Jürgen Klopp was right to take Loris Karius out of the spotlight, Tottenham’s back three can set their full-backs free and Marcos Rojo has not learnedIn truth, Simon Mignolet did not have much to do during Liverpool’s 3-0 victory at Middlesbrough, but Loris Karius was taken out of the spotlight nevertheless. The saga involving Liverpool’s first-choice goalkeeper before the midweek fixtures overshadowed all else at the club, but Jürgen Klopp’s team responded with a convincing performance, one of their best this season. On Karius, the Liverpool manager said: “I’m not interested in public pressure, I’m interested in the boy and there’s no reason to push him through this situation.” Mignolet appears set for an extended run in the team while...
Liverpool’s young goalkeeper is free and welcome to say what he wants, even if it does upset Sky Sports’ thin-skinned prefect of punditryAs someone who has never played the game of football to the highest level, I wonder if I dare even giggle at Gary Neville? The hierarchies of English football and the various industries that surround it – including Her Majesty’s sports press – frequently remind me of some failing post-war minor British public school, where bumptious members of the Remove are always being slapped down by the bigger boys, for reasons as bygone as the empire. Pointless rules, desiccated conventions, rigid systems of deference – what is any of it for, except propping up the establishment for the...
Arsenal have proved they have team spirit, Cesc Fàbregas is invaluable to Chelsea despite sub’s role and Gylfi Sigurdsson is the man to guide Swansea to safetyAre Arsenal made of sterner stuff these days? It is not the first time the question has been aired in recent years, and the answer usually goes down a predictably shaky path. Having said that, Arsène Wenger has observed a few clues in their victory against a strong Stoke City side that give him quiet optimism. Among the good habits his team are enjoying this season, the capacity to come back from a deficit encourages him. “It’s the sixth time that we are down in the game and come back or win since the...
With Liverpool in their 1970s pomp, their manager was ambushed by Eamonn Andrews on the team bus after a game at QPRWith the original tape long destroyed in some needless ITV purge, such was the hubbub of excitement when a recording of Bob Paisley’s 1977 appearance on This Is Your Life surfaced unexpectedly last week that one could have been forgiven for assuming intrepid relic hunters had actually been searching for it in the first place. Indiana Jones and the Quest For A Complete Recording Of The Appearance Of A Former Liverpool Manager On A Once Ridiculously Popular Midweek Light Entertainment Show Presented By Eamonn Andrews might not have much of a ring to it, but would almost certainly have...
Liverpool will be hoping Joël Matip gets fit quickly, while Sunderland begin to look more solid and Burnley have to find some goals from somewhereHands have been wrung and doom predicted about Philippe Coutinho’s injury, likely to keep him out of the Liverpool team until next month. And to an extent, rightly so: he has been their most impressive attacking threat this season, and the sight of that front four dovetailing has perhaps been the most pleasing in the division. However, the 4-3 defeat to Bournemouth on Sunday suggested that another injury absence might be more significant, namely Joël Matip. The Cameroonian centre-half has been a quiet, calm example of consistency, exactly the sort of thing that Liverpool missed against...