Razoray

Rodgers, like De Zerbi is a good coach, not withstanding his deficiencies at set-pieces at corners and in Europe. His biggest weakness at Liverpool though, was his inability to manage players, manage upwards, manage the club and manage recruitment. De Zerbi hasnt proved his worth at any of those either. Alonso seems to have the personality, gravitas, confidence and experience to do this

De Zerbi has managed Brighton for 53 games, winning 22, drawing 15 and losing 16. That averages out at a 58 point season. They have conceded over 1.5 goals per game. I know it is Brighton, but he has not been "successful" at all. He is doing a good job but very little points to him being a Liverpool manager.

If Trent leaves Liverpool anytime soon it won't be to play right-back.

Leverkusen were 2nd from bottom when he took over in early October. They won only one of their first four matches under Alonso but then won 38 points in 17 games. They then fell off a cliff at the end of the season drawing 3 and losing 2 of the final 5 games, but 4th (Champions League) was unattainable at that stage, so there wasn't much to play for. They lost the semi-final of the Europa League to a Mourinho masterclass (dourfest) 1-0. This season they have won 15 and drawn 3 (to Bayern, 3rd placed Stuttgart and 5th placed Dortmund) from 18 games in the league. They have scored 50 goals and conceded just 14. He has achieved this while spending just £22m net. He speaks three languages which would help. He just seems the real deal.

Matip for Hyypia and that's mine also. Gini for Fabinho is a good shout actually

At some clubs the manager is really the first team coach and that is it. At a huge club like Liverpool, especially Liverpool, historically as the manager, you are the face and voice of the club. The boss. De Zerbi and a few others mentioned seem like coaches. Alonso has the charisma and gravitas to be a coach and manager of Liverpool Football Club.

https://x.com/MalachyClerkin/status/1750897461516808668?s=08

In the first leg they had 2 players that started in a Champions League final in their career. We had three, and one of those was Karius. Mane was a big loss that January when he went to AFCON. We were poor for the few weeks he was away.

2nd choice keeper, 3rd choice RB, 3rd choice LB, 4th choice CB, 2 x 2nd choice 8s and without our best forward. Klopp took off Darwin and Mac Allister to protect them, I presume, without Salah and Endo, so we were light in midfield for the final 20 minutes. He responded to that by supplementing the defence with Konate, going to a back 5, and we did enough. Robbo, Trent, Szoboszlai are back this week and Tsimikas, Salah and Endo are back mid-early February. One game a week in February will help ease them back in and give the other's a bit of a rest. Roll on Wembley and the rest of the season.

Even discounting Matip, Thiago, Bajcetic and Doak, our reserve team looks something like this: Kelleher Bradley Gomez Quansah Tsimikas Elliott Endo Gravenberch Clark Gakpo Diaz (8 of tonight's side). Man City's reserve XI looks like this: Ortega Lewis Akanji Gvardiol Gomez Kovacic Phillips Nunes Bobb Alvarez Grealish Phillips might be off in this window which weakens them on paper. If there eleven is better, it isn’t by much at all, and the good thing is that Klopp trusts our players. Guardiola doesn’t seem to want to play 4 of their above subs, at all.

And a cunt

Or 10 right-backs even

In 13/14? We won 12 and drew one of the last 14 games in the league that season. Both Flanagan and Johnson played in both the Chelsea and Palace games. We won 14, drew 3 and lost 1 after Christmas. Flanagan played in all but one of the 4 games where they dropped points. He was injured for that. Weird how we remember things

To be fair, he didn't normally go up for corners, even when playing CB

After the 10th Feb, the day of the Asian cup final, we should have everyone bar Salah (Thiago, Bajcetic, Matip and Doak) back. The return of Trent, Robertson, Tsimikas, Endo and Szoboszlai over the next 2-3 weeks will be huge additions, especially since Bradley, and even the other kids that have played recently, have further bolstered the squad. GK: Allisson, Kelleher RBs: TAA, Gomez, Bradley CB: VVD, Konate, Quansah, Gomez LB: Robertson, Tsimikas, Gomez, Beck DM: Mac Allister, Endo AM: Szoboszlai, Jones, Gravenberch, Elliott, Gakpo, Clark, McConnell FW: Salah, Nunez, Jota, Diaz, Gakpo, Elliott, Gordon If we are a bit lucky with injuries in the second half of the season, we should have a big enough squad to cope with 4 competitions. Hopefully the Carabao only has one more game left after tomorrow, and will be over by the time we play in Europe again. The FA cup is a bonus at the moment, for me anyway. There will be at least 6 non-Premier League teams in the last 16, so hopefully we get over Norwich and get another handy enough tie. Europe will be tough but Klopp prefers when we are playing twice a week, especially when he has a reasonably fit squad to choose from. He has rotated the numbers very well so far. We have 12/13 games between now and the first international break of 2024. The fixture list in February looks ok with no midweek game, until a potential FA Cup quarter final on the 28th, and Arsenal is probably the only game between now and City on 10th March, where we won't be odds-on to win. A huge six weeks ahead. Jan 24 - Fulham - LC semi - 2nd leg Jan 28 - Norwich FA cup- 5th Round Jan 31 - Chelsea Premier League Feb 04 - Arsenal Premier League Feb 10 - Burnley Premier League Feb 17 - Brentford Premier League Feb 24/25 - Luton PL/LC Final * Feb 28 - FA Cup Quarter final * Mar 02 - Forest Premier League Mar 07 - Europa Rnd of 16 - 1st leg Mar 10 - Man City Premier League Mar 14 - Europa Rnd of 16 - 2nd leg Mar 17 - Everton Premier League *depending on results v Fulham and Norwich.

I've seen the clip. Klopp probably says "It's a yellow? Oh", sarcastically, rather than "It's Paul Tierney? Oh" but he definitely knew who had made the call that it was just a yellow.

If you sell someone who you bought for £50m, and who has 1 year left on his 5 year contract, then it goes down as £40m profit on that year's books. If you buy a player for a £50m on a 5 year contract, only one-fifth of that shows up on this year's books. You can literally replace one £50m player with 4 x £50m players and it will show as breaking even in the accounts.

https://www.google.com/search?q=africa+cup+of+nations+standings&client=ms-android-samsung-ss&sca_esv=600376160&sxsrf=ACQVn09H2VBSmdmXZZpQZKL0s8wJG1d3lw%3A1705919897479&ei=mUWuZcbtHMyThbIPjeaZsAs&oq=africa+cup+of+nations+standings&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIh9hZnJpY2EgY3VwIG9mIG5hdGlvbnMgc3RhbmRpbmdzKgIIADIREAAYgAQYigUYkQIYsQMYgwEyBhAAGAcYHjIGEAAYBxgeMgYQABgHGB4yBhAAGAcYHjIGEAAYBxgeMgYQABgHGB4yBhAAGAcYHkjVC1AAWABwAHgBkAEAmAFboAFbqgEBMbgBAcgBAOIDBBgAIEE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp Not great. In two of the six groups, the 3rd place team already has 3 points. In 2 of the other groups, the 3rd placed team plays the 4th place team in the final game. Therefore, the expectation is that whoever finishes 3rd in those groups will finish on 2+ points with a better goal difference than Egypt, if Egypt lose to Cape Verde.

Lose tonight against Cape Verde, who have won their 2 other games, and they are probably going home. Without Salah, that seems likely

https://x.com/guardian_sport/status/1748630756493287904?s=08

I think it will be something like this, if Szoboszlai is fit. If he isn't, Elliott will start and one of the forwards would probably come in. Kelleher Gomez Quansah VVD Beck Szoboszlai MacAllister Gravenberch Elliott Gakpo Diaz Subs: Allisson Konate Bradley Jones Jota Nunez

I'm not @The Woolster but we currently have 48 points from 21 games. We are currently on course for 87 points - more if we didn’t get fucked at Spurs. We are playing better than we were earlier in the season and have City at home. Chelsea, City, Brighton and Spurs at home. Arsenal, Everton, United, West Ham and Villa away. To finish with 90 points we need 42 points from the remaining 17 games. 13 wins, 3 draws and a loss. That's tough but possible. I think we will finish on 88. Fuck knows if it will be enough but I'm looking forward to the ride. City would need 47 points from 18 games to get to 90 points. 15 wins, 2 draws and a loss. That looks really tough but they've done similar previously. BTW, we are currently approximately 80/1 for the quadruple

Not a bad (outfield) team made up of unavailable players: Trent Matip Robertson Tsimikas Bajcetic Endo Thiago Szoboszlai Salah Doak. 50/50 shout between Elliott and Gravenberch and Klopp may go for the taller player, given the set-piece problems they gave us in the league cup, but I'd play Elliott. I can't see him starting Gakpo in midfield as it would leave us with very little on the bench to change it, if required. Allisson Bradley Konate VVD Gomez Elliott MacAllister Jones Diaz Nunez Jota Subs: Kelleher, Quansah, Beck, Gravenberch, Gakpo, 4x kids

Cape Verde have already beaten Ghana and Mozambique. If Egypt also lose to Cape Verde, they will probably go out. Even if Ghana v Mozambique is a draw, Ghana would most likely have a better goal difference than Egypt. 2 points, with a negative GD, will place them in 5th or 6th of the 3rd placed teams, which won't be sufficient to qualify for the last 16.