THE countdown to the Reds’ first home game of the season continues — not long to go now, is there? — as most of the internationals return from pointlessly representing their countries in meaningless friendlies, or poorly-timed qualifiers.
It seems all that is left now is the mad dash to strap Phillipe Coutinho to a rocket and fire him back to Anfield, to make sure he’s back in time for the visit of Leicester on Saturday.
Mane Of The Month
So Mane Puns. Sorry. But yeah, Sadio Mane has been named the Standard Chartered Player of the Month for August, after hitting the ground running since joining the club.
You might remember him from such complaints as “not another Southampton player” or, the slightly more traditional, “where is the marquee signing?”
Moving past that — now that everybody knows he’s actually boss — it’s hardly a shock to see him win the accolade, such has been the standard of performance he has put in, and the noticeable gap left when he missed the Burnley defeat.
Let’s just hope he can keep it going — if only so we don’t have to moan about Southampton players anymore.
Karius Is Fit
You’ve all been thinking it. Loris Karius is back in full training after recovering from a broken hand, which he sustained punching Dejan Lovren in the head when coming to claim a cross. So Simon Mignolet has nothing to worry about there.
However, it had seemed that Karius was the preferred choice, for the manager and the fans, to take the number on jersey. In that sense, Mignolet might have quite a lot to worry about.
It is believed that the Belgian will continue in goal this weekend, with Karius needing more time on the training pitch before a return — and Jürgen is believed to be happy with Mignolet’s performances so far, in which he has conceded six goals in three games.
To be fair, though, Mignolet has looked slightly more assured, so no need to rush Karius back.
Palace Paid Over The Odds
We all know it. But you wouldn’t expect the Crystal Palace chairman to say it. He has, though.
Chairman Steve Parish has called the fee paid “madness”, though he does admit that it is the price you’re forced to pay in an overly inflated market.
He said: “I thought it was madness. They [the investors] have more money than me! They looked seriously at buying Aston Villa before and so he [Benteke] was a player that was familiar to them and they wanted to do it. You do wrap your head around it, but looking at it now I don’t think it was outrageous.”
Yep. Cheers lads.
Moreno Is Mad
Some will say worse things about him, but he’s definitely shown us that he’s off his head. His latest Instagram post shows him pushing a pram, while riding a segway board. Even reading that back it sounds weird.
He’s fallen behind ‘Boring’ James Milner in the pecking order, and there are quite a few who won’t question it — given the difference between Milner’s closed lifestyle and Moreno’s extrovert ways.
https://twitter.com/TheAnfieldWrap/status/773285651882053632
Today’s Write Ups
Couple pieces to get stuck into today, from us. Firstly, here’s Phil Blundell’s column from this week, looking at past mistakes made in the transfer market and why a more cautious approach this time round may not be such a bad thing. Read that here.
Then we’ve got a piece by Sam Jones, who asks why there is such demand for a marquee signing when history shows we favour the development of players at the club, which you can read here.
Finally, Jacob Routledge, Robbo, Rob G and myself have all chipped in for a feature called “11 We Lost That We Could Have Loved” — looking at players who weren’t given the time at Anfield, but have been successful elsewhere. Read that here.
That’s all for today. Up the Reds.
Listen to the latest *free* Anfield Wrap podcast here:
https://audioboom.com/boos/5012770-home-front
