These two clubs have met only twice — both times in Champions League finals. In 2005 there was the Miracle in Istanbul, and Milan got its revenge two years later in Athens. That was an era when AC Milan spent several years at the top of world’s football food chain. AC Milan was managed by Carlo Ancelotti, and led by …
LFC travel to Leeds on Sunday for a Premier League football match. Leeds is managed by the legendary Argentinian Marcelo Bielsa. They are, in my opinion, the most fun team in the Premier League to watch, outside of the so-called “Top Six.” They press intensely, using unusual “man-marking” principles (i.e., man-to-man defense), and their off-the-ball movement offensively is both unusual and …
Liverpool has had WORSE international breaks. Off the top of my head, for example, I recall several occasions when either Daniel Sturridge or Joe Gomez returned from the break so crocked by injury that they wouldn’t put on a red shirt for months. But, there has never been a STRANGER international break than this one. Stay tuned, however, things might …
I really was not expecting Harvey to start against Chelsea. Obviously, this is a sign that the manager believes the Kid is ready. And, I still think there’s a good chance that we had come up with a tactical tweak that we tried out in the Burnley match, in an effort to attack/overload Chelsea’s weakest defensive link the following week …
The European champions are coming to town, for an exciting, early-season top of the table clash. But, before we get into the Chelsea preview, I wanted to talk about two recent developments with broader implications. First, Xherdan Shaqiri left this week for Olympique Lyon in France. He spent three years as a Red. By all accounts, he filled his position …
The European Champs are comin’ to town. They come into Anfield having won their first two matches by scores of 3-0 and 2-0 (over Crystal Palace and Arsenal, respectively) — exactly the same as the Reds. Chelsea’s xG difference is better — they are at 3.88 xG differential; we’re currently sitting on a 2.41 xG differential. Currently, Chelsea is ranked …
UEFA conducted the Champions League draw yesterday. Liverpool landed in Group B, which most have dubbed this year’s “Group of Death,” with Atletico Madrid, Porto, and AC Milan. I haven’t gone back and looked, but it feels like we’ve gotten an every-other-year Group of Death draw. For example, in the year we won the CL, our group was Napoli, PSG, …
No word on how Fabinho’s father died, but at least one report suggested that the death was sudden and unexpected. If so, then it was unlikely to have been COVID-related. I took a bit of a research dive into Brazilian players’ travel. There’s a lot of uncertainty at this point, but it looks like none of our Brazilian players are …
For the first time since we were there for the Atletico Madrid match, LFC will play football in front of a (nearly) full Anfield. Thus, this is also the first time a real Anfield crowd (as opposed to the few thousand fans that saw a couple of games last season) will have seen LFC play since they were crowned league …
I miss the excitement of the 2018-19 season, when, beginning with Game 1, and all the way through, every single match for both LFC and City seemed critical to the title race. I anticipate a similar race this season, although I do believe that both Chelsea and Man United are also likely to be in the title discussion for most …