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It's Monday night and the swariest storage axis of a tiger firing from the hips. Having shot down Chaz Adam and the stoke yard dogs of war. Confusion rains. Are we happy or are we worried partners? Let's hit this alone and see what's going down with the day trippers. [Music] On tonight's show we're joined by Mark Simpson to review the banana's gold fest at the Britannia yesterday. We move on to our central midfield pairings in our worst all time 11 feature. We talk to Jonathan Wilson about his new book in the show, which is in Dublin last night. We look ahead to the return of Aston Villa next Saturday, which affords a red man's chance to atone for the poorest performance of last campaign and be concluded proceedings with another cornucopia of listeners questions delights. So five times we're bringing over Dee Dee Hamal and Jamie Carragher. We'll be there and we'll be offering you the chance to be there too, with a competition for some tickets to the event. Now Mark is on here to give us more information on this very subject and to tell us what we have to give away to some lucky listeners, Mark. Yes, so for those who don't know, five times it's headed up by Young Moby. It's the LSE Farmers Players Association. It's been going for a few years now and it was just created to bridge the gap between the club and the fans. All the work they do is to raise money for charity and have done lots of events already. They were in South Africa in November playing a football game over there against the Kaiser Chiefs, not the band. And it was a sellout crowd in Dublin last year and it was really quality event. Next month in February, Jamie Carragher and Dee Dee Hamal are going to be appearing in Dublin. It's going to be probably the only time you'll get to see Jamie Carragher doing an event like this. He's got no plans to do any more. He just wanted to come over and say thank you to the Irish fans that have supported him over the years. So if you haven't got a ticket, there's 150 left. Anybody who wants to get one, what I'm going to be doing, if you go to my Twitter account, which is @MrMarkSimpson, I'm going to be tweeting out links on how to get one. If you've got any questions, just get me on email marxSimpson@5times.co. And yeah, it really is limited seating left. It's pretty much a sellout. We've literally getting rid of the last 150 now in it's like say, Dee Dee Hamal and Jamie Carragher talking about Istanbul answering questions. It's going to be a pretty special night. We do actually have two tickets to give away. And it's going to be a sort of Twitter competition. And again, if I lose or confuse anybody, just get me on Twitter afterwards. And I'll tweet out and I'm sure you guys will tweet out as well. The rules are number one, follow @5timesco. Number two, make sure you're following the day trippers. And then what you've got to do is send a tweet out mentioning, obviously five times mentioned in the day trippers and have the hashtag, which is really important, Cara Day Trip. So C-A-R-R-A-D-A-Y-T-R-I-P. Put that in a tweet, send it off. And then I'm sure that we will draw one name out of the hat and you'll be given plenty of plenty of notice. It's just tickets. We're not going to pay for transport or out. So ideally, if you're close to Dublin, they're better. But yeah, like I say, it's going to be a really good night. And if anything like last year, last year, the guys in Dublin had Jon Barnes rapping. They all sang up and got up and sang, "You'll never walk alone." So it was a pretty special night. And yeah, I know you boys are heading over. Hopefully I'll be able to get over as well. We'll be able to have some drinks and a good catch. But it's just a good chance for local fans to talk about. They will not talk about Liverpool on Twitter. For a change. That's a fantastic mark. And thanks again for joining us this evening on that step. But let's begin our discussion tonight by speaking about the worst central midfield players that we've seen in red as we move on with our worst all-time 11s. So then, day trippers, who would be your mankiest midfielders? We'll start with our guest on the line tonight, Mark Simpson. Mark, who would you go for? So there's a lot to choose from. But I've gone for Salif Dieau. Joe had the Uliye signing. It was dubbed as the new Vieira after... I don't know if your member is 2002 World Cup showing. But he can forget it, yeah. Uliye signed him, but then played him every position apart from defensive midfielder. He played him, sent him back fullbacks. But I don't know if you remember, but he was actually in the Istanbul squad photo. It was when we were lifting up the trophy there. It was one of the players who was milking it, but never actually got on the subs bench. But I think it was that shocking. It was so slow and just didn't get it at all. I think Rafa just got rid as soon as possible. The one thing that stands out for me about why he makes it in my all-time worst 11 is his back heel against Fulham in 2005, which led to a Fulham goal. He was shortly pinned straight after. I've fought long and hard. I might say there's a lot of contenders, but Salif Dieau, he gets my place in the same. Brilliant. Are you going to stick with one yourself or had you had an idea for a partnership? I've got a partner and it's a bit of an old school show. And it's another Hulieye signing. It was his first ever sign. It was John Michael Ferry, just because of the headline that came with it, ferry across the Mersey, it was awful. You know what? You don't have to say anything more. That's perfect. Thanks a lot, Mark, for getting us started here. Demian Flood, who would you go for in the middle as a pairing? Just before I start, I just want to say that's a lovely beard you're putting your foot in there. We haven't seen you for about two weeks at this stage. One beard is gone. He got the beard. No, he's had the ground a beard in two weeks. That's impressive, for Santi. The Thilweye comfort. The first one is Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter, he was diagnosed with his last show in and he lasted about six weeks, seven games. I've gone from the fact that he looked like an actionman, but without the action. I think she only bought that guy, Ali, Deir, and famously put him on and took him back off. He's done the same with Jimmy Carter for Liverpool. So he's in there for starters, and then there's a guard base count that had to force towards like a snooker to have a cushion. It's just ridiculous. Oh, but Igor and the run to the Champions League final, no? No. Nothing, no. Okay, nothing there. Steven Bryan. I've gone for two more. He's the one's possibly the two worst players I've ever seen in the red shirt, and they've made the most horrific partnership ever, and it's Christian Paulson and Joe Cole. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Okay, okay. I really can't go into detail about these two people. Actually, it's just for the record. Steven looks really upset. Oh, you just cannot believe that the two of them play for Liverpool football. Christian Paulson is now the OYAS captain boy, do I? Yeah. The man is stealing the living. Absolutely stealing the living from him. And Joe Cole, just hands on his knees after one run. Yeah, I think that's it. Joe Cole envies Moifitness, and that says a lot. Perfect. Phil, here we go over. It's Mark, Rob, the Moiforce one, which was going to be Salif Joe. I remember the 2002 World Cup, and I thought when I watched that, that fella destroyed midfields on his own. He destroyed France. He was box to box. He was pacey. He was aggressive. He could create gold. He looked like he'd had golds in him. He looked like the ultimate midfielder. He looked like somebody that was going to dominate football for the next 20 years. Then we signed him. He's in there. I'm going to dig back to a sign that we made that was billed as sign one of the best midfielders in England at the time. Oh. And Paul Stewart. Oh, come on. That's my game. Paul Stewart, and I have to say, I remember when Paul Stewart signed, and there was a buzz of anticipation of where signing this powerhouse of a midfielder. He was soon as reincarnated. He was everything he wanted in a midfielder. My Jesus, he was a parlant. I remember, I remember even thought, I think that was the first time a radar as a player is going to be absolutely diabolical. And it was just, you're just looking to pass you. Nothing went right from him. He was just, everything he did was just atrocious. He had a renders here as a... He had a renders here. He was straight out of an eddy morphe fellow. He was a bunch of people. [LAUGHTER] He had the Jerry crowd use in the whole lot. He was just, everything that, he was just, ah, he was a parlant. So he's, Paul Stewart's definitely in there. Um, and, you know, there's a toss up, but I'm going to go for one, which, I'm going purely on monetary value for what, what was in there. But I'll bear to Aquilani for the 20 million we paid and for the return that we didn't get out of him. He was, like, he was an atrocious island. We're talking about the Wars 11. The fellow barely ever played for us. Now, when, rightly or wrongly, or he had something to offer, but he didn't. And it just, he was, he was a London's replacement. Um, that's sad. And, I know, there's a footballer in there, but he's even, when he went to Milan on one of his loan spells, he did well. Um, but he just, I remember him playing for Roman before he saw him. I remember destroying, you know, it had all traveled, and we never saw that player at all. Um, notable chills for Ovenly and Artsen. Because he was a lot of that we saw. And to me, to be a missing, missing Lincoln midfield, he was a parlant. The list is endless. Mark's right. There's, there's, there's, there's a delightful selection box going on here. I've made failure to go pay for him. We'll declare for you. Your two were definitely then Aquilani and Jeff. No, no. Paul Stewart and Aquilani. Paul Stewart and Aquilani. Well, thanks for fucking meeting, because they were my two as well. And now I've got absolutely nothing to say, because you've been shouting for about seven hours there. So we're just going to move straight on to the next section, because you've just completely ruined it for me. Uh, right, we should begin our analysis of yesterday's mayhem at the pottery. So we should begin our review again, of Stoke City versus Liverpool. So could we start with a topic that maybe might jump straight to everyone's mind, and that is Philippe Coutinho, who, for some people that have been speaking about, he seems to be struggling a little bit, to recapture the sparkle that he showed in his first half season with us. I know, Mark, you've got to take on this on, on Coutinho's current form. So could you perhaps give us your ideas on that? Yeah, sure. And for me, there's obviously a case of a bit of second season syndrome with him where defenders know him a little bit better this year. I mean, he's well known for, he's got these two dribble and moves that he tries a lot where it's the dropper, the shoulder, and he goes off to the side and there's the fake and the role. And I think now defenders are just a little bit more wary of what he's going to do. But I think with him, I think he didn't do very well against Stoke, but up until then, I think the last couple of weeks, he has been performing okay, he has been creating chances. And even though he's not at the peak, he's still having six, seven or ten out performances. But one thing that I have noticed, and it's more to do who he's playing with. And in a 4-2-3-1, he definitely prefers playing with a storage style striker than a Louis Suarez. When it was storage up top of him in the back end of last season, he makes his sort of, sort of, storage makes his wide receiver, sort of runs where it's choreographed to perfection in train, and Catino can thread a pass and put it literally on the money. Just like American football is sort of a sort of move where where Suarez wants the ball to feed, so then he can do the magic take on his players, does his not Megan, and get the shot off. And I think now the storage is back from injury, and fingers crossed that Suarez and Catino don't get injured or suspended. There's a good chance that we've all three of them playing together. You could really start to see that the Catino a blast season. And I had a look, I had a look this afternoon, and there's only one time this season that Catino, Suarez, and Sturridge have started in the same game, which is crazy, you know, seeing that we're halfway through the season. So if we can adopt this 4-2-2-2 formation, and then have Suarez and Sturridge up top with Catino just behind, I think we will start to see a much more better Catino performances. Yeah, do you think, Mark, it's going to be a thing that he's going to struggle with all the time, which is the clear lack of pace that he does have in comparison to other attackers in that position, especially when he's pushed out to the wide areas? I think he actually prefers, I think he got asked in pre-season what position he does prefer, and he says he prefers it out on the left. I think in the centre it's been known that he does get crowded out, but I think on the wide left he does get a chance to put in it. I think when he possesses that touch and that vision and that pass and ability, I think it's a case of where he doesn't really need the pace of, say, a sterling. But I prefer him to be out on the left, I think that's where he has performed the best. But to be honest, when the game kicks off, he may be on the starting line up as the left-sided midfielder, but I mean, he's been well-known, he's been given license to Rome to do what he wants, where he wants around the pitch. There will be players to pick up his position if he gets caught out on the attack. So it's a case of where he has literally got free Rome to do. He wants not on a pitch really. Sure, absolutely. I suppose the obvious thing to do next will be to speak about Sturgeon Suarez, so let's not do it out, and let's speak about Raheem Sterling instead. Now we've got our own Phil here who's leading the toldy. So we'll get tonight with his insistence that he always loved them, and he always backed him to the hill, especially after Hull, when all the SU bastards were slagging him off. And he is stepping it up. He was playing the central role in the goals. He seems to have rediscovered that physicality that he showed in the early part of his career, ironically, when he was lighter. And he sounds long as they ever run on the first team. So are we seeing a man who's going to be part of a permanent setup there in the forward players, Phil, do you think? I think having watched the game yesterday and looking at Sterling's performance, everyone today has been talking about storage coming back and the storage and Suarez combination and the SAS and the whole lot. Well, to be honest with you, Sterling for me has an integral part in the goals in terms of what went on, especially the last goal, the storage goal. He wins the ball out in the wing, cuts it back into Suarez, Suarez then pulls a beautiful ball in. You know, there's a fluidity of movement that himself, storage, and Suarez can accommodate when you're playing it with a three that also allows for weight in that three as well, because Suarez likes to drift wide and then attack at angles. Sterling himself was holding the shape on the right hand side an awful lot and keeping weight in our play when players are coming to join in. He just looks like a player who has confidence. And I thought when he came back into the side in the whole game, he looked like he was lacking a bit of confidence. He'd also maybe had his own question marks in his head where he'd been playing it right wing back and had been playing it right back in other games as well. But I think he's learned from that. I think he's rebuilt his confidence. I think he's now believing in himself and he's backing himself when it comes to taking on players, which he had sort of maybe lost for a bit. When I look at Cuteño now and lead them on from Mark's point earlier, he reminds me an awful lot when Sterling started to drop off at the end of his fourth spell in the 11. That Cuteño looks like a player that potentially is losing a bit of his confidence because everything that was happening and will come unnatural before isn't happening and he's now forcing the game where as with Sterling, it's back to being natural. And again, these kids and the arc kids because Cuteño is only 20. You've got Sterling who's 19, right? They're going to have peaks and troughs in terms of form, especially at this age as they come in. And it's now, I'd like to see Roger's like he's got Sterling. He got Cuteño. He doesn't need to start the tournament in games. He can rotate them because he has storage Suarez and Sterling. On that point, the development fellow is going to come in there. Isn't it just as well that we had that spell where Raheem got that experience as a right wing back and as a right back because Christ knows we'll come on to this yesterday. Or we'll come on to this later on. But it was very important for the cover for Glenn Johnson yesterday. Yeah, and I think also it's noticeable that Cuteño maybe is absent a little bit in his defensive duties when it comes to Sosco and left him more exposed down the left hand flank which the Sosco's credit he was able to deal with very much on his own. But I genuinely think that we're seeing the emergence now of the Sterling that we expected to see. He's now learned as he's gone through the fourth season. He's had the issues with the second sort of coming up of Raheem Sterling. And he's now found as Mojo. He's now working the way he wanted to work. And he's starting to deliver a big time in terms of what we need to do. It's great. It gives us a bit of depth. We were only complaining two or three weeks ago that we didn't have much depth. Now we're looking at a position where we have storage back with Suarez. We have Cuteño. We have Sterling. We don't need to put all of them into the 11th. You know, we've got options. We need things to be able to change up the game to change the pace. Bringing storage on yesterday was brilliant because we now all of a sudden had real penetration and trust in the actual game that we're done. And Sterling also gives you that penetration and trust from the bench. So, penetration and trust. We've lost the train. Okay, right. Let's move on to a different day. Damien Floyd, could you speak to me about the midfield here? Look, let's be honest. It was the worst performance in the world in some ways. Henderson probably struggled a little bit. Is it surprising that we had that lack of mobility given to both Lucas and Jared where they're present in the midfield? Rodgers, we had him speaking afterwards about how wonderful Jared was at defensive midfielders, speaking about his dominant personality and all that type of thing. Did he control the game? To me, his passing was quite poor. I mean, look, Charlie, Adam, look good against us. I'm hazy, I'm hazy, I'm hazy. Charlie Adam, look, Charlie Adam, look quick. You should sign Charlie Adam. That's good. You don't start that again. What's your take on the two boys back together again in tandem? I think we've done this to that the last few weeks. Did he kind of play as Adam? Now, in fairness, the couple of times that he did play earlier on the season, both of them played deep. But yesterday, there was a bit of a change and that was Lucas had pushed on. And then he was more like where Adam was last week. Unfortunately for Lucas, he hasn't got the likes to do that. He was pushed the four minutes into the game. He's breathing heavy and he's struggling. Jared struggled at the end for me, defensive midfielders sitting in there. Because the simple thing to do at defensive midfielders, win the ball and give a sample. Roy Kane was the master of it. Jared was getting even in the ball. He was trying to tread. 60 yards pass as true to him and he was just giving it away. Mark Simpson, what are your thoughts about Roger's reluctance to play Jared in an attacking midfield world where so many people are shouting about him being more effective, who he did very well against Olam. What's your take on that? I really don't know what he's thinking behind it. And I was really surprised yesterday when the game kicked off. And all of a sudden you see Lucas in the opposition penalty area, which is some of it I ain't seen all season. I think Lucas was surprised. And seeing Jared sitting in that deeper role. And maybe that's like a sign of things to come. Now obviously Alan and Henderson have been our standout midfielders, probably since the Tottenham game. And I remember Jared was in the Sky Sports studios. Aaron Carriga said, you know, how are you getting back into this team? And I think with Jared playing that deeper role, I think it looks like now that Lucas is the one that's going to sit out, because Alan is presumably back next week. And, you know, if you were to sort of get in the mind of Roger's and think of a midfield free at present, you're sort of thinking to have Jared with Alan and Henderson. As far as why is he not playing a more attacking role? I really don't know. Maybe it's the case of his legs. Maybe it's the case of Jared having a word with Roger's. You know, he's the captain, he's got a lot of say. They seem to be in the agenda there, almost. In American terms of the two post-match interviews, Jared talking it up and talking up his interest and playing there. And Brendan then talking about his effectiveness there. There seem to be almost like it is something that they kind of agreed to talk about in advance. Well, it's interesting and it's obviously it'd be interesting to see what Lucas is thinking about this, you know, because technically he would have thought that that position was in nailed down. I mean, maybe with Lucas, he's been given 18 months now to come back from his injuries. And I think you can sort of see that he's not at that level of where he was under Kenny before his injury. I mean, he's not, I mean, we're at the moment Liverpool are striving for Champions League. This time next year, when we are in the Champions League and we're coming up in our group games, do you want to see Lucas being a starter defensive midfield? I think the answer is no, you know, but he is a good squad player. It's a great squad player to have around. And, you know, I think now is probably the time. I think it's very telling that for the rest of the season, you know, unless Liverpool go out and sign a defensive midfield in the next couple of weeks, you will probably see Jared being more deeper with an Allen and Henderson midfield. We're going quickly on Jared yesterday. I was watching it and I was thinking, you know, he's given the ball a lot here, given the ball away a lot. But I looked at the stats. It was our, it was one of the top players for past completion. It was, it was like the third best and, you know, it could be down to the weather conditions. But, you know, a lot of players were given the ball away. But, you know, he recovered the ball the most. He had the most successful tackles. He had just, you know, one of the highest past completion rates. And, you know, that ball out to Johnson, you know, he had it. Mark, what he'd taken was that the balls he did give away were really bad miss passes. So, you know, sometimes when it looks like a simple ball that goes and gets intercepted, it's not as, it's not as perceptible to people watching the game, right? Whereas if you, if you ping a 40-bit yard pass across the pitch and it goes straight to an opposition player, it's so much more obvious. And people remember it a hell of a lot more than say the same. But five yard pass, five yard passes, you may have played beforehand, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think that could be, like, when he does give away possession, he tends to give it with a big doi-ag that gets cut out and gets seen an awful lot easier than something that, you know, it might be even a 50-50 ball into a midfielder looking to tone, say an Allen or a Henderson. I think with Lucas, he's very good at reading the ball. And, you know, his lack of mobility sometimes is reading of the game can obviously make up for that. But there's lots of players out there, there's lots of midfielders out on the continent that we can go out and sign that would be able to be an improvement on Lucas. You know, I like the guy, you know, you can see him being a Liverpool for the rest of his career and being happy as a squad player, you know. And I hope that he does make the Brazil World Cup squad because it'll be a nice little, you know, comeback from injury and a real big, like, sort of two-year period for him. But I think the Gerard Lucas conundrum is getting as known as the Gerard Lampard for England. Conundrum, but it was all those years ago. It's like a case of where it's just boring. You know, everybody can see that it's got to be one or the other. And the way that Roger likes to play, you need to have likes. And if we were to continue to see a Gerard Lucas midfield, he's just sort of contradicting himself, really. But I like to say, Alan's his golden boy Henderson, you know, is one of our best players at the moment. And Gerard's his captain. You can't see further than that. Well, look, let's move to a different area of the petrol together. As you say, we've done the midfield for that. And I suppose in the defence, a positive would be Sisoco doing quite well, actually, very solid performance. And the one time he did do something stupid, which was that tackle. He managed to at least do it outside the box. Damien Floyd, would you, as someone who was possibly not as great as fan, would you think that he was, you know, adequate again, or actually maybe even good? Sisoco, for me, yes. He was okay. He'd done his job, and as a fullback, your job was to defend. Now, we keep hearing this about Johnson. Great attack on player. You're a fucking fullback. Defend. Defend crosses and stop due to him scoring. If he gives anything, the opposite hand of the pitch, great. Sisoco won that yesterday. He defended, and he defended stately. He didn't give us too much going forward, but he'd done his job. If Juda fella and Juda saw it on his fucking job, we wouldn't have conceded the full score. Which is, basically, we can't seem to avoid the fact. He can't, yes. Because it was almost like Sisoco looked good in comparison with the gen and the opposite side. If you're given max out hand, you've got a six or a seven Sisoco, give you a solid. No better. Well, let's bring you straight in on that then. I know you've been vocal on Johnson before, but I mean, what does this kid have to do to get robbed? I mean, he was awful again. And by the way, you know, I've won record as someone who thinks that he, when he plays well, he's a wonderful footballer, and he does offer a lot. But God, he was awful again and looks, I mean, he looks disinterested, and many times can he fail to stop a cross. I mean, when does he ever stop cross? On the crouch goal, himself and Suarez, actually, that was the main, one of the dominant features of that match, was Glenn just jogging around the place, actually jogging away from danger, jogging away from danger areas. What's going to happen there? I've said it a few weeks ago. It's time for Kelly to come into that. So it is the only fit right back we have. It's time for Kelly to come in. I don't know if Johnson has any aspirations to go into the World Cup. If he's fucking playing like that, he should be on the plane for any time to the World Cup. And it could be worth the while, and I've said it. He needs to spend some bench time and just get a little bit of hunger. Looks like a player that has, I don't know, all their personal issues or something on his mind. He's just not putting the effort in. The simple things there yesterday, as a defender, you close the man, you're difficult to be. He's not even doing that. Well, that's it. You can tell the difference between a guy who's our form, a guy who's struggling with his form, and he's busting a goth to try and put it right. And a guy who just looks detached. You know, I think most people that have played the game have always said that everyone goes through, runs a bad form. Yeah. It doesn't stop you running. It doesn't stop you walking. And that's the minimum you're asking for. He's not even giving up at the moment. I honestly don't know. It's how he's getting picked every week is beyond me. It really is beyond me. It's almost like there has to be a story there that we don't know about. To bring in someone else, sorry. I'll be honest with you, for the first 30 minutes, I've got to close the process. Welcome you in there. Thanks very much. Stay about that. You're welcome. And feel free to arrive at any time, kid. Yeah, yeah, no. Okay. That's how I roll. Sorry, man. No, this is sad to me as well. Good. No. In all seriousness, first 25, 30 minutes. Stoke set up with a game plan to target Sasoko. Yeah. And then they realized after 30 minutes, actually this bloke isn't the weak link. The rifle is. Let's get down. And you could see, and out of it, he did different in him. You know what I mean? He was, he wasn't even in the game. You know what I mean? And Wilson was left having to deal with Sterling. And sometimes Johnson as well, because he didn't want to know a bit about it. He didn't want, he wasn't in the game. And then all of a sudden, they clicked and they went, hang on a second. Let's start, let's start attacking the left hand side. Let's get at, like their left hand side, our rifle. And the difference in the game from there on in, Johnson just went to pieces. He looked actually reasonably composed up to that point, but only because he hadn't been put under any pressure. No one had had to go with him, and as soon as they did, he just bottled it. Well, it's nice, it's nice to see you off the, off the alley bin, where you were jumping, jumping on the lid of the alley bin. Is this me and Phil being pretty right now? What do you mean, John on the lid? Oh, they're, I had a lock and chain, but I've been, oh yeah. And by the way, Casey's already got, I told you so. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's, there's so much, there's so much keeping the go, keeping the go. I keep her on. Steven Brennan, on Martin Skirtle, what was you taking him? He seemed to back off for the, for the Charlie Adam goal. I mean, he's worked on him on a daily basis. He must know the Charlie's not going to pass it off there, and he's going to have a pop. And did we think that he was solid enough apart from that? How did he work with Colo? Oh, he put this view earlier on, obviously, and went back and looked at the highlights again, after saying what it said, and it made me rethink that. I think that it was, Torrey was actually a fault, and he pulled Skirtle down with him. It seemed as though Torrey decided that he was backing off, and he was the one dropping deep. Whereas, this out this season, we've seen Torrey, and he was the one that was vulgarly pushing the soil further. And Skirtle was decent yesterday. And after watching it, as he said, after watching it back again, Skirtle was decent enough. I mean, he shouldn't have backed after the Adam goal. Look at it. Steve he won't have any of Adam was shooting, as soon as he had that falling. There was no reason for him to back off. And if you look at it-- That's because he was listening on the radio. But when you looked at it again, you see, like, Skirtle backs, backs, backs. And he actually ended up inside his outbox, by the time he realizes. It's if he's seen the line of the box on front of him, and then decided, "Oh, he better try and close them." And by that stage, Adam had already hit the ball. Steve, I actually have a theory on this. And as he said, he worked with him for a season, and whatever. He just taught himself Charlie Adam's shit. And then he remembered. He remembered that pedal. And when he hits that fucking ball, it's out with the Britannias David. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Adam hit it, and he went, "Box, where did that come from?" You can see the look on his face. It's like he was going to go up to Adam and go, "Where the fuck did you learn to do that?" Actually, when you pull it, I doubt it. Sorry for that. I'd argue. On the Skirtle thing, I'm watching the game yesterday. I kept taking it himself. That was actually Torrey, who seemed like a bit of a fish out of water. Coming back to the old outage that we've been talking about for a long time, the two left-footed centre backs can't play together. For me, it's hard to prove that Torrey really struggled playing as the left centre back yesterday. He never seemed to get the grip swap with his position on the pitch. And he couldn't really get the out-hopped crouch really handled him very well, and fairness to Peter Crouch. He's never going to beat him for pace, but what he did was he just muscled his way past Torrey. He was able to shove him off the bar. It was like, I know the focus was on Skirtle short pulling the holder. Crouch pants all the time, dragging the short off, cold at Torrey, pulling them as Torrey was jumping. Crouch is getting a hold of the jersey. We need the holes, but he actually has a hold. He has a hold of the jersey. But it goes back to what Andy said a few weeks ago, it seems that referees are allowing Shore pulling the box. There doesn't seem to be anyone getting pulled up out. I was just looking at that. I actually think they've had a ward slightly with Skirtle about this, because if you look at the stamp position on the corners, that is always that a few weeks ago, his body is kind of half-open. He's not getting kind of touched Torrey, chest to chest anymore. He is giving himself that half a year to go. And there was only once yesterday I seen him, and that's when he actually fell in the man's head, and held him down that wrestling room in the ground. That was the only time I seen him down yesterday. If you're going to watch him next week, he has got that kind of half a year, Torrey wants to go to him with being touched Torrey. But that's why he's been saying that. He needs that open body shape, though, because, as you say, he was so close that any sort of contact was going to put him in a position whereby, "Yeah, listen, we all know he's been wrestling people for weeks and weeks and weeks at this stage." But any sort of positional sense that whereby he was too close gave the referee something to think about. Now he has that easy half a yard away. It's enough to get a leap out. It's enough to put your man off in the jump without actually being a freak. And you can see he can spot the movement as well. I've actually, the last two games are going to be watching him, and he has that he's laughing like grabbing on him. He'll get the benefit of the delt. If he's coming from half a yard into a challenge here, get the benefit of the doubt rather than if he's touching it out of which amount I'm just dragging out of himself. Yeah, Mark Simpson. I was going to quickly, I think Skirtle has done well, because we all know that he's being grabbing shirts. But what defender doesn't? And every single media punted it. Like, now of Quinn all the time was he was trying to highlight the fact that Skirtle grabbed shirts, but it's been on match the day, it's been on everything. So he's got that to play with. And obviously that the coach and staff have said to him, listen, take a step back, don't make it too obvious. But you're right, referees are going to give you, it's like one of these unwritten laws. Very shirt pulling it is going to happen. Attackers grab the shirts as much as defenders do, but I think Skirtle's done very well to sort of adapt, because like I say, everybody on known to man is just trying to highlight the fact that Skirtle likes to grab a shirt in the box. But he hasn't given a penalty away. Yeah, touch wood. Yeah, but uh, yeah, Jesus spent taking on Saturday. I don't know, but everyone here just grabbed the table, Mark. Listen, the wooden table, the wooden table, yeah. Grab any piece of wood, you can touch it, touch it. Mark, I'm touching wood. Try and put that away, man. Penetration, I'm trying, I'm touching wood. I'm with that, I would leave. Mark, moving to the last line of defense, and Simon Minnule, he seems maybe a little bit rattled after a couple of high profile mistakes, despite them being framed by good performance, otherwise. Could he have dominated his area better? Do you think a little bit yesterday? I think it's a tough one yesterday's game before you sort of look at the analysis. You've got to take into a fact that weather was minging. You know, it was awful, awful conditions to be a goalkeeper in. I think that when the defense is so deep, and almost playing on your six-yard box, it's going to make it really hard. And Peter Crouch really did take advantage of that. You probably will have been a bit nervous. Remember, on the first game of the season, he had that dodgy 40-50 minutes, especially on crosses, but obviously he did dependently safe, so that's what everybody remembers. But I think that may have been playing on his mind. You know, I think he has made a couple of mistakes, but, you know, he more than made up for it with those saves from Jonathan Wattl's header, from Gerard's own goal almost. And, you know, he loves to save shots. And we're a team that lets the opposition have a lot of shots on goal outside the area. And we've gone out and bought one of the best shotstoppers in the league. And I think, you know, he loves to save a shot. He will make the occasional mistake, but I think he's being one of our standout performers, definitely, of this season. And he's one of the best keepers in the league, in my opinion. And I think, yes, we can give him a break, just like we can give Henderson a break, because the conditions were filthy. Yeah, relief all around the room here as Phil has stopped touching Wood. Steve Daly, could we ask you something? What else? Just have a touching cloth, if you don't know. [LAUGHTER] What else is said and done, Steve? Games, I guess, are they not what you basically essential stepping stones to be coming on top side? You've got massive pressure to get three points. Oh, well, six of the other top seven have won or five or whatever the hell it was. Are some of the other ones left? The result was delivered. Liverpool ease back into top four. They don't cough up the points, which they might have done before. Is that one of those games? It's kind of like a watershed moment, or a definitive boot? Yeah, I think it is. I think it's actually as important as the still game first game of the season. I think that penalty save was a catalyst for the way we went on and played the next seven of the games. And yesterday was a mental barrier for Liverpool, I think, in the sense. We haven't beaten them in the premiership in the Britannia since they came up in 2008, was it? Yeah. So six seasons of football without beating them once. Now, I said it in the sense of, I had a feeling their style of play would be different to pull us. And I think we might have done that one nil to nil yesterday, even if he'd been in charge. But it wouldn't have been a five, three game. They had a fucking kicked us, left, right, and center. And we all feared that last week, that that would happen. And it didn't. It didn't, actually, thankfully. But yeah, I think it's definitely a step and so on to where we want to go. I think it's, you know, if we do want to push on and become a genuine mainstay in that top four, then I think they're the sort of games we've got to be winning. Especially the weekend that was in it. You know, six of the top seven had won on Saturday. Are they winning at the moment? Yeah, you know what I mean? So with that in mind, you know, it was essential that we picked up the points. Yeah, and the small psychological thing of moving back in and leapfrog and everything and back in the top four. Listen, I know they're tiny margins, but it does make a difference. Of course, every point is going to count. You know, this could come down to goal difference. If nothing else, and that's great to see as well, then we're at plus 25 at the moment. Who's at Spurs around plus two? I think, you know what I mean? So, you know, if it does come down, I think actually Spurs could be the biggest threat of all those teams there than ever in the United. I think, I have to say now, echoing the point that yesterday for me was an emergence in terms of mentality. It's the first time in the long time I remember it's gone with some serious pressure to get a result after the results and delivering with a bad performance. It wasn't a good performance. It was a phenomenal attack in performance. Like, we haven't really talked much about storage as introduction, but to come in with 20 minutes to go, to get an assist and a goal, have not played for six to eight weeks beforehand with the actual injury, to have that in your locker, to fear that pumps into teams is unbelievable. You can't make it out. You say, Jesus, we put three past Liverpool and we still didn't win. That's the stuff that's been in teams heads when they've gone to play United over the last 10 years. No one's going to like it, but it's reminiscent of a Ferguson style, United approach. You know what I mean? It didn't matter, as teams came back at them, they were just like, fuck you, let's go another one. You know what I mean? Okay, you're going to finish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know what I mean? That was a very, very, very quickly on that one. I think Brendan Rogers should be given a lot of praise for bringing on storage when he did. You know, he could have quite easily tried, you know, to take off Sterling, say, and bring on maybe a Moses. But by bringing storage on and by going to up top, it sort of made Stoke think a little bit. And obviously they were chasing the game, but now you've got storage and Suarez to think about. And I think, you know, Rogers in-game management as sometimes being, you know, lacking, but he sometimes is doing really well. And I think yesterday was definitely a tick really in his in-game management. And I think by bringing storage on when he did, what was a master stroke, I think? Yeah, Marco would be remiss if we didn't actually mention a little bit about that. I mean, Danny's storage, there was no rust. He came back, there was power, there was pace, there was skill. What was your response to storage and his introduction? Well, I think the extra bit of rest has done in good, that there was rumours that he was technically could have been ready for that two or three weeks ago. Yeah. But because of Sterling putting goals in, you know, delivering on goals, he didn't need to be rushed back. So I think the general feeling was that they could maybe rest him for a couple of more weeks. And it showed, you know, he came back into a game and where he didn't look rusty at all. He was straight in and straight on. And, you know, he's got his goal and he's got his assist as well, like in what, in a 25-minute cameo appearance. So, you know, maybe before the stoke game, you're thinking, "How is he going to get back in?" But now you can instantly see, you know, formation is sort of forming where, you know, you can't really leave storage out. You know, you've got your Suarez Storage partnership ready to go to fires for the last five months, really. Absolutely. And slowly there was some lovely sky pointing for you and Phil there at the end when he started scoring. Sweet Jesus! Well, when he come out to the pitch, he's like, "This is great. This is going to take me out. That's basically for you, Phil." That's a continual point for the sky when he's going off. The bad point is going, it must have been... It must have been giving you the finger. Yeah. But it was, I'd be delighted. If I throw into the cameras and gave it that one, I'd be absolutely delighted. You must have got a big online text message about that at the same time. And, right, look, let's finish this out with two words. And that is Luis Suarez. And let's say that to Steven Brand. And let's get a quick response from you on that. Like, I'm struggling to put into words how good he is. I know we all have probably seen the graphic that's going on yesterday with the comparisons between him and Messi and Ronaldo. OK. The goals and... Did they say how many goals it's got in comparison to other teams? I think I've never heard that one before. So I'll tell you how to put that stuff together for next week. Do you know, right? Suarez has scored more goals than Stoke had before the game yesterday. Never. And then... And then after the game, Stoke had scored more goals than Suarez. Well, that's... Well, Stoke has scored more goals than Suarez. Just what Steve is pulling that up there. One thing that we have done, we've... I'm not putting that graphic in, but about four. I want to win the league, Luis. I can have your legs. And on the league. I win the Champions League. That one's here. That one's here. We're going to be brought in as the 17th team. Because he's Suarez is dead. OK, I thought it was officially the worst messiest sign-off to a review ever. I actually should... Try to ask it for five minutes. Yeah, try to ask it for two quick words. Just turn it into one more and try it. I just feel like, I just feel like throwing everything around. Now, this thing is a quick word in here. Wow, OK, and... It's like pause. Right, we're honoured to welcome one of my favourite sports writers, Jonathan Wilson, to the show tonight. Jonathan's just launched and is promoting Anatomy of Liverpool, which is a forensic look at some of the key matches in the club's history, written with Scott Murray. The two lads were at the stars of the show at the Sugar Club last night. So, Jonathan, how's your head after last night and was it a tough crowd? (LAUGHS) Sorry, excuse me. (LAUGHS) It was... Yeah, my head's not too bad. You know, we haven't quite nearly played back, so I couldn't go too wild. We hadn't had a bad night in the middle. It was not successful, we'd pick up the glass of the wine. But, no, it was a very good night. You know, we didn't event that with the back before Christmas, and that was a great night, it was another great night there. So, you know, it seems like a very good brand-new team, so you get a very good level of questions, right? Brilliant, the interview's not exactly far too long, but I don't have a great time. The interaction was good with the crowd. Yeah, absolutely, and that's one of the key things. I guess lastly, I'm going to be watching, once to see, sort of two or three people sitting on stage, just talking. And that's the thing we want them to say, just to have to talk all the time, you know, we want people asking questions, we want people bouncing off us. And, you know, we got a load of them, so... You know, you mentioned Scott and I, and John Keith was presenting, and if anybody hadn't seen him present before, he's absolutely brilliant presenter, especially on maps of the old Liverpool, because he's covered them for, you know, 40 odd years for the express. Sure. And what I hadn't realized last night is he's really gifted impressionists, so he's doing impressions of shankling, impressions of Haysley, and he'd feel like Hodgson as well. Excellent. Yeah, you got all of that as well. Excellent, yeah, I can imagine that would lighten the mood quite a bit. It isn't being a non-liverful fan yourself. How hard was it for you and for Scott to get into the eyes and the minds of Liverpool fans, to be sure that the matches that you were picking carried resonance for the fans, that you had chosen the right ones, did you canvas any reds when you were doing it? Well, it was Scott actually a Liverpool fan. OK. The low, the grille in Babix, I think, is his father. We were Liverpool fans, it's a perfectly onto him. So I think, you know, it worked quite nicely. You had him with a partisan viewpoint in me from the outside. And yeah, although I'm not Liverpool fan, I think anybody in my generation, I'm 37. So I'm a little bit older than I was 41. But our generation, when we were growing up, when we were first going into football, Liverpool were a team you wanted your team to be. So, you know, nobody else, I was a kid saying to my name, I'm saying, now I really wish I'd been born in Liverpool. And she sort of created the world of them. So you're worried that Santa could have supported Liverpool, could support the top of the team, however long it was on them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, absolutely, like you say, I'm a similar advantage. I'm kind of in the middle, I'm 40. And they were the team that were basically on the TV as well, which is a massive thing, I suppose. And part of your formative of memories there as well. But so basically, it was just between yourself and Scott, you didn't feel the need to go around and kind of get opinion polls or work out from a fan body, which matches they taught. No, I mean, I guess we did talk to people. So we talked to Liverpool fan, so it's actually my idea. And one of the ideas, or one of the drivers between behind this was to try and get beyond the obvious, to try and get beyond the games that people would necessarily choose. Now, you don't want to be over clever. So obviously, you have to have, you know, the 2005 Champions League final, the episode not to have that. But things like, two of them, the 1899, the three-class gorilla, they're absolutely crushing the seeds, which are on the final day of the season, it's possible for the title. But we chose that. I mean, partly because I think the experience, so that they're not just the fan, but they're just odd for pull. It's very easy when you own histories to just focus on the successes. Well, actually, you know, the successes have meaning, partly because of the failures. And so you want to get the replica of the seed sample trees. And obviously, you won't be able to tend the seeds, because you've got to be gluey-booking, you know, it's what I needed. But I think to get in the mix to kind of get my idea is, you know, there's been a lot of options being deep dams on not to football sides as well. You know, I think that was quite important in the 1989 game. I think what that did was demonstrate Liverpool's resilience, I think, as a club, as a city as well, something that's always shown that they pass back for that to go on to it a couple of seasons later. Yeah. So, you know, that seemed appropriate place to start. But on page here, you went round from the majority of Liverpool fans. It's not a game that they even think about it. I mean, they don't even know about it. But if you ask the list head and key games, you probably wouldn't even think of that. I think it's a good one to have in there. And then the more obvious ones, like the 65 club final, or the 77-year-time club final. So, you know, I think getting that mix was important. Yeah. You know, that selection came partly from my road up here. And then, yeah, partly from, as you do with any journalist, you know, a long form of working thoughts. And if you can, if you can, if you can. Absolutely. And did you consider when you were trying to think of matters that had, as you say, sort of more than the obvious, glorious wind-type resonance? Did you consider maybe another 89 match there, the Hillsborough Semifinal, or was the, I don't know, were the other resonance, or was that something that was basically purely a football thing that you were thinking of? Well, I mean, that was one of the very first officials we've made, was two reasons why we didn't have Hillsborough as one of the matches. One is that if we wanted this to be history, very much focused on, you know, speaking of football side of things. So Hillsborough is clearly the, you know, the most significant moment in the history of the club, but it isn't actually a football moment. So we didn't want to do the Semifinal, but that reason. But also, I just think, you know, for a more practical point of view, the issue of Hillsborough is so huge, you know, all the complexity, all the nuance of this, it would be wrong to try and compress that into one chapter. And there's always been two or three really big books on Hillsborough. I feel Scranton's in another book next year, which I'm sorry, later this year, which I'm sure will be absolutely brilliant at taking in a lot of the new revelations. Now, there's no point not trying to challenge that. You know, if you want to read the Hillsborough, read that book, that's going to be a brilliant book. Yeah, Howard Book's not about that. So obviously, Hillsborough dealt with them, and it would be wrong to gloss over it. But equally, I think, to have a chapter on Hillsborough, it would have unbalanced the book with giving it a fair coverage. Sure. And also, you know, I'd require it goes on. Who knows what new revelations are going to speak. It's going to be in the next three or four months. So, you know, we could have been left behind by that as well. So, for all those reasons, we decided not to choose Hillsborough. But then dealing with the legacy Hillsborough is obviously enormously important. So, we can fill in the game in 89, the seed not the seed to us on the final day of the season. And that actually was the book, so the game that we input in the book, they're all closest to going in. Because obviously, the game is a huge significance. But we decided that it's a way of reflecting on Hillsborough and on the legacy Hillsborough. Actually, next to the game was the four points of August, the 91 eight-year-old Lisa's last game first, I was manager. And that was quite a part of anything else. So, the absolutely brilliant game of football, brilliant derby. Everything a derby might should be, everything a cup of ice should be. And also, actually, a poignant game. As you see, don't be stunning, then. You subsequently realise, absolutely shattered emotionally trained, unable to react to what's going on in the pitch. And that's where you see sort of the knock-on human cost because it wasn't really the people you guys. And there are some of their major friends. It was also everybody around the club. And I think that's an extraordinary job. Most two years of going to funerals and representing the club. And the incredible States and like about everything. But it took a relentless toll on him. And I think that game was a way of addressing that. And that's how we look at the legacy Hills. But in terms of the football size, you know, after eight, nine, local, big go-ons during the fight of the next season, whereas after '91, you know, the train was on to downward. So, the shift in here, that was sort of the spin as it ended that year. Absolutely. And to move it back to your own event last night, did it surprise you that it was the forest match, the final win, which won the vote, the audience vote, for the match that would be shown in full? I know we were thinking that it was almost nailed on to be Istanbul, given it's significance in the fact that it was compared to the recent match. Were you surprised or pleasantly surprised by the fact that it was the forest win that was shown? And I wasn't sure, to be honest. I mean, it wasn't a huge surprise. The top three were the top three. So, that one came up in Istanbul for second. And '77, the Busy, much a grab-back year of the club final was third. Now, I think if I'd been voting, I'd have gone to '77, because it's just a brilliant, brilliant game of football. But two absolutely superb guys both playing very, very well. My guess would be that the three, three is quite familiar to people. A lot of people will have done DVD, they'll already have seen it, they'll be able to go home, watch it whenever they want to. Whereas the '88 games are much harder to get a hold of. And it is held up as one of the great exhibitions of football. And two people have probably heard a lot about it, but maybe haven't been able to see the whole thing. I would guess that's why it won. I mean, you could have chosen any of the eight games that are available, and they're all interesting games, all great matches. It wasn't a huge surprise. And I think actually it would be quite a disappointment if 2005 had won, purely because I kind of think most people will have access to that anyway. Yeah, absolutely. And you imagine, yeah, '77, they're yourself. If you were to pick one match from the Liverpool matches that you've obviously forensically analyzed, if you were to pick one which kind of symbolizes the club, or in some way is almost representative of the club, which one would you choose? Would it be '77, or would it be more the kind of-- Well, '77 has huge resonance because it was the game made Liverpool part of the European race. But I guess if you want a game that absolutely catches what Liverpool became about after Shankar, it would be the '65 that they got final. And maybe it reads 2-1. And that's a really strange game in it. You watch it with modern eyes. And you think it's just a good game of football. Time has absolutely panned. And it's still one affects the time. There's not a huge number of chances, but it's a game where both teams pass up all very well, they help possession well, the movement's good. All the things you'd expect to see in a modern title, you see there, and you kind of-- that's the final, you sort of excuse it, it's like the lack of the amount of action that the occasion sort of makes up for that. And yet, you read the report from Dana this one day, on the Monday, after that final. And so, you know, there's both the report and then the Pinchicon both were also the main elements of the time. Absolutely happens again. And if they complain about what they got in the football, this idea of the polling possession would have been quite cautious in your approach. And, you know, he says, I've been told this, if England are going to win the World Cup next summer, they have to play this style of football, but if that's the case, I want no part of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just seems, you know, what, with modern eyes, that's just an astonishing thing to say, because it's just football as it's played. Yeah. So, I get, I mean, Liverpool, and they need to, we could clearly, in the backyard, are that style of football in England. I mean, Liverpool, I think, you know, over the 30 years, it's hollowed. You know, they were the best at that time. Yeah, yeah. Of course, it's made it a long way. But controlling football doesn't take too many chances. It's a paradise possession. Well, you know, I guess that's the real start of Liverpool in beginning to do that. Sure. You remind yourself, as we're known for thinking, about how the game is played, anyone who's read the environment will know that. And I wonder what your view is on the style and structure of Brendan Rodgers' football team, the current Liverpool set up. What are your, your, your sort of basic opinions on that? Um, well, I think football as a whole, it's actually quite important Liverpool, as well. And I don't say that out of any romantic idea that you have to have a good Liverpool. I say that purely because if you, if you look at the majority of the top teams in Europe, they either have an incredibly rich owner and they go out and they buy the big name players. So you look at PSG starting to back on in Cavany, or you look at Monaco starting in South Carolina. I know a lot of the time you wonder, are they being signed because of the big names, or have they been signed because of the clear idea of how they would work together, how those those players would stick together in the team units. And I think a lot of the time, there is no idea about that. You know, the celebrity of the players comes first. And that's understandable for everyone, I think it's good about football. I mean, it's a Liverpool, OK, you know, they're not obviously, you know, you know, in a sense, they have spent money. But it's a lot of the things first, they're buying players to stick that way of playing. I don't know, I mean, it's an endowment, I guess, that he ought to deal with the team in Europe and in a very high level, he's doing a maybe halfway as well. So I think it's important, both teams do well and they show that you don't need to be mega rich, that with careful tactical thinking and with certain amount of money, you can reach back up to an extent. So I think from that point of view, it's important to do well. I'd say with such as when he first moved Liverpool, it was part of me thought, if this guy just moved through, you know, he just blossomed. Yeah. And there's still a little bit of that there, but I've been more and more convinced. And I think what's really telling and what's really to give Liverpool fans the course of optimism for the future is how much better players you sign looking their second season. If you think of the Jordan Hennessy obvious one, it's perhaps sensational this season. John, when he's played, I think this looked a lot better in his last season. So that suggests to me that Rodgers is a coach who, he does improve players. He does sort of condition players to play in his distance, play in his style. And it does take a little while. So the players have been brought in this summer and they've like asked first, he maybe haven't quite felt him as well as either hope. Maybe next season, you know, they'll see that step up the level on the way Henderson has 15. So if that does happen, then in the very least one position indeed. And that's the whole thing. You know, my guess would be like Liverpool fan, but the start of it being thought, you know, be finished up for that straight. You know, that's such a realistic target. But now, given everybody else has been starting and like maybe Celtic that we're starting to find their rhythm now and if they will sort of push on. But the fact that Liverpool still have all the top teams to play at home apart from the 90s who have a chance to play it anyway, there is just a tiny chance. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And if they win those games, well, even if they win two or three of those games and draw the others, they've got fantastic chance of just making it, or at least being in the fight with three or four games to go, which given the financial disparity and we've been astonishing achievement. - Sure, absolutely. I mean, yeah, I've followed on Twitter with Roy Amusement as a guy who suffered with his own team, your tweets and Sunderland on a regular basis. How are you feeling now about life under Gus Poyert? Did you, were you one of those who felt that it was basically time for the Kaneo to go when he did go, or what was your take on? - Yeah, I mean, you know, so, excuse me, the whole to Kaneo thing, I've not been comfortable about everything to do with that. You know, some of them is a left-wing town. It is a town with a very prejudicial tolerance. And, you know, the Kaneo's, if the fascist beliefs he's had to hold are true, if it is the case he holds those beliefs, then that makes him antithetical to everything termed a stood-for, historically, the ivory, politically, and, you know, historically what not the city is believed, politically. And now that makes me uncomfortable. But at the same time, I'm not convinced, totally, that is what he believes. And I felt that you see a lot of journalism where, so low-hanging food that would grab that and make it, it can easily distract them. The office kind of, it's supposed to be to tell themselves the fascist. You know, that unnerves me a bit. I think he should have been given a chance. And then some of them, the club is a result of not giving him this chance. He's actually explained what he does believe. And I'm completely prepared to believe, and I think I just don't know this. I would like to be informed. I'd like to be educated about this. You have a term fascist in it to, to English here, to British leaders. You know, there's no good pride in that. That's just around that bad. But perhaps if you grew up in, in the sort of other room, you have a different idea of what that means. And it just means sort of strong governments and, you know, prioritizing discipline and then, you know, okay, enhancing the sense of military, that kind of thing. Which is what I go for, but equally, I don't find that Molly is repugnant. So I wish he'd been given more chance to actually explain what that term means in his eyes, what he actually believes. But I mean, by the end, that would be relevant anyway. You know, the feeling that starts at badly format, with everybody's so badly, that, you know, it's taken some two or three months to put our rights, or to start putting that right. And do you feel he is doing that job? Yeah, I think the clear shift in how someone's title, the performance fairing now. Anyway, I mean, lost one of the last nine games, North competitions. They're still pretty major flaws in that score. I think the rebound of the squad happened too quickly. I think that caused instability, which you know, exacerbated problems with the kind of was causing anyway. But they have played a lot better than the last two or three months. They've had a 10-foot shoot themselves in the foot, you know, which, I think, five red cards, six-star goal so far this season. They've had it, and it really annoying tendons be something to play a bit more badly so 20 or 30 minutes fell. So the first 20 minutes had been carded. So you're hopeful or lucky on it, you won no game. The game home is filler for the last half hour. It absolutely dreadful chasing the game. And then the game's a way of the way of West Ham, hope to knowledge. It sort of had the better of those games, but couldn't quite get the goal. And so they were three draws. It could have been, you know, in another world, it could have been three wins, and those extra points and some big thing are both mid-table with faith. So I think what would happen is they put themselves in a position where there's a chance of survival, but you do worry whether, you know, they've started so far behind, they won't be able to sustain this. So the big cost is they've still got to play our whole carded West Ham, West Ham, and just on par with us. So you think that's five games where you can pick with me and all of those things, but it's one to hundred times a day, which, again, it's a game you hope to win. And then to pick up, you know, 14 points in those six games and then get another five to six points away from home, that probably will be enough. So there's a chance there now that I'm not confident. - So finally then, to kind of sum it up, do you think that you have, with Sunderland, a better chance of staying up than Liverpool do of getting top four? Or how do you equate those two? - No, I think Liverpool's chance going top four is this wrong rhythm, Sunderland is staying up. - Right. - But Sunderland has got to have a big chance of staying up, Liverpool do in title. - Well, look, we'll wish you the very best of luck and the best of luck with an army of Liverpool. And thank you very much, Chantan, for taking the call today. - Cheers, everyone, well, thank you. - Sly Paws, and let's move on to our preview of Liverpool, Aston Villa, which is Saturday's evening, man. - Oh, is that Sly Paws? - Oh, it's Sly Paws. - Jennifer, is this what we're going to read today? And it says Paws, and then it says Paws, and then there was a Sly Paws, so you can edit it, you fucker. - I'm giving it to you. I'm trying to work with you, I'm trying to work with you. Try to rock with it, Sly Paws, anyway. (all laughing) - I do notice Sly Paws, nobody said I was going to make an easy play. (all laughing) - I'm sorry, but that was exactly what I was doing here. - Okay, okay, shut the fuck up for a second. - Sign of Paws. - Oh, okay. (all laughing) - So we move on to our preview of Liverpool versus Aston Villa, which is next Saturday's evening match. This is the Red Man's chance to right the wrongs of last season, the reversal, which was one of the worst performances that we all saw. No margin for ours, so what changes do we envisage in the lineup? Damien Flod, can I come to you first then now? - I can see a couple of changes this week. Most times we've won a game, you kind of say, let's go again again, last maybe one or two changes. We can see three or four happening this week. Let's be honest with you. - I want Joe Allen, be one of those. - Joe Allen, definitely one of those. I think Johnson will be dropped this week. I think Kelly will come in at right back. - I do. Yeah, definitely. - So I think we've dropped Johnson for every week since the three years after the game. - I think this week that will happen. - Yeah, it was off the scale. - Oh, yeah, it was off the scale. - I think Allen will come in at Lucas. - Stories will come in with the team, yeah. - That's exciting right there, isn't it? - Yeah, I think Zacho coming off our tour. - Okay. - So could we look at the four changes? - Could we look at the four changes? - Could we look at the four changes? - I said we'd least get three. - Before changes that was strength in the team as well. - I think so, yeah. I think so, look at what happened yesterday. We've just spoke about Allen and what Lucas didn't give us there. Allen coming in will give us that kind of from full approach that we had to sports and do it against him and Henderson Blade. Zacho was in the half, is what he is. He's a dominant force that can cope with being take a the classroom. We played him and I'm filled. I go and scared the body will be able to take a. That's, he's not gonna bully Zacho like that. And so we can see a couple of changes this week. - So you would see that strength in the spine very much. You have Zacho coming in and then ahead of him, you have Steve Jarrett who's gonna be playing in this holding midfield role, the Brennan's design for him. And then ahead of him again, you're gonna have Joe Allen and that seems stronger. - And I'll just point out on this holding midfield role that Brennan's. - That's a third center ball. - It looks like you're gonna point it out. - I'm not gonna point it out. - What do you look at him now? But in fairness to Rogers, he said in his interview that he's looked at if he could strengthen the squad in one place, that's where he'd strengthen and that because of what he has at the moment, he thinks that Jarrett can fulfill the role. So I wouldn't be saying that he's designed it. I think he's using Gerard in the position that he feels he needs, he can deliver on and he's the best player to deliver in that. - He thinks he's the best player to deliver on it. - Why don't we agree or not? It's a different sort of what we're saying. At least he's saying he wants to strengthen that position. - At least he can see it now. - Yeah. - I didn't think actually Jared was that bad there yesterday. I know probably second half actually more so then first half he waned off a bit. I don't know whether it was down to becoming a third. - Maybe I should have showed up maybe 40 minutes earlier. - I'm just trying that out there. Next time that I'll be on time. Anyway, signing off, thanks so much. (laughing) - Steve, well let's get you on a different topic. Would you, we've kind of mentioned this in detail. Let's look a little bit more at not Johnson here, but Kelly, if you're going to bring back in Kelly, given that Johnson has been pretty rancid in terms of form, what does he bring? How does he improve us? - Yeah, a level of composure at the back, me a little bit like don't. I was going to say I don't think you're going to get the rampaging forward runs that you get from Glen Johnson, but we haven't had them recently either. - No, no. - So I think what you'll get is you'll get a solid seven hour 10 performance from Kelly, which will be enough against Villa. - You've been looking at what we need for Champions League, achieving what we would have seen as the season's goal back in August. How far down the road are we along that process? - Yes, I've been looking at it. We've got 17 games left. And I've been sort of trying to sort of work out where we need to be at. And you get anywhere near 70 points, 70 points north of that. And you're putting yourself into a really good spot. And this year it is going to pretty much come down to the wire. I think you've got to look at what other advantages do, do Liverpool have over the competition that we've got about a spot. And the first one is is that we've no European football where United and Spurs do. We're only ever going to be playing two free games a week once. And that's the end game that's coming up there very soon. So barring any FA Cup replays or anything like that, we're going to be very fresh. So I know we haven't got the biggest of squads, but we haven't got many games compared to say Spurs. We're going to have to start doing that Thursday, Sunday sort of routine very soon. And you're not going to obviously have the Champions League. I know ever anyone in the same boat as us, but I think to be honest, Everton are going to sort of flip away very quickly. I think it's going to come down to between Liverpool, Man United and Spurs for that final fourth place spot. Really, you see everything falling away, Mark? Yeah, I do. I just think that their squad is a lot more light than us and injuries where we'll start to happen. And I can just see them falling away. And it will just sort of have Liverpool, United and Spurs. And that said, do you think that our potential top four chances are contingent upon strengthening? Well, don't get me wrong, if we can strengthen, if we can bring in this midfielder, if we can bring in an attack in midfield, who can score goals and ideally a full back then. Absolutely, I'd say that if we can bring in those spaces, you can more or less guarantee our fourth spot. But I think even if we don't, when you look at the midfield, Gerard, Alan Henderson, Lucas, that's a strong group of four. And then you've got squad players like you Alberto's. I mean, Sterling was a squad player up until a couple of weeks ago. You've got Flanagan, don't forget, Flanagan's to come back for the weekend, so he can slot in at left back and get Sysoko on the bench. You know, he do strengthen, and if we strengthen well, then obviously, you know, our chances are great. But, you know, there's 17 games left. We're currently on 42 points, right? If we can get nine wins, nine wins, that's 69 points. And you've got to bear in mind as well, that we've only got, out of the top 10 teams at the moment, Southampton and Manchester, to go to away, everybody else has got to come to us. Yeah. But when we start seeing these little goals, like nine wins or whatever it is, isn't this one a start to get a little bit nerve-wracking? 'Cause you start to get nervous about missing out in things, then it is so tight. It is tight, but I think the one advantage that we've got, that we've never had before is that we've got this doctor, Peter's. And I think this guy, who's obviously trained with a lot of sports stars and government and the winning mentality, and, you know, Henderson's come out recently, Sturridge has come out recently, and he said, you know, this guy has really helped me bring on my game. And I think Push comes to show this, it's come into the business end of the season, now, you know, it's coming to that business end of the season. And I think if you've got that winning mentality, if you've got your head right, I mean, but it's more than that than anything. I mean, yes, it was a prime example, play poor, but get the result. And if we can keep that up, like to say, we've got Villa, we've got West Brom, we've got Fulham, we've got Swansea, you get your wins there, you know, and then you've got your likes of Tottenham, cities, Chelsea, they've all got to come to us, ask them, we don't have to go anyway, you know, we don't have to go any major, you know, we have to go to Cardiff and we have to go to places like West Ham and Norwich, but you know what I mean, it's a big possibility that you sat there on the 11th of May, Liverpool are playing Newcastle at home and that's going to be my day trip, that's going to be my trip to Vancouver this season. And I'm going to be sat there, you know, fourth place could be able to be in the bag. - You're going to be sitting there touching the water so you're telling us Mark's up. - You'll be sitting there watching the toilet. - I'll be touching everybody's water. - Yay! - We're definitely getting one of those wins and we're going to start with you Mark, then we'll start bringing things a little bit closer at home and get focused back on the Villa game. We've already talked about the strengths and weaknesses and so on. So how do you see this game ending for us? - Oh, I can see a win. I mean, if we do win this game, that's nine wins on the bounce at home at Anfield, which is massive, everyone says about Man City, how good they are at home, but nine wins on the bounce at Anfield with a massive statement to put out there. - And you reckon that's coming? - Yeah, I think a win and yeah, I can just see Suarez getting at least two goals. - Yeah, I can see some sky pointing from Daniel Sturridge, hopefully. Damian Floods, how do you see it ending? - Kind of, I'm a bit of a pessimist, but Phil's pointing to the score over here, so something's going to happen. Phil's going to, I'm going to Saturday, yeah. - The roof's going to fall and fall and fall and fall. - I'm not going to crack it up. - I think Sire and a catastrophe will, we won't win this game and all they get, but we have to win. - I don't know how I'm bowing to kill that. The bad and catastrophe, we won't win the game. - Yeah, you just confused me that way. (all laughing) - That's your point to the focus. - That was going in first. - Stop pointing. - Put to the mood and point to the score. (all laughing) - That's just weird. - Put your water in first. - Oh yeah. - So you, we should be winning this game. - Yeah. - To tilt the tree, no problem without that. - Okay, Stephen Brad. - We can go out and smash really whatever score we've woken where we want, because we let her terrible. - Oh, Steve. - They are terrible. - We let her absolutely win this game. - Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, you didn't. - We let her on so just slow it up. - Yeah, friend. - Yeah, but if we just have a look that they'll arrest that slide, you're going to start. - I don't know. - So you see a big win, Stephen. - I do, yeah, four, five, six. - Good God. - Aye. - Everyone. - Jesus. - Steve Daley. - I'm thinking tree one. I said tree one last week for the still game. - Okay. - Got that tits up. So I'm going to have another bash. - She's just going to keep drawing there. - That's true. - I know, I'm going to say I told you so. It's a fucking good thing. - That's a fucking good thing. - That was a good thing. (all laughing) - That's your hour. Last week I said tree one. - That was tree one. - I told you so. - Well, I'm actually going to get right behind that as well, because I've got no original thoughts on my own. - Right. So on to our listeners' questions. And we start with one from Mark, and he asks, if you were to allow one current LFC player to go off with your misses. Now, when he says go off with your misses, I presume he means some sort of romantic. - From the right. - Way. (all laughing) - Thank you very much. - If you were to run for the night for the right, who would it be? - Who would it be? - Halloy. (all laughing) - The most vocal man here has been Stephen Denny, so I'm not bringing him straight back in here, Steve. Who would you trust with your misses? - Louis Suarez. - He's never back to trust in a guy. - He'd have her done in two minutes. Job done. - That's Louis Suarez. Louis Suarez, job done. (all laughing) That's a tee shot right there. Next one is from DJG. He's at DJG 0407 on Twitter, and he says, "Who was the worst spice boy of the '90s?" I'm sure we all have opinions on this. As someone who was probably back in his turties, then Phil, what would you think? Who was the spice boy of the '90s that you hated the most? - Cheers. (all laughing) - She was a dude, wasn't she? (all laughing) Phil, worst spice boy ever. - There was no load with him, man. I'll go with... - John Scales. - Yeah, John Scales. He wasn't really a spice boy. - He was inspired by a picture that was doing the rounds on Twitter yesterday, which showed the storage and Suarez from the back view. And Fiona is at Annabelle in Twitter, says, "Who's got the better bum, "sturge or Suarez?" That's a nice and interesting question. So again, I think, really Phil, this should be done to you. - I, from the picture that she said, Don, storage definitely had the better bum on that one. - Yeah, storage stores. - 'Cause no, no, no, I think Suarez has a better ass himself. - Speak to me about aesthetics. - He has, his arse is so powerful. Like he's able to roll players. - But you can't see power, right? - I can see, you can see in his toy. - Yeah, so it's definitely, it's definitely Suarez. - Storage has an arse and I'm like red room. That's be honest, you know what I mean? And he's just that simple. He's got a better arse. (laughing) Enough. - I was also asked to ask who's got the best one in the room here, but we're gonna move through that, I think, like, quickly, 'cause I'm worried about it. - Next one, Ace. (laughing) - That was a bull! (laughing) - Next one's, Jesus. He's got his trousers halfway down, right? He's like, (laughing) - Yeah. - Okay, moving on. - One man, this Barry Carr wants to know, which is worse. I like this one, a player entering the ground wearing one of those red, ridiculous beets, headphones. Say, "Nothing about that, close to me here." Or, (laughing) Or a ponzi Chanel bag as he calls it, which is the worst. One of those ostentatious big pairs of headphones are the little kind of delicate underarm bag. - What effect? - Yeah, floaty, any opinions on this? - The bolt is bad as he's general, really. - Yeah. - Really, yeah, but the worst thing you ever see entering the ground was Stuart Downman. (laughing) - That means Ali set a headphones, a ponzi bag. (laughing) - I tell you, I gotta say, the best room carryin' out in is Suarez. Big mugga, hulk, or whatever it is he comes in with. (laughing) - Mate. - Mate. - Mate. - Mate, yeah, and some of that tomorrow. (laughing) - That's brave. (laughing) - I asked the screen, no, yeah. Gray asks, "Which song has the best guitar solo?" No, I hope the Christ people have done a little bit at home right now. - Oh my God, at least. - Okay, well, it will give us your top one, and we'll get one from everyone on this one. Everyone who has one, give us your best one. You can come back in there. - Simply for the devil, but the wrong one's done. - Simply for the devil, I feel, did you have one? Yes, no? - Gary Moore's, I still got the blues for you. - Okay, Steve Daddy. Free work, but I did it, it's kind of-- - Free work. - Send it to yourself, yeah, use it porn. - You call for free work? - Yeah, just stick on the live version on your car and you can get anywhere in 14 minutes. (laughing) - Anywhere, it doesn't fuck either. - You couldn't get anywhere. - I got from Wexford to Dublin in 14 minutes. - So it's got some sort of time bending. - It does, yeah. - You're waiting to think about it. - Because there was that traffic accident, remember that? - No, got stuck. What happened was the CD started skipping, so I had to stop. (laughing) Free work wasn't working. - Mark Simpson here, shed for best solo. - That must have got to be a child of mine. - Yeah, nice one, Mark. - That's the one's court as the killer by Neil Young. It's the guitar intro, I think that's just amazing. - Slow pause. - Slow pause. Next one's from Mark Healey, who asks. Oh, this is good. What is the best day trip that you've ever been on? Either LFC or non-LFC. Best day trip you've ever been on. Now, I'm sure we've got some horror stories here, but just, let's keep it relatively short and relatively sane. So, Flauley. I've been on a field, been on a me time, but the one, two years, a couple of the boys, all of her stoke and miserable, and that I'll drop. (laughing) It was actually funny, we'd all been talking for a good world about counting games and we met outside. What's the name of that bill, sir? - Three hills. - Outside of three hills, and we all like moist. We wouldn't help them out to each other, the whole of us. It was like a big dog concession that was over there, so they were just standing there, looking at each other. (laughing) - How do we do this? (laughing) - So, we get out on the board, so we're comfortable as fuck. And then we pick Phil up, and then we ask that I gagged on our 7 o'clock in the morning. I don't remember what we'll do after that first. (laughing) - It's amazing. - It just got real messy. (laughing) We've never got a Jack to the man. (laughing) - Brilliant. (laughing) - Excellent. Next question up is from Noel Tracey. Who wants to know, what's the biggest spoof that you've ever told the missus, or the kids, to go to a game or to go and see a game in the pub? Now, have we got a lot of spoof matches right there? (laughing) - Steam Brownie, are you prepared to incriminate yourself? (laughing) - Is anyone prepared to incriminate themselves? Mark? - Not a chan. (laughing) - I can tell you one about my ex-missus. (laughing) - No, it's an ex. (laughing) - I can't actually believe how many people are bottling it here. This is unbelievable. On that note, let's move on to the next one from @Seanjpew, who says, "What's the lad's favorite reading material on the jacks?" - Now, Stephen Brownie, you bought the last one, come in to me on this one, help me out here. - It depends about the eight of a week, it is. - You're right, you've got preferences for days of the week. - It's the Sunday, it's the Sunday times. - All right, yeah, I'll get you. - Yeah. - Is that a little bit awkward on the part, no? - It's your fault, ooh. - Okay, right. - She has the tabloid version. - Yeah. (laughing) - I don't know. (laughing) - And then most of the rest of the week, it's tour. - Okay, perfect, perfect. Anyone else got any shots? (laughing) - So when you were tweeting the next time. (laughing) - Take a picture, I'll show you. (laughing) - Let's take a picture. - All right, now if you want to just gonna finish yourself, I like this one, this is from Kafka, he's a regular contributor and friends to the kid, he sent one then and we'd had it already and then he sent in this replacement, which is quality. In a zombie apocalypse, which member of the LFC squad or the trippers group would be the first to die, on which one would last the longest? Now, I want you to think about both of these. - Oh, you got this. - Okay, so for Liverpool. - And the Liverpool squad, who's character first? - Ain't no comment the trippers as well. - No, we are, yeah, but let's do that. - Oh, no, no, no. - That's the Liverpool squad. - Ken Johnson, without question. - Is that because he-- - Fucker can't defend corners, never mind. (laughing) - Never mind himself, okay, very good. And who lasts the longest of the lapis, but back out. - Back out, back out. - I think, I think Sterling, that he's got everyone else. - Smart ass, smart ass. - He's doing a fighting for you. - He's doing a fighting. - He is the zombie apocalypse. (laughing) - Okay, of the gang of us here and on the phone. Who's dead first? - Fear, fear, it was all you fucking two. (laughing) - Take me chances, it was just you. (laughing) - I said you, you said me. What's that make? - Because you're the unlockiest bastard. (laughing) - Do you know what, that's a fucking good show. Yeah, that's a good show. And who's gonna last longest? - Andy. - Andy. - You'll avoid him into the hammer room. (laughing) - Perfect, perfect. All right, let's wrap it up, then. (coughing) We want to give a shout out to Astro Park, who are a host here. They're running leagues here all the time and you can find out all about those on www.astropark.ie. We also need to give a shout out to our partners in crime Liverpool ways, a tremendous Twitter account. You keep an eye on it daily for excellent news links, features, content like that. Match reports are not pushing our own tripery goodness in the way of info and competitions. - Just one thing we didn't put down in the admin, the HJC court board is gonna be played on March the 22nd, and we'll tweet out a link at the end of this, and anyone who wants to get involved hit the link, they can register teams, et cetera, to get involved, it's gonna be a good day because there's events at that plan for after the actual thing as well. - Right, so just a clarify, we're gonna be tweeting about that tonight from the trippers account. - We bet, yeah. - Okay, perfect. So your day trippers tonight were Phil Casey, Stephen's Brian and Daily. Damo Flood, Mark Simpson, Jonathan Wilson and myself, Trevor Downey, it's been emotional. - Summer's coming Washington, DC, and so are pesky mosquitoes. Don't let mosquitoes ruin your backyard fun, call your local true green experts for true green mosquito defense. The science-based treatment will help control mosquitoes in your yard within 24 hours, and keep your family and pets comfortable all season long. Save 50% on your first mosquito service by visiting truegreen.com/summer, or call 877-629-0092. Say goodbye to mosquitoes and hello to the perfect outdoor space for summer. Call true green today. - 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. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Episode 17 rocks with 2 guns shooting the breeze. We talk of the Stoke match, chat with Jonathan Wilson on the Anatomy of Liverpool, discuss Aston Villa sort of and round up with some listeners questions. To say its mayhem is an understatement.Mark Simpson joined us tonight to announce our competition in association with @5Timesco To be in with a chance of winning 2 tickets to the 5Timesco night in Dublin in February all you have to do is follow @TheDaytrippers1 & @5Timesco and tweet #CarraDaytrip to both accounts. Thats it. It’ll be a belter of a night as this is expected to be Carra’s one and only 5Times appearance. get on it.
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