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   

Welcome to the latest episode of this, the 7th season - after Liverpool had a big week with wins over Qarabag and Newcastle. I’m Paul, joined by Daz. We are going to review the last 6 - Barnsley, Burnley, Marseille, Bournemouth, Qarabag and Newcastle.

• Barnsley - went strong, could have been a walk in the park… 

• xG 2.04 to 1.41 (although 0.9 had to be the goal)

• Burnley - reaction in the ground seemed more intense

• xG 3.18 to 0.4 - and big chances (3) don’t match the narrative of those at the game

• The refereeing in these 2 games:

• Does Andy Madley read Paul Tomkins?

• Played with more freedom in the UCL?

• Joe Gomez, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez

• Able to bring on Cody and Curtis

• xG 1.46 to 0.87 (15 shots) - 3 big chances to - and Alisson was Fotmob’s MoM

• Bournemouth - bad weather day

Part three - Big week at Anfield:

• Qarabag - easy or accomplished performance

• Szobozlai wants to play in the champions league final in Budapest

• Newcastle (2.28 vs 0.36). Ball 40 minutes in play.

• FIrst half looks like we are under pressure

• And then Wirtz and Ekitike

Part four - looking forward

Part One - Barnsley and BurnleyPart Two - Marseille away - Beatles Tifos - and Bournemouth
We will be back next week with a review of the Man City and Sunderland games. Thanks to 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   

Happy New Year to all our listeners!! We are here with the 27th episode of this the 7th season - between games 19 and 20. We are going to review the state of the nation after those 19 league games and 6 champions league games. I’m Paul, joined by Enrique and Daz. We aren’t going to do much of a specific review of the Leeds game, although some of the themes we will talk about were very evident in the 0-0 draw.

Part one - Bad Points

• Dealing with adversity:

• Impact of the summer? 

• 4 late goals conceded

• Ability to hold onto 2 goal leads - last 10 minutes

• Officiating - penalties awarded

• Coaching:

• Defensive mistakes; set pieces

• Ability to score against the low block

• Awful’ said one pundit - how awful exactly?

• 3 defeats by 3 goals in successive games 

• Recruitment?

Part Two - Good Points:

• Created more xG than anyone apart from City.

• Hugo Ekitike was 3rd in the scoring list. A goal every 125 minutes. Till he seemed to become our only option.

• Top 4 is well within our grasp, 8 games unbeaten

• Champions League qualification - Inter and Real Madrid victories

• Florian Wirtz

And our Expectations…… 
We will be back next week with a review of the Fulham 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   

We are back with the 26th episode of the 7th season - making up for lost time. I’m Paul, joined by Sean and Daz. We are going to do a review of the Spurs and Wolves games, and a look ahead at Leeds on New Year’s day. After the Leeds game we’ll do a bit of a state of the nation after 19 league games and 6 champions league games.

Part One - Spurs away.  

• Line up and approach

• Injuries didn’t leave a lot of options. Lost Bradley and Isak in this one

• Spurs - 1 win in 7 (we now have 3 in 7) played like a desperate team. 

• Frank appears to be under pressure - not good when the previous guy hired you

• The controlled aggression of his Brentford team doesn’t look good here

• Who scores the first goal once again significant

• The last 10 minutes - how do we make sense of that?

Part two - Wolves at home

• Worst team in the league (potentially in league history)

• Seemingly less options

• Good points - bad points (Good half/bad half?)

• Diogo tribute

• Florian Wirtz

• Weird refereeing decisions 

• We’ve ‘crashed’ the top 4

Part three - Leeds at home with 5 day break

• Leeds have looked better. Calvert-Lewin’s goals

• Our approach, line up

• Virg’s comments re set pieces

We will be back next week with a review of the Leeds game. 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   

Sorry for the slight delay… we’ve been on hiatus for the last 6 games. It’s the 25th episode of the 7th season. I’m Paul, joined by Justin and Daz. The Reds have won 3 of those 6, 2 draws and a weird defeat against PSV at Anfield.

Part One - The Good

• Unbeaten in 5 - last 2 games particularly, although signs through the last 5 where we are very much set up to be more solid:

• Lots of bright spots against Brighton - first game where we’ve lost the xG since Palace away, although so many almost moments. Good rhythm and energy.

• At least 3 chances from Salah passes that didn’t quite materialize.

• Ekitike - could have had 5. 

• Jones, Gravenberch, Szobo all influential.

• Inter away - really solid performance - Rafa!! The obsession with Wirtz and our penalty…

• West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds - many good points.

Part Two - the bad and the ugly:

• Giving up goals at Leeds - Ibou! 

• Sunderland - shitball and the difficulty of the breaks in play, time wasting and the soft fouls against us. City reaped the benefit, they were knackered at the end of that match.

• PSV - the ultimate, everything they hit went in.

Part three - overview and preview to come:

• Salah, ‘the lost dressing room’

• Ibou and the image of the James Milner ‘20’ shirt

• Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Milos Kerkez

We will be back later this week - with an overview and some previews. 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 dear listener to the 24th episode of the 7th season of First State Kopites. I’m Paul and I am joined by Justin. The Reds returned to action home to Forest and the outcome wasn’t great.

Some recurring themes and a disappointing game:

• For 30 minutes, they created  a bunch of chances - 1.10 vs 0.21 in the first half

• Macca at 8 minutes - headed of the line

• Kerkez 16 - foul, not a penalty we get anyway

• Gakpo blocked shot at 24

• Szobo deflection at 30

• 33 - totally against the run of play - of course, there’s a guy potentially offside in front of Ali

• Second half - momentum killer. Macca misses a challenge

• Themes:

• Defence, midfield performance, Isak, Ekitike, the defence….. 

• Referees and adversity

• Arnie Slot and his coaching team

• Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes

• What’s next?

We will be back some time next week - with some reviews and previews. Thanks to Justin 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 dear listener to the 23rd episode of the 7th season of First State Kopites. I’m Paul and I am joined by Daz. The Reds return to action Saturday home to Forest and the host PSV next Wednesday.

Part One - what’s been happening?

• Andy Robbo - “I’ve hid it well but today I’ve been in bits,”  “I know the age I’m at this is my last chance of a World Cup and I couldn’t get my mate Diogo Jota out of my head today. We spoke so much together about this World Cup”.

• Wirtz looked really inventive for Germany - can we get more of that?

• Key Match Incidents and Virgil’s goal

• Tomkins deep dive on VAR decisions and the number of early penalties that City get - 25% of all penalties given in the Premier League in the first 15 minutes since 2014. https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/

Part Two - the upcoming matches

• We owe them both

• Notts Forest

• PSV

We will be back next week with some game reviews. Thanks to 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 dear listener to the 22nd episode of the 7th season of First State Kopites. I’m Paul and today I am joined by Enrique and Daz. The Reds follow up their win over Real Madrid with a disappointing loss at the Etihad (which for once appeared to be lively)

Part one - 

• Always want to start with the comments we made at the start of the season - we should not be picking on any of these boys on the basis of what they went through this summer

• I’ve seen this defeat described as us being blown away, thrashed, dismantled - just a few of the over the top descriptions from our defeat to City where the xG was even without the fucking ridiculous penalty (0.72 to 0.61). Less than a year ago, City were defeated, overawed, consigned to defeat by the same outlets and the xG was 3.86 to 0.51 in our favor. Proof if proof was needed that overreactions around the Reds gets clicks - then there’s our own mad fan base.

• The actual game - personally can’t get past the officiating. And the easy dismissal of goal related events in such a low scoring game.

• The penalty and the mad 200x zooming in - cf. the non-penalty at Brentford. Or even the studs up challenge at Anfield in 2024. Grating to hear the Manc accent announcing the penalty., 

• The offside….  Only the Reds get goals disallowed like this. How can the linesman call this? Can I mention Bernardo Silva and his foul count

• The half baked offsides being flagged

• The inconsistencies - Wirtz can’t expect fouls like that in the Premier League

• Performances - people too willing to bury everyone. 

• Ibou does look a step off. Confidence, distraction? Isolated in the press.

• Doku - ‘all fart and no poo’ - scores his first goal since January. Not sure what else Foden, Cherki and Haaland did

• Review has questions on the out of possession plan - are we on the same page?

• Being played like it’s a cup final. Is Slot being too passive?

• Making it too easy? Lots of pressing but not coordinated

Part two - Mindset going forward:

• No one that we play till Arsenal has the exceptions of most of the teams we’ve played so far. Forest, West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds(?) and Brighton in the next 5. With PSV at home and Inter away.

• Points max - we could get 99! I think the no draws thing is interesting. Few teams have won the league with 5 losses. 

So, in summary, this loss carries the weight of the previous ones, but looking at the numbers, we don’t believe Liverpool are that bad, and that there’s plenty of cause for optimism going forward. We’ll be back with a preview of Forest and PSV. Thanks to Daz and Enrique 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