Jürgen Klopp hammers the message into his troops that the NEXT game is the most important of the season. For probably the only time since I’ve started watching Liverpool, that message actually feels close to accurate from the big-picture perspective of an LFC fan. The Reds are still competing on four fronts, and they are hungry for trophies. For the …
The biggest news around the club involves personnel, and it’s all good: Harvey Elliott is BACK. Klopp has all but indicated that Harvey will start this match. Thiago is BACK from his hip injury, although he did have a chest infection and missed at least one day of training this week. I doubt that he will start Sunday, but it wouldn’t …
One of the many great things about following European football is that, if your team is contending for titles, almost every point in the lengthy season can seem like a critical juncture. For us as Liverpool fans, this week is another one of those “critical” points. Wins today and on Sunday against Palace will keep LFC alive in two competitions …
The PL title is fading farther into the distance. Man City continues to pull away, and LFC have not played well for quite some time. Currently, the fivethirtyeight.com algorithm gives LFC an 11% chance. That feels too generous, from my vantage point. LFC are winless in their last three PL matches. That streak coincides with the time during which Thiago Alcântara …
Once again, we still don’t know whether this game will be played. The uncertainty around tomorrow now centers on Arsenal, as they have had their own COVID outbreak, injuries, and a group of players having left for AFCON. There’s some speculation that, if Arsenal cannot play tomorrow, that next week’s match (Thursday at the Emirates) may become the only leg …
For me, this game feels too important. Title hopes for both of these teams, which shone brightly only two weeks ago, now appear to be sputtering in a pool of their own hot wax. For both, failure to win tomorrow would extinguish all reasonable aspirations to win this season’s Premier League. Manchester City currently sit 12 points clear of Liverpool. …
The Reds now have almost a fully-fit squad. Andy Robertson is suspended, and will miss both today and Sunday’s showdown with Chelsea. Harvey Elliott is still slowly working his way back. And, because journalists covering the club aren’t entirely competent, it’s unclear whether Divock Origi is ready. But everyone else is available. COVID-19 victims Thiago, Van Dijk, Fabinho, and Jones …
The big news since last we spoke is that the Premier League teams met on Monday and chose NOT to postpone any of the festive fixtures. Even more dramatically, the league set the standards for when matches will be postponed: if each team has at least 13 of their 25 registered PL players available, and at least one of those …
So many unknowns about this one. Biggest question is: will it happen? Most of my Twitter feed seems to think “No.” This seems a reasonable assumption, based on the fact that more than half of this weekend’s fixtures have already been postponed, and more Liverpool players are rumored to have COVID. But, I tend to think it WILL happen. There’s so much …
Eddie Howe is back in the Premier League, still managing a team whose personnel rank among the worst in the league. But this time around, his team also happen to be the richest club in the world, owned by the world’s largest petrostate. For the last two years Eddie’s current team had been managed by Steve Bruce, one of the …