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Visit spreaker.com/adhub. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R.com/adhub and start using your advertising dollars in an impactful way. [Music] Look, if you don't get that reference, we can't help you. It's the Day Trippers. [Music] On the back of an encouraging victory over Aston Villa and a credible draw against League leaders, Liverpool headed into a week that held much promise a disappointing stalemate against Bolden. The FA Cup was followed last night by an exit from the Capital One Cup at the Sammy Final Stage. So, where to you now for the get jarred to Wembley campaigners and his top four realistic when we can't score goals? I'm Trev Downey and join me to give the cost a stamp of approval. I are on the line the Guardian's Sasha Necrani and in the bunker Paul Brennan and Phil Casey. Let's begin our look back at the most recent events for Liverpool with a look at the most recent games. We'd like to break it up, I suppose, into themes rather than looking at them game by game and going through them in a pedantic fashion like that. We'll start with our goalkeeper who seems to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts. I think I'll be right in saying that about 184 goalless minutes there in a row which was quite impressive until the Chelsea goal went in. Sasha, is it fair to say that a combination of decent solid defensive front of him and the man's own efforts have led to him recapturing something approaching form? I think so, I think, yeah, I think it's exactly what you said, it's a combination of things, a defensive front of him and play. He's obviously settled now, I mean, I think he probably had a good string of consecutive games, Chan, Skirtle and Sacco. And I think his own confidence is high as well. I think, you know, depending on how it goes from in your leg between now and the end of the season, I think you might look back at that Aston Villa game as a really significant moment in his Liverpool career potential because I thought he was really good in that game and he made a couple of really important saves. This is one from Ben Tech, I remember the second half, but more than anything, he just looked more decisive coming off his line, clearing the ball, sort of getting hold of the ball from corners and set pieces as well. So, I think that Villa game could have been a potential turning point. I think the thing about yesterday, not to get too carried away is a lot of the good things he did was the stuff we know he's good for anyway, which is kind of reactive stuff. I mean, that sort of stopped with his foot and then there was a little tackle thing as well, which he did, which was very good. I still think he lacks presence in the box. I think his distribution is still pretty terrible. I don't think we should get carried away, but he's kind of in a way, mini-lays on trial now between now and the end of the season. So, he's got sort of four months to save his career, his Liverpool career. Yeah. So, he's doing well, he's doing well, but as things stand in late January, I still think we need to go outside and bet a bellkeeper in the summer. Well, we're going to go on and look at the defence and how it's made up and how it influenced the result and I guess, mini-lays performance as well. But would you say that it's probably a fair enough shout that if that defence gets any more dismantled than it already is, we may see that guy drop again and form. Do you think it's as integral as that to how he's improved? I don't know about that. I mean, you'd almost have to ask him himself, you know, you'd have to ask me to let himself, like, how much having three guys regularly playing in front of you helping? I think with any club having a settled defence always improves everyone's form in that defence because, you know, you work as a unit as a back, you know, well, in our case, a back four, three plus a goalkeeper. And so it helps everybody, everybody improves when you're settled. Whether one comes out, we sack home, our injured nurse, or whether, you know, someone else coming in destabilises, everybody including goalkeeper, perhaps. But I think more than anything, I think he's just got confidence from being more decisive, from playing with more confidence. And as I said, I think that villa game, potentially, was the turning point. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Paul, I don't think it's tough and it's good to say that earlier on, you expressed some surprise at the idea of, you know, they haven't come off as line. In the game recently, and delight as well. It's some delight in your voice. Yeah, obviously, it's quite strange for him, and it has been great to see him come back into form. And I think it kind of takes it away from him a bit to say that's because of the defence, because I always feel that when you're talking about a keeper, like, if you sack on on about the defenders in front of him, I think it's a bit of a copper, I think it's a bit of a copper for the keeper. And I also think if you try and say that it's because of the defence in front of him, it kind of takes a bit of the praise away from him, because he does deserve praise for the improvement that he's made. I think it's for someone who is obviously not very comfortable with the ball at speed or coming out of his line. So for him to keep coming out and to keep showing for the ball, to keep coming out and trying to claim it, I think it's brilliant. I think it's fairly brave of him. And those two saves, that one, the deflection where he kind of hooked up with his foot, and then the reaction tackle that he made and cast it. So that's from confidence. I think a keeper who doesn't have that confidence kind of freezes in both of those moments, he kind of thinks that shit, the deflection's beating me. And I think he freezes in front of Costa and it gets buried. So I think it's great to say that he has come back and I think he deserves a lot of credit for it, but I'd be with Sachin. I think that come this summer we would be looking for someone who, a higher quality keeper who can deliver that more consistently. Well, as Sachin says, an awful lot of the stuff that we saw from that was good, is stuff that you associated with me anyway, the reaction saves and stuff like that. Is it a coincidence or is it a function of him improving generally and having that confidence that his kicking didn't seem to be just as null as really bad as it has been during the course of the year over recent games as well? Did you not think so? Well, I was going mad last night. He must have been about three or four times, he just hoofed it out of play with no pressure. That's another thing. I don't really think there's any save. I think he's too far down the road in his career for his distribution to improve. It doesn't look like it's ever going to improve much. He still barely reaches the halfway line, even from goal kicks. So I don't think that aspect of his game is really going to be saved. I think you're looking at him improving, coming out, off his line and coming out for crosses. Again, I don't think that he's going to be consistent at this stage of his career. I don't think he's ever going to be that consistent. Yeah. So we've been talking about this guy, it seems for two years, the same things all the time. We've talked in the run-up to the transfer window about the necessity to have a replacement or to have some of the work alongside him. It doesn't look like it's happening. Where are you on this whole mini-lay and his current form? He's a goalkeeper for me, he's exeuded the characteristics of somebody who no longer has anything to lose. I think the, as I said earlier, I said, basically, looking at the fella, he is someone who has been under intense pressure for the fourth half of this season. And just when it looked like he was getting this form, that's when he got bombed from the actual team. That could have railed him. He comes back in on the back of an injury, as opposed to something else. And then he's approached it like he has absolutely nothing left to lose in terms of his performances. And he's tried to play in a way that would have been expected from the outset. So yes, he's been better coming for the ball, he's been moving around, he's been higher up in his box. And there's an element that he trusts defenders that are in front of them. Whereas he wouldn't have trusted the garbage that was in front of them before Christmas. So you know, he has an idea that, you know, Sacco isn't going to do anything absolutely ridiculous. Emory Chan, he knows he's going to get on the ball, he's going to be comfortable, he's going to be able to lay it off. But as we've said, the suit skirt has had to play a five yards deep at any normally would without affecting the actual line that they're playing because Emory Chan and Sacco can press up that little bit higher. And it doesn't mean that the whole team is sitting deep on top of them. Everything has come together in the right way for Minile to more or less be able to throw his own mental shackles off. Above anything else, just throw his own mental shackles off and go with the best foot forward that he can possibly do. And what it's done is it's seen a revival in his shot stop and form because that had gone out the window before Christmas. He was dropping things, simple shots were getting past them, we're talking about the deflection last night, that would have gone in back in October. And he looks again, he looks more confident than he did beforehand. But my own reservations when we signed them was that we were signed on a goalkeeper who's suitable, who's a good mid-table goalkeeper. Along the lines of Beggavitch or whoever else that's there, that will always look good in certain games where they're active and they're asked to do a lot because they're there. But when it comes down to making that vital difference when you're challenging for a league title or your challenger for something else, they don't necessarily have the skill level that gets you there or... Or the presence. Or the presence, ultimately the presence because, you know, teams looking at are still thinking to themselves, we can put mainly on the pressure. We know that his goal kicks aren't going to cause his trouble and he's not going to pick somebody out with a 20, 40 yard trophy from a collection that he was made. But I would refer to see him play out the season like this and give himself as best a shot as he can to retain his position come the summertime. Tragically, none of this is our shot because we'd all love to be in charge. But assuming Brendan stays there and that's a pod for another day, it is shared. Would you concur with Paul that it's not likely that he's going to see much more than this season unless there's something dramatic that happens? Yeah. I think that we will definitely see a new goalkeeper in the summertime. Yeah. But again, it will depend on who's in charge that will make that decision as to who he is. Yeah. I definitely keep many layers of backup where I think he would be a really good keeper that could come in if there's an injury or something. I just think he knows kind of having played a season and a half now or whatever. I think he kind of knows that there's a lot of this game that isn't suited the way we want to play. And I think that's always going to be in the back of his mind. And I think it's always going to lead to lapses and confidence and stuff. So I just think we're better off getting a more suitable kind of first choice. He's coming in for a cup or to spell in for someone who's injured. Yeah. The work I've just formed. Yeah, definitely. Even if him coming in after bench, if that's the right mentality for him, like we've seen recently where he got dropped and he came back in and he's like a new keeper. Yeah. Maybe that would be good. Maybe he could have a good role first that way. I don't think his wages are huge as well. So you can afford to carry him. Like, would you prefer me like challenging another goalkeeper or Brad Jones being the backup to another goalkeeper? Of course, yeah. I don't think it's going to come out here. You look at all the other teams that are in the top half. And like you look at sports and they have lorries and they have warm. You look at city and they have heart. I don't really write them, but they have heart and they've got Caballero who's an aqua goalkeeper. Look at Chelsea, Courtois and Czech. You know what I mean? They all have adequate backup. Even, you know, Valdez now and the guy. I want the hard turn to wait in the same time for the 21s. I didn't hold one of the drums and can I not go past them? Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough and a name that was getting mentioned there and dropped. Sachin was out of Emory Chan. And obviously, people go to the obvious and there's been a lot of lazy chatter. But we're seeing, I don't know, I don't think it's too strong to say. We're seeing the emergence of a really genuine star for Liverpool. In this guy, like, the presence he has in the ball is something else. The drive forward, the calming effect that he has as well on the defense and those around him is something to behold. Totally below his tender enough years, would you agree? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I think the fundamental thing with Emory Chan is he's a very good footballer. I mean, you get the sense that you could play in many positions. He's probably the kid at school. He could basically play in every position, probably did play in every position. He's just generally a very good, I think he's very good all-round footballer. I think the move to defense, I mean, I think maybe came as a surprise. It certainly came as a surprise to me, maybe to a lot of people, but it wasn't a huge shot given. He'd actually done that a lot of labor cues, you know, Brendan Rodgers said that. So, it's not a completely different position for him, although I'm guessing playing on the right of a back three, perhaps is. I think it's brilliant. And I think what's kind of obvious about that position is that Brendan wants a footballer playing their footballing defender. Because when he first did it against United in December, he had Glenn Johnson there. And he's obviously desirous to have somebody who can carry the ball out. And then Chan obviously was able to then slot in and do that role. You know, he can do that role. And I think it's great because it puts the opposition on the back foot, thinking there's this guy in their defense, which if we lose the ball high up the pitch, he can basically just completely get past that. So, it must put doubt in opposition forwards, opposition midfielders that they can't get too far forwards. Because if you lose on that side of the pitch, he'll just carry it past you. I think he's been brilliant. I mean, for me, originally when he arrived, what he was so good about was he gave us power in midfield, which we basically haven't had since. And we could argue since the moment, he's so cold there. So he can always give you that still. He can always give you that option because we haven't got a lot of big presence in midfield. But the way things are looking, I mean, he's probably making that third centre back with that right centre back position in his own. And yeah, he's going to take a lot of shifting at the moment in my opinion. But ideally, I'm picking up that you'd be like a lot of us. You'd like to see him step forward at least one position there on the pitch long term. I don't know, actually, not necessarily. I mean, I was slightly and convinced by the back three. And I still wonder how long Liverpool will play that. I think Rogers basically saw the through caution to the win when he did it. I think he'd just got to the point where he thought, you know, it's just not working with the back forward, considering too many goals and protection isn't there. Let's do this and it'll allow me to get other players on the pitch. I don't think he saw it as a long-term solution. I certainly didn't. But, I mean, it's working really well. I mean, we've been, you know, we've probably talked about it later, but our form and our sense of identity has returned. And I think it's got a lot to do with the system. Most of the players, you know, are very comfortable in it. And I wonder if, you know, I don't know if he's been asked a question yet, but if Rogers is now saying this is my system, this is the system I want to go forward with for the rest of this season, for next season. And why wouldn't you just keep him right, Chan, as that third midfielder? Maybe when he's a few years older, he then does move into midfield because you get the sense that he's probably wasted there. Yeah. For the next season, at least, perhaps, if they're going to stick with the system in place there. What do you think about that, Phil? Is that where some of you would like to see him long-term? I don't know. Ultimately, I think he's the future of our midfield. You look at that formation, and if you had him and Henderson in the middle with three competent centre-backs behind them as well, you've got such a powerful midfield. Not only can he cover it, he can also go box the box. You know, he can just power-class players. That was one of the great things, if you remember, back when we saw him against Chelsea in the home match in the league, and he just power-passed, managed, couldn't live with him. Even last night, he felt that somebody tried to shoulder him, and he was not flying off. I was just laughing, saying, "Yeah, yeah, go on, have a go again." You know what I mean? And I think he'll offer a lot more in midfield than he will in the centre-back position. But as I said at quarterback, he reminds me so much of Ronnie Will when he came to the club, and that he was comfortable playing at centre-back or he played in centre-my-field, and ultimately, he ended up in centre-my-field, and then he moved back to centre-back again. You know, there's so many similar traits in terms of the way he plays the game as well. Both of them are great passes. They're great vision on when they're on the ball as well, and they're able to pick out a pass and execute it and deliver it well. And when they were playing at the back, they didn't look the hoof the ball. If the one thing I know is when he's on the ball at the back, he never looks the hoof. He takes it down, he's aware of the options that are around him, and he looks to play it out of the fence. And he will get cut out a couple of times trying to do that. That's going to happen. And all ball-playing centre-haves get cut out at certain times. And, you know, we've watched other teams with ball-playing centre-backs over the years, and we've always said, "Oh, it would be great to have one at Em like to." You know what I mean? I know we've got two. Hey, man, Sacco. You know, Sacco is just as good on the ball. He doesn't -- it's this thing about what he looks like when he's on the ball, but he's so confident. He's so adept to read in a pass and be able to deliver a pass as well. You know, having the two at Em there just gives us so much more at the back of that. It's not just who for it and hoping that somebody at the top end gets on the end of the ball. It just gives us that little bit extra. And even last, I saw people saying, "Oh, Chan has had a poor game. I don't know what kind they're watching." That's incredible. I don't know what kind they're watching. Most of the came out, I think he teared down the right wing, right? He's a very lost the ball. When he lost the ball up to Louis Felipe, up on the edge of the Chelsea box, this is your right centre-back. He's just gone on a run down the wing, right? He ran past a couple of players. He ends up being caught up by their fallback. And then a couple of minutes later, the ball has played. And he's back in position. You know what I mean? It's not that he's just -- Yeah, they went straight down the pitch and he followed them. He was back with the play. It's all around potential. It's off the charts. You could pick any position along the defence. You could put them full-back, I think. He'd be brilliant. He could put them anywhere in midfield. He could put them in front of the defence in the engine. You could even put them further forward. I think he looks brilliant. I think he's basically the player that a lot of people think Phil Jones is. I think he can do almost anything toward in the middle and the back side of the pitch. Phil Jones is like the car pro to the open-night ride. I'm like, "Shut and escape." And then he fixed on the problems. The look of it and everything was like. Oh, that's cute. If that was bad, don't remind me. Yeah, but he just seems to be able to do absolutely anything. And I'm with session. I don't think -- I don't think we're going to be long-term with three centre backs. I don't think Rodgers has got -- I think he's kind of done it as a quick fix for the moment. And he's running with it because it's worked. But I think we're in the summer. I think he will want to go back too far at the back. And I think it would be probably a bit of a waste keeping Chan back there. Because of what he could become if he keeps developing as a midfielder. Because his all-around game is just -- it's ridiculous. In the short-term session, we're going to hopefully keep this system the way it is and keep the person out the way it is, but the way they are. But that will be very much dependent on how long Manasaka was out for. Have you heard anything about what the latest is on that injury if it is? I haven't known. I don't know. Hopefully not too serious. I mean, the worry is that Loveran comes back in and just fucks it all up completely. Yeah, we were just discussing the potential for the Johnson, Loveran and Skirtle. Do you know every coast though? Do you have negotiations? Please come back, Loveran. Yeah, cool for Kola. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how long he's out for. Just one thing on Saka. I mean, like everyone, I'm sure you guys will. I've become a huge, huge fan of his and I think he's been brilliant. I've got to say one thing though, I still think the way his body shape is very strange. He does seem to burn his heel a bit and I know 98% of time, 99% of time, it's fine. He looks a bit awkward, but he plays a ball very well. But there was that one sideways pass he played yesterday, which, where he gave the ball away. And I just, I don't know. I'd love to sort of ask him in a way like, does he have to sort of play like that in a little bit today? He just looks. I've never seen a really good football and look so bad, if you know what I mean? He's obviously clearly very good, but he's kind of, the way, you know, he sort of, he plays in his heels almost. It's really bizarre. And you always feel that type of pass he played yesterday. That could happen at any moment in a game. It's just slightly worrying with him, but maybe I'm overblowing it. But as I said, he has generally been excellent. I always get a little bit wary of the whole thing because it brings me back to Alex Ferguson and Jordan Henderson's running gate. That was proven to be fairly, fairly shy observation on his bar. But yeah, no, I totally accept your saying, but you would be very much agreeing with what I was saying there. He's absolutely central to us keeping this gun reasonably good run going, isn't he? Oh, no, absolutely. I mean, he's been fantastic since he came back. Why he sort of lost his place originally. You know, there was obviously talk of sort of problems behind the scenes with him and Brendan Rodgers. I don't know, it's true. And I think he came back to be a necessity almost. I just have to bring this guy back in because love and shot. And he was going to the three, obviously, and he's left footed, all that stuff. So he's been brilliant. And yeah, he's clearly a very, very talented defender. And I think once this injury, however long it has been for, we can't have, he had an injury. Was it last season or started this season where then he just couldn't get back into the team. Once it's over this injury, you just have to bring him back. I don't think we need the problems we had last on him. You know, he's clearly, we haven't got many world class sent back. Well, realistically speaking, if we have to go on a run of games with Glenn Johnson in that position, it looks like he's ahead of love, and let's be honest. How worried would that make you like to be perfectly honest based on what you saw last night, for example? Well, with Glenn Johnson playing. Yeah, yeah. Possibly. I mean, I don't know with Johnson. He's a funny one because again, he's like chatting the way that he's a very talented football. I think his talent is beyond doubt. He's kind of almost his levels of concentration, his levels of desire. Now, if he's, if this contract situation gets sorted out, which has been hanging around for a bit, maybe that will, you know, I think that's been at the back of his mind a bit. I don't think he's particularly happy that he doesn't be sorted out. If that gets sorted, that might help. I mean, I think generally four part, you know, four parts would be best if he just leaves in the summer. I think we've reached that point with Johnson where it's just, doesn't feel like it's going to work out. And I would be slightly concerned if he's playing now for a sustained period of time. But then again, he's capable. He's shown during his entire Liverpool career to have a spell where he's absolutely brilliant. And this role of a ball playing center half of you guys have been talking about, it could actually suit him quite well. So we'll reserve judgment until he's in the team. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose that's probably the healthiest thing for all of us to do. I think he's awful. When he came on last night, you've never mentioned that before? No. But when he came on last night, it was just, it was like a nuclear explosion went off in the defense of Solidity that we've had for so long. It was just like, he was, they stopped attacking down Chan so I didn't hold on. They just focused solely where he was. And it was a gaping hole that he just kept running into. And he was just trotting around like, what's going on? How did I end up here? I'm going to risk your wrath and say, I didn't think he was that bad last night. I didn't know it wasn't being too bad. You didn't know it was him because he was the Phantom defender. He may as well have been sitting up in the stand for like 24 minutes. He was at position a lot to be fair. I know we haven't talked a bit about it. And I know we're going to get onto, you know, Balletelli's stupid pass and him tracking Caste on the one and leaving the battle. Well, let's talk about it now. Okay. The one thing that carried him out and said, look, he wouldn't have put all the blame on Balletelli in that instance. Because if they're Americans only, Caste runs into the zone that Balletelli's American. And he has to go with him. So the person that's American, the next sound then, is the Phantom. And he's like, he's actually get tons of so much on that free kick that he's behind everybody when the header goes in. So even like the likes of Chan and Scarlet are level with the Chelsea players. And, you know, ready for if the ball is in, there's answers that are going to attack you. There's nobody in that zone. Because your mind is standing at the other side, looking at the fellow hitting the ball at the back. Now, you'd also question, why is Balletelli, if they are picking up Man to Man, right? Why is Balletelli picking up a Vanovich? He was arguably their biggest threat of a set piece. Yeah. Because many times of Vanovich's guard called off set, it always seems like every second week or every tour week, a Vanovich's guard and a header off a set piece. And if you look at the still, it's absolutely remarkable. He's three feet hard and everybody else in acres of space. That's just negligent. And it was like, there was a couple of corners as well where Balletelli was American, a Vanovich. So it was a conscious decision that kind of, you're picking up with Vanovich. Yeah. Like, so I know he obviously, we kind of go half zone, don't we, in those corners. Once you put the likes of Skirtland Chan along this six yard box, the big ones, but you have to have someone who's at least going to compete with a Vanovich. Because that's not Balletelli's game. He even said to Rodgers, didn't he, in training? If you're going to use him, you use him as the fellow, just after the near post, towards the edge of the six yard box. Someone chose to visit him in the near post. He's more or less taken a free header to clear us. Like what you ever had. Yeah, it was as well, right? So that's where you put him. You don't give him the responsibility of picking up arguably Chelsea's best. They're almost dangerous. Yeah. You know, look, the goal itself, you know, it's crazy. You see, he's involved again there. That's the way people have done it. Oh, no, no, no. And look, the initial phase, it's a very sloppy pass. It puts Lucas under pressure. Lucas then looks like the torrid player that he was from about 60 minutes on. Now, again, going back to the Johnson change, you know, there were so many things wrong with what the in-game management that went on last night. You know, the dropping dryer back into midfield. Bringing dryer back, yeah. You know, when, when, obviously at that stage, they're going to, they've made substitutions to freshen things up and you need your legs in the centre of the park. And we looked visibly like we couldn't get out of our own half at that stage. And if you think back to the fourth half of the plane reasonably well, we were pushed up. We were pressing. We were harrying them the whole lot. And from about fifty-five, sixty minutes on, that dropped off. So there's a question. I couldn't figure out, I know you leave Stephen dryer on because he's a gold tread or whatever. But in that instance, you know, there's as much reason to take him off. If you're going to switch the thing around to play Lambert up top, which God knows what he's going on there putting him onto the pitch for a race. But it could have brought Nalana on. He's going to keep the pressure high. He's going to at least be able to run around the pitch and close up space. And he's seen that substitution work comparatively well recently. Especially in the last game. It happened, you know. That's the one thing I looked at. Like the next note on the bench. Like we know he doesn't particularly rave about it earlier in Lambert. So attacking was, he didn't have much that he wanted to put on. But Lelana for Gerard was, that looked like one of the only natural changes you could make. Because obviously we're not going to dominate them at Stanford Bridge the way we did. Like in midfield, at Anfield. So the midfield is going to be more functional. Like Lucas and Henderson. And you're relying more on the two behind the striker to get turned and get us going. The way Coutinho does. And so it made sense to just put Lelana there because that's what he can do. He can get us turned and get us running at the Chelsea defenders. And he didn't go for it. And he dragged Gerard back into, you know, where Chelsea are strongest. Everyone behind Castor. He'd have got Hazard, Willian and all of the players. And he dragged Gerard back into that lay on in the game. When Gerard started. And you could see he visibly was tired as well. Yeah, I heard people wanted people saying last night, what's the point of Willian? What does Willian do? Willian just never stops running. He's always there. He's always link and play. Willian would have smashed shit up before he got him. He would have been brilliant for a second. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. You see some of our fans are like, he's like, what? Just watch the game. I just stopped. Yeah. It's actually, we're going to go off, go off, target there. And I want to get back to the actual concession of the goal itself. And just talk about it briefly because we need to. And then we'll go back to the endgame management and all those kind of things later. But on the goal itself, it's very, very, very hard to be too critical of Lucas. Even though he totally Lucased it by giving a free kick away in the Lucas zone. You know, it's hard to be too critical. The guy was absolutely immense. He was in the Lucas zone. He did. I suppose it's my Lucas age. Listen, listen. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a fan of the guy. But you know, he had an immense match, I thought. And unfortunately, his thing happened. But it's because of Balotelli's ridiculously lazy powers, isn't it? Yeah, no, I'm like you. I'm not going to criticize Lucas now, I'm joking. But you know, brilliantly, he has been immense for weeks. He was fantastic. He just looks like a leader on the pitch as well. You know, I think he was getting the reference here a bit. He was just kind of getting laterally and vertically across me to feel just covering so much space as well. And you know, quite right. He was probably a bit tired. It was a slightly tired tackle, but it was also, I think, a tackle out of desperation from, you know, sort of panicking in a way because he didn't see it coming because Balotelli gave it a ball away. It was, it ultimately came to that. I mean, saying all of that, you know, it has been my biggest bug beer of the season. You know, okay, Batte gives a ball away. Lucas fails, but it's still then a set piece which we could do better at clearing. And we have been absolutely appalling at set pieces. And it never improves, yeah. It starts brewing. I don't know how much time Roger spends on it on the training pitch. I personally don't care enough about defending set pieces. I just don't think he gets angry enough about it. You know, like way back to sort of the Roy Evans era of every time people get a corner of set piece against them. I'm sort of ricking it thinking, okay, am I not scored by they're going to get a chance at this. You can't get it. You know, it just is unsustainable for a football club. How can you keep winning trophies? You know, how can you win trophies if you have bent set pieces? And I know people say I'll actually only ever can see that in a 0.3 of corners and three kicks. Well, it feels like sort of 97, 98% of Liverpool that opposition win them. They might not score for them, but they win them, which then creates more bow and easily. Which then leads in itself more goals. So it's kind of a vicious cycle. Yeah. And when you kind of juxtaposed out what our uselessness at the far end, but our own set pieces, it's just not a very strong area for a game. Well, some of you made a really good point where they said probably one of the reasons we're so bad at them is in training. They're never defending good set pieces of defense because we can't take it. Yeah. Take shit at defending them. I mean, it's just, it's just, it's bizarre because last season we scored loads of goals from corners as well. So I don't know why we're not doing it anymore. But yeah, I'm not as worried about that too much because I think the goals from open play will improve on starters, comes back, et cetera, et cetera. But I think defending them is just, it's just absolutely appalling. And he can't go one next year, really can't. It feels like he wants to come in there. Yeah. Like, you look defensively and over the two toys, we were actually quite good. Straight up like we were in terms of what we did against Chelsea. Given the reputation they've taken into it, given, you know, everything that's going on, they don't cross the ball. They don't cross the ball. We hate crosses. We hate crosses, but they do on set pieces. So you think like the only crosses they did. Yeah. But the two goals come from a penalty, right, which comes after a cross from the, from the, from the Voidline. The second goal is a free kick with then. Now, you know, you could look at how many other things could we have done to stop that? Maybe if you have a more proactive goalkeeper, he comes through the forest of bodies and tries to get a punch in that ball. It's a horrible ball. In terms of, it's a great delivery because it's whipped away and back in. You know what I mean? But at the same time, if you have a lunatic, come up for that. Like, and just come up for everything. He probably comes out and does something with it. You know, if I'm looking at saying, "Does Cortwell do something there?" He probably does. He probably takes command of the situation. He looks at, he was not going to open the defense. He goes, "Well, looks at that. I'm going to have to come for it." You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially if it comes into that particular area. So it's not going to have to come for everything there. And it's the frustration of free headers because even going back to, you know, the previous games, the Villa game, you know, when we won that, the Villa match. And you remember the chances that they made were offset pieces. And it was, again, it was poor finishing. But we seem to be better at mopping up the second chances that were coming off set pieces, which is something we hadn't done. So there's been a progression there in terms of being able to tie you up after the initial melee or mayhem that's going on. We seem to be getting better tied in that piece. But we can't seem to defend the forced header. So if the forced header is a header and goal, they've got a 50/50 chance whether they've got a score. And that's literally where we are at this moment. It's a shame, really. But again, it doesn't really change anything from last night, even though we can see that we had the score. Yeah. If we didn't, if that goes to Nilla all after 120 minutes, we still go out on the away goal row. The fact that we can score is a bigger problem in that Chelsea match. That was my immediate reaction as well. I was like, fuck it. We still have to score anyway. We still have to score. And, you know, to take it to whatever, you know, and we just had nothing. No, we didn't. I was more depressed after that game last night. I wasn't going into the hole. That's, you know, great signs of progression in the hole. I've seen signs of aggression in the Bolton game and in that game. Yes, our football looks a lot better to watch in terms of the way we're playing with it. You know, there seems to be purpose in the hole around it. Just where we were making chances in the games before then, we seem to have stopped making chances. I can only think of two real clear ones, which is the save. Quarterwell pulls off on the 1v1 and then also the missed header from Henderson. You know, the missed header from Henderson is the moment where we lose that toy. You know, he gets a header seven yards out. Goal is wide open and he doesn't get that on target. If he gets that two yards inside the post, it's a goal and it's, you know, it's penalties. Paul, if it feels a little harsh, doesn't it, to go at Henderson's miss because... I'm not going to him. I'm just going to... No, no, no. In terms of... Oh, no, you said what you said, Phil, right? I know. Actually, I'm not going to him. Yeah, it does seem harsh to say it, right? But if that's Lambert, if that's by the telly, right, the amount of fucking abuse that will be going on... And they miss it, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, okay. The amount of abuse that goes on, or even the level of abuse Sterling gets from missing chances... I don't think Henderson's exactly been bereft of abuse over the course of his career. No, no, no. He's earned a break. I know, but what I'm saying to you is, again, it's the player that's on it, right? Yeah. That, you know, there isn't the same level of vitriol that's gone towards the miss itself, right? You put one of the two lads up front who just aren't performing. You put Borini in that position, like Borini's missing against Bogdan at the weekend. Well, he should put that in the back of the net and he loves Bogdan to save it, right? You know, that's what I'm talking about. They're the key moments that you need the players, the strikers, to stand up and make them count. And even the midfielders, if Henderson is going to be the leader at this club, right? Then that's the moment where leaders... That's what, say, Kane would have done for you. When you take back the chore in, that's when he makes the difference. When you think about what your yard has done for years, that's when he's made the difference. Those big, really important moments, that's when those players have stepped up and made their mark. You're in the midfield area where, and I take first point that scoring is very much a part of the midfielders' job, especially these days and the way that we play. But in the midfield areas, when he was allowed to play in the bloody midfield, I wasn't getting shunted out to wing back or whatever to accommodate yard moving back in. Those strange changes were going on. He did his job more than impressively, you know, Lucas alongside him. It's a good unit. Yeah, I think, obviously, because I think with the system that we have, I think we saw two sides of the midfield. One at Anfield, where they were all over Chelsea. We completely outplayed them. And then I thought, at Stanford Bridge, it was a bit more functional from Henderson and Lucas, where they protected it. They screened really well. And then it was just a bit more functional going forward. Just make sure we get the ball into the forward players who can, obviously, that there's more space for them to break into them. So, yeah, it is a decent unit. And I thought it was quite harsh for Henderson to be moved out when the substitutions were happening, for him to be moved out to wing back and basically play him right, basically, as a right back up against the wide players. So, yeah, I thought that was a poor substitution, really. Lucas took a very impressive yellow card for the team. Just at the right time, a delightfully cynical foul as well. Which one did he actually get booked? He could have been booked. Yeah, but he left his fall in nicely. I have to say, I love stuff like that. You're a buffer cage going, get in. That's what you want to say. Well, yeah, like, we're all gone mad about Costa, but let's be honest. If it was one of our players getting the little stamps in one, then everyone over there, we loved the one. So, we had a fellow who's bitten somebody on the pitch. Do you know what I mean? You know what I mean? And has done, and did those stamps. Like, remember the one on the back of Morales' leg? Like, he pulled Raphael's hair. Do you remember what I mean? Look, he's a master of the dark art as well. And had Costa signed for us when we went in from? Imagine having the amount of destruction that would have been on the pitch with those two. Like, they got taken towards us. Who's got to go nuts this week? People are being so, I don't know, easily offended. Where did the real Costa comes out? And he starts gobbling on his hand. Yeah, oh, God. Like, let's be honest. That's the real Costa. That has to be showed up, yeah. His whole game is about winding the opposition up, right? And you can see, even at the end of it, the players themselves know what he's opening, right? You know, there's a whole lot. Fair play to Henderson stand and up to him last week. But to Costa, he's getting the reaction he wants. No matter what you do to that fucker, right? Once he's getting a reaction out of you and he's not getting punished for the reactions, then he's winning. In his head, he is winning. It's absolutely incredible how he doesn't get punished. You know, as soon as him and Chan fall beside each other off the pitch, if you're a referee, surely every fibre of your being says, "Costa is falling on someone here. Something's gonna happen. I'll just keep my eye on it." But no, Costa gets up, stands straight down nine times. Like, everyone in the stadium knew he was going to do. And nothing. He just gets away with it. It's absolutely incredible. And down in the skirt, one is the exact same. Let's go ahead. He's like fucking Michael Myers or something. Like, you know, he's like, "Oh look, something's gonna happen here. How come she doesn't know something going there? How come she doesn't know he's there? That's what it's like to wreck the ref. Ref, look, look. It's about the half of Ref, but you're not looking at it. No. But hang, elbow in the face or stamp on the ankle. It's like a really bad horror film or something like that. And I believe he's gotten this three matches and it'll probably get reduced to one on appeal. And that's it. And it's only on the Chan incident. The skirt, the one I believe wasn't flagged at all. I think that one is a bit more like he could probably claim, like, "Oh, I was trying to jump off." He clearly wasn't. But like the Chan one was- Well, like his manager said it was an accident. He tries to jump over him. Notice that he's on the ground. And you can see the leg just- It's not as if it's on skirt as I think it's the whole time. It's like you're mad at him. Did you see Markovich doing the off-the-ball shoulder? It was an Oscar's face. It was beautiful. You can only see it down the bottom of the camera. Like, we do need a little bit more of that. I thought- Yeah, I think he's got that at the bottom, you know. I think he could really develop that side was game really, really nicely. Yeah. And in fairness, his comrade on the other side got the most delightful dig-in on Ivanovich, who was breaking down the flank. And Moreno tracked them all the way back, knocked them to shit on his arse and emerged at the ball and strolled majestically up the field. That's what you want to see. Yeah. My favorite was, do you remember when Kosta was breaking? And himself and Sterling were running solid by solid each other. And it was like a- Kosta took a mad dive. It was just like- Awwww. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was like, "I was felt here." And I was like, "Let me wear it." You didn't even touch legs. But that was about Kosta's fifth bookable offense at this stage, a big horrible dive. The refs are as usual. No, didn't see it. Didn't see it. It's Michael Morris, he's right there. Oh, can't see it. Sashin, we've name checked, Rahim Sterling. A very, very industrious performance for him leading the line. I thought he was one of our more impressive performers by a mile. Of course, when you're in the middle there, your task was going to go. He didn't do that. But, you know, a very, very willing and decent performance by him. Yeah, no, he was excellent. Again, he's, you know, he's sort of learning on a job really. I mean, playing alone strike is hard enough. Let alone when you're not actually a strike as well. I think, you know, we talk about long-term positions with M. Ray Chan. I think, as things stand, this is certainly not a long-term position for him. And not just because starages to come back. I just think Sterling's finishing is still generally really, really hit and miss. He just isn't a natural finisher. You know, if you talk about Robbie Falle being a natural finisher, he's clearly not. And obviously, that's something he can work on. He's extremely young and he'll get better at it. You know, he has scored some decent goals this season, but I just think he's going to miss more than he scores. So I think the perfect role for him is just to play off someone with, you know, someone like Sturridge. So he's still got that space to run into because he's got so much pace. He's got so much stamina. He's got so much willing. I think one of the moral disappointments, he got lost a bit in the end because it was so early on. But that moment early on where he didn't square the ball to Gerard sort of early on first half. I mean, that was, for me, a massive moment. Watching the replay as well. He just rolls that ball to Gerard. And I think Gerard's pretty much one-on-one with cut one, you know, he's clear on goal. I mean, little things like that would just show that sort of instinct of playing as a lone striker. When to go, when to give under pressure from center backs, he hasn't got. But as I said, he's done fantastic well, given his natural position. Yeah, and what a bit, what a bit of Coutinho behind him. We might as well talk a bit to two guys together because one man was always kind of looking for the other. And Coutinho, actually, I had a wee chat on Twitter with somebody last night who was trying to tell me that Coutinho wasn't that impressive. I begged to differ. I thought he was fantastic. How did you feel he performed on the night? I thought he was brilliant. I think he's been here two years and I came on January 2013 and I think undoubtedly this is his best spell at the club. I think he's absolutely fantastic. The way he carries the ball through midfield from sort of the edge of the D in the opposition's half to the edge of the D on their penalty area is just absolutely sublime. He's playing with great confidence. And as you said, his link up play was sterling. I mean, I can't believe anyone thought he had a poor game or stuff. I thought he did as much as he could. I'm still not convinced he's saying everything I've said. He's an out-on-out number 10, just purely because I don't think he's going to get you the goal. I just don't think he's got to end him to get the goals that a number 10 needs to get for a side. But I think I don't have all work, you know, once everyone's fit and depending a lot on the system we play. I mean, if you go back to the sort of the diamond, I think that would suit him best coming in from that sort of a slightly deeper midfield position. I mean, I think the archetypal Coutinho game for me was the 5-1 against Arsenal last year where he played as in the midfield 3. And as well, he showed great ability to press the ball in that game, which he did fantastic well. And then to immediately spring a pass to Sturridge, to Sterling, to Suarez ahead of him. And I think he can do all those things brilliantly well and from a position he can carry forward as well. So I think if it will do go back to a 4-man midfield in some sort of shape or a 3-man midfield, that's where he'll ideally be played. I'm just not quite convinced that he's a long-term number 10. So that's one of the things that sort of sticks in your crawls. You're watching Liverpool at the moment, you're watching Coutinho who's pavemently such a wonderful player in wonderful form. And you're thinking, imagine just one more guy who's mobile and inventive ahead of him as well as Sterling as in down to Sturridge. And like the havoc that could be rigged, you know? Yeah. Every time he gets in the ball, he's looking for runners. So when we bring on Dura, too, up front, he doesn't have anything in front of him. And you can see that's the difference when he had even a lana. The lana, not bringing a lana on, confused the hell out of me. Because the one thing he does do is provide the movement that helps us. Which is the point I'm making. So you're watching this guy, he's laboring away. And as Sachin said, so wonderful, carrying the ball and taking it through that little zone. Take the true crowds. What is great is he's great to be able to play, take it on to beat one, play one two, be back around the other side. And look at if there was a ball on, he can give the ball. But the ball tends not to be these days. That's when we went to a very, very static statue-esque front, too. You know what I mean? So looking at it, you're saying, I thought of all our players, he was the standout player for me. Like I think Chan had a great game in terms of what he did. But looking at Coutinho, if something was going to happen, it was always going to come off the boot of Coutinho. Again, similar to Sterling. His shooting is woeful. You know what I mean? And that's his greatest bugbear. It's the poorly dragged shot that he always hits. - The poorly dragged shot? - The poorly dragged shot. But again, for me, he remains a player closest and spoiled to any ester. So he isn't a ten. He isn't like a powerhouse midfielder. But what he is is a link player in that midfield. Who's incredibly good at hacking boys will create magic around the box and create things for other people to go and finish off. And that's Quinn, essentially, in the ester. And he was the best in terms of doing that. You wouldn't say that in the ester is a front-tree player. At the same time, you wouldn't say he's a box-to-box midfielder. You also wouldn't expect in the ester to be particularly effective if he had a ball on the lamppost to help him. No, you wouldn't, but then you could be surprised. Maybe he's just that little bit better than Coutinho. [LAUGHTER] Paul, where do you stand on? This sterling and Coutinho performs this from the last two games, really. Yeah, I think Sterling was obviously... He was always going to have a real tough job at Stanford Bridge. There was obviously going to be a lot of running up against four lads, basically almost on his own. They're Coutinho trying to break up with him and Jared when he could. Coutinho, he's just been absolutely spectacular to watch recently. I've loved the way he's kind of reacted to the roles, those two roles that have been created nearly behind the lone striker, the narrow, what is it? It's like the top of a box in the field, like the two of them behind the striker. And that's wrong with you. [LAUGHTER] You just said you put a word. You are? The top of the box. [LAUGHTER] It's completely ignoring. I just like the way he's reacted, the responsibility that he's taking. It doesn't matter who we're playing. You know what he's going to do. He's going to drop into midfield, pick the ball up, spin past someone and run. And he'll just do it all day. I mean, Mourinho's one of the best in the business at stopping the opposition playing. And he's had kind of weeks of looking at Liverpool, and he still couldn't stop staring at him. Like he matches one of the best players around. Basically, and they still couldn't touch him. He can't stop. You have to stop Liverpool all the way. It's because you're basically, at the moment, you're not going to stop Coutinho. That was the main reason he played Zuma last night as opposed to Kyle. Because Zuma has more pace there. And you could see there was a couple of times staring off the break. He was true, and Zuma was able to catch back up again. Yeah. He zoomed up. I'm sorry. He did zoom up. Yeah, thanks for that. Yeah, we should. We should. We've got a certain limit of time left. So I want to go through a couple of things. We should touch on Brendan Sam's substitutions and the way the game handed because of those decisions. We might also touch, as a result of that, on Jared and the use of Jared in terms of Ducky. I don't know. Maybe he's got a sound very, very controversial. I don't think he will, but he looked like a bit of a waning force I thought in that game last night. I think it's exciting. I think it's exciting. I think that's exciting. I think we started to burst on the substitutions. Like, they're baffling. Arlene, they're baffling. Like he spent 20 million quid on the centre back in the summertime. And we bring on a fella who's out of contract and that was absolutely nothing to the team. So, you either, does that mean that Lovern is finished in terms of in Brendan's eyes that he's finished? Because it wasn't that even Johnson was coming on the right centre back. He came on as the left centre back. You know what I mean? That's Lovern's force choice position. So you'd imagine if you're going to bring a going back into the team, at least he's coming back in in his natural position. And you're saying he's a centre back. So at least to have a concept of what he has to do there. He'd have to be on the bench in the first person. He wasn't the bench. Oh, he was okay. It was always the previous game he was. Yeah, it wasn't on the bench for a bolt again. So, you know, that's baffling. Yeah. Right, it brings Ballotelli on. You can start to see the logic. But the game is screaming out for a land on Ballotelli to come in with that instance, right? Because you want to keep, you want to keep that mobility in the front tree. You want to make sure that the running is still there as you head into extra time and hopefully gaps open up. By bringing Ballotelli on, we know that he's not going to do the same level. And it's going to reduce that tempo on mobility. Yeah. So then what do you do next? The number. You take on Ricky Lambert. You know what? And with the best one, the world, that kills it. The... Well, I heard Lambert was getting warmed up, but I thought it was a wind-up. Like, listen, we've been strikerless, basically, for a certain formation for what's at the guts of two months now. Because he doesn't rate the likes of Barini, Ballotelli or Lambert to start. So this baffles me when, like, you know, when we're looking for something and he throws them at that, these are like the first people that he turns to. Because the guys are shattered mentally. Like, you know, in terms of confidence, they have to be. Yeah. They know they're not throws. They're not awfully good either. Well, yeah. But he started LaLana. Before LaLana got injured, LaLana was a starter as well. So this makes no sense to me that, like, he's got LaLana on the bench there. We're playing the formation where LaLana can play and one of the two will be on the strike. And he doesn't go for it. He throws on the strikers who he obviously doesn't rate enough to start. So he just throws them and it's like throwing shit at the wall and holding some of it's sticks. But if you think about it, when he brings them on, we then start lumping crosses into the box. Gee, swept. That's all chairs you want us to do. Yeah. It's Lambert going out wide. That's all I'm going to do. He's up against two teams because by LaLana's playing left wing at this stage. Yeah. That's right. That picture. Yeah, I know. Sashin, what was your take on Brendan's decisions and the way in which the substitutions panned out? I mean, would you share the frustration that's clearly evident in the two lads here? Yeah, I totally agree with the guys there. I mean, just quickly on Lovren. I think it's one of two things. It's either just a purely sort of tactical thing where he thinks Lovren can't play on the wide defensive positions because I want people to carry the ball there, etc. So he can only replace Skirtle through the middle or it's what's probably more likely. He just doesn't trust him and he's doomed and he'll try and sell him in the summer, which is, I think, a more likely scenario, I think. I feel quite sad about the situation. He's spent 20 million pounds on center half and for it to go this badly. It's just terrible. I still think in there somewhere there's a decent player, but I just think he's doomed. I think if you're not, as you said there, if you're bringing in on Glenn Johnson instead of Lovren for the left center back position, then that just bows poorly. On the line, I'm a huge fan of the line. I think he's a really, really good player. I think he should be playing more. I don't understand why at the start of the season he had that sort of huge period where he didn't play. A couple of games in the row where he played really well against West Brom, I think, and in a way around Madrid and then he didn't play for months. Then he gets back in the team and he does really well and then he can't get back in the team again. It's baffling. Ricky Lambert, self-explanatory, just the bonkers decision. And Ballotelli, I think with Ballotelli now, he's got to the point where he's just throwing him on hoping, desperately hoping that he'll just do something, that he'll just roll the ball off outside the area, smash it and it'll go into the top corner and he'll just do one of those mad Ballotelli things which he's done throughout his career. It gets to sort of desperate levels within now. I thought he was absolutely appalling yesterday. I thought that side-foot shot, I think it was in the first period of extra time, which ballooned over the bar, which was technically absolutely atrocious. It was abject, yeah. It was terrible. Then he has that sort of shot in the second half of extra time where he should have crossed it. It was just an absolute appalling performance. And I agreed with all the guys and all the subs were really, really strange. Yeah. But it is that thing that we're saying for a rest of the day. Yeah, okay, the guys individually were poor when they came on, but they know that their manager doesn't particularly trust him. Like, what did he expected Mario Ballotelli to do, having been digging him out during the week? It's hard to know. It's a hard logic to understand if you've been, you know, criticizing the player, saying that he's struggling to get into form with a whole lot in the fourth person that you bring on to change your options up front. A core Lala is standing there and he's a bit gone. Pick me, boss, he stands. He's the only one standing up. The rest of them are covering blankets. Lala is there. Me, me, me. Not a chance. Look, you know, I think everyone was confused as to why at least get them on for the moment. You know, and some things I always wonder about because he didn't have a particularly good game against Ballotelli. You know what I mean? Just because a player has won bad game doesn't make them, you know, doesn't take them out of the form of the opinion. Now, when he came out against Chelsea last time, he had that wonderful shot that saved by Courtwell, you know. And it led to that resurgence that we had for that second part of the game in Anfield. And you're saying, you know, maybe some players like playing against certain teams. Like, you know, you're saying to yourself, maybe he'd relish coming on here and being the hero in terms of what's there. Because I know Lambert had loved to come on and relish being the hero. He's not going to be. Unless something mad happens. Even the one that there was a free outcome for his header is horrific. He wasn't anybody jumping for him. He didn't even get to the goal. I know. And I don't have to rephrase save him by the whistle, because, you know, you're just looking. Oh, look at that. That was so frustrating. Because, again, after the force leg, you're thinking to yourself, yeah, there seems to be something building. You know, there's a bit of momentum in all behind them. Why would have been so happy to see a couple of the youngsters on the bench? You know, to keep that pace, the one thing that I've noticed about our young players, and even again last night, I won't touch football as brilliant. The younger players, the looks of Moreno and Sterling and Catino, they're all able to play really good, wonderful football. And it moves us around the pitch so quickly. Even Henderson, right? And when we were in the good spell in the fourth, I hope to go to 60 minutes or so, that was the essence of it. That's how we were getting around Chelsea. As soon as we got the older players on, who need to take a touch of the ball, need to look around to see what's going on, et cetera, et cetera. That stopped. And that just let Chelsea come on, close us down, win the ball up high. And then the poor players ended up just showing how poorly we were in terms of what was going on. But I'll be, I'll look at what was the great game. [LAUGHTER] Fuck it, that's probably the best way we could possibly end that. [LAUGHTER] Right, let's take a look forward to Liverpool versus West Ham, the Saturday game, home match in Anfield. And we'd have to hope that this apparent upturning form is going to get back on track when we're back in the Premier League. Sachin, how are we feeling about West Ham in terms of the run of form that they're in at the moment? What kind of a threat do they pose, do you think, at the moment? Yeah, I mean, sort of two miles to West Ham. I watched quite a lot of their game against Bristol City last Sunday, was it in the FA Cup? And for the majority of that, they were absolutely terrible. I mean, they were well off the pace, they were easy to get at. They looked sort of like just basically quite a tired team. But then again, they still won, and that's the massive worry. It's like they just seem like a team in a really rich vein of form, in the sense that even when they're not playing well, they're going to win games. I think Sacco, Valencia, they're two new strikers of this season, they both look really dangerous. Andy Carroll's playing well, and you'd think he'd have a point to prove against us as well, obviously. So, is this like a server? I think their defense is gettable. I think if we start at a decent pace, we can get at them. And if we do score relatively early, and obviously, Sturridge, I mean, let's talk that he might feature in some form, which would be great, even just having him on the bench and having him as a potential threat would be great. I think it's, again, we just have to start, we have to start quickly, start well. And then we can open them up quite well. I think midfield, we should dominate midfield. I don't think midfield's up to that much. I know Alex Somme is quite good, but they're quite labored to slow midfield. I think, hopefully, what I'm hoping is that, you know, as disappointing as last night was, we did play well. There were some really good signs. The momentum and the confidence in the team is definitely there. And I just hope that carries into Saturday's game more than any potential tiredness from playing extra time and from any sort of sensitive inflation from losing. But I think in the imperative, we have to start well on Saturday, start quickly. I'm curious, you mentioned the Bristol game, and I didn't see that, or even see any highlights. Did they have, you mentioned they dug out a win, even though they weren't playing well. Did they have a solid team at a decent, strong side-out in the effort? Yeah, it was their first team, but, you know, pretty much, yeah, it was their strongest team. And they were terrible. First off, they were absolutely appalling. They looked so slow and so off the pace. It was unbelievable. And you thought, yeah, Bristol City will score and win this game. And then they just, the longer it went, you sort of obviously then thought, "Oh, I'm going to nick this," and they did. So, yeah, no, they were terrible in that game for the large parts of it. And the reason that I think they looked so poor was they were playing against a team that were playing with lots of energy, with lots of pace, which is kind of how we should be playing and how we do play. So that gives me the confidence to think as long as we start well, we should win. Yeah, that is encouraging. Paul, the ghost of Carol and Downing. Do they hold any particular fear for you? Yeah, basically, because, I know Sachin said they were awful against Bristol, but the fact is that somehow the race is an abhorrent human being who, like, sets the seams up as if they're... He sends them out like it's the Champions League final when he comes up against Liverpool. So I think the Bristol game will be out the window. I think they're going to come out like firing. And obviously, down and didn't even do too badly against us. And Carol, even any other forwards, you take the likes of D'Efresco, Valencia, and Carol, they tell it to them against, you know, Lovren or Johnson, if one of them comes in. That's terrifying. Having the ball just lumped at them all day long, like that. And Carol, obviously, is slow. The other two are fairly mobile. So, yeah, I think, Sachin, I think, we have to match it from the start. Make sure, like, you know, they're physicality and make sure it's not a culture shock at the start. Make sure we start off strong and get out and get going at them. Then we should hopefully win. But it's just the paradise factor, right? You know, we do look vulnerable to that sometimes. When someone sends it out, like, it's the biggest match in the world. And we're kind of looking around going, "Well, what are these so up for this?" So, I'm just hoping that doesn't happen. Yeah, Andy Carol, to be fair to him, is one of those stages of his career where he does look like a savage footballer altogether, to be fair. Would you be, in any way, worried about him in particular? I hate allergies. Hate. Yeah, you don't worry about the chance. Genuinely hate. I can't... I just can't stand... I can't even stand looking up, right? And I can't stand down. I just spies down. If you fell down a sinkhole in the middle of Anfield, I wouldn't shed a tear, like, disappear. So, you look a bit like them, though. Shut up. I've got to come in there. Why do you hate Stuart Downing that much? That's an extraordinary hatred. I feel hate loads of people this much, though. No, I hate him. He's a coward. When he was at Liverpool, I used to just despise every time he appeared. He disappeared in games, and then his statements that he used to come out after, and even the statements they've come out since then, he's just a little prick, right? And I just cannot... I cannot for life me. Except them. I'd love to have been beside you. You know what he's just the unfilled crowd after he's gone. Look, he's shaking, Phil's shaking. I'd love to have been beside you when he did that. That's going to be one of those moments where he would have just red-maced one of the senators over the barriers. The vein is coming out of the fire. No, but I do. And what I want is, I want Henderson or Lucas to cast it. I want them to deal with, like, within two minutes. I want them to jump on his leg, right? And I want them to... Because the one thing that will happen is he won't... He will disappear out of the game. When he played against us last year, Flanagan absolutely crippled him over on the sideline, and we never saw a downer. Downer went into a shell and started hiding behind the players. So that's, we need somebody just to kick him up in the air. Whereas in the last month he was actively encouraged. He never got kicked. Nobody got close to him. Everyone was too nice to him. Just kick him. And he won't be in the game. Hardly, he's been the driving force. You know what I mean? You're talking about Andy Carroll having the... That bell was the question. But downer's been having the form of his life. It's absolutely disgusting to be sitting here talking about how to stop Stuart Downer, isn't it? It really is. It's all destroyed. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. If we have cost under team, it's just going to cripple a crossface, take him down, anything. Just take him out. Just kick him. He can't accept physicality in a football match whatsoever. And he plays centrally, doesn't it? Henderson. Henderson should just do it. He can put us in. You should take us. You really wouldn't be an issue if we could rely on the fact that we had Saka on Shanda. You could forget about it. Just forget about it. He's a non-event. He would be a non-event. My worry would be to go back to the thing I was asking you. Stuart, directly up against Andy Carroll and them pomp and balls to Andy Carroll. Which he will win all of. But with the trade at the back, we're more than covered in terms of the actual, you know, there's enough cover around it. It's the set pieces that you're more concerned of. Say he starts Johnson, or even love him for that factory. Say what I'm continually torn off at set pieces, right? So Carroll is just going to go and sit on them. Literally sit on them for the actual set piece, known that at some stage he's going to get a free header. Yep. So there's just two ways to address it. You ought to get manipulated, come for absolutely every ball that comes into the box, right? And say, if you drop it or you miss it, we'll deal with the second one that comes after it. But just make sure you get something on the ball. Or you say, right, whoever Carroll is, you double team him. So you say, if he goes on to Johnson, we put, you ask, um, someone. Chant. That's the only one that's left. You tell Chant to go and stand in front of them. Do not let them get under. Only circumstances in luck, let them get a free header, anywhere in or under the box. And as I said, you kick down and you take him out of the game and you neutralize. That's how you neutralize best time. As Sachin said earlier on, what you're talking about there is some sort of, um, coherent approach to stopping set plays, which, you know, I mean, what you're trying to do. Well, those two are going to be for it. They're going to go back there and they're like, the show that's come out of down and since he's left, like, you know, he thinks now in the form of his life, he's going back to give two fingers to Rogers. Hmm. And he'll probably give two fingers to the cup as well. Yeah. You're not on the main side. It could be a shooting, yeah. Seriously. You just kick him hard. Um, open to the air. Sachin, it was bad enough there until you had your little interjection about why do you hate him so much because this guy's just gone off on one here the last little while. Can I come back to you and talk to you a little bit about, um, what you think the top process would be? Like, I mean, I know the next game, I think, isn't until the following. Is it, uh, Wednesday? So I suppose there's very little considerations in terms of, um, you just play your best team. Um, allowing that we don't know anything about Sacco and there's a possibility of a change there which would be unpalatable. Do you see any other changes from the midweek team from the team? We've just seen, uh, exit the, um, the Carling Cup. Well, I played the line personally. You know, we didn't play at all. Um, for Jared Sachinor. Possibly. Yeah, I just think we've played, you know, that's been a hard game, a proper brutal game, you know, on, on Tuesday. I mean, literally almost we need to think about Diego Costa. And I think, you know, you've played 120 minutes. Um, and I think somebody needs to be just pulled out. I just, I just think that's the team that needs a bit of refreshing. Obviously there might be one that's sent back, uh, set on along the back three. But I think it just needs somebody somewhere else to go out. And yeah, I would possibly take Gerard out. You know, he's a high energy player. As we say, we need a high energy performance. Um, it's not much you can do with it. I mean, that's the same. That is our first team. And I wouldn't think of it too much. I'd certainly keep Lucas and Henderson and maybe look to drop, not drop, but rest one of them against Bolton and get Aladin or Rossitzer or whatever. Um, but yeah, now I bring the liner in for Gerard. So that couldn't be my only change, I think. Yeah, fair enough, Paul. I mean, he changes for you in terms of the structure of the team that we saw and go out of the cup. No, that'd be pretty much for me as well. Lilana in for Gerard. Um, I think obviously it would suit that. I think it's something obviously the sub that should have been made. And I think it would suit if we started again. And I don't think we have to put too much effort into wrestling players. I think there's three solid days either side of the, uh, the Bolton match. Like with the West hand to Bolton and then Bolton to the, the Derby. So, um, or to the match the next weekend. So yeah, I don't think you, I think you played the, the strongest team, basically against West Ham. And then maybe try and change it up. We get a bit against Bolton, even if it's to do with like what subs you're going to make. Yeah. I don't, I don't think there has to be wholesale changes at all. We play, we play high tempo and do it a bit of physicality that you need to do at the start. They won't level us. They won't. Well, look, January, we'll be able to get to the back four. We'll be able to pull them out and we'll be able to get chances away. So, you know, the positives that have, that have come out of the recent run is that when we play high tempo, we move the ballroom quickly. We play high tempo. We look a very good side again. Now, given the fact that you will have storage at some stage with the match, whether it's the, whether he starts and whether he brings them on for the last half an hour or whatever, that gives us something else. Now, seeing storage on the bench will be such a fill up for the fans, for the team itself, known that it won't be Lambert. It won't be Balletelli that comes on. It'll be storage. It'll be your best strike. Yeah. You know, you'll be able to bring a gold tread in. Yeah. Or if he starts, then it's like, oh, shit. Yeah. Look, it doesn't matter if he comes in and everything bounces off his hand. It doesn't matter. It's a symbol of what's happening here. But it also occupies defenders' minds. Yeah. And creates more space. Yeah. Like, if Lambert starts in that game where he's on the pitch, nobody's going to American. Mm. Because he's not going to offer a tread. You know what I mean? Look, that's, that's, that's singularly what, what storage does. They won't take the Royal from it. They will, he will move the fences around. He will take players out of the way. He'll create more space for continuum to operate in. He'll create more space for storage for starting to operate in. And even if we have Lelana, you know, again, he'll be on the pitch. He'll be buzzing around. He'll be able to operate in the space. It's about you loising the space. Our home farm has been appalling this season. You look at it. It's, it's, you know, we've drawn four games. We've, I think we've only won three or something like that. Right? And that's where our biggest failure in this season has been. Because our wave farm is much better than our home farm. And we have to turn that around. And we have to turn that around quickly. Even, even going to our recent games, we drew against Bolt, we drew against Chelsea. And another two cup matches, but there are both home matches. Yeah. So we need to get back to winning home games, making sure we put our home games to bed if we won't have any chances of challenging for the top four. And we need to build on the positives. And the positives that we have as we move the bar quickly, we look at go team again. Yeah, Sachin, I was going to ask you to just drop that into the conversation before Phil mentioned that point. And as a kind of a statement, that is the one takeaway, isn't it, from the recent form. Irrespective of two, three ish, dodgy and off kind of, not great results, let's say, in terms of the draw with Chelsea, the draw against Bolt and then the defeat last night. There is still that wonderful football getting played at times. And as Phil says, we can almost rely on that now. And if we do play that style, it should be too much for even a ramped up Western. Yeah, I think the major positive of the game yesterday, all the only positive in a way, because we lost, obviously, it was just absolute confirmation that we have an identity. I think what was the most heartbreaking thing about the early stage of the season is I certainly felt I had no idea, no sense of what this Liverpool team represented. The whole guts of the fantastic team we had last year had gone. We were as bad defensively as we were last year, but we had none of the attacking kind of shape or verb or swagger. There were games like Sunderland at home, which was so depressing, it was unreal. But what we've got now, what we've had since the United game, really, since we went to three in the back is an identity. As the guys have said there, playing high tempo, quick short passes through the team. And I think the midfield, that sort of that foreman midfield we've got the box as it was referred to earlier is really crucial to that as well. Those two midfield and the two ahead of them works really well. So we've got that, and that's something we can rely on. All these teams really missing now is goals. It's literally all it's missing, I think. And we know we've got a world-class strike to come back. Don't put too much pressure on one, obviously, because it's been out for so long. But I think that's literally all we're missing. We've got the defence looks better, the goalkeeper, who said he's playing better, we just need a proper striker. And I think we should win more games than we don't until now in the end of the season. So for you, the obvious exception of the potential change there at the left side is centre-half. It's pretty much the same eleven, and then maybe Lalana for Jared. Yeah, that's the only change I've made. I played Lalana, he's totally fresh, and he'll allow us to play at the pace we need to play at to overrun Westam. Okay, well look, I mean, we've kind of done the rounds now in terms of what we think the team will look like. I suppose we might as well get a couple of predictions from people on this. Paul, how do you see this game going on the weekend? Three months, what? Three-one Liverpool, Sasha, how do you see this one working out for us? We'll concede from the corner, and then we'll win 2-1. The lifely specific. Yeah, I'm seeing Liverpool win as well, Phil. I'll go with the win, and just about scruffy win. Scruffy win. Me too, because we probably won't have soccer, so we probably won't keep it clean cheap. But we might have enough to. With storage back, if we go with the high tempo frontline, all the facets that we've been doing well lately, don't change the midfield. Yeah. And Jared from the bench as well is a wonderful thing to add. Jared, from the spring, from the bench for 20 minutes where he can put his whole game into 20 minutes and do something. Imagine having, like, if you need a call on a one-all, a two-all or something like that, and you're able to call on storage and draw it from the bench. That's huge. That's straight away the team. The team you're playing against takes the wind out ourselves, pushes them 20 yards back. You compared that to your shirt just before the game did it. Stay at that bench. Come on. Stay at the bench. Stay at the bench. They'll watch this. He'll pick that bench. His pass goal being on team, pick it again. But the way we've been playing, it's been really creative. Like, all you just want to do is stick to storage, just plunk them on top of the team. And you would think that we'd score. Like, we'd still be in the car. We'd be in the Carlin Cup Final, or the Capital One Cup Final. We probably could have thrown them on for half an hour against Bolton. He would have won the game for us. And we'd be, God knows how many more points better off on the run since you know it again. So that's all you just want. You just want to get them fit and, like, keep them fit for at least, like, three weeks before he gets injured. [laughter] Hopefully by a strike, I think. So no pressure. Okay. That'll lose. I am Lujware. You are listening to Trippin's chat. [laughter] Right. Let's have a look at a few of the things suggested by our listeners for talking topics. I suppose we acknowledge the start that we just don't want to talk about transfers. [laughter] Because we're all transfers. What transfers? What transfers? It's just not happening. So let's take a look. Is that a tour on Soren for us this month? All right. A tour on EZ. A tour on Samel. Samel. Samel is driving the bus. Correna is doing a tour going. It's got to go. Tour on. All right. All right. I had a tour on Soren. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Let's take a look at a completely different topic. We can get a little bit of conversation. Michael Freeman is wondering if Handel was the new captain for 2015-2016. He would you choose to be Vice Captain? I presume he means obviously of the current law. And is it a given? It seems to be. Is it a given that Handel was captain? Is he the right choice? Paul, I think you not 100% of this, are you? Yeah. I don't know. Obviously, he's grown a lot in his Liverpool career. And it's only 4.6 when he joined. Yeah. Yeah. He's just fucking Christ. [laughter] Yeah. He's grown a lot obviously in statute. [laughter] Fuck's sake. [laughter] And obviously, Jared's not going to be there. And like he is. He is a lot. He's noticeably more vocal and more demanding of the ball. And he's like a bigger presence when Jared isn't there. So he's got that going from, I just wonder, is it maybe a bit early for him? Because he's still not someone who every week looks kind of like Billy Big Vollocks come around screaming around and are like a complete leader every week. But he certainly is growing that way. I probably would have liked it if we had one more senior player that could have done it for another year maybe. Yeah. And then Henderson get it. Yeah. 'Cause I'm still not 100% sure that he's ready to be like the leader every week. It would have been lovely if we could just transition there with Glenn Johnson for a couple of years. Yeah. Not so unlikely to hop. Get the six year contract on the table for Glenn. Yeah. That's what I'd like you to happen. Are you happy you'll handle us a couple? Yeah. [laughter] Jared Phil, do you think? No, I think he's a good voice captain. I think he's a good backup. So would you be ideally would you promote from within? Do you see someone coming into the club and just hearing you do the job? I think a leader. I think you need a natural leader in there. I've never been a huge fan of Gerard as captain. I think he's been great in terms of what he does on the pitch. But I don't think he's a natural leader in terms of an architect. And you can't handle might be too much more of a captain by example type again. No, I think he's a good go-to man. I think he's a good sort of foil to the captain on the pitch. Okay. You need go back up. If you were a captain, you know, to have somebody else that's there. That when times needed, he can step into the bridge. Control me for that. No, you're not calling them like a Gary Neville type. You know, like there's the captain and then there's the team Arsenal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go for merchant. Well, there's a card on the team Arsenal now. No, I don't think he's the right man for the job. Okay. We'll take that to a logical inclusion. Who is? Whoever we appoint is captain. I'll fight a lover. Fuck you. I mean. Down. He doesn't like it. Work with me. Work with me. I'll work with you. Go on. Go on. Give me a name from someone from the current staff. Or is it something that we need to go out and actively look for and bring in a leader? It really does depend on who we saw. If we go out and saw an absolute powerhouse of a midfielder to play alongside Henderson. You just thrown the captain. You know, people have done that before. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's not unusual for somebody to come in and say he is an absolute leader and I'm putting him in as captain. Like if they gave him an erasure on the captain's seat, I would have absolutely no issue with that at all. Yeah. But he comes across to me as a leader on the pitch. You've seen him when he's gone into the back for it. The same sack has been captain at international level. Yeah. And looks a natural leader again in terms of what it is. And I like the captains to be like big powerful players as well. You know, the ones that can't be bossed around on the pitch. For me, it's not so much embossed. Henderson has shown in stages great sense, extending up to cost was great for that. You're seeing it yourself. But that's what you want to see. You want to see somebody putting the bollocks out on the whole lot. But there's other times where I'm just thinking to myself, you just need that little bit more. That little bit more, whether it's a little bit more, you know, aggressiveness. He's not aggressive enough in the right way with referees, let's say. You know what I mean? That could be an age thing. Going back to your point, is it a little bit too early for him? It may be a little bit too early for him. I think that might be a little bit of a harsh shade in terms of the aggression and the presence on the pitch. But I do see what you're saying in terms of maybe a little bit extra in what we were talking about earlier on, where you need to score that chance. You need to put that away and offer a team leadership from that respect. I can possibly see an argument there, but I just don't see anybody else lads in the current squad who's in any way. I think another one would be psycho, but again, it looks maybe a bit too early for him. He's even said at the start of the season that his English needs to get better. He said at the start of the season, this is when he was out and we all thought he was getting stolen after he stormed out at the therapy. And a few weeks later he did an interview where he said, "When my English gets better, I will be talking more." And the natural leader in me will come out. So if that happens next, he's out of no problem with psycho being captain. And I get what Phil says as well, because I think Sacco and Chan, when you look at our players, they're the two most kind of alpha players. The two, they look kind of unruffled by everything. Chan comes in, it doesn't matter who he's playing against. He seems to be brilliant. He seems like he's a chest out. He doesn't give a shit who he's up against. And so I think it would be a big shout to give it to Chan, because he's so young. But I think at some stage he called Captain was Chan. It's a hell of a lot more likely that one of those two guys that you've mentioned will get a voice cap and see behind him. It's a hell of a lot more likely. But I think if Lucas is still there, he probably gets the voice cap and see if Henderson is captain. Right now, wrong. Do you know what I mean? Whether Lucas or Skirtler, they obviously showed up with you. I wouldn't want Skirtlers as captain or voice captain. No, God. I think he's too flawed as a person. I've seen him disappear in games. The person. No, no. We're talking about leadership. We're talking about leadership. And too many times he's had to have a leader beside him to look good. Yeah. He's not the leader. Well, he's got two besides him now and he actually looks great. Well, yeah, but this is what I'm saying. Yeah, I'm agreeing with you. He needed an agar beside him and agar was a leader. You know what I mean? He needed, he wasn't great when character was beside him. That could have been because of this picture in Rhodes, whatever. But, you know, he's needed a leader beside him to look good. Even when Hoopi was there, he looked better alongside Hoopi because Hoopi is a natural leader. So, for me, I just don't know whether Henderson brings that level of authority on the pitch with the rest of the players. I know they all respect him, but I don't know if he has the authority that he has there. And therein lies my issue with him getting the captaincy at this moment in time. Maybe he does step up. I'm potentially being harsh, but I'm just telling, from my point of view, I'm looking at other players. I'm thinking I personally would have more confidence if other players had it. And I still think if we sign a real mid-fail leader, because Gerard has gone, that there's every chance that that player will come in and be the captain. And it's much of you, but if you sign a real leader. If you dial type or something. I'm not even, I'm not going down names. I'm just saying if you sign that type of mid-fail really. Say, say for argument sake, you sign somebody like Schneider, right? He was a real leader on the pitch. You know, to play in that zone with Henderson, if you're doing a tree for a tree, or whatever way you want to go, or even a fortitude tree. Well, whatever you want to go, right? But he's a leader on the pitch. And he comes in as a leader on the actual pitch itself. Like, and low from assault was as a leader. And he's as far from a leader as skirtless. So, you know, there isn't that many candidates. Like, I wouldn't give it to Sterling. He's too young. I couldn't give it to Lallana. You know, I'm not, you wouldn't give it to storage because he is, storage is a real out-out center forward. And again, he's going to be missing through injury for an awful lot of things. You're really down to who on the back four, essentially, are in that midfield. Are you going to give it? You're not giving it to Alan. You might consider Lucas, but then again, is he going to be there? Absolutely. Will he play where he is or not? So now you're down to Henderson and the center backs, because you're not giving it to the fallbacks either. This is making it sound like it's a process for elimination. He's the last one standing. But I actually think he's a lot more merit than that as a captain. I don't see anyone, right? But this is why I'm going through the characters. Yeah. Right? And you can knock out so many of the characters that we have. Like, if Suarez was there, he'd have the captain see every single day of the week. Yeah. Because on the pitch, he demanded that players played his level. And that's what you want. I still think Henderson has to bring that demanding to play to his level as part of his authority on the pitch. And sometimes he gets lost in the actual games itself, and he isn't demanding that lift from the players and the lift from the players around them. Well, if you look at... You see kind of isolated incidents where you think, like, yeah, that's handled. He's kind of mature, and he looks like a leader. Is he going to do that consistently? Because like Phil said, Jared's not someone who... He's not someone who always stood up and you could always see him backing it. If the team was up against it, you couldn't see it. He tried to do things on his own. He didn't see him kind of rallying the troops too often. And that's someone that you'd rather, you'd rather, probably someone who constantly, like, someone intelligent, that constantly is at them. And like, you were saying about the refs. Like, I remember last year when we played ours, I remember we demolished them. And Henderson told everybody on that pitch to fuck off at some stage during the game, including the ref. Fuck off. That's what he's up in his face. If he, like, does that more often? Like, you see the likes of John Terry, he's an absolute screw. But like, every single time the whistle ends yesterday, John fucking Terry, 80 yards. You're an 80 yards? And like, you want something like that. And like, not completely, not being a rat to the other team, like, not constant melting. But you know, someone who stands up with it. If there is a kind of fight between someone who stands up, gets in the middle of it. Someone who's thinking about the team. Yeah, exactly. So like, you do see isolated moments of that from Henderson. It's just whether he's mature enough now to do it all the time. I think he's got that in spades. And I think when Jared's off the scene, I think he'll see it really, really come to the fore. And listen, the thing about it is, if he has this, as Phil says, whether it's a new one or whether it's Lucas playing to the top of his level. If he's playing in his proper position on a week, week basis, I wouldn't doubt that at all. Yeah, again, as I said, just, you know, if you've got so many young players, which we're going to have, right? That captain is also almost a fire figure for them on the pitch. So that's what I'm starting to do. Like, I know Emery Chan is young, but already he looks like a settled professional fucking beyond his years. He's the daddy. He does look that way. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Another one, that was Michael Freeman's question, by the way. Another one that's come in from a regular contributor is Nabb. And Nabb is talking about something that we touched on earlier on. So we'll just keep this particularly brief, but he basically was talking about the fact that every team, should have their own genuine bona fide asshole, a kind of a go to, like, a caster figure. Well, if they don't, like, it's going to be a dose of human centipede going on. That's a horrible image. And I'd like to move very quickly, by the way. That's in a parroture. That is, that is, that's some horrible stuff. Do we have, and to kind of segue on from the handle chat, do we have someone in that mold that, you know, someone, you know, that nasty age? I don't think we have any... We don't ask, you know, that, like, I know, like, we're kind of mad about caster, but like, you do like to say it sometimes. Some of the stuff Suarez did, not biting, or anything like that. But, you know, some of the snide stuff that he did, where like, yeah, that's it. Like, he's in their head there, like, he's got your man on fucking toes. So your man is fume, and to be on the same page as Suarez, your man doesn't know where the ball is. All he's thinking about is, where's that little prick there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't have anyone like that at the moment. Yeah, yeah, and do we have anyone with the potential? Does Markovitch somewhere deep in them have the potential? He does. Even the look of them, you're kind of like, you're going to imagine him doing something horrible, like, yeah, hopefully he could kind of... Obviously, we've seen him kind of develop in spades, like, over the past few months from the fellow who looked terrified of the ball when he first came. So you're like, it could go that way, like, obviously, it's early days. I love that, I have to say. Absolutely, yeah, there's the potential for some proper snideness in them. That's not your kind of region. The trick with the asshole is it has to be the right type of asshole. Oh, yeah, well, we have a lot of the wrong type of... We do have the wrong type of asshole in the club. But, like, we need the right type, so it can't be just pure destructive. Like, if you look at Costa, right, go back to him. Why, he's a complete fucking asshole. Like, the same as Suarez was, in what he delivers. It's designed to be destructive to the opposition, and not to his own team. I like that thing, you were saying earlier on about where Costa said. Was it you, Paul, saying that, like, you know, my footballing background isn't from an academy, so therefore, you know, I'm rough and ready, and this is the only way I know. It's such a liner shot. It's such a liner shot. He had specialized in fucking wind, and he's a bad bastard. And that's just what you want, and listen to me. Fans love a complete asshole in the theatre, right? One that, as I said, isn't destructive, like, you could have a casino who will just make, he will actually cause an explosion in the dressing room, in his own dressing room, though, in the wrong way. You know what I mean? It's like, you don't need that. What you want is just one nasty little fucker, right? Even when we had Masquerano, like, that team wasn't particularly nasty, but we had air below, who had it in spades. Oh, shit. He's got the answer on that. And Masquerano used to tell men fuckers, and you, you could see the oil is opening when he had it, when he had a chance for 50/50, right? Because he could throw in a bit of afters into the thing. It doesn't have to be on the mark than necessarily. It doesn't have to be the overtly Suarez-Caster type. It just has to be that fucking... It was a shit day in the shit result, but will you ever forget the head on him as Rafa was trying to lead him off the pitch against United? Oh, Jesus. That was just so much fun. That's the kind of thing you want to follow. Even Shelby had that in him. When he does. And he does. But he has it, it just, he doesn't, there's no Doyle. The Doyle is broken, so I was just saying that. Yeah. Once it goes on, it took out at 165 out of 10. And when it goes on, like, Costa knows where the ref is, knows what he's going to get away with, whereas Shelby will just do, he'll lose ahead and do something stupid and get sent off. So, yeah, like, you need someone, like, it's really calculated with Costa. Like, even if he looks like he's lost ahead for a second, like 20 seconds later, it's like he makes a point of just laughing at the defender. You know, smiling, or even kind of like, you know, a little tap on the back, like, "Ah, I'm on your mess." And then, like, you know, 10 minutes later, your stance on his ankle again. He just always seems to be in control. He goes, like, where the limit is. He's not going to get himself sent off doing it. He's just a lovely prick, like, play. A lovely prick to play with. Yeah, yeah. A lovely prick to play with. Oh, God. The innuendo trip. Oh, my God. It goes straight in the back of his with that one. A lovely prick to play with. A lovely prick to play with. And some chocolate. Like a kindler egg. I'm having a fucking murder today. OK, some of the short ones then, one in from Nick Wall, which took my attention particularly. Nick is wondering, "Would you rather have no Quinn do a live commentary of your life?" Or everything you eat tastes like showed on a regular basis. So, basically, you're enjoying the whole meal. So, do we need Steve able to commentate in our lives? Steve. Oh, Steve. Everything I want to talk to Steve about. I fell sorry for him last night. I listened to that absolute shied harkery. I'm going to let the 9th Quinn at first. I think we should substitute 9th Quinn. I think we should kidnap 9th Quinn and substitute with Steve off for a while. Wouldn't that be absolutely fantastic? You're hilarious. The outcome would be brilliant. That would be fantastic. But imagine that. Imagine 9th. Steve daily having a fucking platform on Sky Sports. That's absolutely terrifying. No, I didn't look different this week. Yeah, yeah. So, what are we going with? I wonder. Before last night, I'd have said 9th Quinn. No. Did you find it going to be in offensive until yesterday? Well, I always knew he was a fucking idiot. Like, a bit of an idiot. Like, but Jesus Christ. Yesterday. Give me the shit sandwich. I think it's just, I think it's like, you know, a toward voice. Yeah. He's just in your head, yeah. He's an array. Imagine how Quinn narrating your life. Imagine that. It's fucking hard. I got a treat. There's Phil going into the shop there. Oh, God. He's going into the shop. Is he going into the shop? Shut the fuck up. I don't think he's made the right decision going into the shop. Why am I confused by this decision? Which was, by extension, your Stephen Daley impression. Okay. And one from Kalen, who sent in a couple there, actually, but we'll go with this one. What's your favorite giant robot from the movies? You must have it shouting this, which are so very fetish. Yeah. Favorite giant robot from the movies. I'm trying to think of a few. Terminator. Is it, which one would you go with? Which of the Terminator's? You can only go for any. Really? You can really. You've got all the liquidy lads. Yeah. I'm just a big fan of the liquidy lads. Yeah. That's me. That's me. Yeah. Yeah. Terminator Paul. You're getting in behind that? I don't know. You know, that transformers for my life's barricade and that the police car. He was fairly cool. Oh, yeah. I can't get through any one of those movies. I can't get through them. Yeah. And they get progressively worse as well. Do they? Yeah. I wish the police car had to be melted down. Into what? What? What? Why did you just hate him? Yeah. I still don't know what role he plays. He's fucking. Would you say? Would you say he's a Charlotte and a coward? Is he the steward down in the sewer source? Well, I'm going back there. You know what you were saying about the Terminator? That sounds like, you know, like, like a scale for measuring shoots. Like, oh, well, I had an irony. I had a few liquidy lads. I had a T2000. Doggie T2000 going on there? I don't like the liquidy lads. I don't like the liquidy lads. We never know where they're going to pop off. OK, we've finished with some admin. We'll start with our weekly show for Astral Park. Book your pitch time and play some football here by getting online. Astral Park, the new edition of Neil Pose. We are Liverpool fans in, which has some articles for myself, Neil Gray. It's now available at wearel Liverpool fans in.com and it will be sold outside the ground at home games. At only 150, it's a hell of an offer. And if you want to take advantage of an offer that we have now with Neil, you can mention to him on the day. Exclusive. Exclusive. You can mention to him on the day. Just mention the name of the podcast when you're going up the boat and you can get it for £1. Alternatively, you can also mention the podcast and get an issue 6 for £1.50 and a back copy for £3. Back copy for £3. So I really hope you enjoy the post-production values that we've put on this. Phil's been in the studio long after we've finished here with those effects. Your day trippers tonight or Sasha Nakrani, Paul Brennan, Phil Casey and myself, Trev Downey. I saw of one, something like, "Would you rather join in your mind, right?" Or watch them every day. Yeah, that's just meant like, "That can't end well like that." You obviously take the free pedal every day, looking at them. Yeah. They're sorry. They're sorry! It's an operator! It's the two boys. Follows and Hunter. They get a name check more often than anybody else. And nobody really knows what I'm talking about. I think they should get their own television programme when Anton Decker haven't had this. I like they love to see that. Follows and puns. I think they're not in. Yeah. And they're just sitting there with a football manager. Playing so talented all this time. Yeah. It'd be brilliant if they were actually a bit like Vick and Bob. That'd be class. Vick and Bob. Who's Vick? Fuck off. Are you serious, man? The creators of Bob out there. Are you serious? You are serious? Yeah. They're in the work. Man. Jesus. It's fucking brilliant. Oh, Jesus. Thank heavens. Paul, you'd love them. Paralympics, I'm never coming in here alone again. Paul, Paul, you'd love them. Yeah. They're fucking brilliant. My comedy heroes. Oh, for man. For the day. Don't do it. Don't do it. He's a stomp. That's your guy. That's awesome. Hey! It was just after the orchestra finished. If you're snacking on anything but tasty cake, you're making a huge miss cake. A fist full of chocolate covered raisins. Miss cake. A spoon full of peanut butter. Bigger miss cake. Or the worst miss cake of all. Your kid's Halloween candy. And it's May. If it's not tasty cake, it's a miss cake. Because nothing satisfies like a perfectly sweet butterscotch crimp it. Or rich and creamy chocolate peanut butter candy cake. Tasty cake. Except no substitutes. When you get a ticket for not wearing your seatbelt, it comes from the police. And from your mother. And your best friend. And your family. We want you to buckle up every trip, every time. Three out of four people ejected from a vehicle in a crash will die. If you won't do it for yourself. Do it for us. We like having you around. Click it. Or ticket. A message from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Plan. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Right on the back of 2 disappointing results a scaled down number in the bunker discuss the fallout from exit to Chelsea with a brief nod to the draw with Bolton. We look at the good and the bad thats gone, look to concerns for the upcoming league match and their danger men and stewart downing. We wrap with a chat on all things captainy and the usual mayhem
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