There’s no Reds title conspiracy
Hello Hello my good football people, trust you’re all doing well…
I’m getting increasingly irritated by the constant narrative in the background by Liverpool fans. I spoke about this a bit last week, but let me explain something.
I have a really schizophrenic relationship with the club. While I don’t like them from a Chelsea rivalry perspective, I do respect and side with the fans for their stance on various issues, i.e. pro-Palestine, anti-Tory, anti-monarchy.
Unlike most football supporters in England they have a progressive stance, the club has always been associated with the ‘left’ and working-class solidarity.
The great Bill Shankly was himself a proud socialist. I have spoken before about crying my eyes out at Anfield as 96 balloons were released in remembrance of the Hillsborough victims as “You’ll Never Walk Alone” bellowed out at its emotional best from every person (barring United fans) in the stadium.
Yes, I am human, I’m not just a football hate machine! After all, my own club’s fans had a terrible reputation for racism and affiliation to right-wing groups (like Combat-18) back in the day, something I physically fought against amongst my own.
So yeah, there’s that… but what I am really getting P’d off with is the “Quad” conversation, which has now morphed into “the whole first team is injured”, “we’re playing our reserve side” and “we’re playing with kids” (although that’s not a great statement if not contextualised).
This is of course in anticipation of not achieving the holy grail. And look, I love seeing ‘home-grown’ players coming through and excelling.
It gives hope… breaking the mould of buying ready-made names for obscene fees. But can we just drop it for five minutes? Please? F***** nauseating… I guess the nature of the way Liverpool stole three points on the weekend isn’t gonna do them any favours from a sympathy perspective.
I don’t even think I’m going to get into the debate around the goal, because there’s no debate, ex-officials are all in total agreement, it was an obvious mistake.
But yeah, as we all know, VAR and the current officiating structure create a ‘swings and roundabouts’ environment, sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I do think it even’s up over a season and really don’t believe there is some kind of conspiracy to assist Jurgen Klopp retiring from the league in a blaze of glory!
Talking about ‘glory’ and the years that were at Man Utd…
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 3, 2024
The Manchester derby does sometimes pull up an off-form result, but it really wasn’t going to be that on Sunday. Marcus Rashford scored a banger but missed a couple and bottled a race against Kyle Walker (choosing to rather try and win a free-kick instead of going one-on-one with Ederson) and that was about it.
City had 80 percent possession with a goal attempt stat of around 30 to 2. And let’s face it, forget Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne, with a player like Phil Foden, Manchester born and bred, taking the game by the scruff of its neck like that, United never stood a chance.
Erik ten Hag has a better win percentage than Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby! You’d never imagine someone with a stat like that would 1. More than likely be sacked at the end of the season 2. Bring on Antony as an outlet up front or to help defend relentless City pressure. It’s indicative of where the club are at.
Enjoy the latest episode of 'The Reaction' as Darwin Nunez's header grabbed a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest 🔊
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 3, 2024
The annoying lil’ winger’s transfer fee (around R2-Billion) is enough to buy all PSL clubs, players and the PSL itself, but despite his Kasi-Flava style, would he even make Cape Town City’s starting 11? Wow, it’s even worse than Chelsea across at Old Trafford! And that’s saying something. Anyway, United (and Chelsea) aren’t relevant right now… But Liverpool and City very much are, and they meet this Sunday at Anfield, which guarantees points dropped somewhere! Arsenal will be watching keenly!
As I’ve stood by over the last months, City will win the league… beating Liverpool will be Pep’s moment to start turning the screw.
Should be a great game, enjoy, chat next week, bye byeeee.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za