dockers_strike

Let's see that World Champions badge again!

#taintedcuprun

I see ollie holt has written a shocking apologist's article on solskjaer in the sunday wail. It's not ollie's fault, he cries, they sold ollie's best players from under him and ollie has got united to a better points total this season than mourinho had when they sacked him. Completely ignores the clamour from holt, ferdinand and the rest of them who said give him the contract he wants after they spawned that result away at PSG with the aid of VAR. And they call us about VAR! Meanwhile the gimp himself uses another sly dig at Jurgen saying he wont be 'given 3 years' to turn the club around as Klopp has. The fact is, Jurgen has shown a consistent improvement in his time at Liverpool which, cannot be said of solskjaer. But even if he did get 3 years, even Stevie Wonder could see solskjaer just isnt in the same class as Jurgen. It's never his fault, is it?

Come on, solskjaer and united could sign Mbappe and it wouldnt make that much difference to their results. solskjaer is neither a tactician or inspirator of men.

Relax, that Amanda Staverley is involved. They're trying to make out the Saudi crown prince is buying them but he's not, he just has links to a company that is supposedly one of Staverley's backers. This isnt a mansourish buy out.

I wonder if Virgil is disappointed to be missing out on the FA Cup?

A company I used to do a bit of business with had a city fan in their accounts department. We used to have a bit of banter about the footie even after mansour and his billions rocked up and it was all pretty good humoured. It was all 'you'll beat us at Anfield because city never do well there' and 'we'll get one over you at the etihad' stuff. But I noticed a definite twist in his 'banter' after we knocked them of the CL and it went up a notch or 3 through last season. Then he started with the 'dippers' and 'what about the 39?' kind of stuff. Of course the coach attack didnt help but I said I thought it was a disgrace and those cunts had sullied the club's name. I said WTF you talking like your united chums for anyway and there's a memorial to the Heysel tragedy at Anfield if you ever bothered going to look and stopped believing the ill informed shite on the net. In the end, I just had to tell him to fuck off but if he wanted to discuss football with me again, I might give it some thought seeing as the banter we used to share.

How did everton get on in the cup? Oh wait........

Just go "Nineteen times!" and laugh at them.

I disagree, I dont think the lad had a quiet game like some have suggested. Yes, baptism of fire maybe. I think he should have been played in by Mo on one breakaway and then who knows. He looked comfortable with the ball to me.

Well, we've already won it bar the shouting. In my very humble opinion! But I know what you mean. A lot of folk seem to be getting mixed up with where the title is officially won and when we get our hands on the trophy. Officially, no one has to give the Champions a guard of honour. That's just crept in recently. It doesnt matter where the title is actually won, the Champions can specify when and where they want the trophy presentation to take place. That could be anywhere, on the steps of St George's Hall, at an oppos ground or at their home ground. The reality is, Liverpool will want it presented at Anfield. Even if it is 'won' with 6 or 7 games to go, Im also pretty sure Jurgen will only want it presented at the last home game of the season and, I suspect after the final whistle. We're gonna have a party that day.

Must be because Pep has said Jurgen and his team are going to smash all their records. I mean you cant argue against your own manager, can you?

LEICESTER, England — There seemed to be genuine pleasure in Jürgen Klopp’s voice as he said it. Klopp, the Liverpool manager, had been asked, not long after his Premier League-leading side had crushed Leicester City on Boxing Day, to assess its next obstacle: Wolves. A “very dangerous” team, he said; he was full of praise for the “incredible” work of its coach, Nuno Espírito Santo. And then, it seemed, his mind drifted to one player in particular, the one member of the Wolves squad who has tended to draw everyone’s focus. “It looks like Traoré finally found his manager,” Klopp said, smiling. Klopp has known about Adama Traoré for a long time. Seven years or so, in fact, back to the days when he was still manager of Borussia Dortmund. He was not alone then, either: Traoré was the sort of teenager whom everyone had heard about, word of his talent drifting out from Barcelona’s academy, causing ears to prick up and scouts to scurry across Europe to get a look at him. “It was always clear it would happen one day,” Klopp said that night in Leicester. What is not clear is why that day took so long to arrive. Traoré will turn 24 on Saturday — two days after his latest collision with Klopp, a 2-1 Liverpool victory on Thursday — and yet it is only this season that he has become a first-team regular for an elite team, starting to earn the sort of recognition his reputation long promised. Traoré set up one Wolves goal in a loss to Liverpool on Thursday, and nearly delivered another assist for an equalizer in injury time.Credit...Carl Recine/Action Images, via Reuters Some of that attention — like a call-up to Spain’s national team — has been welcome; some of it — like the fact that only four players have been fouled more often in the Premier League this season — less so. Both, though, are compliments at heart, proof of Traoré’s development and his status. Both have taken rather longer to arrive than might have been expected. The story of why that is serves to illustrate how soccer handles — or, rather, tends to mishandle — players with unique skill sets, those who are not readily categorized by position, those who are not easily folded into a team’s structure. That Traoré had talent has been obvious from the start: not just his speed and his strength, but what one former coach calls his “remarkable balance,” the traits that earned him a place at Barcelona’s academy at age 8 and, at one point, led to the suggestion that he explore the idea of becoming an N.F.L. running back. Any soccer coach wants a player that quick and powerful; those physical gifts are, after all, potent weapons. Not every coach — indeed, perhaps not the majority of coaches — knows quite how to deploy such a player. “He had so much speed and so much possibility,” said Albert Benaiges, one of his coaches at La Masia, Barcelona’s youth academy. “But we were not sure whether he was best used as a right back or a right winger. By the time he was 18 or so, we knew he could be a professional, but we did not know exactly what he was going to be.” In the summer of 2015, Barcelona decided that Traoré would be better suited to a more “open, dynamic” style of soccer, according to Benaiges: playing Barcelona’s intricate short-passing game did not allow him to make the most of his gifts. He was sold to Aston Villa, bought not on the recommendation of the club’s manager — Tim Sherwood — but because he stood out to the club’s data analysts. Sherwood knew immediately that Traoré could be the sort of player who “frightened opponents to death.” “He could go from nought to 60 in about two seconds,” Sherwood said. “But he was like an elastic band that had been stretched too tight: every so often he would snap. I very rarely saw him, because he was always injured.” When he was fit, Sherwood deployed Traoré as an impact substitute: Villa was struggling against relegation, and he deemed Traoré too unreliable to build a team around. Eric Black — one of Sherwood’s successors — described him as “one of the quickest players I have seen for years,” but admitted he was “indisciplined.” He barely played in the final few months of the season. When Villa was relegated, he was sold to Middlesbrough. There, he worked with three coaches. Aitor Karanka, the first, devised a special program for him, an attempt to polish his talent. One afternoon a week, Traoré would sit in Karanka’s office and go through video of his recent performances, his manager pointing out what he had done well and where he might improve, particularly in his work off the ball. Karanka’s successor, Garry Monk, urged Traoré to abide by the team’s structure, to remember “what the team shape is and what is needed from you.” By the time Tony Pulis, his third and final coach at Middlesbrough, arrived, Traoré was “a little bit confused tactically. “He had been trying to please everybody,” Pulis said. As Pulis sees it, Traoré had become something of a managerial pet project: Every coach wanted to prove he was the one who would be able to marshal his talent, to show that they were the one he had been waiting for. “He had forgotten what his real strengths were,” Pulis said. “We straightened that out.” Rather than formal video sessions, Pulis would invite Traoré into his office for a cup of tea and a chat about Lionel Messi. There was no tough love: If Traoré had to be reprimanded or criticized, it was always in private. “He’s a lovely boy, but some players are a little more insecure than others,” Pulis said. “He would always question himself, rather than whether the coach was giving him the right instructions.” Instructions — particularly for defensive work — were kept to a minimum; Pulis wanted Traoré to focus on what he did well. “It was very simple stuff,” he said. “We wanted him to fill spaces, track his opposing fullback.” That is not to say it was all light touch. In some games, Pulis would switch Traoré’s position so that he was on the wing closest to the manager, so that he could coach him through games. The key, Pulis said, was gaining his trust. It worked: The two are still in touch. Even now, Pulis will send Traoré a message if he feels he has played well, or if he has noticed something he might have done differently. Traoré’s success at Wolves — he signed for the club after its promotion to the Premier League, in 2018 — can be traced to Nuno’s decision to try a similar approach. Initially, his plan was to harness Traoré’s abilities in service of the team. He asked him to focus on making specific runs, or to follow certain patterns. As others had found, though, the strategy seemed to dull Traoré’s primary threat. Gradually, Nuno and his staff realized the precise opposite was required. He accepted that, with Traoré in his team, he could never have what his coaches refer to as a “symmetrical playbook.” Traoré’s qualities could not be maximized in a traditional, neat formation. Instead, he encouraged the rest of his players to adapt their games to allow Traoré to flourish, to accept that there would be times when he would lose the ball, or make runs so that he might find space. They encouraged him to take risks, rather than chastising him for daring to be different. It worked: Over the course of the last 18 months, the players have recognized the best way to utilize the weapon at their disposal. The team now instinctively shifts to cover whatever shortfall Traoré leaves. As opponents have become more conscious of the threat he poses, Nuno has started to change his position during games. His teammates dutifully adapt. At the same time, Traoré has worked on his own shortcomings: improving his crossing, learning to control his speed to allow teammates to catch up with his bursts of pace, integrating his own qualities into Nuno’s plans. After all this time, as Klopp said, Traoré has found his manager: one who does not want to change him, but one who is happy to change for him. Everyone who has worked with him agrees that Traoré is unique. It took until Pulis, and then Nuno, for anyone to understand what that means.

And again! Imitation Mo goal from a tight angle. 5 in 2 games.

Haaland scores again.

He's wearing a Northern Ireland top but his tats speak of the Republic.

Interesting to note, it didnt take an age to decide the pen wasnt and that Reuss was onside, unlike the PL which would have taken ages.

I wonder if he saw vardy try and continue for Leicester the other night and when he felt something thought Id better come off pronto?

God I want his babies!

Needs to be far more consistent in his end product. Yeah, he ran Andy ragged but he only put one great ball into our box all game.

Yeah, did city ever sack their systems administrators for not revoking the pair's logins after they left the club, if not, why not? I think we need to know the level of incompetence within mcfc.

Near the English Welsh border. To the west of Telford.

He think's he's cuntona's seagull following a trawler, the fucking meff.

We must play the kids again where possible. We can afford to rest Ali and Virgil so Id play Adrian and Matip to partner Joe. I dont think Degsy will be available and it might be a bit risky playing Joel and him together so soon. If Lallana is over his virus, he should play along with Taki and, Divock up front. Fill the blanks with the likes of Jones, Williams, Larouci etc. Beyond that, I would like Liverpool to let Shrewsbury keep our share of the gate money. Make it so.

Reading through the match reports in the papers, you'd think Wolves were hard done to losing last night. But if you look at the hard facts, we bested them in virtually every area you look at. Im left wondering if Mo and to a lesser extent Bobby and Sadio while he was on, hadnt wasted all their chances, Wolves, like united on Sunday, would have been on the end of a 4 or 5 goal hiding. And I wonder what the narrative towards Wolves would have been in those circumstances.