NEIL ATKINSON, John Gibbons and Gareth Roberts are in the studio for this week’s CityTalk podcast as the lads look forward to this weekend’s trip to Villa Park.
PODCAST: UP THE REDS
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Southampton, Slot & Spurs: TAW Midweek Extra
The Anfield Wrap’s midweek free podcast looking back on Liverpool’s Carabao Cup semi-final victory over Southampton and looking ahead to Sunday’s trip to Tottenham.
John Gibbons hosts Kev Reilly, Mike Kearney and Abigail Rudkin.
Also in the show, Neil Atkinson speaks to God Colony’s Tom Gorton about their new material and the Liverpool music scene.
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19 December 2024
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Great show. Neil nailed the football books: Brilliant Orange is without doubt the best attempt to locate football within wider national and cultural practices, the passages on Dutch architecture and anarchism are fascinating. The Damned United and Red or Dead are to football what This Sporting Life was to Rugby League. As for the footy: well I hope you’re right, but if any manager knows how to set up against us it’s Paul Lambert. He’s better at Anfield than at Villa Park, though. Keep a close eye on Delph and Vlar; let’s see if they’re worth signing.
One of the interesting points about this game for me is both Vlaar and Clark are definitely out. Vlaar’s out till late Feb with a knee injury and Clark’s suspended. Senderos isn’t ready to come back from the injury he picked up in a similar scenario to Sturridge so I’m not expecting a tight match at all. I expect us to batter them. This isn’t a good way to think though. I always take the attitude (mainly in my head only) that I can’t see us winning. When we do I’m even more made up because I claim to myself I wasn’t expecting it. If we don’t then I have the consolation I didn’t expect us to win anyway so fuck it. It works well for me. Just a defence mechanism kicking in. Games like tomorrow worry me though. A couple of times a season I just get it in my head we’re gonna smash the opposition. I can’t put my finger on why but those few times I feel like this we ALWAYS lose/draw. It makes me mad. Puts me in that mood where I get mild consolation from breaking things. Make no mistake about it, Villa are shit at the minute. We’re the form team of the league (it turns out, over the last 5). We need to win so badly it’s untrue. There’s only one outcome as far as I’m concerned but it’s daft to right us before a ball has been kicked.
Like Villa as a club. Just hate playing against them.
“We’re the form team of the league (it turns out, over the last 5). ”
Ummm..no we’re not. Remember Southampton, the team we raided for around 50m over the summer?
Also Man C’s is just as good over 5, and way better over any longer period.
Yeah, on the one hand the form table I looked at was from Sunday afternoon, was accurate and had us top but on the other hand who gives a fuck? Go back 1 game and we were top and Villa were 19th (I’d better add ‘joint’ to top for the pedantic ones). I’m sorry if it winds you up that we’re doing ok now.
What is it with everyone? There’s more conspiracy theories on here than David Icke’s site and everyone revels in it, yet quote a stat that’s 1 PL game out of date and you’re treated like you’re some kind of nutter. Anyway, I don’t want to be like you people. I like LFC.
Robin,
How did my comment treat you like “some kind of nutter” exactly? And yet you’re the one muttering about conspiracy theories and people seeing things that really aren’t there etc..
I don’t think me saying we’re the form team needed a negative response. For example, a couple of hours later and we’re top (outright) of the form table (last 5). Here’s my problem – I would expect a rival fan to try and clutch at anything to disprove my point, that’s what football fans do. When a Liverpool fan relates to such petty nit picking to show we’re not the form side I don’t get it. In fact, I don’t get the whole mentality of our fans. We won today and people are on Twitter dredging up our form from earlier in the season. Why? we’ve turned a corner. Embrace it!
It may have been a negative response, but still not sure how that equates to me treating you like a nutter?
Anyway, when I sees stat I don’t believe and take the trouble to verify it as such I usually then reply about it. I can see how that could be considered pedantic though, but its just my curious nature.
I kind of disagree with “dredging up earlier form too” – I think a season should be judged in its entirety. Taking last 5 games means we could swing from being almost the worst to being almost the best, as happened to us.
But things are very much looking up, clearly, although I do think our earlier form has left us too much to do over too many teams to grab 4th – West Ham beat Hull and we stay 8th. It was obvious to so many after Madrid away that giving Lucas, Can and anyone but Balo a run over the likes of Lovren, Gerrard and Balo was justified but it either took the manager too long to realize this, or he realized this but chose not to act on it. Either way thats worrying. But he’s a good, young manager still learning. He’s had not too much experience in handling losses of form in expensive and/or big name players, and hopefully has learned that a bigger price tag or reputation doesn’t automatically make you a better choice for the team.
The nutter comment was just a result of disillusionment. For example, if Lucas feels he’s not getting enough game time and wants to move on then it’s the club getting rid of high earners. If a lad goes on loan for experience rather than sitting on the bench then it’s penny pinching, not for development. If someone takes a poor corner then it’s clearly the result of Rodgers being clueless and stubborn, if Gerrard feels now is the time to move onto a new challenge then then every aspect of the club is a joke. It all goes unchecked though and I felt, when I made a comment about us being in good form lately, then guess what – it’s immediately contested. That was all it was.
Yesterday was a good win. Not the best performance I’ve ever seen but I was ecstatic when the second went in. That ecstasy over rode any negative feelings I had. When I went on Twitter though one of the first things I saw was Joseph Cousins tweets. He’s a man who’s views I respect yet yesterday his tweets were about how appalling our home form is and especially earlier in the season. I just prefer to be more superficial. It’s what being a fan is about. Celebrate wins. I didn’t understand how yesterday had filled him with negative comments. Doesn’t make sense to me. I honestly think it’s a result of saying so many negative comments that winning makes them feel stupid and they try and defend their corner by digging deeper holes.
That said, as with me and you we all think different so I don’t hold it against him, or you. You look at the season as 1 entity I look at it like a graph. If the graph is rising then I’m happy regardless of what’s gone before. I want Liverpool to be the best and so a positive graph gives me hope we’re on the up. We can plot Rodgers whole reign on a graph and see that it rises consistently with the odd dip. In my head though I can explain the dips so….
So, just to summarise and offer an apology for my jumping on your comments, I’m seriously losing patience with the negativity directed at the club from so many angles. I feel I want to take them all on. I have a few pet hates in life that make me mad. Unjust negativity from Liverpool fans is one. English people criticising the people of France as arrogant, cowardly and ‘not a nice race’ is another and more recently, people blaming the fact that Britain is becoming a joke on a few people on benefits and immigration is yet another. All 3 come from ignorance or a lack of intelligence. We should stand up to these people, crush them and then rebuild them.
And the winner for the arsiest Anfield Wrap comment goes to…
I thought we’d beat Lambert’s Villa at home finally because Vlaar was out… And y’know… ‘Lambert’s Villa’ by the way, would probably be European champions again if they just moved to Anfield. The odd occasion I’ve seen them playing at Villa Park they’ve been so very shite.
Brilliant Orange a good shout alright. Lived in Holland for 4 years back in the Nineties, a unique breed of people the Dutch , not always in a good way. In the middle of reading Danish Dynamite , cracking read for football fans of a certain vintage. Regarding Villa , I’m with Robin, we will batter them, UP THE REDS!!
Not really feeling this ‘1 defeat in 13’ talk because I’ve only really got over the ‘1’ now and I thought it had stole my footballing soul at the time that it was happening.
Neil on turning the corner was good. I was convinced United had because they’re United and when they were playing woefully winning games (which up until this season Alan Hansen has told me all my life is the sign of champions) but surely being shit and ‘lucky’ – whatever that means anymore with this unending plethora of weirdo referees – isn’t sustainable long term. Ferguson’s United would have a slight off day 1 in every 5 games where they’d still get a result and everyone would go “crap them; how the fuck are they winning the league for the millionth year in a row? This won’t last. It can’t.” It was just comforting bollocks for Liverpool fans all along.
We were playing how Rodgers’ would define as playing well against Sunderland and that’s cause for cautious optimism. A Suarez or a Sturridge and we bury Sunderland and probably even Arsenal about 5-2.
Just on the window, all of our successful, big signings off the top of my head in the last 10 years barring Torres have been in January. Get a keeper this month and he’ll be Reina circa ’05 just through the sheer Januaryness of the entire affair.
i shouldn’t worry too much about United, that’s just years of emotional trauma: they’re no good. I can understand why everyone panicked then resigned themselves to United’s return earlier this season, it’s muscle memory isn’t it. but they were just riding their luck in a lot of games; they have neither the quality nor the mentality they had under Ferguson and are there for the taking. The top four is very much still on: let’s hope we can make it.
Yeah, I don’t buy all this “January is a bad month to bring in players”. We’ve done alright in the past with Skrtel, Suarez, Masch, Arbeloa, Maxi, Sturridge, Coutinho just to name a few.
I’m not sure I can agree on the Ibe situation.
Are we gonna change our formation to suit him??? I very much doubt it.
Is he gonna play striker (having never played it before) ahead of Sturridge, Sterling, Balo, Borini, Origi??? Can’t see it.
Is he gonna play in the 2 ahead of Sterling, Coutinho, Gerrard, Lallana, Markovic?? Can’t see it either.
He’s cup tied for the 2 domestic cups so that already cuts his options for playing.
I just don’t see where he plays in this team, ahead of which player and in what matches.
Surely he would have been much better staying at Derby, getting regular football and helping them push for promotion. That would be fantastic experience for him, much better than sitting on our bench.
With Origi it’s slightly different. There is times where he can come on. Origi IS a striker, a position we need help. He’s getting abuse from his own fans so best take hm away froma toxic atmosphere like that plus the extra months gives him time to acclimatised to England, Liverpool and his teammates. He’s also not cup tied.
I thought it would be pretty obvious that he will play either in the two behind the striker or as a wing back as the lads suggested on the show. That he is cup tied is a bit of a bugger but there is also the Europa Cup to consider as well.
Impact sub. Bring him on when the game’s stretched.
Is he gonna get on ahead of Coutinho, Sterling, Gerrard, Lallana in the 2????
I don’t see it.
I could maybe understand the impact sub option but then again that means him being put on as sub ahead of Lallana or Gerrard. Is that gonna happen and if so how often??
At the min he’s playing every week for Derby either starting or coming off the bench. He would benefit far more from doing that every week in a promotion push with Derby than maybe getting 20mins off the bench for us every three weeks.
After today we have 3 cup matches in which he can’t feature so basically the rest of this month is ruled out for him.
Other great non-LFC football books include; A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke, Joe McGinniss’ “Miracle of Castel do Sangro”, Alex Bellos’ “Futebol: A Brazilian Way Of Life” and Tim Parks’ “A Season With Verona”.
I loved that Tim Parks book also,
Paddy Agnew also wrote a great book on Italian football but the name of it escapes me!
Disappointed to hear Gareth admit that he thought Rodgers might not come out of the mess he put us in, that he was a man on the edge, that it was utterly moronic to complain to journalists that they weren’t positive enough in match reports, that it didn’t look like there was a way back. Not disappointed he thought that – disappointed he never put his head above the parapet like some of us did and say it publicly on the podcast.
I mean, what’s the point if your not going to give your honest assessment at any given time?
Origi, by the way, has looked an absolute mess since about the 4th week of the season. He’s not played a minute for Liverpool yet but given his last 6 months its more likely the Transfer Committee has made yet another cock up.
You may be writing Origi off a tad early Chris!
I’m always honest when I’m on. I’m not always on though.
Gareth