Liverpool banter 5

08 Jan 2026 22:29:22
With a combative midfielder and a top class CB we would p. the league I still believe we are a better team than Arsenal but they have been more consistent this season but to me don't look like champions.

08 Jan 2026 22:31:46
If Kerkez keeps improving he's going to be mega.

{Ed025's Note - very decent tonight SP..

08 Jan 2026 22:43:32
Kerkez will come good lad's. I really felt very sorry for him at the beginning. He was all over the place because of Slot's ridiculous tactics and then he got dropped even though he played very well the match before.

08 Jan 2026 23:42:45
2nd half was best I have seen of Kerkez for sure.

08 Jan 2026 23:43:37
Saka is all kinds of trouble mate and he was mostly in milos pocket. Brave and energetic play.

09 Jan 2026 00:40:05
Thought Macallister had a decent game too. Even Konate was fairly solid.

09 Jan 2026 03:39:05
Kerkez needs to work on his timing a bit but otherwise grew into the game and was fantastic second half. I think the second half will do wonders for morale and confidence. I think it helps Slot too.

09 Jan 2026 05:28:55
Also worth noting that Gakpo played Kerkez on the overlap more than once. Progress indeed.

09 Jan 2026 05:39:01
Saka is a good player but I've never seen someone get so much praise for what they do.

09 Jan 2026 08:40:54
When Saka booted Kerkez in the mid-section then you know he head was gone and Kerkez was in it. Very good game from him.

08 Jan 2026 20:58:17
Good Evening Eds. It looks like there has been a focus on young defenders in the market so far with Ndukwu, Ndiaye, and Adekoya. Just curious if you know if these players have all been long term targets?

I believe Ndukwu and Ndiaye both played at the U17 World Cup and was curious if there was interest before that, if you know.

Thanks!

{Ed001's Note - I don't know mate, they are kids, it is hard to find out info on kids.}

08 Jan 2026 23:02:43
Ed1 checking out the youngsters is frowned upon in certain circles.

09 Jan 2026 08:42:17
@phil, not sure The Dumpster frowns upon any of that, "allegedly".

08 Jan 2026 18:41:17
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Matchday 20 - Quick Round Up

09 Jan 2026 05:16:44
That's for the round up Ed. Much appreciated.

08 Jan 2026 17:32:35
ED001, I was talking to my mates about players who were good enough but for some reason that never did make the grade at Liverpool. But remember Adam Hamill, I seen him play and he had plenty of skill n was quick, seemed to be a knocker to play for us .

Do you know why it never happened, I saw his stats of who he'd played for afterwards but nothing looked like he was the player who id thought he'd be.

{Ed001's Note - he wasn't very good mate. Was fine at youth level, but couldn't make the step up.}

08 Jan 2026 18:04:23
Yeah, I remember a bit of buzz around him. If football is at all like cricket, there are lots of young players with innate talent and promise - but few of them have that other-wordly drive and self-belief to make the step up, and the application to keep improving every day.

This is by no means a criticism of those who don't "make it". I just think elite sportsmen/ women are more obsessively driven than most mortals.

I do also think sports science has some way to go in handling young players. Too many pick up a destructive series of injuries when playing in their late teens and early 20s. Robbie, Owen and even Heskey saw their fitness issues hobble their careers way too early on.

We got lucky with Stevie G. Maybe he played less games as a teen for us?

08 Jan 2026 18:06:38
Thats when I watched him . he looked a lot better than most, just shows you the difference in the step up between youth n first team . did he have a attitude or fall out with people aswel.

{Ed001's Note - there is a huge difference. He just didn't have that will or desire to succeed that you need to keep driving you on. It often works like that when they stand out at any level, they can lose their way as they are better than their peers and lose their targets to better. Often players get their drive from trying to beat someone else, whether it be the player currently occupying the position they want or an opponent. He just seemed to think he was there and ready but still had a lot to do.}

08 Jan 2026 18:40:02
ED001, shame really, I get what you mean with the drive and desire, Jordan Henderson and James Milner are the perfect examples of that. thanks for the feedback Ed.

{Ed001's Note - Michael Jordan is probably the best example though. As he said in that documentary about himself, he would literally make up reasons in his head to start a beef with an opponent to drive himself on. That is another level of competitiveness.}

08 Jan 2026 18:58:45
A guy I knew was genuinely a brilliant young player. He joined the youth team at a top League 1, then Premiership club at the time. He spent a couple of days there with someone who went on to become one of our best 90s midfielders, and very quickly realised he could not compete with that singular vision, and drive to succeed.

These guys are just on a different level. Personally, I think Man U has put too much faith in youth players who show the talent, but not the application.

08 Jan 2026 19:01:43
They recently asked MJ if his Bulls would beat the current LA Lakers. Jordan's response was that the Bulls would win by a few points. When pressed on why a "few points", he said, "because we're in our 60s now. " 🤣. Born winner.

08 Jan 2026 19:05:03
It's also why most top sports players are not easy people to get on with: in normal life, stubbornness is a nasty personal quality, but it's a key factor in sporting success.

08 Jan 2026 19:17:57
Any other past promising Liverpool players that stand out? I remember watching Richie Partridge and Jordan Rossiter and thought they'll make it but never did unfortunately.

08 Jan 2026 19:20:09
As a youngster I played high level cricket. I was captaining the mens county team when I was 15. I was approached by the England setup and asked if I would come train at the academy, at which point I said no. I then discovered going out with mates and girls!
I think I had so much pressure and expectation at such a young age I ended up just getting fed up with it all.


Do I regret it, absolutely! But never mind, still had a good innings so far!

{Ed025's Note - love it Stuie..

08 Jan 2026 20:00:33
I know Adams brother, Leigh, very well.

08 Jan 2026 22:12:00
I know his brother Mark extremely well. The force is strong in him!

08 Jan 2026 22:46:50
Love it S2 😂.

08 Jan 2026 23:15:57
From my experience in sport younger siblings often make it, as they spend their lives battling against a rival with a size, strength and maturity advantage, they learn to win against the odds.

09 Jan 2026 00:36:48
I think the player I was genuinely most excited about for the longest time was Harry Wilson. Ripped up the youth leagues and is currently showing his potential. I know he might not ever have been top level, but I love seeing great players come through the ranks.

08 Jan 2026 16:58:41
Mane of Wolves looks like one who's going to be commanding a ridiculous fee at some point.

{Ed025's Note - thats MOTD fever Bob, hes only starting out just yet mate and while he has been quite impressive he is still very young, a lot of things can happen to a lad of his age...like birds, hanger on mates and booze...well it did for me.. :)

08 Jan 2026 17:51:44
The fact his surname is Mane is a big plus.

08 Jan 2026 18:05:27
I'm always wary of signing a young winger who skins us in a game. Remember Mark Kennedy?

08 Jan 2026 19:05:24
Thought he looked miles away against us recently. Never passed the ball and kept losing it trying to beat his man.

Obviously very young a plenty of room for growth, but I saw nothing exciting personally.

08 Jan 2026 20:51:07
Kroupi of Bournemouth?

08 Jan 2026 22:07:17
Kroupi is very good still a baby but I honestly think he will be a great player in time.

08 Jan 2026 16:13:11
Have a feeling we win tonight to throw the cat amongst the pigeons.

Be hilarious if Arsenal still manage to finish second in a one horse race.

08 Jan 2026 16:52:21
Fingers crossed mate.

08 Jan 2026 17:00:57
I've seen stranger things in football.
Wouldn't be surprised at all to see Arsenal bottle it.

08 Jan 2026 17:05:47
It kind of would make sense for us to utterly thump Arsenal, then go and lose the two following games, against Barnsley then Burnley.

We're having that kind of season it seems.

08 Jan 2026 17:28:59
We don't even have a Centre Forward do we?

It'll be like 99% of all our other games this season. Absolutely Boring.

08 Jan 2026 17:41:01
I can see Arsenal scoring within the first five minutes.
Hope I'm wrong because if they do we will be in serious trouble.

08 Jan 2026 17:46:27
A performance would be nice. thump arsenal though. not so sure.

08 Jan 2026 17:51:23
We should have another bore fest and then win by a controversial goal which should have been ruled out by VAR, but didn't.

It will be so much fun if that happened!

08 Jan 2026 19:10:53
I've seen posts like this go tits up too many times this season to have any hope in this being the case, the best we can hope for imo is a narrow loss 2-1 or 1-0, otherwise it can be embarrassing, personally think it'll end 3-1, with them dominating us for large parts.

08 Jan 2026 16:12:22
Ned/ Victor any info on Nico Sch now Bayern are out the equation?

08 Jan 2026 16:49:47
Great ball carrying player, decent passing range too, a unit.

08 Jan 2026 14:13:55
First Ndukwe (17) from Vienna,
then Adekoya (19) from Burney (although he is a scouser)
and now it looks like possibly Ndiaye (18) from Amitie.

All young CBs for the U21s. Clearly we don't have a lot of faith in what we have there at the moment. All we need now is a similar approach to the first team CB setup.

08 Jan 2026 17:00:22
And we'll still end up signing somebody else who is 18 right now for 75million from a redbull when they are 24.

08 Jan 2026 12:55:20
Scumbag Coote avoids a red card.

08 Jan 2026 13:09:05
It's absolutely disgusting, but nothing surprises me anymore with this shameful so called justice system. There is no punishment too severe for sick animals like Coote.

08 Jan 2026 14:00:12
I'm sure he claimed it was Klopp's fault he had that grot on his laptop.

08 Jan 2026 14:04:00
Funny how the law doesn't apply to those who have money.

No justice in justice. Just injustice.

08 Jan 2026 17:02:14
Not sure he's got any money to be honest. I remember seeing he was destitute and working for just eat or something like that recently.
Shame eh.

08 Jan 2026 17:32:25
The law in this country is as corrupt as him.

Protects monsters. And locks others up for Facebook comments.

08 Jan 2026 12:18:39
Looks like Bournemouth have unearthed another diamond in 19 year old Eli Junior Kroupi who now has seven goals in only seven league starts, we'll probably be chasing his signature in a couple of years time.

08 Jan 2026 13:05:09
He looks a special talent indeed, he's only started 7 games and bagged 7 goals, first teenager to do it since Dele Alli, hopefully his career doesn't go that way.

08 Jan 2026 15:04:15
Watched his dad (Elie Kroupi) play in French second division during my time living in the country. Pretty good player.

Read an article about him and his dad advised him to go to B'mouth as a youngster even tho, Elie Junior he had better offers. Seems to be a good decision as he is getting game time and proving himself.

08 Jan 2026 12:10:56
Semeymo £62 million trick missed in all fairness him and Geuhi would have made a huge difference to that 1st 11 ah well hopefully we get a CB in before the window closes 🤞.

08 Jan 2026 13:12:13
Doubt we'll be signing a centre back either. We're well and truly in limp home mode.

08 Jan 2026 15:05:52
@NOT, Im not even sure if we wanted him for real cos based on the info out there, Slot and Hughes had disagreements about signing Semenyo who actually wanted to come to us, really.

08 Jan 2026 17:37:03
Not sure I'd be paying £40 million for Guehi, when we could potentially get him for nothing in the summer.

08 Jan 2026 11:43:25
So I saw the incident with Frank drinking from an Arsenhole cup.

Whilst I see the funny side, I also wonder how it was possible that the manager of Spurs, is totally oblivious to the fact that he is drinking from an Arsenhole cup.

The fans must be livid. and rightly so given the rivalry.

08 Jan 2026 12:58:29
Surely Spurs fans aren't that petty, it's just a cup.

08 Jan 2026 13:44:29
But they are though AAR91. All football fans are.

They want unwavering loyalty from all players, managers, coaches, owners whilst they slag them all off on social media and ask for them to be replaced.

I agree, the cup shouldn't matter but it's a huge cock up by Frank given the form of the team. He doesn't want to give the fans any more excuses to dislike him and drinking from an Arsenal cup will wind some of them up.

If they were top of the league they'd all laugh it off. Football fans are fickle that way.

08 Jan 2026 14:06:17
To be fair, if we saw Slot drinking from an Everton or United cup people wouldn't be very happy and it'd go mental on here. I agree, it's just a cup lol but I understand why people would be pee'd off about it.

08 Jan 2026 14:33:33
Frank has already come out and said along the lines of Arsenal were the last team in the away dressing room.

One of his team made him an espresso before the pitch walk as they always do and just used a cup which was available. Turns out Arsenal had left some in there.

He gets the issue but it is not his biggest issue right now. Spurs fans need not make more of it that it is.

08 Jan 2026 15:06:56
JLC, no way. He did that? The guy is really trying to get his fans' bad side.

08 Jan 2026 15:57:16
Out of all the things going on in the world, if any spurs fan has any reaction to that other then "meh" then they need to get their heads checked.
If Slot was drinking out of an Everton mug I'd laugh and assume someone's played a joke on him or there's been a mix up.

08 Jan 2026 17:07:02
It's a cup, grow up.

08 Jan 2026 17:39:49
When Ronald Koeman was manager of Everton, he had a red decorations on his Christmas tree and the blue noses lost the plot, saying his tree should be blue. petty I know but we're still tribal.

08 Jan 2026 18:31:11
He's clearly been stitched up by whoever greets the opposing manager with coffee at Bournemouth.

08 Jan 2026 19:58:55
It's just a storm in a teacup.