StevieMax

I fully agree that the balance of the team was what we had wrong, both Henderson & Fabinho contribute more to both the attack and defence by being in the middle of the park, not at the back.

Great report/season round-up, Dave. A massive 10 game run-in when they were staring down the barrel of no European football and the possibility of finishing below both Moyes and Everton. Fully agree on Gini as well - any suitable replacement will cost at least the same money and whoever comes in will need time to bed in whereas Gini is ready made.

He reminds me of David Koresh at Waco. Perhaps it is all of a cult thing at Citeh.

He's my player of the season wherever we finish.

Great report, Dave. For once, one that didn't write itself as a copy of WBA/Fulham/Leeds etc. I thought Jota looked very sharp and helped create the space for the others. Trent's forward play and passing was outstanding and the centre backs stuck to the task all game. Questions: When was the last game all 3 forwards netted? Palace away? Why no mention of Pogba's haircut? When did Mark Chapman turn into a Klopp tribute act?

Fabinho was great though. He just strolls around bossing everything and never wastes a pass. Fucking great player him and we’ve wasted him for most of the season by sticking him at the back. I understand why Klopp did it but if we could redo this season then the better option would be to keep him where he is and roll with the likes of Phillips and Williams at the back. I think that the plusses for Fabinho in midfield (better going forward, breaking up oppo's midfield & more chances created) easily outweigh the minusses of having Nat & Rhys at centrebacks (speed of thought, positioning). In the air the defence is probably better. And they have Fabinho in front of them to protect them.

I 100% agree.

Jordan also wrote a good article in the Sunday Times on the ESL debacle.

At home against Swansea for certain.

Now where have I heard that one before? Looks in the direction of Shite Hart Lane................

The only scarier stare than (Don) Pier Luigi was Ben Kingsley's character in Sexy Beast.

Based on the fact that there is such diversity on who was MOM was - could this be due to the fact that it was an actual team performance that we witnessed.

Repped for "Chimpleton"

Well I hope he doesn't bang his head when he jumps!

We’ll see more and more of this with the introduction of concussion subs as there are managers out there (not accusing Chris Wilder by the way) who will already be coming up ways to gain an advantage from that. *glares at Mourinho*. When I started this sentence I was sure that the last word would be "Fat Sam" - at what point did you change your mind?

For certain it won't be a commentator or pundit (looks at Shearer) as that is a turkey (Shearer again) voting for Christmas moment.

Exactly!

When Everton equalised against City last night - my first thought was that if Mo or Sadio had scored a goal in that way then VAR would have managed to conjure a "line" to disallow it. Sad, but true.

I can’t say this for certain as there’s no way of knowing for sure, but if Premier League refs had been in charge of this game it would have been a different outcome. I saw a comment on Twitter that absolutely nailed it. It was something like “the best thing about playing in Europe is that when Sadio and Mo are fouled we get free-kicks”. Yep. And those little things make a massive difference to games. Refs don’t always stiff you by giving penalties and red cards. Often it’s death by a thousand cuts. Dave - you're so right about the death by a thousand cuts. It all goes back to one of your observations about how the match stats don't add up. We have 60% possession (say) over the whole game but the foul stats are something like 17 against us and only 11 fouls by the team playing with its back to the big bus in their goalmouth. We seem to have a foul called against us every time we lose the ball. This helps break up momentum, frustrate Klopp and the players and also waste time (looks at Burnley). When you throw in the implausible lines that VAR manages to draw - for us it's clearly a case of "joining up the dots" to get the pre-ordained result. We need to shoot more from outside or edge of the box - VAR can't touch those goals.

"Football without fans is nothing. It could be the greatest game in the world, but if there are no people there to watch it, it becomes nothing. The fans are the lifeblood of the game." Jock Stein (very near the beginning of the "Three Kings" documentary).

I think I read that it was "our man" Coote on the VAR.

Baldiola was clearly "fed" the quote from Klopp as he had all his stats lined up as well as the hyperbolic 2months, 3 months crap in the responding interview.

I first read that as "any half decent LEPER saves that" - in that case it would have been an 'armless save

Really top biscuit analysis!! Joshing aside - show Gini the money!!

Regarding the sending off of Luiz - I thought that the rule had been changed regarding the double jeopardy of a penalty plus a red card unless it was serious foul play? Or did I dream it? In any case it was not a red card and how Arsenal's appeal was knocked back just shows how fucked the referees cartel is.