Barcelona

Coutinho’s Transfer Request Changes Nothing – And Everything

After three hours of absolute chaos, the dust settled on the news that Philipe Coutinho had officially handed in a transfer request, almost immediately after Liverpool released a statement saying that he would categorically not be leaving the club this summer. Whether the club released the statement and Phil reacted, or the club knew...

Coutinho, Van Dijk, Keita and hypocrisy

Are Leipzig a bigger club than Liverpool? How can they reject a 70 million euro bid from one of the most decorated clubs in the world? Cue the next bit of Liverpool ranting on Twitter. Are Leipzig Barcelona a bigger club than Liverpool? Why should Liverpool accept a 70 million euro bid from one of the most...

One Year of Sadio Mané

It's been a year since Sadio Mané joined Liverpool, and in that time he has defied and surpassed all expectations. In his first season, the 25 year old scored 13 league goals and provided 5 assists in 26 games; we can only speculate how impressive his statistics would have been if not for Mané getting...

Alternatives to Virgil van Dijk – Part 2

In Part 1, I analysed why Benedikt Höwedes of FC Schalke 04 should rank highly on Liverpool’s list of alternative centre-backs to Virgil van Dijk. Before reading this Part 2 article, please also see Part 1 for an overview of Liverpool’s defensive weaknesses and the profile of centre-back needed for Klopp’s current style and...

Jurgen Klopp And The Cult Of The Manager

"I am 'The Normal One'. I am a normal guy from the Black Forest. I was a very average player. I don't compare myself with these genius managers from the past." Five years ago the cream of world football managers were sat in Spain and Germany. Guardiola and Mourinho were the two biggest names in...

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,...

Positivity Around Anfield: How Do We Cope?

What with the revelations about plans for further expansion of Anfield, the decision to dedicate an entire stand to Kenny Dalglish, the proposed state-of-the-art training facility in Kirkby and a rumoured bumper transfer spend in the summer, one could be forgiven for thinking that things were looking reasonably positive for Liverpool Football Club. This is...

Klopp Says The Reds Will Get What They Deserve

With exam season almost upon us, I was reminded of an old teacher of mine who, when presented with a sea of anxious faces, used to say, "pressure is for tyres, lads." Now, plainly, he wasn't the most insightful or sensitive of gents, and no doubt he felt as though he was imparting something of...

Tasty Tenerife Tales

We had all hoped, friends, that the dark days were behind us, at least until the increasingly inevitable zombie apocalypse strikes our beleaguered spinning sphere. Alas, it would appear that troubled times have visited us again on Planet Liverpool. Three years after parting company with the beloved but problematic flesh nibbler that was Luis...

Can Coutinho Contract Revitalize Liverpool?

In a world where Latest News woke blearily to jauntily separatist tweets from the actual President of the United States about a regrettable building project, it is fair to say that any upbeat revelations would be most eagerly embraced. How serendipitous then, that the next story we encountered was the official announcement of Phillipe...