THE easiest way to win a cup final is to be the better team. Even if you can’t be the better team on the pitch in the 90 or 120 minutes, you can have the better players to win a shoot-out. Despite what people tell you about it being a lottery. Manchester City...
THERE are moments when we doubt Wembley. Like when they needlessly play semi-finals there. Like when we sense the smugness in its association with a national side we feel little affinity with. In these moments, Wembley, you seem so very far away. Then there’s the...
THESE are the moments. Let’s not deny it to ourselves. Why the game got us. Why we became locked into its ways and wiles. We’re always in it for the prizes. Scaling peaks is what sport is all about. Don’t decry any summit. A challenge is a challenge. We have risen to...
SUNDAY’S Capital One Cup final feels a bit of a weird one. A one-off showpiece occasion, with Liverpool slight underdogs against the financial might of moneybags Manchester City. And yet, it lacks the edge of a clash with more traditional rivals; the existence...
LIVERPOOL qualify for the next round. They progress. Without progress. Repeatedly Liverpool should put the football match to bed. Repeatedly they don’t do so. Many passages of play have some glorious touches but only Milner’s early penalty offers us a...
I MISSED the first 15 minutes because six o’clock kick offs are daft. Left poor old IT Matt on the side of the street waiting for his ticket while I sent him pictures of traffic jams. Good at penalties though Jimmy Milner, isn’t he? Maybe he should imagine...
IN a recent interview, John Barnes referenced a culture of wanting to win matched with the culture of ensuring a win as a primary reason behind Liverpool’s golden past. It didn’t matter who the opposition were, what ground the game was at, or which competition the...
FOOTBALL is rich on million-dollar questions and here is another. Had Brendan Rodgers led Liverpool to the Premier League title in 2014, would he still be manager? Many treated Rodgers suspiciously from day one. Surely the goodwill generated would have ensued trust: a...
SINCE the appointment of Jürgen Klopp in October, it has been repeatedly said that there are too many players in this Liverpool squad that are simply not good enough, writes Joel Rabinowitz. The logic then follows that there must be a huge clear-out at Anfield this...
THE Daniel Sturridge v Fernando Torres cold stats are in Sturridge’s favour; slightly better total goals to total appearances ratio, significantly better total goals to starts ratio. But I don’t want stats. I want to slay some dragons and move on. Torres...
