Erik T

Agreed. And you can say exactly the same thing about organised religion!

Yes, we have failed to win 5 out of 11 league games, but in our defence 3 of them were against the teams that are currently top 3 in the table (and would have been top 4 even if we’d beaten them). Losing to a well organised West Ham side that maybe got lucky with some decisions (I don’t think they did but that’s beside the point) is not that worrying but failing to beat Brentford when we were in the lead twice and Brighton when we were 2 goals up is indeed cause for concern. We were also ahead twice against City. In The CL we’ve given away leads against both AC Milan and Atlético (2 goals) but we managed to win in the end. Not being able to hold on to a lead and kill the game off is a major concern. We are so sloppy and casual in defending that we are close to being a soft touch. The attitude has to change - start sprinting back, put some tough tackles in, make a professional foul if need be - in short, man up FFS! And Klopp should stop complaining about the refs when the decisions are more in the «seen ‘em given» than «stonewall» category.

Konate did the same thing in the 1st half too. Surged forward (Matip style) but lost the ball and then just jogged back instead of sprinting. He needs to sort that out pronto!

An admission straight from the horse’s mouth!

«His name is pronounced “Gay” you see. Geddit? Yeah not my finest, but my head is all over the place with this Newcastle thing, I’m so angry I can’t even think straight, let alone live up to my usually sky high standard of gags.» Well, yeah, you missed one obvious gag there...

Getting soft on crime, are we? «Usher The Merciful».

I first joked that the combined age of Belgium’s back three was close to 100 years. Then I checked and they’re actually 101 years!

A good week indeed. Also, Atlético Madrid won the La Liga ahead of Ramos & co, with Suarez getting the winner.

The probability for seven straight defeats at home is very low indeed - before any of the seven games are played. But when the first six games have already been lost, the probability of losing the seventh match is just as high as for any «normal game» against this particular opponent. You could even argue that it is in fact higher than normal as the players may have developed some kind of mental block when playing at «Anfield».

Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. I think a more likely explanation is that Mané is trying to get rid of the perception of him as a diver. Our league season is probably fucked anyway, so why not be the good guy now and then go down easily in matches next season when we are hopefully fighting to take our title back?

Top, top referee analysis there.

Top, top analysis of appearance by the use of alliteration there.

First of all it’s good play by Villa, so credit to them. I think Williams makes one or two mistakes in this situation. When he is running alongside Barry he tries to outrun a faster opponent to get to the ball first when he should have used his superior physique to shrug Barry off or at least block him from getting across, and then take control of the ball. Instead he lets Barry run around him. Perhaps is he also too far away from Fabinho when the ball is played (or Fabinho is too far away from Williams - anyway, the distance between them is too great). If Williams had been closer to Fabinho he could have intercepted that pass easily. The space on the outside was well covered by Neco so Rhys should have covered the inside better by being closer to Fabinho.

Top, top Mourinho vs. Dyche analysis there.

R.I.P. Ray Clemence. He was my first Liverpool hero. I was gutted when he left for Spurs, and gutted when the sad news came this week. The word «legend» is used far too often about players who have won one or two trophies here during a spell of a few years. Clemence won the league five times, the European Cup three times, the UEFA cup twice, and the domestic cups once each. He played 665 matches for the club. Now that is a LEGEND.

CHAMPIONS!

Messi to Liverpool? Robbo’s not having it.

Is the persistent misspelling of «Solskjaer» as «Solksjaer» another deliberate mistake to see who is paying attention or is it a word play that I have missed?

Spot on about Twitter «fans». Social media warriors. An absolute disgrace. You should stop reading tweets, Dave, to avoid that unevitable meltdown.

Bayern München had to qualify in the 2011/12 season as they finished third in the Bundesliga in 2011, behind Klopp’s Dortmund as well as Bayer Leverkusen. Bayern München beat Zürich in the play-offs and went on to the final, losing it on penalties in their own stadium to fucking Chelsea! So only we have qualified and gone on to win it, as far as I know.

I know our front trio is scoring goals for fun but when they have a bad day at the office or cannot play due to injury or suspension, as they did on Saturday (with Mane out because of injury) we need goals from the midfield players. Yet Henderson, Milner and Wijnaldum have only scored 2 goals between them this season, I think (in the Premier League). That is ridiculous. For comparison, Can has scored 6, Oxlade-Chamberlain 5 and Lallana probably would have scored 5-6 had he not been injured all season. All our goal-scoring midfielders are injured at the moment, that is pretty bad luck. Keita could add 8-10 goals next season if he can keep his goals percentage from Austria and Germany going in the Premier League.

That's why we hate Chelsea though, isn't it? They always find some way to annoy us, even if it's sacking Mourinho. Bet they'll get rid of Terry next.

"Shaqiri scored twice early on from Shaqiri assists" Some player that Shaqiri, scoring from his own passes.

Heskey? He looked more like Balotelli, hardly moving at all. He improved in the 2nd half, though, and should have stayed on the pitch instead of Lucas. A switch to 4-4-2 with Lallana on top of the diamond would have been better, I think. It seems all of our strikers are much better when they play with another striker on top. We should use 4-4-2 more often, and especially against the teams that come to Anfield only to defend, or in a match like this when the opponent prefers the long ball to avoid the "gegenpress".