FEW would dispute the importance of psychology and mentality within football, but it is one of the hardest to analyse. It is complicated by the fact there is no quantifiable output, no list of characteristics or designated number that distinguishes between good...
I’VE just finished reading George Orwell’s Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Set in the 1930s, it concerns a poet called Gordon Comstock who declares war on the ‘money god’ which dominates the world. He refuses a well-paid job writing ludicrous advertising copy and instead...
THERE is an old cliché that goalkeepers are like drummers. They sit at the back, keep everything in check and go largely underappreciated by fans. They’re also usually a bit weird. I mean, you’d have to be. Trying to find weird people isn’t usually a problem, not for...
IF there was any solace to take from Liverpool Women’s relegation from the Women’s Super League, it was the opportunity it offered to regroup, restart and regalvanise the entire atmosphere around the club. Everyone associated with the club has rallied. The recruitment...
HOW’S your therapy going? It’s Monday night as I write this so you’re ahead of me. I’m still somewhere between fury, nonchalant acceptance and utter confusion. My state changes every couple of minutes. That might be reflected here. 7-2 though. 7-2! And not to a fully...
IT is not particularly original to say that 2020 has been a strange year. However, it’s no wonder that football in particular has been told that it needs to go home because it’s drunk, as seemingly after every new bizarre score, the next game requests that you hold...
ANYTHING good on telly last night? I’ve been watching a show about competitive BBQing in America on Netflix recently. It’s aptly named The American BBQ Showdown, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting there to be as much drama as there has been on it. Twists coming out...
FOR weeks, months after Jürgen Klopp was announced as Liverpool manager, Sean Rogers would say on our Review show that we’d get whacked at some stage. That we would have a moment, a game, when the wheels came off completely and we’d have to pick up the...
1. Christ… I’d sort of forgotten what it was to feel like that, where you want to ferret around inside your own stomach and peel out your own bowels. Maybe spread them about in the garden so a big fat crow has got a nice tea. Where do you start? Shocking. And...
THE thing about retaining the league is it’s a bit like winning a pie-eating competition, only to be told the prize is more pies. And let’s be honest, we ate a shit load of pies last season, way more than we needed to. The Spanish Pie Head in second place just kept...
