt about it. We saw it with Milner, while a year ago the exact same thing happened with Lovren when he was selected to play with the kids and stiffs against Wolves. No doubt Klopp wishes now that he hadn’t started Milner, who lasted just six minutes before pulling a hamstring. This is what happens though. It’s why Klopp didn’t want to select any of his senior players. Selecting Gomez was a big risk but thankfully that paid off as he came through unscathed (and was sensational again). Milner had played the full game against Sheffield United earlier in the week (and covered more ground that anyone on the pitch) so he must have been in “the red zone”. If Captain Fitness himself can pull a muscle then anyone can. Hopefully the next time Klopp leaves everybody out then people will have more understanding about why it is necessary, but I won’t hold my breath. If this result had gone wrong Klopp would have faced the usual barrage of accusations of ‘disrespecting the cup’, only this time there would have been a section of our fanbase also pissed off because he’d essentially forfeited a derby. The result didn’t go wrong though, it went right. Gloriously, famously right. The memory of this will last a long time and will no doubt be immortalised in song. The most amusing thing to me is that Shankly’s quote about the two best teams on Merseyside being Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves was proved to be true. Except this wasn’t even our reserves. In some cases, it was the reserves to the reserves. Several of these players wouldn’t get into a Liverpool second XI and one or two might not even make a third eleven either. Yet they beat Everton’s first team. Our entire starting line up cost less than Richarlison. Hell, it cost less than fucking Sigurdsson. The way the game started suggested we’d have our hands full though. Everton knew this was a great chance for them to finally win at Anfield and they began the game confidently. They were direct and looked to hit Calvert-Lewin early but there was clearly a plan to get runners in behind us too, and initially it worked. We struggled to deal with that early on and Phillips in particular looked edgy and uncomfortable. He said himself afterwards that the pace of the game caught him by surprise as he’s been playing in the more pedestrian German second division. It took him a little while to settle and the defence wasn’t helped by the early injury to Milner. Everton took advantage of that and had three clear chances, all of which they hit straight at Adrian. A lot of the problems we were having came down the flank vacated by Milner. It was tough for Larouci as our full backs are expected to play a certain way, but if we don’t have control of the game then they leave big gaps when they push up so high. He’s a converted winger so his natural instinct is to attack rather than defend. Larouci was doing what he’s been trained to do but it meant that whenever we lost the ball Walcott was able to get in. Surprisingly, ol’ Theo actually played like something resembling a top flight footballer in the first half, before he reverted to type after the break. Most pointless cunt in football him. Seriously, what’s the point of him, the absolute fucking loser. I can’t even stand to look at him, the overly groomed fucking mannequin. Fuck you, Theo Walcott. But enough of him, someone as pointless as that doesn’t deserve the words I’ve already wasted on him. For all the talk about the chances they had, Everton’s last effort on target was in the 26th minute apparently. After that? Nothing at all, they were completely shut down and Adrian had nothing to do after he made that third save to deny Richarlison. What a bunch of fucking losers. Their crowd and players. They had the entire Anny Road and they’d been running their mouths all week about what they were going to do. Something about bringing 8,000 whistles to drown out YNWA and how they were going to show us what a real atmosphere was. YNWA was loud and clear, they drowned out nothing. They did turn their backs on the Kop though, which is just too funny, especially when you see the wheelchair handlers even turning the wheelchair fans around so they can’t see the Kop. Amazing scenes. I mean what do they think they’re achieving by that when they can still hear it? They were enthusiastic in the opening stages when their team were creating chances, but in that second half there wasn’t a peep out of them. They were as fucking timid and scared as their players. It’s difficult finding the balance between praising our lads and highlighting just how cowardly and inept Everton were. I expected us to win the game but I thought they’d give us a real test and we might just scrape through on desire and the crowd getting us home, like in the Arsenal game. It wasn’t like that at all though. It was almost like watching our first team in that second half, so dominant was the performance. The other night we broke the record for most passes in a game. Chirivella on his own must have been close to breaking that in this game. Everton didn’t lay a glove on us and - led by Lallana and Chirivella - we just passed them off the park. Everton’s midfielders allowed those two to look like prime Xavi and Iniesta. We didn’t create a ton of chances but once we overcame that opening 25 minutes we always looked the more likely. Minimino should have scored at the Kop end but didn’t get enough on his header. Jones had an effort just wide and Origi brought a top class have out of Pickford. He was offside and it wouldn’t have counted, but it was great footwork from Big Div and a sensational stop by Pickford, who will have enjoyed that after being taunted about his little arms all afternoon. He won’t have enjoyed that spectacular winner from Jones though. It’s easy to put that down to Pickford’s little arms but when you watch the replay he did well to get as close to it as he did. The ball is well over the height of the crossbar but it dips and bends and goes in off the bar, and Pickford is still only a whisker away from reaching it. It was a ridiculous strike. Our goal of the season so far and that’s saying something when we score worldies every other week. The technique to pull that off is off the fucking charts. Curtis is a special talent. Did anyone think he was going to shoot when he initially collected the pass from Origi? Not me, and I’ve been watching Jones in the junior sides for years. I’ve seen him score goals like that but I didn’t think he was going to shoot this time because his body was facing away from goal. I thought he’d just try and play a little trademark one - two, but the next thing you know the ball is flying towards the top corner. It was an incredible strike worthy of winning any game. Imagine being Curtis Jones today. You wake up and think “oh yeah, that actually fucking happened!”. An 18 year old Red doing that on his first Anfield start. It must be an incredible feeling. You could see how made up all the other lads were for him, especially Sadio who was warming up on the touchline and went fucking mad. He doesn’t even get that excited when he scores himself, but the spirit in this squad is incredible. Jones was given the man of the match award (just as he was at MK Dons) and no-one will begrudge him that as he was outstanding. The best player on the pitch though was Lallana. He might not be the fashionable or sexy pick as we all want to see the kids given recognition, but Lallana was just so good in this game and it speaks volumes about the type of character he is. So often in the past we’ve played weakened sides like this and been absolute shit. The kids would be overawed or they just wouldn’t get the help needed from senior pros who didn’t want to be there. Think Wolves last season, when the senior lads like Sturridge and Moreno were terrible. What we saw from Lallana (as well as Gomez and Origi) is exactly what you need. If you have one senior player in each of the lines and they perform as these boys did, then it’s so much easier for the kids and you can get away with it. After going ahead we saw it out with no problems whatsoever. It was embarrassingly easy. The composure and maturity from every player in Red must have had Klopp purring. Imagine being a manager and seeing such a heavily rotated team perform like that. I doubt if he’s ever been prouder. It’s really hard singling anyone out when the entire team put in a performance like that. There were star performers all over the park so I’m going to go through them one by one: Adrian didn’t do anything spectacular but he was in the right place to make three huge saves in the first half. His distribution was spot on and he was a calming presence. He more than played his part and he fucking loves beating Everton. Neco Williams was faultless. This kid is so impressive. He’s come on massively this season and has leapfrogged Ki-Jana Hoever in the pecking order. Hoever is a genuinely special talent, so what does that say about Neco? Honestly, this kid is fucking brilliant. If Trent needs resting, just put this lad in now as there’s no need to be concerned about whether he’s ready. He clearly is. He hasn’t put a foot wrong defensively in games against Arsenal and Everton and he’s contributed a lot going forward. Joe Gomez was once again sensational. He’s genuinely world class already and he’s only 22. The one concern I might have had with him is whether he can look as accomplished when he’s not partnered by Virgil. Well the big man wasn’t there this time and Gomez took the leadership role himself and helped Nat Phillips through some difficult early moments. If Van Dijk is a Rolls Royce, then Gomez is a Ferrari. Nat Phillips. He’s not a kid (he’s the same age as Gomez) but he is very inexperienced. He’s only been back here a couple of weeks after an indifferent loan spell in Germany and this was a baptism of fire, coming into an under-strength side to play in a Merseyside Derby. He looked a little edgy early on but as the game wore on he grew in stature and confidence. In the second half he really looked the part. Yasser Larouci. What a performance from this kid. Unlike the others, he didn’t have time to prepare himself as he probably didn’t even expect to get on at all. Then after six minutes Milner pulls up and suddenly he’s thrown in at the deep end. It was tough at first because the game was a bit wild and we didn’t have the control we’d have liked. Everton attacked down his side a lot and Walcott had a couple of dangerous moments. Yasser played himself into the game though and he bossed that flank in the second half. Pedro Chirivella. I love this lad. It’s a crime that decent clubs haven’t been lining up to take him. He’s nowhere near the level that is required to compete for a place in our midfield but he’s a proper footballer and other than one poor outing against Swansea a few years back he’s been class whenever he’s had a chance with us. Along with Lallana, he controlled this game with his passing and composure on the ball. He did a lot of good defensive work too, even though that’s probably his biggest weakness. Take a bow, Pedro. Adam Lallana. The best player on the pitch. Oozed class, composure, intelligence, energy and skill. He ran the game and without him I don’t think we’d have been able to play like this. Having someone with his experience and knowledge of how we play to guide those around him is invaluable. If we’d had him and one or two others available at Villa Park we’d have won that game too. Curtis Jones. The most confident lad in the world. He’s just about smart enough to not admit this publicly, but I bet you he thinks he should be starting every week. As long as it is harnessed in the right way that kind of confidence is what you need if you’re looking to break into this team. He’s good enough to play every week if what you can do with the ball is all that counts. Unfortunately for him, what our midfielders do without the ball is arguably more important. When Curtis cracks that side of things he’ll play all the time because he’s brilliant. Harvey Elliott. See above. This kid is phenomenal. He’s 16 years old and he looks like he belongs in our first team. He was up against one of the best left backs in the league and he wasn’t fazed at all. Digne eventually ended up frustrated and resorted to fouling him. The most impressive thing about Elliott’s performance for me was that he never tried to force anything or show off. He played sensibly, unselfishly and I can’t wait to see him play again. He’s been brilliant so far but he’s only really played with the other kids and fringe players. I’d love to see him with two of the regular front three. Divock Origi. Another senior pro who did a great job helping the kids. It was a game of few chances for him but his link play, ability to keep the ball and his work rate were spot on. Didn’t score but can claim an assist on the Jones goal. Takumi Minamino. Difficult game for him to come into and he was quiet I thought. Lots of good movement and some nice flashes of play, but you could tell he’d only just arrived. Interesting that he played Bobby’s role. That’s the position I felt he’d mainly been bought for. He’ll play in other roles too, but we don’t have anyone who can do what Bobby does and that’s why I think we signed Minamino. So yeah, they were all boss but Lallana was the pick of the bunch. I also want to mention Ox, who was a surprising inclusion on the bench. Made up to see him back so quickly, but wasn’t it funny watching him when he came on? He looked like he’d been shot out of a fucking cannon. He was flying around the pitch doing everything at 200mph. Great to see. We’ll find out tonight who we get next and that might have an impact on who plays and who doesn’t, but personally I want to see the same core of players used in all of the cup games. They were robbed of the chance to progress in the league cup, so let them have a crack at this one. To be completely truthful, I don’t even think about winning the domestic cups anymore. If we did, great, but it’s not something I spend any time contemplating. When we win a cup tie I’m not thinking “one step nearer Wembley” I’m thinking “great, another chance to see the kids get a run out”. So I don’t care who we get next, but I would like another home draw. Team: Adrian; Williams, Phillips, Gomez, Milner (Larouci); Chirivella, Lallana, Jones; Elliott (Brewster), Minamino (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Origi:

West Ham picked up a much needed win as they smashed Bournemouth 3-0 to kick off their New Year - and of course the Davie Moyes era - in style. Not really a surprise, they’ve got ‘the Chosen One’ now and as the man himself says “winning is what he does”. I’m just glad we’ve got such a big lead over him or we might be in trouble. Mark Noble’s deflected strike set them on their way and Sebastian Haller added a brilliant second with a bicycle kick. He was giving it the sulky / not celebrating celebration to the fans as he’s taken a lot of stick recently. Sorry lad, but you cost big money and you’ve done fuck all in a team that has been so bad that they’re in relegation trouble and had to sack a Premier League winning manager. You don’t get to give it the big ‘un just for doing what you’ve been bought to do. Noble made it 3-0 from the spot after being brought down by Harry Wilson, who did everything in his power to not make contact but just couldn’t avoid it. Thats why you don’t want players like Harry back in his own box defending. Felipe Anderson finally did something worthwhile and made it 4-0 with a nice individual effort. Good player him but he’s been a massive let down this season. Creswell was sent off for a reckless challenge on Fraser but VAR downgraded it to a yellow. Not sure how I feel on that, but it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things as Bournemouth were already dead and buried. Bournemouth are in real trouble now but they’ve just been ravaged by injury recently. If they get their main players back I think they’ll just have enough to pull out of it as when they’re at full strength they’re a decent side. Poor Dom Solanke still can’t find the net though. He hit the post late on and I just feel really bad for the lad. Hopefully he can start scoring in the run in to keep them up. After all, if he fails, we can forget about getting any more cash from Nice Guy Eddie for our kids. Mind you, that ship may have already sailed after Jordon Ibe got himself nicked for allegedly driving his Bentley into a coffee shop and leaving the scene. Fucking hell. Am I the only person who read that and found the most disturbing aspect of it that Jordon Ibe has a fucking Bentley? The shitness of modern football. Update: Solanke scored in the FA Cup. Good for him, hopefully now the monkey is off his back he can get rolling. If that Calvert-Lewin bum can manage double;e figures there’s no reason Solanke can’t, as he was always the better of the two in all of the England junior sides. Meanwhile, Leicester continue to be our closest challengers after they made it two away wins out of two without Jamie Vardy after comfortably seeing off Newcastle, who are really slumping now after a decent spell not so long ago. That Ayoze Perez loser opened the scoring when he took advantage of a gift from Lejeune. Scandalous play that. It’s one of the first things you get taught as a kid. Never pass the ball across your own box. The soft cunt tried to play it from one corner of the penalty area to the other even though there were two Leicester players between him and his intended target. Now ok, maybe he thought “It’s only that loser Ayoze” and having played with him he’s well aware of how shit he is, but even so, the sun even shines on a dog’s arse somedays and this was one of those days. Bit surprised to see him celebrate, especially in the manner he did, sticking both fingers in his ears. Were the Geordies booing him then? I guess they must have or you’d have to be a colossal twat to do that. Perez is just a regular sized twat, so he must have been provoked. Par for the course with them really, but I didn’t expect them to be giving him stick considering how much money they fleeced Leicester out of. Maddison made it 2-0 with a brilliant left footer into the top corner from 25 yards. Great finish but it was another gift from Lejeune who again passed it straight to a Leicester player. He’s so bad he belongs in that Fulham side that went down last year. He’s very much from the Tim Ream school of defending. Shite. Poor Steve Bruce had to make three enforced changes by half time and then he lost a fourth player to injury early in the second half to leave them with only ten men. He was rightly bemoaning the fixture load afterwards as three of those injuries were hamstrings, brought about through fatigue. Some clubs have enough players where they can rotate and give people a rest, but Bruce didn’t think he had that luxury and paid the price. He probably should have played the kids because as well as losing the game they lost four senior players. Klopp mentioned it in his pre-Everton presser so that leads me to think it’s going to be three men and the babies on Sunday. Adrian, Divock, Lallana and the kids. Newcastle’s misery was complete when Choudhury lashed one in off the bar from 20 yards to wrap things up for the Foxes and keep them ahead of Man City, who had the luxury of a training session masquerading as a competitive fixture against Everton. I actually watched this one, or at least I watched until City scored and then I switched it off. I had thought there was a chance the Blues might get something from the game. More fool me. Honestly, they were a fucking joke. As usual. Here’s the thing. You’re probably going to lose when you play Man City because they’re really good. If you have a go at them you at least have a chance, but if you sit back and just defend then it’s a guaranteed loss. No prizes for guessing how Everton approached it. Shithouses. The annoying thing is that on the rare occasions Everton tried to attack they looked like they could score. Shame they only tried about three or four times in 90 minutes. Foden had an early goal ruled out by VAR after Mahrez was caught offside in the build up. fucking redshite conspiracy this. Mahrez then thought he should have had a penalty, but the linesman had incorrectly adjudged him offside and flagged prior to the ‘foul’. VAR looked at the incident and decided that he was onside but that it wasn’t a penalty. Again, fucking redshite conspiracy. “Fuck VAR” echoed around the Etihad. The Man City fans even joined in at one point…. Jesus eventually put City ahead with a lovely curled finish that Pickford got his hand to but couldn’t keep out. If only his arms were just a little bit longer. It looked close to being offside and there was a check to make sure it was ok. If that decision had gone against City there’d have been angry fans on the pitch I reckon. The City fans might have even joined in. Much was made of how City’s goal celebration was muted because of the shadow of VAR. How can you tell? Everything they do is muted, the half arsed wankers. Jesus made it 2-0 when he was given too much space in the box and was played onside by Mina. Really poor from Everton but they were given a lifeline when Bravo passed the ball straight to Moise Kean and Richarlison ended up tapping in at the back post. Jesus was within a whisker of a hat-trick when his powerful shot came back off the post and all in all it was a much more comfortable win than the score suggests. Ancelotti was laughing in his post-match interview but strangely there wasn’t the same kind of fury that was directed at poor Ole the following night. I’ll get to that in due course. How shit are Burnley? They lost at home to Villa and they’ve been in a terrible run of late. Villa managed to overcome the disappointment of the most ludicrous VAR disallowed goal decision yet. No-one enjoys laughing at Villa more than me, but that Grealish goal that was chalked off angered the fuck out of me. It’s scandalous really. Wesley’s heel is a millimetre offside and he isn’t even facing the goal. Not just that, it’s second phase and he had nothing to do with the actual goal. Just fuck off with that shit. Grealish actually handled it well, saying “if you’re offside you’re offside”. Technically he’s right, but fucking hell, come on. No-one wants to see goals ruled out for that, not even Villa goals. They didn’t let that setback kill them though. There are some teams, I’ll mention no names *cough* Wolves *cough* who might completely lose their heads over a VAR decision or two that went against them, but Villa just rolled their sleeves up and got on with it. Wesley eventually put them ahead but it was weird because based on the MOTD coverage it sounded like the away end didn’t even cheer it. Can’t blame them really given that the one that had been ruled out earlier had absolutely no hint of anything untoward about it. It’s happening more and more now, fans aren’t celebrating if there’s even a slight doubt that something might not be quite right. There was more of a cheer when Grealish curled in a beauty to make it 2-0 soon after as there was no way that was getting ruled out. That cart horse Wood headed in to give Burnley hope with ten minutes to go but Villa held on for a win that came at great cost, as they lost both Wesley and Heaton for the season. They’ll struggle to overcome that. Still, it’s Villa so fuck ‘em. Southampton’s resurgence continued with a win at home to Spurs. Ings scored again and it was a cracker, drawing comparisons with Gazza against Scotland. Both teams had chances after that but Southampton deserved the win and over the last eight games they’re second in the form table, which I don’t think anyone seen coming. I hammered them for not sacking arl Ralph when they lost 9-0 but turns out that maybe they knew what they were doing. Fair play. Spurs continue to look really mediocre but the longer Jose has to get his feet under the table the more defensive and boring they’ll become. They’re neither one thing or another at the moment. Kane did his hamstring while scoring from an offside position and will almost certainly miss the game against us next week (you never know with him though). That gives Jose all the excuses he needs to just camp in his own box and shithouse the fuck out of the game. He was in fine form after this one, taking exception at some of the Southampton tactics (hilarious considering he invented most of that shit when he was at Porto) and then explaining a booking for something he said to one of the Southampton coaching staff by quipping “I was rude so I deserved the yellow card. But I was rude to an idiot”. The deadpan delivery of it was brilliant too. Great stuff. Chelsea took the lead at Brighton through Azpilacueta but they couldn’t hold on and were pegged back late by a brilliant overhead kick by Jahanbakhsh. He’s their record signing but until the last couple of games I’d never heard of him. Brighton are like Watford, every other week they bring out some lad who has never been seen or heard from before and then it turns out they cost upwards of £20m or something. I’ve just googled him and it turns out he played 19 games for them last season. Can’t just be me who’d never heard of him, surely? Meanwhile, Watford continue rolling under Nigel Pearson. Deulefeu put them ahead at home to Wolves with a composed finish into the bottom corner. He then teed one up for Doucoure to make it 2-0. Neto pulled one back with a deflected shot from distance. Interestingly, he didn’t taunt the crowd with his celebration this time, the little bellend. Kabasele was sent off for pulling back Jota and Wolves piled on the pressure looking for an equaliser but they couldn’t find a way past Foster as Watford collected their 10th point from their last four games. They only had nine points from their first four months until Pearson arrived. That new manager bounce has been so high they’ll have snow on them when eventually come down. It’s interesting because I’ve read a lot recently about how shit the Premier League apparently is. People are only saying this because we’re so fucking good and they don’t want to acknowledge it. It’s not that the Reds are brilliant, it’s that everyone else is shit. Ok, sure. Both European finals were contested by English teams last season (none of whom were Man City) so it can’t be that bad. The standard is as high as it’s ever been. Higher in fact. That is obscured somewhat because some of the traditional top teams are in various stages of transition / freefall, but the standard of the league from top to bottom is high. Put it this way, until a week or two back Watford were bottom of the table on just nine points. So, the worst team in the division could boast players of the calibre of Deulefeu, Foster, Deeney, Doucoure, Janmaat and Capoue. Other teams down there are similar. Aston Villa are a newly promoted side who have a centre forward that has been capped by Brazil. Southampton have internationals all over the pitch, Bournemouth have some good players, Brighton lack talent but are superbly coached while even Palace, who I keep saying are shite, have several good quality international players. Sick of them somehow getting results they don’t deserve though. The latest was a draw at Norwich, who should have been out of sight before they conceded a late equaliser. Norwich just can’t win games even when they dominate. It must be doing Farke’s head in as they play some great footy. Cantwell’s opener should have just been the start but Norwich just couldn’t put Palace away, and Connor fucking Wickham equalised. You have to feel for Norwich, they’re so fucking unlucky. How unlucky do you have to be to be the team who concedes to Wickham? It happens once every three years. What makes it worse is it was initially ruled out for offside only for VAR to correct it. It’s just heartbreaking for Norwich as this keeps happening to them. Finally, Arsenal and United got the rare treat of being able to play on a Wednesday in the Europa League Derby. It was a game that was essentially just to decide who is the least shit. Personally I’d have made them play on Thursday, in the afternoon, as that’s more befitting of their current standing in English football. The mighty have fallen in a big way, but Arsenal at least had something to cheer about to start 2020 as they won this comfortably. They played well, but United were genuinely fucking abysmal. The Gunners went ahead early through Pepe. Just look at that dope Maguire on that goal, dropping five yards behind everyone else and playing Arsenal onside. What a waste of money. Mind you, look at the cost of that entire United back four. Shaw £35m, Maguire £85m, Wan-Bissaka £50m and Lindelof £30m. £180m for that? No wonder they’re floundering. Pepe skinned Shaw and picked out Aubameyeng who volleyed over, and then Lacazette skinned Maguire and should have scored but got his finish all wrong. Pepe then hit the post and it was just wave after wave of Arsenal attacks. Sokratis made it 2-0 when United didn’t clear a corner and that was the very least Arsenal deserved at half time. Credit to United, it’s not easy making Arsenal look this good. The second half was more of an even contest but the only thing of note that happened was Fred producing the worst free-kick of all time. Roberto Carlos will be turning in his grave at that. Imagine being Brazilian and hitting a free-kick like that. It’s like being a Welshman who can’t sing, or a Scotsman who can’t handle his ale. I mentioned last week about how United fans are trying to make Alexander-Arnold v Wan-Bissaka a thing and how laughable it is. Well after this game I saw Daniel James was trending, so I had a little nose to see why. It was a combination of United fans ripping him for being a pace merchant who belongs in the Championship, and Arsenal fans ripping him on account of United fans earlier in the season lauding him and continually making a James v Pepe thing. The Maguire v Van Dijk one has been very quiet of late though. I say of late, but it died a death after a couple of weeks. Not even United fans are deluded enough to try and make that argument. Maguire has been fucking shite but he’s English so very little is said. David Luiz puts in a performance like Maguire and he’s ripped to pieces by every pundit on TV, yet Maguire’s shitness has gone right under the radar despite his world record fee. He’s been outplayed by Lindelof this season. The only positive thing that can be said about him is that at least he isn’t as bad as Phil Jones. Not yet anyway. United fans are just completely ill equipped they are to deal with how shite they’ve become. Most of them have only ever been used to success and now that they’re back in the middle of the pack they’re all over the place. The views they have on James typify that perfectly. Earlier in the season he was the second coming of Ryan Giggs. They were lauding him and swinging their dicks at how they plucked him from the Championship for peanuts and turned him into one of the best in the league. As soon as his purple patch ended they turned on him and now apparently his level was actually Swansea after all. The truth is somewhere in between, but United fans seem to only be able to deal in extremes these days. They win a game and they’re back. Then they lose and it’s time to burn the whole thing down. Personally I love what they’ve done this season. Mostly bad but just enough good to make them stick with Ole. I don’t want them losing every week, this is much more fun because as long as it continues like this then they’re effectively just in purgatory. Solksjaer was laughing in his post match interview and he’s been hammered for that. Van Persie was one of those who didn’t like it (my money would have been on Scholes leading that particular charge if Ole wasn’t his mate) and Solskjaer was asked what he thought about the criticism from the Dutchman. His reply was bitchy to say the least. “I don’t know Robin and he doesn’t know me so he shouldn’t criticise my management style. He took my number 20 shirt but that’s the only thing he’s taking from me, because I don’t live in medieval times”. Bit of a soft 9and confusing) response. Should have just said “Yeah? Well at least I’m not a rapist” and then dropped the mic. That’ll learn him. As for the laughing after a defeat, I wouldn’t like it either if that was my manager, but he’s not my manager so I don’t give a fuck. I just think he’s quite a nice fella, which is probably not what that club needs right now. Don’t tell them that though as this is ace. Arsenal fans on Twitter were pretty chesty afterwards, especially when it comes to Pepe. Can’t blame them, everyone has been laughing at that signing because they paid a shitload for him and until recently he’d not done anything. My view is that even if he turns out to be brilliant it was still a terrible signing because another forward was the last thing they needed. They should have used the money on positions in which they desperately needed quality. Like, oh I don’t know, fucking everywhere else except up front. The whole thing just made me feel smug and superior to be honest. We’re sat on top of the mountain feasting, watching all the peasants killing each other over scraps. Arsenal fans point scoring over the Mancs because their overpriced winger outshone United’s bargain basement one. This is the kind of thing these other fans are bragging about now because they’ve got fuck all else. These are special times we’re living through currently and we should be savouring every second of it, as these things are cyclical and you never know how long it will last. United and Arsenal both look fucked at the moment and the chances are it will take a long time for them to get back to the very top. You never know though, there might be another up and coming Klopp out there somewhere and if they were to nab him then they might be back quicker than any of us think. After all, four years ago who would have imagined we’d be where we are now? If you add Arsenal and United’s points tally together they’d still be behind us. Incredible really, but this is our current reality. And theirs.

Whatever happened to those roller coaster games when we couldn’t hold onto a lead? We’d play the likes of Palace or West Ham or Norwich and it’d be 4-3 or 5-4 or something wild, because we couldn’t control games. The way the team has evolved was never more in evidence than here. We completely strangled Sheffield United and amassed the most passes in a league game since records began. To think that a lot of fans were worried about this game. I wouldn’t say I was worried as such, but I can’t say I was fully confident either. I thought we’d win but I expected a tough game, probably similar to the Wolves game three days earlier. Turns out it was quite easy. Or at least that’s how the lads made it look. No doubt a lot of hard work went into it but to the untrained eye it looks like we rarely had to get out of second gear. I’m sure that’s not the case, and the distance covered stats for the players would attest to that (Milner especially). It helps when you score inside four minutes of course. Lovely goal it was too. Ok, the defender fell down and that helps, but I’m not sure he would have been able to cut out that pass from Virg anyway. Robbo collected the ball, got his head up and picked out Salah’s run. Mo did the rest. Lovely goal and I wish I’d celebrated it properly. I didn’t though. Why? Firstly because from where I was sat it looked like the ball might have brushed off Robbo’s hand as he controlled it, and secondly because there was no way of knowing whether Salah was onside or not. As it turns out the ball was nowhere near Robbo’s hand and Mo was well onside. I didn’t know that though from the opposite end of the stadium. I didn’t celebrate the second either because I thought it was probably offside. I hate this, but what can you do? That opening goal is another example of how the team has developed. Those long balls played from the defenders are killing opponents. We can hurt teams in so many ways that we’ve become almost impossible to stop. Sit back against us and we can play around and through. Push up and we’ll hit the ball over the top. If we don’t get you in other of those ways, then there’s always counter attacks or set-pieces. Mo’s movement was terrific all night. He never stopped running in behind and deserved more than the one goal. But for the keeper he’d have gone home with the match ball. Dean Henderson was the villain when his error gifted us three points earlier in the season, but he made amends in this one. Everyone thought Mo had bagged a second goal when he met a cross by Hendo and directed the ball towards the top corner with a first time right foot shot. Somehow the keeper managed to get a hand on it and turn it over the bar. He denied Salah again after a lovely flowing counter attack. What a goal that would have been. Sheffield United were struggling to keep us at bay but they had two chances of their own, completely against the run of play. Lundstram saw a clever lobbed effort drop just wide of the post, and McGoldrick forced a save from Alisson with a snapshot from 18 yards. Aside from that it was one way traffic though. It was a hugely impressive performance all things considered. The toughest game we’ve had all season was at Bramall Lane. We got the win but it was fucking hard going. The Blades have been very difficult for opponents to figure out. Even the games they’ve lost have been tight and nobody has been able to dominate them. Not until this game. Chris Wilder’s classy comments post-match summed it up really. They couldn’t lay a glove on us and we outworked them as well as outplaying them. They’d played City a few days before and held their own in an unfortunate 2-0 defeat. This was men against boys though. Wilder was disappointed with how his team played but he also knows that we can make any side look ordinary when we’re on our game. It’s a mark of the respect Klopp and the players have for Sheffield United that they put on a performance like this. I feel as though this season we’ve become masters at just doing what needs to be done and conserving energy when possible. When we need to play really well we do, but most of the time second gear is enough. Leicester away was potentially our most difficult game of the season and the players obviously knew that and responded accordingly. Against Wolves we started well, got in front and then after that it was just about keeping what we had. We looked tired in that game but if Wolves had scored with ten minutes to go, you can be sure we’d have flown at them with everything we had. I look back on what we’ve seen so far this season and I’m convinced that there is an element of the players being able to ‘pace themselves’ and just do what is needed. This was a great example of it. We had the lead and we just kept the ball and didn’t let them have it. The second goal gave us the cushion we needed and although we could have added more, we never went gung ho for it because why would we? The second goal was brilliant. You can’t stop that, it’s just too good. It started with Alisson who threw it out to Robbo. He played it down the line to get Sadio off and running, but it never really looked like it was going to be a goalscoring opportunity as they had players back. Sadio fed it inside to Mo but there didn’t look to be any way he could get the ball back to him as it was too tight and if the timing wasn’t right then Mané would be offside. The pass was brilliant though, and even though the keeper initially made another great save, Mané was quickest to react and smashed in the loose ball. As I said, I thought it was offside and fully expected a VAR review. It all happened so quickly and it was such a difficult ball that I just assumed it must have been off. The fact it wasn’t shows just how brilliant those two are. They shouldn’t have been able to fashion a goal from that but they did. All that was missing was a goal for Firmino. He should have had it too but he missed his kick from a few yards out after a trademark brilliant ball in from Trent. Bobby was a little off all night. He did a lot of good things, particularly dropping deep to win the ball back, but his final ball was shite. So many times he could have played someone in but left his pass short. On another night it might have mattered, but this time it was merely a slight annoyance. I thought he’d have been the one to make way for Origi and was a little surprised that it was Mané. Bet he was pissed off, he doesn’t want a rest as he always says “tiredness is only in your mind”. He plays like that too. He never, ever looks jaded does he? We got a little sloppy late on and the Blades began to enjoy a bit of possession in our half. It only resulted in one chance, but it was a sitter that McBurnie should have buried. Speaking of McBurnie, I’ve often took the piss out of him over his appearance, so it made me laugh hearing a couple of fellas behind me ripping on him. “Look at the kip of him!” “They found him when they were training on Stanley Park this morning. He was only there walking his dog and they nabbed him and told him he was playing tonight” “Look at him, he’s still got the Echo tucked in his back pocket” Quality. Other than the goals I think my favourite moment in this game was when Origi went streaking back to take the ball off an attackers toe deep in his own penalty area. That just sums up this team. No ego, no shirkers, no complacency, just a group of lads all giving everything they have for each other every week. You can’t go unbeaten for over 12 months without that kind of mentality. It was a little surprising to see Robbo brought off too, but I think the woeful crossfield ball he put straight out of play sealed his fate. Klopp immediately got Lallana ready when that happened, not because he was mad but I think he must have realised that Robbo’s legs were tired. No point leaving him on to pull a hamstring or something. The new rule for substitutes meant that Robbo had to leave the field at the nearest point and then walk along in front of the away fans. He got loads of shit from them but I felt as though there was no malice in it. They were just amusing themselves and when Robbo was grinning at them (as he does) that just mad them play up even more. Chanting “England” at him was a bit lame but it was an attempt at humour rather than them being bad brexit twats. I thought their fans were probably the best we’ve seen at Anfield. I might be wrong, but I don’t think they resorted to any of the “sign on” or “feed the scousers” bollocks, they seemed only interested in singing for their own team, which makes a pleasant change. When we sang about being World Champions, most cunts would have responded with “sign on” or something along those lines. They came back with “Champions of League One, you’ll never sign that”. Fair play, they’re alright them and I hope they continue having such a good season. Harvey Elliott got on too, albeit for about ten seconds. He didn’t touch the ball but it’s still nice to see him involved. I hope he starts on Sunday because he deserves a chance. With Shaq injured I’d say he has a decent chance. Much was made beforehand about the extra day’s rest we had prior to this fixture. While that was no doubt helpful, just where do the Premier League get off having the World and European Champions playing on a fucking Thursday night? We don’t play on Thursdays, only bums play on Thursdays. We deserve more respect than that. Fucking Thursdays *shakes head*. We play on a Thursday again in a few weeks, which is outrageous really. It’s insulting, we should demand that as world champions that fixture is moved. Make United or Arsenal play on Thursday instead. And make it an afternoon kick off. In fucking Kazakstan or somewhere. We’re the World Champions, damn it. As for the star man, there were good performances all over the pitch but it was quite clearly Henderson. At half time it was a toss up between him and Wijnaldum (who was incredible, what a strong little fucker he is), but by full time the skipper had outshone everyone after yet another top performance. Gomez was great again too, while Salah deserves special mention for his relentless movement that just dragged defenders all over the place. One of the great things about this squad is that the so-called ‘star’ players work just as hard as everyone else and it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. It’s like having a squad full of Luis Suarez’s only without the aggro. My Dad reckons that up to know Henderson should be player of the season. He also acknowledged that there’s no way it would happen because “players like him don’t win awards”. Personally I don’t think Hendo has been our best player this season (Sadio for me) but it’s not an outlandish claim either. He’s absolutely right that he’s got no chance of getting that kind of recognition though. Probably the biggest compliment I can pay Henderson is that we haven’t missed Fabinho one little bit. Fabinho is one of the best in the world at what he does, a fact not lost on the skipper who when he saw how good the Brazilian was requested a change in position. Henderson felt he couldn’t play the six role as well as Fabinho and few would have argued with him. Since being pressed into that job again after Fabinho’s injury, his performances have been world class. In fact, you could make an argument for him being man of the match in every game he’s played there. He’s barely had any rest either. What a captain he is. Klopp was gushing in his praise afterwards and once again basically said “if you don’t rate Henderson then you’re a fucking moron”. I’m paraphrasing but that’s clearly what he meant. Hendo will almost certainly get a rest this weekend as I can’t see him starting the derby. It will be interesting to see just how many changes Klopp makes. Personally I think he can get away with still including a few regulars and mixing up the rest. I honestly believe if he starts with Van Dijk and any ten others we’ll still win the game. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson (Lallana); Henderson, Wijnaldum, Milner; Salah (Elliott), Firmino, Mané (Origi):

After a memorable 2019, the Reds get back to business with their first game of the new decade against Sheffield United. on Thursday evening. The Blades have been one of the great stories of the 2019/20 season to date. Through impressive manager Chris Wilder, the pre-season relegation favourites have refused to take a backward step against any opposition they have faced with their outstanding record away from home in this campaign being true testament of that. The fans from @Blades_Mad gave TLW an insightful description into the impact that Wilder has made to the club in his tenure and what players have taken to Premier League football like a duck to water. Can you talk our readers though the job that Chris Wilder has done since his appointment and what do you see as his key strengths as a manager? To put it simple; he's dragged this club off the canvas and propelled it back into the big time and in such a short space of time as well. He took the club over three and a half years ago, when it was at its lowest having finished a paltry 11th in League One under his predecessor. 46 games and 100 points later, United had romped to the League One title in style, meaning an end to six years of hurt, languishing in English football's third tier. A season of consolidation in the Championship and a top half finished followed, and then a promotion charge which couldn't have been foreseen by many, with United still recording one of the lowest budgets in the Championship. United managed to stave off competition from Leeds United and secure an automatic promotion spot alongside fellow unfancied outfit - Norwich City. The start to life back in the Premier League has been nothing short of remarkable really. We were tipped by many to be a dead certainty to go straight back down and although many Blades fans felt that was unjust, this ridiculously terrific start by Chris Wilder's men couldn't have been foreseen. The gaffer has many strengths. He's a huge motivator and passion certainly is one of his traits if you like, but underneath all of that is a revolutionary football manager. United play in a way which has never been seen before, keep an eye out for the overlapping centre-backs if they get the chance at Anfield! He's one of our own. He's the greatest manager in this club's history. We often see the usual suspects being linked with managerial posts (case in point David Moyes and West Ham), do you think there will come a time when clubs come calling for Wilder? What I would say is that quite a few "high profile" jobs have become available recently and Chris Wilder (thankfully for us) was never genuinely linked with the managerial hot seat at any of those clubs. Surely if he was ever to be offered a job at one of the country's top clubs it would have been now as his stock has never been higher. So long as the board at Sheffield United are on the same page as Wilder, in terms of continuing to levitate this club, then he has the dream job and don't see any reason he'd want to leave. Wilder has never stood still in his managerial career, and now he and Sheffield United are in the dizzy heights of the top half of the Premier League, I'm sure he wants to put no stop to that. In his early days at Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp coined a phrase that he wanted to turn the fans from doubters into believers. Do you think the remarkable exploits of last season in winning automatic promotion has carried over to this campaign giving everyone associated with the club a new sense of confidence? I think that's a fair comparison, for sure. There's certainly some momentum there, if you like, but we've been on an upward curve since Chris Wilder took over back in 2016. We suffered our first defeat on the road at Man City on Sunday (in controversial circumstances may I add), and that run stretched all the way back to January. The lads have certainly settled to life in the Premier League, and certainly look a lot more comfortable as the games are ticked off. Bear in mind this is the first real taste of top flight football for many of these lads. I think the reverse fixture with yourselves at Bramall Lane in September gave the boys a huge amount of confidence, because we proved we can put it up against the big boys in this league. Arguably we should and could have got something out of that fixture. Add victories over Arsenal and Everton, and draws against Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester United into that and that proves we are capable of matching it up against the very best. Which of your player(s) have pleasantly surprised you in their ability to adapt to Premier League Football? You could say all of them, to be honest! There's a few we knew could adapt to Premier League football, but they've all gone way and above beyond that. I'll go for John Lundstram. He was out of the picture last season and played only a bit part in our promotion campaign from the Championship. This season, he's started every game up to last Sunday (missed due to injury), and has really given us a new dimension as we altered to a flat midfield three. He’s Fantasy Premier League God, also! Haha. What do you believe should be your obtainable goals in the second half of the season? It's a tough one. For now, still get to that magical 40 points mark. And then take it from there really. Without trying to put the mockers on it, I do feel as though we'll comfortably survive. Blades fans have been singing about going on European tours and away trips to Napoli, and whilst most of it is said in jest, who knows what we can achieve? I'm not sure what the ceiling of achievements are under Chris Wilder. I wouldn't rule anything out. This one is a general question especially as it has been over a decade since you were last in the top flight. Is there anything different you have noticed in terms of strength of depth in the Premier League, the quality of player that teams sign nowadays and indeed the style of football that teams play? Absolutely. It was 12 years ago since we were last in the Premier League. A lot has changed. Just the exposure it gets is ridiculous to be honest. And the arrival of the world's best managers into our league, particularly Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola to name a couple, has really propelled football in this country. Some of the best teams ever to grace our leagues have been present in these past 12 years, none more so than the current crop you have at Liverpool right now. It's a great league to be a part of, VAR aside, and we are loving the journey! Is there a particular opposition player or team which has impressed you most this season? Opposition player is an easy one. Virgil Van Dijk. And I'm not just saying that because I'm chatting to a Liverpool fan site. I thought we played phenomenally well against Liverpool earlier in the season, but I just seem to recall Van Dijk getting his body in the way of every ball that came near him. He just seemed to be there all the time, which was increasingly frustrating for us, but very impressive at the same time. Team wise, I wouldn't say there's been a stand out one to be honest. Wolves are a tough nut to crack. Manchester United turned it on for 10 minutes and we couldn't do much about it for that period of time. But we've coped well against pretty much every side this season. The Blades certainly gave Liverpool a real test at Bramall Lane early in the season, do you think the manager will set the team up in a similar way in this fixture? The set up will be pretty familiar, yes. Whether we "go for it" as much remains to be seen. I find that unlikely. Lys Mousset will start this one you would imagine, and will provide United with a real threat on the counter. He caused Man City all sorts of problems at the weekend and could have had a hat trick but for VAR and some unfortunate finishing. You have not been daunted by any opposition you have faced so far, so as a fan how excited are you to come to Anfield in such a confident frame of mind? Very excited to come to Anfield! This is one of the games I've been looking forward to the most, and I reckon I vouch for most Blades fans with that one. Can't wait to see how we cope against the European champions on their own patch. Under the lights. I think we'll put up a real fight and effort. Can't wait! Is there a particular Liverpool player that you would love in Blades’ colours if money was no object. I do think Van Dijk is a colossus, but I'm pretty happy with our centre-halves to be honest haha! So I'll say Sadio Mane! Fantastic player. Great finisher. Has really blossomed this season. What is your score prediction for this clash? I'm going to back us to get something! The odds are unlikely, but if we play anything like we did at Man City in Sunday and the ref doesn't decide to assist the opposition for their opening goal, then I fancy us for a draw. Let's say 1-1!