coachpotato

Get another and put this to bed.

Brilliant play Diogo.

VAR is a decent system, it’s the interpretation that’s giving it a bad name. The interpretation has been so bad, in both actual incident and spirit of the game, that we all would likely have been better off without it. Having an idiot looking it at numerous times and slowed down in Stockley Park as opposed to an idiot on the pitch making the decisions in real time is still having an idiot making the decision. The money would have been better spent getting in officials from Europe who are better at the job, or finding officials in this country who are.

Thought Wednesday was bad........ it’s like watching Brighton play Brighton. That midfield has to be changed, none of them are doing what’s expected of them currently, I’d change Minamino for Hendo, who shouldn’t be on the bench if he’s not able to play, and Mane for Neco, put Milner back at full back and drop Firmino into midfield. Robbo to get forward as much as he can safely. Millie just defend and give Phillips some backup then Hendo and Gini in front of the back line and let the four interchange up front to get the goals we’ll need to get the points.

If we’d have man marked Gomez with Gini, they wouldn’t have won. It was obvious from the first game that anything they were going to do would come through him. He showed enough touches in that game to know he was their most creative player.

These learned some lessons from the first game, they’re too good to take liberties against but given the pressure of games we had to weaken the team sometime. Having said that, to not have had an effort on goal worth the name was poor. No excuses, it was a shite performance and means we really can’t now afford to take it easy against Ajax. The players will know it wasn’t good enough and I’d expect an appropriate reaction against Brighton on Saturday.

You win nothing with kids..........

Sad, sad news. As many have said, our greatest goalkeeper, and not even arguably. Another to who the term Legend correctly applies. YNWA Ray.

Getting way beyond believable this injury shit, especially with totally meaningless friendlies causing problems as well. It’s starting to get to a point where a top four place will be a real achievement, never mind retaining the league. Can Origi play centre back?

He’ll be a wreck by the weekend. They’re under so much pressure because of our defensive injuries and they’re at home. They beat us and it’s “So what, you should be beating them”. They don’t and it’s “Well, what’s the excuse Pep??” We are getting a free hit and even a draw is a fail for them.

Pretty much faultless that. Was wondering for a bit how Villa had nicked our shirts!!! That’ll do so much for the confidence of the young lads, and remind the older ones they’ll need to be on their game all the time now. Jota, proper player.

Chemo Samba, the Lone Ranger. (coat)

Seem to recollect Arjen Robben saying something similar, along the lines off the most spine tingling atmosphere he’d ever experienced. It was a special night amongst many special nights, something that only we do.

At times we seem to be hanging on by our fingernails in games, but, ultimately it’s the result and nothing else that matters, especially because of our injury/lack of adequate cover issues. Alisson being back is a godsend, there was no way Adrian was stopping that chance in the first half, and the big fella must make the others so much more comfortable being there. Trent going forward was brilliant, I still think there’s more he can learn defensively that experience will bring him, but currently I can’t think there’s a better attacking full back, whereas Robbo is all round the real deal. I like Jota, he looks the part already whereas Minamino and Keita just don’t and, sadly might never, but at least with Taki he cost next to nothing. I keep hoping there’s a proper striker in Divock, but glimpses won’t cut it and although he’s already in the clubs history with some of the goals he’s scored, his time must be running out. I sometimes wondered if Shaquiri has shit in Klopp drawer or something because I do think he’s got more to offer, but for whatever reason he just doesn’t seem to get more time to show it. We obviously don’t see everything behind the scenes so whatever Klopp doesn’t see in him, if indeed that’s the case, I’m certainly not going to question him. Just seems surprising that a player with his experience isn’t making more of a case to play. I think some of the kids are doing really well considering, and Rhys Williams strikes me as having the right attitude to deputise given our perilous situation at centre back. He will make mistakes, he’ll be targeted by the opposition and I hope he’s not subjected to some of the shite others have been if he does make mistakes, but I’ll say now, I think he’ll turn out to be a diamond. We’re still the champions, still the team to beat, but we are being tested to our limits already and as long as we can hang in and grind out the results, with more players fit and, yes, with a couple of additions in January, we’ll still be in with a big say, COVID 19 allowing.

Best stat of the night was the 0 against Ajax’s name. Despite having shaded the possession, we had 16 shots but didn’t look like scoring. Most of those on target, of which there were 6, went straight at the keeper, it’s an area where we need to improve as it isn’t just this game that we have been like this. Midfield improved a lot when Hendo came on, Fabinho held things together well at the back, Trent’s defensive play was improved and Robbo was his dependable self and thankfully, Adrian didn’t do anything too rash that cost us. So three points against a team that’ll give others more problems than we allowed them to give us, so a good night all round. Fabinho MOM.

Losing the ball too often in midfield. These are well capable of capitalising if we’re not careful.

As far as offside goes, surely the ideals of the game should be to encourage attacking play and goals? If so then it should be the case that when a ball is played forwards, if any part of the relevant attacking player is in line with the last relevant defender then the attacking player is onside. Even idiots like Coote could then see clearly if there’s a gap between the two players it’s off, if not it’s on, and you only have to use one line between the players to decide and not two. As has been said previously, it’s not the actual VAR that’s wrong, it’s the interpretation of what it shows by the idiots that are being used to view it.

Every Ev fan at work reckoned he was going for the ball and not Virgil. Maybe I’ve missed this somewhere but aren’t goalkeepers allowed to dive for the ball with their hands? Like what Clemence and Southall used to do? Makes you wonder why T Rex went knee high at Virgil doesn’t it.

Surely Virg will be back in a month with all those PED’s in him? What?

You score 7, we’ll score 8. This time we win the title by one point, from City, with the Ev fifth, on goal difference, from Wolves. Want to see them humiliated in the Europa League next season. Champions league, get as far as knocking City out and getting the bald fraud the sack, then go out and concentrate on winning the title again. Let the kids loose in the FA cup and see how it goes. Ordinarily I’d say it’s a shiny thing and we should go all out to win it, but this season I’m prepared to make an exception.

“He told BT Sport: 'It must be offside with VAR, it's what everyone wants. 'I think they bend the lines sometimes to make it offside. I'm not sure how they do it, I've seen it before.“ Several online papers, one being the Mirror, using this. To be fair, I had BT on but didn’t see his after match interview.

He’s inferred that the lines on the VAR decisions are somewhat bent by whoever is reviewing the incidents. Not verbatim, but probably enough to have the FA trying to cover their arses on Monday by using it as a smokescreen for the questions that the Club have asked.

All that will happen is that Hendo will be brought up on a disrepute charge for his comments.

If van Dijk is out long term, then the thinking that we could go into a season with the central defensive options we had without strengthening will be tested sooner rather than later. I hope whoever made that call is really good at their job. If he’s not out long term, then perhaps a short term tactical tweak to give better cover to the centre backs until Virg is back might be the option. I thought the midfield three today did a fabulous job of supplying the forwards, helping cover the defence, and bossing the “best midfield since Ball, Harvey and Kendall”. Either way, Alisson coming back is now crucial to instil calm and confidence into whoever plays in the back four. We aren’t finished by a long way whatever has happened to van Dijk, we’ll still finish top four, and knowing this team and manager, winning it again wouldn’t surprise me at all.

Samuel has always argued for anything that benefits West Ham and against anything that doesn’t. Needless to say, he rarely agrees with anything that might benefit Liverpool.