Jim Ratcliffe is a prick. I always thought he was. He has done nothing to suggest that he is not a prick. I loathe Jim Ratcliffe and as a result I find it very hard to get behind his cycling team. He was a prick before he got into cycling. He’s always been a prick. I hope that clears things up.

Ibou was POTM for me.

McCoist: "Liverpool just about deserved it"

Fletch away is a tricky place to go.

Just a fifth away win to nil in any competition this season for Liverpool. Get in. Great performance. A set piece goal and game intelligence shown throughout - Slot's perfect kind of night. Up the Reds.

Bore your way to the finish line, Reds.

Rest of the back four discussing the problem.

In what has been unquestionably his worst season for the club, Mo Salah is now Liverpool's joint-top assist provider in 2025/26 (7).

Give it to Virgil. (The goal, not the manager's job till the end of the season)

35 shots without scoring for Forest tonight. Just the sixth instance of a team doing this in the big five leagues in the last decade.

Me to Christian Purslow in 2010.

Fletch. The absolute worst. Liverpool. Pretty decent first half, all things considered.

Liverpool's 11 shots is their most in a first half of an away game this season. Not much of value but still.

Cody NOT cutting inside is a nice little twist of something different. When all you eat are crackers, a cookie will melt your mind.

‘The keeper’s scribbled on his water bottle there, Coisty, and you have to say it’s better than Da Vinci.’ ‘Aye, the big Italian wouldn’t be disappointed wi’ that.’ ‘It just shows how Liverpool are struggling.’ ‘Great shout, Fletch!’

My next newsletter is about time wasting. I'd be amazed if this match doesn't get a mention.

James Milner has come off the bench tonight to equal the Premier League appearance record. He made more of his appearances with Roberto Firmino than anyone else. Some of the trivia in this @optaanalyst.optajoe.com article on Milner's record is incredible: theanalyst.com/articles/jam...

"Colonised". Yes, he said that. He really did.

Salah hasn't even won a player of the match award this season. Utterly unimaginable, yet here we are.

"Sunderland are not only the most active in their share of time in a deeper shape, but are the most compact when scaling the average area of that low block." Excellent news to hear today.

If you’ve enjoyed the last 18 months of match reports & press conference reviews on my Substack page, this is where it levels up. New pod. Extra articles. Behind-the-scenes football insight. £1.50 a week for everything but some content remains free. m0stewart.substack.com/p/the-new-fr...

I have a new favourite fact. Via: www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Eni Aluko getting phenomenal levels of abuse for her football knowledge/punditry skills and yet Jay Bothroyd and David Bentley on Sky Sports News have just both called for Harry Redknapp to return to Spurs until the end of the season 👀

One of my favorite things is when badly run clubs hire managers from well run clubs and are shocked when it changes nothing for either team

Mr C nails it again.

If you're not watching, switch it on. A tied super over so they'll be going through another one in a minute.

49

Southampton have come back from three down to win 4-3. Wow.

Chelsea have one point from their two home games against newly promoted teams. Positively Liverpool-esque.

lack of empathy, lack of imagination, lack of creativity, lack of intelligence, lack of innovation, fear of the unknown, fear of the foreign, fear of the self, I could keep going

good read this

"Several of the seven oldest players will leave this summer. There is a strong case that none of them will be with Liverpool when 2027/28 gets underway..." A look at Liverpool's long-term squad building and how their age profile compares to their rivals www.andrewbeasleyfootball.com/p/squad-buil...

"There are seven goalkeepers in more teams but only four of them have been more productive in Fantasy Premier League...." My FPL wildcard picks for the midweek fixtures are here, for @optaanalyst.optajoe.com

I have something I call The Harry Redknapp Rule, which goes thus: if someone is caught, by fluke, doing something wildly, intricately illegal - in Redknapp's case, placing dodgy cash in a Monaco bank account in his dog's name - then it is vanishingly unlikely that this is their first such crime.

Liverpool games 9-28 in 2020/21: W7 D5 L8. 26 points. Liverpool games 6-25 this season: W6 D6 L8. 24 points. Two seasons following titles. Different factors in play for each. But a similar outcome at a similar stage. Weird, innit?

Plans to invade Greenland have just been cancelled after this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #JFT97

A little video about the big game yday

Part of the fun of loving Super Furry Animals is singing along with the Welsh songs even though I don't know what I'm saying.

These are Liverpool’s seasons directly after finishing first or second. All but one a struggle with a points total in the sixties.

"It became the ninth Liverpool league game this season to become all-square in the final 15 minutes of normal time. The Reds are now winless in the last seven, losing four." Here we go again. My review of another frustrating Liverpool match www.andrewbeasleyfootball.com/p/the-match-...

City last did the league double over Liverpool in 1936/37. Still, at least fascism isn't on the rise this time, eh?

Gary Neville loves VAR but only wants it to correct narrative he doesn’t like

I feel sick. The game of two halves (ish). Liverpool were poor in the first half, great for about 35 minutes of the second, then collapsed. And still nearly got a point. Up the Reds.

Changing our name to the Smell of Football

Liverpool hitting new levels of "sometimes it is just not your year." Feel bad for Slot. Still think he's pretty good. Not sure what he's supposed to do about his best player becoming his worst player + a beloved locker room glue guy dying in an accident + losing every single dice roll.

Ali will have had stinkers in both City wins at Anfield since 2003, alas.

Could do with a Mahrez repeat from 2018 here.