Supremolad

Ah, my comment about the assist not being a mis-hit shot was in response to Dave claiming it was. He said so in the first comment after the article here. "Trent's assists was a proper one, as was the Gomez one on the opener. Mo gets one for a mishit shot though, which is a little sketchy but I wouldn't completely dismiss it"

Very good match report. Although, almost half way through reading it, I scrolled back up to check who the author was. Not a slight on you in any way, Paul. Dave's writing style is just unique. And the absence of "my boy" references got me suspecting he wasn't the author!! Salah's assist for Gakpo wasn't a mis-hit shot at all. There is an angle from behind the goal which shows he was looking to find Gakpo but his pass got slightly deflected. Trent going through the middle to provide another goal contribution within a week. This midfield thing seems to come naturally to him. Who knew? Ha.

Great video detailing the pros and cons of Trent's hybrid position, busting the myth that Doku dribbled Trent 11 times, and the significant improvement we've made as a team since Trent's move into central areas.

Yeah, I was raging about that 8 minutes injury time too. Still wonder how they arrived at that number.

Wolves have repeatedly been fucked over this season. Every other week there are contentious VAR decisions going against them. They even had a handball shout at the end and VAR refused to even it up by giving them their own soft penalty. Should also have had Fulham down to 10 for that headbutt. Ah well, I guess "These things even themselves out during the season". Bollocks.

If any club should be putting out a statement every other week about PGMOL, it should be Wolves. Another couple of soft penalties against them tonight. VAR has been screwing them over continously, right from the very first game of the season when a blatant penalty was denied them at Old Trafford.

Yep, their intention was to foul Alisson and see if the ref would be conned into thinking "the goalie should have been stronger there". I think we probably should have a put a defender next to Akanji to stop him doing it again and again.

Fantastic article, Dave. Mostly spot on. An enjoyable read, even the bits I probably didn't agree with. And thanks again for pointing out the flaw Alisson has with his kicking. He's actually isnt terrible at it but he definitely has that as his weak spot, because his kicking very often isn't assured. It leads to us giving away a couple chances every few games, which many fans tend to ignore.

Not the way I saw it. And yes, he is good at his job but that doesn't mean he is perfect at every aspect of it. I'm saying his kicking is usually very good but he does often spread unease with the way he executes the supposed tactic of "drawing in opponents". Because his kicking isnt always assured and occasionally tends to end with a dangerous chance for the opponent or the potential for it.

Spot on. Case in point - Everton fans protesting at Goodison Park yesterday with their "corrupt" Premier League cards.

He is very good with his feet. Kelleher is better though (and that's the only thing he is better at). As a fanbase we tend to gloss over the numerous times when Alisson almost gives the ball away or when he actually does give it away but escapes conceding a goal. He does it every few games, taking risks and giving away dangerous chances when kicking. In fact he did a couple against Brentford just before the int'l break. And the Kop loudly let him know they didn't like the faffing around. He then got angry at the crowd for complaining about the unease he instigated.

I haven't listened to the pod yet, but I'm half expecting Dave to mention his Dad telling him Alisson's performance vs City is why Kelleher should be our number one. To be fair though, Kelleher's kicking is generally better and more assured than Alisson's.

It really is straight forward foul. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), Skysports and MoTD somehow made a debate out of it. I fucking hate this "goalkeeper should have been stronger there" bullshit when a goalkeeper is obviously being impeded as he is about to catch a ball near his goalline.

Not a huge problem at all. I had it on 1.5x speed anyway. And to be fair, you did try to keep things moving. But it's hard to do that when Dave has a couple of his boys he loves to bang on about. That and his Kenny-like football skills. Ha!!

The Trent discussion was interesting too. I feel Trent wasn't being arrogant or churlish when saying midfield is his preferred option. He started off as a midfielder and probably always thought he would end up there. Yes he can still be useful as a right back. However, you can't deny how wrecked his head must have been for almost a year before Klopp started using him in the hybrid role. When majority of the football world keep saying you can't defend and jumping on every error you make, then you can't be blamed for seeking solace elsewhere on the pitch where you know you can excel.

Great podcast even if it was a tad bit long. I did enjoy how Dave dismantled the sympathy card being played on Everton's behalf by a large part of the public. I would also have thought Nunez would rank high on the list of our attractive players. One of the first things Klopp ever said about him in public was "He is an extremely good looking boy". Had to stop himself from practically drooling during the press conference. And this was before we even signed Nunez.

Yep. First time any country had won away to Brazil in WC qualifiers apparently.

Seen this a couple years before but watching it back now, it's as spine tingling as ever.

Another brilliant one, Dave. Great stuff. I dont think the Salah v Mane thing is as dramatic as intended though. When I hear retired top forwards talk on various podcasts or interviews, they often gripe about teammates not passing them the ball or not putting in the ball early. It's not an unusual thing at all. Top forwards generally want to score goals and often have a selfish streak. And yeah, Salah and Mane were not best of mates but Firmino also said they still treated each other with professional respect. Also said Mane was always the more volatile one, so I'm not surprised he's the one who started catching feelings about being underappreciated. Even though Salah assisted more Mane goals than the other way round. I think I also saw a stat that Nunez is already about to match the total number of assists Mane made to Salah in 5 years!!

1) Who do you think has a higher ceiling and a genuine chance of making it under Klopp - Kaide Gordon or Ben Doak? 2) While it's true that Robertson is a good player, shouldn't we seriously be looking to get strong competition for him next season based on his significant flaws - failing to hold a defensive line and dropping yards behind, over-reliance on his left foot, inability to convert chances despite getting into good positions.

The evidence has been clear for a good while. The formation switch has been successful. It stopped our terrible run of form and results have been great since. Although it's true our current system has minor flaws but we have to recognise all systems have flaws. The trick is minimising the effects of the flaws. Despite the overwhelming evidence, we still have a vocal minority who think the new formation with Trent as inverted fullback should be binned off. We are always a draw or defeat away from hearing them say it over and over again.

So annoying, the lack of intelligent questions from many journalists in post match interviews and press conferences.

Bagged four goals for Egypt today in a world cup qualifier. He is in imperious form. In fact, compared to when he initially joined us, he is a better player overall now. Have to be looking to keep him as long as possible.

Also the challenge has to be indicated to the referee by the team captain within 10 seconds of the incident happening. No chance should be given to any club's video analysts to look at multiple angles in slow motion, taking ages before advising team captain to challenge. And then a time limit of 1 or 2 minutes for VAR to look at it and make a decision.

That could well be true. Which is why the proposal should be only 1 challenge per half. So for example, if a major 50/50 decision doesnt go a team's way 10 minutes into the game, they would really need to be sure they want to use their 1 challenge because there would still be 35 minutes more in which there are potentially worse decisions.