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To watch Tommy Smith pounding the pitch by running 20metres to go into a tackle, it was as though the ground beneath him started to rumble… a sound that terrified many an opposing forward - Just ask Alan Clarke when he played for Leeds Utd. He was a favourite ‘snack’ of his, and every fan knew it would happen during some point of the game and would be rubbing their hands in anticipation until it did…
As a nipper, I saw him at Anfield put that notorious hard man of football, Dave Mackay of Spurs, in a wooden box twice in the one game… Mackay hobbled off the pitch that day in the ‘baby-step’ manner one would as if they had shit in their shorts, he could hardly move one leg in front of the other :0)
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There was a user on TIA called Anfield Iron, if I remember rightly.
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Always had the aura…never feared anyone…
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Although quite a few years behind him, I went to the same grammar school as Tommy Smith… A ramshackle of a building, that providing you passed your eleven plus exam, took the waifs, stray’s and shoeless into the learning epicentre of classrooms.
My point being, it was a close-knit school, but fuck me you had to have your wits about you at all times… While fighting was not on the curriculum, it certainly was in the playground and after school gatherings… Still hear it chanted now… fight, fight, fight, was the call that rung out and brought every kid to attendance in a big circle… Well… and this was over a decade later, Tommy Smith, in his schooldays, was an icon in this fightworld and still revered… Obviously he was playing for Liverpool by this time, which added to his infamy… but some of those lads in his generation came from tough upbringings…
There was a picture of him, and the school football team hanging on the wall outside the headmasters office as a permanent fixture… He was 14yrs of age in it, but looked like an adult even then… What is that saying, show me the boy and I will show you the man…!
IMO, he never ever got the recognition he deserved as a player.
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Ideally we win the game, as we need the points and they need to be knocked down a peg or two. Given the surrounding news, it’s now bigger than the three points, and while the club officials will be sanitized in their statements, the crowd can give it both barrels in saying what they think.
Hopefully that happens, and it sets down a marker for others to follow. Now that it’s all out in the open it has taken on a certain life of its own, and that’s a big problem Man City have, as they can’t control the narrative.
Let’s keep that going, with a passionate, irate crowd who have been cheated out of some wonderful moments that should have gone down in history. Keep that going until it is irresistible, and Man City get what is, rightly, coming to them.
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As for the game itself, we are a work in progress, getting used to Iraola ball. We are improving, and it has tightened up, but we are not where we need to be. We could have really done with more time on the training pitch but the lengthy international break has taken that away.
Speaking of the international break, it has robbed us of Gakpo - who has been on fire, and Isak - who has been much better than last season, and has been weighing in with goals, even as we work on the balance and getting him into the game a bit more.
Man City, as a team, are currently further ahead. It’s all from cheating, but we still have to play them tomorrow, and even with a full strength side it would have been a tough assignment at this stage.
Ideally a passionate crowd influences this one, putting a bit more wind in our sails and causing Man City to shrink back. They have no right to have a swagger. They have no right to have that collection of players. It’s all from cheating.
The team I would go with is this:
Alisson
Araujo Jacquet VVD Kerkez
Szobo MacAllister
Munoz Wirtz Barcola
Koumas
Koumas to press and harry and give his all, until he has nothing left in his legs (they all need to work hard, mind) and make the sub for him on the 60 min mark, bringing Rio into the fray and shuffling the front four a bit - whether that means Barcola goes to the middle, or Munoz, or maybe even Wirtz in a false 9 sort of way, let’s see.
MacAllister has been showing his worth and a good game from him will be important in helping to shut them down. To that end he will need Szobo to be disciplined alongside, as he can’t cover acres of space by himself.
I’m going for 2-1 for the mighty reds.
And I am hoping the crowd sets down a marker that other crowds follow, as trouble mounts for Man City.
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Which set of clowns do we have tomorrow…and which of them haven’t had the backing of the cheats…
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Referee: Chris Kavanagh. Assistants: Dan Cook, Nick Greenhalgh. Fourth official: Andy Madley. VAR: Paul Howard. Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton.
Posted by @GermanRed about the 40th post on this thread.
Are they all from Greater Manchester?
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Yes.
All refs are.
Even if they’re not…
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Sorry…must’ve missed it…cheers…
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But doesn’t fill me with any hope of a fair and equal game…
I just hope this passes off OK. I just saw some comments on Facebook from shit-stirrers saying that they wanted to “brick the bus and maim some Scousers”.
I’ve really seen some idiotic media coverage about the fixture. It sounds like they are trying to attract every dickhead in the country.
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Id rather see us get beaten tomorrow than seeing some of our supporters throwing bottles and bricks at their bus or doing other stupid stuff.
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Kavanagh the biggest wet fucking lettuce referee out there.
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This game has, unsurprisingly, been overtaken by the 115 charges.
Just looked at the table, win tomorrow and we go 4th, 3 points behind City and Arsenal. That’s the thing i want most tomorrow.
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Omg! Don’t tell me he is our ref tomorrow:see_no_evil_monkey:
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I have started to get nervous about this match a day early. I hope we get something positive out of it.
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I am totally worked up for this, I see this match as Good vs Greed, Positive vs Negative and hopefully a watershed moment in the development of the new Liverpool and the decline of serial cheaters.
I know some people think the result isn’t the biggest thing, but for me beating them at this moment signals a renaissance of Liverpool football, a mark of where Iraola is taking us.
This one is for Klopp, Gerrard, Suarez, Hendo, Salah and all of those who missed out on glory because of those cheating fucks.
It is a moment in time for us as Liverpool supporters, a day that could herald the demise of City, from a football as well as a regulatory standpoint.
I want us to win, in the most hostile atmosphere we can bring, without any trouble, obviously. I want Virgil to hit Haaland (fairly) early on, to get the Kop to its feet, baying for more. I want MacAllister to score a screamer and point to where Doku kicked him and got away with it.
Stoked is too small a word!!
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