Liverpool banter 5

06 Sep 2026 16:57:15
If you need cheering up or just want a laugh the United game reaction is up online.

06 Sep 2026 21:22:48
Always a good day when the mancs lose and that includes Jaime Carragher.

Man hangs around them so much, he might as well be one, at this point.

06 Sep 2026 23:29:52
Hanging around with them by earning a few extra bob with that Sky show you mean?

07 Sep 2026 05:46:45
Sadly, they didn’t lose. But it is fun that they thought they had it in the bag. ?

07 Sep 2026 09:02:32
The Lid, you can add multiple other podcasts to that, as well.

06 Sep 2026 16:56:07
Watching Arsenal v Chelsea

We think we’re open - first 20mins has been like both teams are losing in the last minute of added time!

If both continue like this - City’s title.

{Ed666's Note - isn’t it Arsenal attacking and Chelsea just defending? Not impressed with Chelsea at all.

06 Sep 2026 17:38:10
I think if Alonso had become our manager, he would have been Slot v 2.0.

06 Sep 2026 20:15:44
Two quirky facts. Chelsea have scored a goal in the first five minutes of all their PL games so far. Fast starters = slow finishers? They are yet to have more than 39% possession in any PL game; versus Brighton at home they had 25% possession. Xabi is a park the bus merchant, one could conclude with those figures. He is totally reliant on breakaways/counter attack.

06 Sep 2026 20:48:06
Arsenal are very hard to beat, but other than the first twenty minutes they weren’t great to watch today. They’ll probably win the league off the back of the defence, unfortunately.

06 Sep 2026 20:59:44
I wouldn’t say City are pulling up any trees.

06 Sep 2026 21:26:05
Arsenal have also been hard to beat over the past 3 years now cos Arteta abandoned the free-flowing, transition football cos he thinks it went nowhere.

Since then, their tactics and recruitment have reflected that. CB's galore, essentially. Along with tons of midfielders.



In the attack? They seem pretty light in quality, imo.

As for Chelsea? They are essentially a new team, so they need to pipe down, keep their heads down and work hard cos their fans were chatting crap after winning two measly games.

06 Sep 2026 23:33:13
Two minutes into a season and predictions already. Plenty of twists and turns. I've no doubt that Alonso will be found out though as I was never convinced, and the Chelsea thing is still a poison chalice. He needs time, of course, but so do several other new managers in the league, including our own.

{Ed666's Note - If that’s the football Chelsea are gonna play this season then I’m for one glad we didn’t get Xabi. They were profoundly and unadulteratedly boring. Maybe I’m being unkind and they will play differently at home with more invention and guile but that was a hard watch.

07 Sep 2026 11:49:10
Agree re: Chelsea, didn't see much from them and, for a team that pretty much set themselves defending and trying to hit on the counter, they were carved open throughout the game. They def need more time. Arsenal were rather good I think, and Havertz for me was man of the match. His movement made all the difference for Arsenal either to find space for himself or create it for others.

Best game I have seen him play. On the other hand, Saka was anonymous as usual, trying to remember a game I watched where he was this "star boy" talent Arsenal fans rate him to be. Rodgers and Palmer weren't better.

07 Sep 2026 11:15:45
Ed666, a hard watch for both teams but for Arsenal, we already knew that.

The Arsenal fans, as well.

{Ed666's Note - To be fair Chelsea had a couple of players missing palestra and Caceido but they were a hard watch. So glad we got IA.

06 Sep 2026 14:15:49
Lmao Carragher just compared Havertz to Firmino. And Neville had to call him out on the disrespect!!!

06 Sep 2026 14:26:25
Didn't see it but playing style, I totally get it. But Firmino definitely a level above for sure.

06 Sep 2026 14:24:13
Carragher is only doing this for a reaction. I can't stomach him at all

06 Sep 2026 15:02:19
Agree, Barry. He’s what the mute button was invented for.

06 Sep 2026 14:57:48
Probably closer to booby than bobby! Sorry i borrowed that ed01?

{Ed001's Note - no worries mate!

06 Sep 2026 15:20:53
I'd call him a bit of a tit myself Livebird, but that should only be reserved for one Mr Areola.

06 Sep 2026 16:49:13
Carra does two things, one is make silly claims to get a reaction and two, go against Liverpool to not seem biased. In this instance he's done both. Firmino is levels above Havertz and it's not close.

06 Sep 2026 17:11:49
Level wise, let’s go shard vs a bungalow.

06 Sep 2026 20:50:15
Carra’s post-match analysis of the tactical set-ups was interesting today, but he gets into tabloid-type clickbait stuff when he’s with Neville and that’s when he goes astray.

06 Sep 2026 21:29:21
WYRed, the fact that the other chuckle bro had to correct Spittles just tells you what games these guys play and you called it spot on.

These guys are in the "Shock Jock" business of saying things to trigger outrage and response to the point of not even bothering to make sense of anything anymore.



Havertz to The Bobbie Dazzler? Even Arsenal fans ain't saying that.

They know their place on this topic.

06 Sep 2026 23:19:47
Jamie said "...Havertz is more of a facilitator, he's not a great goal scorer. Can Saka or the wide players get more goals than Salah and Mane used to with Bobby Firmino in that position. They're not both great goal scorers but they bring an awful lot to the team"

Wow, Jamie basically murdered Bobby on the dance floor with that statement there.

It's part of a post-match chat on the game. Hardly headline hunting.
Honestly think some people on here go hunting for things to get hurt about.

07 Sep 2026 11:19:33
Faith, I see it differently. Carra is doing a shallow comparison of both players, which is fine on the surface.

However it is also true that comparing Havertz to such an immaculate player and unicorn that Bobby was (and still is, btw) is just nonsense at a deeper level and is trying to get people triggered.



Both can be correct at the same time. I most defo am not looking to be hurt by nothing or nobody. Esp. not from Spittles.

06 Sep 2026 11:44:24
I really hope that VVD signs another one or 2 year deal.
Gomez will go on a free transfer in the summer.
Jacquet looks the real deal.
Leoni will be back by Christmas.


Depending on what the market is like next summer and if there is no better value in the market, Araujo will be signed and replace Gomez as cover for both full back and centre back.

06 Sep 2026 12:58:45
Still our best CB by a mile.

06 Sep 2026 13:21:09
I would assume the club will take a look at how he's doing between now and Christmas and pull the trigger on a new deal if he's looking steady. He said himself that he is a late bloomer, so there's potentially plenty of gas left in the tank yet.

Would also love to have him around to help the young CBs we have invested in.

He has his eyes on that SD role in the future too! :)

06 Sep 2026 21:31:17
Man, the guy's still got it. Imagine the rival fans bantering us about a generational CB losing a step just cos he is getting older. If that's all they got then really, we're good.

If Virg wants to stay, then he should earn the extension by playing his best and then we will see.

06 Sep 2026 08:41:28
No game until Wednesday, so we would've had 4 days to train. Then three games at home. All good news for resting and training.

06 Sep 2026 10:19:44
If this was still Slop in charge the players would have been given 2 days off to go on holiday whilst he heads to Ibiza then a light training session on Monday before being given Tuesday off as a rest day

06 Sep 2026 11:24:11
Slot is in the past - let it go.

06 Sep 2026 11:33:20
Resting?

Well I suppose they have to sleep, otherwise Iraola will have them grafting.

06 Sep 2026 12:30:12
How much animus do you need to have for our previous coach to continue calling him Slop and making the same old jokes about Ibiza months after his departure?

06 Sep 2026 13:02:05
It's funny. The boys are probably all at home with the feet up now having a day or two off. Will never hear a thing about it. ?

06 Sep 2026 13:15:07
My first game of the season, Wednesday. So that’s where the downfall starts. ? ?

06 Sep 2026 16:06:57
They’re not training for 4 days.

06 Sep 2026 20:12:34
I think they will be training for 4 days.

06 Sep 2026 08:29:12
I'd personally like us to get Jorg Schmadtke back as DOF. He's the best we've had at the club in that role. Comolli, Edwards, Hughes, Ward etc all left a lot to be desired. So it is a low bar to be fair, but he did a good job nonetheless.

Jorg was exceptional. Klopp told him what he wanted (a new midfield) and he made good sales for decent money (Henderson and Fabinho) then pulled off a full midfield rebuild in one summer without paying silly prices (Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Endo and Mac Allister).

I think he's exactly the sort of DOF we need. Minimal interference. He'll ask Iraola what he needs and then go get it for him. I'm very ignorant of the DOF world though. It's so behind the scenes, it's hard to know who does what and whether they do a good job or not. I just like what Jorg did that summer a lot.

06 Sep 2026 08:53:19
It's a bit hard to judge Schmadtke that summer, imo, although I did like how that summer went. I think we were lucky with our sales since Saudi were throwing cash left, right and centre. We did get very good fees for them, so maybe that's down to him.



The sales were harder to judge since we just paid the release clauses for Szob and Macca. So not much negotiation needed. Grav was made available by BM so he was reasonably priced. Endo was a good deal.

06 Sep 2026 09:20:20
I agree with Dracred… Jorg has done well with signings and sales, but it was a unique summer with Saudi throwing crazy money around. That wouldn’t be so easy to get that return in the current climate.

06 Sep 2026 09:37:57
I think you answered your own question there, MK. You might not know what a Sporting Director does.

Schmadtke didn’t do anything of note other than provide Klopp with a bit of bandwidth from his Ibiza base. It was so good that Billy Hogan had to get involved in some deals.

Don’t forget the Caicedo and Lavia debacles. Ward did the deal for Macca before he left in July that year. Macca even cites it.

I think we can and should do better than Schmadtke.

06 Sep 2026 10:01:21
As I understand it, SDs don't just go and buy and sell players, MK, they're responsible for long term planning of the squad over several seasons, deciding which players to keep and develop and which to plan to phase out. It's kind of like the coach works with the team on the training pitch in the present moment preparing for the game, but the sporting director is looking far ahead in the future at an overarching strategy in the longer term across several windows (hopefully with the involvement of the head coach himself, of course).

The role Schmadtke had was fairly unique given how much power Klopp had over who the club should buy and sell at the time. He was hired purely to do the job of transfers for one window and didn't do any of the other stuff a sporting director is supposed to do in their day-to-day jobs.

06 Sep 2026 10:10:46
I guess he went a bit under the radar which is exactly what you want. I mean you don’t want to be talking more about your DOF than any other football related topic.

If Areola did happen to do something special this season, does that mean Hughes gets credit for picking the right players? ?

06 Sep 2026 10:54:48
I thought he was retired and in his 60s.

06 Sep 2026 11:34:36
He got quite a few pelters on here when Caicedo and Lavia deals fell through and we signed Endo. ?

06 Sep 2026 11:46:44
True Ron, and we still wait for the midfielder to be signed, and Endo is still the stop-gap.

06 Sep 2026 13:18:20
They should be establishing the sporting culture running through the club - from first team through the academy and even to the women's team if the goal is to be more integrated. The way we want to play, our values and our sporting ambitions.

Not only are they responsible for the playing staff but also for hiring and nurturing of coaching, analysts, scouting, medical and performance personnel.

On the more glamorous side, they need to maintain pretty good relationships with other SDs and even club owners.

On the grubby side, they need to maintain pretty good relationships with agents.

At a club like LFC, they don't have to be good negotiators - there are professional negotiators for that.

But they do need to charm players, their families and agents.

They also have to work with the PR team and the CEO to ensure the optics of our on and off-field activities are always in line with the sporting culture, vision and values.

You would expect an SD to be looking to hang around for 7-10 years, through 2-3 coaches.

I get the impression that Richard Hughes was certainly a charmer. He even has the STC moniker here. But at some point, pretty early on, he decided he was leaving and that likely resulted in him doing a half-arsed job.

{Ed666's Note - I hope we find out by one of the ITK’s if he left or was he pushed? I’m sure all will be revealed in due course

06 Sep 2026 21:33:04
MKS, I was actually thinking about this the other day but only, as a joke, lol.

06 Sep 2026 07:48:33
Lots of praise for Araujo for defensive work at RB.

But let's not get carried away here. Each of our nans would have been an upgrade on Frimpong and mine's dead.

Funny we drop Frimpong and win with a clean sheet and see the best of VVD.

06 Sep 2026 08:50:29
Not funny, predictable.

06 Sep 2026 09:26:08
Think you're being incredibly unfair on Araujo here, he's an incredibly versatile and experienced defender who had been an important figure in the defence of Barcelona.

I have a sneaking suspicion he will prove to be our most important signing of the summer - Barcola and Munoz will be incredibly important too, but Araujo solves defensive cover and issues we have had for the last twelve months.

06 Sep 2026 10:01:20
Think of the best player you ever played with.

Frimpong is 200 times better than that player.

Let's not get down to disrespectful levels.

I might criticize performances of players, but let's be clear that the criticism is in comparison to other elite professionals. Not the everyday man. They have reached a serious level in their lives.

06 Sep 2026 10:06:53
I think Jacquet has been a cracking signing myself. He needs to be a bit more aggressive sometimes, but his reading of the play and confidence/ability to step out with the ball or spot a pass from deep are one in a million traits to have. If Leoni is on a similar level and Ndukwe can live up to the promise he showed in preseason, we have three unreal young center backs.

I think Araujo has shown us what he is capable of when he is on it. He was known to make puzzling decisions at times at Barca so let's hope that doesn't happen often (if at all) here. He has also been massively injury prone the last few seasons.

06 Sep 2026 11:37:01
Nice to concentrate on the positives, isn't it?
Maybe we would still have won and kept a clean sheet if Frimpong was playing?
We will never know and I prefer to deal with facts and not speculation.

06 Sep 2026 12:23:03
Great post, Davey. There's fair criticism of a player and then there's the nonsense about Frimpong being barely a footballer, let alone a professional, and suggesting that your dead grandma would be an improvement. Not sure what folks are trying to accomplish, insulting one of our own with that sort of banter.

06 Sep 2026 12:30:44
Exactly, Davey. I hate the levels people (I am looking at you VV) stoop to while criticising the current public enemy no. 1. They are among the cream in arguably the most competitive profession in the world. And let's not kid ourselves, for most of us, if we were good enough we would want to be footballers.

The truth is we are so so far off these players that it's different galaxies. And secondly, even if someone scams their way somehow (Dia to Southampton), kindness is still valuable.

06 Sep 2026 14:21:53
You lot said the same for slot.
Keep supporting failures. I will back him the day he does something deserving of a backing. For now fact and evidence is obvious we dropped him and won and were miles better defensively.

06 Sep 2026 17:53:23
@Lastfanofslot - I don’t usually bite at silly comments, but maybe you should just back him already because he’s representing the club you presumably support.

06 Sep 2026 20:52:37
Glad to hear people finally calling this out. Why do some fans always have to have a fall guy?

Last season it was Gakpo, the season before it was Nunez. Now it seems it’s Frimpong’s turn. Some of the criticism these players get is so unjustified it’s ridiculous.



I think some fans need to grow up and get behind the team. These spiteful, over the top criticisms help nobody apart from our opposition.

06 Sep 2026 21:35:38
Rios, it's the scapegoating mentality, man. It's now on steroids esp. with SM.

Even in a win, the guy who literally did not play still gets abuse. Pathetic.

06 Sep 2026 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - EHL2020 has posted a new article entitled, SFA Youth Minutes Plan Feels Like a Quick Fix

06 Sep 2026 01:27:12
Fields and Robbo have said they would give us the low down on the STC (Hughes) when he left. I am excited for that brief!

{Ed666's Note - it’s not gonna be pretty that’s for sure

06 Sep 2026 02:33:15
I'm thinking Jackie Collins vibes.

{Ed666's Note - you think it’s the story is gonna be underpinned with a sexual theme Barry? Let me grab my popcorn..I’ll know what you’ll be grabbing Bazza ?

06 Sep 2026 03:18:54
What is STC?

{Ed666's Note - Silver tounged charlatan I believe is what Hughes is affectionally called around these parts

06 Sep 2026 06:21:47
Who cares about the bloke? He’s gone. The best thing for the club is to move on as quickly as possible. I’d be more interested to know if the lads with the info might know who the likely candidates for the job are.

06 Sep 2026 06:20:09
I'm hoping your popcorn bucket isn't specially adapted either Ed666!

{Ed666's Note - you mean like a hole in the base ?

06 Sep 2026 09:12:32
STC good name for Jackie Collins book!

06 Sep 2026 09:26:17
If you're not interested in the story WDW, then you can simply just ignore the post, and read something else.

Me, I'm interested in what the ITK's have to say.
Any information on what goes on behind the scenes is always welcome.

06 Sep 2026 14:22:10
I think of another C word in place of charlatan.

06 Sep 2026 22:16:41
@JLC, they don't know what goes on behind the scenes - they have snippets of information about transfers and second or third hand gossip about members of staff. If you want to gossip that's fine.

My opinion is that gossip if for those who don't have anything better to do in life and I'm going to carry on posting my opinions. Perhaps take a piece of you own advice and simply pass over what I say.

07 Sep 2026 10:16:34
Ah I see. lol
Thanks triple6.