Welcome to the latest episode, looking back at the season and the hiring of Andoni Iraola. I’m Paul, joined by Haitham and Enrique.

Arne Slot leaves, Andoni Iraola arrives

• Let’s start with Slot - won a title, unbelievable adversity to deal with

• The underlying numbers were referenced

• James Pearce ‘What Iraola needs to learn from Slot’s failings’

• Don’t lose one of your players before the season starts, don’t have your most expensive striker miss most of the season and most of all don’t be Dutch.

• Style of football, reliance on players (Gakpo, Mac Allister, Konate)

• Fitness issues. Unwillingness to use younger players? Unlike in 24-25, an inability to change games

• Lot of hype already around Iraola:

• Good points - style of football, he’s not Dutch

• Concerns - always for an underdog team

• The recruitment - obviously our bench was limited for large parts of the season

• Looking forward to the season:

• Pre-season in a month

• What do you need to see in the next month?

We will be back through the off season, to talk about Iraola’s first pre-season and maybe the Reds’ acquisitions. Thanks to Enrique and Haitham for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode, looking back at 1 point from 3 games and now an important last game home to Brentford where fortuitously 1 point is needed to absolutely guarantee Champions League football next season. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Enrique.

Part One: Manchester United, Chelsea and Aston Villa

• Team selection - limited options obviously. How much of a pass should the team get?

• The optimism before the United game really drained away with the Isak injury

• In each game, a period of passivity, a period of optimism and then a disappointing ending where confidence seemed to drain away (especially away from home)

• Lot of discussion about Szobo, Gakpo, Rio and Mac Allister

• Some poor individual moments (Chiesa’s offside trap, is he really Italian?)

• More set piece woes

• James Pearce trying to buy favor with the naysayers

Part Two - Brentford at home:

• Then there is the negativity surrounding the team

• Mo Salah’s unhelpful intervention

• Xabi Alonso gone as an option, the current feelings about Arne Slot

• Training and rest days

• Style of football. I think there’s been a decline across the league (which may have missed last season because we were so in control of the race).

• The social media noise

• Who are the real options?

We will be back after the season, to round the discussions about the future. Thanks to Enrique and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode, going to look at Sunday’s match at Old Trafford and then look at where the team is, in the light of this week’s Champions League semi-finals. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Justin.

Part One: Facing this Manchester United

• Team selection

• Anticipation of how the game plays out

• United were overwhelmed by Leeds 2 weeks ago in the first half (conceded 2 goals). They came out and pressed really intently for 10 minutes against Brentford (had chances and scored from one of them).

• Defence looks very open - in each of their last 3 matches.

• Know, think, hope?

• That 3-0 win last year seems a long time ago. 

• September 1 2024. Two Lucho goals and one Salah goal.

Part Two - Everything else:

• Just seen the 2 Champions League semi-finals

• Take aways - is defence over-rated? Speed kills.

• Luis Diaz

• What’s been going on tactically this season:

• OK we don’t have that many good players yet Slot is still to blame for not getting more out of them? Which is it?

• Midfield gaps out of possession, inability to stretch the pitch in possession.

• Absence of coaching and training

• 3 games left - Villa either at 12.30 on a Sunday or 8pm on a Friday - WTF

We will be back after the United game, hopefully with a good result to discuss. Thanks to Justin and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode, after a quieter week. Into the one game a week pattern now. Nice (comfortable?) win over Palace in the Anfield sunshine. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Sean.

Part One: Liverpool 3, Crystal Palace 1

• Palace continue to be a difficult team to play against - and they were at full strength.

• Although our record against them since 2017-18 is 13W, 3D and 2 losses in the league.

• Midfield - Allowed Adam Wharton too much space in segments of this game. Still leaving a lot of space in the middle of the field.

• But we did have an outball plan with the long ball to Cody Gakpo’s head.

• The Curtis experiment continues to yield results

• Bright spots from Wirtz and Isak?

• Freddie Woodman and Andy Robertson - good vibes.

• The coverage of this game infuriated one of us. I am personally irritated by Glasner.

• Either Palace caused us immense problems - look at the xG! 1.14 to 2.26.

• Palace aren’t that bothered by the league game which is why this poor Liverpool team won this one.

• The response to the Palace goal… Virg and Ibou should have done more!

• Not one acknowledgement of us being one goal away from going 3rd (including Fulham - Villa where Martin Tyler was trying to magic up an equalizer for Villa).

Part Two - Everything else:

• Us for Champions League - 5 points from 4 games will do it.

• No Salah. Need Gomez to push Curtis and Dom into midfield?

• United, Chelsea, Villa and Brentford to go

• United 2 points from clinching UCL. Looked really convincing against Brentford for about 10 minutes. ‘Scouse buster’ read one of their new flags.

• Arsenal and Spurs - they both play quite shit football don’t they?

• Reporting on referee watch - no one seems to have called out the selectivity and bias..

• Arteta gets to complain about 2 red cards in a week and funnily doesn’t mention the Gabriel headbutt

• Moyes goes on about 2 penalties in a week (including the Garner crumple in the Derby) and somehow misses another Pickford assault on an opposition player
  We will be back before the United game, yes later this week - with a preview of that one. Thanks to Sean and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode, after a big week. Tough Champions League loss, but then there was a 100th minute winner from big Virg in the Merseyside Derby. Disappointment about the result against PSG maybe not the performance, complete joy about the win at the Hill-Dicko whatever the performance. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Enrique.

Part One: PSG at Anfield, Everton in their new stadium

• PSG - for 20 minutes, it felt like we had them on the ropes

• Team selection drew lots of criticism

• Not clinical enough as has been the criticism all season?

• The penalty a turning point?

• The limits of Jeremy Frimpong and Georgi Marmadashvili

• Everton 

• xG 1.45 to 0.79 2 big chances one missed by us to 2 missed by them.

• There was a determination about this performance

• Blues wilted - big expectations couldn’t match the ‘hex’

• Funny to see their fans say that they were much better than us but at the same time explaining the loss because we had match winners.

• No shots after 70 minutes

• Went for it in the last 20. 6th 90th minute winner against the Blues of the PL era (most)

• Curtis performance, Cody, Florian and Mo

Part Two: One game a week, next up Crystal Palace:

• CP - 3rd best defensive record in the league, but maybe an eye on Thursday European semi final. Looks like they would lose to West Ham but in the end probably did enough to win.

• Injuries will impact selection, but we’ve got a week on the training ground to look at tactics. Glasner thinks he owns Slot…

• Somehow we are 6-1-2 in our last 9 league games

Part Three: Wider context

• 5 points clear of 6th with 5 to play - 4 to play for Brighton and Chelsea 

• Villa and United play each other - not that either of them are pulling up trees.

• Chelsea in early May. Will they have made a managerial change? 

• Looking ahead:

• Ibou close to resigning
  We will be back after the Palace game. Thanks to Enrique and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode, Liverpool’s losing run comes to an end at home to Fulham, with a 2-0 win. A lot more control about that performance than many of late. The defeats to City and PSG didn't feel great. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Justin.

It’s been a month since the last episode. I think it’s fair to say that some disagreements about where the team is at and conversations about blame have got in the way of pulling a pod together. This one is an attempt to move beyond that.

Part One: Fulham have been a challenge at Anfield in recent seasons

• We did have a bench. Rio, Mo and Florian Wirtz all looked sharp

• Jones/Szobo midfield duo looked solid in the first

• xG 1.59 to 1.04. 3 big chances missed to 2 (in the second half).

• Usual Anthony Taylor foul count - 10-4 against us.

Part Two - ‘Anfield won’t save Liverpool from PSG’ was the London Times podcast title.

• PSG home:

• Early goal needed?

• Any lessons from Galatasaray at home?

• Enough rotation against Fulham? Starting line up? Does the Hillsborough remembrance change things for Slot in choosing his lineup

• The first Derby at the Hill-Dickinson

• Obviously they will be right up for this

• They are 1st or 2nd on aerial duel wins. The laissez-faire refereeing has helped them (and Brentford and Arsenal)

• We do have 5 days between these games. 

Part Three - wider view with at least 7 games left

• Champions League qualification? 3 points behind Villa now.

• Marmadashvili

• The greatest team we may ever have seen continues to build an alumni - Robbo and Mo - 256 goals for Liverpool now, 192 in the league.

• The football structure - Hughes, Edwards and Slot all have 1 year left on their contracts

• What do we think will/would like to happen?

We will likely be back after the PSG game. Thanks to Justin and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode, Liverpool’s winning run comes to an end at Wolves. Conceding another 90+ minute goal - feels yuk. The 5-2 over West Ham offered quite a different feeling. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Justin.

Part One - First half - slow and predictable said the captain. Slot was very upset, we are told.

• Play Frimpong and give him the ball before the final third too many times

• First half - felt very safe - Wolves xG 0.0 - overall 0.44 for Wolves and 1.83 for us and 4 big chances.

• Second half better but still didn’t create a lot. At least we got wide more. Great clearance from Cody…

• Salah as a wide player….

• Bad first goal to concede

• The pushing for a winner strategy has really hurt us this season:

• Chiesa chaos

• No Konate

Part Two - West Ham at home (xG 1.84 to 1.86)

• They are a difficult team - but our set pieces were outrageous

• National narrative - ‘Liverpool didn’t play very well’ and now we make a note of the xG

• First half key moments:

• 5 minutes - great composure from Ryan and Hugo. 

• 25 minutes - VVD finds another header. What was VAR doing?

• 43 - love a goal where the ball doesn’t hit the ground

• Good moves in between - Cody finding RG and Hugo’s big chance

• Second half - much closer:

• Soucek goal probably changes the sub plans

• Alisson makes a save at 4-2 that was important

• Frimpong and Gakpo goals and Nyoni, Rio cameos were positive

Part Three - Other business:

• Arsenal - breaking down what their anti-football entails

• Time wasting

• Collapsing with contact while mugging opposition forwards in the box

• The Tottenham Hotspur train wreck comes to town

• Galatasaray starts next week

• Our midfield - overplayed:

• And what has happened to Alexis Mac Allister?\

• Why not Curtis Jones?

  We will be back after the Galatasaray away game. Thanks to Justin and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode, after Liverpool win 2 successive away games against shitball teams - the Reds got a late winner and people were doing cartwheels about the ‘bank robbery’ that took place in Nottingham on Sunday. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Justin.

Part One - First half - not our best 45 minutes:

• Had a week to prepare? Balls jumped off our feet’. Curtis started too optimistically?Felt like the impact of no Florian was big

• Somehow our pass completion was 85%

• Forest had the new manager with the first win on Thursday -  could claim we knew how they were setting up?

• Forest created less than the narrative would have you believe. 

• Hudson-Odoi chance after 4 minutes was a quarter of their xG. 0.33 of 1.27

• Some long range shots. But they did have 3 corners and 2 long throws

• This has never been an easy ground for us - 1 win in 6 before this in the league. 5 of our 8 premier league goals have been from set pieces.

Part Two - 2nd half, was completely forgotten that we were the ones with the big chances - 4.

• Jones chance from a Gakpo/Salah set up. Why not more of these?

• Lot of chat about the Rio sub in particular. Created problems when he was moved to the right. Mac Allister should have been replaced, shouldn’t he?

• The disallowed goal. Feel like if it’s Chelsea or City we quickly move on and it's a goal.

• Led to a 3rd clean sheet in a row, and the first 90+ minute winner for months

• Lucky - don’t feel like the National media was saying we were unlucky when conceding in shite moments against Bournemouth and Fulham

Part three - state of our nation:

• 6th place, same points as Chelsea, 3 behind the Mancs, 6 behind Villa with 11 to play

• Round of 16 UCL opponents Athleti or most likely Galatasaray

• Florian and Jeremie Frimpong back for West Ham. quickly followed by Wolves away.
  We will be back after the West Ham game.. Thanks to Justin and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode of this, the 7th season - after Liverpool finally overcame a shitball team away from home - after the low of the City match, the boys in Red rallied to produce a really solid away performance at Sunderland. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Alex. 

Part One - Sunderland away (xG 0.63 to 2.53)

• Solid in the first half, aside from 1st minute foul throw

• Less control in the second half

• ‘Carbon copy of the City game’ - some really solid defending and control from out boys here - Gomez, Jones and Chiesa subs all seem to help

• Virgil, Florian, Konate

• More penalty nonsense - what does a handball for us look like?

• Endo - foot injury

Part Two - Brighton, Forest:

• FA Cup - 4th round, how much do we commit to this?

• Forest away after a week break. Can we give these bastards what they deserve?

• No Dyche, Victor Perreira

• 12 matches left… 

We will be back after the 22nd with a review of the Forest game, maybe do some bits in between assessing where the team is and what we can hope for. Thanks to Alex and Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.

If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic   

Welcome to the latest episode of this, the 7th season - after Liverpool had a tough weekend - after wins over Qarabag and Newcastle bumped back down to earth with a bizarre finish to the City match. I’m Paul, joined by Daz and Sean. 

• 2nd best in the first 30 minutes

• 35 minutes in the second half

• Seemed to throttle back in intensity and territory after the goal 

• Big miss from Hugo? 

• We’ve dropped 8 points in 5 games in added time this season. Bug or feature? No Darwin threat

• Refereeing:

• The penalty

• The other ‘penalties’ and red cards

• Fitness levels?

• Tough away especially where the team are

• No Dom. No confidence in Ramsay. Perhaps no Mo (death in the family/compassionate leave) — thin squad is now emaciated. 

Part One - Manchester City at home Part Two - Sunderland:We will be back next week with a review of the Sunderland game. Thanks to Daz and Sean for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X  – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic