Scouser

Another week, another load of Reds stuff to talk about as Jim Boardman and Jay Reid return with the latest from Liverpool, including big wins and the League Cup final. Those wins were both 4-1, one away, one at home, and came despite Liverpool playing with one of the most depleted squads since that horrendous ‘Covid season’. If anything the Reds seem to be finding more strength in the adversity this time round. Maybe that’s why fans of other clubs are feigning surprise that Reds fans dare to even mention injuries, claiming their own clubs have had it much tougher. Must be nice living on their planet. Maybe they’re top of the league there. Anfield took its time to get going, as did the players. Sometimes it feels like the players are waiting for the fans to start, but the fans are waiting for the players, like some kind of confused etiquette at a posh meal. Thankfully someone was on hand to get everyone tucking in and after that the Reds - fans and players - didn’t look back. Luton’s manager suggested the noise had frightened his players. Jay thinks it was the best atmosphere of the season. It sent us into the cup final weekend top of the league, knowing we’ll still be there after the final, whatever anyone else does. After fist pumps for all four Anfield stands, Klopp now leads his players and many of those fans to a supposedly neutral venue, Wembley, down in that London, for that Milk Cup final. It might be more local to Chelsea fans than Kopites, but we have good reasons for calling it Anfield South, one of which is how there always seem to be more of us than them. If you’re one of them, don’t forget your voice - and don’t expect to arrive home with one! On this week’s show: - 4-1 - 4-1 - Not so many options on the bench - Running out of forwards - But not left backs - How would other clubs cope with so many missing? - Virgil’s determination - A proper captain - Referee’s unexpected influence - Klopp’s half-time talk - Conor taken off ready for Sunday - The European Draw - a local event? - Hoping for something nearer to home - New comedy show set in Liverpool - G’wed - Talking of comedy, the latest from the neighbours - Look ahead to Wembley - Which Chelsea will turn up? - We might need the youngsters - good they’ve been getting a taste of playing in front of huge, loud, crowds

Plenty for Jim Boardman and Jay Reid to discuss on this week’s episode of Scouser Tommies, as the temporary slowdown in fixtures comes to an end and we go back to two big games a week. The heavy schedule has taken its toll on the Reds squad, as discussed many times over the course of this campaign, and as soon as one or two come back another one or two break down. Seems we’ve a long wait before we get an empty treatment room. Is any of it our own doing - did Jurgen Klopp rush Trent Alexander Arnold back too soon for example? It’s easier than you think to work out what should be a fairly obvious answer to that question, as Jay and Jim discuss. As for the injuries themselves, why is it some clubs seem to get tons of sympathy if even one important player is missing, where Liverpool are kind of just expected to get on with it, even when numerous key names are absent and the youngsters are filling in. Confirmation this week that Sven-Goran Eriksson is set to play a part as a member of the Reds management team for the next LFC Legends game. The news was welcomed by fans and Reds staff alike and it was no surprise the club went to the effort of making the lifelong Liverpool fan part of the occasion, at what is, to say the least, a very difficult time for him. As always, the lads across the park are available to lighten the mood. This week: - Trent’s injury - was he pushed too soon? - As one comes back another goes out - story of the season - The positive impact of the academy on the first team’s injury woes - The impact on the academy of those woes! - Doing things the right way financially - unlike some clubs - Awards time - Reds almost cleaning up - Is it pushing it to use the word ‘Legends’ for some of those involved in the Legends game this time? - What does it say about where we were not too many years ago? - Is the so-called leading contender likely to be the new manager? - Who would be happy their own team lost? One guess. - The laughable reason why the team from the south can’t be given digital tickets for the final - Best wishes to Sven - Get well soon Roy

Jim Boardman and Jay Reid return to discuss the latest on all things LFC from Liverpool, hoping that the Reds are going to what was an unexpected title bid back on track, as well as starting to think about the League Cup final. Losing against Arsenal was bad enough, but the manner of it caused more frustration, the Reds side unrecognisable from the one we’ve seen getting better by the week until then. Was it a blip, a bad day at the office, or should we be giving Arsenal more praise for their part in it? Jay and Jim have their views on that. Looking further ahead to another London trip, the League Cup final is at the end of the month and the Reds have just finished the ballot to divvy out their share of the tickets. As exciting as it is to be in a final, yet again those running the game seem intent on reminding fans of how little they matter, whether it’s those missing out or those who got tickets. They have many ways of doing this. Before all that it’s the visit of Burnley, a chance for the Reds to get things back to where they should be - as long as they play the way we expect them to play, with the help of the twelfth man. Also this week, as always, a chance to more observations on the phenomenon otherwise known as that lot from across the park, and their aspirations for this season and beyond. On this week’s show: - Just a blip? - Is the title race over now? - Has anyone told Arsenal the answer to that? - League Cup final tickets - The lucky thousands well outnumbered by those who missed out or couldn’t even get into the ballot - LFC sell 60,000 tickets to every home game, always going to be disappointment for a final in a stadium holding around 90,000, but… - The two clubs don’t get anything like half the allocation each anyway - Even worse for the FA Cup - Not hard to keep sponsors happy without giving tickets to people who don’t care about the fixture - Same conversation every time we’re involved in either final - Shouldn’t the tickets be going to the fans of the two clubs involved? - That’s where most of them end up - at a huge premium - Fans always suffer the most - Why the move of the Wembley kick-off time? - Makes it more of a struggle to get down or puts fans even more out of pocket - Why the difference in how tickets are being distributed to each club’s fans? - Why paper tickets for one club, digital for the other? - FA and EFL asking for trouble - Sin bins and blue cards - Why blue? We have an idea - Injury news - not all bad for once. Not all good either, but not all bad. - We saw Thiago! But then we blinked. - LFC v Burnley

Jim Boardman and Jay Reid are back to look over the latest from Anfield as we head towards that final straight of this crazy nine year ride with Jurgen Klopp. It’s still too early to say if there’ll be any silverware in the boss’s arms as he takes us through the chequered flag one more time - or how many pieces of it - but we’re going to have the times of our lives finding out. It’s already starting to feel like every game will be a final. The first game after Jurgen’s announcement was the visit of Norwich in the cup and, with it now being such a huge occasion, would it be a Kop’s Last Stand kind of visit from the Canaries? Not with this set of players, and this set of fans, the response said everything about this club under this boss. Cynics might have argued it was no big deal for Liverpool to smash five past Norwich and that the real test would come in the next match against one of the few sides to take points off the Reds this campaign. The same cynics are probably saying it’s no big deal to smash four past Chelsea either. Let them underestimate us, if it makes them feel better. As good as these wins were and as nice as it is to be top of the league, it means nothing until the end of the season - but it isn’t the Liverpool way to think that far ahead this early. It’s also part of the Liverpool way not to worry about what anyone else might be doing, just sort your own stuff out and if they slip up it’s a bonus. So, as always, one game at a time, the next one being a trip to Arsenal, freshly knocked out of the cup by us at the same place, but they’ve had time to lick their wounds and maybe even work out that the watering of the pitch isn’t the key factor they thought. At least PGMOL won’t give us the same ref that missed a pen so clear Howard Webb did a video about it. Will they? On this week’s show: - Has Liverpool 2.0 already upgraded itself to Liverpool 2.1? - Liverpool 5 Norwich 2 - Liverpool 4 Chelsea 1 - Conor Bradley - real competition for Trent? - Another gem - James McConnell - Did we really bid that much for the player Chelsea beat us to in the summer? - The deafening slam of the shutting of this transfer window - Liverpool maybe quiet because of the kids coming through and the impending change of boss - what about everyone else? - Is it a sign that football might be about to get a reset? - Anfield not so quiet - early season worries about the atmosphere seem to be gone. - Is it just the bigger stand or is there more to the increased noise? - Look ahead to the trip to Arsenal - Darwin Nunez - record breaking hitting of woodwork, narrative continues. Played for most of the game with a damaged foot, might miss Sunday - Praise where it’s due for Paul Tierney. Not that certain fans of certain clubs agree. - A thank you for some help on a car park

Reaction to the news that Jurgen Klopp is leaving. On the momentous day that Jurgen Klopp announced this would be his last season as Liverpool boss, a stunned Jim Boardman and Jay Reid tried to make sense of it all while it was all still a bit raw. It’ll probably feel raw for a while yet. The news came out of nowhere, Liverpool fans were now counting the days until the departure of a man who had brought so much happiness and pride back to the club. The news drew parallels with the day Bill Shankly’s retirement was announced in 1974, and that famous piece from Granada Reports with Tony Wilson getting instant reaction from Reds around town, one lad thinking it was all a bluff: “Yer having me on aren’t yer?” Fast forward almost 50 years and those reactions are the same, for a different generation of Red. The last time we faced anything like this was when King Kenny called time on the job back in 1991, the strain of the aftermath of Hillsborough playing a part in the exhaustion that made him so desperate for a break from the game. In 1974 we got Bob Paisley in for Bill Shankly and the success continued and increased. When Kenny left, the years that followed were mostly miserable as far as success on the field was concerned, aside from brief moments of bliss, like in 2001 and 2005. Klopp’s announcement felt like a real body blow, like losing a much-loved family member, and now fans are left wondering what the future holds. As far as Klopp is concerned the focus has to switch back to the near future, the visit of Norwich in the cup before Chelsea in the league, and although that’s going to be easier said than done for the fans, we are Liverpool and we know how to give good people a good send off, so here’s to enjoying every last minute of the Jurgen Klopp era. Here's hoping it ends with him on an open-top bus parading four trophies around the city.

Another brace of wins for Jim Boardman and Jay Reid to talk about in this week’s episode, as the Reds players get ready for their very short winter break. With the league briefly put to one side, focus for Liverpool shifted to the domestic cups and Klopp sent out strong sides for both games, the FA Cup 3rd round against Arsenal and the first-leg semi of what some of us still call the Milk Cup against Fulham. The season started with fairly low expectations, getting back into the Champions League probably as ambitious as many of us felt was realistic. Yet here we are, top of the league and still in all three cups - but we’d be mad to get carried away with that, there’s still a long way to go. That’s kind of how we think on our side of Stanley Park, one game at a time, feet on the ground, fearful of a telling off from the late Ronnie Moran if we dare to think more than one game ahead. Yet across the park they took a break from a run of three league defeats by getting a draw in the cup and now seem to think their name’s on the trophy. To be fair to them, it is, right next to ‘1995’. On this week’s episode: - Arsenal in the cup, a 2-0 win - Fulham in the other cup, a 2-1 win - The kids done good - Curtis Jones first choice midfielder? - Connor Bradley - still needs care, but genuine cover for Trent? - The Darwin Nunez narrative continues - Luis Diaz on the right, Darwin on the left, the future? - What was that about only watering half a pitch? - LFC not letting clubs mess about with loaned Reds - Bristol Rovers or Norwich next in the cup - The instant memories of Norwich games - good or bad? - The impact of the new training centre - an investment we need to give more credit for? - No coincidence so many young players are starting to break through? - Liverpool landmark to lose its identity? - Radio City got so many Reds through so many European nights and so much more - Faceless corporations want it gone, replaced by something without any of the character or history - Local radio still has a place - but how long can it keep the vultures away? - Fan media like Anfield Index all the more vital?

This week’s show looks back on the win over Newcastle, a 4-2 that felt so much better than those famous 4-3s, not because of the wider margin of victory but because of what it meant, how it was done and the noise that accompanied it. There was nothing lacklustre about the performance of the players or the twelfth man - which for Liverpool means the fans inside the ground. The three points increased the Reds lead at the top. For other clubs, certainly Liverpool’s opponents, the twelfth man seems to be the referee and it was no different against Newcastle. As is tradition for any remotely big Liverpool game, the PGMOL sent one of their Greater Manchester referees to officiate over this one, and it wasn’t long before Anthony Taylor joined his colleague Paul Tierney in getting his name sung by the Kop. On this week’s show: - A look back on Liverpool 4 Newcastle 2 - Darwin still needs to improve - but is he getting more stuff right than he gets credit for? - The atmosphere was back - and maybe there’s going to be some competition between the Kop and the Anny Road! - Liverpool’s injury troubles continue, Dom this time - does squad size play a part in that? - Talking of squad size, two key players are about to be absent to go and play for their countries. Endo has certainly become a key player. - Referees. Again. - Maybe Taylor got one controversial decision right. Maybe - but that just adds weight to the need for refs to explain those calls. - What’s the difference between questioning the ref for a decision and ganging up and surrounding him shouting the odds? Clue: one doesn’t seem to involve cards. - Another wet pitch - but because of the torrential rain rather than an opposition manager’s tears - Talking of which - a look ahead to Arsenal in the FA Cup - Play the kids, or a mix of youth and experience? - Is the League Cup more important than the FA Cup this season? - Liverpool. Top of the League.

In this week’s episode Jim Boardman and Jay Reid look ahead to the festive fixtures, starting with the visit of Arsenal the night before Christmas Eve, a game the Reds go into knowing it’s in their own hands to go top for Christmas. There’s also a look back at the last couple of Reds games, including the frustration of the visit of a a Manchester United side so lacking in ambition it’s no wonder their stadium roof’s leaking. If that one left the squad and the fans feeling down in the dumps what better way to cheer everyone up than a visit from David Moyes? He’s won more trophies than his former club from across the park in the last couple of decades, but even they’ve won at Anfield. Once. On this week’s show: - Where’s the famous atmosphere? - Maybe don’t look in the Main Stand for it - Loads of ideas on how to fix it - but are there any real answers? - There’s more to atmosphere than singing - What’s happened to Roy Keane? “Buzzing” about playing for a 0-0? - Who’s that accusing others of arrogance? - Talking of which: Quansah - confident and ambitious, not arrogant - It really is time for Trent to be one thing or the other, not a watered down bit of both - We’ll probably be saying the same thing again next week - Maybe we’re biased, but Curtis Jones really should be starting against the Mancs. And needs to start against Arsenal. - The return of Dom - Elliott and others giving Klopp some good selection headaches - Is it time for Nunez to have a stint on the left? - Two legs away from Wembley - One win away from the top of the table - Not a bad first half of the season

In this week’s episode Jim Boardman and Jay Reid are looking forward to the visit of Manchester United for the game that local fans look for second when the fixtures come out. There’s also a look back at another couple of wins for the top-of-the-table Reds. On this week’s show: - A win against Sheffield United - A win against Crystal Palace - Liverpool going top and staying there - The difference a keeper makes - Salah and his milestone goals - Doing two jobs at once - Is it really controversial to be sent off for a cut and dried second yellow card? - How many times did the owl’s head rotate? - Ref finds new ways to make a joke of VAR - even if the decisions end up being right. Eventually. - What’s on the mind of some blues? Clue: it’s not blue. - Well done Everton on shaming the Chelsea poverty chanters - Fanbase karma - Trent helping homeless people - Europa League - Anfield gearing up to get bigger - Potential biggest crowd at Anfield in decades - The Mancs next - second only to the derby for big Anfield games - Green and gold is back - Fergie falls off another perch - Who’d want to miss Sunday’s game? - Who shouldn’t miss Sunday’s game