Stottie

Its four minutes into the twelve minute highlights the club has put on Youtube. It's clearly last man, and the defender forearms Barnes in the face. The ball may then skim the defender's head, its hard to tell from either angle in the highlights, but such contact with the ball would definitely be after the forearm to the face. Initial contact looks outside the box but may continue into it. Looks a clear red to me. The top comment on the video calling it an MMA move has hundreds of likes. Getting an opponent send off would also absolve Harvey of the "did nothing in the game" accusations. Great ball by BDB too.

Pubic area? Has he got a derse?

Murphy 6 yard box or Tonali shot goes in and we go on to win 4 or 5 nil. Wolves split our lines several times with incisive vertical passes, which was concerning, but our last ditch defending coped with it. Three clean sheets and Liverpool scoring with goals that were more flukey than good moves show our overall defensive shape is very good. Everyone is saying it, but we've lacked a goalscorer at #9, which Woltemade and Wissa will now provide. I'll put the Leeds one down to weird injury-affected tactics and Longy knowing how to kick us out of our rhythm.

Looked great! Straight in against some "big lad" center halves but handled it comfortably and scored a header. Was heavily involved in buildup and used the ball well in a not flashy but suitably effective way. Won several tackles, which again is promising on the physicality front. The one thing we didn't see, and is still to come, is the crazy legs dribbles in his highlight reels. He drew a couple of fouls, but I think he'll draw a ton more like Gordon when he starts taking people on.

Table for Woltemade coming soon to your local Spoons.

DIdn't Forest have the lowest possession of any team in the league? Its an extreme way of playing that it makes stats comparisons with players from higher possession teams unfair. Forest's style is now likely to get even more extreme with Angeball.

The PSR masterplan was to sell Bruno to the likes of Man City. We're lucky it failed.

Possible repeat of last season with Ange surfing down the league but still fluking a win in the Europa. Assuming Emery doesn't win it for the twentieth time.

Needs work, but has promise. It reminds of one of the greatest football chants of all time, from the Arsenal fans after Arsenal swapped out Ashley Cole for William Gallas, which was I'd rather have a Willy than a Cunt!

Does the Champo qualify as silverware? It never did when we won it. Unless you mean the Johnson Paint trophy or whatever that one is called.

The three most expensive transfers this summer (for all clubs, not just Liverpool) were Isak, Wirtz, and Ekitike. You definitely cannot put all three on the pitch at the same time, and possibly not even two of them. You would be over-run the second you lose the ball. Liverpool's strongest lineup still looks like Szobo at AM and Gakpo at LW. Imagine us buying three record or near-record transfers but only playing one of them, or playing a second by dropping an established starter like Bruno or Tonali. We would get pelters.

He established them as a Sky6 club. Well behind the others but...still well ahead of the non-Sky6 clubs. They are set up very nicely going forward.

Slovaks say Tah very much for three points!

Loose pass after gorgeous take of falling ball.

In fairness to Alice, in the linked video, she says she thinks Sesko was an overpay and Ekitike a massive overpay. Anything negative about Respect FC will trigger lots of eScousers. This window was an ongoing car crash as high-wage clubs snatched away all our targets and the Isak sage rumbled towards its nightmarish conclusion. However, the players we did get addressed needs in the squad and we got there in the end. My main complaint was Wissa and Big Nick coming in late and us playing three games without an established striker. I think this cost us at least 5 points.

If he matches his NUFC tally, 19 from open play, that is not a massive success. Jota+Nunez got 11, missing quite a few chances, and didn't break the UK transfer record. Isak probably needs 25 to justify the fee, and his place as central striker over Ekitike, who's already started well. Ekitike may prove to be an amazing LW, meaning there is no loss by moving him from the middle, but there is no record of him doing well as a LW so far. There is also the weird thing of where does Wirtz play and who makes way. It's not obvious how it all works as a net plus. I suspect Isak and his agent were so quick to get the Liverpool move because they are not confident on him getting to Real, either based on ability or the state of his body. They have jumped on this to get lock in a big payoff earlier.

If this summer proves anything, the club needs more income, to afford higher player transfer fees and higher salaries. I wish none of us needed to take an interest in the corporate side of the club, but it essentially sets the ceiling on what we can pay. Every player we missed out on, and Isak, went to higher paying clubs. I see this as much more important than whether the person handling the transfer did a good job in "selling the club" to the player. In this case, money talks and BS walks. My own interest in the corporate side is mainly "is it competent?" Beyond that, I don't care. A Cup win, another final we lost, and two CL qualifications in three seasons means we are already punching well above our current financial weight on the pitch. The key ingredient in the secret sauce for that is Eddie, so whoever comes in at DoF must not rock the Eddie boat.

Prime Cisse, that 11/12 half season, was a nonstop stream of outrageous goals, all while missing what felt like every 1 on 1 he had with the keeper. It was better than Isak's hot streak last season.

The first period is the team cooking after Sandro moved to #6. This was great for about a dozen games, but has probably been "found out" by now. I would not claim it was necessarily sustainable for our team or for Isak. Isak did not react well when Eddie picked Wilson over him, as in the Man U Carabao final. Ekitike has started well at Liverpool and there is fair chance Isak may not be an instant a success (without a preseason) or get shunted around without being an automatic choice in a regular 9 position. We may see the sulk return, even in red colours. Even if he does well and god forbid outscores Salah, it is likely the toys will be out of the pram again if he does not get Salah money.

My favourites Opta Analyst have done a report on him. It'll confirm what believers likely already believe and hopefully convert some doubters. https://theanalyst.com/articles/yoane-wissa-newcastle-goals-alexander-isak

With Osula staying, does it mean Eddie can risk Wissa and Big Nick on the pitch at the same time more? They seem more complementary than Isak and Wilson ever did.

That's unfair. We lost no targets to clubs offering lower packages. We lost Isak to a club paying him 300k, a big signing bonus, and a new payout to his agent. We signed lots of our-grade targets who bolster the squad and got Woltemade as a coup. It is silly to say that is worse than Villa, just to name one more.

You didn't see the match at SJP where we limited Liverpool to five shots with 10 men?

We saw one in Low Fell, I think its Saltwell Road.

It would be nine for the deals, I like the incomings and Isak couldn't be helped, but minus two for playing three games and dropping points due to the lack of an established striker, so 7. Getting the same level performances out of the other lads may be more difficult as CL and other fixture congestion bites. It would be nice to have had points on the board.