Liverpool man ‘pants’ while new boys set to be dropped already

Newcastle v Liverpool was fun, right? But Liverpool have got some big issues and probably need Marc Guehi to sign quite soon.

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Salah days?
If only Salah was on the pitch, a player of his ability would have made light work of 10-man strikerless Newcastle. Y’know, actually earn those obscene new wages. Arsenal’s to lose based on this round of fixtures then. No pressure Mikel ’round billion’ Arteta.
RHT/TS x

READ: 16 Conclusions on Newcastle 2-3 Liverpool: Ngumoha, Osula, Ekitike, Konate and Isak

The big question
I wonder whether Isak celebrated that 3rd Liverpool goal?
Andy

Rio: The stats
Young Rio Ngumoha scores an average of 18 goals every 90 minutes.

It’s all downhill from here.
Jon, Bridgwater

Liverpool fans a wreck
I’m not emotionally strong enough to handle us winning games in the 89th minute all season.

Konate’s head is in Madrid. These last two games he’s been pants and needs to sit on the bench whilst Leoni gets a chance to hold that position down.

Wirtz and Kerkez are definitely struggling to adapt. Kerkez is going to be a target at the back post for every team as two games he’s been very weak at the back and at fault for goals in both games. I’d actually be tempted to start Robertson against Arsenal.

The team were dreadful and lucky to be 2-0 up. They were against 10 and should’ve dominated the game and maybe scored one more to kill the tie off. To have let Newcastle back in and to have played 15 minutes at the end like Liverpool were the team with 10 men was embarrassing. Slot needed to see that and make changes earlier to get the game under control.

We have a very tough opening 10 games and it’s good we have won the first two but everyone needs to step up if we are going to stay in touch with the top of the league.
Minty, LFC

…First of all – just insanely good entertainment. This fixture rarely fails to deliver.

The ref was dreadful. Joelinton and Trippier committed yellow card offences in the first 5 minutes. He should have dished out cards to assert his authority. But he didn’t. He then booked Gravenberch for an equally bad tackle. Cowardly, and inconsistent – yuck. Newcastle sniffed it, and continued with the rough stuff. Gordon was correctly sent off, but I can’t help thinking if Hooper had taken control earlier it wouldn’t have happened. It was a masterclass in weak refereeing.

Newcastle, to their credit, were excellent after that. It felt like they were a man up, not a man light.

Liverpool were not great. Konate has had an absolute Regi Blinker of a first two games, he’s surely on the verge of being dropped for Leoni. The whole team didn’t manage the game properly at 2-0. But, they just have so much talent, they can score at any time, and you’ve seen tonight a 16 year old match winner who is going to be very special indeed. They will need to be vastly better vs Arsenal and I expect them to be, because I think Slot won’t put up with what he’s seen these first two games. He’ll nip it in the bud.

All in all, just bonkers. That’s what makes the PL great.
Andy H, Swansea

…Liverpool didn’t deserve it, but won by being a relentless pain in the arse.

Happy with the victory…not how we won it.
Aidan, LFC

+: we scored 2 or more goals for 3 consecutive games

+: lost first on penos, and won the other 2 with late goals. Champo mettle!

+: massive upgrade at striker. Shows us what a skilled striker can do with composure and normal temperature (not even ice cool) blood in his veins. Nunez didn’t work out and we have had to pay £30-40mil to upgrade at #9, but 3 games in, it looks worth it. He’s competent and looks like Isak lite, albeit at massive cost.

+: full points whilst not having all cylinders firing.

+: with strength in reserve! Massive potential to improve at the positions with new players brought in: FB, #10. We should be better come new year: new players getting up to speed on squad play and tactics, getting used to each other, getting used to the physicality and game pace of the epl…

+: poaching yet another kid off chelski/ city, who’s turning out to look like a good catch 😊

-: poor Konate
With 2 relative new and short FBs, we would have needed the stalwart CBs and GK and DMs to bail them out. Unfortunately, Konate’s reverted to the form of the season before last, reminding everyone why lfc weren’t comfy giving him a multi year extension. Run past, dribbled past, befuddled, mental errors, headless chicken… and not willing to sign the lucrative extension contract thus far. Can we sell konate and replace with Guehi? Less drama, more steadiness, more settled as the back. Give the FBs a break and let them have a chance to settle in.

– dependency on late goals , leading to possible exhaustion
We led in all 3 games , sometimes by 2 goals. But got pegged back all 3 times. We have to exert extra energy to pull out late goals for wins. In klopp’s final season, we started out that way and it wasn’t sustainable. We ran out of steam in March 😥

– new signings yet to gel well with each other (except Ekitike)

– thinner squad than in prior years, after the many sales : could hamper us later in the season

– big money signing Wirtz still acclimating to the EPL’s speed and intensity

Still, it’s a luxury picking up maximum points despite not firing on all cylinders, with expected further improvements to come. Good position to be in
Gab YNWA
PS let’s stop haggling over the add ons and pay up the £5mil palace are demanding. Before Palace raise the price (aka brentford and wissa), or city swoop in.

PPS And after that, can we sell Konate before his value drops further? It’s one thing if we’ve signed him on an extension, but on this form, and without an extension, his market value is dropping by the game.

Newcastle feeling VAR from happy
No complaints about the red card for Gordon. However Gravenberch commits a scissor tackle from behind and VAR doesn’t even look at it. Should’ve been a red card.

LiVARpool getting all the help they could ever want. PSR and VAR working together to ensure that there can be no permanent challengers to the big 6.

Brilliant effort against 11 men. Its very early, but even with Isak this Liverpool team won’t win the league.
Chris, NUFC

Who’s upset Carra?
Firstly: “His name is Rio and he dances on the Tyne”

Who at Anfield has upset Jamie Carragher so much? Two games in and he has hardly had a good word to say about his former employers, last week it was “you won’t win the Premier League playing like that”, scoring 4 goals to the oppositions 2 will always give you a chance.

Tonight he was even more scathing, “Newcastle were outstanding” and a classic “I fear what the score would be if it was 11v11”, actually Jamie it was 1-0 to Liverpool. “That was one of the best performances by a losing team and one of the worst by a winning team”, must have forgot about being outplayed for 84 minutes in 2005 then (tbf he did say one of).

He did however get into creep mode with Arne, “I’m delighted to be wrong boss(!)”.

Can only assume his ticket allocation has been cut or he’s caught Van Bronkhorst with his missus (handsome bastard).

Maybe Gary and Rio’s ” i have to say something bad about my club” has worn off.
Howard (Gordon’s scuppered the Isak deal) Jones

Stop wanting Isak money for unwanted players
I enjoyed your article about players still waiting to touch turf. And re. the suggestion of Mainoo to Spurs, from London you can get an “Amen!”

But I find your comment that Arsenal should hold out for the right price for Kiwior (or, from utd, Mainoo) contradictory.

If he isn’t playing, they clearly don’t think he’s got what it takes. We’re not talking mega bucks here for a player their parent club doesn’t back. They can’t expect Isak money for a player they don’t pick.
Sam

On Everton and…Spurs?
I thought I’d take a day after the result to comment on Everton’s win over Brighton because I’m sure no one on this site wants to talk about Isak, Arsenal, or United anymore.

In all seriousness, while we played a bit better than we did against Leeds, we were lucky not to be down one or two early. Mitoma’s flick over TWO defenders and then waiting an eternity for the ball to come down to where he cracked a beautiful volley off the crossbar was the first warning. Wellbeck making a hash of the pass (admittedly a bit behind him) right in front of goal was the second. I’ll not comment about the deflected smash off the post, the obligatory Everton handball in the box (saved by Pickford) and Tarkowski’s all round nightmare of a match. Brighton certainly looks like a good side, and you can see why they finished top half this season and will more than likely do so again.

Sometimes you need a bit of luck, and we got it. Enough to give Grealish time to do what he does and Garner to hit and absolute pile driver of a strike to give us the “comfortable” win. Three points was a must on the day we opened the brand-new Hill Dickinson stadium. Moyes stated after the match that he’s trying to build a top team. I’d be happy right now with him building a “not in a relegation battle every season team.” Baby steps. A few more decent players in and I think we have a chance of building that team and hopefully kicking on from there, the Everton institutional rot in our rearview mirror and the same rot that Manchester United will need to purge from their club as well.

I do want to comment on, of all things Spurs. I always make fun of Spurs because I’ve never viewed them as a “big six” club. One CL final doesn’t make one a “big six” club. That said, they look a completely different team from last year. Having injured players back helps but having a manager who knows what he’s doing also helps. They’ve brought some very good players in (I always wanted Kudus at Everton,) but getting Thomas Frank in seems to be the missing puzzle piece.

I know, I know, they can always Spurs it up as Levy is still in charge but if you’re a Spurs supporter right now, you must be loving your first two results but more importantly, how you’ve played. I congratulated a Spurs supporting friend after their victory over City and he gave me the obligatory “thank you but…(insert bad thing that could happen to Spurs here.”) The deprogramming will take years.
TX Bill (Mitoma’s a menace and the Richarlison I know is back. I’ll also break all the rules I want loving Grealish) EFC

READ: Premier League winners and losers: Rule-breaking Everton, abysmal West Ham, phenomenal Frank

Wonderful times
Just writing in as someone who grew up in the South East of England in the 90s and 00s to point out how absolutely delicious it is to read the words: ‘and drew away to a Fulham team that was four places higher and 12 points better off last season.’

Thank you Modern Day Man Utd for all that you do for my mental health.
Simon, London

More time for Amorim? No thanks
To the people that think Amorim just needs more time, more players, more luck, more something else, I say this:

Statistically, he is the worst manager United have had since Sir Alex and one of our worst ever. We sacked Moyes – rightly – for far less, let alone Van Gaal, Ten Hag and Ole.)

He chose to focus on buying a 4th striker (and then not play him) and a 6th number 10 rather than a dedicated RM or a replacement for Casemiro and Ugarte.

In the process, he has marginalised two of our best young players. (Sticking Amad out as a RWB/RM is marginalising his impact from what we saw last year.)

His four favourite players are all number 10s. But rather than just pick two, for the two positions available, he’s shoehorning all four in to the clear detriment of both team and his beloved tactics.

Whatever else you think or feel, these are the facts.

Any belief that he is still the right man is not based on anything he’s actually done. At best it’s hope, at worst it’s delusion.

The best moment for us in the match came from the keeper punting it down field and Cunha controlling it perfectly and shooting well, but for it to be saved. Is that 3421 tactics? Is that coaching genius? Is crossing all game to no one and then stopping crossing when you actually bring on the one guy who can head a masterstroke?
Badwolf

(It’s so bad it almost makes Southgate or Lampard look appealing. Almost.)

VAT on footballers?
Recently, while on the throne, I wondered whether there is VAT on footballers so I did what anyone would do; a very quick google, skim the first thing that comes up, believe it.

Apparently there is VAT on footballers and it is payable immediately and on the full transfer fee.

So let’s say a player is transferred for £100m and the buying team is paying £40m up front, another £45m in instalments over the next two years, and a further £15m in add-ons over the duration of the player’s contract. Since VAT is 20% the VAT added to this transfer would be £20m and is payable immediately. So the buying club have to stump up £60m to make their initial payment to buy the player.

If there is VAT on footballers – and you’d wonder why there isn’t if the internet has let me down again – it begs one question: How do clubs get away with the old ‘undisclosed fee’ chestnut?
Mort Snort, Saints

Quick question
Yeah, quick question after this weekend’s action: rebounds from saved penalties are no longer deemed in play any more, so why are players still hanging on the edge of the penalty area waiting for them, and why are referees still spending time walking along the line of players warning them not to encroach?
Martin Mannion