Recorded January 10th, 2021, after Liverpool got back to winning ways against Aston Villa's youth team. We look at what's been happening with the Champions and seek out some solutions going forward.  

Ben, Sean, Daz and Haitham help Paul figure out how significant some of this season's refereeing fails have been for the Reds - taking in the recent Michael Oliver comments where he confirms that Jordan Pickford should have been sent off in the Merseyside Derby.  

Quick take on the season continuing in the light of the rise in Covid cases, before circling back to our hopes and expectations in the Man United game next weekend.  

#FirstStateKopites #YNWA #OLSCFamily #itsgoodtobefirst

Recorded January 3rd, 2021, joined by Lingerr, Haitham and Daz. On the day when we lost Gerry Marsden, singer of the club's anthem - RIP Gerry.  

We touch on the last game of the year, and of some the reaction on social media. Although it was hard not to reference the cameo from Thiago.  

We detour into penalties and question whether VAR is actually the handicapping system that the Premier League are using to keep the race tight this year, and therefore maintain a level of interest. How do Leicester have 10 penalties and we only have 5? We'd like to propose that teams that have hippity-hoppity penalty takers are denied any penalties..  

Champions of England was clearly a highlight of 2020, albeit one celebrated without fans.  Hendo, Robbo and Keita all get a mention - you'll have to listen to hear the conclusions.  

We have an interesting chat about Twitter, the Leeds Utd Twitter account and wonder whether the absence of social interaction is driving so much that's extreme on the platform. Either way no space for misogyny or racism.  

Finish with some thoughts about aspirations for 2021 - let's get back to being the best team in the world, shall we?  I think we all had a good time recording this one, hope you enjoy it too!  #FirstStateKopites #OLSCFamily #YNWA #itsgoodtobefirst

#FirstStateKopites end of year edition. Haitham and Daz join Paul to reflect on the highs and lows from Palace to West Brom. Rollercoaster sounds such a cliche, so we will say that the Palace second half created an illusion of 'we're back', West Brom was like a 3 act play where we went from that back to the worst of the Fulham self-doubt.  

Anxiety in the stadium, VAR MIA, Mane being wrestled for 90 minutes and the impact of the Matip injury are all mitigating factors. Still, as much as we can talk about this as exciting and a throwback season with so many in contention, we really wanted to see daylight at the top don't we?  

We finish by chatting about what happens next - Covid cases are rising. Wouldn't it have been great if the Premier League had a plan, but in their haste to make the season seem normal (when it's obviously not) they've left themselves with limited room for maneuver.  

In all the upcoming games we manage to play - come on you Mighty Reds!  

Wishing you a happy 2021 everyone. 

#YNWA #ItsGoodToBeFirst #OLSC302

Recorded on December 20th, 2020 after Liverpool beat Crystal Palace by 7 (seven) goals to nil. 

Sean and Paul are joined by Wes Young, son of a former professional footballer and huge Red. Wes talks about his Liverpool journey, the difficult 90s, the joy of the Houllier years and the absolute ecstasy of the Klopp years.   Wes shares his Club World Cup Final experience, the joy of being at Anfield, and how much of a miss that is right now.  

The Palace game - great performances and goals all over the place - not enough time to acknowledge every positive. Not everyone got a name check because 7 different players had an assist. We've gone from a poor performance at Fulham to rediscovering the heights in a week and we are 4 points clear!  

And we didn't even talk about 'the best team', VAR and not too much on injuries.  

The Reds are on a roll - great time to be following these boys. 

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Recorded December 17th, 2020. Special edition  to review the victory over Tottenham Hotspur and all that its entails (VAR, Harry Kane and our magnificent academy players), and marking the passing of Gerard Houllier, a card carrying member of the magnificent 7 of Liverpool managers from Shankly to Klopp.  We reference the many tributes to Gerard Houllier.  From Jessie Marsh to the players who loved him, and finally read the Simon Hughes piece in the Athletic, if you need  complete view of his contribution to our club - trophies, mentality and fitness.  

On to last night - so many heroes for the Reds - special shout out to Curtis (check out Barney Ronay's piece in the Guardian) and Rhys. From Trent's nutmeg to Bobby's 60 yard run, it's a great time to be a Liverpool fan. Inspired by some antics from Spurs, we delve into the 'best team lost' commentary - if I was Jose, I'd be very keen to gloss over the 24% possession stat. We propose a reason why Harry Kane missed a close range header - no, it wasn't concussion.  

More on VAR and the lack of consistency in officiating (yes you referee from a city 35 miles away). We conclude with a celebration of our FIFA awards and look ahead to Liverpool getting the away game nonsense stat out of the way. Haitham helps us understand why City are not the team they once were.....  #FirstStateKopites #ItsGoodToBeFirst #TellUsNever

Recorded December 13, 2020. Good friends of the #FirstStateKopites podcast, Hatitham, Ben and Daz join Sean and Paul to recap the week of 1--1 draws with Mijdttland and Fulham. As you might expect, lots of chatter about team selection, injuries and fitness levels. 

We will be working on a special edition 'Positivity of Ben' episode before the end of the season. In the interim, Ben brings us back to the reality that the Reds are still top of the league, and they have some great players coming back soon. And that Curtis Jones is now officially one of this collection of great players - so close to being an absolute hero today at Fulham. Taki and Neco get an honorable mention from today as well. 

Big week coming up - total focus on the Premier League - 2 wins vs. Spurs and Palace would make a big difference in how we approach the Festive Fixtures. Conclude with the thought that the 2000 Scousers on Wednesday might be sufficiently lubricated to make it a loud and beautiful evening. #TellUsNever #OLSC302 #ItsGoodToBeFirst #OLSCFamily

Recorded December 7th, 2020, the day after Liverpool beat Wolverhampton Wanderers by 4 goals to nil to stay level on points with Spurs at the top of the Premier League. Today Sean and Paul are joined by Craig Hannan. A wide ranging discussion of what's going on at the Anfield Wrap, and as head of marketing at TAW, Craig is well positioned to talk about Liverpool's brand and the influence that Jurgen Klopp has had on the brand.

Of course we talk about this team and the performance against Wolves. Trent's sublime pass, Gini looking like he was playing for Netherlands, and the boy Kelleher done good. The team looked like it came straight from vintage 2019-20 to play this one.  We finish by talking about what happens going forward - with some players returning and Europe effectively managed until February. The Spurs game looms large on the near future. Craig forecasts that this Premier League will go down to the wire.

The most significant thing about the weekend may have been the return of fans - especially the 1500 that were on the Kop. The marvelous reaction to the players taking a knee. And we learned that we'd been sharing Craig's photo this weekend - the message that talked about leaving racism where it belongs - in the past.

#FirstStateKopites #TheAnfieldWrap #ItsGoodToBeFirst #TellUsNever

Recorded November 29th, after Liverpool's 1-1 draw at Brighton. Earlier in the week, we had a very rare home defeat against Atalanta. Upcoming we have Ajax and Wolves (the latter coming after an almost luxurious 5 days between games).  

Sean and Paul are joined this week by Daz and Haitham to discuss the performances and what we can read into them. Of course we talk about some of the other headline grabbing stuff - how Jurgen Klopp's comments seem to have been misread, and the limited consideration given to the sports science behind the injuries affecting all of the teams who have been playing twice a week since the Champions League restarted - especially from ex-players who played the game in a different era.   

And of course VAR officiating gets an another unfortunate mention. We also talk about the value of shoe throwing.  

The injury situation seems to get worse by the game - at this point more players are going down than are returning. A result against Ajax would at least allow Klopp to field a weaker team against Mjitlland the following week, although it will be limited by injuries and the players who were named to the Champions League squad (e.g. Nat Phillips isn't named in that squad).  

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Recorded November 23rd, 2020 after Liverpool has beaten Leicester City by 3-0 in a classic performance to break the club record for games undefeated at Anfield - now stands at 64.  

We are delighted to have Alisha and Nader join us to talk about the exciting news that The Anfield Shop has become the first North American commercial partner for LFC. Well done #TheAnfieldShop.  

We talk about the great take aways from the victory over Leicester. Going into the game the narrative was about the deleted Liverpool team - without as a minimum a striker, a midfielder and a defender that are in the conversation for being the best player in the world in their position. No matter, the Reds exhibited the #NeverGiveUp mentality and produced a wonderful team performance - James Milner, Joel Matip, Diogo Jota, Bobby Firmino, Andy Robertson, Naby Keita and Curtis Jones all get a mention. Although to be clear, Fabinho, Mane, Wijnaldum and Allison all made contributions too.  

We chat about the upcoming fixtures, and won't have to find out how wrong we've been this time about team selections. We are thinking Salah definitely plays against Atalanta.  

Finishing off with the usual one thing you noticed - the potential for crowds back in stadiums and Klopp interview for Sky about the schedule being edited for the UK audience..  

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Recorded November 15th, 2020 - we originally had no plans to record because it was the international break and what could possibly happen... Paul is joined by Haitham, Ben and Daz to pick through the impact of Covid-19, the internationals and the seemingly never ending news about injuries. 

We begin with some great reflections on Ray Clemence who passed today - one of the players that took us to the heights of European greatness. RIP.

Lots of perspectives on internationals - ranging from irrelevance to how much some of this games might matter to some of the players (e.g. Andrew Robertson). Not wanting to jinx anything, we won't mention any other players here, but we wouldn't be surprised if we see more injuries the way this season is shaping up.  

Turns out that we had a lot of fun with the bad news and somehow we detour into penalties, Ramos misses and a failed panenka that resulted in a wonderful Leicester supporter song - 'Totally shit from the start'.   Roll on Sunday, optimism abounds. Let's go Reds.  

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