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   

Welcome dear listener to the 21st episode of the 7th season of First State Kopites. I’m Paul and today I am joined by Justin and Daz. The Reds follow up their win over Aston Villa, with a really strong showing against a full strength Real Madrid, who are shit BTW

Part one - Beating Real Madrid

The game:

• Built on Saturday’s performance. Determination, spacing, getting Mo involved

• Midfield looked powerful, Szobozlai, Mac Allister

• Stat about Courtois making 23% of his champions league saves against us since the start of the 2022 final (2.19 v 0.92 2022 final); 2.51 to 0.45 yesterday. 

• Bradley: Trent has never been on the winning side in this fixture. Joke about Vini Jr being confused after coasting in training against TAA.

• And Freddy Chiesa - oof

• Ekitike - lots of running. At times shows us his youth.

Florian Wirtz:

• Wenger basically said he believed one of the issues we’ve had this season is that Slot promised to play Wirtz as a 10 when we convinced him to join so felt unable to move him from that position even when it unbalanced the team. Clearly once things had gone off the rails it was easier for him to then go to Wirtz and explain why he has to move him.

• I thought that he played really well out there. As long as he is given more license a flank might free him up more. Robbo was essentially an auxiliary left half with the positions he was taking up. Left a lot of real estate for Virg to cover but it looked really good when we were in possession

Big picture:

• Football teams who want to play football.

• Bayern won 16 of 16 and are now the best team in Europe. Real Madrid won 14 of 16 and apparently are a bit rubbish.

Wrap up:

• Sets us up for City

• 5 days gives us a chance to go again. They have a days less rest…

We’ll be back with a review of the City game. Thanks to Daz and 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 20th episode of the 7th season of First State Kopites. I’m Paul and today I am joined by Sean and Daz. The Reds get back to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa. They end the weekend back in the top 4. And in the mean time we passed on the Carabao Cup for this season.

Part One  - A performance from the title winning season:

• The midfield looked like the one we had last year - and no one is sure what our #9 does in this system. Robertson - at times didn’t always look comfortable last year, was lively.

• The spacing, the determination

• No big chances for Villa, but only 1.19 xG for us. 

• Confidence - Ekitike goal was a great let off, team and crowd responded well to it being disallowed, we didn’t let that stop us - ‘this crowd will go quiet’ says Stephen Warnock (still pissed off over Rafa’s snub).

• Salah’s finish was so clinical - topped off a great performance.

• A third goal would have felt right - created a lot of threat, but didn’t quite create the great chance in the second half.

• Crowd was great - good reaction to the online nonsense

• Villa widely tactics mocked for not playing enough long balls:

• They should have been a champions league team - lot harder for them to play shit ball than a lower tier team (or Arsenal)

• Not sure they have the personnel. A team whose recruitment isn’t ideally suited to long high balls?

• Forensics corner - ‘Shakes him very gently by the throat’ Onana.. Tierney…

Part Two - quick preview of Real Madrid and Man City away:

• Both have won more games than they’ve lost. 

• Real Madrid:

• Where are we after Villa? Who will play?

• Virg’s comments/Trent reception

• Man City - will Pep Ljinders overthink it?

We’ll be back with a review of the Real Madrid and then the City 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   

APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE DROP ON THIS ONE. STILL WORTH A LISTEN!!

Welcome dear listener to the 19th episode of the 7th season of First State Kopites. I’m Paul and today I am joined by Daz. In a week where there have been so many hot takes we could probably have heated a major city through a nuclear winter. We’ve taken a couple of days to reflect with our review of Brentford 3, Liverpool 2.

Part One  - 

• Conceded from a throw in, a long ball and a penalty.

• Liverpool are terrible, the full backs are shit, Ibou is useless (2nd goal), Wirtz is too lightweight, Mac Allister is ‘broken’ and the manager is clueless. Oh and ‘the League is gone’

• Comparisons with 2020-21 of course.

• OR they are actually 3rd in the League in xG (ahead of Arsenal) and the ball hasn’t bounced their way - the xGA for the goals conceded outstrips the actual goals. Or is there no space for a cooler take?

• Serious point about the move to ‘shitball’ - especially against us. 

• More long balls in general in the league, but especially against us. 

• Have we signed players to play the ‘old’ way?

• The 9+ minutes it took to take their 10 throw ins. 

• Other areas for potential concerns:

• Confidence (pass accuracy dropped from 88% in the 1st half to 77% in the 2nd), too much - woe is me?

• Duels and winning second balls - headed duels were about 50-50, we had an edge on overall duels,

• Integrating Wirtz and the other new players. Pre-season and a change of style.

• Interesting test case - with Hooper we had 68% possession and were given only one foul, they were given 3. 2nd half less possession, but the foul count was 6 to 7. 

• Footnote - Jordan Henderson has learned how to pass - just another sign of the stupid dialogues that exist around Liverpool

Part Two - quick preview of Saturday:

• Aston Villa who have come back from their early season stumbles. 

• Injuries, confidence, luck? 

• I am concerned about the crowd, nervousness and the backdrop of a million hot takes.

• In passing - Crystal Palace

We’ll be back with a review of the Villa game. 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