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The phrase is from Geico because they helped save people money. Geico? Yeah, they were our team sponsor. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. It's the second half of the season, and we can't read the fixture list, it's the day for Trevor's. Today's show is brought to you later in the week, primarily because Phil and I can't decide for the fixtures, and we thought this would be a Chelsea review. That however is next week, and we've both signed up for a medial course in calendar reading. This week, we plan to glance back to the latest Premier League win over Sunderland, preview the fixture against Aston Villa on Saturday, and spend a considerable amount of time engaging with the topics sent in by our listeners for Trevor's chat. I'm Trevor Daney, and joining me to take all the above boxes are Dave Thomas, Paul Brennan, Stephen Daly, and Phil Casey. Okay, let's start our general chat, an awful lot of which has been suggested by listeners who sent in tweets, and we're going to begin by looking back at the most recent game and putting it in perspective. So having defeated Sunderland in the third place, Liverpool are now unbeaten in seven fixtures, one loss across 13 in all competitions with a caveat that there's been too many draws. So Brennan Rogers off repeated mantra about how his sides tend to come good, and the second half of the seasons seems to have some merit. Would you agree with that, Phil? I don't know. It'll tell us at the end of the second half of this season. Yeah. I think it's something easy to try out because we've had two go the second half of the seasons. Swansea had a decent second half of the season in his last season there, and I think they had a decent run into the playoffs as well. So what about the run I've mentioned there, the fact that we've only lost one in 13 or whatever. The second half of the seasons tend to depend, again, on injuries as you go into the back end. If we lose storage after a week or he gets injured again and he's gone from the other three months, we're still going to be in the same shape as we are at this moment. But he hasn't been there now. We seem to be building something, not fair. Yeah, but we're still, like, we're still, everyone was saying, and certainly, if we play Sunderland this time last year, but are we playing with storage, we win that game three or four nil. We got one nil. We could have easily, that chance and shot could have easily gone in, and it would have been another draw. You know what I mean? When, if you're not scoring freely against, I'd be honest with you, I thought Sunderland was possibly one of the worst teams we've played on season. Like a terrible performance, but anyway, you know, let's hope it is, but I hate sort of people relying on, oh, we're always better in the second half of the season. Oh, that's nonsense, clearly. You know what I mean? Paul, is that fair? There does seem to be some momentum building in terms of results, getting a few points in the board, making progress in the Cubs that might back up that idea, or is it just coincidental? No, yeah, I think performance. I think obviously since we changed the formation, like, I think attacking wise, we've looked a lot better. And I think, yeah, defensively, we were okay against Sunderland, and, yeah, momentum wise, we do, we have picks, we haven't had everyone like this basically all season, only one last on 13. Yeah. So, yeah, and I do think that Rodgers does have a point with his team's finishing better, and he says that he said last season that he sets his team's up, condition wise, like the conditioning that they do in preseason, that it is geared towards having a better second half of the season. So hopefully those come true again. I think, I think you're caught, especially with the players we have coming back soon. Okay. Well, I suppose, like, Len Johnson? Yeah, exactly. Len Johnson. Put him in there. Lovren, Lovren, he's got a few minutes under his belt. Throw him back in as well. He's ready to come back in. For a fuck's sake. Look forward to check. Len Johnson is just one of the ones he's looking forward to come back. Did you see? I had to go, but Lovren's kinder surprised. Lovren's kinder surprised. Yeah. He has a collection of kinder surprise, so it's not that this is a surprise at all, really. He does have a big joke. No, no, no, no. It was in the echo alone. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yes, but he's got to think about who, who's in charge of his PR? Someone sat down and said, this guy, this guy has such a great relationship with the fans. They just kind of love this kooky scientist. Surely that's too much chocolate for a professional. It probably explains the mad fucking running out for every single box. Hey! It's your boss. He's got to crack it open. There's a toy inside. Jesus. Maybe that's what he's been doing was, you know, people were whipping crosses into the box. He's there. He's trying to put a head on a mini-Mr. Potato headband. No. Did they jump? Any chance? Oh, sorry, Joe. That's just got to be a toy. I can't slide on my right side. That's where my kinder is. He's like your man from gold running. Look at the lucky egg. Right now, that's, that was disturbing. Steve, I'm talking about something that apparently they are supposed to contribute to, which is the defense. One characteristic that's been constant of Rogers tenure has been changed in style and the formation. And now we've seen this back three emerge with Emory channel one side, Mamadoo, Sacco and the other side, either side of new contract, Boy, Martin Skirtle. Big Martel. Big Martel. Is our defense approaching levels of acceptability? Acceptability? Possibly. I suppose they have looked reasonable in the last few games with those three there. But actually Toure was in for some of them as well, wasn't he? But I suppose, I don't know, I'm so dejected when it comes to our defense this season. But I shouldn't be because we always concede goals. I'm dejected this season with our defense because we don't have the goals going in the other end, which two things, one, which masks the goals we're conceding. And two, if you're not scoring your chances, it's given the opposition impetus to come down and attack it. And also, maybe those three in particular, everybody's going to see that two guys. On the line, we're going to see Chann actually getting some game time and Sacco. We've called for Sacco all season on. We thought there was an issue there from personality point of view or relationship point of view between him and Rogers. I don't know whether there is or there isn't, but he's getting game time now, which has been enforced through injuries. As we've all probably agreed at some point or another, our best form came last season because of enforced injuries. And thanks to Phil's voodoo dolls, and he's injury machine. Sorry. Okay. Well, Andy, Andy's injury machine has worked a treat in the last few weeks. So no, but like I'm delight to see Sacco getting some game time and I'm delight to see Chann getting some game time. It's not where I'd like to see him playing, but, you know, he needs, he needs minutes under the belt. We spoke about how he looked rusty when he was on and maybe carrying a few pounds extra. So if he's getting games, then we can't talk. Well, it's beneficial. And he looks comfortable enough there. So, Dave, would you, would you concur? Is this what we want to see? These three people in particular, are they the best that we have in this system? Well, if you're playing three at the back, probably, I thought, I mean, look, I think if we were all picking our, everyone's fit, who would you play? You'd probably play two or eight ahead of, yeah, I think most people would. I think Emory, Jan, or the idea of playing the right side of that three as a bit of a ball player, I think, has been something to be fair to Rogers. He could have just gone with a more flat back three. I think that is something that he has innovated, and we should give him credit for things that he does do rather than things that are kind of forced upon him. I think that the real surprise for me, and I say this as a surprise, I've never really been as mad about him as everyone has been, has been sacral for me. I think that he's, he's actually really grown in stature over the last few games. His passing is very good. I think that he's, I mean, I think that we spoke about it a couple of weeks ago, that if you look at the mistakes, Moreno has made all during his time playing with Liverpool, it's always come when he's playing with Lovren on that left hand side. And suddenly you put Sacco next to him, and he looks at a different player. We're not concealing ground on that left hand side anymore. And I think that, you know, Sacco, Moreno, Jan, and Markovich, you know, those two combinations should be watched, what should be now our first choice, our first choice defense, or midfield, whatever you want to look at it. And then Skirt, look, Rogers loves Skirt, and, you know, I actually think he's looked pretty good in the last few games playing where he's played because for two reasons. One, he is less inclined to grapple with someone because he tends to be the free center half, so he's not not giving away stupid free kicks. And because he's kind of the sweeper, if you like, he's not having to be proactive and make stupid tackles on the end of the, on the edge of the box, like him and Lucas, and like we saw from Lovren when Lovren came on. So I actually think the three of them are working really well, but Jan and Sacco have elevated, you know, elevated that, that unit into a really strong unit. And I think that the other thing I would say is Chelsea and Southampton aside, nobody can defend. Like, you know, Spurs have conceded more goals than we've conceded at this point now, you know, so that, you know, some of our rivals, if you look at Everton, think Everton have conceded more goals than we've conceded. So, you know, outside of two really good defensive units, the standard of defending the league is really poor. And which is one of the- That's the story of the season though, isn't it? And it's no consolation really that we're as bad as everybody else. No, being bad as everyone else, particularly when we haven't, I mean, you know, I saw into it the boxing analogy, you know, we've got a glass jaw and no knockout punch, you know. So we concede really easily. You can't score. You know, that's an amateur can, you know, combination I think someone described. Phil, did you want to talk about this, or can we move on to the little bit in front of that now with our first contribution from one of our listeners? Did you want to talk about the defence? The honestly, the one bit that's impressed me about the back tree is the way China's played as a centre-back. So it's a lot of tuition. You know, he steps in, I suppose when you're playing that way and you want, you want ball playing centre-back spot himself and soccer, I mean, very good at stepping into midfield and carrying the ball in. So they become effectively in possession of an auxiliary midfielder. And if you look at, like, even the chance that that's created for a brainy against Sunderland, you know, Chan picks it up the edge of the 18 yard box, strides into midfield, looks up, picks a pass and plays a pair for you. We go back to the previous game, and it was a tacos pass that set up the, I think, was the Moreno goal or the initial, the Moreno goal in the other game. And if you have the other two in there, you know what I mean, like, if you put love them back in, you don't get that. Yeah. You know what I mean, we were sold them as this ball playing centre-back, but when you actually see ball playing centre-backs, the difference between them, that they're able to pick a pass, that it's not just a 50 yard attempted crossway of ball all the time. They know when to, you know, use the ball recycling, and it's not just aimless recycling across the back tree. You know, if they go to the other side, it's because they feel that Chan, our soccer will step in and create something and get us torn and get us going again. And I suppose, you know, I know we'll get on to it later, but, you know, it's helped out because they become auxiliary midfielders in effect. So even if it breaks down quickly in the sentiment field, they're already pushed away to step in and be able to press the ball. And overall, it aids our pressing game because we're able to move up the pitch more. We aren't a space player. It saves your midfield, having to drop back and come on to the lip at the centre-half as well, which is happening even with Lucas or Jared, whoever, when, when Touré and save Touré, Scartel Loveren there, one of those is having to come back and take that ball. To drop in and take ball because you're not going to expect that. We have to be fair though, like, as good as Chan has been in certain aspects. He has been roasted a fair few times. He has been caught out of position and being skinned on his... Is a 20-year-old midfielder playing the same team? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what I'm saying. But we can't, it can't all be, you know, happiness and sunshine. There is, there is flaws there that better. Well, the better teams would expose that. You know what I mean? He makes the mistakes that he's made against worst teams and you'll be punished. Well, there is something in that, in that we haven't, I mean, across this 13-game run, we've played two effective attacking units, Arsenal and United, and they put five goals past. So there is an argument that actually we should be unbeaten in seven and we should be one defeat in 13 given our fixture list. What I would say, I think every second half gets burnt though, right? Yeah, no, no. It's on some stage in the game. He just seems to be eager to come in to the... He seems to be a little bit tactically, no, sorry, won't say tactically naive because that's one he's not. He seems to maybe be a little bit... Positionally eager. Yeah. It's a little bit too eager to come and attack that ball rather than maybe giving that attacker half a yard to take. But I actually think that's an instruction team because it goes back to... Scared behind them. Scared behind them and if you go back to when Lovren comes on, Lovren attempts to play like that. Yeah. But gets done. He attempts to play in many ways. What Chan is very smart when he's doing that is that he doesn't commit himself into a slide and tackle or something like that. No, he doesn't commit himself to be booked. He gives himself the chance to recover. Yeah, exactly. I will give him that. I will give him that. And you see him turn and he is chasing that player straight away. But if he's turned, Scared seems to have the awareness to come out and then he's going into feeling... If it's an instruction thing then he can't be blamed for it. That's what he's being asked to do. I think one of the positives as well is that he played better at all against Sunderland than he probably did in the previous two games, especially against Wimbledon. A lot came to him and Mankayo's flank. Mankayo usually is one of our most solid players, but a lot came down there flank and was kind of wondering like is Chan kind of slipping here, you know, he is young, he's playing in a position he's not used to. Is he going to suffer some like confidence was, but I thought he looked better, a lot better against Sunderland. You know, sometimes you see a player and they have a game and you go, this game is either going to knock on him or he's going to come back from this. I was impressed that he came back from it because I think he could have, after the Wimbledon game, I think he could have gone for that game. Well, I actually thought with the Wimbledon game, I thought he had a fourth half, I thought he improved massively in the second half because it was like what you said, he sort of said I was going in way too much, I was coming over, I remember his position changed as well in the second half. Let's be honest as well, Aston Villa did him a lot of favor, or sorry, some of them did him a lot of favor. But they never pressing ever. Yeah. Well, one way or the other, whatever we do defensively, we're going to have to worry about putting some goals where as you boys have all flagged up earlier on. And one of the things that I want to look at next was basically the shape of the team ahead of that back three, assuming that that stays in situ, and a suggestion from Simon Brondish as to what do we think is our best formation once we've all our players back. How do we see the shape of the team in front of that three and assuming that that three remains and what's the best way for that to work? I think that's a very interesting question because going back to what we've just been talking about, we're saying it will automatically assume it's a back three. Yeah. Well, that's an inference. That's my assumption. Yeah. I realize I'm doing that as an editorial thing. I don't know if it's a back three. I don't know if that's something that we've done to get obviously to perceive the best positions for our best players. Yeah. Unwich. You know what I mean? So I just don't know. I don't know. I think if we have everyone fit, I think you're potentially looking at a diamond again. But going back to what we were best at last season, if you want to talk about rehab and that type of formula as a real attack, of course, it's potentially a diamond. That's a real worry in terms of who's going to make up the back for it. Well, okay, look, this is hypothetical in terms of who we see as our best formation without our players back. Yeah. So for me, the back four will be Mankayo. Skirt was the likely one to play. So we'll accept that he's there. Right. Sacco. Sacco and Moreno. If I'd have Chan as the bottom of the diamond with Alan and Henderson, he'd flanking it, you're a sod. And then I'd have, at the top, you'd have Coutinho, Coutinho. And then I'd actually played Gerard in storage at the very top of it. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I disagree slightly in that I actually think this formation suits the most of our players. I would, I think this formation actually, actually works. If we were going to a four, I would long, you know, in the medium term, I think it's really difficult to go and buy a really good cent-half. So I would develop Emre Jean for the next two years to play cent-half and I'd play him next to Sacco. So in the meantime, I'd play him in that three, I'd continue to play him there. And then I think the two in the midfield, because you've got that three, we always get killed in midfield. So as long as you're not playing Jared and Lucas, I mean, any other combination of midfield in there, with some version of legs, either Henderson or Allen's legs, I think that works. To go to Simon's question, who is your two? Who would you go for? Well, for me, I'd play Allen and Henderson would be my two. Yeah. If you're playing Chan as a centre-back. If you're playing, so I'm assuming those three at the back, I would play Markovic as the right-wingback. Moreno is the left-wingback, I'd play Henderson and Allen in the middle. And then I think you've got options then at the front and, you know, Coutinho, Sterling and Sturridge is probably what you'd end up with. So Jared doesn't get in my team, if I'm being perfectly honest. Yeah, I suppose the only thing is, right, I'm trying to fit players in who I think that will start regardless of what I want. Yeah, no, I know what you're doing. No matter what we say, like, Jared will be in my preferred level, you know what I mean? But he will be in the 11 that plays, so how do you build a team shape that's going to get the best out of him? And I think the Sunderland game of all the things showed, once you don't have him in our own half, he's best positioned in the opposition's half. Yeah. And if you let him float the way he did against Sunderland, he was causing a lot more damage, just floating and not having a defensive responsibility than if you haven't. And again, I still think outside of Sturridge, he's the best finisher we have in the club. So keep him up there, you know, if you can get him into space and get him on the end of chances, he'll score a goal. The women's game is a great example. He's in there and he's in the header. That's where you would have expected Lambert, who was signed as a gold score to be getting on the end of it. He wasn't even making the same movements. This is a guy who's truly an attacking midfielder, and he's not a sentiment fielder or a defensive midfielder in his nature. I think what's interesting is for all the climber to play from two or whatever, nobody's going to put Lambert to ballot early in the start in 11. Like they just, they just don't fit the way, whether we play the diamond or whether we play the three four three or the four three three or whatever we end up playing. I just don't see Lambert to ballot early fitting into that system. I think, but when ballot early came on against Sunderland, he did two things, right? He allowed the defense to draw, their defense dropped even more because they got a little bit nervous about him, but apart from that, he wasn't particularly effective. So for me, a Sturridge, Sterling and Catina are the front three. Any combination of Henderson, Allen, Gerard, Lucas, but not let Gerard and Lucas together. Once we don't go to the 4-2-3-1, play storage as a lone striker, it didn't work against Southampton. There's this idea that if storage comes back, you play Catina, Sterling, Markovitch, let's say behind him and you put Gerard back in the sentiment field, or you played Gerard in that tree behind him or whatever. That will not work. It didn't work against Southampton, right? It's really only worked or sort of worked when Suarez was there because Suarez isn't a natural number nine in times he was dropping in- Boy, won't it work? I don't think we have the players to suit that, though. I simply don't. My field isn't good enough. The midfield isn't good enough. You can play a two if you're playing Henderson and Chan, but I don't think the tree narrow suit the players that we have. I think Sterling is better if he's really far up the pitch either pressing teams back or playing off the shoulder, or sort of in two as a central forward. I think Catina looks the float. So if you're pinning to say playing the left hand side or playing on the right hand side or playing through the centre, you lose what's effective there. And again, I don't think Markovitch, that doesn't suit Markovitch, in my opinion. Anyway, I think Markovitch is better suited. I think what Markovitch has benefited in playing the wingback role is that he's been able to come on to things. So have you seen the pitch in front of the middle of the mountain? Because he actually doesn't yet, because he's still building his game. He doesn't dribble past players. He doesn't get to the end of the eight in the ad box and look to beat the man. He doesn't do that a lot. He's still quite cautious, I think, in the final third. But what he's great at is carrying it, is moving us up the pitch, you know? He's great at moving us through the middle third, fuck off, he's great at. Moving us through the middle third, again, what he's not great at is you wouldn't necessarily want them at the end of the eight in the ad box. I think he's going to beat the man of shoot, because he's still a little cautious for that. So I completely agree, that's why he's going to play a right wingback for me. That's his best position coming on to something. Well, look, that works well as a segue into the next piece that I want to look at. Paul, I'll start with you in this. The lads who flagged up Markovitch and Coutini on their comments there, and one of the most encouraging aspects of the recent form has been the form of the two boys. How instrumental do you think they've been and will they be in any hopes that we have of any success this season when there's a cup win or an outside chance at a top four? Talk to me about as well how when Raheem Sterling was out, those two guys, young guys, did step up a bit. Yeah, I think Markovitch, his form has been a lovely surprise because the way he did struggle at first, I don't think anyone was expecting them to come back into the team and immediately hit the ground run. So it is great that he's played that way, especially in a new position that we've asked him to play. He looked a lot more confident and like Dave said, he does get us up the pitch. You give him the ball and if there's like 50 yards of space in front of him, he'll just eat it up. He'll just run with the ball and suddenly work, we're at the other end of the pitch. He's gotten us up the pitch. But I definitely had a lot of moral commitment for that. But they get us up the pitch there. I think the real reason, one of the real reasons the tree for tree has worked has been the fact that it's free to continue. So much of our players has given it into his feet and he like he turns people in midfield, he turns them on the halfway line, doesn't matter where he is, he just glides past people and suddenly where their defence is backing off and we're running at them. So I think like he has been inconsistent on the whole continue for Liverpool and we've kind of said like, you know, he has a great game, you're kind of thinking, if you could do that every week and I think this has looked like the closest he has. Yeah. If he wasn't the worst finisher at the club, he'd genuinely be a tremendous player. Yeah. If he just, if he'd never seen a man pass a ball to the club for his main fans in his mind. But that, that, that's right. Drag shot to drag shot. If he, if he just pretended the goal, you know, the other goal, you don't have to see it in Forrest Gump where the whole stadium tells him to stop on it. No, I feel like all of the cops should, when he goes to shoot go, no, no, it's fast. So the right and the goal, everyone held up, shoot him here. He beats two players and I feel like it would almost be easier to dribble through the whole defensive goal, but then to shoot. Just go, just go round the key for every round. You can do that, but don't shoot, don't shoot, don't shoot the ball, shoot over the line. Exactly. To be first able to watch him these days, like, it's a real treat, like, you know, taking on players, confident, you're confident he's going to go past him and then there's a pass. Yeah. I'm wondering, is that because we have a willing runner in behind the lines? But there's hardly any doubt about it. You know what I mean? Like, you look at it, the forward line was so static earlier in his season, he's not, two things happen, you know, the center, the center forwards don't make that run, therefore occupying the center halves, giving him more space to do his thing in. That's his 15 or 20 yards where he really operates. I know he can come in off the left, come in off the right, goes past people in his own half, doesn't matter. Where he really operates, where he really excites us as a player, is that 30 yards to 15 yards from goal area. Where it's really busy, I suggest. Absolutely. It's not like he's isolating one player. Oh, no. He goes into the little narrow stereo. He comes out with the boss. He works like somebody's controlling them on FIFA. And that's definitely been a part of it, you know, and that, you know, he's a confidence player. You can always see that about him. If he feels that people are making their own surroundings, he gets those few little, you know, sort of it goes past the player or two. His head is up. He's looking for you once. I think there's two other things as well. One is the change system has helped them because the wing backs occupy the defensive midfielders. So the fallbacks in the defensive midfielders have to leave more space in midfield for Coutinho to come and get it. The second thing is the movement is the move of Jared out of the defensive midfield role. Because nobody's given a ball to Jared now. You give the ball to Coutinho. Coutinho's now the outball. He's the playmaker. Yeah, absolutely. Whereas when Jared was in the defensive midfield player, that's the ball that everyone was looking to give them. Yeah, and he was more than five, six times a season looking for that 70-yard pass rather than giving the ball into somewhere that this strange things are happening there. Yeah, rather than giving the ball to an easy pass. And I think Jared, when he's, you know, playing in the opposition half, it's less. I think the rest of the team feels under less pressure of him demanding the ball because it's a tougher pass. You go, well, actually, I'm going to give it to Coutinho because, you know, he can run. So I'm going to give it to him and he'll beat a couple of players. Phil told me a little bit about our holiday, our holiday boy, Raheem Sterling, who's been missing. Well, should we ask Phil about Markovitch? I think we should get Phil's, you know... I've been long-supported as I'm aware of that. I thought we were signed over from an absolute gem of a player. From Jaywong. Can you stop? I can't believe how people don't. Some people said he was like a Stuart Downey. Some people just don't know where they were getting left from. I can't believe that some people fell. Some people. And I can't remember who said this, said that we should give Lazar Markovitch, as in give him on a permanent transfer to Derby, to incentivize them to give George Mibe back to us. Well, we get Deimo in here, we're going to tell you about that but I'm not sure. Humble party, I think you described on Twitter, right? Look, Markovitch has been, I've already said it, because, and credit to Rogers for doing it, and he deserves credit for it, but not putting him into, by giving him a run in the wingback position. I mean, you've got to say fair play to the player because the player could have just shrunk and not stood up, but he did, and as you said, by giving him the chance to command things and be able to see what's in front of him and go and attack spaces where he feels he can. He's been definitely served, and you can see he's playable confidence. The attempted volley, that was fucking supreme. That was absolutely supreme. It was an absolute, but he meant that, like, the technique, you know, to me, he's doing that on purpose. He's shaping his body up to be, you know, he's the only player, apart from a storage in our squad, he's the only player who'd attempt something like that, so I was one of attempt at something like that when he was here. But that's what we, and look, we've got to be careful not to make him up too much, but we have missed that somewhat. You've supposed to feel a part of him. Oh shit. That's not what I was having. Well, we said he was a bit of a steward, Danny. He was just like zero, but we should, I mean, I think our Markovitch, it'll be next season before we see anything near his face. But this is the team, you know, you hoped, you hope you would, right, but he's also got the novelty factor to four season. Often players look better in the four season and struggle a wee bit in a second as teams become more familiar with what their skill set is, and they have to then go and sort of re-adjust themselves to help defence their playing at them, and then they come on. Sort of a continue had a great impact initially, struggled a bit in the fourth half of last season, then improved massively in the second half of the season. Now we've put him back in the position that he's best in, and the continue looks great again. Up until this he was there, and unless you're playing him as one of the midfielders in a diamond, or you're playing him as, the way he is now, which is effectively a free roll. He just has... He's not a number 10 continue. No, and we've got to stop trying to fit him into this 4-2-3-1 and saying you're playing the number 10, because he's not that player. All right, Thomas, you've derailed quite enough fella, which are blatant, taunting of Casey there. What I was asking about was Sterling, he's gone and turned to the team, "I'm talking to you, you're just..." Because he has a gun arriving in the middle of that. He's nowhere in his eye straightness. I'm crying on the inside, you show his shit. We wouldn't know, because it's not far back. It's coming up your ears. Anyway, Rahim Sterling, he's going to step in, you'd imagine, instead of Braney, who was tremendous at the weekend. That's just for you, Dave. Phil, a question from Anton. Rahim is better as a 10 or a 9, or where do you think Rahim's best place is looking 9-1/2 to the 4-1? I explained that role to me that half 9-1/2. If you're playing with 3-0 front, be it a 4-3 or a 3-4-3, whatever way, if you're going to play with the 3-0 front, just get around him and continue to have those 3-1-1 roles. That's where he's best served. He can play as the central point in that attack, but it's not. When you play him there, he's not really a central point in the attack, because you'll see him drift out wide, and the one that lads you, one of the other two that's around him, will go inside. So, say Darius is fit to play this weekend. If you're starting to have Sterling and you have Coutinho, right? You've got 3. Once Gerard isn't trying to come back and cover him in field as well, he'll be as equally happy moving into the central point and having Sterling Coutinho drift out wide. They will cause the most damage that way, because you have a 3-most effect of attack and trust in the final tour of the pitch where they need to be, and looking for spaces and finding spaces where they can penetrate the other team's defence. So when you ask, I think he's shown that he's capable at playing the 10 as well, but it's been so long since we played him in the 10, that you can only start to go on a recent farm. I think he's best at playing as one of these three Romanous hackers that you have. Display a very, very disciplined job that he's done for the team, and a mature job as well. I think it's excellent that you can ask him to play 3-4 roles. And that age can actually, you're not worried, oh shit, we're shoehorning him in here, we're shoehorning him in there, whether you're playing him at the top of the diamond, whether you're playing him in the 10, you're playing him in the 9, you know, wide forward, it doesn't matter. Well, to be fair, Whit Markovich and Chan, he's therefore becoming one of those Brendan archetypal, multifunctional players, you know, and that's what he's always said, he wants to build his team around. Should we talk about that in search? I'm afraid to talk about that. Yeah, look, I was just about to ask, is it the weekend after the next study? Well, I don't think he'll be underscored this week, I give him a lot of talking to it. If he's in the squad this weekend, I think it's merely just to get him back integrated with the lads, build up, you know, just give him a pep in the step. I think he's trained, he hasn't trained at all in terms of actually taking part in the team trainers. I don't think he's going to make the squad. Okay. He might do his night then. When I read some of these, he's going to miss both Chelsea games. Is he? Yeah. Well, I don't mind because if we're going back to the audience, do you know what I mean? Looking at the teams in front of us, and this is the completely disrespected teams in front of us, right? With the exception of the Chelsea semifinals, you should be able to go into the villa match without storage and be confident in the way that we've created chances with the players around that you can continue to do this. I know I mean... It's probably why you want Jarrod back in the side for this game in the sense of just a natural finisher, you know what I mean? If you're going to play, like, I would prefer to see Jarrod, Coutinho, and Sterling as the top three, Dan Lambert or Ballotelli at this moment in time, you know, just do it. I actually didn't think Ballotelli was as bad as people waking up when it came on. I thought he put himself... No, but then he... Like, a lot of the time... He's not... But at the same time, people were going over the... I thought Barini was very poor, but what Barini showed was that even if... Once you have so many of them prepare to move around... Willing around to drag a defence around the place. Yeah, that won't... You need movement in that front tree. Ballotelli from back to our hashtag movement. Hashtag movement. Hashtag movement. You know what I mean? At one point, I saw Ballotelli further back than Lucas, and I just went, "What the fuck is going on?" Yeah, but I look at him. I'm always trying to get involved. And I'm not... I'm not slating him. I actually still... I only sat handy the other day. I think he might still have seven or eight goals in between now and the end of the season... When storage comes back. I think... I think... And I can only go on that spur as much, and it's probably blind optimism as I... And I often mock other people around here with such things. But... But... But... But no, it might be blind optimism, but I think Ballotelli could actually have a part to play in our push for top four this season. Brilliant. See, I don't mind the key. It's great that that's recorded. I think it's been terrible. I... I just... I... I don't see where he fits in. He doesn't know the moment. I was excited when we signed him. I thought... I thought he's big, he's powerful, I thought if he applies himself. And that's the bit. He showed no evidence that he... Once it. Once it. Yeah. None of the time. No, I agree with it. And he is not a good enough player to build the team around. People are saying we haven't played him in the right system, we haven't played him in the right system. If we re-saw in Origi, he won't get a game to end down the end. He'll be gone. He'll be gone to January. Okay, right, look, speaking, we're dancing around. And that would fork up my prediction. If he's gotten January here. If he's gotten January here. If he's gone to score seven or eight, he'll be gone to January. That's the best reason I can be gone. And if he scores... Shit at my prediction. If he scores seven or eight, go to the end of January. He won't be gone anyway. He won't be gone anyway. We're dancing around the top of the top of the next, which is the transfer window, which is... Not even looming, it's, we're in it. Steve was doing a chacha. It's exciting stuff. Look, you read the papers, you go online, we're linked with these massively expensive Higuain types. A lot of uninspiring types. And there's a lot of talk about people going out alone and stuff like that. But it's seeming more and more real that there's going to be bugger-all transfer activity around Liverpool way. So with a lot of questions coming in from people and suggestions coming in from people. So I want to talk about them sequentially. We start with a simple one. We have bought Ryan and Phil, Ryan burger and Phil's crying from Twitter, both talking about ASEED. And Ryan actually says, "Somebody has given Liverpool money for ASEED. In fact, we've made a profit, I believe." Can I even explain this? Yep. That is the epitome of a money bar. Yeah. It happens at different levels. If you sign someone for 50 million and you sell them out on a profit, that's exactly what you're going to do because they've developed so well. Suarez was another example. We bought him for 23 million and we sold him out for 65. You know what I mean? How much did ASEED go for? He went 4.75. Right. So we've made 2 million quiddo. Yeah. Yeah. So I think he's worked 4.5 million all day long, to be honest. That's what, when we were talking earlier on in the season about what we thought we got between 4.5 and 5. It was good to see it happen. Great. Absolutely. Absolutely. I thought he was a great player. Well, not a great player. He was good player for still class season. Yep. And he deserved the chance. He got one of them against United. Yeah. He scored the winner. It's an even better deal because transfer fees had appreciated over time. So actually we sold, we bought him 3 seasons ago. 4.3. 3. 4.2 million or whatever it was. He actually probably was on our box for nothing. Yeah. It's actually a 4.75 profit. Well, it'd be the 2 point whatever broken down by whatever amount of years the contract is. That's all very exciting lads. But hang on. We're going to give us 6 million. 6 million. What happened? It wouldn't go. It couldn't be. It couldn't be. It could be too nice to play. It should call a few more players up there. Yeah. But we got money from. Yeah, for deals. You know what I mean? He was never getting. He was awarded by Rogers. And I think he deserved a chance ahead of Victor Moses. I don't know why we signed Moses on loan and sent him out to be perfectly honest with him. I think he would have actually been a more direct and better option or as good. But we've made two and a half. He might have scored against Christopher Pulse. I actually think we're already good on empty goals. Selling players actually on the whole. Like, you know, I think if you look at the... You are the only Liverpool part of the line. Two things were good at selling players. We were great at selling Aquilani. We've had two players. We've had two players. We've had two players who we've really not wanted to sell but had to in Torres and Suarez. That even rhymes. And then you've got, like, who else? Who else would you say? But they can't win. What else? No, that's not the way it works. That's not the way it really does. I get your point in terms when I came to cleaning out the Kenny era. We did well there. All of our guys. We had a decade. What you're saying is we're going to score down. We're very good at selling players for half the price we paid. I'd be a fucking great car salesman if I started for our every 50 grand. I don't know. The list price of $100,000. Anybody want a Ferrari half price? Would you have paid $17 million for Andy Carroll? I'd certainly not. But then again, I wouldn't... It's a $2 million. I wouldn't have been the dickhead that paid $35 million for us. I wouldn't have been. Like, let's... Well, he was free. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, he was free. He was free because he's sold. Because he had such a good job selling it out. He was $15 million actually. So, all in all, we made it... We've got $6 million for John Josh Harvey. That's... That was the reason that you... Oh, we got 1.5. We paid 1.5 million. So, we've really just been... We've just been forward selling the players that we signed under the committee. We couldn't... Well, who have we sold that we bought under the committee? Exactly. He'll be loaned. Well, we've loaned them all out. Nearly everywhere. I think the committee's been loaned out at this stage. You know the liberally follows on from that. Yes, okay. Maybe we are showing some sort of skill when it goes to selling players. But are we ever bringing in? Have we ever bringing in players of at least an equivalent or mortal point? Imagine. Better standard than the ones who go out. No, we are not. With the exception of the Taurus Suarez sort of movement. That's it. Can you think? Tell me what... We brought Moreno in for Enrique. And the truth is truth. We didn't know. The truth is the way they're still there stinking the fucking devil. We're still there. We're just saying people who brought in the threat and was there. The fact that it was better than I go, right? Because they were still there as well. Yeah, now a cycle was brought in a year before I go. But the other one. You can't say that was the like... That's what we're talking about. So we brought in for Enrique Lambert for Suarez. Yeah. Maybe not going through your head. That's not fair. We're not going to tell him for Suarez. It's time's going to turn on that one. I'm not going to tell him for Lambert. I'm not going to tell him for Lambert. Personally, I think the club are poor at shifting players they don't want. For whatever reason that is. I think, as I say, the two big players that they lost, they didn't want to lose them. They had to sell them, but they weren't outtailing them around. And therefore, the players that they have wanted to shift, they don't seem to be capable of it. That comes down to your managing director or your chief executive to get that done. Another one that's coming in. It's slightly advancing the topic that we're on here. We're reading these things whether they're fictional or not about some of the big name players. There was a whole security thing. And there's Higuain and all the rest of it. People are reading this. An awful lot of people are believing this stuff. Will there come a time asks Alex when... Who's believing Higuain's story? Clearly people are. When people will... And we send their names in the triple chance. We're not sending Higuain for fun. You're getting dangerous and close to your Christmas mood. They're relaxing. The Fengen Grinch. The Fengen Grinch. The Fengen Grinch. Angry Day. The Fengen Grinch. The Fengen Grinch. Angry Day. Which was edited then for your protection. When there come a time to say, "When Liverpool will buy established stars, or should we now get used to signing potentially?" Is that the new way? Is the question of my success? I think it's a valid one. But it's not a new way. We've never signed established stars. Who was the last established style we signed? Sean Barnes. So we never signed established stars. And now we signed established players in the '90s. I'm re-joking, yeah, but it's a lot too bad. Who? You have to go back. Paul Stewart. He's established. He was established after time. Paul Stewart is the equivalent of a sign in La Lana. Which you've made that point a million times. So if that's an established star, as in a... You know, as in the top player... It was an establishment. It was an establishment. I mean, you can't say La Lana was an established star. No, it's a club. One decent season in the premises. No, it's a major club. It's a major club. It's a stage in La Lana. It's a stage in La Lana. It's a stage in La Lana. It's not only more at one good season with Forrest before we signed him. That's not an established star. That's not buying... Like, an established star is going out and spunking money on... Fernando Torres. Fernando Torres wasn't a gold machine before we signed him. He was at one in three. Fernando Marientes. Fernando Marientes was coming to the twilight of his career. No, he wasn't. He wasn't. He played... He played in the Champions League four in the school. Fernando Marientes is probably the closest that we've had. But to my point is, though, during the time we're talking about, we must have signed 100 players. Robbie Kane, one of which is an established star. And Robbie Kane. Three established players in a decade. So we don't sign established players. So anyone expecting us to go out and sign Tevez or sign Higuain? But we should be. No, we shouldn't be. No, we shouldn't be. No, we should be assigning. We should be assigning us. Wormhole. Kieran Palmer is asking questions. Actually, but he is asking. I expect him to say it for a chance. Why the hell do we not have a new keeper? Why is there not a new gold keeper in the club now, given what's happened in the last couple of months? That's a very good question for us. Because the lads were off. We were checking the hotels for staring. It's part of the agreement. To be fair to our transfer committee, right? They have had. This can't end well. Twenty-one of the last 24 months off. So it's been a busy period. Okay. So I do get. No, the reason we're not signing a gold keeper is why we're not signing anyone right now. Which is, I imagine F.S.G. and I don't blame them, are a little bit unwilling to pump more money in what seems to be a bit of a dysfunctional transfer process. So I would say that they're looking at the outlay from the summer. I think there would be an acknowledgement that there are some promising signings that we've made. But I think where the difficulties happen or where the disasters have happened is where there seems to be an lack of agreement within the committee or some sort of compromise. And I don't blame them for not willing to put another 20 million into that system. So I think anything we do in January, which I don't think we'll do anything, anything we'll do in January, will be short-term, low risk. So I think if someone, and I know he's just gone to Leicester, but it wouldn't surprise me to see a sign somewhere like Mark Schwartz, or someone like that as a goalkeeper to come in. I think there's a good chance that Rain and we come back on down. Casper Schmeicher. I think Peter Schmeicher's more likely than Casper Schmeicher. So I think the reason we're not signing a goalkeeper, we should be, I think, filled with something that at my statement we were talking in before, Christmas about it being negligent if we didn't have a goalkeeper signed, you know, kind of on the first of January. But I think everyone can see that. So the reason it's not happening is because I think the club, or the owners, are a little unsure as to how we proceed with the football management structure. Is it possibly a sell-before-you-buy situation, so they haven't shifted anybody yet and therefore can't bring anybody here? Anything we do is going to be short term. Look, I think we only sign a keeper alone until the end of the season. Yeah. And we're probably leaving until the, they could well be leaving until the last minute to see who's the best potential long goalkeeper sign and they could make. Who would say Zara? God. But say Zara is no force to us about Feager. Is he going? Yeah. So you're probably looking at, I suppose everyone keeps saying check. Maybe we can, if Chelsea doesn't... Why would they, after letting Schwartz or Gold, they're not letting... No, no. No, no. I agree with you. The buying goalkeeper in January to be letting check. You've been looking at... What top teams around Europe have two top keepers and one person? Well, someone might let us know. Yeah. That might be, that possibly, but then... For a few months they can't bring players in. Can't sign up, can't bring players in. So are you looking at Madrid and maybe Kail and others? Maybe. You know, you're started down to where we are. I think the leaks today out of the club were that we wouldn't sign a goalkeeper. But it's unlikely. It's madness, though, that isn't a tough game at the weekend. He expects, you know, possibly nothing happens tomorrow. But this is why it's... Well, he actually said we need a goalkeeper. He, in his press conference, outdid the committee. I didn't see the press conference. We need to sign a goalkeeper. And today now the leaks are that... Well, I don't know if they're leaks and perhaps being unfair. But you know, the stories are that we're very unlikely to sign a goalkeeper. Tonight's half-ten news, no break. It's that little bit of just sort of a goalkeeper. I think you may know big. It's so big. It's so bad now that Brad Jones took up. Before Jones got injured, Brad Jones took over. Brad's nearly fit. Oh, well, yeah, it's a crisis. Now, it's definitely a case of that transfer committee right there. You know, at the end of the transfer window, they're put into cryostasis, right? The thawing process is still happening. They only said thawing the middle on the first. Like, you know what, the third wasn't when the transfer window opens. So they're not even fully thawing it. It'll be 27th before they've got full, so it'll be hard. We've got two days to play championship manager to figure that out. If we don't sign anyone this month, right, we would have signed nine players in 24 months, right? And 30% of those players were from the same football craft. It's handy for scouts. It's handy for scouts. Go to a match. We'll send him here. Nine players last summer. Yeah. We never sent anyone in Jan. We won't send anyone in this Jan, which is a two-year period, right? That's a one-year period. Two years. One year. The last January to this year. No, no, no. But if we go to the summer, it means we won't send anyone up until the summer, right? Yeah. So it's a two-year period. Okay. Yeah. But what... Do you know what I mean? So many days. So we go to the start and the summer, which is like... Which is like the edgy. This is... We go to June before us, yeah? Yeah. This is on the fourth day. So June... So June the second... So June the second... January 2013. Weeks go from soon after Sunday. Seven players. That's summer as well. June the second, January 2013. What are you asking me here now? I'm saying June the second... We're going down a wormhole here. No, just June the second... I thought that was good. June the second... June the second 2013 is the start of your 24-month period of June the first 2015. So what I'm saying is... So we signed 15 or 16 players now. So summer... I'm basically saying you're talking bollocks. Okay. So summer... We signed players, right? Summer 2014 we signed players, right? Yeah. We signed players, right? From the end of the summer 2013. Yeah. Until the start of this summer... It's not 24 months. We've only signed in one window. So 21 months. Okay. And that was my feast. Do another one. This is from John Anfield. Again, bollocks are mentioned in Skirtle's new contract. And how much we might love or hate it. Said move. Steve, you've had a lot to say today. They've done it. Talk to me about... Most of which are probably because of you. Talk to me about Skirtle's country. Talk to me about Skirtle's country. It's a good thing. I'm fine now. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. It's... I'm... I'm nothing it. Basically, because... You know what I mean? I don't... What's the point in letting it run down? And if we are going to get rid of him in the summer, having to sell him for fucking four million? You know, he's... Not the worst... Like, we've got love in there. He's a worst defendant on him this season. So, you know what I mean? He's got... I'm going to pay 20 million quid for him. So... Skirtle's got that in the plus column. Yeah. Basically, like, I... I want a new country. Why not? What do you want? Why not? Hello. I'm a kinder egg here. Hello. What do you want? Well, along was left on this contract. I don't know. Eighteen months still. So, you get to the summer. It's 12 months. You're selling them for five million quid. If he has a decent six months, and even if we want to shift him into summer, having given him a new contract, you're probably putting an extra five million. But in content of in June, which gives you... You know, that's only 14 months. Absolutely. This is what I... I... I... I... I... I'm with Steve. I... I don't understand the people getting annoyed about the Skirtle contract. I think it just makes no sense to let it run down. Why... Why are we not giving this fella away for free? Because we want to try and make some money off of it. It's so... It's so selling in the summer. There are the fucking... It's... It's how you... It's how you eat. It's like a bricky, a toy around your ankle when you're jumping into a fucking canal. You don't have to do it. It's just selling in the summer. People want to make a sacrifice of Skirtle. They're like... Just kill him. Put him on an altar and a split. Leave him. Take those Skirtles. Right. He's a little Skirtle. Skirtle will be brilliant. Next season. Yeah. And then... It's the one on one on one on one. So, he's having a bad one at the moment. Well, he had a good season. It was in 2012 and we're still waiting for the next episode. Nobody... You know, it's not so much... If Skirtle is part of four centre backs, right? And he isn't being christened as the best centre back in the club. That's fine. Nobody's going to get annoyed with that. It's the fact that he's the amovable object in that defence. He's not going into that defence in the way that Colotoure has this season. Nobody cares. Oh, if he had a better goalkeeper in a better midfield. Who knows? Do you know what I mean? It's not that... He'll still struggle to... Any big physical forward. He'll still struggle to... But again, put it... Like if we revert away from the three this weekend and he plays against Benteke and he decides to mark him instead of Sako, which could happen because we're fucking nuts. Let's be honest. We're in trouble. Sako's one or two things. Sako's not even playing. Lovers back. It's one or two. Skirtle is one or two things, right? Either Rogers is staying and he's going to be the manager next year, in which case Rogers likes him and we have to live with that. So therefore it makes sense to give him a new contract. Or we're not sure if Rogers is going to be there, in which case we don't want to let it, you know, potentially some more we could get some money for, let the value run down, in which case it makes sense to Colotoure. If your potentially losing Colotoure in the summer, let's just save it, right? You've lost the centre back already. Yeah. So if Skirtle then goes into the summer, you've lost two centre backs, right? Yeah. Lovers and Sako, your only recognised centre backs that are there. Sako might be off. Who knows. All I'm saying is that, like, so you're saying that Lovers is nailed on, has replaced Skirtle and has said what it is. So who would you prefer to see in the team? No, it's like... No, no, no, no. The only fucking argument I've heard here is, well, he's not Lovers. What do you think, Phil? Do you think it's got, well, he's not Lovers in there? And you, Steve, well, he's not Lovers in there. I think we're probably, you know, he's become an easy, you know, target. Lovers has, because he's been so poor the first half of the season. You can only, absolutely with good reason. But, you know, in the same way we slated Markovich or whatever, you can only hope as a fan that Lovers improves the second half of the season. And gets back to, I'm not talking about being, you know, an absolute world beater, but gets back to a reasonable level. He's going to play because I don't see Emery Chan staying in that position for the second half of the season. I ought to see Sako picking up an injury. If you go, you know... Yeah. In the same way, storage it. Get some injuries. Yeah. So Lovers is going to play at some point. Yeah. So you want him to come in at least for him. It's very harsh to criticize him for the Sunderland game. He comes in, he hasn't played and God knows how many games at that point in time, and he comes straight back in. And he actually didn't do too bad. I'm probably going to say him on the right. You also don't want to give yourself too much to do in the summer either, right? Because if Turi does go, and let's say Lovers doesn't recover and, you know, there's a come to Jesus moment where you're like, "Okay, this isn't going to work out." You don't have to go and buy three-cent halves. Yeah. That's never going to happen. So keep a skirt. Well, okay, he seems to be the shit that will flush, but like, you know, it makes sense to at least have him on the books with another one. Well, another thing in this skirt in his plus column is that the only shit we can for ourselves. Well, maybe you just insist that the headband must be won. Yeah, it makes you really good. Because the skirt is better with the headband than he is without that. Well, he's got Terry Butchers. Yeah. So somebody has to keep pointing him in the head and try and... Get that. I'd probably give it a call-o tour, right? Like, another one-year deal before I'd give Martin Skirtle a three-year one. I would. I probably would. Yeah. Is it a three-year-old? Just up to no. 20, 20, 18. No, it's still 14 months on the 18 months of the 20 months. So that's a two-year period. Yeah. Technically. He's actually in the second-time measure of this conversation. Okay, right. We'd better look forward to the matches to come now. Look, we're not going to do the usual structure preview because frankly we can't be Irish then. This was supposed to be a review part. I don't know if anybody, yeah. The review of the Chelsea game. The Chelsea game. Well, I was one of those chances as well. I kind of really wanted to do a review of the Chelsea game that we taught was on. Triadra wasn't a bad result. We did okay. We did, yeah. Yeah. Shim but the death of love and love. Rest in peace, Stajan. It's going to be buried through this kidney collection. It's going to take the entire squad to carry the coffee. Skirtle's only plus his gun now. They're going to basically wallpaper the coffin with the foil rockers. It's different. To keep them all the toys laid out on the top. He is warm beak and they're surprised. That's why we are only for his medical. That's why he's not had to go. He's going to hammer and crack the egg in his office. Surprise! So many guys are going to turn the thing and they get it open. Every opening blast I think. Three hours won't stretch around. Get a taco in. No. I can't get any porches. I'm not going to sabotage me. I can be a parlor. Look at the choppy big plastic egg. Poor deja. We're dead. What are we doing again? Deja. I touched trail yesterday saying, listen, what's the story? I'm going to miss this Chelsea match tonight. And he goes, don't worry. You're as big an idiot as me in traffic as we both thought it was on as well. I was like, yes! That's why we're doing it on fucking Wednesday. Yeah. It's those months ago. They're a bit. Yeah. Some believe. Anyway, let's look forward to the games that are coming up. I suppose we should do that. Which is the more significant match in your opinion. You know, our League Cup went under Kenny. It turned out to be quite an overwhelming thing. Not a lot of people. Well, there's a lot of split about how important it was. We're in a semi-final. Some people say trophies are everything. Some people say the league is everything. Some people say the League, the top four is gone. Which is the more significant match for you guys. Aston Villa? Mm-hmm. Still. Well, look at that. Because the premiership has been relatively poor outside of the top two. And even the top two haven't been, you know, being glorious in a relentless marriage towards a toilet for one of them, right? There's still a chance. And as long as there's a chance we have to prioritize the league. Okay. Well, the decent weekend results was as well. Yeah. We won at Sunderland, you know. The fixtures again this weekend, isn't it? Well, we don't want to go to Sunderland way and get, you know, get back sort of, you know, feel that we're lacking with a chance. And then go and fuck it up against Aston Villa. Look, the fact that I'm at it is, I mean, he's not hiding anything either way, right? Because if we beat Villa and lose the chassis, people are going to criticize him. And if he loses the Villa and beats chassis, people are going to criticize him. So, it's the run of fixtures that, you know, he can't, unless we win them all, you know, people are going to be rejected. But if you go to the cup, to be fair, it is a chance for trophy. And kind of history has kind of been rewritten a little bit. You know, Kenny didn't get sacked because the League Cup wasn't important. They sacked him because he wasn't the guy they wanted. And they weren't going to let the factory win the League Cup. But do you buy into this, you know, Liverpool that exists to win trophies? And does the League Cup, does it? It hasn't done any of the significance. Yeah, I think there's an argument, and to be fair, it's an argument that Mourinho has put forward, which is, you know, you win. You know, winning becomes a habit. You win the first trophy, you can win, you win it. And then, you know, and actually, it reminds me a little bit of the conversation that's been had slightly differently around Lucas, which is, you know, experience. And these young players have an experience of winning is, you know, it's an important thing, I think, for them to start having that, you know. So imagine that Jan, a Markovic, a Mourinho, and these guys, they win something in their first season. That's got to be a good thing. That gets him into that habit of winning. And I think that's why the League Cup is important. But, you know, we've got to win at Villa first. That's the big thing. So you're in the same boat as himself. I don't really have to prioritize the League. I don't particularly want to rank him. I mean, I think we're going to put the same team up for both games. He's going to play the same 11. Because we know Roger is going to do that. Do you really think there's still no chance of, like, you're, you're, you're. Keep asking. Yeah. No, keep asking for a reason. I do. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. Here's why I don't think we'll get it. Because, first of all, I mean, you just said no. Thank you. So did the second? His short-term memory's been affected. And his short-term memory's been affected. So do you think there's a chance? That's my short-term memory's been affected. Does anybody know if my short-term memory's been affected? But his outbeak? But I don't think we have to have a bet the second after the season. Then three of, you know, Madras United, Arsenal, Tottenham and Southampton. OK, and if we throw Westam in, that's four after those guys. And we already have to have a pretty perfect second after the season. We're talking about winning maybe thirteen, fourteen, fourteen. And I just don't see it happen. Do you think we have a chance? I think we do, Trev. I don't think there's... I'm an optimistic guy, but I just think we've given us as way too much to do. When it comes to football, it will be as well. I just think that it's quite plausible that we can have a second half of the season in the way Southampton did. You know, it could truck along as they have been all season. I know there's the thing of Van Hal's teams get stronger in the second half of the season. So do Roger's sides. You know what I mean? So, you know, as do Vengar's. So then it's just a case of, right, can we? We need to beat all of those. We beat United. We beat Spurs. We beat Arsenal second half of the season. All of a sudden, we're within a point or two points of those teams. But going back to the two games, right? That's minuscule. Given that's nothing. Given that the Chelsea match is a two-legged affair. So it's not just, you know, a one-match knockout essentially. There has to be, there could be a level of tactical play involved in terms of how you approach the actual game itself. Do you need to win the fourth leg? What do you need to do to keep it alive going to the second leg? Yeah. We ain't getting jack shit. We ain't getting jack shit. No, but we do. But in fairness, a record in Cup Games and Stanford Bridge hasn't been too bad over the most recent history as well. And you wouldn't know how Chelsea are going to approach the match because how close is the Champions League for the second leg? There's a good point. I think Marino has Rogers beat Dollends up. Yeah. It's psychological. You know, if you approach that game and you're not playing... Hey, we're just saying that it's going to be the same level. You know, Saturday, Tuesday, in terms of what's there. There is capability to shuffle around a bit, going into the actual Chelsea game. You know, you look at the match against Villa. The way things have been going, he's been playing with one really attacking wingback and one more defensive. So even though Marino was more attacking than Mankio, let's say, right? He's been starting to say, "Right, I used the two because he didn't start to rate the Sunderland team that was up against them." You could do the same against Villa, but you would look for more defensive stability going into the Chelsea match. I think the challenge with the Chelsea match is it's likely that Alan, Gerard, Sturridge are all going to be out, right? And when you're talking about Analana, sorry, so when you're talking about who could rotate in, you know, once you take those four players out, who's next, then? Who's going to go into the sentiment field to replace Lucas, without bringing John in? Yeah, I wish you a surprising defense. Well, I think that happens. I think there will be a bit of that. I think Chan will play in the sentiment field in the Chelsea match, because he played so well against Chelsea. And you remember in the home match, in the actual league match, and he'll bring Lovern into the team and get 90 minutes for Lovern in that game. And if Johnson has fit with the same, he almost is. He'll come back in for the Chelsea game as well and play it. Well, Johnson might come in to replace you. Guaranteed to take Hazard out the game. Yeah, my God. Sorry, no. No way going to take Hazard out the game. Well, it looks like he just got a text to say someone in his family dies. He said they're going, "Oh, my God." The text says, "Don't forget to go proper to the shortest memory." It was to himself. It was to himself, though. It's the Irish version of momentum. Who's me? Who's the question for you? If you were offered nine points in the next three league matches, but we've beaten three, four, nearly in each of the cup games, would you take it right now? Yeah. Oh, God. I definitely was. Because I don't think we're going to get top four, so I take the drop. Stop being so negative. You're always so negative. I think you take those nine. I think you take nine from nine and absolutely three of those five teams have dropped points in. No, no, no. I know. That's why it's a different opinion. That's why you asked, would I? I would. No, I would. It's not because I believe we're going to do a pull up on each reason league. I think it's because we need a bit of consistency in our competition. And to be honest, the other two comp competitions are far more important. The Europa and the FA Cup. The only thing that's made like, so just, you know, coming up today's two matches. I think if you lose the Cup game against Chelsea, you can kind of say they're the best team in the country. It's a Cup game. We've still got the second leg to go. But I think if we lose against Villa, or even, well, even if you draw against them, it feels like you've pissed Everton from the last couple of weeks up the wall. Yeah. So that's why I take three points against Villa. If you win the next three league matches, right, you only have to win ten to the end of the season to get the 14 wins that we talked about. Hmm. Yeah, but it's ten out of fifteen. Well, you're starting to narrow what you had to do in comparison to what it was. Yeah, it's very high and pathetic that we're going to win the three games. So I'm just saying, for me, personally, the League Cup, if we miss out on Champions League and win the League Cup at the end of the season, I, in no way, will feel good about that. It, in no way, will help us attract players in the season, and we'll get a million and a half quid for it rather than the hundred million quid. And the reason I do, the reason I do it, just elaborate, is I, part of me thinks that we're not going to make the top four anyway. And I think, regardless of what we do next season, there cannot be a downside from these players winning a trophy in terms of their mentality. So for me, longer term, I think, because I don't think we're going to make top four, I think that creating an habit of winning with these young players, creating that unit, making them experience that feeling of winning and beating good teams. I think that's more important for me right now than consistency in the League, but I do understand the argument that, you know, that nine out of nine would put us on a nice platform, we won a one, five and drawn one out of six in the League, so that's a good run to go on. So I totally understand that. Well, irrespective of three games and three wins and all the rest of the poll, I know some of you in this in a second, I don't know about the rest of you, but I cannot countenance losing to Aston Villa, I just can't. So I'm curious to know what you think we look like for that match in particular, and we've kind of touched it already, but just get a quick idea from everybody, what we think. So Paul, would you get started? I think the back three will stay the same. That'll be a circle, Scotland, Chan. Midfield, I think he's going to go for Gerard and Henderson, I think, and put Mankayo right wing back, and Moreno left wing back, and I think he'll shift Mark of which forward with Sterling and Coutinho. So you think Lugus steps out of this one? I think so, yeah. OK, OK. Sterling's back, isn't he? Yeah. Yeah, I think the only change was Sterling coming for Barin. For Barin. He might switch around the wing backs. When he does not fit. Is he not? No, Jared. Well, then Sterling comes back in, and then you're, I think he really... He might be... Bring Sterling in for Jared and leave Barin at front. Yeah, yeah, I don't think it's going to be that massive change. And then I think Mark of which might switch over to the left wing back. If you're covering Mankayo in, say, say, say, say, say, about the horse pace down to the left hand side, then he might bring Mankayo in because he's a more solid defensive option down that side. He feels you say that, but on the last time of asking, when there was one simple change to be made, he ended up having to make three because of the personality. Yeah, but I think the difference, I think he's pouring game. We've talked about being pouring game, but I think when setting up the team, I think it won't actually be that many changes as opposed to who's injured, who's not injured. Do you know what I mean? I think Sterling comes in for Jared. Breany probably stays where he is, and then you're looking at Oira. Does he switch Mark of which over to one, swap him around and bring Mankayo in? Or does he leave the same two fullbacks? It depends on... Again, it goes back to how close Johnson is, let's say, to be in fit if he's planning on using Johnson in the Chelsea game. Where do we like that or not? But do you know what I mean? That's what I think he's looking at. He could, you know, bring either lover or Johnson into the midfield. Push down into defense, push down into midfield and play Henderson as one of the two... Wingbacks. No, that's one of the attacking midfield players behind Sterling. So you drop Breany, Henderson plays with Jared played. He could do something like that. Or he could do something like that. Or he could do something like that. Yeah. So look, there's a lot of ways he'd switch around, but I don't think he'd make major surgery in terms of personnel and positions given the injuries that we have as well. Okay. Well, look, there's no point in beating that particular horse to death, so let's go and get a couple of predictions. And bear in mind, we're talking about a team here who have lost to Leicester, drawn with Palace in Sunderland and lost to Swansea in their last four. Surely there's going to be a win. I'm putting words in your mouth. Can you sound? I've not replicated all of those results this season. I'm pretty sure I actually... So it's hardly for minutes. So Paul, prediction for the villa game. One all, because they always just jack up their performance level and it comes to us. They're like, they have our number basically. They just have a lot of big running bastards that we don't like. They're big and strong lads, and they're a horrible team. They're terrible, but we just don't like playing them. And we're not going to beat them. We're going to draw with them. Okay. We'll ask this Paul, Steve. Two women. Two women, for Liverpool. Okay. Excellent. Dave? Yeah, I'm with Paul. The thing that makes me a little bit nervous is apparently Lambert's on the brink. And whenever Lambert's on the brink, they tend to turn in a performance. Ricky or Paul? No, Lambert's on the brink. So whenever Paul, Lambert's on the brink, they tend to turn in a good performance. And he gets a new contract, and then they're crap again for like four months. So I'm a little nervous about them. I think they've just one of those sides that we just can't deal with. Can't deal with Bentake. Vla always has like the game of his life when he's playing against us. They midfield right over. Nothing matters. Nothing matters. Nothing matters. And that was the same in Anfield as well. Well, it actually flowers out that they played Nathan Baker and he had the game of his life. So I'm a little nervous around it. I got a funny feeling we're going to fall a bit flat. And we'll draw one more. We'll draw one more. So assuming that he goes with the same more or less like for like in terms of the team that we did against Sunderland, I think we win. I think we win two more. I think of Sterling and two more on that team against Sunderland. We've discord more goals. Not necessarily just him, but I think his pace and his direct approach in terms of running at opponents. The thing with Villa though is they run at you and they do press you. They do. We struggle when a team does that to us. We have done this season now. We've talked about it all season, right? If a team sits off and as we look great, because we can pass it all around. Again, going back to the type of the shape of the whole lot. But draw it out to the team as well. I think we've got a much, in terms of the way we press and the way we play, it's much faster without them. It's awesome. Again, if you bring Sterling back in, even with Borini up top as we're talking, because he moves around and allows for the other two to rotate around wherever he wants. No, but it's the same as the Lucas. We didn't get into the sale of Lucas, right? People are craving, "Oh, we can't afford to sell Lucas. We can't afford to sell Lucas." You can if you have a competent, a better defensive midfielder who's naturally a defensive midfielder or that type of midfielder sits in there. Pure and that's purely the facts around it. You don't build him up to something that he isn't. Yes, he's had a good run of farm. But all he's doing is simply doing what a good, tactically aware midfielder will do. I think Lucas is the easiest person in our midfield to upgrade. I also think that anyone who played under Rafa Benitez, we should have a policy that anyone who played under me shouldn't play for us anymore. I'm saying that not because I think they're bad players, but because they've been through so much shit at this club, they must all have post-traumatic stress in them. It's like, "Hi, Ian, what about Skirl? You want to live together?" You want to live together? He's bad. He's bad. He's not bad. He's bad. He's not in to kinder X. I know, but I was already just dying. We have a mind here. That's an open look at our Skirl's head. I'm just saying, kinder X. I'm just saying, kinder X. That's why. To be fair. I think all of us at one time are another of thought. I'd love to peel his head open and wonder what's inside. He's just smashing up. That's why he's turned it off. He's just looking at Skirl's head gone. Oh, my God. Imagine the toy that's inside there. I just joined Sefta before the match. Number three, Emre Chen. Whoa! Number 37, not Lovren. Whoa! That's a new name. All right. Before we have our next pod, they're going to have a replay of the game that was on last night, which is the home leg of the... Triadra. Caroline Kup, semi-fun. So, can I get a prediction for the replay of the first leg, of the first leg, the home leg? What do you think, Paul? Results, chassis. One off again. One off again. Brilliant. Stay behind to see that one going. Two-nil, chassis. Two-nil, chassis. Dave. Oh, I find that. I have no idea, honestly. I find that I have no idea. I don't think. I can't. All right. I fought a pod all night. I'll say one-one again. Okay, breathe. Two-one, win. Two-one, win for Lovren. Brilliant. Lovely. Okay, first one is from Stephen. Stephen wonders, "How come Tarzan is always clean shaving? He hangs around with hairy animals. He wouldn't have the tools to shave." Well, he's Tarzan clean shaving. 'Cause he has all a piece of your fucking incense or a box. That's a lazy word. Oh! Ha-ha-ha-ha! So? I love the answer there from Paul Tarzan, Brilliant. I'm going to see a family right here at the box. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're very close to Tarzan. He's uncle Tarzan there. Okay, here's one from Nick. This is one of those horrific choices. Would you rather always have a blister on both feet or every time you use a zip, it breaks. Every time a zip, it breaks. It's a ridiculous question. Why? Just buy a button jacket. You're not going around with your fucking blisters on my feet. How do you do a button suitcase? Very easy. That's actually a good shape. Right, next one is from Sean. Sean wonders, "If you're three months to live, and you're five million quid, what do you do?" "Three months to live, five million quid." I buy Deja Lovrenskid. I'm right there. Every single one of them. Before we in here can give him a new contract, I'd buy out the rest of Skyrr, or something. Fuck off. You're going to play for Paul FZ. Same party? Yes. Same party. Yeah, that's what I'm going to play for. Steve, are you shouting that now? Yes. Probably, if a serious answer, probably bring my friends and family away on fucking nice holidays and just enjoy it. Oh, fucking idiots. It's all serious. It's all serious now, wasn't it? Yeah. Concon strippers. Oh, do you guys share it? Five million. Are you going to the space? Are you going to the space? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good to space. Fucking lives in space. Go into space. Go into space. Try trying to find a word. Try a genetically free, frozen. Well, it's very committee. Try a genetically free, send them to space and float them off. Actually, I use my five million to do that to fill us. You want to go to space to be cryogenically frozen. I'm sure it's a more difficult process. If you open the window and you're up there, you will end up cryogenically frozen. OK, another one here, this is from Misunderstood 2015. He asks, in honor of ex-liberal legend Roy Hodge. He's got so many characters into his name. I don't know. We could turn this into a new discussion. Anyway, Paul will be DMing you later on. Pick a world 11 to play for a draw. Your keeper has to be the best keeper out there. Go to style. So Manuel Noyer. Who's your back for? Robert Hoot. Mark Wilson. To play for a draw. Ryan Sharp. You don't want to knock us. I see where you're going with this. So, a world 11. I see where you're going with. I'm pretty sure I've got to come see it some goals. I'm waiting. How do I know so many stoppers? It's scary. And who's up front in a team that you want to play? But you don't want them to score any goals. So, Ricky fucking Lambert. I'm Mario Ballatelli. That's a turn. It's a turn. It's a turn. I just get to go. We're going to play the front tree up front of Liverpool at the moment. You can play Vereenie up front in the other time. The other team would not even need a defence. I can not score any goals. Vereenie Lambert and Ballatelli up top. They're clean out for no goals. There are no problems. Last one, then team of the year. Dava Louise is in team of the year. Talk to me about that. Well, the team of the year is rubbish. Yeah. Hold on. If you put... Constructed an actual football team and your mid-fail then is all just attacking mid-failors. The team that's constructed properly will win. Yeah. The team. The team that's built for a draw that likes it. They'll make it on a set list. The team that's built for a draw on the dressing room. No! They've been on that. It's hard to come back. Oh, you're all fucking playing. I didn't know I didn't make that team. It's like a countdown, you know, like... Oh, Carol, I'll have Messi when I hold on. And then you're all shaking. [laughter] Two from the top and I need a rest. But they never even turned up Tiago Silver in top of me. So that will tell you they were either shocked. They never even went to the... They're going, "What?" "Where did Tiago get?" There's the goalkeeper. You're waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out and tell him they've been playing. Yeah. Finally, some admin will start with a weekly shed for a kind host, Astro Park. Book your time at Astro Park.ie. Your day trippers tonight were Paul Brennan, Dave Thomas, Steve O'Daley, Phil Casey, and myself Trev Downey. [laughter] I was in now. What if it all went on Monday? They had a vomiting bug. And everywhere there was these big, yellow posters that was said, "Outbreak!" You know? [laughter] They spelled "Outbreak" wrong. [laughter] They'd say, "Outbeak." [laughter] It was like, "It's not a huge apartment. Is that Lincoln or is he going out?" Absolutely. "Outbeak." [laughter] It's a lot of advertising. A lot of advertising. A lot of advertising. I can't find it anyway. [laughter] Not really a panic. It's only an "O-beak." [laughter] It's not a false loan. If you don't see what the post is about, you know. It's a level below an "O-break." [laughter] But the other funny thing was, because, you know, people were there, and everyone just kept going, "I've spelled that wrong," rather than, "It should say "Outbreak." [laughter] Something serious happened. [laughter] Look at this one. [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] I could be sick. [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] And "O-beak." [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] Oh, I think I'm on with an "O-beak." [laughter] It's probably going your own. I don't want to give it to everybody else. [laughter] You're already at the hospital. You saw it's going around. [laughter] Everyone has got the "O-beak." [laughter] [laughter] You guys, you just come down there that morning with a pelican thing. [laughter] [laughter] I think you have contracted an "O-beak." [laughter] [laughter] You remember the science lot? [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] People say "treat yourself" like you need a reason. But McDonald's treats are perfect for every day. Like bold McAfee iced coffee. Get any size for $1.69. Or pick up any size sweet tea for $1. The large is served in an insulated cup that keeps your tea cold. Feelin' a little extra somethin' somethin'? Try the classic bakery sweets like an apple fritter. But so many ways to treat yourself. You don't need an excuse. Just come back tomorrow. Buh-buh-buh. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal. Hey, don't forget that Johnsons are coming over. I want to find a rosé Jill hasn't tried yet. Let's go exploring a total wine. Their prices are ridiculously low. Wonderous selection, helpful guides, always low prices. Total wine and more. [cheering] This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. (audience cheering) [BLANK_AUDIO]
We finally reconvene after an extended break for an imaginary match. Tonight we run through a load of questions posed by the listeners and take our usual tongue in cheek look at whats going on. There is even an imaginary match and some trips to space along with Kryogenic freezing and the singular reason for extending Skrtel’s contract.
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