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What a chastening experience last night was. If dreadful recent defeats to the likes of Brentford and Wolves said much about the current squad’s level, so did getting webbed all over Anfield by Real Madrid. The players still have it within them to look like Liverpool as we want them to be, but the ability to maintain has fallen sharply, and the propensity to make mistakes has increased. Maybe the latter is a direct consequence of the former, but the erratic moments are coming from all our players. This weekend brings a visit to Palace, a side who like to play with pace on the break, and the likelihood of us wearing that god-awful ‘petrol spillage’ white away kit. We first used it in a pre-season friendly against the Mancs in the States, a game that finished with a 4-0 hiding. Since then, it seems as though, from first team through to the youth teams and even the ladies team, it’s about as lucky as that invisible grey number the Mancs jibbed off at half-time in one game in the mid-90s. Anyway: Zip. Zest. Zoned in. Zoom. I don’t ask for much. We travelled to Selhurst Park in January 2022 for last season’s corresponding fixture, and came away with a hard-fought 3-1 win. Hard-fought in that we were in control for an hour but allowed Palace to build up a head of steam that threatened to undo all our earlier good work. Ali was much the busier of the 2 keepers in the second half. We went ahead when Virg bulleted home a header unmarked from a corner. How do you not mark someone with his aerial prowess? We doubled our lead when Ox fired home a Robbo cross at the far post. At the time I remember talk of Bobby not being given offside despite moving for the initial cross. Having seen it, I can’t tell if he was offside or not, but he did engage the defender, which allowed Ox the space he found himself in. As I said before, the second half saw us take our foot off the gas, and Palace got a goal back when a defence-splitting pass saw both centre forwards get in behind. The ball was squared to Eduoard to tap in from six yards. Then the most ‘controversial’ call of the match, as VAR determined that Guaita had fouled Diogo in the box. Diogo’s touch past the keeper wasn’t one he was going to be able to do anything with as he was too close to the dead ball line when he and the keeper collided. Fab buried the spot kick with ease and that was that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWUeOaz30d8 24th August 1971 saw the Reds travel to Selhurst Park and claim a 1-0 victory thanks to Toshack. Read the match report, we absolutely dominated them but couldn’t kill the game off. This was Shanks’ rebuilt squad with many of the 60s stalwarts now departed and a fresh injection of youth in their place. The quality was not in doubt, but they were a year or so away from finding consistency to match their ability. Mighty Mouse haring about in attack is the perfect example. I can’t find video footage so here’s a match report. Cambridge University’s Footlights dramatic society had a reputation for providing the starting point for many of the UK’s greatest comedians and entertainers. The Goodies had been hugely popular but it was a group comprised of John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam who would go on to really capture the public imagination. The combination of wit, quirkiness and cultural references went down a storm. And Now For Something Completely Different was a film comprised of sketches from their TV series, and was created for US audiences who hadn’t seen the show. The dead parrot sketch is probably the most famous sketch they ever did, and it is absolutely brilliant even today. The site I use for these No1 films is looking at the US box office and yet reading up on this film’s success over there, it was a bit of a flop when first released so I’m not sure how it’s listed as the most popular film for that week in August 1971 at any rate. As an aside, one of my housemates at uni had a line of VHS tapes along one wall of his room, a bit like Tommy in Trainspotting. Unlike Tommy, my housemate didn’t bother doing weights, nor (I don’t think) did he have a private video of him banging his girlfriend. He didn’t even have a girlfriend back then. Anyway, I recall And Now For Something Completely Different being one of the films he owned, but I never borrowed it. He had a shitload of sci-fi stuff so that was the first time I actually watched the original Star Wars trilogy. He had even made a computer animated short film with a mate of his, and that was a bit South Park-esque, only with practically everyone ending up like Kenny. The Palace game is one where I don’t quite know what they’ll do, but I’ve no real idea what we’ll do either. Will the Real Madrid debacle be playing on our players’ minds? Will the likes of Naby and Harvey start this one? Will forgotten man Fabio come in from the cold and be involved for the first time in what seems like ages? We got a few more attacking options than we had a fortnight ago, and I think Klopp will go full strength (such as it is) for this one. Whatever he does, as long as well are focussed and apply ourselves correctly, we can get the job done. Points on the board are better than having games in hand.