Tottenham supporters are out in force to bite back at those disgruntled Liverpool fans and take aim at miniature violinist, Jurgen Klopp.
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Short and sweet
Couldn’t agree with John Collins more, Klopp’s a d*ck. Never liked him, such a fair-weather human.
Finlay x
Objectivity
A word rarely associated with football fans is ‘objectivity’ and I totally understand that fact. This is especially true when discussing your own team, but some of the bitterness and perspective from L’pool fans is a good old pre-Crimbo lol.
I’m a Spurs fan, for context. Let me start with points that have been the focus. Kane, by the laws of the game, should have seen red. No problem there. Robbos was also a red, although I can see why there may be more of a discussion that it wasn’t as dangerous. Red is red though, regardless.
The referee, in general, had a shocker. This was across the board. He wasn’t wearing his Spurs shirt underneath. Jota should have had a pen. Total and utter b*llocks about him ‘stopping’. He stopped to try and take a shot and, ultimately, he was barged over with Royal being both reckless and lucky. The Alli incident was not a pen. However, Winks being knee’d and taken out was a pen. Why this has no focus I do not know. Because he was on the edge of the box and it wasn’t a clear goal scoring opportunity? Again, like the red cards there is a broad spectrum involved and it should have been a penalty apiece. I’m not even sure, based on current law, what the handball from
Salah should have been. He’s definitely gained an advantage with a degree of control coming from the touch on his arm. For me, that sort of scenario should not be allowed but I think by the laws it’s a good goal.
But forget all the incidents, the sh*te referee’ing and all that. What’s made me chuckle is the chat about the scouse mob being under strength! Ok, true. Missing 3 midfielders and your key centre back. Let me get my calculator out. That’s 4 players. Spurs, missing our key centre back and key centre midfielder altogether, plus 3 usual starters only fit enough for the bench in Skipp, Sergio and Moura. That’s – checks calculator – 5 players. In the spirit of Christmas, I’ll call it 4 because of the change of shape so Moura would have been unlikely to start. Also – we have Davidson Sanchez playing. He’s like a reverse cheat code. The personnel, or lack thereof, is not a viable argument for Liverpool on this occasion.
Finally, the freshness and time off. I don’t think I’m alone in stating that, with the way we’d been playing prior, we’d rather not have had the time. The momentum and match sharpness would have been welcomed.
With how clear cut our chances were, I believe we should have won. We didn’t. There’s all the ‘what ifs’ and that’s standard chitter chatter after any game of football. I did really enjoy the game though. Spurs, despite missing 50% of our outfield starters, had a plan, discipline and organisation. AND looked super exciting on the counter.
Merry Christmas mailbox! And to all you grumpy scousers, calm down calm down.
Glen, Stratford Spur
Unclassy touch
The mailbox yesterday morning.. how very “Liverpool”. Your pal, Minty LFC in particular.
Yes, one or two decisions went against you. My heart bleeds. Believe it or not, decisions went against Spurs too – your 2nd goal for example. And you were not the only side who had to make changes. We were also missing key players in midfield and defence but that would hurt your argument so no, let’s forget about that.
You suggest that we’ve had 2 weeks to prepare – we’ve had 2 weeks where members of our squad have been unwell and / or isolating and our training ground was also closed for a period too. We’ve been messed about with cancelations and so on, meanwhile Liverpool have been in full flow, playing some lovely stuff. You chose to play an academy prospect in midfield instead of Chamberlain. I’m guessing so Klopp could point to that and ask everyone to get the violins out. It ain’t happening mate.
The refereeing was poor but Klopp, once again, shows how little class he has.
Dave, Berkshire Spur.
I think I’m paranoid, and complicated
Wow! Liverpool fans sure know how to moan eh? Not sure who the more paranoid set of fans are, them or Arsenal.
Yes, Liverpool had 4 players missing from their starting XI. Spurs had 5, get over it. To suggest we had two weeks to prepare for this game is ridiculous, do you really think two weeks ago we thought ‘let’s allow this new Covid variant to rip through our squad so we can have three games cancelled and can properly focus on Liverpool’??. Our preparation for this game was almost non existent as the training ground was closed for half a week.
The ref should have sent Kane off but didn’t, you win some you lose some. You weren’t disadvantaged by this decision, Robertson wasn’t injured, you just didn’t get the advantage of playing the majority of the game vs 10 men. Again, get over it. Get on with the game and try and beat us 11 vs 11. I think that’s what has really annoyed Liverpool fans here, the fact they looked so ropey against a Covid ravaged Spurs side who should have won comfortably.
Rob Pearse
Kane hate
Just read the Winners and Losers and we now have Richard Jolly (a professional journalist) joining in the Liverpool fan outrage that the worst thing any human has ever done was Harry Kane not admitting his tackle was reckless after the game. He’s so outraged he mentions it twice, by contrasting it with Robertson’s ‘honesty’ and then again when describing Kane’s post match interview as ‘embarrassing’.
First thing to say is that yes Kane should have seen red. I’ve seen vanishingly few spurs fans try to argue otherwise. Second is that Kane was interviewed straight after the game and probably hadn’t even seen a replay at that point, and I don’t think he had any intent to hurt Robertson. But third and most important is to point out there is a world of difference in a mea culpa when you have been sent off and expecting one when you haven’t. What were people expecting Kane to say – it was a bad challenge and I think the PL should ban me for 3 games? Tell me any instance when a player has done that. I’ll wait. I can remember two really bad challenges from Kane in his career – one against City a few years back and one yesterday. He wasn’t sent off for either but that’s not his fault. As usual he is being held to a different standard by the haters, and it’s still a little baffling as to why
Phil, London
A little late on parade with Spurs v Liverpool observations but it’s a busy time of year…
A short while ago there was a mail published on F365 where somebody questioned why Liverpool fans despise Harry Kane more than fans of other teams do…as a Liverpool fan I had never noticed this, I thought he was universally unpopular but I thought I would keep an eye on it.
Fast forward to the match at the weekend, and more importantly, the responses from Kane and Robertson after the game. Andy Robertson immediately took to social media and apologised for a bad foul for which he admitted he deserved a red card.
Compared to the interview with Harry Kane where he bemoaned receiving a yellow card, never mind the fact it should have been a straight red.
So I don’t think it’s just Liverpool fans who hate Kane, I don’t particularly dislike him or any specific opposition players. But, lets face it, he is quite a b*llend.
Finally, kudos to RossH, he got a bit of stick from Liverpool fans in the afternoon mailbox but I thought it was a great assessment.
Cheers
Mark Jones, LFC, Liverpool
Solid Granit
Following on from the discussion and debate about how stupid Xhaka is for nearly getting himself sent off (yet again) for a mad and totally unnecessary (yet again) challenge, I really hope someone has a word with him to try and illustrate the bigger picture.
Before I get to that, I don’t know if anyone noticed aside from the controversial challenge, another lunge at a Leeds player in the middle of the park in which he failed to make contact. Arsenal were two or three up at that point. It was obviously going to be a premeditated trip; the player and the ball had gone past him as the cogs started to rotate in his brain. A definite yellow had he made contact. Why do it? Which leads me to the bigger picture.
What I mean by that is his inability to understand that not just reds do the team harm if he’s banned but yellows do too (having said that, I don’t think he realises that reds are a problem). Therefore any rule breaking or ref baiting should be avoided, particularly when the team is winning two or three nil . This includes stupid challenges but also time wasting, he was done for that, and dissent. Quite frankly I’d be bloody annoyed if I was the ref to have Xhaka in my ear complaining about a tackle made by the opposition when I’ve just let him off one very similar a few minutes earlier. Naturally at the next available opportunity, guaranteed there’d be one, and I’d ensure he was out of my face.
At this point in Arsenal’s season, two midfielders, Partey and Elneny, are soon off to the AFCON, which leaves in central positions only Xhaka, Lokonga and Maitland-Niles. So Xhaka getting a ban via yellows added up or a straight red leaves things very exposed, with or without COVID withdrawals or other injuries. And that’s whether Xhaka is rated as first choice or not.
Does no-one remind him of this? Is Arteta having a word with him? Is he checking it’s sinking in? It definitely doesn’t look like it. How is Arteta going to improve the situation? He doesn’t seem to hook him every time things look safe to avoid it, because unfortunately some of the work Xhaka is picked for is to protect a lead, so a fine line is being walked of being far enough in the lead for it not to matter if he transgresses. That, based on Xhaka’s brain, is a huge lottery.
That’s why Xhaka isn’t liked, let alone admired, by Arsenal fans, it’s basically down to the stupid decisions and kneejerk reactions he makes. It is why many fans wanted him to lose the captaincy and even leave the club. It is also behaviour which isn’t setting a good example and doesn’t befit ‘leading the line’ as a role model to the younger players. A good pass here or there isn’t sufficient for his deficiencies to be ignored, which have cost dearly more often than not.
In addition Arsenal work well now when transitioning quickly, turning defence into attack, and there’s usually a collective groan to be heard when Xhaka doesn’t cotton on and slows the game down at the wrong time.
I’m sure he’s probably a nice bloke but on the field is what we’re talking about. Will he ever learn? It’s not looking likely, is it?
Ty A, Essex
Coad red
In July this year, you published this from me:
“Enioyed the Awkward piece this morning, although I have a sneaking suspicion that the regular who will, or at least should, be phased out at Wolves in my opinion is Conor Coady. Now I understand that he is a “great talker”, a “strong presence in the dressing room” and has “excellent leadership qualities”, but I’m pretty sure Napoleon would have offered all of those things to the Wolves team, but I wouldn’t want him playing centre back (too short for a start). Coady is a highlights reel defender, last ditch tackles, slow motion pictures of him shouting and pointing, not to mention the classic ‘pointing to his head’ a lot. But, last season he was horribly exposed by Willy, Boly’s Covid related absence and has proved he is limited to playing in a back three as the spare man with two strong defenders in front of him. His famous Stevie Me-esque cross field balls it turns out relied on Doherty and Jonny’s excellent forward runs, so he lost that string to his bow as well.
In short, he’s been made to look a lot better than he is by better players around him, when he was required to step in those players absence, he was very poor and should be sent packing with thanks for the Championship season. As for being part of Gareth’s ‘leadership group’ I think that says an awful lot about several things, but not Conor Coady’s football ability”
I would now like to confirm that I am a massive b*llend.
John Collins, Shropshire
The long AFCON
Dr Yeboah’s email this morning (while well-intended) raised two counter-points:
1. There are no European nationals (that I am aware of) playing in an African league so the cancellation of the Euro tournament from African federations.
2. There is literally a civil war going on in Cameroon as well as a massive COVID wave occurring globally. When Euro 2020 had to be rescheduled, it was under the guise of pandemic-related restrictions. CAF should have discretion but should also act in the best interest of the players, who play in the best league competitions in the world.
David – Toronto
The Johnny Nic response
I read Johnny Nic’s latest piece and there’s a couple of points I’d like to make.
1. Finding Ronaldo’s physique appealing or worthy of admiration does not equate to giving into body dismorphia. Ronaldo’s longevity at the top of the sport is obviously in part due to the work and discipline that goes into achieving and maintaining this type of body. This is worthy of respect and admiration while some may be susceptible to dangerous levels of self criticism caused by comparison. Ronaldo’s habit of showing off his physique is certainly eye-roll provoking but I find it odd to criticise an elite athlete for being in shape. But then again, Johnny regular harps on players appearance in his columns.
As a fairly regular gym goer, I find physiques like Ronaldo’s aspirational while also understanding I’ll never look like that because I also love beer and kebabs.
Another example is the well documented physique of Bayern players. To a man, they are powerful athletes. Isn’t this simply a prerequisite for being an elite sportsman, especially in a high tempo game like modern football?
2. If all footballers are so obsessed, why is vaccine uptake only below 70% in the Premier League out of the top leagues? Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe only the Premier League has had to postpone games. Could the British government sacking off any and all precautions a few months back have something to do with it? What message does that send to people? I totally believe that everyone needs to be vaccinated but the idea that players are refusing vaccines purely because they’re all obsessed with their muscles is too simplistic.
Alan.
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