coachpotato

The way West Ham’s defence and our defence have been playing, there’ll be a bucket full of goals on Sunday. 0-0 then.

Never liked us playing “weakened” teams and then relying on bringing on senior players if things aren’t going well, but I appreciate how resting important players works before league or CL games too. LASK will be right up for this game and will probably come at us from the kick off, it’s probably a big deal for them, and while they aren’t the same quality as Ajax we’re back in 1966 (with Cruyff, Nanninga etc.) we shouldn’t underestimate them too much or we might find ourselves playing catch up, especially with our propensity for giving away goals. Klopp will surely know how to approach this best, and will name an appropriate team and if we play to our strengths we’ll be good. The competition has second priority to the League, I expect, but still has a big shiny thing to win and we are about winning big shiny things. Dublin beckons and what a party that would be if we get there. Make it so Reds.

….and Neymar is a cunt.

Why sorry LTW? It’s brilliant!

Salah has been ace for us and we’ve been ace for him too. Without sugar coating this too much, I think he wouldn’t want to leave under a cloud and would want a deal that benefits him and the club as much as possible. I could be wrong though, he might not give two fucks about us ultimately, after all, we don’t really know him, do we? But he at least appears to be an honourable man in a profession where there are some who are just cunts (yes Antony and Greenwood, I’m looking at you and your like) so perhaps him leaving next summer, for £100m+ or so, would be the most appropriate way he and the club could benefit. He’d still get top wages from the Saudi’s and, if Egypt were to win the AFCON with him as Captain, his stock would be that much higher again. A good season with us, and a trophy or two to wave goodbye with, would finish his time with us perfectly and we’ve got a full season to find as good a replacement as we can.

I could manage Celtic.

And then he woke up. Sweating.

Ok, so the tackle wan’t the “scything down” that some numpty claimed in the press, but it was clear that Virgil’s attempt was for the ball, which he won, but he also caught Isak’s leg first and so it was a foul. The official felt it might have been a goal scoring opportunity so red carded Virgil. Fine, that’s the rule of the game. Whether it was a goal scoring opportunity or not was possibly/probably why it went to VAR for clarification, plus whether the official had called it right for a foul in the first place. Once VAR had concurred with the official, that was it. He was off, whether we liked it or not. I disagree he hardly said anything to the official, from what I saw, he gave him a mouthful, then followed it up with another before he walked. In the heat of the moment, perhaps he felt hard done by, perhaps he felt that, after Macca got off last week, we were going to be hit back, and he was the fall guy, we might never know. In any case, he was fucked once the official got confirmation from VAR, and he should have walked without aggravating a situation he was never going to make better, but only worse, for himself and the team. Had he done that, then, perhaps with justification, it could have been argued or commented on after the game, by Klopp or Trent (as vice-captain) as being an excessive reaction by the official to what, at best, was a clumsy challenge in an area that wasn’t giving Isak a clear goal scoring opportunity. Virgil was wrong to pick his battle out there in front of the cameras and as captain, should have known better. I absolutely agree we should compile a running dossier on what happens to us, and what happens in other games, to give some kind of evidence of bias, or not, and to allow the club, not Virgil or Klopp, to nail these fuckers in any way it can if they are proven to be corrupt. Possibly by going to CAS, because once you start something like that, you really are making yourself a target and you have to see it through.

We exist to win big shiny things. We tend to do it better than most.

PS, I hope Shearer is on MOTD tonight.

The situation when he was put on was right up his street. What we saw with the two goals was him as I expected to see him, played in behind a pushed up defence, not thinking too much, instinctive finishing. Problem is, we don’t often have games where that situation arises, usually we’re pressurising other teams and so he has little space to run in behind. Those goals will hopefully be a big boost both for him and the team as a collective. As has already been said, hopefully the dawning of a new set of mentality monsters. Oh and yes, money isn’t everything you shallow geordie fucks.

100 fucking %

What the fuck would sly do if it was condensed into 7 days? They’d be lost.

Let’s be honest, it’s a job to most of those able to play at the highest level. Not much different to Top Class engineers, consultants, CEO’s, whatever. Arguably better paid per hour than any of them. We’d like to think that they’d want to play for the shirt, the club, the fans etc., because that’s how we think we’d feel if we had the ability to pull on the Red shirt and get out there. Occasionally, there’ll be a player who comes across as a “fan in a shirt” but they are few and far between. In your daily life, and if you have one, your job, would you seriously turn down the money that some of these players are being offered? I think not. It’s a business and nothing more to those in charge and those that play it. You pay your money……..and all that.

This is all just a series of coincidental financial misunderstandings, it’s an impossibility that one of the most successful and storied clubs in the English game, a founder club no less, with a list of firsts as long as Stretch Armstrong’s arms and with the most state-of-the-art stadium in the northern hemisphere, on the banks of the Royal Blue Mersey no less, could ever be allowed to sink into the Championship depths. It just won’t happen. There’ll very likely be a saviour in white flowing robes, on a camel, come riding over Everton Brow to save the day any time now (no, not Jesus). Then the power shift will truly be on.

She stepped forwards and was well off the line when she went left for the shot. Should have been a retake. Maybe the ref thought the handball had been contentious, so gave the Spaniard one chance, it was a poor pen though.

What a refreshing change. We’ll pay for it later on.

The Suarez incident was another clusterfuck by the club. Suarez should have been taken to one side and told to say fuck all to anyone immediately after the game by the club management. The club PR department did nothing to refute the rapidly built and entirely predictable condemnation of him by the media. He was guilty before he’d taken his boots off. The T-shirts might have been seen as a good idea by some, but ultimately made Dalglish and the players look ridiculous because there was no concerted response from the club, and the media circus had a free hit because of that. Suarez was then an idiot making his comments in South America at a point where, even though there was massive bias against him, there was still no real evidence and then he tried to justify his remarks by saying he said “Negrito” or similar which was close enough for the Independent (!) committee to say it was probable he had abused Evra and that he was guilty. Was it 42 cameras and microphones failed to pick anything up? So Suarez was banned for 8 games on a probability, whether he was guilty or not. Had it been the other way around with Evra accused of racism against Suarez, I doubt anything would have been done.

Would anyone be surprised if Greenwood and the girl split up in the near future? I certainly wouldn’t be.

He’s a predator. Hardly ever seems to score outside of the 6 yard box. You need a bit of that.

That’s so sad. Poor kid, scores the winner in the biggest game she can play in and gets to find that out after the game. Unbelievably tragic for her.

I should have said savvy instead of streetwise, but in either case, Spain went against what some would have you believe in that the women’s game doesn’t have shithousery in it. Spain, and others, have shown that isn’t the case, certainly in this tournament. I didn’t wish to come across as patronising, and I agree as far as the women’s game goes, England have been one of the better teams, but even the captain said after the game that they weren’t at it today, they gave 100% though, no doubts about that, they didn’t try it on as much as the Spaniards so they were honest, they got stuck in, legally, so brave too. Having your better players out will always be a handicap, it likely explains why they were struggling at times, I thought Spain had them pretty much at arms length for most of the match, but particularly in the closing stages to see out the game. Yes, the referee made some baffling calls, (but don’t they all!) and the Spanish girl was lucky not to get a second yellow when she kicked the ball away, but overall, sad to say, Spain were a level higher today and were worthy winners. That there are several young players already in the squad and more likely to come through due to the increasing standard of the professional league in England and some also playing abroad, augurs well for the next World Cup I think, and if Weigman can be retained there should be optimism they can go one better next time.

This. Spain - Technically superior, tactically superior, more streetwise. England - Plucky, honest, brave.

And then stood there while Spain went on the attack instead of getting her arse into gear and chasing back.

Probably the sending off yesterday affected his minutes on the pitch, we might have seen him on earlier without that happening, but I noticed him as the final whistle went, he went straight down the tunnel with hardly a word or acknowledgement to anyone else. Seemed pissed off.