Naby Keita: Under the Microscope

Over the course of the 2016/17 season, Red Bull Leipzig established themselves as club that was no longer up-and-coming, instead as a serious force in the Bundesliga. Key to their success were players such as Emil Forsberg, Timo Werner, and Naby Keita. Keita's performances this season earned him a spot in the Bundesliga Team of...

Fitness & Depth: Liverpool’s Summer Needs

With silly season upon us, every radio host, back page editor and ITK Twitter expert will be theorizing on who Liverpool might be bringing in as the Reds prepare to make their return to the Champions League. Of course with Liverpool supporters there's always the added dimension of Fenway Sports Group. Are you #FSGIN...

LFC Set-Piece Defending Analysis: Making Sense of the Chaos

At the end of the season, for a Liverpool supporter, it is time to look forward to a busy transfer summer and a few months without worrying that your heart might explode in stoppage time. But it is also time to look back at the aspects of the game when the team excelled; and...

Tale of Liverpool’s Season: Doubters to Believers

Jürgen Klopp had one true ambition this season. Turning doubters into believers. An impressive pre-season, capped off with a 4-0 demolition of Barcelona at a sold-out Wembley Stadium had expectations running high already. But it was the 4-3 victory over Arsenal in the very first game of the season that really got people talking. Sadio Mané...

Iker Casillas: A New Number 1?

Upon achieving Champions League qualification, fans immediately suspected Liverpool would be linked with higher-profile players than usual. Yet the link to Real Madrid legend, former Spain captain, and current Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas caught everyone by surprise. Whilst we should always treat transfer reports with scepticism it's an intriguing link nonetheless. However, first we must consider...

An improvement but still not a successful season for Liverpool

Liverpool's win over Middlesborough ensured that the Reds returned to the Champions league for only the second time since 2009, how times have changed ayy. So with Champions league qualification confirmed how should this season be looked upon? There is no doubting the importance of CL football, without it due to Liverpool's wage structure...

How To Survive The Liverpool FC Transfer Season

Jürgen Klopp Looking To Get Business Done Early screamed one newspaper headline. Klopp Strikes Pessimistic Note On Early Signings, squawked another. Welcome, officially, to Silly Season at it's most histrionic, idiotic and clueless. Between now and the close of the summer transfer window, you will be exposed to such a barrage of contradictory, attention-seeking...

Liverpool FC sweep Sydney FC in Australia friendly

Pre-Match Preamble "We have three pundits in the team...but we are here to play football." - Jurgen Klopp Cheery as ever, that was the message from Liverpool's manager before the game. After navigating through the exciting turbulence of a top 4 chase, Liverpool Football Club faced the turbulence of the two-legged journey from Heathrow to Sydney. With...

Analysing Liverpool’s Season Player By Player

And breathe... A confident and composed 3-0 victory at home to Middlesbrough confirmed Liverpool's spot in the top-four. A clear sign of progression for Jurgen Klopp's first full season in charge at the club, and a platform from which summer transfer dealings will likely stem. With the season now drawn to a close, it's time to...

How The Perfect Liverpool Squad Should Look Next Season

Another season has been and gone, but unlike so many at Liverpool since they decided to stop winning everything, 2016/17 has left us with a feeling of great warmth. The Reds’ title challenge may have fizzled out after a very promising first four months, but sealing Champions League qualification has to be seen as...

Jürgen Klopp and Excuses

Well phew. I had this article lined up a couple of weeks ago after the 0-0 draw with Southampton, after Jürgen Klopp blamed the pitch for the result, and there were a couple of versions of this article lingering in my brain. But mercifully, Liverpool won their last two games 7-0 on aggregate, to...

Jurgen Klopp Made Move For World Class Attacker

In world football today, there are not many strikers who are more highly sought after than AS Monaco striker Kylian Mbappe. However, do you know that the 18-year-old, who scored 26 goals for Monaco in the French league this season, could have been playing for Liverpool? According to Telegraph, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp attempted signing...

Believe, Doubters – Klopp Is Driving LFC Onwards

At Anfield yesterday, after a creditable objective had been achieved by Liverpool, as cute children in replica kits tottered wide-eyed after their fathers, and as an intoxicating relief had flooded the famous old stadium, Lucas Leiva said some words into a microphone, whilst clutching a small memorial in the shape of the number 21...

Liverpool FC: The Journey, Not The Destination

A few years ago I made a promise to myself. I’d become increasingly more fascinated with Arsenal and their level of ambition. In the early part of this century they were simply imperious with consecutive FA Cups, league titles and the greatest strikers in their history in Henry and Bergkamp, but as Roman Abramovich’s petro-dollars...

Liverpool Interested In €75m Rated South American, Juventus Also Keen 

With Jurgen Klopp and his players managing to nick a fourth place finish, many Liverpool fans now expect the club to sign 2-3 world class players in the summer transfer window in order to enable the team compete on all fronts next season. Personally as a Liverpool supporter, I think this summer transfer window will...

Candidates for Liverpool’s MOTM vs Middlesbrough

Liverpool capped off a successful campaign with a 3-0 home win over relegated Middlesbrough, confirming Liverpool's place in the Champions League qualifiers. Before kick-off, Reds fans greeted the team bus with a voiceforous welcome - it brought back memories of last season when flares billowed through Anfield's Shankly Gate. The atmosphere was deafening inside Anfield too,...

Klopp’s Champions League Reds Head for Europe’s Top Table

Liverpool earned the chance to play Champions League football next season after putting thee goals past Middlesbrough. After a tense season of almost mounting a title challenge and almost reaching the League Cup final, the relief around Anfield was palpable when the team finally achieved one of its goals. The celebrations after Georginio Wijnaldum’s opener in...

Scouting Julian Brandt – Leverkusen’s Blazing Starlet

It’s been a rather torrid season for Bayer Leverkusen. Through it all, there was a blonde-haired 21 year-old plying his tricky, flashy trade in the attack, creating where Leverkusen struggled to finish. Now, Julian Brandt is a prime target ripe for the taking. He’s attracted interest from clubs with notable reputations: Liverpool and Bayern Munich...

Liverpool 3-0 Middlesbrough: Player Ratings

Get in! That's it Reds, into the Champions League and all the relief that comes with that statement. It was nervy for a while until Roberto Firmino and Gini Wijnaldum combined for a goal. Coutinho and Lallana added more in the second-half to secure a superb end to the season. Here's how everyone fared individually. Simon...

Liverpool vs Middlesbrough Preview: La finale, décideur

Liverpool's officials will be hoping to brush up on their French for a Champions League draw in Monaco in a few months time, should they see off Middlesbrough on Sunday in the final game of the Reds' season. THE DETAILS Match: Liverpool vs Middlesbrough Venue: Anfield Referee: Martin Atkinson Date: Sunday 21st May Time: 14:00 BST FORM After a Winter, and arguably Spring, filled with...

Liverpool v Middlesbrough – The Final Push!

Well, here we are. Game 38. All or nothing (and the Europa League is nothing as far as I’m concerned. It’s a fine, a tax on not being good enough for the Big Lads Cup). It all comes down to this. Firstly, I’m fairly sure that that 3-4 game at the Emirates which started this...

Tactical Explanation to Wijnaldum’s Absence

For a player like Mesut Özil, despite all the technical ability he possesses such as his elite ball control and dribbling ability, his vision and precise execution of passes – among many others – his career, at least whilst wearing a kit in Arsenal colours, will always be marred by fans labelling him as...

All Or Nothing For Klopp And The Reds

"A war of attrition, competition, competition, competition," he said. "This means a fight for everything week in, week out," he elaborated, but it turned out that Jürgen Klopp was not describing the ferocious rivalry between the members of the Liverpool squad to get cast in the latest Nivea television ad, a B-Movie fever dream which...

The 4-4-2 Diamond is Perfect for Liverpool

Liverpool travelled to the London stadium for the first time in a game which had a cup final feel about it, win and the Reds would be three points away from Champions League football, lose and Liverpool would be reliant on either Man City or Arsenal dropping points. Fans were understandably extremely cautious after...

Liverpool vs Middlesbrough Preview – Key Battles

Liverpool’s final game of the 2016/17 season is in front of their own fans at Anfield, knowing a win against already relegated Middlesbrough will be enough to see them into the top four and with it securing qualification to next year’s Champions League. But it won’t be an easy game, so here are the...

What Has Klopp Achieved At Liverpool – Nothing

It has been discovered that in some cases in the world of football, people ascribe success to who they want and make the people they hate look like failures. There was a huge hype in the reds corners when Jurgen Klopp was being signed from Borussia Dortmund. This is irrespective of the fact that...

Philippe Coutinho: Central Midfielder?

Philippe Coutinho turned in an absolute masterclass on Sunday afternoon, scoring twice, assisting Daniel Sturridge for the opening goal, creating five other chances for his team-mates and generally wreaking havoc on the West Ham back-line. And he did so from a deeper position in central midfield, whereas generally all season Coutinho has played on...

Magic Coutinho Impresses Origi

As I sit down to write this, there are actual people of intelligence preparing to watch David Moyes' Sunderland take on Arsenal in the hope that the Mackems will eke out some kind of result. This is the kind of entirely avoidable madness that leads to dark bouts of depression. To compound the lunacy,...

Daniel Sturridge – Hammer Time!

I must not write about Sturridge again. I must not write about Sturridge again. I must not write about… Well, if that was to be Daniel Sturridge’s penultimate game for Liverpool it was either a demonstration of what we’re going to miss or a sigh of relief that we no longer have to deal with his maddening...

Progress At Liverpool FC Regardless Of Final Fixture

Let's get something absolutely clear from the off, friends - whether Liverpool beat Middlesborough and secure a Champions League play-off or not, there has been obvious, demonstrable progress under Jürgen Klopp this season. This really shouldn't need saying, but the fickle and pugnacious nature of many of our fans makes it important to nail your colours...