coachpotato

Gini has been a success for us, he’s obviously been carrying out a job that Klopp wanted him to do and he’s done it well. Some great and not so great performances, Barca’s being the most obviously notable, and I think he’s definitely in the “plus” column overall. No great team is made up of 11 superstars and the grafters are key to success and Gini has given his all almost all of the time. We may well miss his contribution and might only find out how much when he’s gone, but I think he’s left the club in no doubt he was leaving, to his credit, and we should therefore have replacement, hopefully better than him, lined up. Best of luck fella, you’ll always be a hero for being part of the squad that ended the wait, and a. Champions League winner to boot.

Not so Magnifico, eh Carlo? His worst ever finishing league position. Once you have been touched, Born not Manufactured, Chosen etc. etc. etc. (yaaawwwwnnnn).

WUM of the highest order who needed to listen to the Beatles back catalogue to get his inspiration.

Chelsea are playing as though they’re all on something illegal, I expect something will deflect in off one of them eventually, unless Leicester wake the fuck up. Dean doing his best to wind the entitled fuckers up is a real bonus. I hope it finishes 0-0 and can’t wait to hear from Tuchel afterwards. We could still fuck it up ourselves of course.

That twat Ashley Barnes, hits the floor at every opportunity and is a general pain in the arse. Jay Rodriguez can produce the odd moment of class, and any fucker with the name Cork, well, enough said. That said, we should have more than enough to beat these, but these and West Brom are exactly the type of teams we struggle against. Grocks who will sit back and go for it on the break, or from free kicks, corners etc.. We beat Palace 7-0, they will want to right that particular aberration, but if they attack us, it’ll suit us.

Unbelievable.

After the Lord Mayors show. Fuck me.

Fixed.

Fair do’s, perhaps I went a bit too far with the comparison with Virg, but he’s next best in the air. In my opinion.

Phillips is easily the next best centre half we have in the air after Virgil. Perhaps even his equal. Thats a big factor when playing grock teams who seem to give us problems from set pieces and rely on outmuscling us in the air to get their goals. He’s quicker than Matip for most of the season, when Matip isn’t fit, and Gomez as well come to that. He lacks some pace, certainly as much as our high line requires from our centre backs, but at 24 he can learn to adapt better at positioning himself and reading the game, something the best centre backs gain with experience and which pace alone can’t always compensate for. I doubt we have any player with a bigger heart than Nat, and his determination the other night to make up for the own goal was tribute to that. If we get Konate (don’t know his rep for injuries) then it leaves VVD, Konate, Gomez and Nat for me. Matip just cannot be relied upon and Kabak has gradually impressed me but doesn’t have the aerial ability defensively or in attack at our set plays that Nat has. I know Cannavarro wasn’t the tallest either but there’s a world of difference between him and Kabak, plus Kabak will cost money and Nat won’t, which might be the biggest deciding factor knowing our owners.

I feel also there was bound to be a drop off this season because our squad has given so much in the last three seasons and had the quite deserved adulation from us, the fans, snatched away from them by COVID. All the players have mentioned the bus tour after the CL win over Spurs and how impressed and pleased they were. They must have been thinking “what if” when they were stood on that stage in an empty Kop receiving the Title. Most of them are relatively young men and the come down after having walked the League surely would have had a negative effect on them, particularly as they then couldn’t go home to see their families in many cases and even celebrate with them. Added to that the injuries, VAR etc. etc. and it’s no wonder they haven’t been on their game for much of the season. The same applies to Klopp and his staff, more so because of the passing of his Mother, and with the Euro’s this summer, there won’t be a decent break for some unless they miss out through injury.

City apart, there are no teams who’ve impressed consistently this season, and even City had an iffy start. We will have to strengthen, as Chelsea, United, and other pretenders will definitely do, and to go another pre-season without doing so will have me believing that the owners should leave. Problem is, City, Chelsea and United will spend more than anyone else, and as has been proved consistently recently, big spenders have the greatest successes whatever the League. United have spent loads on dross, but eventually have got a side that, like it or not, is top four, that proves the theory that if you are able to keep throwing money at a problem, eventually it’ll be overcome. City and Chelsea have the benefit of having decent managers too. We have Klopp, for now, but will need to keep up spending wise with the others to give him an even chance of beating them. There’s no chance of any of the game’s rulers bringing in meaningful financial controls so we have to deal with it as it is and maybe become more street wise in other ways.

Grandson has his 9th Birthday today. Devastating for the lads family, heart goes out to them. RIP Jordan.

UEFA and the Government locked in talks regarding whether Sponsor and “Stakeholders” would be allowed into Wembley. Either Porto or Lisbon being lined up as a likely venue as UEFA would lose revenue should the money people not be allowed into Wembley. Once again, the fans are the last ones to be considered. What a fucking surprise. Just as well it’s only those two sets of frauds involved.

In his own way, a true Anfield Legend.

The irony is that almost every other club would kill to be in the position that City and Chelsea are in. Everton would be top of that list, yet proudly spout about how they “called out” the breakaway six and spoke for every other club when they called for sanctions against them. The purpose of those sanctions were to allow themselves to be bumped into a position where they could “qualify” for a European place that they hadn’t actually earned as much as anything else and to claim differently is basically a lie. West Ham, Brighton and Crystal Palace, with rent-a-quote chairman Steve Parrish, again pontificating about how these teams should be brought to book, yet wanting to null and void last season to protect themselves against possible relegation whilst saying it was morally wrong to play on given lives were being lost. They refuse to see that in applauding City and Chelsea for breaking away, and back into the Premier League, all that is guaranteeing is they strengthen those clubs with Oligarchs or Oil States as owners to continue dominating every competition they are in, effectively taking the competitiveness away from those very same competitions! The ESL wasn’t handled very well in its timing or proposed implementation, but the general idea that it would possibly limit the massive money teams and allow others to challenge them was a sound one, but the blinkers were on from the time the announcement was made and the “little 14”, as opposed to the “big 6”, basically decided to hold onto what they had rather than what they might have had. It won’t go away though and they must know that, even if the current voting regulations in the Premier League give them the whip hand, and effectively a veto, for anything the top teams might want to bring in. A quick look at who has won the major prizes in European competition and domestic leagues over the past few seasons will show them why the current system needs changes to be made. They’re all hypocrites though, and will bury their collective heads in the sand while the really big boys dry bum them.

Granada reporting that Man City have reached footballs pinnacle. When did they win the final?

I don’t want to see Manchester City engraved on that trophy. End of.

Top top shithousery going on here.

PSG were always going to need 3, they still do and can let City have another one and still go through. Next goal will be massive. City’s to lose though.

Couple of years ago I was in a pub in Chester with a mate who’s a City fan (2006/07 pre oil money) and United were playing Chelsea in the FA cup final. His B-I-Law is a United fan, from Newcastle, who claimed he was born in Bandit country and then moved north and this gave him the right to be a United fan and he had come with us. He was in the pub with us but him and his United “mates” were giving it all the Murderers shit etc., probably for my benefit, but given the game was nothing to do with us, I couldn’t get over the anti-scouse bile and I pulled him over it. His answer was that it was what they always sang and always had since he’d started supporting them. He was probably 30 then. Turns out he was born in Leigh, not Manchester, and when Drogba scored that goal right at the end of that final, he walked out leaving his pint and by the time we got back to his house, he’d gone to bed and refused to come down until we’d gone. The City fan is sound, old style city fan, he’s uncomfortable with their ownership but to be fair has admitted he likes them winning stuff and there was no other way they were ever going to be able to do so. Found out later on he’d given the United fan a slap, for being a cunt in the pub, the next day. Don’t know any United fans who come from the shithole itself.

Fixed.

Lineker never criticises them, ever. Neither does Osman, Nevin, et al, whereas ex-Liverpool players are noted for taking the anti-biased stance to extremes. Yet the supporters of moral high horse fc have convinced themselves that the BBC, Sky, BT, The Echo and pretty much every media outlet are, to a man (or woman) biased towards us and against them. The Powers That Be indeed. Nut jobs.

I’ve just done the maths for this (not my strong point!) and if you take the league games where we would’ve gained a point or points by scoring one extra goal it works out at 24 points. That’s second place, a point ahead of United.

Totally agree. Has to be one of the weirdest signings we’ve ever done. I think it’s been well proven that we need Fabinho in midfield and pretty much anyone else in currently alongside Kabak. I expected Davies to be given a chance at some point as I thought he was preferable to Williams and been brought in for that reason.