This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. I'll only be a minute, come in with me. What is HomeSense anyway? Look, Outdoor Furniture is in. Hey, that's a great brand. And it's a six-piece set. Check out this price. Are you sure that's not just the table? No chairs, too. Is this an outdoor rug? It is. It's nicer than our indoor rug. Outdoor Ottomans, planters, patio umbrellas, are you seeing these prices? You save a lot at HomeSense. This is the year we love our backyard. Can I say something? Yes. I'll get the truck. And that is why I love you. Save on Outdoor like never before at HomeSense. Discover a store near you at HomeSense.com. All this week on NBC4, new products to new technology, Susan Hogan is showing you how local restaurants are changing the way we dine in and take out in this new world tonight at 6. A new twist on outdoor eating. A lot of it is creating flexibility. How one local restaurant is making their outdoor space mobile, giving you plenty of sunshine and social distance for a stress-free meal. It's all part of restaurant revitalization. Tonight at 6 on NBC4, working for you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Like our cheesy mates back in the '80s, let's hope this never stops. It's the day trippers. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] On tonight's emergency replacement show, myself Phil Casey and Damien Flutter joined the line by Molly and James Owens as this stripped-down triple crew reflects in a massively emotional win over Manchester City, which all Liverpool remain free and clear at the top of the Premier League. We'll also preview the next step to securing the title, which is Sunday's noon away match against relegation scrappers in Orange. But before we go, as ever, we'll engage with your listeners' questions. OK, let's begin our review of Liverpool 3 Manchester City 2. It's probably fair to say that the game was as draining and in Canada as you're going to endure. Stunning highs, crushing lows, everything seemed to be lost, and then everything suddenly possible again. The question for you, James, is will you last another six hours of this shit? Will I or will Liverpool? Well, you can only tell for yourself, brother, so. I mean, I think I'll be all right. You know, sort of seen us finish Saturday night, and I never thought we'd be here again. So even now, I'm really just sort of enjoying it, because I never thought we'd be back here. Are you genuinely in that kind of-- this is a bonus place. I mean, less so than before Sunday, I would say, because we're in a position now where we are. We're leading from the front with the team that we're-- the only team that we're kind of mathematically above us had, should they, you know, gone to win all their games in hand, you know, beaten and put behind us now. Yeah. So less so than before. But I think the thing that makes me more apprehensive-- I mean, I don't know if we'll probably want to actually talk about the game itself. But the thing that makes me more apprehensive going forward is the fact that in the course of winning that game, we've obviously lost storage. We don't really know how long for him. And Twitter is a buzz with conflicting reports. Dean's storage, who's obviously Daniel Storage's uncle, has suggested that he is about 50-54 Chelsea, but won't make Norwich, which I don't know. It comes only surprise to anyone with hamstrings. But then obviously, well, without Henderson for three games as well. So that's what worries me now, particularly with Chelsea coming up, because Chelsea will know if they beat us at Anfield, then it's potentially in their hands of city drop points. So yeah, I'll be fine, but I mean, by the way, we can get through the last four games. It's more difficult than it would have been with those who are available, I think. Yeah, yeah. It's a good point, isn't it, Molly? That James makes there that there's more to lose now, and therefore, the tension is rammed up a notch. Isn't it, or are you in that kind of blissfully happy place where we've achieved what we set out to achieve? I'm more in that place for you happy place, or anything that happens now, is BSC born. It's at the start of the season. I would have snapped your hands off just for four players. I even probably would have snapped your hands off for a challenge on four players to maybe finish fifth. So, the way we are right now, you know, whatever happens to know to the end of the season, I'm in a good place. Yeah. I don't know about you guys, but that city game to me was like clean, so one of those nice dreams where your grind, who has been dead for the last 10 years, has made you fry up, and you go to work on a hover board, and you know, that's what it was like. It was just absolute bliss. Okay, it was about 10 minutes to the end, it turned into a little bit of a nightmare. Both in, you went back in after a continuous chord, that all was good in the world again. So, yeah, it's no one, everything's a bonus for me. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough, Phil. Ah, that's great. And I said it in the last part, and one day, it was the last part of 2020, 14. The mythical last part. It was amazing, man. It was an amazing part. It was just the most incredible part that I've ever done. I've ever done it. But no, I'll joke on the side. I'm, because this has been, it was so unexpected, I'm incredibly calm about what happens for the rest of the season. We've overachieved in terms of where I honestly thought we would be, three more points, and mathematically, we've secured toward place. And anything from here on in it is a massive bonus. And I know that we're top of the league, and I know we're leading the pile, and I know that it's more, we've got more to throw away now than anything else. But at the end of all this, if somebody had a set to you in August that we would be challenged for the league, come the end of April, with four games out, win all four, and you win the league, you would have thought you were completely insane, right? You would have, in your void of streams, you would not have expected us to be as close to Siri and Chelsea for a start, and you wouldn't have expected to be above Siri and Chelsea. - It doesn't context and bonus and not like go over it because we're here on merit. - No, no, no, and the key bit for me is that we're going into this run-in with no pressure. As a football team, we've achieved our season's objectives, we've achieved the goals, we've got everything to win, and nothing to lose here in real terms. What happens from here on in is just magic. Up to now has been the achievement of the ultimate goal that FSG wanted within five years have taken over. They've achieved it. Now from here on out, it's the magic space, and when we talk about, you know, there's something magic about this season. Yes, there is something magic about this season, and, you know, it's going to happen. But why fear the next game? Why fear the actual result? When everything that we've done so far points to towards us, being able to win these four games with the exception of the length of run that we're actually on. But I'm not nervous anymore. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride. It's been a roller coaster. You know, it really has, and it's there to be enjoyed as opposed to be feared at this time. Fluid, that's pretty valid. But you'd be like myself in terms of the more emotional response to magic, certainly during them. And how are you going to fare up here? Are you in that nice cams and place the boys are in? I have been most of the season because I was quite happy to get that tough horse lot. So you're like from out in a row. You have been up to now. Up to now. Now I'm on booking. All in here. Yeah, I'm all in. I'm with you, man. The reason I'm looking at it this way is we're tapping the leg now. We have the points. It's not about us falling short anymore in a chase. We lose the toilet now. It's the air's the take. And it would hold me more to actually lose it that way than to be in a chase and pack and just kind of fall short. But now we've got our noses in front of it. It's like when you have a bit in the horse and then we get beaten in the photo finish. That will fucking sicken me. It really will sicken me. I don't think I'd be able to take it. Because of the proximity of in there, you can almost touch it, it's just... It's just so close and it's the emotion behind it and everything that's behind it. I think we've gone beyond it just being about money and just being about Champin's leg. Like you see Gerard's reaction. There's no money in the world. There's no Champin's leg in the world would replace winning this toilet for him. Like this is just historical stuff. If we can get over the line, like this is back to shankly stuff. It's like my fragrance and don't want you to know it. You know, it's massive for our club. Not just the fact we got Champin's leg football. It kills me at the moment that, or I always say Champin's leg football has taken away from football in general. Because I think it's all about big clubs getting to the Champin's leg. And it's all about if they can get more money, more players, the better players. And we've all seen it ourselves when we haven't been to the Champin's leg. We haven't been able to compete in the market for players, certain players. That shouldn't be the case, you know. For me, this toilet, I'm not really asked about Champin's leg. I want this toilet so bad. - I don't think any of us doesn't want the Champin's leg. I mean, sorry, doesn't want to win the league. I think every single one of us would hang our balls on the line to get to its league win. But at the same time, like for me, it's scored on the supermodel, right? We're going to get the banger, right? So basically, are we going to end up marrying, or are we just going to have great memories of those couple of nights out that we had together? And like at the end of the day, whatever happens, it's going to be a great time. So let's not worry about what I'm going to marry or not. Let's just go and enjoy ourselves. - Well, where you fell apart from your day was, would you take the Premier League toil tomorrow and give up Champin's leg football next year? - Ooh. - Or if I won, I would take the Premier League. - Yes, that's easy, yes. - Yes, in a flash, I would give up Champin's leg. - The champions of fucking-- - Yeah, I would. It's just, we can go up next year and say, yeah, Champin's leg football within a second. - No, no, no, I know what you're saying, but that's, it's in a way. And James, you've talked about this before as well, and you've written about it. - The idea of giving up Champin's leg football, when you get it, given the amount of money that's involved in the game. And I know I'm just stepping away from the romantic feel of this, right? But just, when you step away from it, being in the Champions League is bigger for the future of the club. - I agree to you. - Than winning the league in an as an event, but for the fans, winning the league will be bigger than achieving the actual Champions League. And I think that's probably the first way to go this year. - Yeah, yeah. - James, would you concur with that? - Yeah, of course it is. If you asked me, would you sort of give up the Champions League football that would come from actually winning the league, just to win the league? Well, and yeah, 'cause I've never seen this, you know, I've never, never properly seen this win the league. So absolutely. But you know, the great thing is we don't have to make that choice 'cause we get both. So that's a nice thing about it. But yeah, I mean, it is one of the sad things about football now, the way that they're kind of maybe qualifying for a competition by finishing in the top three or four sort of can kind of override actually winning things. - Yeah, yeah. - But the reason it overrides winning things is because in theory, and everyone's looking to a better future, you know, it will open up opportunities for you, which gives you a better chance of winning things in the future 'cause you can have, you know, you can attract better players, you can pay better wages, you can have a great squad that. So you're a better place to compete both, you know, on the most important fronts to league and Europe, but then you're also a better place to compete for domestic trophies as well 'cause you've got great squad notes. Again, that's the wonderful thing about where we are. We never expected to be here, you know. A lot of us thought we'd probably finish fifth or sixth if you'd offered us fourth by goal difference in August. Pretty sure every one of us would have snapped your hand off. We're in a situation where we're 10 points, clear with fourths, we're third. We're not, sorry, we're not on top of the league. (laughing) - Welcome back, fell. (laughing) - Sorry, I'm starting to get used to it. (laughing) But obviously now, we're four wins and we'll go into all of those games as favourites, even if against Chelsea, it'll be a tall order. We're four wins away from, you know, the guarantee of being champions of England. I mean, you know, what a wonderful situation to be in, I think. Expect hosts will only be raised from here. So we just can't enjoy it. - Well, that's true. - We're in a two-way degree as we can. There's a lot of, we're obviously very nervous, but yeah. - Yeah, we're clearly asked that logic and emotion are an easy bedfellow. So let's start talking about the actual match itself, Dan James, and we stick with you here. Our defence, and let's stick with the central area with Minnie Lay, made a couple of top-class saves and fairness, punched reasonably well. Skirtland, Sacco, our data partnership now to see is true to the end. Pass form from Rodgers would seem to suggest that how did you feel about the centre of our defence? - In answer to the question about Skirtland, Sacco, I would think so. Yeah, because I mean, Rodgers had to pick Sacco away at West Ham, but there was obviously, and we discussed it at length last week, there was the big question over what was you gonna do with regard to Skirtland, or Sacco, or Aga for this game, and the fact that he picks up, he's gonna pick Sacco to play at home against City. You think he's gonna pick Sacco and stick with him. And I think the thing is, you know, looking beyond this season, it's probably, it's been fair, and I didn't expect this to be the case. I think it's recently, it's kind of mid-February, I was saying, I thought, Skirtland and Aga could both go, but now it looks as though Skirtland was probably not just secured as future at the club, but has nailed down the right-hand side of the central defensive partnership, and it's looked for a while, I suppose, really, like Aga might go, and it's probably gonna be Skirtland, Sacco at the start of next season. I mean, as to how we did overall, I mean, another goal from Skirtland, that's seven now, and it scored a lot of important games, and that's another very useful thing to have. But I mean, I think Skirtland, apart from the time where he got done by Aguero on the touchline, when Silver should have made it 3-2, apart from that, I thought Skirtland was absolutely outstanding. I mean, we got a bit lucky when he's kind of punched the ball, clear, but I mean, even then, there's maybe a dark art to sort of doing that and not getting caught. But I mean, Sacco, yeah, I thought Sacco did well, but I think it was kind of more, though, it seems to be a game where, rather than kind of playing against a direct opponent, 'cause when Aguero is quiet, and then, and Jacko seems to be drifting wide at the box a lot to get on the ball, which is credited, particularly the way we played first off, I think Sacco was probably a bit more quiet. He did what he needed to do, and he did it pretty well. He didn't really put a foot wrong for what I can recall, maybe, you know, the odd pass given away. But I think with Skirtland, Skirtland was really, really impressive, because so many times he was just in the right place to make the clearance, make the block, you know, had the ball clear, whatever. And just timing again, he was in exactly the right place. I mean, again, Minuli was very impressive, too. You know, some crucial saves, you know, he was a bit more aggressive coming out of his line, even when he didn't necessarily comprehensively deal with something he didn't just about enough. And again, I mean, there was no one occasion which is sort of like my heart was in my mouth a bit, where I think he passed it straight out to Jekyll in the first half. He was one of the fucks, yeah. Apart from that, I don't think Minuli made any major errors, either. I mean, although he conceded two goals, not if anything has come more from just not doing enough to stop City, possibly even in the kind of the fallback areas and in terms of midfielders helping out the forward. But they're a good side. You know, they're gonna sort of be able to carve you open at times. And that was what happened for the two goals we conceded. But no, I think those three did pretty well, really. You know, they put it this way. They did enough against a good team in a big game. And, you know, we've come through and won. So you can't really have too many complaints. - Very true. Flute yourself. What did you, how did you feel the centre halves it? And would you say that basically they're the two now to take through to the end, giving the unlikely hood that Brendan will switch it up? - I said the last one was on the pod that when Sako came in to the game, there's no reason that I come back out. I feel like when any real centre-back partnership won't you get in and you do well, you should remain in the team. And I don't see any reason why I got, so come back in ahead of Sako. I think Sako and Skirtle have performed very, very well in the last two games. I don't think they've put a foot wrong in both games. They've been competent in the air. With the ball, their feet, they've come out of the back. Like, Sako's pass completion rate is in the 90s. If he's in the lane, you know, it's fantastic. And I don't think it's enough credit for that. Because everyone thinks let's stick him in because he can head a ball clear. He's a lot more accomplished footballer than just that. And I still think we're weak in the fullback areas. Yeah, it told me a bit full-back slowly because that's somewhere where I wanted to go next. And you could say, definitely, that maybe Johnson took a little bit of a step back and Flanagan maybe didn't have his best game, to say the least. It's the one area of our team where, listen, don't get me wrong, we're still winning matches. But it's the one area of our team where we have a little bit of lack of depth, isn't it? There just seems to be a bit of a weakness in both of them. I said that the last one was on the part that they don't like the one we won situation. Now, do we seem to be coping quite well? And I talk with Navas up against Flanagan, he would have run up in the whole time. He seemed to be doing quite well. But when they made the switch with Milner, and I actually thought at the time, this is a great substitution for us. But what he'd almost, he started doubling up on them. And it's kind of hard to knock the two full-backs in general and say, listen, this is your fault, he's our poor. We've got to remember, we've now Woodman playing in front of them that does all the track. And that's up to kind of Henderson to fill in there. And he's not going to be able to do it all the time. Pellegrini was quite smart that if you know the second half, he doubled up on Johnson and he doubled up on Flanagan every single time. And he didn't actually go 1v1 and take 'em on. They passed around them. And they were getting a little pocket of space all the time. And that's purely because you had nobody protecting the totem. It's... - And if you've got silver in that street, you're going to be able to do that. - They're not able to do it. Yeah, it was like, they were so comfortable on the ball. They were getting their Milner fairly sharp and fairly quick. The last three games, I don't see Norwich doing that again. So I don't see Palestine against it. I don't see one thing's for a fucking sure. It's how is a marina on the spot of that weakness? And he will exploit that weakness. So we don't look at that in particular. - Yeah, I feel that weakness, though. It is related to what I had with that. It's not just them and they're maybe fragility on one of them. - Yeah, again, I suppose when you see the same thing happen, again, and it's the fallback area that's getting exploited, you know, the coaches and good managers have now identified that as a weakness. Be it true, the fact that with the Diamonds, you're at a Toyota midfield unit and the two boys who are playing ahead of your yard are that big, aren't really wingers and not really dropping in as an auxiliary fallback to make a six-man line when they're defending as they push on. I did think that the fallback's performed poorly when all of a sudden dawn in terms of how he came out in the second half and even for about 10, 15 minutes before the end of the fourth half, we seemed to drop back. The defence seemed to drop a little bit deep and the fallback didn't seem to get the brief because they stayed post-wide on and left your yard a bit exploited because when I'm looking at it, I often say that the fallbacks start in position to really be allowing to your yard as opposed to the centre backs as such and I just thought they were a bit hard in there. But yeah, Henderson for all the good that he does in all the games, I thought he wasn't very strong on Sunday for 40, 50 minutes of that game. He drifted in and out, he did have good spells but he wasn't at his top level if he asked me for 90 minutes and Catino had ended up doing the donkeys for nearly everyone on the park 'cause he was phenomenal in terms of the amount of space and distance he covered and you know, that was what, it is what Dennis says, that's what City exploited in the second half, they took Navasoff, did you got Minner to sit in and double up on the side that he was on? And they got your out of it because they were able to space around Sacco, Skirtle and a bit the space around your yard as well. That was a change in shape and credit to City for exploiting it as well as they did but when you've got good players like City half, you're going to be able to do it. - Molly, if we take it as red that the defence is going to remain as the defence and that's just a likelihood of it. - What about the man that's sitting directly in front that I'm Stephen Jared, another pretty imperious performance from the man himself on the day and lots of extra stuff to talk about that is Jared centric as well with his inspirational huddle and speed just and all the rest of the thing. How did you feel the captain performed on the day? - I have gone so I had tears when he was at the end of that game when I saw a Stevie being emotional especially in the day that was in and everything but what a captain that man is, you could see it in how much he absolutely wants this title and how hungry he is for it. We all love to see the promo in the title of coursewood but for me, more so for Gerard, didn't even the team and the fans, I don't think there's anybody out there who could deny if anyone deserves a Premier League winner's medal, it's that man. It really is, he's been saw me as in the last few weeks and I really, really hope that we do win the title but as I said, more so for Gerard than anything else. - Well, Molly, talk to me about that moment on the pitch afterwards. You get the more cynical type dismissing that as an unnecessary display of emotion with some people trying to take the pace about the fact that there was tears in his eyes and so on but all I saw there was something that was just massively inspirational and a fella actually talking sense to a lot of young lads which that team is and saying, get yourself together, that's over now. Like he's on the pitch after the most tremendous victory that you can imagine and he's saying, that's done, move on. You know, that's just bloody amazing, isn't it? - It kind of reminded me of the all the Roy King, I suppose, who, as a win United won the Champions League. He was inside of this room and he was lighter, said, well, lads, that's it, we won it push. That's over now and to next season, we win it again and we win the title again. And that's what Gerard was like. He saw all the team were celebrating, they were delighted but he knew that we've not won yet. We won it again, we still fought it to go. He wanted to get the team around him and put that throat on the lads, put this behind us. Exactly the same again, which is absolutely inspirational from him. - Yeah, absolutely. - What I loved was the picture of Sterling afterwards at Novi Sarthe and Twitter after the huddle. He looked like he just got all the teenage beautiful Ninja Turtles, same as you know, I thought that was brilliant. - Yeah, it was just pure delight, wasn't it? Just to be part of this thing, that it's almost a lack of belief, you're dead right, it's just that lovely surprise. And to move it slightly sideways, James, and around Gerard in the midfield, 'cause we can't really praise them out enough on the day, Phil talked about Henderson maybe being less than his usual level. With his absence now coming up, how did you feel the other guys that were in the midfield that they did? There's going to be a lot on the listener. - What do you mean it's a Lucas and Alan coming in? - Yeah, well, let's just talk about the guys who were there on the day against City. - I'm sorry. - Let's look at Coutinho and again, Phil, imagine the work rate that that kid got through was immense. - Yeah, I mean, it's funny, isn't it? How often in management, you know, managers have got these kind of grand plans and they might be sort of planning, "Oh, you know, well, I want to buy for this position in four windows time in about three years because by that time, you know, this player will be winding down. They've got all these kind of, you know, elaborate plans for what they want to do and they'll be tracking players for three or four years to buy for, you know, a certain position in this quarter of the future and that. And then sometimes you end up in an injury crisis and you put a player in a position because there's no one else to play there. Now, I don't know whether that was the case with Coutinho or whether there was a recognition of the fact that he'd actually got all the tools to sort of play in a midfield three longer time. I would expect there was, 'cause you know, you know, a lot of us could kind of see the scope for that. And I, you know, I'm sure, I'm sure Brendan Rodgers probably could, you know, but I think, yeah, Coutinho, a Coutinho is increasingly impressive. I mean, he is, he's a very inconsistent player still. And I mean, you even saw that in the game in the sense that his shooting was very erratic. He had a cup of poor effort in the first half, particularly one which wasn't so much a shot as a finish and the finish was really poor. And then obviously, he latched onto nothing to score the winning goal. But no, Coutinho was really impressive. And he's really, he's always had sort of good, even when he's kind of played for the forward in a sort of a number 10 role. He's always had kind of good sort of tenacity and work rate and I don't even necessarily think it's so much that he's kind of strong is that he's got one, a good center of gravity and two, something which I think is more commonly seen in sort of what you would call, I suppose, like Mediterranean or Latin American players, which is just that ability to actually just use the low center of gravity and kind of shield the ball and spin away from people with it. So, yeah, I mean, Coutinho is more central to the good field than anything else now. And I mean, on his day, a very, very good one at that in the kind of role that he plays. And then obviously, you've kind of, the shape sort of seemed to shift from a kind of a diamond to a four, three, three. And again, you never would have particularly envisaged sterling as having the sort of the, the guile and the kind of the awareness to play in the central role as a sort of a number 10. But I mean, both of those two, you know, they probably aren't that many consistently better players in those roles than them in the league. They'll be plenty of you about as good, but they're on and either vastly better, I think. So again, you know, great credit to them and I think great credit to, to Rogers and to his staff. 'Cause there was nothing about either the performance of Ida and the particularly surprised you. - Yeah, well, that's fair. Bloody, to just to finish with Coutinho. And if you want to lead into talking about Rahim Sterling as well. A point of James touches on there is that idea of these players that we seem to be full of between Suarez and the two boys who can just roll center halves with whether it is strength or whether it's guile or a mixture of the two of them and low center of gravelly. And it just leaves you, doesn't it? That when you see a one on one, that should really be, oh, that's a defender's ball. It isn't. - It's what that is and we don't see it in the kind of, in Ireland in particular, or even in the UK is that these players are taught technical ability that they play on the street with these small footballs. - So they back their touch. - Yeah, it's all about their touch. It's all about being comfortable on the ball. It's all over and over and over and we've applied. You're taught to get the ball forward to the big fellow of front and run after. You know, the biggest, strongest team wins. In the, a lot of the South American players and some of the teams in Europe, it's all about the technique. And it's very easy. You don't have to be the quickest player in the world, which continue, isn't it? But if you're technically good, your force touch can always bring you away from play, can always create the air to space. And then two of the players have it, they have it in abundance. And that's, if you look at the players we have, that can do it. Like it is your, your, your continue, it's your Suarez, kind of, if you look, staring, kind of those, but he goes low in his pace a little bit more than the two lads, where the two lads can, as you said, roll you quite easily with a force touch. And they're always looking, if you know it's when the ball comes from, they're always looking to play away from the player. They're force touches, always away from play, where, where sometimes others, they're forcing you nearly back into play. - Not at the time. - Yeah, sorry, Phil, do you want to come in there? - You know, we've touched on it across the season, but the one thing about Coutinho in that midfield, specifically in the big games is that, he's such a big game player. And I think he's announced himself as probably the best big game player in England this season, because if you go back to all our matches, our special home matches, the, you know, game, the Arsenal game, the Everton game, Tottenham game, City there. And it's him. He's the one that's made things happen. He's the one that's made the Helen Mo, the Helen sort of part of the game, to either swing things defensively, or swing things in an attack. Like, you think of the Flanagan goal and the way he wrapped that one away, which just soes up the whole game for us. You think of all the assists that he put in when he hasn't particularly played well through the course of the year. And for me, I still don't see him as an away day player, but there's no way you start one of our big games now. And we've got four huge monumental games coming up. He knows the importance of these games. And if there's one player in the back to be the best player for us all over the next four games, it'll be continual because the mentality he has seems to be the type of mentality that leads teams onto wins. - Well, what I'll say about him is that I don't think he has enough credit for his actual, his kind of technical way he looks at the game. Like, everyone looks at him as a dribbler. Everyone looks like he can pick a true pass. But if anyone watches, when we lose possession of the ball, the space he feels in. And that's what's really being key in a lot of the games where we've fought teams at Anfield. The Arsenal game, the Everton game, even City. As soon as we lose the ball, he drops in as the toward man. Like, he comes out at kind of 10 role and he goes in as the toward man and becomes a midfielder. And there's not many players can do that because most of the other want to do one or the other. He seems to want to feel about roles and he doesn't get enough credit for down that. Like, he'll say as soon as we lose possession, he drops in beside Henderson straightaway. - Yeah, I'm Molly. We're talking about a 21 year old there who's obviously got loads and loads of room for potential for improvement. But what told me about the man who's two years younger than him again, Raheem Sterling, who's planned to tip it out diamond and seemed to have the role of the park. - You know, I didn't think Sterling had that in his game, playing that tip to diamond. I obviously was staring as to one of these wingers who could use his pace and dribbling and maybe whipping a ball. And, you know, at times, he could probably feel it upfront. I didn't think he could play that tip to diamond role, but his secondest has proved me wrong. And what I've been really more impressed by is it's just his touch of the ball. You know, when Suarez laid that ball off from there, once he has his touch that he had, it was fantastic. His composure, especially for the goal. That was six months ago. I don't think Sterling could score that goal. But it seems to me, as of late Sterling, he's actually seen himself as a Liverpool player as such. You know, I'm a first team and good enough for this team. And the confidence has just showed and showed the lead. I've been really impressed with him. - But that's-- - I can't wait for the World Cup. I think he's going to take Brazil by complete surprise over there. You know, that's a great shot, is the world composure really. When you think about it, when we saw him carry the ball forward, there was no danger. If you look at the later moments in the game where Victor Moses, and then first, yeah, Victor Moses, and then Henderson lost the ball under pressure. It's the last few minutes in the bad touch and heavy touch. You never ever suspect that's going to happen with Sterling because the kid just seems to be composed. And that goal, he was just taking the piss out of everybody. I mean, you've got Vince and company and the haircut model just flapping to the opposite side. And he just finishes with a palm, doesn't he? Hello, Molly? - Oh, sorry, but a touch was a funny. [LAUGHTER] Thanks for joining us, Molly. [LAUGHTER] - I'm fucking with Dr. Buddy. Yeah, I'll go ahead and answer that. So yeah, it certainly is composure. I remember a few months ago that it was Sterling after he got one and one with a goal keeper. And he just seemed to panic. He either looked to pass it off to Suarez, or he just shot it to write that goal keeper. But last week in the city, the way he just stopped and just swiveled and hidden into the net, I couldn't believe it. That was fantastic. And there's something he's definitely bringing to his game. I hope he's telling his game the next few games coming up. - Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Just before we go on, all the times I let you in as well. Sterling and Catino for the levels that they've achieved over the course of the season have to be commended. They've gone through-- both of them have gone through Truff's and have come back and have just been so electric to the second half of the season. I remember the debates we had around the whole city game, and after Sterling's performance that day, and is should he go out alone? Is he the target player that needs a bit of a loan at this stage? And he's just gone on leaps and bounds. And I'm glad that we had a manager who had enough strength and his beliefs to put Sterling in. And the same with Catino. Catino's been in for the majority, but he's been left out at the right times. And now we're reaping the dividends because it's his form that's making the difference when it comes to the cities and shelters and the whole lot. And that's what's going to swing the toilet for us. - OK, James, that's a very good point, isn't the film, makes that basically Rogers needs to take off a lot of the credit for the emergence and the continued excellence of these two young players? - Yeah, I think with younger players, it's kind of, as with a lot in football in terms of what managers actually do there today, it can be quite difficult to actually know in some ways how much is just the player's natural development or the player in the good mentality and how much is the manager. It's like you could look at Henderson and say that he was bought in by Kenny in his first season. He wasn't anything like as good as he is now, but then he was 21 and it was his first season at a bigger club, whereas now obviously you'd expect, say, a midfielder to have improved a lot between the ages of 21 and nearly 24. But I mean, us to those two, yeah, because there was obviously a stage where people were kind of questioning, they really felt Sterling's development has stagnated and then all of a sudden he comes back into the team and he just looked like he got it. Coutinho was always a player. I mean, both of these two different degrees are always players that will mark that as ones who are likely to be top level players or something close to it by the time they were kind of in the early 20s. So, I don't think either or anything like Flanagan where it's kind of a case of almost turning water into wine. But yeah, I mean, I think we're seeing the benefits really here of the decision FSD talking in a point in someone like Rodgers because Rodgers' real sort of reputation as much as anything else was well. Among being good at a lot of things, one thing he was noted for being good at was basically being a very good hands-on coach and particularly with younger players because they're always that bit more malleable. They've always got that much, you know, they can be molded that bit more. And that was always something that I think appealed to up a sheet because they want younger players, you know, that they're on generally on lower wages, they've got a better resale value. But we're reaping the rewards of that. And we're reaping the rewards. A lot of the things that I think, I mean, get more with a bit muddled, but I think, you know, Coutinho, the suggestion was Coutinho was more of a, and I'm not trying to take any credit away from Rodgers, but Coutinho was more of a committee target than a Rodgers target. Even if your Coutinho was, you know, sorry, Rodgers was well aware of him and that he was a player with a, you know, a lot of good sort of raw materials. And I think, you know, Sterling obviously was a, was a wrap of Anita sign, you know, again, the team's very often, they've kind of got the marker, many sort of, many eras on them in a way if you like. So we're enjoying the benefits of a lot of things. But I mean, certainly, yeah, Rodgers is the man working with him day in, day out. He's the one who's sort of, he's the one who's, you know, using Reimstone in a number 10 position. He's the one who's using Coutinho in a midfield three. So in that respect, yeah, Rodgers does deserve a lot of credit because it's not so much that they're in the team and playing well. It's more the manner in which they're doing it, in the roles in which they're doing it, because I don't think people would really have foreseen that. So, yeah, I suppose that there are a lot of other things at play, but you've certainly got to give Rodgers a lot of credit, yeah. Well, that's it. It comes back to that thing you mentioned earlier on a bit. You can have a grand plan if you want it. And, you know, Brendan's been the first to talk about it's grand plan and header ahead of the curve. But as you said earlier on, basically, you work with what you have and you work to the maximum what you have. And he certainly seems to be doing that. Molly, I'm very, very curious to hear about your ideas on what you may have heard about Daniel Sturridge, because it's gone kind of quiet in terms of any clarity on his situation and what the situation will be for last few games. Yeah, well, he had a scan today. I didn't see the extent of the damage. And he's definitely up for an Irish. And it looks like he's probably going to be up for Chelsea. But I know the independent running story today, they said that he's going to be up for the season. Like, that would be a big blow to us. Now, I know in the last few games, he hadn't made much of a contribution. And I have to be honest, if there's one complaint to have about Sturridge, is that when he's not scoring, he doesn't actually seem to contribute me up much. Like, if you look at Suarez, when he wouldn't show his baron spell there, he didn't score for what, six or seven games or something. But at the time, he was still making assists, creating penalties, free kicks, all of that. Sturridge hasn't seemed to be doing that as of late. And I don't know, he seems to have lost that little bit of confidence when he doesn't score. But, having said all of that, of course, he's going to be useless if he's out for the next four games. That's a big blow, because the one place where we're kind of weak, maybe in this squad, is attacked. But who's going to replace? We're looking at it either. Victor Moses is our yeah-go-ass pass, and, you know, I don't think any of those are good enough to be honest with you. I think it's well that just on a, like, you know, we're so reliant on Suarez now. If Sturridge is missing, then, you know, the whole thing that we're going to Norwich and he's going to score another bucket load of goals. And at some stage, he's going to come up short in a game against Norwich. And he's not going to score anything. We'd be fortunate that the goals have started to come for players around the pitch, like Skirtle scored, Catino scored, Stirling scored. There were three scores, and Sunday there was no, there was no storage. There was no Suarez in that trio of goals scores. And I think Echomol is pointless. But then again, there's always a folk hero in tight run-ins. There's always, there's room for Victor Moses to come on and score five goals in the last four games. No, but this is, it's like the McCain effect from, from '08, '09. Never to be seen, I've heard again. Like, even babies got more games, you know, since then. And so, it's like, you know, you don't know what's going to happen. And then, again, in adversity, he springs triumph, so it's... Well, it would, presumably we don't discover Ronnie Rosenthal under the bench somewhere, looking at what we have going on. You're talking about Suarez in the unlikelihood of that run and continuing at Infinoid him. But he nearly took himself out of the equation, didn't he, during the game? I mean, he was like a little narc, winching, moaning. It was every, all the worst stuff from this game. Yeah, I think a lot of this comes down to the players trying to have heard, particularly in, in, in, in storages and Suarez's case, because I, I think when you look at them, they were so fired up. I think storage wanted to prove that he wasn't gone off the boil and that he was going to get a goal and was, you know, pulling a few things, even the, even the one that's distilling whips across from him. He scores that three or four weeks ago. He wraps his foot around it, it goes into the bottom corner and we're, we're talking about another wonderful spin finish by Daniel storage. He tries to make sure it happens as opposed to just going with his natural instincts. Suarez wanted to win that game more than anybody in that stadium. And what we then got was the Mad Suarez, the one that, you know, felt that he had to do for the team because he probably had, when he seen the storage miss, he probably taught himself, you know, or even subconsciously, he's, he's not on farm. So I need to score the goals here today when, in fact, what he needed to do was take a step back, calm down and go at him again, because he got lost in his battle with Demi Calus and Demi Calus handled him very well on the, on the day itself. And then, you know, the silly things that are coming out in the game. To his credit, he should have had a penalty against Vincent Co. But he should have also been sent off for, for the dive. But I think Clattonberg called it because the ball was going out of play anyway and, and decided that the events that happens after the ball being lost control of and heading out of play where relevant to the game and just ignored what happened. Yeah. And that's a fair isn't it? So he did, that was one hyped up individual there on the day. Yeah. He looks like a fucking mad man running around the place. What I'd say, and I'm wondering, I'm not saying it is the reason he's written the verge of breaking records here. I wonder is he's starting to play a little bit for Luis Juarez rather than Liverpool. Kobe, something that could be ended on me, could be looking at that record. And that's what he wants to get this goal out of the way, get a bit of force man to break toward the goals, whatever it was. I don't know what the exact record is, but he's written the verge of breaking. Is he looking at this now at this stage and saying, I want this going to, I want this record from yourself where you want to be the man that does this. And he could be just trying that two hairs, 100 can force things. And if you force it, more points than not, you just become frustrated. And things don't come off as normal. If it just goes like playing his natural game, it will happen again from, but I have to, as soon as he went down under the demi-calist tackle, he said he's gone, he's gone. And to be honest, he deserved to go for it. It was very reminiscent to Chelsea match last year when he bit of Anavic. He was building up that, that, that, that. You could take all my head, because it's coming on and coming, right the way through the game. You could just say it was like, from the moment that he gets the yellow card, you know, just, I was breaking it that he was going to get sent off. I was convinced he was going to get. And that would have, you know, potentially just fucking derailed the whole thing. Because if you, if you have Henderson now, if you've started, yeah. It was too yellow, so you don't even miss one game. Getting the straight red, like, we talked about Henderson, but Henderson getting the straight red, it comes from Victor Moses losing the bar, but we won't agree with that till much, right? But it was a poor catch. It was a shit touch from Henderson. Yeah, but, you know, Henderson then, in a similar fashion, till we're talking about the lives trying to hurt Henderson goes, a health letter to win that bar back a couple of minutes left, just wants to win it, doesn't give a shit, just is determined to win it and goes in with the reckless challenge. And it's paid the ultimate price. He misses out the running effectively until we get to new ones. Well, he knew it was his fuck up in the end. The way I look at that second one that swore is they can get the card for it. If that's against us, and there's a player dose that on a yellow card on fucking screaming red, and I'm giving out for the rest of the week that that player should have been gone, you shouldn't have got this held again, we've got this held again. That's where I look at it. So, you got to look in that occasion. Jim, you were commenting on the game on Sunday. How was the heart rate at that point when Suarez goes down under Demikairus's tackle? Well, I can't tell you if you could call it that. I'd say it was more like disorganised shouting. Well, funnily enough, you pick up on that. And actually, myself and Simon, who's obviously a friend of the podcast, who were commentating on it, we didn't see that Demikairus. Well, see, this is kind of a grey area itself because much of the day, they ultimately concluded that Demikairus had actually his ankle. Basically, Suarez had gone over his ankle. Maybe it wasn't a foul because he'd actually took the ball, but it wasn't a dive either. And in that respect, Clattenberg would have got the right call. But at the time, we were convinced it was a foul. I'm not sure if either of us just kind of didn't think to watch the replay that showed afterwards that it was possibly a dive. But I mean, I've still not seen the replay back since match of the day, said, you know, actually, Demikairus has won the ball fair in Square, but then Suarez has just happened to go over his ankle, and there's just no one's in the wrong. So I don't know about that. But I mean, yeah, that's about as much as I could tell you, because we got to completely wrong during the commentary, I'm afraid. Yeah, fair enough. So let's say one thing, I was just saying one thing about Henderson's red card. That's the most English sending off you will ever see. Yeah. You know, what's up? Poor touch. It runs loose to an opposition player. And you kind of admonishing yourself for the bad touch, and you're like, yeah, I can't let there's loose the ball here, because it'd be my fault. And you dive in desperate trying to win the ball, and then we go. I mean, he took the ball, but he took it by kind of, you know, going in at shin height, didn't he? So can't have any complaints. I don't know if there's any malice. I think it's just desperation at the last stage of the game. He's taught on for the team there, but that's, I mean, looking ahead, I know what we're going to talk about, Norwich, the worry is that you could get away with maybe one one of Henderson's stories not being there, but both of them not being there. It affects who you who out of the midfield three can play in the front three and vice versa kind of thing. So that'd be the worry there. With that tackle, Jim, remind me of so much. Remember the mask around a tackle he got sent off or in old traffic when he just went flying in. He'd lost the ball. And again, just that sort of I want. Hello, though, because you got it. I was a second yellow, wasn't it? Because you got two yellers that are sending it to the set of things. But it's one of those where you just go, you're just you're determined to win the ball back. You're putting your body on the line. You're right. It's a very quintessential English player tackle, but, you know, he's trying to do everything. You can feel the emotion in the crowd. Like that the whole day, between the game being the anniversary of Hillsborough, the crowd was electric for true to game. And to the credit of the Anfield crowd again, when we looked dead and buried at 2R, because City looked like they were going to ramp home at that stage, the crowd came back in and, you know, the chance started to go on, the singing started to go on, and really got the players. And Rogers is a substitution in bringing Joe Allen onto the pitch. Fundamentally changes that whole game for us. It really does, but it's also the crowd as well. And you can see, and now we're going to talk about Joe Allen a minute, and I'll leave it till the end, but, you know, it's such an important bit now for the team. Is this void that's within the fans that we believe, like, you know, make us believe, make us dream, and we believe. Now, if the fans know we believe, and I think they believe themselves, the players on the pitch, because they have the fans behind them, no matter what happens from here. Yeah, speaking of extreme emotions, yes, obviously we had the memorial at Anfield in the 25th anniversary of Hillsborough. And I'm not sure how many of you got to see how much of it, but the various coverage levels there were. But a notable feature of it, obviously, you would expect all the usual people spoke with all the usual levels of dignity. But one notable feature of it for me was to see that sort of solidarity expressed by a very articulate man in Roberto Martinez. And, Molly, did you catch his words on the day? Yeah, he was. He'd been a fantastic speech. And, you know, it made me kind of proud. Even though I'm not a scouser, you know, I don't have to remember. But just to show the two clubs united in grief over there, and it made some fantastic words. The whole list of hashtags going on mergers and sages. I thought that was absolutely fantastic. You know, Martin is a great manager, a great speech. And I tell you something, if I was the pinky team to get forward, I'd love everything to get it. I really would. Yeah, yeah, there is that kind of very much sort of mutually embracing atmosphere at the moment. OK, let's move on then to our preview of Norwich versus Liverpool. Right, with Hendo out, is it going to be Alan or Lucas to start? Or was George likely to be out, too? Is it more or less now a long study that both will start? I think both have to start. And now we've spoke around with ourselves, between ourselves, and I just hate to talk to Lucas coming into the soil at any stage. I just don't leak when he's in the soil. I think, especially when we've had this whole great part earlier on this season, when midfield wasn't working, it was drag and Lucas. Whatever has happened to Lucas after this injury, he just doesn't seem to have the energy levels that he used to. You get a good 44, 50 minutes out, and then you might as well rate him off. He's gone for the rest of the game. If he comes back into the soil, he's knocked on the wind, was a very bad position. He's going to have to go in and do serious walk rate, to replace where Henderson's gone out of soil. I'm on the sides of the diamond base. Basically, that's what he has to do. And we'll get 50 minutes out. I don't see us getting much more. Now, I'd love to turn around the end of the game, say Lucas is the best player in the park. I'd love it to happen for yourself, for the club, as well, to win the game. But then players are going to have to come in. They're the only two. Who else have we got? Yeah. Who else is there? Why do we change it? Well, OK, we'll come back to Lucas. I want to bounce that question off one or two other people as well. But speaking of Joe Allen, because I was very, very impressed with his input when he did come on, I think we can. Joe Allen, he's a great little player, because he's willing to come on and build a donkey walk. He's willing to build up. But he's very, very good on the ball. I keep possession of the ball at times. I don't think I'd probably disagree slightly with Phil. I don't feel he changed the game for us. But that went too well. I was saying nobody else was in that gamble city. And I actually thought that it's only going to be a mistake. And it was literally a mistake if a company steps up 100 times more. He's smashed that into Rose Edley. You know, it's unheard of. Probably one of the best defenders in England for the last three or four years. He had a mistake. He had a dodgy game, though. He was poor for the fours. He was beaten by Skirt for the second goal. And I remember, you know, in March and Skirt last year in the actual games. And then he was at fault then for the toward goal. He was having one of those fucking rickety meri of games. But it might take him to Joe Allen coming on. And why it made such a difference. When they brought Milner into the side and they owned the ball, they were taken as a paraboy at will. And I think Alan just brought that sort of cohesiveness back to the actual midfield again. It just changed our shape slightly. We were much better in possession with the ball. We weren't giving it away as easy because to start that second half, you might remember, we were just pinging the ball away. We'd stop finding ourselves. So going into the Norwich game, I think playing away from home, Norwich are going to be set up very deep in terms of what we're going to have a lot of luck on the ball. And we need Joe Allen's ability to keep the ball, retain it, and move the ball around the pitch and pull them out of position to create the space for us to exploit. And I think that's fundamentally why Joe Allen is so important to this game on Sunday. Likewise, with the Lucas piece, looking at where, if he comes in, I agree with Damon under 45 minutes. I think Lucas can do a really good 45 minutes for us. But if we start by Lucas and Joe Allen and Gerard, and one of them get injured, we've no options under, no real experienced options under bench for a start. And we're also making two changes to the shape of our side and to the person now. Whereas if you do look for likes to offer Henderson for Allen, because Henderson is out, you can still play Coutinho, Allen, and Gerard as your midfield tree. And you're not fundamentally changing how your team is going to set up. OK, so hang on. And then what way do you see the lads ahead in? Up top? Yeah, I'm thinking about that at this moment. Sorry, Becky. I've been thinking about this for fucking days. If you play Coutinho, Allen, and Gerard, why don't we go to do up top? Because I'm only heading down to Ali's, I just broke the top. One of them's got Aspus Avenue. Wait, where's that kid text hearing? He's going to be coming into the very same. What he won't bring to the team and what he'll annoy me about when he plays against Nudge, he's the temple we play. Allen plays that fast, humble, handles him, plays that fast. But Lucas comes in, it's a fucking wound temple. It doesn't change. Everything's kind of slowed down. I don't know what all you just feel like, well, he just changed to me. He just slows down our play. I think he's probably been a little bit harsh on him, but I do think that in terms of the weakness in his game is more to do with the fitness level. And because of the speed and the temple we play at, that's why I think he drew up. That's why I think you got 45 really good minutes out of him. And then he struggles a bit then for the remain on 45. Molly, give me a more positive slant on Lucas. I know in the past, I've heard you speak more or less in favor of him. I'm not fully buying this 45 minutes. Crack the lads are going on with so what would you think? I mean, would you be nervous to see Lucas start and probably finish the match? No, in fact, if I had my choice, I'd have Lucas starting ahead of Alan. Because to be honest, I'm not really too sure what Alan brings to the team. I mean, come to the answer. Yeah, he passes the patient. He's become post, but there's not really any penetration for him. He's just not, I don't know what he brings to the team. I think Lucas, if you put him in there, at least you could might say, well, put him back into the defensive meet and push Gerard up there with Coutinho. And that would leave Sterling and Swarley's up top and probably bringing Victor Moses as well. So I think Lucas can offer just a little bit more than what you are, Alan would. And that's why I bring him in. Yeah, but Molly, would you not be seriously nervous about moving Stevie away from where he's now proved himself after an adapted to being wonderful? No, because I think Stevie's a fantastic player. No matter where you put him, if you put him into that defensive midfield, the center midfield, the right back, the number 10 up top, he's going to do a job for you. Or I think Lucas, at each other place, he's going to do a job for you really, is in that defensive midfield role. So that's why I put him in there and leave Gerard, go further up top. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. James, would you just come in behind that as well? And would you have any different kind of a take on the midfield options available to us? Like I said, it wouldn't be too difficult if it was just one of storage or Henderson out, but both. And suddenly, we go from looking like we've got a strong 11 and a couple of good options on the bench to sort of being a bit stuck really, because you could take continue out of the midfield and put him in a kind of, say, let's say, a front three, if you were going to go with a 4-3-3. But I don't know, Coutinho has actually had that many good games playing from the left first of all. Yeah. So that's not ideal either. But it may, there's an argument to say that it's better than putting in Moses and Aspas, neither of whom have started the game since January and neither of whom have looked good enough, who, you know, and taking the team, which has kind of got continuity and got momentum. OK, you've rotated Alan and Coutinho and Sterling in and out of the starting line, but that's three from two. And they're all very much kind of in the loop, if you like. You're putting in two, I mean, you know, Aspas, to be fair, you know, everything you hear about Aspas suggests that his mentality in his application is actually really, really good for a player who's just, it's just not worked out for. But he knows he's gone in the Southern, surely. Moses is just flaky. So do you want to be putting either of those in or would it be better to put Coutinho in? OK, he's not at his best in that role, but you kind of know what you're, you know, you know what you're kind of going to, you know, he's kind of, he's in the loop, so to speak, he's got kind of being a better way of putting it in the map. But if you do that, you're left with, you know, Arnold Henderson had a Geraldine midfield. Well, I mean, the first thing with that is there's not, you know, from those two players, there's not a great deal in the way of one sort of threat to score a goal. Although, you know, Henderson doesn't really provide a great deal either, because he's only scored four all season and one was a free kick. But there's not really that, but more so, there's not really a lot of kind of, and Gerald provides a bit of this from deeper. But there's not really that kind of vertical threat in terms of their passing. Now, there's a lot of merit to having a player like Alan, who we talked about before, and Lucas did this actually brilliantly in Louisville and where West Ham just gets into a little pocket of space and just lends the ball off people and just keeps it moving in such a way that you keep the opposition moving. And if you keep them moving, spaces appear. Yes. So that, I think, bearing in mind, I think Norwich, although they're at home, will be very cagey here. One, humans are very safety-first manager, and two, they are happily take a point in this game. They've got a tougher on the fixtures, but if they can collect a point from a couple of them, they may well be all right. So they'll be very, very cagey, and obviously we haven't got the kind of the, we haven't got as much of the threat in behind with storage. So the concern there in that respect is that if you take Coutinho out and Coutinho can't force it a bit, sometimes in central positions, the concern is that that's one aspect. When you've got the ball, you maybe can be a bit pedestrian and a bit one-paste. Second, then, I think, is that Lucas and Gerald, in the same midfield, was difficult enough with Henderson there. Yeah. Without Henderson there, and Alan's quite mobile and quite tenacious, and so is Coutinho, I think you've got a bit of a problem where, you know, it's one thing for us to have a good 45 minutes away at West Ham against a team who were in the second 45 minutes, didn't see a lot of the ball and a tie-in and a sitting very deep anyway. Asking him to do it for 90 minutes when he's not started a game since Stoke Away in January is another question, so we're a little bit, we're a little bit stuck, I think. So I'm, again, it's one of those situations where I'm glad I've not got a better decision because it looks like a set of fairly kind of difficult options, but then, again, you know, you're talking about whether you play Lucas and Gerald in the same midfield, it is not at your way. So, you know, the midfield battle shouldn't be that intense because they'll probably be sitting off us quite a bit, so maybe 60, 70 minutes of that, you can get away with that and you throw someone on as an impact player in a wide position, you might put Coutinho in the middle, but that doesn't allow for maybe playing the diamond with two strikers, and obviously the reason you wouldn't be thinking in terms of doing that is just the fact that we've got two very good strikers and not much after that, but no, might you even try and play, you know, go with four in the middle, you go with Gerard, you go with Lucas and Ireland as kind of wide players, if you like, in a diamond, Coutinho, and then Coutinho behind Sterling in Suarez's strike, because I'd probably rather play Sterling with a striker than I'd do another two, he's quick, his movement is fantastic, he's probably about the best replica we've got, Sturridge, so I'd be tempted to even crowd the middle, that's the four backs to push on, and then go with two strikers with a kind of a player who will play the killer pass station behind him, and maybe do that actually. Yeah, well actually that sounds like a very valid option, but all I could hear, and all I've been able to hear for the last while is the names of Diego Aspas and Victor Moses, fully I'm very nervous that we might have to include these chaps, where does the gold track come from? Like if we go back to this idea that Suarez can't be expected to get three golds in every fucking Norwich game, where does the gold track come from now? I'm looking at the Norwich side, it's going to be difficult to know what to expect from them this week, you know, you know what's being sacked, you know, they might have a manager who just says "Fucking ass, let's go for this," thinking out, and he might just go balls out, they mightn't see it, so it's very difficult for a very dislector, so it's to go out and combat what Norwich are going to do, because we've got that on, we actually don't know what we're going to approach again. The only gold track that we can see is if we tweak our system and play with a 4-2-3-1, and have somebody sit in the storage yard as that defensive screen, and then letting the 4-lads go for it up top. Again, the problem would be if that's Lucas and everyone's going to have flashbacks to how that didn't work in the past. Exactly, yeah, that's exactly what my worry would be. Our main gold track is going to come true, Catenio, Suarez, and Sterling Lincoln up, and there's no two ways about it. Whatever happened, if Moses is on the left, you know, he's not a bad player, let's call this player this player, he's a decent player, that again, this hasn't worked out for him. He's doing well at other clubs, like, maybe this could be, as you've said earlier on, maybe this is one of them games that you can go and make himself a hero. You know, all the months of shock behind them, and all of them being a hero, is that right? Coming back to where I was saying earlier on, you're saying, if I was in control of the team, and I was picking Catenio, Alan and Gerard, just basically putting Alan into Henderson, what would I go up top with storage missing? For me, I'd start Aspus, and the reason I'd start Aspus is because the one thing I guaranteed from him is work rate, and he will walk as socks off for the team. On, you know, pharma side and everything, he will walk his socks off, walk his arse into the ground for the team, because he will feel that he can give something, and with storage potentially being out, he might have a chance of playing in this run-in and making a telling contribution to what's actually achieved in something. It's Norwich at the end of the day, there's a good chance that he can do something, he's going to occupy space, if he makes runs, he can't afford to ignore him. My problem with Moses is that, and as James said, he turns off, if tings doesn't happen for him in the force two minutes of the game, he won't affect it, he won't look for the ball, he doesn't look hungry, he's very lackadaisical, and that comes across from all the reports that have come out, the make-out that he's been talking to and trying to hold out, and he still won't, you know, he still won't grab the ball by the horns and normal it, so if we were to go with the way I'm thinking, and be an Alan and straight swap for Henderson, the only one that I would start from the likely squad that we have, will be Asbas in alongside Suarez with Sterling at the tip of the diamond, because again, Asbas has the ability as well to pull out wide and you can go to a more normal for tree formation if you want, or you can move things around, you could move Coutinho into the tin and move Sterling out, you can change your shape because he's more of a fluid type player, so that's my logic behind it. Yes, it's not ideal, but look, let's come on back to this, right, and in real terms, it's Norwich, there's a nervousness about us because of what we were saying earlier on that this is an opportunity to win the league, and we don't want to slip up in the Norwich match and the Palace match and the Newcastle match, you know, let's embrace this, we're the better team going to Norwich, we are, look at the huddle, look at the intensity on Gerard's face, look at the way the players reacted to that huddle, look at the way, you know, there was almost a feeling that if we could get over the city game, we thoroughly believe that this is in our hands, forget the 10 games that have gone before us, we only see four games, we only see the game that's in front of us which is Norwich, and we're coming like a juggernaut towards Norwich, and nothing is going to stop us in this, and that was Gerard was more or less, telling him, he's screaming at them, it's gone, it's gone, it's got a stat for you Phil, hit me up, Liverpool has scored 27 goals in their last eight matches, Norwich has scored 26 goals all season, yeah, you know, and the only things James, no one air look, you're not aware that Ricky Vance Wolfers-Winkle hasn't scored a goal since 1904, right, he's probably got a header or something on Sunday against us. Well actually that's a nice little segue into the next thing we need to look at, and we should look at, the phrase, it's Norwich at the end of the day has been used now three or four times. Bloody, what should be worried about what Norwich have to offer? You mentioned earlier on about the fact that there is going to be potentially, maybe it's only a part-time gaffer in charge, but there's going to be a change of mindset for sure, and they're going to be up for sure, so what do we have to worry about with them? Watching them a couple of times this season, I don't really think they have much that we have to worry about, I think other than that probably a new manager coming in and he's saying, let's just go for this, what we got to live, we're not expecting to win the game, the kind of good thing going for, they do a beat by Fulham last week and Fulham up his poor, that's going to affect them. That was a huge loss to them as well, they put their eggs in the basket that will be Fulham and that were more or less make-a-safe. So I don't see where he can hurt us, I don't know if the lad that he bought off Celtic, Helper is still injured. Was he on the bench, does anyone remember if he was on the bench until we can? I can't remember. That's probably the only interruption they have, like Fulham will swing down. It looks like he can hit the fucking net league from anywhere this day, as you know, it's worth it. But some of the only other options he can go with is maybe going with Helper and trying to get crosses into the box. I really don't see what they offer, really crosses fucking crosses. And look at that and say, where can we get some joy? We've all seen it, we all think, I've got some joy, I've lived with people on crosses because that's always been the way for the last world we've all, we spoke about it to debt here. And I'm sure they're looking at that as well. Where can we hurt Liverpool? Okay, let's get a win, get a few crosses and Dave at Moistol. James, is that a fair enough point there that the Fulham makes? Every chance that these guys are just going to get there in our flanks and cross the ball and trying to upset us in that way. Probably because that's what your typical kind of, less so I suppose than maybe 10 years ago, because you've had some teams that come up and kind of play a more involved style of football, shall we say? But that's what your typical bottom off teams do. I mean, they've got some players with a bit of a bit of imagination and a bit of canache. I mean, Snodgrass is a decent player and he's quite good with the with the dead balls as well. So he's probably one you'd watch out for. But I mean, yeah, don't be generally, the, you know, shooting's not exactly a manager, no, for sort of punching above his weight in attacking terms. Well, I've got what shooting's gone, isn't he? And I've, I've got pretty much, I've got you guys who've been shooting before as well, doesn't I? Oh, for trying out master life. It's a good northern English isn't for you there. Shit. I don't know nothing about how Neil Adams has got himself, so I don't know, but I mean, you can only work with what you've got. Yeah. The famous last words, obviously, but there's not that much that stands out that you think, shit, you know, you'd be looking at set pieces, you'd be looking at, you know, Snodgrass with three kicks, you'd be looking at their strikers, you've scored about two goals between them or C's and actually kind of finding form against us and only against us and that being the thing that scuppers the title challenge. But that's just, I don't know, that's the way we kind of had to end up thinking when we weren't very good, but we're actually, you know, quite decent now. So even if that happens, we hopefully would have enough to overcome it. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, it's, it's hard to know. And basically, our caution is kind of wrecking our heads completely in terms of what to expect. And we're really uneasy with this idea of being confident. The only trend, the only trend. The British page on who scored now to actually see a bit of knowledge, I think I'm going to be commentating on this one as well. Does your memory yield? No, I was sacked. The only threat that I'm a bit wary of is Nathan Redmond on one of the days. Yeah, he's playing really well. Oh, whatever flanky, he played. Actually, even in the team, Phil, because he seemed to be scoring a few goals start of the season. Jim, he played against Fulham and to Norwich's credit, they should have won the game. They met, your man Stockdale had an absolute worldly against him, right? Is it a case of he'd maybe gone out of favor under Hooten and obviously not the manager anymore? Yeah, and he's only a bit like Sterling. He's only a kid as well, so he's going to have ups and downs. And given that we've been linked to him a bit, you'd wonder, is there going to be a bit between his team, you know, to put on a performance and show Brandon Rogers? Well, actually, if Norwich go down, I could be available here. I might be suitable. Yeah, so I can interject with a couple of things. If anyone wants to know who's scored, by the way, here's what Norwich are good at. Protecting the lead, that's one thing. They don't play against us every week, but then the other. Surprisingly, perhaps, given what all I was just saying about, you know, probably not playing great football, they're very good at creating chances through individual skill, apparently. They take a lot of long shots, play a lot of long pause. They do attempt a lot of crosses and they attack down the right, and this is very binary stuff. But what they're not good at keeping possession, finishing chances, what a fucking surprise. Defending against skillful players, we've got one or two of those, so that's good. Defending against counter-attacks, good at that. Aerial duels, rubbish. Avoiding individual areas, well, we're not very good at that either. So, but there you are. That's what who's scored. So, in a nutshell, though, sure. In a nutshell, they're fairly poor, but all the things you'd expect them to be, except they're actually quite good at creating chances through individual skills, however that's just fine. So, yeah, I've got to head out. Okay, we'll factor all that in. Do some sort of fucking random equation and give me a prediction for the match. I think it's a game we'll probably control, but I think it'll be a bit of a grind at times in the absence of Henderson and Sturridge, and we might play quite a patient game with Aaron in there. So, I think it will finish Norwich City, Nirl, Liverpool 2. Very nice. Floody year prediction, please, mate. I was going to go with the toenail, but I think we will control most of the game, go to Nirl up, till you get one back. We'll be shitting, and then we'll score one late in the game to open a gap up. Open a gap up again, yes. I'll treat one. Okay, yeah. I see it being tired in that guy that I have to say, and I'm relying on my man, Suarez, scoring to keep see us through Phil, your thoughts. Four-nailed Norwich. Lovely. Okay, listen to the questions. Ricky Van Wolfswinkle, quadruple. Jesus Christ. Right, let's start and have a look at our listeners' questions then. First one is from Hot Miss Understood Guy. He wants to know, what's the worst nights, but now he asks Dublin, I just want you to tell me that the worst nights, but you've ever been in was. If there's a few lads that that followed up hard, we'll know this place inside out. This is probably not only the worst club that was ever in Dublin, there's probably the worst club ever in the world. It was the label banana. Boy, what's up out about the bookie? What was so bad about it? You're all up to the door and the bouncer stop you, any weapons on you? No, we'll be about to take this. That's how bad it was. There was one way that Phil didn't get in, he'd come back with a shotgun, he'd shut the doors in, one way to get out of the place and strip set everyone in the whole nightclub. It was horrific, absolutely horrific. Some of the worst people that you're ever going to come across went to this, and you're going to know that some of the lads that were there, they're going to be all over this, they're going to be tweeting about this. It was shocking. If there was a league of Dublin criminals, they're meeting places that blew up in that door. Do you remember that song in the late 90s, "Stated Grace", it's not over yet. Remember that song? Yeah, it was a club song. They got hard to sing that song, "Loiv" there. She got manhandled by the front row, they had to get the bouncers in to get her out the back. That's the worst ever. Next one up is from Champ, and Champ is wondering if you can make a sandwich using a bodily fluid, which one would it be, and why? Sandwich with a bodily fluid. It's not much of a choice now, but what do you think? I'm going to say for lads, we've got to say, you've got to be your salmon, because most of us have been trying to get one with the swallow for years. Oh, boy, God. Yeah, so you know what the right answer to this one is? You know, there is a very, very obvious answer, and you've just sold yourself there. Tears, tears, salty, salty, salty tears, okay. Floody same and sandwich. Come into a deli near you. I'd have the special mayonnaise, please. Real, real salty. Spunk, spunk baguette. Alright, let's go to Cluddy. Tell me where the worst place, and this is a question from Stewie. Worst place, you could take a girl for a date on. I want to go to the blue banana now. Uh, Kaelan asks, "Which TV series doctor would you most like to be, and why? If you're going to be a TV series doctor, which one would you be?" Fell on your shirt, too. Um, George Clooney and Eeyore, I don't know what his name was. Right. Just purely because it's George Clooney. Uh, what you'd like to be, George? Are you like to be, George, because he gets... The ladies. The ladies. Yeah, that's fair enough. Perks of the job. Perks of the job. Perks of the job. Perks of the job. Perking of the job. Hello, I'm George Clooney. Oh, no. That's the job. Blue swires. James, if you're going to be a doctor in a TV show, which one would you be? Uh, just because it's a moderately obscure shout, I'll say Dr. Kusamano, off the sopranos, who's Tony Soprano's neighbour, and referred Tony to Dr. Melphy. So, hey, without Kusamano, the sopranos would have outboarded it. They would have never made a TV series about it. Oh, you're taking one from the team there. Flurry, if you're going to be... Dr. Drake, I'm out of the nightclub and you are chatting a bird up at a bar and you realise, all of a sudden, when you look in the mirror, that you've got Sergio Aguero's haircut. What do you do? I stopped talking to her and wired myself in the mirror. Do you think... Are you a fan of the Aguero? Oh, all those haircuts are wonderful. Are they? Yeah. They're like deconstructed haircuts. It's like that advertisement for him. I don't know, it's a radio station or something over here at the moment, where your man has... The barber's made a complete budget job of his hair. He was shaved on the side and there's a floppy bit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I love those details. It's like, I can go back and get a finish. Or this will do for a while and I just couldn't be arsed. I have to say, and it's absolutely no trace of hair envy. I think they're shit. I was looking at the ground coming on the other day. I was going, you've got half a haircut fella. I just thought it was rotten. This is pretty rotten. You can have any haircut you want and I'd recommend anyone to look up your man, Penella, who can't remember what team he plays from in Germany. And if you think Aguero's a shotgun, the lad is going bald and he has willow the whisk ball over the shotgun with a mullet and the shaved bits. He's got four haircuts. He's got four haircuts in one and he's also balding. Yeah. But he's worse than Zidane ever was playing football. That's a bad question. What about Shamak? Shamak's blatantly going, you know, rapidly receding on top, but he's maintaining that kind of mullet, like a sort of an Emmerdale character from about 2004, who was kind of a bit... You know, he's still going for that. It's hard to know whether you admire Shamak's haircut or you just laugh at the fuck. As soon as somebody brings a two-pound to the pitch, I'm mind I'm on for bringing two-pays back. Is it kind of like vanity in vain or is it like a complete object like a self-awareness? In this case, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, speaking for myself, if I look in the mirror and I've got a Guaro's haircut, it'll probably be a fucking improvement on what I've got because I've got some lead more. I only hope I'd kind of like acquired the bone structure to actually be able to pull that haircut off. We'll probably rather have that. Yeah. We've all made funny promises here about what we'll do with the League, and I'm going to add on to my later host and shows. If somebody wants to get me a two-pay off an Aguero haircut, I'll wear that as well. I will have a two-pay for you. If we, if we were the League and the Newcastle, and you would have to host the show in the king, how you wear the two bangs. And later, host. No, fucking problem. And your Charlie Chapel moustache. We will. Oh, yeah. That's the clincher. Next one is from Barry. And Barry says, "If you could have one thing free from the rest of your life, what would that thing be?" Just how we think about that. And it can't be money. It can't be money because that's clearly obvious answer. Free access to every Liverpool game. Nice. That's a good show. Do access to the game. Not travel or I can just get it. How are you going to get there? Free access. We have free travel. Yeah, slightly changing. Okay, finally some admin. Neil Pools, we are Liverpool fans in. It's going to be available at the Chelsea game for the first time, and it's going to be an ongoing feature. It really, really does promise to be a wonderful, wonderful publication myself and Phil. And a lot of other more eloquent contributors are going to be part of that. So get it and support that particular publication. You should also get on to lfcdatreppers.com. Check out the excellent and very content on there. And while you're out, remember that we did this extra Hillsborough Remembrance podcast this week also. Fair play to Johnny Webb for our class intro music as ever. There are eight days left of the Five Times competition. We'll offer you a chance to enter via Twitter during the weeks of keeping an eye on our feed for that. And don't forget our joint event with AI Carnage at the Harry Live podcast. On May the 11th, there will be something going on from 2.30 to 7.30. So get yourself along to that. And finally, your day trippers tonight were James Owens, Moly, Phil Casey, Damian Flood, myself, Trev Downey. It's gone. This pod has gone lads. We move on to the next one. We move on to the next one. We get it right. Come on, come on! Time to fire up the grill. Time to go to Total Wine and find the perfect flavor to pair with those burgers. Ooh, I love their beer cooler. You love their prices even more. Wonderous selection, helpful guides, ridiculously low prices, Total Wine and more. Time to fire up the grill. Time to go to Total Wine and find the perfect flavor to pair with those burgers. Ooh, I love their beer cooler. You love their prices even more. Wonderous selection, helpful guides, ridiculously low prices, Total Wine and more. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.
Episode 32 take 2 - after losing our full recorded podcast on monday night due to technical issues we got back in and discussed CIty, pressure or lackof, Sterling, Coutinho, full backs, Suarez, Sturridge, Norwich and your favourite bodily fluid sandwich filling and the legendary Blue Banana.If you are in Liverpool on the final day of the season be sure to join us and Anfield Index at the live Matchday podcast event to end all events Carnage in the Harry.
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