FSG

No Van Dijk: What Next?

Only a few days ago I, like many Liverpool fans, was both happy and assured knowing that next season Virgil Van Dijk would be lining up alongside Joel Matip for Liverpool in the Champions League. How wrong we were. The approach was too good to believe. Liverpool had stumped up £50 million, for a centre-back?...

FSG: Shape Up or Ship Out

It's happened again... it's happened agai-ai-ain... Tottenham Hotspur, it's happened again! So goes the now famous Arsenal song that was aimed at Spurs fans every season for two decades, when the day arrived each year, and it was confirmed that, yet again, their North London rivals wouldn't finish above them in the Premier League -...

Can Klopp Bring LFC Back To The Future?

As an English literature teacher, it can be a challenge to keep creating engaging writing tasks to present my students with. I've been doing the job for two decades, you see, but I try to be original in as many aspects of my life as possible and so the natural inclination is to eschew...

Liverpool FC – It’s Time to Spend

A popular and insightful article in the Financial Times revealed that English teams struggle in the Champions League due to the competitive nature of the Premier League. Teams such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich all spend on average, 25pc or more of time during a game leading by two goals or more;...

Just How Attractive Is Jürgen Klopp?

It's been an odd couple of days for those of us obsessed with the state of affairs at Liverpool Football Club. For one cohort, the aftermath of Manchester United's Europa League victory was the perfect opportunity for the kind of moaning and masochistic self-flagellation that seems to be de rigeur amongst them. They truly seem...

FSG: No More Shortcuts!

The Small Faces once sang about the joy of resting in the afterglow. I’ve had similar thoughts this week, safe in the knowledge that a) my weekends no longer contain 90-95 minutes of intense panic and worry and b) Liverpool have had an enormous door opened to them and been ushered into the green...

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...

Stand And Deliver: Coutinho Back For Final Push

Following the announcement yesterday that the Centenary Stand will soon bear the exalted name of Kenny Dalglish, it was interesting to note the response from some fans. For many of an older vintage, like your columnist, there was an understandably emotional reaction to the honouring of a man we had worshipped on the field...

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...

Is Klopp on his way to Building an Empire?

'There is a not insignificant chance I will have coached three clubs. It is always quite easy for me to fully commit to what I am doing because they are often long-term projects.' A welcome statement of commitment and intent by Jürgen Klopp, and one which vindicated the board and owner's choice of manager in...