Liverpool banter 7

15 Oct 2026 14:46:27
Came to check how many posts were lauding our CL performance. Wasn't disappointed.

Just a reminder that the Sun gets brighter and hotter by about 1% every 110 million years as it burns through its hydrogen fuel. In roughly 5 to 7 billion years, the Sun will run out of hydrogen in its core and expand into a red giant, with its outer layers swelling up to 250 times its current size and leaving the Earth as nothing more than a scorched, dead rock.

17 Oct 2026 00:43:09
World is slowly ending and you can't even enjoy a win.

The earth is 4.54 billion years old and we were lucky enough to live in the time as Divock Origi. Try and enjoy it.

17 Oct 2026 01:09:28
Man City have been found guilty of more charges than all the stars in the entire solar system.

17 Oct 2026 01:14:43
So it's a race between the sun burning through its fuel and Man City being punished for cheating.

It's going to be a tight finish.

17 Oct 2026 09:08:11
Dream of gin, hope you don't mind a useless bit of trivia, there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.

17 Oct 2026 10:09:41
There are also more goalkeepers on Richard Hughes' shopping list than grains of sand on the earth.

17 Oct 2026 13:55:30
And everything to be found in the universe was present at the time of the big bang, or so I believe.

16 Oct 2026 17:39:23
This is a question for the old heads, hopefully ed01 can also give some feedback.

I was just watching a video about the 2000/2001 season and it got me thinking about that team. Heskey was having his best season, Nicky barmby was also playing well. Owen was scoring.

Sander westerveld I was never a fan of.

Anyway to the question. How good was that team? I know they won the treble and I remember the season fondly, but was it a good team?

{Ed001's Note - it wasn't really all that good.

Westerveld was dodgy, started well but quickly lost his way and was prone to errors.
The central defensive pairing of Henchoz and Hyypia were solid, but slow and so played very deep, which meant the team was unable to really be anything but a counter attacking team.
The full-backs were poor, apart from Babbel, who was class.
The central midfield was strong, with Gerrard, McAllister and Hamann but the wide areas were weak. I know some liked Barmby, but I never really did, and the rest were always just central midfielders shoehorned in to protect the defence, rather than attacking players.
Up front, I do have a soft spot for Titi Camara, but he only played well on a few occasions. Owen, Fowler and Heskey would have been a great trio to rotate, but Fowler was often injured and Heskey never believed in himself so would just play to help Owen.

It had a lot of quality in terms of central players, but it played far too defensively for my liking and the wide areas were lacking.}

16 Oct 2026 20:53:48
Cant believe u forgot about litmanan. What a player.

{Ed666's Note - Don’t get me started about the abysmal treatment of Jari..his knee was busted but he was still better than most players in the premiership with one knee.

16 Oct 2026 20:57:12
I was literally watching the 00/01 LFC Season Review on Youtube last week, and suddenly see someone bring up that exact season. Really enjoyable, but my word was Westerveld shocking at times. Loved Hyypia, Henchoz just wanted to slide tackle everyone regardless of whether the situation called for it.

Gerrard was starting to find his feet, and Owen was just exceptional. Agree totally about Heskey, he had the ability, and could bully people, but always deferred to Owen for some reason, when he could just as easily rocket a shot with the best of them.

{Ed666's Note - If it wasn’t all about the Micheal Owen show Heskey could have been unstoppable

16 Oct 2026 21:20:04
Loved Babbel.

{Ed666's Note - Great player mate!

16 Oct 2026 21:21:58
Marcus Babbel was absolutely incredible that season, one of the best in the world at that time. Such a shame he got that awful illness.

{Ed666's Note - agreed

16 Oct 2026 21:37:40
TiTi TiTi
Ti-Ti-Ti
Ti-Ti-Ti
Ti-Ti-Ti
TiTi TiTi
Ti-Ti-Ti
Ti-Ti-Ti
Camara

What a blast from the past.

{Ed666's Note - His father passed away and he played for us the same day and scored..legend!

16 Oct 2026 21:52:56
Camara wasn't in the triple winning squad, he went the season before. I assume Redcog is on about that season. There was also Smicer, Berger and Danny Murphy.

16 Oct 2026 23:53:50
It's hard to chose who is the biggest regret at Liverpool, Rob Jones or Jari Litmanen. Absolute legends had they been luckier with injury. Litmanen even managed 40 odd games for us on one leg. With a little bit more luck who knows but both were absolute class.

Thinking of Owen, Heskey and Fowler as a set of forwards, how much would you get for them today. Heskey could be very, very good when his head was on but for a big, athletic striker he didn't play to his strength (excuse the pun).

17 Oct 2026 00:37:33
I always expected more of Morientes too.

17 Oct 2026 01:15:54
"Old heads"? 2001?

?.

17 Oct 2026 00:46:31
Heskey always got rinsed by other teams fans, but I loved the bloke. Big, strong, fricking rapid, could hold the ball up, link up play, worked his arse off, get his head on it, and whilst not prolific a far better goal scorer than he's remembered for, got 22 goals that season, so the ability was always there, but as Ed001 said it was all about Owen.

Heskey himself said he enjoyed helping others more. He'd cost a fortune in today's market - £80M at least I'd reckon playing as he was as a English forward at 22YO as he was when we bought him.

17 Oct 2026 08:22:28
I swear jari had eyes in the back of his head. Outstanding player.

17 Oct 2026 09:22:45
I thought the same, Ron. I remember watching the 1971 Cup final.

17 Oct 2026 10:52:49
02/03 summer transfer window killed us because that project was really going somewhere. We remember the treble season more but 01/02 we were much better, closed the gap massively on Arsenal and Dudek and Riise were good additions. Then we went and spent £20 million (practically £200 million at the time) on Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou.

If we make Anelka's loan permanent and we spend the money better elsewhere (for context Michael Ballack went to Bayern for the same fee as Diao after running the show against us for Leverkusen). I think we're having a very different conversation.

17 Oct 2026 13:59:40
I really didn't like Charlie George and Clem should have made the save.

16 Oct 2026 16:26:32
A question for ED01, what's your opinion on Alex Scott? There's some rumours of him moving from Bournemouth to perhaps Chelsea or ourselves. Do you think he would be a good fit for our team now and more importantly for the future, and would he solve some of the middle issues we have regarding physicality and hard graft? We certainly need an enforcer or two in there and I think everyone here agrees with that! Maybe that is not his game and his attributes lie elsewhere.

Thanks ED01.

{Ed001's Note - I like him a lot now, but before Iraola worked with him he was a lot like Wirtz, but softer and more of a fancy dan. Maybe we should just give Iraola time? It wasn't an overnight change with Scott, he really only got last season and then he was outstanding. I don't think buying quick fixes like that works for us, especially as he still wouldn't fix the real problem area of the defensive mid. Scott was playing the role in front that we have Szobo etc for, not sure we need another one.}

16 Oct 2026 22:40:39
Completely agree with Ed001.
Give Iraola a chance with these players.

17 Oct 2026 08:29:51
I agree with your assessment of Scott. But just like Anderson he improves with every challenge. Perhaps positionally he's a luxury but I do believe with AI methods he would be a super star for us. Just Imagin him and Sadiki in our midfield. Atack atack atack atack.

17 Oct 2026 09:08:40
Thanks ED01.

{Ed001's Note - very welcome sg.}

16 Oct 2026 20:16:19
Since trent left, our set pieces are such poor quality. Timikas is probably the best at the club for taking corners. Wirtz has been awful with set pieces and sob is hit and miss. Generally the latter.
If we are to purchase someone in January I'd hope we get someone that's also excellent at set piece deliveries.

16 Oct 2026 20:38:47
I seem to remember a lot of chat about poor corners when Trent was in the team.

The problem with set pieces is small margins. They are trying to get the ball in to such a tight window that it's either great or rubbish. In reality there's not a lot of difference.

16 Oct 2026 22:06:31
Liverpool averaged 15 goals from corners in the seasons between TAA making his debut and leaving.
Last season Liverpool scored 18 goals from corners.

16 Oct 2026 22:23:27
Backs up Ron's answer really.

16 Oct 2026 15:17:28
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Liverpool v Manchester City - A Quick Liverpool Perspective

16 Oct 2026 15:35:57
Excellent review, Ed.

I don't mind him losing out on the 50/50 with Anderson, my main problem was his body language going into the tackle. Everyone knows who was likely to come out on top of that, but despite dangling his leg at it the rest of his body was trying to get out of it. Just don't know if you can carry that attitude in this league anymore.

16 Oct 2026 16:43:36
With all due respect Fornax I think that's a load of nonsense, there's a whole slew of players who wouldn't fully commit to a 50/50 with the best dueller in the league, especially at that angle. Had Wirtz fully committed as opposed to trying to nick it he would have ended up injured, Anderson was going through him.

I posted a photo a few days back you should take a look at it, and imagine Wirtz's ankle between Anderson's foot and the ball.

16 Oct 2026 17:13:24
He's not that kind of player

I'm more concerned about Wirtz not currently creating chances & controlling football matches, rather than smashing into other midfielders.

16 Oct 2026 17:38:49
We will have to agree to disagree, Chewy. I have defended Wirtz consistently, but I cannot defend him shirking that challenge.

As for injury, there may be some merit in what you're saying as going fully committed into those kind of challenges is how I picked up a recurring injury, but when you're in the heat of the moment in a football match you shouldn't have time to think about whether something is going to hurt. If you do then your priorities are wrong *in my opinion*.

16 Oct 2026 17:52:08
Salah didn't go for many 50-50s either and he's 1 of best players to ever play for us. I wouldn't particularly fault wirtz for that, although would love a mane type who would fly into that, I think where u would fault wirtz at the min is he's not decisive enough around the box, no threat at all.

that's what we bought him for creativity, assits +goals. Hopefully after midweek gives him a lift because there's a player there but he has to start showing it.

16 Oct 2026 16:10:07
I love that last sentence in your match analysis. Says it all really. Thanks ED01. Much appreciated.

{Ed001's Note - very welcome sg.}

16 Oct 2026 19:49:49
I'm so glad Ed001 that somebody else has called out Kavanagh for what he is, a cheat. Every game he ref's Liverpool he always gives a costly decision against us.
And them clowns on sky aren't much better, falling over themselves to heap praise on Cherki and Anderson when the truth was that neither was heard from until Gravenberch unfairly got sent off.


Is there no complaints commitee that Liverpool could issue there concern's to about the standard of refereeing against them. Seem's to have got worse since that cretin Coote got shown up for what he is.

{Ed001's Note - the only avenue is to complain to Pro Ref, which is utterly ludicrous but the way the world works these days. Every organisation is allowed to police itself and then people wonder why corruption runs rife.}

16 Oct 2026 19:52:26
Thanks Ed1 excellent review as always. Have to agree we were excellent right up until the red card, Kavanagh should never have been anywhere near this game. The other factor that surprised me was listening to media reviewing the game and saying how brilliant City where whilst never mentioning the red card but then have came to expect shocking punditry as well.

Our hard work and game plan deserved more and great to see it continue against Lask YNWA.

16 Oct 2026 22:24:28
It's funny how you made your point, stood your gound and then provided perfect firsthand evidence as to why you're completely wrong Fornax. Love it.

Look, I absolutely relished the opportunity of a 50/50 to go through someone as a young lad, I cannot stand how soft the game has gone, so I completely get where you're coming from, but not everyone is that sort of player, and as you've seen through your own experience, it can do irreversable damage, sometimes you have to play smarter, not harder.

17 Oct 2026 01:56:45
Manchester United fan here, come in peace and wants to support Wirz. You are telling that he backed off a 50-50 challenge, i would call it a 80-20 challenge with the impetus Elliot was coming. Footballers have instinct and knows when its mission impossible to win a duel, the only outcome for Wirz, i think, was to get injured.
Wirz i think is a very good player short of confidence.

For me he is better than Bruno because I don't care about assists, which is an overrated metric. But he is i think faster on turn, smarter in press and a better playmaker (not creator) because Bruno sucks in small space. Put Wirtz in a team with movement and pace upfront in addiction with bite behind him and he would be very very good. Thank you alla and wish you luck.

18 Oct 2026 14:31:47
Damage was sorted with an operation, the NHS waited until my shoulder had been dislocated 8 times before fixing it. Not irreversible in the slightest, and certainly not for LFC players.

16 Oct 2026 15:09:03
James Pearce's article today confirms that Pedro Marques will get a prominent role alongside Julian Ward. I am pretty happy about that, as he's very highly rated. Marques has been pivotal for some of the elite talent we have signed in the last 12 months.

It's also interesting that we are seeking strategic partnerships with clubs to give young talent first-team experience as an alternative to the multi-club model, which they deem too risky and complicated. I assume they already have something lined up; otherwise, they wouldn't say it.

And no "Bad News Pearce" article is complete without mentioning that the January transfer window is expected to be quiet unless an opportunity arises :)

16 Oct 2026 17:46:02
Very good news. Marques is the more important of the two for me.

16 Oct 2026 19:00:19
Has anyone heard who primary scouted and was pivotal in signing Jacquet for the club?

16 Oct 2026 20:08:44
Barry Hunter most likely.

16 Oct 2026 10:41:28
Thiago seems to be hanging around the club, doing interviews for the website. any chance of him taking a job here? ??.

16 Oct 2026 11:11:09
Yes, in midfield.

16 Oct 2026 11:11:46
At 35, he could do a job in midfield if he's past his injury issues. ;)

16 Oct 2026 11:21:23
Proves he's a better coach than any of the ones we have at the club already and maybe he can get his foot in the door.

16 Oct 2026 11:52:40
It sounds like getting a UK visa is the main blocker. He hasn't completed his coaching badges yet and he would need those to get a visa.

16 Oct 2026 12:18:32
Thiagos issue is he flew into the country with a passport.

16 Oct 2026 13:27:16
He's just still injured like usual.

16 Oct 2026 14:29:12
JK23 ? Ain't that the truth.

16 Oct 2026 17:52:28
We didn't get it for long, or very consistently at any point, but when he was on the ball it was a pure joy to watch. One of the best players we've had in the modern era, although I doubt he will appear in any top 10 lists.

He seems to genuinely love the club, so assuming he's actually a half decent coach I'd be happy very happy to see him back.

16 Oct 2026 20:12:44
I'll always have that masterclass he put on against Rangnick's Man United at Anfield and THAT goal against Porto to remember. A real shame about his injuries. Sounds like he loved the city. Would love to him back at the club one day.

16 Oct 2026 10:23:32
Just seen a video of Semenyo hitting a speed of 35.74km/ph. The second fastest of the season. Video also shows Virgil staying with him, tackling and then coming away with the ball. The man has lost some pace but this just shows how fast the man actually was in his peak.

His slowing down has only brought him back to the quickest of the slow coaches in this league. Can still do another 3 or 4 years in this league if he's looked after. Still the best LCB in the league.

16 Oct 2026 11:10:16
Whilst I don't think he is close to the imperious, one-man back four that he was at his peak, I think it's notable that having a serious, high quality centre half partner alongside him this season and at least one full back who is defensively oriented has helped. He looks again like a high quality Premier League centre half again.

The clip you're referring to shows him pretty much matching one of the fastest wingers in the league stride for stride despite being 9 years older. And in the same match - prior to the red card - he was snuffing out Haaland and winning pretty much every aerial contest.

If the Jacquet/ van Dijk partnership works well all season, I could see some sense in a one year extension.

So many clowns in those pointless "GOAT" debates try to rank van Dijk below the likes of Vidic, Kompany, Ferdinand, Terry, etc because they all won more league titles. It's a kind of irrelevant metric when you're talking about individual players. Terry and Vidic were good old fashioned "stoppers", the type who fly into sliding tackles and last ditch blocks.

Ferdinand was hugely over-rated, constantly exposed when up against the best strikers and was fortunate to play in very good Manchester United teams where the back four didn't often come under huge pressure. Kompany didn't belong in this conversation in the first place and certainly doesn't now, as he can't even claim the trophy county anymore. van Dijk has been at a different level to all of these players.

16 Oct 2026 11:26:13
It's when people put him behind Vidic and Kompany that I have to laugh. Terry and to a lesser extent Ferdinand were in fairness top class. For me Rio or Vidic weren't even Utd's best CB of the Prem era, Stam was.

16 Oct 2026 12:02:39
He's the best around and deserves a new deal.

And after he finishes he will be the GOAT. You will be hard pushed to ever see anything like him again in our lifetimes unless he's cloned in a lab. Availability, aerial prowess at both ends, speed, power, passing range and technical skills and a winning mentality. A genuine freak of nature in the sport.

The only criticism you could ever lay at his door is that he is so much better than everyone else he can be caught off-guard on extremely rare occasions.

16 Oct 2026 12:30:37
I have been saying this for ages, but I will say it again. His 2018-pre Covid run is the most dominant I have ever seen in my life, and its not even close. I know its not talked about among the other achievements but we conceded only 22 goals in 2018-19 season, which is insane given our play style. And a large part of it was down to VVD.

His aura at his peak was unmatched. The Lautaro Martinez stopped run is something I will never forget. I don't usually like GOAT comparison because of the difference of play styles in different eras, but he is undoubtedly the best centre back of the last 25 years, by a mile. To add to that he has a goal tally many midfielders would be proud to have.

16 Oct 2026 12:46:15
Well said Koparmy. Fantastic player. A shoe in on the best eleven.

16 Oct 2026 12:57:26
VVD was step for step with Leroy Sane (7 years ago) at Anfield in the 0-0 draw where Mahrez missed a pen.

And with Adama Traore 5 years ago away at Wolves.

For a guy that big and tall, he was an absolute speed demon in his prime, imo.

{Ed025's Note - for me he is not as quick as you all think Oli, but his reading of the game and positional sense is exceptional which makes him hard to beat even up against speedy forwards mate..

16 Oct 2026 13:22:26
All the best cbs ed25 have that ability don't they? Read the game superbly. I remember paul mcgrath playing for ireland + villafor years with bad knees ( couldn't train much), shoulder problems, also had an alcohol problem and was still the best player on field game in game out due to his reading of the game.

{Ed025's Note - yeah Digger he was a great player, again not blessed with great speed but had a great footballing brain, for me speed is overrated and players like Molby proved that mate, what a player he was..

16 Oct 2026 13:59:57
Remember that one season where VVD was clocked as the fastest on a run, for the entire season?

For me, VVD has been the best ever since the beginning of the EPL. And of course, "there can be no doubt about that". ?

(Okay, Jaap Stam comes close; what a gruesome monster).

16 Oct 2026 14:11:36
VVD and Becker are the 2 players who moved the needle for us. We weren't winning anything until those 2 signed.

16 Oct 2026 14:23:27
Semenyo also needs to be that quick so he can chase his own first touch.

16 Oct 2026 15:05:09
Ron, I believe Fabinho was also the missing piece of the puzzle. Both he and Allison joined us in the 2018 window and we started playing our best after that.

16 Oct 2026 18:16:15
Good point Drac.
For me, our midfield wasn't terrible before Fabinho joined but our keeper and our central defence were truly terrible before Becker and Van Dijk. Just my view but Fabinho was certainly influential.

16 Oct 2026 10:16:07
Looking forward to game tomorrow and hopefully we continue good form from midweek. I remember last season we played frankfurt away and beat them 5-1 and we all thought we had turned the corner but I'm pretty sure our next game was brentford away and we v poor and beat well.

Good test for us and interesting to see can we build on a good performance and get a bit better performance in following game. It will be a marker for us.
Forwards played much better and looked confident midweek bit they need to build on that.

16 Oct 2026 10:25:23
Big game tomorrow before our next three all at Anfield. Three points and then big players returning and could hopefully be the start of a good run.

16 Oct 2026 11:19:47
I think its a must win.

Yes Its only 6 games in but so far the team have only won 2 games and picked up all their points from 10th place teams and lower.

Brentford are undefeated in the league this season and sat in 4th so a win here leapfrogs them and properly sets a marker in the sand after last weeks loss.

16 Oct 2026 12:58:25
In the PL, we're going to need to start winning games consistently.

Hopefully, it starts tmrw, which will be a very tough match, indeed.