The Sephora Savings Event is here! Oh it's true, find everything you want on sale at the Sephora Savings Event! It only happens twice a year and it's on now through November 11th. Find brands like Rare Beauty, Glow Recipe, Valentino, K18 and more, all for less. Shop at Sephora and Sephora at Kohl's today. Limitations apply, must be a beauty insider. See terms at Sephora.com for complete details. Hiring for your small business? If you're not looking for professionals on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. That's like looking for your car keys in a fish tank. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else. Even those who aren't actively searching for a new job but might be open to the perfect role. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't even visit other leading job sites. So start looking in the right place. With LinkedIn, you can hire professionals like a professional. Post your free job on LinkedIn.com/qualify today. Hey Fidelity! How can I remember to invest every month? With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. You got this. Yeah, I do. Now, where did I put my keys? You will find them, where you left them. Investing involves risk including risk of loss. Fidelity brokerage services LLC member NYSE SIPC. Hey, don't forget that Johnson's 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. Everybody should definitely become a Baltimore. We had to find a different way to put our passion to work. If you would love your job and love what you do, every day goes on as you want it. I think how we look at art can be world-changing. All of these businesses are taking precautions to make sure that everyone is safe. We're ready. Masks, distancing, and frequent cleaning are just the beginning. Learn more at Baltimore.org. [Music] Okay, you're very welcome to a special day-trippers AI therapy preview. On the line, myself and fellow joined by Dave Hendrick and Roy McTurnan of AI. Lads, let's just get straight into it. We're looking at a derby and we're all a bit nervous because both teams are in poor form. Actually, it's an arguable point, which is which team is actually worse off as bizarre as that seems to be given last season's heroics. Dave, who do you think is in the worst position actually going into this game? It's hard to say. We've both had fairly difficult stats this season, both tough and a fixture list. Our problems, I think a lot of them come down to injuries defensively were a bit of a mess. But I think if we can get Alan and Chan back fit, that'll fix sort of part of the problem in terms of defense getting protection. Sturridge obviously will help us score goals. I just think their defense has aged drastically, and the fact that Martinez isn't a good defensive coach has caught up with them last season. They rolled on the back of Moyes, haven't set that defense up and drilled them really well for however many years. They kind of got away with it last season. This season, Jagielka looks old, Distan looks old, Tim Howard looks like he's forgotten what he's doing. I would say Everton probably look worse than we do, but it's not by a huge distance. Ryan, would you, Dave makes an interesting point there, an interesting observation about Martinez and his defensive coaching capacities. It's something that's been levelled at Rogers recently as well. Who do you think is worse off coming into this fixture? God, I really struggled to really say because, like Dave said, I suppose, Harris is more of a personnel problem at the moment. And fitness-wise, we're missing a couple of key players. Well, Alan in particular is missing in the midfield. But I find it funny that Tim Howard is basically just completely, his arse has completely fallen off. I don't think he was ever that good. People saw the World Cup and they were like, "Jesus, was he always that good?" He was like, "No." But now he's kind of gotten worse. We can't really say a lot with Miggs in the other end, but it's either going to be an absolute cracker. Both teams just go absolutely mental at each other and maybe three or four goals each. Or else it'll be another really shitty nail nail where both of them are just completely drained of confidence. Shitting breaks from both ends. Seriously, it's really hard to call. I don't know if I'm excited or kind of dreadness. That's actually a very, very good way of summing up. It's hard to know how to feel going into this. You'd love to be upbeat next to that, but there's fear there too. There's always fear going into it every game. It's exacerbated by the way we're going. It is. When you look at what's gone on over the fourth couple of games and you can't see where the cure is going to come. That to me remains the actual issue. I don't know when the cure is going to come for this team. That makes a good point about getting Alan and Chan back into the team. But we all know that Brendan won't drop Gerard. That's going to be supplementary to when we need to rest Henderson because I think Henderson is fatigued at this moment in time. I totally look fatigued at the weekend and I think if we're going to be relying on, hopefully the rest will have served him well because he's going to have to do an awful lot of running again in the Derby. He's going to have to put in a big performance for us. Me, I'm looking at it. I'm saying everything had put in a couple of performances and didn't get the results out of it this season. If you're looking for a team that may find some form, I'd probably be backing everything at this moment in time because they're scoring more goals than others. It's scoring more goals than us as a team. They seem to have an attack and set up that they know how to work. Now it isn't perfect. It's far from perfect in comparison to what they were doing last year. But I'm just nervous. I don't know where the goals are coming from at this moment in time because I don't think the formation and the way we're playing necessarily suits the bodies that we have. So that's my biggest fear. Yeah, I suppose that brings us straight to the other end of the pitch. We're having major issues with chance creation at the moment. How do we get around that given the personnel that we have available? It's hard to say. I think a big part of what we lost was the chances that he created as well as the space that he created for the others could play. He could create the likelihood of serving Sir Richard Henderson. All benefited massively from Suarez's mere presence in the way that he pulled defenders just out onto the flanks and leave big cats in the middle of the field. We don't have that anymore. It looks to me like a team looks like mentally fatigued. It looks all the pressure of not having Rodgers around anymore has suddenly lasted on top of them. Teams are starting to just man-marce Sterling and try and kick him out of games. The other issue we have is that the goal is meant to be the creator of midfielders, Gerard, and teams have found a very easy way to nullify him, but he just seconds almost down the path. Teams did it last year and work. Other teams didn't do it, and Gerard was able to play, but we've seen the last two games. Villa did it, and West Ham did it, and Gerard had two absolute thinkers. That's the big point thing, it's really hard to know where the chances are going to come from. Unless there is in Ballotale, he can create their own chances. We have to get to the goal first. I really don't know what the minute where the goals are going to come from, unless everything just clicks. This is the type of team, but it can just click into place as quickly as it's all fallen out of place. I mean, we look really good against Spurs. If I were to defend for the first half, but go on forward, we look like we could have anybody open. Alan has kicked. Brian mentioned Alan. Alan's key because Alan's our best player in terms of keeping the ball, being patient, and rather than trying to force openings, Alan looks to create them, keeping it simple, getting players moving around, and as our players move, defenders have to move. And that's where your continues and your Sterling can slip that first time pass in to Spurs or Ballotale. But it's just a review out of getting the players back. If Alan's obviously not to make the derby, Henderson, I think he probably will, and he can just rest. But in midweek, his continues are supposed to have a little bit of a problem, but if we need him to play, because we can't go into this game with them, because we'll just get overrun. Interesting, you say that I listened to Jim's podcast, the preview one that he recorded on Monday night, and it's interesting to see that the Everton fans are saying that Barry and McCarty haven't performed either for everything this season. So, you know, there's a lot of parallels in terms of where both sets of fans are seeing both teams struggle in terms of what's going on. But the point that you make there as well, if I'll just cut across here, I can't, well, just before you cut across me, and I can cut across back across. It's like a fucking dance, go ahead, yeah, this is good, this is good. Come on, come on. It's like a chocolate brother. Oh, yes, and this is, it's only starting, David. To me, to you. To me. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. No, the Lucas tip show, he's played 120 minutes. Yeah. Including the actual time, he played right away, and then he played under 120 minutes in a penalty shield. Yeah, he did a lot of jumping around, excited and celebrated. He was the most excited player around the park, about the penalty shield. I think because he scored two goals. Yeah. But, you know, I can't see how he starts under there because we already know, and if you look at, even Brendan himself, I'm sure he knows, the Lucas's mobility is limited as it is. And if you put it a fatigue, Lucas into that midfield, it's minus mobility. You know what I mean? Yeah. He can have a care on the pitch of them. There won't be an issue with it. Ryan, when I was going to say to Phil, and I'm not actually going to talk to him at all, I'm going to go to you on that. Which is what you can ask me, but what I was going to say to Phil was that even in defeat, Everton are scoring a lot of goals. It's a point that won the lads made earlier on. I mean, they score two even when they get beaten three to the palace. They put four past Wolfsburg. They had two, two all draws at the start. And even when they get toned by Chelsea, they managed to score three goals. So it looks to be an area where they have an edge on us already. Yeah, well, Stephen Naismith is doing his best Lionel Messi impression at the moment, isn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, funnily enough, like he could be the key player for Everton on the weekend. But obviously, you know, they're still able to create the chances where we aren't, you know, Rodgers decided that Gerard is going to be, as they've said, Gerard is going to be the main creative player. But, you know, we now have to, he's got no players in front of him that are able to create space from to play into. So we're really lost in between two and three different styles. And that's why I think, you know, the chance creation for us is not, you know, where it should be. And, you know, when I watch this play, I don't really know what I'm watching. You know, I don't know if it's possession football, counter attacking football over the top of the Red Cup. But it's just a whole load of everything and it turns into the Grey Matter. It's nothing. But, yeah, everything, you know, that's the main thing. Like, you know, if they get a goal against us early on or at any stage, like, you know, strangely enough, you kind of wonder, where is the next one going to be? You know, we could look towards the old penalties. And we've got, you know, I was only thinking today, like, you know, Lana played really well. He played quite well yesterday. And so he, you know, I can see him, like, especially in around the box. You know, he does like, you know, to kind of turn his side. And I can see him drawing in a player and then kind of nicking it around through a cry of turn his legs, whatever, and get felt in the box. But he, you know, he came off 120 minutes as well. And I found out recently he was actually on Jim Fishlock Show. It's a fucking great show. Loads of information going off. But Adam and Lana had a heart problem as a kid when he was 18. And nearly stuffed him. And that's why he never played 90 minute football. So I actually don't know how fit he's going to be for the weekend. You know, that's another kind of a failure. Like, I'm sure he'll come off the bench. But to start, you know, you'd be kind of looking at, you know, is he going to be able to bust? Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. You know, everything look a little bit more, a little bit more potent in his hack while we seem to be lacking the body that complements palletale at the moment. Dave, there's a couple of interesting points there raised by Ryan in terms of the uncertainty that we have, certainly in the middle of the field. If not all over it in terms of the structure and the setup. And not to mention the personnel. What do you think is the likely lineup across that midfield going into the derby? I just really hope he doesn't try and go 43-1 and play Jared in the midfield too again because they're great. They genuinely don't know how many times he needs to watch that. Yeah. See, that doesn't work. For me, like, Lelana is probably the most creative player we have at the minute while the team goes going through this phone case. And the issue is that the only real shape you can play Lelana and Jared in is 43 and play Lelana on wide in the front three. Because he can't play the number 10 role unless he's got two lads behind him that can actually do this kind of work. And like, if one of them is Jared, then it just doesn't work as a two anyway. Like, Henderson and Jan behind Lelana would probably work as a three. But Lelana and Jared in the midfield three, I just think will be a disaster. And if we go, like, 4-2 is probably our best option for the weekend. Yeah. As Phil mentioned, like, Lucas played 120 minutes. He's not the biggest player in the world. Lelana's never been playing in the 90-minute every week, trying to play a raider. And that's partially down to the heart issue that Ryan mentioned. And it's partially just down to the fact that he's quite a small, light guy. Yeah. And like other players, it's like David Silva and they do just run out of steam. They just have limited lung capacity like other small people. And so you do have to wonder, like, whether Rodgers was wise to keep him and sterling on for 120. Like, for me, I'd probably not go on with Jordan Rosseter, being honest. I'd probably play Rosseter, Rosseter and Henderson, either slightly Jared and the midfield three. Lelana and Sterling, either side of Balotelli, have stirred on the bench, have, you know, Markovic on the bench, and just hope for the best, really. Without a full-spent team. I mean, the only thing I would say, just the concept I would have meant for you, which look for a source of Everton, is Everton are pretty much a full-spent. I mean, apparently, Shane was common. We're missing quite a lot of players. And some of them, like, the likes of Johnson, that were not really mentioned. But it still does factor in that we're having to pay the likes of Manquay a week, and we get when that probably wasn't the plan. Yeah. Like, for me, I know it's, you know, a big ask of a 17-year-old, but I do think that the goal of Rosseter and Henderson, either side of Jared, is probably our best option, if you want to play it three, and then you allow Lelana to play in that front three, or even play it as a diamond, and you play in the line if you want to go into, you know, that I think that could work as well. That's the kind of role that would serve him. And I do think we're going to need him to help us create samples. Yeah, Phil, just see us out there with your thoughts in the midfield before we move to the defense, because I wanted to start with you on that topic. Well, before I go off and sit my wrists, I suppose the puzzle for me is that if we, like Dave says there, if we play Rosseter, you know, there'll be a natural buzz, because, again, the young lad gets another go, right? Now, if Alan is even 60%, 70% fit, I'd play him, because, you know, he's a man that'll come in, and he will give us his 100% for however long he can. But Rodgers himself said a couple of weeks. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm just, I'm still, I'm clinging to dear hope. Yeah, okay. That's fair enough. And the other one, everyone's been talking about Rosseter. Jordan Williams was a men's money guy. That kid was ridiculous. He was a men's money guy. And if you look for physicality, he's built like a tank, right? And, you know, the other thing that really impressed me about Rosseter was, he never lost his man when he was tracking him. You know, he tracked players from, from box to box when they were breaking. Have you gone back to Rosseter or do you mean Williams? I mean, sorry, Williams. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a long night. It was Rosseter. Yeah. Do you eat from Malcolm in the middle of his foot in class? I know. Good choice. But they didn't have the same force name, it would be a lot easier. Yeah, I know. I know. But yeah, imagine Jordan Williams, Jordan Henderson and Jordan Ruster all appeared on the same pitch. I just put Jordan on the back of the jersey, which we have. But no, look, positive for me going into this. If we set up and put runners around Gerard, which we, you know, which he needs and which allows us to function at our best, if that means crown one of the young lads in, be it a roster, be it Williams, I think then we have, then we step again. Right? You know what I mean? Then we bring an energy level back into the actual team and again, that's probably been a little bit missing. And then if you have, like, again, Lelana complete, if you want to play 4-3, Lelana plays left and you play Sterling Royce, you have options on the bench to bring on. I'm not a huge fan of Markovich at the moment because I don't know what he's bringing to the team. I haven't seen it. Right? I didn't see him for Ben Ficke last year, I borrowed a couple of Europa League games. And so I'm a bit, and I had a chat to Marco Lopez about it last night. And I want him to succeed, but I also want to see what I've been told he's going to bring to the actual side itself. You're impatient to see the goodness though. Not impatient. I just want to see it, if you know what I mean. It's not so impatient. Well, yeah. Yeah. But that's what I want to see, right? And if you're going to bring him after the bench, maybe that's the game to bring him because he had a big impact when he came on against City, right? And if you play Ballotelli, you're going to have to play someone alongside him. So I don't think the tree works in that instance. So I would have no qualms if Coutinho was fit and can come back in, going back in, because last year he was the player for the big games and he was able to do one of them. And this is a big game. And this is a chance where he's had a rest, you know, he's been taking out the 4 in line a bit and you're saying, "Listen, Phil, back in you, fella. Get in there. Do what you do. Do what you're really good at." You know what I mean? There's no pressure and you just get in. Don't be looking to play the groove all the time. Just play it again. Bring me back to where you were in March and even the last year. And from that lovely pre-match rev the mob speech that you've just given us there, I'm fucking motivated, Phil. I'm really, I'm feeling good, but I want you to bring us back down as you do best by talking about the defensive. If we look at it, I guess, maybe we can all agree on this, lads that probably Skirtle, Lover and the Moreno are nailed on, I guess, if Brendan's selection is anything to go by. There are reports that a certain Glenn Johnson is back in full training. Phil, how would you feel will start you off with this as a man who's got strong opinions on it? How would you feel if we were to see himself and a lot of people have been advocating it? I see no sense in putting John Glennson back into that team, right? Because to be honest with you, he brings nothing to the team. He gives us no attack and threat anymore. He's very poor defensively. He's out of sync with what's going on with the rest of the back four. He's been out injured for a while. And even when he was a good player and came back in, it took him two or three games to get back up to the level it is. To throw him into a derby match where we've already got defensive issues, you're only going to make those defensive issues worse and we're not going to get anything out of him in the final towards to warrant his inclusion. I heard arguments that he's a better attacking option than Manquillo at this moment in time. Maybe two years ago, he was at this moment in time. The current version, though. And people forget, you know, people who have very quickly, we won the game against Lugritz. Why? Because Javier Manquillo was in the box in the 90 toward minute getting felled by the goalkeeper. Now, that's not a defender who's sitting back in his own back for defending. He gives us a threat. If the crosses aren't coming off at the moment, it's not the fourth time you haven't seen it. He's played so well for us defensively. He hasn't been, you know, saying about the bottom of our goal against Villa, he was pushed there. There could have been a fell called against it. Apart from that, he hasn't put a foot wrong defensively. And even last night, he didn't put a foot wrong defensively. He's a young kid. He's well capable going in. And I would not be taking him out because he was taking him out now for a guy who's been out for a good while and isn't actually doing his job. You could destroy his confidence. And I just don't see any logic in it. And that's not to get on the back of John's fitness or get on his back because I don't rate him anymore as a player. He's playing out his contract. But you just call him John, but again, are we going to have Scout on the side? We're going to have Loveran on the side. We need two full backs. We're going to cover the centre backs in that instance. And you know, that's what Mankio and Moreno are very, very good at doing. David doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense that having Mankio should be looking over his shoulder before this game in terms of selection, does it? It doesn't make any sense to me at all. I'm not sure why he was taking off against West Ham, but I thought it was a stupid decision. Yeah. And you know, Mankio as Phil says, he hasn't put a foot wrong. And while he's not this great at hacking threats, he is a good at hacking out less. He is one that will always make himself available to re-cycle the ball, keep backs to whoever comes from him. And he covers up and down constantly. I mean, like the best right back in the league by a distance is Pablo Zabaleta. And Mankio is like a young version of that. You know, he does not know weakness in his game. Yeah, he's not skinning defenders and banging the ball in from 25 yards or running the left of the pitch like Moreno, but he's a different type of fallback. And I think you need the two different types you can. Like people want us to have these two glorified wingers playing fallback. And it just doesn't work. Like you look at Baris alone and they were best and they had one attack in fallback and one who was just a good little effort could also defend really well. Sure, exactly. Then they went to the two attack in fallbacks and it just didn't work for them. Yeah. And then Pablo has to start. For me, he's the first, like I'd have him in the team. He's the first name on the team sheet defensively, which is bizarre, considering he's my team. Him, Moreno, they need two nailed on defenders that I would consider. Can I just go across you there and ask you, did you see anything there the other night against Borra that would convince you that there's any other partnership that you're likely to see older than the two guys who didn't start? Oh, no. Rodgers is going to start with now. Yeah. I felt like it that he thought Ture Jacko was worth sticking with, was worth a goal before the game. And I agree, I think they got a couple of games together. We might see something, but like Ture is just, like he could be someone after that and he's completely mental. And the first time I was just trying to offer people, just to dismiss them. And then they say like Lautvern, because he just looks like a normal football player. I listened to something earlier on and I heard Lautvern mentioned that it's a fantastic banter. And I just had to turn it off because he's a guy, you know, he just shouldn't be in the team. He shouldn't be at the club. Curt is three or four years past, like he should have been sold. The first summer I'll just talk over, Matt and Scott should have been out the door because his value was at all time premium. Yeah. And we're just one of those clubs who, we build players up, like we did it with Raina, we did it with Agar. We build them up and up and up, they get to a certain value and we don't sell them. And then they just become absolute garbage. And Scott was one of those. So yeah, Rogers is going to play Scott Lautvern unless he goes to back three, which is maybe possible. Ever when I play in two from this year, he might look a go on to back three, or I don't know. But like, all he knows, we can't defend set pieces no matter what two are playing center back. A lot of that is down to many of these. But the center back then commanded enough and they've got me a huge circle fan, but he's not. Well, and often set pieces either. Yeah. And like, this is not the best time we play in Layton Bains. There's very few players who deliver set pieces, but it's him. And like, when you see the chaos in our defense, every time a corner or a free kick comes in, what they want to be like when Layton Bains starts with involves in, because we're going to give away fouls as well. That's the thing. Because they play with two tricky kind of wingers and they play with, you know, like two attacking fullbacks, they're going to guess three kicks in wide areas. Yeah. I want to be faced in the, the environment of like corners, free kicks, et cetera. And I just really don't see our defense managing to hold on again. Ryan, to follow on from what they've signed there, they suggested that there could be the possibility. And we've seen an action very recently there of, of God, the three at the back and yet another system potentially lends itself to yet more chaos, of course, it could shore things up. But how would you feel if you saw that line up? I can see the merit in, in the formation. The only issue I have with it is, I think the, the three at the back we've seen on Saturday, you know, it's, it's kind of akin to the event, this formation that they're kind of implemented in the past few years, that three, one, four, two, I just don't like that in, in our team because, and I said it, I actually said it in the summer as well, I said, I just, I had a feeling that whoever was going to be behind Jared, it just wouldn't really work because obviously, Syria has a different game and it's a, you know, parallel has a lot more space in some ways and just, I just think, like you're seeing it, Jared and Lovren, you know, all of a sudden kind of Lovren was running past him or else Jared was dropping too deep and then it just got a bit muddy for me. I prefer when, you know, the one that we've seen last year, that three, four, one, two, but that just can't happen with, with Stevie, you know, sadly, in any, in any, you know, shape or form where he has to kind of sit to the writer, the left of a pitch, you know, he really does have to be in the center, but I can certainly see the merit of it. Again, the only, the only worry there would be that everything would then kind of drop into like a four, two, three, one or something or a four, five, one, and then you've got three center backs doing only one of them as Mark and saying whoever's up front, nice, mid or look at whoever, and you've got, you know, lots of space on the wings that can be attacked, especially on the right, because Scotland wouldn't be, you know, the quickest, and our sack of for that matter is, you know, sack of looks like he's running with cement blocks at the moment. Yeah. It's those beauties. It is those beauties. I can't deal with that. No. I like them. I like them. I think they're okay. They look like river bridges, isn't it? They're huge. Well, I was looking at actually, Danny Alvis had black boots, you know, and I look really strange. These boots are like weird in my eyes. I'm up for all this postmodern booties, as we might say. But yeah, like I was saying, I just, I don't know. I really don't know if the three, look, Roger's laid his beds, changing that back for on Saturday. You know, he chose to change that back for by choice. Even if it's what he wanted, you know, he didn't have to do it, but he did. So and it kind of failed him because we were down and, you know, I seen it as the first time we conceded two goals in the opening 10 minutes in like 20 years in the Premier League or something. Yeah. So he made his bed and he to line it and, you know, yeah, I can see SACO starting on Saturday really. But if we go back three, you know, be interested and see what we do with it. Yeah. Excellent. Sorry, Dave. Go ahead. I was going to say that the decision to move to the back three was a fairly damning kind of critique of Loughren and how he played the fair. Yeah. The thing, I agree with Ryan completely, you can't play the three if Jared is sitting in front. If Loughren is the central one, but Loughren shouldn't be the central one anyway, because Skirtle in the back three has to be the central one. So if you're playing Skirtle, Skirtle has to be the central one. Loughren should be on the right of that three. It's obviously not a right to the center back, but he's played a bit of right back in the sphere. So it might just be a bit easier. He's got that bit more pace. And he might be a bit more. And plus he will stop comfortable, but he has no business going anywhere near and that lead just can just leave them to tackle instead of getting his head taken off. We're coming out and getting the hit like that's twice he's done in a couple of weeks. Come for ball. He's got no business going anywhere near. Sackle is a clear beat on that ball against West Ham and Loughren really ends up getting up. So I can't just. Yeah. Right. Right. Here's my off the wheelchair, right? I was thinking about this the other day. If we were playing a back tree, would it be mad enough or would we ever see a moment where, you know, Brendan thinks themselves, you know what, I'm going to put Loughren in as a libero in front of Skirtland cycle and push because of the lack of midfielders we have have Gerard and Henderson sort of pushed on a bit. So effectively, Loughren's going to be tasked with just running around in front of the back for right, which is, which I'm sorry, Dave. So Loughren's kind of like the deep point in the diamond. Yeah. Yeah. We're just a little bit more withdrawn, that to be honest, I think that would work because have the discipline to play and to hold the line comes charging out waving his arms around. I think if you put him in, like David Louise, the perfect example, David Louise was sent a back as an absolute nightmare, but you've seen it last year he played for City for Chelsea a couple of games, most notably against City Away, sat in front of the back, who's the two-center back, and he was absolutely fantastic because he had the instincts and when he goes for those interceptions, if he misses them, at least there's still players behind them, Loughren goes charge now for interceptions, doesn't get near the ball half the time, but at least it's a somebody behind him, he's not exposed. So yeah, I do actually think, I do think, I've said it before, I do think Loughren could actually play, hey, as a defensive midfielder, I wouldn't want him there long-term, because I just don't want him, he's long-term, but yeah, even if you play Sacco and Touré as your two-center back and stick Loughren, because then you'd give at least got that extra bit of pace, crawl away at least a little bit quicker than the Skirtle, but I do think Skirtle and Sacco with two good fallbacks as opposed to what we had last year, I do think there is merit to go home with the two of them, and if it means Loughren playing in front of them holding them in field then, you know, so be it, but I would like to see Skirtle Sacco get a run with two decent fallbacks, Loughren Glenn Johnson and out of position John Flanagan. Yeah, we've pretty much touched on every single potential combination, and yet we know the one that's going to go away. The last line of defence, let's talk about that, that's one we can't argue about, you've got two keepers there who are certain- I said it on Monday, I am really disappointed for a mini-lay because, and Dave has quoted me before as well, his performance against Southampton was a step up from what we'd seen, and since the mistake against City, he's regressed back to even worse than what he was beforehand, and last night again, you know, the things that he was doing well, he's actually stopped doing well, like the equalising goal, the one that comes in, it's actually a really good ball in, and I haven't seen it, I haven't seen it back today, I was hoping to see back to see if there was somebody in the hole as the ball came around the corner, right, because I wasn't sure if there was somebody there or not, but there's not much Enrique can do if he doesn't get a good contact on it, you know what I mean? And he doesn't get any contact on it, the man gets ahead of way, but you know, mini-lay was making those saves last year, he was making those incredible last-ditch stops that were coming off headers like that, and we were going wow, that's an incredible- It's Southampton away, incredible. Yeah, and that type of stuff, and that's now, his confidence is gone, now I don't know whether the confidence is gone, because he thinks there's somebody else coming in and he's playing for a spot, sometimes goalkeepers don't react well to competition, and- I can't suggest you off the back of the shoot out last night, I know. Well, I've never seen a matrapart focus on the goalkeeper so much about taking penalties as opposed to saving penalties, like seriously, the shots that we're seeing are still in a penalty. Well, that aside, I think it's fair to say that he possibly could have done a little bit better with someone else, I mean, you've got a hand on him, you know? The penalty shootouts are penalty shootouts, but if you go toward your penalties, it's a test of your goalkeeping skill. And you're expected, I would have, and I know most times when you see a penalty shoot out, and even the bigger ones that we've seen in the African Nations Cup, because straight away when we started getting up to 10 hours, I was taking an African Nations Cup, you always get mad shootouts and that, but the goalkeepers tend to save a couple of them, you know what I mean? And they weren't saving them, and not all the penalties were brilliant penalties. No. Like, some of them were great penalties, some of them were actually not really good, the goalkeepers were going way too early for the actual penalties, and other were doing was letting the lads roll the balls down the side. But even the hands that were going on to them should have been stronger, you know? Again, that's a confidence issue for me, but, you know, and you look goalkeepers as well, but, you know, Howard is just as bad as many later at the moment. Well, he's alternating half decent performance with a terrible one. Yeah, I look, for me, I'm looking at Howard, and I'm saying they have the exact same issues as we have, yeah, and as the last point of defense. And if I was Mark Nes, I'd be seriously considering putting Robles in at this stage, because he's cast no more points. In him, have they got a better alternative than we have? Definitely. Yeah. You have an alternative there that you can take Howard out the foreign line for two or three games, and Robles has played in a Merseyside Derby as well. And, you know, if he comes in, he could do well. David, have you only taught on many a lay in this situation at the moment? He just looks like he's completely shot at confidence. I mean, for me, the big thing, the big difference with this and Howard is, Howard is just doing stupid, stupid things. Many of it just looks like all his confidence has gone, and it's leading to his deficiencies becoming more apparent. I don't think he trusts love one at all. I think the third city goal and the ludicrous goal confirm he has no faith in love and his ability to intercept the ball. Those two goals are pretty much carbon copy to each other. Everyone's completely at fault. Millionaire comes charging off his line. Now, he, it's, manually made an error in coming off his line, but he knows love is not going to get near the ball. I spoke to a couple of people who were asked them to do a great game, and they said, when that ball was played, love and scream that he had us, and manually was, was moving and then kind of stopped, and then went again, and like, it just leads to the striker walk and round them and tapping it in, Aguero, the exact same thing. Yeah. He doesn't look like he's done. Like, I don't know, Phil, do you know better than me? Like, when you're playing behind a collective group of centre backs who can't put us a good performance, you know, to get a back to back, you don't know who's going to be playing in front of you week on week, and you know, like, you've seen what Martin's girl can do. Like, so, you know, that there's always going to be kind of errors coming, like, you're not going to have faith in them. So, like, I don't know, maybe that's what's led to this, like, he looks like you mentioned Phil, he looked at a different keeper against at Hampton at home, and then it's just regressed and regressed, and I don't know, I think a lot of it, for me, is down to centre back. Even against Middlesbrough last night, you know, Sacco, I don't know, I think it was in the second half of extra time, and there's a ball gone up in the air, and Sacco was kind of bringing it down, but he's drawn in the Middlesbrough attacker into him, and Minula is, like, I think he's screaming for him to give it back, but we all know that Sacco likes to draw in midfielders and strikers and turn them, that's his style, you know, it's just, that's just what he does, that's why people lead to say that he's clumsy or they just don't trust him, and I understand that, but that's just kind of the way the martyr centre backs gone, but Sacco does it, turns and brilliantly, and you can see Minula, his head, just throws it up in the air, and he, as if to say what, and the name of Jesus, has he, and like, even if he's thinking that, I don't want to see he's thinking that, you know, I don't think I've ever seen kind of a keeper be so visibly, like, holy shit, watch has happened, and that to me is, I feel sorry for him, because I've sang a lot of praise for Minula, but yeah, the last few games, like he's gotten, even, yeah, his shots up and he's gone, that was his main asset, even that, the west hand, they're a goalie centre. There was a moment in this Spurs game that I actually thought was going to be the making of him, when Lovin came charging out for that ball, and missed it, and Charlie got in one hand, Minula made it to safe, and he got up, and he absolutely tore sprinted off a lap, and then he turned around and started screaming at Sacco, as well, I was like, you know what, this could be the best thing that ever happens to him, he's realised, he's realised that he's the one that's meant to be telling these lads what to do, and he was pointing in gesture, and then now all of a sudden it's like he's forgotten he can speak again or something, or maybe he's not telling them to pass on a lap, or a prime or something, but it's just ridiculous. This could be like the third or fourth keeper in the last four or five years now, that isn't going to be much of a success at Liverpool. I mean, obviously Rayna had lost it, you know, he just completely, and after the herding operation, whatever, but Minula has only been here a year, and already he looks like he's not what he was, Brad Jones has never really improved that much. Diego Cavillari left Liverpool, you know, looked like he was dirt, and then he ends up going and playing for Brazil, you know, it's very, you know, I don't know how that will go keep an eye on it, you know, I just think there's something to miss. The thing about goalkeeping is, and even, you know, it went through a spell, when you've had a really good goalkeeper in Rayna, as we did, I don't know, he went afterwards, you know, when you've had to really go, it takes a while to, it sometimes can take a long while to replace a really good one, right? And we saw it with, when Grubbler went, we went through James, we went through Frito, then we had Vesterwelt, he did well for a couple of seasons, but he, Minula is basically Vesterwelt again, right? And then he wasn't good enough, we brought in Dudek and Kirkland, they weren't good enough, we then went, then we bring in Rayna, he nails down the position, he goes, and we've brought Minula in, and, you know, rarely do you replace a goalkeeper who's going to stand out in your history straight off the bat with the forced goalkeeper that you sign, you know, and I think we're in- - Oh, Lesterweltzy? - Yeah, Lesterweltzy, but like, you know, you know, that's a completely separate team where they're stuck-poiling, the best young talent they can get their hands on, you know, and it's worked out for them very well, but, you know, there's no, there's no science in terms of goalkeeper, I've taught the gags about this around stats, the stats, effective goalkeeper stats don't exist in the public domain to be able to quantify whether a goalkeeper is playing well or not playing well, it's all qualitative from what we actually see, and an awful lot of you have to actually be at games to see where the position's going on, what type of shit they're giving to the defenders as well, because communication at the top level is so crucial for a back four, because if they're not talking, players aren't going to get passed on, you know, mistakes are going to happen, and to me, there's a whole, there's a massive breakdown of communication through the centre of the actual team, and like the C Gerard and Henderson both run around on ballock defenders and goalkeepers out of it, you know, it points us as to what's going on, because they rely on direction, because the back four and the goalkeeper see everything in front of them, and they have to call what's happening. Dave, to shift the focus a little bit back towards the opposition, could you maybe give us a few thoughts on the Everton setup, and what we need to think about in particular with them, I know last night when they got trying to train, they had the likes of Alcoras, and, and no Tony Hibbert, Bessage, Osman started, Atu, I think started as well, but as you said earlier on, Dave, we know what their best team is, unlike Liverpool's current setup, what's the threat that we have to look at for, and how we fix the deal with them? The obvious two are going to be Luke Kackle in open play, he's peeling off the back shoulder of centre backs, neither of ours of centre backs, well the likely two little stars could start at novorn, neither of them read that really well, the big threat is going to be set, peace is obviously games, it's delivering seconds to none, and, you know, our star defence, our defending crosses is appalling. For me, I think our best bet might nearly be to try and just play counter-hack the way we did against them last year, let them have the ball, and then just try and win it off, and that this is why I think Ross that are playing is, would be best, I think, if we play Ross that are in Henderson with Gerard, and just tell Gerard to sit deep in front of the centre backs, and just, you know, bed-in, Marine will have to be reigned in a little bit, can't be so aggressive when he's pressing out, he's going to need to be more focused, and maybe a little bit more, you know, pink a little bit more before he's kind of pressed the ball, and not leave space behind them, because if he does, then love and starts wandering out of position, Gerard gets dragged out, things just open up. So for me, I'd like to see us go with the diamond, and just bed-in, and try and counter-hack them, I know people don't want to see us kind of see the possession of Everton that I'm feeling full. You know, Everton, as good as they are with the ball, they are also prone to sloppy passes, they do have one or two players who don't like it when they get pressured, Gareth Barry's one, Osman if he plays another, he tends to get a little bit frazzled when he gets pressured, and I think the likes of Henderson, and Ross sort of, even if he plays like 60, he's going to run himself into the ground, and like, he'll be bulging off the crowd the whole game. So... And the crowd will be buzzing if they see him start in the ball, I suppose then maybe give us an idea of how you think the game's going to finish, you might as well end it, spirit of this quick preview, get some predictions. I'm going to say we'll win 3-2 with thirds coming off the bench to start two after we go to one down. I like that a lot, Ryan, your prediction. I want to go for a really shitty one-nail, with some kind of penalty, maybe some kind of red card. Martin Atkinson. Possibly, and maybe if we get penalty in the last minute, Balletelli comes up, pushes Gerard to the ground and takes in scores, because I think that would be... No offense to see, I don't mean that anything in Steven, I'm just saying I don't think there's any better way to boil piss than Balletelli to... Yeah, hopefully we're kicking into Anfield Road End and he just stands on that all and getting a little excited thinking of that. Okay, well you control yourself there for a moment, Phil, how do you see this going? It's five, six, six, five. Six, five. Yeah, and Ruster's going to score three, right? And three are going... One's going to go through Howard's legs, the other one's going to go around his head and one between his arms and his body. That's exactly what I was going to say. I know, it's remarkable. And then when you see the jump, you think the seven-year flannel was on last year against Bors. What do you see, what's going to happen when Ruster spangs in a hat trick in his fours? He is called Notore to come on and do a victory break time. Yeah, we're going to have the whole team dance, and that would be like something at a FIFA 15. Well, that whole team dance. That might actually create one of your best memories, so what I'd like to do now is just get the lads and yourself, some of your favourite memory, basically, from previous Darby's. Do you want to get this role in there, Phil? There is loads. Suarez has died in front of him. It's so hard to top that one. It's pure piss-taking. After everything that went on, the scrap between Franny Jeffers and was in the Sander Festival, the whole need of a buddy truck. Yeah. That's genius. There's loads. There's the... The Gary McAlister free kick. Listen, hands down. That's 100 meyards out, that is. He took it in his own 18 yard box and called it around the whole pitch and into the buck, all around the whole pitch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a Paul Gerard that was in Go for them. Yeah, it's a flailing. He went out of the corner flag setting up as well. So, here's me, Go. Dave, unfortunately, Phil's taken about 70-30 from there. Is there anything left for you to deal with there? There's a couple of funny ones. I've always liked you. I do not really bad Gerard tackle. I think it was on the Gary Naismith. Yeah. Big leap symptom with two feet. I was just sort of hilariously bad at tackle. Yeah, derby-tastic. I do one of my favorite moments and I always be McManaman and Groveler. I get in the handbag though. Yeah. Yeah. And the dirt kite. The dirt kite derby, obviously, is brilliant as well. But last year, for me, last year, when Sturridge and Suarez just stand their arm and arm, lock it up at the average of the band and just apply it as a kite because we're much better than you know, Aaron. That's actually brilliant. Yeah. That's still the background of my career like so. Ryan, what about yourself? Ryan's only seen four derby-s. I know, yeah. That's all right. I'm a big Dory Wolf. Yeah, that is true. The two Everton fans, like, I know, there's like three Everton fans from the game last year. There was the guy who's looking to the side of the glasses. There's the girl, the girl who's like completely heartbroken. And then there's the big fuck off guy. It was a, and then obviously, of course, our two, our two lads of front Sturridge's pose was a majestic M. Yeah. What was the game when we, I think we beat them two one in 04/05. And I think Jarrod scored a short free kick and maybe Garcia got nose year after. I think it was a two one anyway, and that was one of the first like live full matches. I had no Sky Sports back in the day. I was watching the other Prembership highlights for the three four years. But that was one of the first live diaries I ever seen. So that's always kind of stuck with me. Ryan, you know what? Like, it's interesting to hear you going back to one of the first you've ever seen because because I'm actually 74. Should you cut the ribbon at the first one? I did, mate. I did. My, actually, my favorite memories were, it was the four semesters between Tranmere and Everton and Anfield. But I actually would be the FA Cup final. It'd be Roshi breaking the camera from me. The pass by Jan Mobi over the top. Beautiful. Bump. Beautiful. Roshi breaking camera. I died. That's an image that always is. Back past the Suarez. Yeah. That was fantastic. Suarez has rugby tackle and Johnny Heitick, and will always be talking about it. Yeah. He's a fan of it. Andy Harris corning us twice. The highlight of every Derby though is John Merrell and his like, met there and afterwards. So let's say you're in Tioga or Pilates or maybe you dabble into masks like me. Either way, you know, being flexible is key to doing what you love. That's why Smoothie King created this stretch and flex movie for people like us with whole fruits and organic veggies plus type two collagen. Make it part of your daily fitness routine to support flexibility and joint health. So try this stretch and flex smoothie and tart cherry or pineapple kale. Order online today for pickup or delivery. Smoothie King, rule the day. 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. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.
In our seasons first joint effort with the lads at the Anfield Index we take a look at the upcoming Merseyside derby and try to figure out whats going to happen. Dave Hendrick and Ryan McTernan make up an all Irish quartet to discuss every tactic we could employ as none of us know who’s fit or not at this stage. We rattle through how we’d think the youngsters so impressive in the Capital One Cup may be worth a chance and try to figure a revolutionary new formation which might just work with the current personnel.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
