Coming off of a great derby win last week, this week we had a lot of motivation and high confidence. You could tell that the team needed last weeks win to help us get back to where we need to be…winning!

This week was very busy with a midweek game and a weekend game also. The first was against Burnley who are playing pretty well recently so they are no easy feat. The boys went out on a very cold night and played pretty well to get the 3-1 win but the biggest stand out was our goal keeper Allison Becker. He has been incredible as of late and is proving to be the best buy of the summer. We get the 3 points and end up being 2 points behind Manchester City at the top of the league.

After this win we had a few days only to prepare for a our weekend match against Bournemouth. Another good side who should be a hard match. Game day arrives and we perform spectacularly by winning 4-0. Mo Salah who hasn’t been as good as he was last year scored a hat-trick and the other goal was an own goal from Bournemouth. Salah was outstanding showing everyone just why there is so much hype around him as a player and why people call him ‘The Egyptian God’. This win came on the Saturday and the boys needed to wait until Sunday to see what the result of Manchester City Vs. Chelsea would be. Chelsea end up winning 2-0 making Liverpool now the only team in the league to stay undefeated and also to put us back at the top of the table!

This is a very exciting season for us Liverpool fans and I feel it is very fitting that this week be the last blog post in this class where we finally are back on top seeing as when I started this in the beginning of the semester, that is exactly where we were. There is still a long, long way to go until the season ends but on this current form everything is looking great! Let’s go, Liverpool!

 

So in English football (Soccer) there are many great and historic rivalries from the biggest teams in the biggest cities. Liverpool’s biggest rival is Everton, their stadium is only a mile away from ours at Anfield. There is also a rivalry in Manchester United and Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs just to name a few of the major ones. These matches when they occur are basically bragging rights for the next year for whichever team wins’ fans.

Liverpool is the bigger of the two clubs with Everton but the rivalry is one of the top. That’s what our boys had to prepare for going into the weekend. This was a huge game and one that in the city of Liverpool every single person will be watching either at the stadium, in pubs, restaurants or at home.

As I said Liverpool are the better of the two teams and have forever shown why and in their last 18 meetings have not lost against Everton. They had drawn a few times though and to Liverpool that is a loss for these days.

So going into the weekend the boys were training very hard with no real injuries that are new and a scare to the club. Manager Jurgen Klopp had announced that the club is feeling good and ready to go to war at the weekend.

Match day arrives and the streets of Liverpool are absolutely packed with supporters wither wearing Liverpool’s red or Everton’s blue. Songs are being sung by the thousands of fans flooding into the stadium and the energy is always electric. I have myself been very fortunate to witness one of these events before and i have no doubt the atmosphere is just as great every time.

The game starts and the first half isn’t anything exciting at all. Liverpool didn’t look like scoring and most of the chances came from Everton making our keeper Allison perform some incredible saves to keep us in the match. The second half was no different with Liverpool making a few more chances but not really anything to shout about. In the last 10 minutes is when it got really exciting as tensions were rising and it was end to end football. Liverpool end up scoring in the last minute of the game from a complete fluke of a goal that you have to se for yourself if you haven’t. It was really quite bizarre but so awesome for us Liverpool fans. Here is a link to the video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-LzI7tg_w4 

We now are only 2 points behind Manchester City at the top of the league instead of what looked like would be 4. Liverpool is red in the mean time and gives the fans something to brag about in their home towns.

Yep. Again, another international weekend break. Growing up I am positive that there was never this many breaks during the season to play International matches. It seems to be quite ridiculous this year and I know that many fans like myself are very frustrated. Ok – rant over.

On a positive note it gives opportunities for our players to shine on a national level and that is what most of them did. The biggest confidence booster was our midfielder Gini Wjinaldum scoring against world cup winners France during the week which is a great accomplishment and will for sure allow him to come back with his confidence sky high. The same goes for the Egyptian king Mo Salah scoring at the weekend for Egypt.

One downside from this break though is for one of our main striker Sadio Mane who plays for Senegal. Even though they were winning at the time, Mane missed an opportunity to score and his own country fans booed him. You could clearly see how much his affected him as he was on the floor on his knees with his head in the ground. This is a striker who recently has been lacking confidence in his play and this most definitely will not be a great thing for him. Some players like Ronaldo thrive off of that reception and pay better but Mane is a type of player who constantly needs positive feedback to play well. I am hoping when he returns to Liverpool our staff and players around his can help him boost his confidence back up to be the fantastic player that he is.

Other than that it has been a relatively quiet week in the camp of Liverpool as everyone at home is just working and focusing towards our next string of matches going into the Christmas period. We have to finish the year off strong and be in great standing for the new year. Otherwise we could lose our chances of winning any cup going forward. That is definitely what the focus at the club is this season. Next match is Saturday vs. Watford. We go again then.

After last weeks disappointing result vs. Arsenal we were very much determined to make things right going into the week ahead. This did not go according to plan though as we only had 2 days to prepare for our next opponent Red Star Belgrade. The scheduling for this game really was not in our favor. So we flew to Belgrade and had to get into European Football mode. This game ended up being a disaster, though. It ended in a 2-0 loss and every player on the pitch just did not look like they wanted to play. We could barely get an attacking play together and missed the most easy of chances when they came. We were totally outplayed and deserved the loss.

So, we fly home feeling a little deflated but in this sport you just have to get over it and focus on the next event which is the game on sunday back home against Fulham. According the manger, Jurgen Klopp, things in camp were looking great with no injuries or unexpected events leading up to the match. The only thing that was needed was to rebuild our confidence and team morale which I am sure all of the coaching staff did their best to do.

Game day came and this was a completely different performance for us. We played and looked like such a different team. This is definitely helped by our amazing world famous fans at Anfield who’s voices could be heard from miles away. We absolutely dominated the game and won 2-0 in our favor this time. With goals from Salah and Shaqiri. These two players have been on great form recently with Shaqiri scoring or assisting in 7 of the last 8 games and Salah scoring in 34 of his 38 games at Anfield – which is an incredible stat. It was a week that started off bad and deflated that ended up being a little bit better with some happy energy to start the new week. The race goes on.

This week was all about preparing for the weekend. After winning the previous week momentum seemed to great in the Liverpool camp with confidence in all of the players. Our opponent this week was Arsenal who of course are a very tough opponent being one of the best teams in the league placing 4th in current standings.

Going into this week we were sitting at the top of the table with Manchester City and things are looking good. Especially not having any other games during the mid week all of our efforts are solely on trying our best to beat our opponents, Arsenal.

Injury wise going into the week the only problem is with our centre midfielder Henderson as he is still out with injury which of course is a big loss but at the same time we have great depth in our squad and we can replace him with big talent. Being away this weekend playing at Arsenal’s home ground ‘The Emirates’ in London their will be the disadvantage of the crowd. This always plays a huge factor in games, especially in soccer because the crowds get behind teams even more so than in other sports, their are chants, songs and just pure noise like no other. With a big match up like Arsenal and Liverpool their is a lot of history and no love lost with the battles they face. You can bet the fans of Arsenal are looking forward to this one.

So game day comes and Klopp announces that his squad are fit and ready to go. Both teams start off the match relatively poor with not many chances as it goes into half time scoreless at 0-0. After the half the level of play doesn’t get that much better but we manage to score a goal from our machine in the middle James Milner. This really silenced the crowd and I thought we were going to go on and score a few more from momentum but for some reason the players didn’t react in the way they should have making silly mistakes and getting completely outplayed by Arsenal. They were dominating us. They eventually tie the game in the 82nd minute and the game eventually ends as a tie. Now, if you gave me this result a few years ago I would be delighted as we weren’t as good as we are right now. So I think Liverpool fans should not expect so much right now and be happy with the result especially being away from home.

I can see why fans are disappointed though as this means we have fallen into 3rd place for the first time this season being behind Manchester City and Chelsea. But we still are undefeated which is a great positive. Bring on next week.

This week was eventful to say the least. First of all Liverpool played two matches, one in the Champions League and one in the Premier League. The first was the Champions League game vs. Red Star Belgrade. This was a very enjoyable game for us Liverpool fans. I mean, to be honest, the team we are facing isn’t the best of teams but you cannot underestimate any opponent.

The game was played and throughout we absolutely dominated all over the pitch with 66% total possession, 21 shots with 11 on target against Belgrade’s 4 total shots with zero on target. The main guys yet again for us during this game were our incredible strike force Firmino, who opened the scoring, Salah with 2 goals within 5 minutes of each other and then Mane who put the icing on the cake at the end. The main thing that was so delightful about this win was that it was a great team performance all around.

After this match we had to quickly move on and prepare for the weekend against Cardiff City. They, too, are not doing great this year but it is a team we cannot underestimate. This game ended up being even better than the performance before, though. We dominated possession of the ball 80% to 20%. We ended up winning 4-1 which puts us back to the top of the league but it was very much disappointing to concede a goal on Cardiff’s only shot. Mostly it was a superb week with little to fault. I am very much happy on how they are doing at this moment.

So, the reason for the low this week was that there was extremely devastating news for the soccer world. Leicester City owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, two members of his staff, the pilot and a passenger were killed when his helicopter crashed just outside of the stadium. The aircraft lost control, spiraled into the ground and went up in fire. Support has been overwhelming from everyone all over the world. This is incredibly sad news to all and especially the city and fans of Leicester. He helped make history bringing them the most wild and incredible sporting feat ever in the Premier League. Condolences to all in the crash and their families.

The international break is over and all players have returned back to the squad. Considering recent weeks, this week was much more mellow with no midweek games and the team we were facing on Saturday were not on the same level as the teams we have faced up to this point. That said, never underestimate a team in the Premier League. Liverpool are notorious for beating the best teams but then losing to the worst. Sometimes it just doesn’t even make sense.

So this week was all about getting the players back into their club routine and focusing on Saturdays game away at Huddersfield. This team have not won a game yet so the mindset had to be to not let it happen to us. It is very easy for teams to get complacent when facing opponents like this as they think it will be a walk in the park then get embarrassingly beat. This is our manager, Klopp’s, main objective for the week I feel – to get the team in the right mindset.

So game day comes along and Klopp announces the starting team to be a bit different than usual with Lallana and Sturridge up top instead of Mane and Firmino. Not sure for this reasoning but fans were not too upset as Liverpool right now do have great squad depth. This decision ultimately led to a 1-0 victory with Salah as the goal scorer which is great as he hasn’t been living up to the expectations fans of him yet this season so hopefully this can get his confidence up and get him on a roll. The game was actually really poor as we didn’t play well at all but ultimately a win is a win so I have no complaints with that.

This weeks game puts us joint top of the league with Manchester City after 9 games into the season.

I don’t believe people should wish their life away by always wanting something in the future to happen right now but thats what a lot of frustrated fans are doing this week as again is another International game week meaning no Liverpool or Premier League games. We had one of these recently but again all nationalities had to go and represent their country for games during the week and the weekend.

For us, Liverpool, this tends to mean a relatively quiet week as a lot of the team are not around to train or give input in any way. This does mean though that their is another opportunity for the reserves to step up and show their worth in practice to impress the coaching staff and try to regain a place in the first team. It does not mean, though, that the coaching staff work any less hard than usual. They will be working extremely hard as always to prepare the team the best they can for their next up and coming game against Huddersfield.

One positive from the International break that we can take is that our players will come back with a big confidence boost as a few of our key players scored goals for their countries. Mentally, that is always a great thing for players to have when returning to club. They return on such a high that it rubs off on everyone around them and elevates the team spirit. We now await the return of all of the players and for the first time in a while none of our players were injured while on international duty. (That also is another reason why fans dislike international games during the season because a lot of players tend to get injured somehow).

Bring on the next week and lets do our best to beat Huddersfield and remain at the top!

Busy week yet again for Liverpool and the fans. Two games. One midweek away against Napoli in the Champions League and then one at the weekend home against Manchester City in the Premier League.

Second game in the Champions League this season ended up in a loss 1-0 versus Italian side Napoli. This wasn’t obviously the best result at all…But seeing as we beat the hardest team in our group, PSG, it isn’t the end of the world. We will be playing them again in the near future at home in Anfield and hopefully we can get redemption. Champions League football is always tough and it just shows you have to really be prepared for the day to win.

So after this game we had to prepare ourselves for Manchester City. They are an incredibly tough team with extremely talented players. This probably is one of the hardest games of our entire season so of course Mr. Klopp and his side had to be near perfect going into this game.

There seemed to be a great atmosphere at Anfield with of course another sold out crowd.  Unfortunately though this didn’t show in our football (or theirs). In four meetings in the Premier League and Champions League last season, Liverpool and City scored a combined total of 18 goals.The pre-match expectations of another showdown brimming with action in either box were therefore more than justified – but it just did not quite happen.

The game ended in a goalless 0-0 tie. Being quite a boring day at the office.

I quote our manger Jurgen Klopp saying “I am happy with a tie against this team”.

So I guess if the manager is happy, then we should be too. Onto next week.

This week was an incredibly tough week for us. We played our big rivals Chelsea not once but twice! Once in the Premier League and once in the Carabao Cup.

Coming off of a great win the week before our spirits in the team and with the fans was high. Nothing could beat us. But maybe this week we needed to stay a bit more grounded… The first game for us was in the cup at home in Anfield. So this cup isn’t the most important cup we are in this year but also, a cup is a cup, so if we could win then of course why wouldn’t we want to. I think its a shame sometimes that other fans do not take this cup seriously. Anyway, the game was incredibly close with back and forth all game but brilliance from Eden Hazard (Currently one of, if not, the best players in the world) put us out of the cup with a fantastic goal that was simply unstoppable. You cannot really deny that.

This obviously was not a good loss for us and especially as we had to play them again at the weekend at their home ground Stamford Bridge, we needed to lift ourselves immediately. Saturday came and the fans were anxious. We are both top of the league teams and whoever wins would go to the top.

Chelsea lead with a goal from Hazard, again. All Liverpool fans definitely thought this was going to be a long day at the office but to give ourselves credit we stuck with it, had great character and kept creating chances. With 5 minutes left in the game being 1-0 down it didn’t look too promising until the 88th minute where striker Daniel Sturridge scored one of the most brilliant goals of the season. I don’t want to be biased but it was absolutely world class. I am going to attach a link to the youtube video right here:

The game ended in a tie giving both teams a point each leaving Liverpool still top of the league…phew! Still a long season ahead but I like the look of us at the top for sure.