Grant Houghton ⭐️6 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 JFT97

@eddiegibbs Nicely summarised. Not a definite starter but a really useful addition to the squad and would be useful within the snr players mgmt group. Similar to Robbo. But you can’t begrudge these guys wanting more playing time. So we wish them well and remember their contributions.

🟥 Inter Come Calling For Liverpool’s Last Scouser There is something bleakly symbolic about Curtis Jones edging towards the Liverpool exit door at the exact moment the club feels furthest removed from its own identity. For all his flaws, and there were flaws, Jones carried something modern football strips away too easily. He understood the weight of the shirt before he ever wore it. A Scouser in the team still mattered to many people, even as football drifted further into the hands of recruitment models, resale value and sterile efficiency. The truth is uncomfortable for everyone involved. Jones believes he should be starting every week. Liverpool have never seen him as more than an option, useful, versatile, expendable when necessary. Once that gap in expectation opens, the ending usually writes itself. And yet it's impossible to ignore how poorly this has been handled. Liverpool’s midfield has creaked for much of the season, Mac Allister's legs gone, Gravenberch not the elite DM many were keen to proclaim, energy gone, control disappearing in plain sight, and still, Jones was rarely trusted. Shifted about, occasionally stranded at right back, always seeming one mistake from exile while others survived on vibes and reputation. Some supporters will say good luck and move on without a second thought. Others will mourn the loss of another local lad who loved the club in a way no signing ever truly can. Most honest observers probably sit somewhere between the two. Jones was never Steven Gerrard. He was never the future captain some imagined, either. But he was part of Liverpool’s soul, and every time one of those players disappears, the club loses a little more of itself. If Inter really are waiting, Liverpool may soon discover how expensive it becomes when a club stops recognising its own heartbeat. I’ll miss him.

@eddiegibbs A difficult read but only because it rings very true. Nobody wants to hate Slot and it feels so unlike our fanbase to turn on a manager. Slot deserves to be thanked and then let go by FSG or it’s going to get nasty and nobody genuinely wants that

@eddiegibbs Tbh Celtic are the best side and would have won at a canter if they hadn’t attempted self sabotage via Rogers and Nancy. Feel like this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Hearts and they ultimately came up short, injuries catching up at the end. It’s the hope that kills

Gutted for Hearts, worst possible outcome for Scottish football.

@eddiegibbs Nicely put once again Eddie. Genuinely concerned about the rift between the fans and the players/manager. If he doesn’t go then this could get really, really toxic. Club are creating this by not acting quick enough. They need to act.

⚽️ Broken Beyond Excuse #AVFC 4-2 #LFC | #PremierLeague There’s no uncertainty about Liverpool anymore, they have collapsed in full public view. Aston Villa won 4-2, but anyone who watched that shambles knows the scoreline flattered Liverpool. Villa cut through them at will. Every attack looked dangerous, every set piece looked fatal, every moment without the ball looked like panic waiting to happen. This wasn’t a contest. It was a demolition carried out against a side that has completely lost its identity. The excuses have run dry. Injuries in attack, fine. But that defence contained senior internationals, the midfield was the same midfield that carried Liverpool to a title, and yet they played with all the structure of strangers meeting in a car park. 12 league defeats. 20 goals conceded from set pieces. 7 away wins all season. The second lowest away tally in over a decade. These are not blips. They are evidence. Arne Slot looks broken by the scale of the job. Worse than that, he looks incapable of fixing it, regardless of his public protestations. There is no tactical coherence, no intensity, no resilience, no visible plan. Every press conference feels like another exercise in deflection while supporters are asked to ignore what their own eyes are watching every week. The players deserve criticism, plenty of it, but managers survive bad form by offering solutions. Liverpool’s manager offers none. Richard Hughes should have acted months ago. FSG should never have allowed this decay to continue unchecked. Instead, Liverpool head into the final game of the season still scrambling for Champions League qualification after entering the season expecting to run away with the league. F**k ‘transition season’ right in the bin, nobody even uttered those words until the wheels fell off. One more game and this nightmare finally ends. It’s time John, in fact it’s way past time.

@TheRedmenTV Totally embarrassing. Rio making a mockery of Slot’s selection strategy. Why not give Wright some time, can’t be worse than Gakpo or Chiesa. Badly missing a genuine 6. Can’t believe Konate is in the French WC squad. Could go on and on. Season can’t finish quick enough

FT 🟣 4-2 ⚪️ Two consolation goals from Virgil van Dijk, but the latest instalment in a long line of embarrassing performances! Defensively shambolic at times 🚮 Thoughts? #LFC

@TheRedmenTV @TheAnfieldWrap Scoreline flatters us. Another abject performance. Team is so unbalanced. Season can’t end soon enough. Has to be widespread changes in the summer but it won’t happen. Only positive is Rio but the fucking manager won’t use him

@eddiegibbs Good article Eddie. Lots of excellent points

@ghchubby Can’t really disagree Grant, I wrote a longer piece at x.com/eddiegibbs/sta… on it this morning.

@eddiegibbs this is the point I was making to colleagues at work today. If a defender crosses his arms across his chest and the ball hits the arm it’s not a penalty. Not a natural position but the body isn’t made bigger therefore no penalty. Last night is the same. Thoughts?

@eddiegibbs Gutted for Hearts and Scottish football in general. The game needs a champion from outside of the toxic two. Does feel like it’s advantage Celtic especially when the referees/VAR appear to fall in favour of the big two more often than not.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 So things now highly likely to fall Celtic’s way in the end. It’s a hugely stacked deck in Scotland. No intent to handle the ball but put your arm up and give the VAR a chance to give a decision to either Old Firm team, then they’ll give it 99/100. Gutted for Hearts, but it’s not quite over yet, all be it very improbable.

@eddiegibbs What I would give for a Souness style character for our midfield today. Someone to set the standard and then let nobody drop below it. Call it leadership or just someone the others are terrified of getting on the wrong side of. Someone we can all unite behind

🔴 A Point That Says It All as Liverpool’s Season Stumbles towards its Close #LFC 1-1 #Chelsea Another dreary draw, another weekend of frustration. Liverpool’s 1-1 against Chelsea felt like the perfect snapshot of a season that has drained all joy. Both sides offered little quality, and while Chelsea looked better than in recent weeks, it says more about Liverpool’s shortcomings than any real improvement from them. A couple of hopeful moments, Szoboszlai and Van Dijk’s efforts hitting the woodwork, provided some brief excitement, but ultimately, Liverpool were only just worth the point. This draw was yet another example of a team that’s just going through the motions. It’s still highly likely Liverpool make the top five, but it’s largely due to how poor everyone else has been, not because they’ve shown anything worthy of it. Slot’s substitutions were puzzling again. Taking off Ngumoha, the one player showing any creativity, left Liverpool with no width and no threat on the left side. Chelsea quickly seized on this, after earlier being denied by a marginally offside Cole Palmer goal, a small piece of fortune for Liverpool. The stats paint a damning picture: outrun again, out duelled again and still struggling to find any rhythm or cohesion. Slot’s inability to develop this team is glaring. Anfield expressed its frustration, and rightfully so. If FSG don’t make some changes this summer, this mess will only continue. It’s right to put this one on the owners now, seeing as their charges Hughes/Edwards seem incapable of using their eyes, ears and brains. The season may soon be over, but it’s hard to see how Liverpool can move forward without significant change.

@eddiegibbs 100% agree with you. What concerned me most today was the lack of urgency or desire in the final 15 minutes to try and get a win. It was totally apathetic and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that at Anfield before, not in the last 15 years. Something very wrong

@TheAnfieldWrap Absolute shite (again). Just end the season now and ring the fucking changes

Boring 😴

@eddiegibbs I think most of us have had enough now. Would be interested in hearing who you think the viable replacements are for Slots job and who you think is the best fit for us, based on what we have now and the limited potential for recruitment under FSG?

🔴 Liverpool Beaten, Bullied and Left Clinging to Context #MUFC 3-2 #LFC | #PremierLeague I predicted a Liverpool defeat in my my preview this morning, which is not something I do lightly, even in a season as miserable as this one. The injury list finally felt too heavy to ignore. For once, it was valid context rather than the tired shield it has too often become. But context is not absolution. Liverpool lost 3-2 to a poor Manchester United side and, in truth, the score flattered them. United were better, sharper, stronger, and should have won by more. Liverpool’s two goals came from gifts. United created the better chances, won the physical argument, and exposed yet again a side that cannot defend properly, cannot control key areas, and cannot be trusted when the game demands nerve. Yes, there was a third-choice goalkeeper. Yes, Curtis Jones was filling in at right-back. But how did Liverpool get here? Poor planning. A January window ignored. A squad stretched to breaking point while the manager keeps talking as though this chaos happened to him, not under him. Arne Slot may believe he can fix it. I see no evidence. The man-management has looked poor, the squad has looked underused, and the excuses now sound less like explanations and more like evasion. As soon as the season turned sour, so did the conviction behind the project. Mac Allister was poor again. Gravenberch still does not look like a natural six when Liverpool are under pressure. The team tried, but trying is not enough at this level. United have done the double. City have done the double. Liverpool are falling into a Champions League place rather than earning one. This needs ending. Not dressing up. Not explaining away. Ending.

@eddiegibbs Against my better judgment I decided to watch this today. 30 mins and we’ve been dreadful. There is nothing positive in this performance, nothing! It’s painful to watch.

Slot Excuses … LOADING Checks Roy Hodgson back catalogue. All the hits lads. All the hits.

Wow, wow, wow!!! Best game I’ve seen in ages #PSGBAY

@Lfc_ola_ Gary McAllister

Which player do you think this is?

@eddiegibbs Nicely put Eddie. These results shouldn’t fool anyone. The performances continue to be way below par and we’re only in a position to snatch a CL spot on the back of others capitulation AND stealing 15 points from the first 5 games of the season.

⚽️ Liverpool are a moments team. Nothing more. Nothing less. Three goals. Three flashes. Liverpool take the points against Crystal Palace. The scoreline reads well. The performance still doesn’t. First, the incision. Isak sharp. Clinical. Then the shock. Robertson, of all people, finishing like a centre-forward. Anfield lapped it up. Then the flourish. Wirtz, pure class, gliding through the closing noise to seal it. Moments. Not momentum. Strip it back and the numbers tell a harsher truth. Liverpool lost the underlying battle. Again. Minimal control. Fluctuating rhythm. No pattern that speaks of a side being shaped, refined, improved. This isn’t evolution. It’s improvisation. And yet, there was effort. There hasn’t always been. Woodman stood tall, far better than expected, calm under pressure. Wirtz looked alive, inventive, a flicker of what could be. The basics were met. But the ceiling remains low. This talk of transition demands scrutiny. Transition suggests direction. Movement from one idea to a better one. There’s little evidence of that here. The metrics are poor. The structure unclear. The identity blurred. Still, the table softens the blow. Others falter, Villa today. Liverpool rise almost by default. Fourth now. Within reach of third. It would have been taken without hesitation weeks ago. That is the contradiction. Results without reassurance. Salah forced off, the crowd rising, hoping it’s not the curtain call, and encore is still to come. Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace Progress in points. Doubt in everything else.

@eddiegibbs Spot on, couldn’t agree more. The quicker this season ends the better. It’s one to forget and definitely not repeat.

🟥 Three Points, No Illusions #Everton 1-2 #LFC | #MerseysideDerby #PremierLeague This was the derby many expected. Messy, physical, scrappy. Everton brought the fight, Liverpool brought just enough. Not control, not fluency, just enough. It was a hard watch again. Liverpool still look like a side trapped in their own idea of control. Play our way or not at all. Too rigid. Too slow to adapt. But this game demanded grit, not patterns, and for once, they found it. Credit where it's due. They stood up to it. They didn't fold. They stayed in the fight and took their moment late on. That has been missing too often this season. Mohamed Salah delivered again. Of course he did. Virgil van Dijk with the decisive blow. The travelling support gave Salah and Robertson their due, a proper send-off for two legends in what was their final derby. That part felt right. Beyond that, questions remain. Big ones. Liverpool couldn't even fill the bench. No youth options, no depth, no clarity. A squad stretched and a plan that still looks confused at best. The table says progress. Seven points clear of the chasing pack. Champions League now within reach. That's really all that matters now. But let’s not dress this up. Fifth place is not success, not for this club. This hasn't been a season of standards. The talk of transition doesn't hold water when the basics have fallen short, no matter how much Arne Slot, along with some pundits and journalists, tries to peddle it. Take the win. Take the gap. Move on to Palace next week. Finish the job. Get into the top five. Then tear this season apart in the inevitable review and make sure nothing like this darkens our eyes again.

Sometimes results matter more than performances and this was a case in point. So negative, another woeful performance in the final third. However, it’s a win, and whilst it doesn’t make things right, it does make it feel better in the short term @eddiegibbs @TheAnfieldWrap

@mattchun78 @WinsLFC That would be my line up too (52). Must be a generational thing 🤣

@WinsLFC Mine differs Rush Barnes Dalglish Salah Souness Gerrard Robbo VVD Hansen Neal Clemance AB1 & Kennedy fighting to start. I’m nearly 50

Liverpool All Time XI 😳 Any changes???