Dr Gloom

not the fixture you want to bounce back from defeat to barcelona. our record against them stinks and they've flown out of the blocks in the league. i'd take a draw but can see us losing. don't think we'll win 1-1

even then he did his best to miss. Not his best performance in front of the England manager. Needs to play in his natural position as Barnes isn’t doing it at the moment

It’ll be interesting to see what lineup we go with at the weekend. We have genuine competition for places now and these lads left a lot on the pitch. Eddie needs to drop the loyalty to certain players and learn how to rotate the squad this season. Big test for him because his success has often come from building up a head of steam through selection continuity

succinct and to the point. I agree. We created enough chances in the first half to have got something from the game. If only we had someone to stick it in the net

I blame Gemmill for turning up

Can’t fault the lads for effort. Game went pretty much as you’d expect. Us flying out of the blocks, them growing into the game and having all the ball. We needed to take one of those early chances. Two quality finishes from big nose the difference between the two sides. We lacked that ice man in front of goal. I hope we drop the Gordon at number 9 experiment. Disappointed not to see Woldemade start. If I’m being hyper critical I think Eddie got that call wrong. Gordon hasn’t played in his natural position all season. No disgrace losing to them. Much easier assignments ahead. Some random team from Belgium next innit

they're absolutely legacy clubs. success built on the back of the legacy of being able to spend freely. i refuse to call them "big six". there's nothing but the new financial regulations stopping us building a better legacy than the ones those cunts were lucky enough to create on the back of unregulated free-spending.

they're both good ones too.

don't be the ex who can't let go. it hurts them more if you stop caring

he's so much more than a traditional DM. part destroyer, part playmaker, part box to box midfielder - he's got the pace and the engine to put out fires and support the attack. unreal player. can see him chipping in with more goals this season, particulalry if he's given more set pieces. i reckon he's the best with a dead ball at the club too

need to sign him up to a long term deal to avoid another isak situation. won't be long until a legacy club take notice and start trying to turn his head. £200k per week. £150m release clause. bosh

i'm so over isak. he's been kicked to touch, unfollowed on social media and forgotten about. like an ex you've had enough of

we should stop him going to Afcon

shame as i was looking forward to tino doing a salah on him

you beat me to it

Wake up in the morning: dark Come home from work: dark Christmas and New year are good craic but you still have two months of shite to wade through when it’s done. January and February are grim

there's loads of examples of players who arrived in the PL after smashing it in germany with big price tags who failed to live up to expectations: havertz, sancho, werner, pulisic, marin, kagawa, haller, mkyhitaryan, schweinsteiger etc etc. no guarantees wirtz will be one of those to adjust to the english game.

shit. i had an amazing summer full of fun in the sun, music festivals and holidays but it feels like it's over now and the seasonal depression is in the post. i fucking hate winter.

he wouldn't be the first player to excel in germany but struggle in england

that bloke is disgusting - the arse and ball-sniffing, snot-eating minger

wirtz is a prospect, not a sure thing, just as woldemade is. neither player is PL proven. both carry massive price tags on their shoulders and all transfers are a gamble. these two especially so because of the fees involved. it's more of a gamble for us than it is for liverpool because we have less money to throw away than them and can't afford as many failures (some transfers will inevitably fail to deliver on expectations). doesn't mean wirtz is more of a sure thing than woldemade. coming in as liverpool's record signing puts him under massive pressure, despite isak breaking their record a little later in the summer. he has an astronomical fee to justify and fans that will expect him to deliver. i suspect our fans will be patient with woldemade, probably not judging him until he's had a full season or two behind him. he's been thrown in at the deep end because of the injury to wissa when the plan was probably to use him mostly as a rotation option while he adjusts to the english game. our fans understand this and will be forgiving if he struggles a bit at first. who knows if either player will succeed in england but ours has made the better start.

what a film that is.

it's a struggle i can vouch for