Stoke City vs Liverpool Preview – Reds Hoping To Do The Double

Following their disappointing 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Wednesday night, Liverpool's weekend trip to the Britannia has added importance in the race for top four. Two points dropped at home is the last thing Jurgen Klopp would have wanted, with another golden opportunity to pull away from their rivals missed. With Arsenal and Manchester...

Stoke v Liverpool Preview – Key Battles

The highs from the Merseyside derby victory were quickly erased as Liverpool were brought back down to earth after a disappointing 2-2 draw against Bournemouth at Anfield. But, there is no time to dwell on that result as the Reds face a trip to the Bet365 Stadium to face Stoke City. Since Stoke got promoted...

The Mercury Is Rising At Anfield

Trusting your mental well-being to others is a precarious activity at the best of times. Placing your happiness in the hands, or error-prone feet, of a group of talented but notoriously flaky professional footballers, is surely a sign that you are, on some level, quite mad - as mad as a hatter, even. For another...

How Liverpool Can Cope Without Sadio Mane

Liverpool supporters are currently indulging in the stressful pastime of facing an agonising wait for the results of Sadio Mane's knee scan. Mane was taken off in the second half of the Merseyside Derby after a collision with Leighton Baines. He left Anfield without crutches - but manager Jurgen Klopp confirmed that he will be...

Liverpool Fans – An acquaintance with disappointment

In a season littered with frustrating, inexcusable results, Liverpool FC managed to outdo themselves one more time: and in doing so, gifted away control over their own fate, at perhaps the expense of a Champions League spot. The manner in which Liverpool went 1-0 down was all too familiar, with a dreadful defensive error this time,...

Observations following Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth

Here we are, yet again. For all their attacking prowess and verve, Liverpool's abysmal record against teams in the bottom half of the Premier League table never looked like changing against Bournemouth. An early mistake from Georginio Wijnaldum was indicative of the Reds' start, with the team wasteful and wayward in possession. Goals either side...

Liverpool 2 – 2 Bournemouth: Player Ratings

Yet another team from the bottom half of the table. Yet another game where Liverpool drop points. It is no longer funny anymore. Liverpool might regret this at the end of the season as Liverpool failed to take advantage of a couple of other results. This is how the Reds fared today. Simon Mignolet (5) -  Small...

Unpopular Liverpool Trio Silence The Doubters In The Derby

At every club, there are players who are divisive figures - ones who will never receive a single ounce of praise from a section of the support. Liverpool has had too many to mention down the years, but three who currently stand-out are undoubtedly Dejan Lovren, Lucas Leiva and Emre Can. The Reds trio receive...

Origi Can Lift The Mané Gloom

This morning I began listening to what seems to be a hugely promising podcast series called S-Town. The character around whom the opening show circles, John B McLemore, is a bit of a misfit in his community, a man whose verbal eloquence and mental dexterity contrast pleasingly with his redneck accent. At one point,...

Liverpool vs Bournemouth Preview: Can Reds manage minus Mane?

Liverpool are well on the home stretch now in terms of the league season, with every game even more important than the last, Bournemouth the next opponents. The Reds will face off against Eddie Howe's Cherries in a mid-week schedule of games that will again play a big part in who finds themselves in a...

The Merseyside Derby, James Bond and Mad Managers

If the days leading up to a derby match are tense and emotionally draining, the hours following a win are honeyed and sweet. With Liverpool defending a 17 year unbeaten Anfield record even the most ardent Kopite was a tad concerned with the eventual inevitability of an Everton victory. After all, the Blues would...

Liverpool v Bournemouth Preview – Key Battles

The derby has been won. The top seven have been played against and Liverpool are unbeaten. But the real challenge, in many ways, begins now. Liverpool face what many would call "inferior" opposition in their last nine Premier League games, and a top four place is by no means sealed. The challenge starts with the...

Liverpool Fans Angry Over Sakho And Injuries

Occasionally, this columnist will sigh in exasperation at the petty squabbling that seems to be so prevalent amongst the diverse collective known as Liverpool supporters. It's normally testy difference-of-opinion stuff but sometimes it can be ugly, bile-laden posturing, revealing the ignorance and unpleasantness of the individuals in question. Mute buttons were made for these people....

The Sakho Debate

Is there another player that divides opinion more than Mamadou Sakho? I know he isn’t in a red shirt at the moment, but this debate is starting to brew - therefore I thought I’d finally put it to bed. To be honest, it’s starting to get a wee bit irrelevant. Whenever our defence struggles to keep...

Klopp And Lucas Bond Over Derby Win

It's been such an emotionally confusing weekend, friends, has it not? Clearly, the dominant feeling has been the sheer exultation in victory over Everton, in what was, for this columnist, the most crucial derby in years. The nature of that win, the mental toughness the Redmen showed and the imposition of their superior quality...

Liverpool fans and the Dahoud fume

So the emotional volcano that is the Liverpool twitter-sphere erupted again this past week when it was announced that Mahmoud Dahoud will be joining Borussia Dortmund this summer. Liverpool had been long linked to the young German midfielder of prolific talent, with the infamous 'monitoring' word used. Predictably, the responses ranged from it all being...

Who is Liverpool’s Most Important Player?

One of Liverpool’s problems this season has been squad depth, which puts an added importance to the team that features week in, week out. But which of Liverpool’s players is the most integral to this team, both this season and looking forwards? This article will look at five core candidates from across the team...

Liverpool 3 Everton 1: Player Ratings

Liverpool continued their good home form against Top 6 rivals with a convincing win against the blue side of Liverpool. It's always a particularly satisfying win when beating Everton but doing the double over them means the Red side are totally dominant this season. Anyway, back to the game - here are the ratings for the...

Stats Analysis: Midfield Trios and Life Without Lallana

*The stats in the article are gathered manually from Squawka. Minutes include stoppage time. Offensive, Defensive and Net rating are the totals per 100 minutes.  Last week I tried to analyse the performance of the different defensive lineups Jurgen Klopp has used this season. You can find the article here. With unfortunate events during the...

Recent Results Show why Reds Need a Striker

Liverpool need their own Sergio Agüero. There’s no need for foreplay, or context, or even to reflect on the glory days of yester-year, when Liverpool were famed for their mercurial number nines. All one needs to see is the reaction from Manchester City following James Milner’s penalty. They came at Liverpool, they scored a goal,...

Private Jets, Insomnia And Donuts – A Normal Week At Anfield

Here is the latest in a sequence of ways in which writing a daily football column knocks your perspective into a cocked hat. Number 73: Comparing your reality to that of Roberto Firmino. Having missed a day from both my jobs for what the Twitter kids call "reasons," your columnist was left incapacitated enough that he...

Liverpool vs Everton Preview: Injury problems weaken teams ahead of derby

Liverpool and Everton both have fresh injury news troubling them ahead of this weekend's Merseyside Derby, an important one in the context of the season. The Blues haven't won at Anfield in around a million years, but there's always the next one for them to change that, and with Ronald Koeman's resurgent Toffees coming in...

Lallana Out: A mortal blow to Champions League hope?

As the Merseyside Derby draws closer, with pressure building around what seems the most important derby since the FA Cup semi-final of April 2012, and Liverpool immersed in a fascinatingly competitive rat-race for Champions League qualification, the FA could not help but get involved in some way or another. This involvement, unsurprisingly, yet still perplexingly, was...

Liverpool v Everton Preview – Merseyside Derby’s Key Battles

It is that time of the year again - the time of the Merseyside derby. It has been more than six years since Everton have beaten Liverpool in any competition, and as the run-in approaches with a top four place at stake, Liverpool will have to be on top of their game. In December, the...

Emre Can Must Start Over Jordan Henderson In The Merseyside Derby

Let me get this out of the way immediately: I think Jordan Henderson is a better player than Emre Can. He is a more consistent, intelligent, mature footballer, and in most situations, if push came to shove, I would always pick Liverpool’s captain over the talented young German. The thing is, Saturday’s Merseyside derby...

Ronnie Moran and the End of the Boot Room Era

With the passing of Ronnie Moran last week another guy rope was cut from the current Liverpool set up and the Boot Room age. The death of ‘Bugsy’ was felt keenly by those fortunate enough to witness the glory days of LFC. For many of us he simply was LFC and the sight of him...

Take That – Wijnaldum Is The Anfield Jedi Master

Today, this columnist awoke to the revelation that tax avoidance guru and all-around blandness salesman, Gary Barlow, is set to feature in the next Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi. That's Gary Barlow, out of Take That. In Star Wars. As an actor. After repeated failed attempts at gouging out my own eyes with a spoon,...

Liverpool’s Biggest Games Are Yet to Come

The match against Everton this weekend is a big match, the Merseyside derby always is. This one will be particularly poignant, following the passing of Ronnie Moran. It's almost fitting that Liverpool's next Premier League match, following the sad news that broke last week, should be against Everton. Moran, a legendary figure and integral...

Is Momentum Building Again Under Klopp?

International breaks are a bit of a curate's egg. Now, that is supposed to mean that there are both good and bad aspects to them and yet the origin of the expression yields a meaning far closer to this columnist's opinion of the all-too-frequent Premier League interruptions. Apparently, the turn of phrase comes from...

Seven Sensible Summer Signings for Liverpool

The season isn’t quite over, but following another roller coaster year of highs and lows — from competing for the title and chasing another cup final, to a loss of form and a dreadful run of results, back to chasing the top four — the club needs to press on with their summer transfer...