by Neil Atkinson | Feb 20, 2017 | Footie
THERE has been something distorting about what Chelsea have done so far this season. Something which has damaged perceptions across the division, especially within the other sides in the top six. The rate they have notched points up has left everyone else searching...
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 11, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
A FOOTBALL match, a tale of two teams, profoundly decided by one half. This isn’t to say the second half isn’t important. This isn’t to undo those efforts. Those necessary efforts. This isn’t to act like all that running round was irrelevant....
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 8, 2017 | Footie
THREE years to the day since the best 20 minutes of your life. Liverpool beat Arsenal 5-1 on this day in 2014. The first 20 minutes were the best 20 minutes of your life or you just aren’t doing it right. Your life I mean — you aren’t doing your life...
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 4, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
WHAT wouldn’t you burn down now? Imagine being on Liverpool’s coach coming back down the M62. A set of players looking at each other. A coaching staff looking at players. Loads of eyes on the back of the manager’s head. Imagine it. I genuinely hope...
by Neil Atkinson | Feb 1, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
There are no excuses and no hiding places. Everybody sees every game. Everybody knows where the bodies are buried. If this season doesn’t result in the league title then the body wasn’t buried tonight. It was buried against Swansea or Bournemouth. The dirt...
by Neil Atkinson | Jan 27, 2017 | Footie
I CRACKED a bit on Wednesday. Which was problematic because I cracked a lot on Saturday. There isn’t that much more to crack. I realised I’d cracked when I dropped to my knees on the aisle and slapped the concrete repeatedly after Daniel Sturridge’s...
by Neil Atkinson | Jan 26, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
THE cusp. The abyss. The tightrope. All modern Liverpool seasons end up there at some stage. It’s what they do when they reach it that counts. Almost every football season when you watch Liverpool is death or glory. Sometimes that’s the case because good...
by Neil Atkinson | Jan 21, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
I’M 36 today. Liverpool last won the league when I was nine. It’s hard to escape the crippling feeling that, at best, it next happens when I am 37. At best. Without sounding overly dramatic it is difficult to put into words how that second half felt. When...
by Neil Atkinson | Jan 18, 2017 | Footie, Match Review
WHERE’S the balance for this? Where is the tone? Because it is the rhetoric which tends to let these affairs down. For all the talk of the magic of the cup, and while acknowledging that tonight was a significant game for Plymouth Argyle and for two or three...
by Neil Atkinson | Jan 18, 2017 | Footie
REPORTS today suggest that Xabi Alonso has told Bayern Munich he plans to retire at the end of the 2016-17 season. The Spaniard has been at the Allianz Arena since 2014, having previously been at Real Madrid and, of course, Liverpool. His stellar career has spanned...