THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL IS RED

It was derby day in Liverpool and – as expected – the city remained red. 

With a one-two from Firmino, Sadio Mane blasted a beauty of a shot through the legs of the defender and into the bottom corner of the goal. Not long after a Coutinho shot was saved, the Toffees equalised  with Pennington scoring his first goal for Everton in his first appearance of the season.

Only two minutes and fifty-seven seconds later, Coutinho beat two players and curled a shot into the top corner. He and fellow countryman, Firmino, arrived back to Liverpool from the international break on a private jet paid for by the club, and they’ll definitely feel the move was worth it.

Coutinho went on to set up Liverpool’s third – by super sub Divock Origi. Everton pushed – and that’s something the top teams have always down to us which has brought out the best performances and today was no different. It started out as a scrappy match, with the ref having a short word with the captains of each team to settle the players then the fun began… Tackles everywhere, poor refereeing, but some interesting stats:

• Klopp becomes the first manager to win his first three Merseyside derbies.
• Mane scored in both derbies this season, joining the likes of Sturridge and Suarez – get you a man like Mane
• Only Giroud (seven) has more goals as a sub than Origi (six).

With Everton facing off against Manchester United on Tuesday, we’ll need to hope they thrash them… next up for LFC, it’s Bournemouth and most likely without Mane who left the game with an injury, of which Klopp said “it doesn’t look too good”.

Oh, and anybody seen Lukaku or is he still in Dejan Lovren’s pocket?

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain

On the 20th March, Liverpool were 2-0 against Southampton at half time. It looked to be an easy win – we had it in the bag. In the second half, Martin Skrtel – who had been out injured since December – returned to the pitch and subsequently gave away a penalty. It was saved, thankfully, but Southampton won the game 3-2 thanks to some woeful defending on Liverpool’s part. The team conceded as many goals in 40 minutes with Skrtel in the team than their previous 795 minutes without him. What’s it down to? Return from injury nerves? Lack of play time recently so everything is a bit ropey? Or just time for him to go? That was certainly the consensus on social media.

It’s easy to cast aside a player when they’re not up to standard, but let us not forget that this man is Slovakia’s national team captain and has won the Slovak footballer of the year award four times. Sure he’s second on the list of all time premier league own goals list with a total of seven, but he shares that position with Jamie Carragher – who is held in god-like regard by the Kop. (Carra had 508 appearances and 5 goals with the club, where Skrtel is on 16 goals in 237 appearances, just so you know). And in October, Skrtel was the team’s best passer with an accuracy percentage of 87%. This is a man who literally gives blood for the team on a regular basis – how many times has he had his head stapled together on the sidelines and finished the game?

Sometimes fans strike me as babies throwing their toys out of the pram when games don’t go their way. Lovren had his head on the chopping board for a long time at the beginning of his Liverpool career, but his game has settled and he’s putting in magnificent performances – and the fans love him now. Sometimes you’re the hero, sometimes you’re the villain. One thing is for certain: Liverpool fans will never hear a bad word about Stevie’s Slip.

You can just see the title slipping away along with every Liverpool fan’s hopes and dreams #wegoagain #itsouryear