This has been rattling around my head for 33 minutes, just the cosmic wrongness of it. Is a team without any actual, what's that word, goalscorers I think it is, going to win anything this year? No. Are Liverpool going to lose two games on the bounce? Also no. - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

stephenkb.bsky.social • 45 days ago

This has been rattling around my head for 33 minutes, just the cosmic wrongness of it. Is a team without any actual, what's that word, goalscorers I think it is, going to win anything this year? No. Are Liverpool going to lose two games on the bounce? Also no.

Comments

paulshrews33.bsky.social•45 days ago

Comment image

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Superb tweet.

paulshrews33.bsky.social•45 days ago

Stop it babes! 🥰

theangelremiel.bsky.social•45 days ago

Theoretical political scientists say that the rarest thing in the universe is A Subject Camilla Tominey Is Right About, a phenomenon never seen in nature and arguably scientifically impossible.

gallovidian.bsky.social•45 days ago

At this rate the Daily Telegraph's relationship with reality may need to be questioned.

More and more unhinged stuff is being churned out by their columnists.

Camilla Tominy, Allister Heath, Alison Pearson, Roger Bootle and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard are amongst the worst offenders.

paulshrews33.bsky.social•45 days ago

This from June 2024

gallovidian.bsky.social•45 days ago

Nothing has improved since. The Telegraph's decline from a newspaper into a deranged, angry far-right propaganda rag since 2016 has been pretty shocking to watch.

It's hard to take it seriously anymore.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

I feel like a lot of people, pundits and fans, have looked at 'Liverpool are going to win the league by dint of having done the most effective job in the market of the title challengers and by having the best forward in the league' and they've decided it's, I don't know, too boring or something?

edmorrish.bsky.social•45 days ago

“effective job in the market”? do you mean transfers? because they bought a keeper they loaned back immediately and a winger who’s barely played.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Transfers aren't just what you do in the close season nearest to the window, though. Like, there's no one single window that means City's squad has grown old together, no single window in which Arsenal went 'guys, guys, shall we buy another leftback', etc. etc.

edmorrish.bsky.social•45 days ago

yes that makes sense sorry, i just see market as shorthand for “transfer market” so that confused me for a second.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

No worries. I mean the weird thing is that it is both true that Liverpool have been the best-run club over the last decade and that is why they are going to win, but that their most recent window has not been wise and their contract management has been poor also.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Just a need to either add some narrative explanation on top or to see closeness when it just isn't there. It's weird.

rasmusbirk.bsky.social•45 days ago

Yeah, the narrative that Salah is on course for one of the best seasons in PL history is pretty ‘boring’ but also… 100% correct

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

It's a shame because if you want a narrative, we still haven't had the definitive account of 'what the hell was Ivan Gazidis thinking in the summer of 2017' and 'what the hell happened at Arsenal in the summer of 2020?' which are I think key parts of why no-one is going to stop Liverpool this year.

rasmusbirk.bsky.social•45 days ago

How do you link summer 2020 to this?

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Arsenal's underlying problem is their 'seven leftbacks on the books, only two strikers, both of whom are crocked, one of whom is meant to play at left eight in any case' squad, where the decisive market moves and IMO personnel shifts happen in those two windows.

rasmusbirk.bsky.social•45 days ago

I mean, I agree with that, just not that it goes wrong in 2020, more 2024 (where we should have upgraded the forward line and gotten another creative midfielder in). 2017 is a whole other story. The worst was 2015 with no signings other than Cech though…

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

They're still not as important as 'Mo Salah's astonishing season', I'm just saying, if you want 'a thing to say that is not "wow, Mo Salah, what a player"', those two summers are still really interesting.

lordbonkers.bsky.social•45 days ago

In 2014, when Steve Gerrard slipped over at Stamford Bridge and cost Liverpool the title, Salah was playing for Chelsea. It's a funny old game, Saint.

notthathunter.bsky.social•45 days ago

there were two current Liverpool players on the grass that afternoon at Anfield in 2014

Mo Salah, starting for Chelsea, and...

Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was a ballboy

aveek18.bsky.social•45 days ago

I think people have got a bit carried away by a lot of dropped points without noticing the underlying performances have if anything got better

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

And indeed where the dropped points have been. Everton have taken points off a load of top teams. Villa are a really good side! I basically feel like the tone and reporting around Liverpool draws has been odd since the 2-2 at our place, which was reported as if it were a disastrous result.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

A lot of the mood music around it was a real 'did I just see a different game?' because it was like 'Arsenal blunder to 2-2 draw against some unknown team' and it was like 'I left that thinking I'd seen a title contender'.

dctrojan.bsky.social•45 days ago

For partisan reasons I had hoped to see at least a Liverpool wobble under a new manager - a full collapse was too much to hope for - but irritatingly they remain Good Actually and it’s not because everyone else has somehow failed to manifest being better

jonfmorse.com•45 days ago

Listen, the English football press is like Charlie Brown Had Hoes

jonfmorse.com•45 days ago

by the way a few days ago they also decided to get on a "Is Liverpool about to falter?" train...

...following a draw AT Villa, a team that's still playing in the UCL.

Deeply unserious people.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Right, like, the 'Liverpool wobble' is they drew at Everton (who held Arsenal at home and where Chelsea also drew at Everton) and they drew AWAY at Villa, it's just incredibly silly.

enlightbystand.bsky.social•45 days ago

Sounds a lot like a good chunk of the Lobby and the then Government’s position on the election this time last year…

morralexand.bsky.social•45 days ago

I think what's prompting this is that Liverpool probably aren't as good as they were in 2019, so people think that means they should at least be getting a strong challenge. But this ignores the fact LFC and City were getting points totals that would make the Old Firm blush in that period.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Yeah, I think there's a lot in that, though I think actually it is 'Liverpool 2018' that is the comparison, like, if you don't see off THAT level of title challenge you've fluked it somehow.

brennick.bsky.social•45 days ago

Clive’s spot does not seem to be ageing well.

leetaylorbythesea.bsky.social•45 days ago

Clutching at invisible straws, maybe they had not received any sensible emails. More the sort of guff that TalkSport specialise in, and another reason I don't listen to it.
0-2. Happy Liverpool fan

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Oh, I mean I completely get why you publish that email, you get so few, IMO this game in particular is not interesting, unless you are so anti-City you just want to see if Liverpool will properly smash them so I doubt there is much commentary.

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

(To be clear, even tho technically it's in our interest if they were to come back from here, I am watching in the hope of a complete smashing.)

leetaylorbythesea.bsky.social•45 days ago

I would say excluding the team 2nd in the league, it was interesting for teams 1 - 8, at a stretch 1 - 10.
Your team are more or less guaranteed a CL place, your next CL opponent is easier than LFC's, and by April, you might have more players back, possibly a good run at the CL ahead

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Maybe. I was disappointed by yesterday's result not so much for the title (visibly something like yesterday was going to happen the moment Havertz got injured) but really what Arsenal need is to be secure in the CL places and then to be able to rotate like mad for the CL.

leetaylorbythesea.bsky.social•45 days ago

Understandable, and your defensive record in the CL is very strong. I would say the pack behind you are inconsistent, and the likelihood of you falling out of the top 5 is slim. Forest away is a tough gig. March only has 2 EPL games, and by April, some of the hammies might be repaired

chrisbartram66.bsky.social•45 days ago

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Please highlight or share to anyone you think may be interested in political history or who may just want to support.

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stejormur.bsky.social•45 days ago

Can't help feeling even then "Only 8 points behind Liverpool, everything to play for" would still pretty optimistic thinking. At that point, there'd be 9 matches to left to play, so City would need to average a point more than Liverpool every match day

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

Right, it is just completely doolally at every level.

worgztheowl.bsky.social•45 days ago

Darwin Nunez playing Devon Loch?

eddierobson.bsky.social•45 days ago

No-one except Liverpool is able to string more than three wins together this season. Liverpool can afford a few slip-ups because everyone else will have a few slip-ups.

faceofboe.bsky.social•45 days ago

Let's see whether the first sentence is still true on Wednesday night. (I'm sure it will be but, still. )

eddierobson.bsky.social•45 days ago

I'm not claiming it's literally true that no-one can string more than three wins together, I just mean no-one has any real consistency.

will1lucky.bsky.social•45 days ago

As a city fan at the Ethiad, lmao no wrap it up, they’ve won this whole thing.

theangelofhistory.bsky.social•45 days ago

Aren’t you guys now manifesting your first champions league win?

stephenkb.bsky.social•45 days ago

I don't buy it, I think yeah, sure, defensively we are good enough to do it, but sooner or later something like yesterday will happen in the Champions League, too.