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Thiago the waster
Thiago was such an epic waste of space in the middle of the pitch today. If Firmino hadn’t been equally busy stinking the place out further up the pitch then it might’ve got more attention. I was amazed that neither of them were hooked in the first round of substitutes. Neither deserves to start now that Milner and Jota are fit.
5 losses in a row at Anfield. Maybe we should do a stadium swap with the Ev.
A lot of what’s going wrong is injuries but there is a possibility that we won’t recover the mindset of winners even after the leaders and the spine return. This team looks used to losing and there seemed to be very few f**ks given about it. Even the last five minutes there was zero urgency or desire. They were totally relaxed about losing.
As shite as we were. I just can’t understand how the ref isn’t, at least, sent to the screen to review the Kante handball. His arm is not in a natural position and he has gained an advantage by handling it. Utterly shocked the ref isn’t given the chance to see it again. At the same time that Werner VAR is crap isn’t it? It’s really not football.
Somehow the only thing that managed to overshadow the utter shit pile that was Liverpool was Martin Tyler on commentary. He’s either got zero insight to offer, xenophobic bollocks or awful jokes. I guess that Carra and him are mates or something because I couldn’t stand to just sit next to such an empty shell who seemingly never shuts up yet never has anything worthwhile to say. Sky have an array of top pundits and yet somehow persist with one of the worst commentators on all of TV. He’s just a parody of himself now because the only thing he gets excited about is before a game when he tells you “And it’s live”
Minty, LFC
Question for Bayern Munich fans: did Thiago actually play football for you? I am increasingly thinking we have another Ali Dia situation on our hands over at Liverpool.
Oliver, London
READ MORE: 16 Conclusions: Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea
Trent is SH*T
You idiots who like to blame Thiago for our troubles just can’t open your eyes and see the real problem. Trent Alexander Arnold. He just doesn’t have 2 top centre halves to get him out of trouble this season. 3 instances in that half that sum him up as a defender. Too often he tries to anticipate what a player is gonna do but does it way too early giving the opposition player a chance to adjust. 1) ball in the box. It’s there for Mount and trent is with him. He tries to anticipate he can’t control it properly and he’ll pass it outside to chilwell. Of course he’s making that move out to chilwell so Mount says thank you and hits a woeful shot over. Just a sighted. 2) he lets Mount AGAIN cut inside him way too easily putting us in danger. 3) the goal. He goes behind fabinho as ‘cover’. He tries to anticipate AGAIN Mount going on the outside of fabinho and places himself in no mans land. Mount cuts back on to his preferred foot and Trent can’t adjust to get back and block. He is SHIT!! I’ve said it for 4 years now. This can’t keep going on.
Oh and you Wally brains that say Thiago slows play down. Are you having a fucking laugh. He takes a touch and pass or first time pass. And it’s usually a forward pass. Gigi takes 5,6,7 touches. Jones the same. Why do you not talk about that??! Klopp said Gigi has been our most consistent performer this season. THAT explains everything about this season to me. The most consistently worst fecking player!!
Alex
Liverpool are wrecked
Liverpool look absolutely wrecked against Chelsea, the second half press was better for 2 reasons, 1. Klopps half time talk ringing in their ears and 2. the fact that the didn’t bother to press in the first half with Chelseas defence and midfield getting their heads up and passes away time and again.
This fatigue that Liverpool are feeling is completely Klopps fault. In the last 25 days, Liverpool have played 6 games, that’s 540 minutes (minimum not including injury time) and in that time Klopp has used 19 players. That doesn’t seem too bad until you see that 8 of those 19 have played all but those 540 minutes available (Salah and Firmino have played 510 and 520 minutes) and Alison and Kabak 450mins from 450 available each with Jones and Thiago at 438 and 464 mins each, yes they’re being subbed but always past the hour mark…
No wonder people are getting injured….
Other players like Shaqiri (52 mins from 540) James Milner (82 mins from 450 available to him) Oxlade Chamberlain (40 mins from 540) and players like Origi (31 mins from 540), Keita (10 mins from 270 available), Phillips (90 from 540), Rhys Williams (0 mins) and Tsimikas (5 mins from 540) are clearly not trusted.
Well why does Klopp not trust these players?
Who’s fault is that??
Henderson Milner Origi and Gomez are all that remain from the squad he inherited, how is it at the point where he doesn’t trust these lads to come in, do a job and give players a rest, I mean he bought them, he’s watching them everyday, surely he knows whos good enough and who’s not?
Over the past few years Klopp has built a thoroughbred of a team….. Well now his thoroughbred is miles from the finishing line and Klopp is still flogging the shite out of it…
Robbie DFC *maths is fun
Liverpool popcorn
After losing 5 in a row for the first time in history at Anfield, Klopp and the mighty Reds can take solace in the fact that the European ‘home’ game with Leipzig is away from home so they should be fine in Europe for another round.
However, I dread to think of the absolute whinging that will occur if Liverpool lose the “home” game 3-1 and go out on away goals rule after 2 neutral games. If ever there was a fan base this mad scenario was setup for, it’s themmuns.
GaryB (popcorn ready for the Klopp out, injury stories, and other drama in the mailbox)
A tall, animated, charismatic, German Manager striding across the Anfield pitch at full time high-fiving, fist-bumping, bear hugging his players with a big loopy grin on his face.
Liverpool fans must be relieved to say the least.
Oh…
Banjo, Prague
No, Liverpool FC, you can’t have our PE teacher.
Samwise, MUFC
Super Mount
I have just four opinions from that game;
1. Mason Mount is our player of the season
2. VAR truly could be the most frustrating thing about modern day football
3. That is a huge win in the race for top four, would never have happened under Lampard I feel
4. Mo Salah gets subbed off and then his agent tweets a full stop, that’s weird, I’m sure many a detective will be trying to decode what it all means
Mikey, CFC
Man United #bantz
Considering it’s clear to everyone (except Ole) that Rashford and Fernandes are absolutely knackered, the title race is over, City’s incredible form, that the upcoming Milan game is arguably more important and United’s tendency to play for a 0-0 in the big league games this season, perhaps this weekend’s Manchester derby can be used as a 90-minute defence vs attack exercise by Ole? Why not go for a 6-4-0 formation with Telles-Shaw-Maguire-Bailly-Lindelof-Wan Bissaka and Matic-Tuanzebe-Fred-McSauce just for #bantz?
To add on to the point about rotation made by Andy (MUFC) in yesterday’s mailbox, why isn’t more being made of Ole’s decision to send Lingard out on loan? I realize that he’s not the solution to our attacking issues but surely he could have been better utilized to add freshness to the team. His fitness was clearly not an issue since he has more or less played in all of West Ham’s 5 league games since the move and has contributed 3 goals and an assist. So why get rid of another body in light of the unrelenting fixture list? The decision simply baffles me. And don’t get me started on the lack of rotation/squad management by the coaching team. It seems as though the lessons from the post Project Restart period were not learned! I would not be suprised if United end up outside the top 4 at the end of the season. It beggars belief as to how we’re still 2nd!
Obligatory 3rd paragraph.
Jasvinder Singh, Selangor, Malaysia
Will football get ‘long Covid’?
As we all look forward to returning to something like normal life in the coming months I was mulling over what that first day back in a football ground will be like – will it be different? Will there be a heightened atmosphere or will a few misplaced passes, wayward shots etc. quickly remind us that most games of football are, well, average.
Over the last few months, I personally have never viewed so much football at home without watching it – it has very much become something in the background rather then something I am fully engaged with. I will always start with the best intentions, I am even comfortable with the backdrop of no crowds now, but the vast majority of time the ‘entertainment’ on offer just isn’t enough to keep my attention. As someone who supports a team in League One & attends games I have no emotional attachment in the EPL but have been a football fan for nearly 40 years, I have pretty much all the major subscriptions and with fees on at least one of those rising again in April I’d like to think I can make an informed decision on whether I am getting value for money / entertainment. I am very much the archetypal ‘customer’ I suppose.
So, I am today asking myself – is the quality of the EPL always at this standard? Has the sheer volume of matches just magnified this? Is the truncated season, lack of preparation to blame? Why are all the ‘big games’ well, meh? At what point does ‘Super Sunday’ just become ironic? I have always unquestionably renewed these subscriptions in the past but the motivation was always more ‘FOMO’ – what if I really wanted to catch a couple of games this weekend? What if they are really good? I am pretty sure this quality issue will flow through into the Euros this summer – I imagine expectations will far exceed delivery & to be clear I am not laying the blame at the feet of the players, there are clearly multiple contributors here.
I guess what I am saying is the ‘product’ really worth the money or time at the moment? Many other industries have adjusted their billing / charging structures to reflect the Covid environment but clearly football and the broadcasters were never going to do that. Are they even aware/worried that as the economic fallout of the last 12 months continues to hit hard customers are going to have to look at their offerings with a more disparate eye. Will the impacts on football be slower to come to fruition or, put another way, will football get ‘long Covid’ ?
Alex Mc
City in ‘good faith’
Everyone seems very critical of City fans lately now they’re enjoying the team winning again. The entire club seems to be a contradiction – it has no fans, but all the fans are morally bankrupt for supporting them. City’s fans were some of the best in the country when they weren’t enjoying the crap football and the club was yo-yoing between leagues, but they’re now awful people for enjoying not yo-yoing between leagues and watching excellent football. It all boils down to the takeover time and time again, something the fans have absolutely no control over.
It’s impossible to have any ‘good faith’ discussions about the nuance in all of this – and God knows I’ve tried. So, I ask in good faith… What is it that opposition fans would like City fans to do about the club’s owners?
David from the Blue Moon Podcast
I thought I would offer a public service for the Mailbox correspondents clearly grieving over the fact that Manchester City are looking half decent at the moment. It’s always good to know what stage you are at.
Denial. Symptoms include “Cheats”, “Emptihad”, “No history”, “No-one cares, least of all me and I am going to spend two thousand words saying just how much I don’t care in extremely granular detail”.
Anger. Symptoms (often topped with a light dusting of racism towards the owner) include a sudden scouring of the internet for information about Middle Eastern geopolitics – with a particular emphasis on sources that at first glance say what you want to hear. The idea that these issues are incredibly complex, have been going on for 1400 years and if there was an easy answer, humanity would have sorted it some while ago are dismissed out of hand. Furthermore, the idea that you are seeing the endless and utterly heartbreaking proxy war in Yemen (in which the UAE is indirectly involved) through the lens of Benjamin Mendy’s salary is seen as perfectly normal behaviour. Lengthy but often misleading analyses of transfer fees. Comparisons either assume that competitor clubs’ players are scouted from school teams within a five mile radius of the stadium or use carefully designed parameters to prove a misleading point or just state a fact baldly with no context. If you are saying the fact that City’s bench for a match cost £250m as proving something conclusive without noting that Chelsea’s bench for a game days later cost £350m then this, my friend, is where you are.
Bargaining. Symptoms include “Foden signs a contract to sit on the bench for six years”, “FFP will sort this out,” “They can buy centre backs but they can’t buy CAS.” This went well.
Depression: Symptoms include “they will never draw let alone lose a game for the rest of eternity”, “there should be some allowance for the fact that my club’s owner is bleeding the club dry financially/somewhat capricious/a bit of a bastard/not actually very good at making key decisions while City nail it almost every time”, “it’s not fair” and “while Liverpool’s dominant Premier League win was fantastic for English football, City’s similarly dominant win twelve months later portends disaster”
Acceptance: Symptoms include “you know what, fair play, they have a lot of resources but they spend it really well, and as for financial jiggery pokery, have you seen what’s going on at Barcelona and Real Madrid? They were in for, amongst others, Van Dijk, Alexis Sanchez, Maguire, Fred, Dani Alves and Jorginho. On each occasion, other clubs outbid them so yes, they spend a lot of money but they have limits and don’t just hoover up players for the sake of it . The coach is fantastic, the players are not just talented but focused and the whole operation is brilliantly run. Whatever you say about the owner, he appoints very good people, empowers them and lets them get on with it. They trust a process rather than one match or even one season. If that happened at more clubs, maybe they would be more successful. We need to respect that but learn and come back stronger. And I tell you this, that Ruben Dias is unreal. He’s like Kompany without the injuries for them and we shouldn’t be that surprised because when Kompany was fit for extended periods in the past they could also do this. However, there will a chance for everyone when – as is inevitable and not wishing harm on the guy – he is unavailable and Stones and Laporte, brilliant as they are, have to play without the guy telling them what to do. A bit like Liverpool this season. They were also a bit lucky with him as he was their third choice and even Guardiola is surprised just how good he was so soon. Oh, and while all this disrespect has turned the greatest coach in the world into a man capable of sounding like an unrepentant Stockport Bert on a variety of issues concerning City, he will (thank God) leave, almost certainly in 2023. Let’s just hope David Moyes continues to do well so the Sheikh can appoint him.”
Believe me, acceptance is best, and you need to get there soon for your own sake. And I speak from experience. I am from the generation of City fans defined by the third division. I used to think all this about United until successive relegations beat the reality remorselessly into me. We weren’t very good, the other lot were and they and us were both getting what we deserved. That moment is precisely when City turned the corner. Paul Dickov scored a goal every bit the equal of Aguero’s in 1999, a new stadium was built, City recovered to become reasonably stable in the Premier League with a new stadium, a very loyal fanbase and became investible. You know the rest of the story.
Mark Meadowcroft
Saad Mashar, tries to make the point that City have done more than financially dope as teams like Wolves, QPR or Valencia have ‘vast’ resources and haven’t broken the glass ceiling. Really? ‘Vast’ resources? Sure, they may have significant resources but clearly Wolves aren’t able to simply buy whomever they like and they have to stay inside FFP guidelines.
City may have got off with a smaller fine from the recent CAS decision, but it wasn’t because what they did was okay, but because it either could not be proven to CAS’s acceptance or it was time barred. If you read more deeply, City were able to obfuscate the information early in the 2000’s to the UEFA FFP team, allowing them to bypass FFP regulations. However, it was too late to fine or ban them as there was a statute of limitations that applied.
City were fined for failing to cooperate – and if it wasn’t for the ‘hack’ published in Der Spiegel, we would never have known about the roundabout way City were getting their owner to cough up cash to cover expenses. In fact, so convoluted that the City hierarchy had to draw diagrams to the so-called sponsors to show how they would be getting compensated by the owner.
Regardless, the financial doping worked as it set City up to compete.
Wolves, and let’s face it, Aston Villa, are two examples of relatively recently promoted teams with significant investment. City didn’t start winning everything from day one. Regardless of the financial doping, City set up a proper base for future success – improving management, coaching, training facilities, etc. They had a plan. As it seems do Wolves and Villa. They are both in early days down this path and are both very competitive – even against the traditional ‘Top 6.’
Its disingenuous to imply that other teams with significant investment who ARE following FFP guidelines and building for the future are not as successful as City, therefore City must be sparkly clean.City are well run, but there is nothing in their recent history to suggest they have done anything but work around limits to their investment that have been used to fuel their more recent success.
Paul McDevitt
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