Blood Red: The Liverpool FC Podcast

We have a special Blood Red spin-off podcast for you to head into the weekend.
Stuart Brennan is the long-term chief Manchester City writer for the Manchester Evening News.
And host Paul Wheelock picked up the phone to Stuart to get the inside track on the visitors to Anfield on Sunday.
City are the defending Premier League champions and currently top the table on goal difference from Liverpool.
But they have failed to win any of their last 17 trips to the home of the Reds, a run which includes the memorable Premier League and Champions League matches between the modern-day rivals at Anfield last season.
Those incredible 4-3 and 3-0 wins improved Jurgen Klopp’s record against Pep Guardiola’s teams even further.
So why does the Klopp and Liverpool seem to have a hoodoo over Guardiola and City?
Stuart tries to answer those questions, and also talks the player who is filling the void left by the injured Kevin De Bruyne, the return of Raheem Sterling, and the major selection headache facing Guardiola.
You will then hear from our Liverpool FC correspondent James Pearce, who was speaking after attending Jurgen Klopp’s press conference.
And this preview podcast rounds off with audio from Guardiola’s press conference, which also took place earlier today.  For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Neil Fitzmaurice is back with his Poetry in Motion podcast and, for this episode, he is joined by Kristian Walsh and Paul Wheelock, who are asked, just what went wrong in Naples last night?
Kristian wonders whether we witnessed something Jurgen Klopp rarely does while Paul questions whether the Liverpool players had more than half an eye on Manchester City.
Mohamed Salah’s struggles continued in the defeat to Napoli but the lads think the striker should be cut some slack – particularly when his loss in form could be a physical issue as much as anything else.
With the front three truly yet to click, Kristian argues the spotlight should be focused further back the field – and he has an interesting statistic to back that up.
Fitzy then asks whether Naby Keita has found his best position yet, and whether Trent Alexander-Arnold needs a break, before talk turns to the visit of City to Anfield on Sunday.
Paul reckons it could be the first time in the Premier League this season that the Reds unleash the brand of Blitzkreig football that Klopp has made his hallmark.
The fact that Liverpool have played with the handbrake on at times could be tactical ploy, argues Kristian, who also shares another thought-provoking stat (the Reds have allowed their opponents to complete more than 80% of their passes seven times last season; this season they’ve allowed that in five out of seven games), which underlines that belief.
The trio also talk Chelsea and why, with Eden Hazard intent on ‘doing a Luis Suarez’, they must be considered the third team in the title race. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

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Neil Fitzmaurice is back with his Poetry in Motion podcast and, for this episode, he is joined by Kristian Walsh and Paul Wheelock, who are asked, just what went wrong in Naples last night?
Kristian wonders whether we witnessed something Jurgen Klopp rarely does while Paul questions whether the Liverpool players had more than half an eye on Manchester City.
Mohamed Salah’s struggles continued in the defeat to Napoli but the lads think the striker should be cut some slack – particularly when his loss in form could be a physical issue as much as anything else.
With the front three truly yet to click, Kristian argues the spotlight should be focused further back the field – and he has an interesting statistic to back that up.
Fitzy then asks whether Naby Keita has found his best position yet, and whether Trent Alexander-Arnold needs a break, before talk turns to the visit of City to Anfield on Sunday.
Paul reckons it could be the first time in the Premier League this season that the Reds unleash the brand of Blitzkreig football that Klopp has made his hallmark.
The fact that Liverpool have played with the handbrake on at times could be tactical ploy, argues Kristian, who also shares another thought-provoking stat (the Reds have allowed their opponents to complete more than 80% of their passes seven times last season; this season they’ve allowed that in five out of seven games), which underlines that belief.
The trio also talk Chelsea and why, with Eden Hazard intent on ‘doing a Luis Suarez’, they must be considered the third team in the title race. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Liverpool made the perfect start to their Champions League campaign with a thrilling 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield two weeks ago.
But what we witnessed this evening was night and day compared to that as the Reds were beaten 1-0 by Napoli.
Jurgen Klopp's side were just moments away from picking up what would have been an excellent point on the road.
But Lorenzo Insigne’s injury-time winner ultimately ensured they got exactly what they deserved.
As our Liverpool FC correspondent James Pearce said in his verdict piece on the Echo’s website, Liverpool were vulnerable down the flanks, careless in midfield and toothless up front as they failed to register a single shot on target in Europe for the first time since 2012.
Little wonder, then, that the tone of this podcast is different to the ones we have produced so far this season.
It is a podcast that features the thoughts of James Pearce, along with six Reds supporters, Graham Agg, Alex Watt, Simon Donnelly, Matt Whitty, Mark Baker and Sam Planche, and which rounds off with audio from Klopp's press conference.
Without giving the game away, he makes no excuses. And how could he? For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Liverpool made the perfect start to their Champions League campaign with a thrilling 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield two weeks ago.
But what we witnessed this evening was night and day compared to that as the Reds were beaten 1-0 by Napoli.
Jurgen Klopp's side were just moments away from picking up what would have been an excellent point on the road.
But Lorenzo Insigne’s injury-time winner ultimately ensured they got exactly what they deserved.
As our Liverpool FC correspondent James Pearce said in his verdict piece on the Echo’s website, Liverpool were vulnerable down the flanks, careless in midfield and toothless up front as they failed to register a single shot on target in Europe for the first time since 2012.
Little wonder, then, that the tone of this podcast is different to the ones we have produced so far this season.
It is a podcast that features the thoughts of James Pearce, along with six Reds supporters, Graham Agg, Alex Watt, Simon Donnelly, Matt Whitty, Mark Baker and Sam Planche, and which rounds off with audio from Klopp's press conference.
Without giving the game away, he makes no excuses. And how could he? For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Liverpool are back in Champions League action tonight when they travel to Italy to take on last season's Serie A runners-up Napoli - and we have a packed Preview podcast to look ahead to the big match.
We kick off by speaking to our Liverpool FC correspondent James Pearce, who talks the club's and Jurgen Klopp's last visit to the Stadio San Paulo, whether the Reds boss will ring the changes with a massive Premier League match with Manchester City to come on Sunday, and why the locals don’t seem to be taking to Carlo Ancelotti.
Ancelotti took over Napoli in the summer after Maurizio Sarri left for Chelsea and we get the thoughts of Marco Giordano, a presenter for CalcioNapoli24.it, on how the ex-Chelsea boss is doing and where the main strengths and weaknesses lie in his line-up.
And the podcast rounds off with a chat to Italian football expert John Solano, who we first caught up with in the summer as Alisson Becker prepared to make his move from Roma to Liverpool.
As well as Alisson and Napoli, John talks Mohamed Salah, the current strength of Serie A, and the interesting reason why he believes the league still has some way to go before it gets back to its 1990s heyday.
It's a really good listen. Enjoy. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

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Liverpool are back in Champions League action tonight when they travel to Italy to take on last season's Serie A runners-up Napoli - and we have a packed Preview podcast to look ahead to the big match.
We kick off by speaking to our Liverpool FC correspondent James Pearce, who talks the club's and Jurgen Klopp's last visit to the Stadio San Paulo, whether the Reds boss will ring the changes with a massive Premier League match with Manchester City to come on Sunday, and why the locals don’t seem to be taking to Carlo Ancelotti.
Ancelotti took over Napoli in the summer after Maurizio Sarri left for Chelsea and we get the thoughts of Marco Giordano, a presenter for CalcioNapoli24.it, on how the ex-Chelsea boss is doing and where the main strengths and weaknesses lie in his line-up.
And the podcast rounds off with a chat to Italian football expert John Solano, who we first caught up with in the summer as Alisson Becker prepared to make his move from Roma to Liverpool.
As well as Alisson and Napoli, John talks Mohamed Salah, the current strength of Serie A, and the interesting reason why he believes the league still has some way to go before it gets back to its 1990s heyday.
It's a really good listen. Enjoy. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

A true Liverpool FC legend this week makes his return to the city.
Kevin Keegan will be at Waterstones on Wednesday afternoon to promote his brilliant new autobiography, My Life in Football.
The book was written with Daniel Taylor, the chief football writer for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, and the Sports Journalists’ Association Football Journalist of the Year for the past three years.
And for our latest Blood Red spin-off podcast, Paul Wheelock picked up the phone to Daniel before he met up with Kevin for the latest leg of the book signing tour.
So much of the focus on the book has surrounded the explosive revelations regarding Kevin’s second spell in charge of Newcastle.
But as Daniel explains, there is much more to his story, not least the six years at Liverpool that transformed his career and life, and the importance of the manager who signed him, the one and only Bill Shankly.
Kevin said recently that Jurgen Klopp is the modern manager he would like to play under most, and in this podcast Daniel talks the similarities between the two, as well as Liverpool’s performance at Chelsea at the weekend, the contrasting moods at Anfield and Old Trafford, why it would be an incredible achievement for the Reds to win the Premier League this season, and about Rhian Brewster, who sat down with Daniel late last year to talk about the racist abuse he has received in his young and highly promising career. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

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A true Liverpool FC legend this week makes his return to the city.
Kevin Keegan will be at Waterstones on Wednesday afternoon to promote his brilliant new autobiography, My Life in Football.
The book was written with Daniel Taylor, the chief football writer for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, and the Sports Journalists’ Association Football Journalist of the Year for the past three years.
And for our latest Blood Red spin-off podcast, Paul Wheelock picked up the phone to Daniel before he met up with Kevin for the latest leg of the book signing tour.
So much of the focus on the book has surrounded the explosive revelations regarding Kevin’s second spell in charge of Newcastle.
But as Daniel explains, there is much more to his story, not least the six years at Liverpool that transformed his career and life, and the importance of the manager who signed him, the one and only Bill Shankly.
Kevin said recently that Jurgen Klopp is the modern manager he would like to play under most, and in this podcast Daniel talks the similarities between the two, as well as Liverpool’s performance at Chelsea at the weekend, the contrasting moods at Anfield and Old Trafford, why it would be an incredible achievement for the Reds to win the Premier League this season, and about Rhian Brewster, who sat down with Daniel late last year to talk about the racist abuse he has received in his young and highly promising career. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

One man dominates the latest Blood Red podcast, hosted by Joe Rimmer and also featuring James Pearce, Dan Kay and Theo Squires.
And that man is Daniel Sturridge after his superb strike earned Liverpool a late but thoroughly deserved 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Saturday night.
Sturridge is now second only to the original super-sub, David Fairclough, as the player to have scored the most goals from the bench for the Reds.
But can he become a regular starter again for Jurgen Klopp? And is now the time to start talking about a new contract for the revitalised striker?
James provides an insight into the burgeoning partnership between Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez and also into another player who impressed at Stamford Bridge, Alisson Becker. But could the Liverpool number one have saved Eden Hazard’s opener?
The love-in between Klopp and his counterpart Maurizio Sarri is discussed and the lads ask what was once an unthinkable question: is it now okay to like Chelsea?
Talk then turns to Mohamed Salah and the team changes that could and should be made for Wednesday’s Champions League clash in Naples.
Enjoy. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices