ECHO Comment: "Fears of Witch-hunt Against Liverpool FC" part 3

[Yarrgh]

Apologies to those with an easily triggered gag response, but I HAD to share this absolute gem from RAWK - it's a decade old, in their 'Scouse Not English' thread, but it absolutely defies belief...

This is only an excerpt, but it's enough... read it and weep / laugh hysterically (delete as appropriate)...

"As our group savoured pre-match beers and contemplated the 90 minutes ahead, we were approached and asked whether we were English. This wasn't Anfield, and it definitely wasn't Stoke.

"No mate," came the rapid response. "We're from Liverpool - we're Scouse."

The equally rapid nodding of heads and offers of handshakes by the FC Koln supporters showed they understood. Every football fan we met there understood.

We never anticipated being in the German city of Cologne for Liverpool's match at Stoke, let alone for their side's derby with Borussia Monchengladbach, but the fixture list and other journalistic obligations contrived to make it so.

We already felt at home before the Koln fans acknowledged us. Red shirts scattered everywhere with photographs of past glories dotted about - we could have easily have been in a pub on Walton Breck Road as opposed to a kneipe on the Rhine.

There was slight apprehension within our group as we set off for Cologne. We were, after all, foreign football fans with no particular affiliation towards FC Koln.

But that apprehension evaporated swiftly when we explained we were, in one word, Liverpool.

The attention and respect that one word garners is both empowering and humbling in equal measure.

Within those nine letters comes over a hundred years of history. That word represents Liddell, Hughes, Dalglish, Rush, Hansen, Gerrard and Torres; it's synonymous with 18 league titles, five European Cups, Rome, Dortmund, Istanbul and decades of forging friendships through our behaviour abroad.

Nothing betters going away to watch your football team play renowned European teams with illustrious histories and traditions, safe in the knowledge those sides are just as eager to play our legendary club.

Friendships are made and anecdotes are formed to be retold through the generations - it's the essence of Liverpool Football Club and its supporters.

With our original Koln acquaintances now doubling as both a tour guide and ringmaster through the streets near the RhineEnergieStadion, word spread of our heritage.

An inundation of requests to sing You'll Never Walk Alone soon followed, as did the offer to pose for photographs - photographs that would no doubt decorate a pub similar to the one we sat it.

It was at that point I realised just what a special entity supporters of Liverpool Football Club are. It was at also at that point I realised what a special city we are.

I said in a previous column how the city and the club are an organic process. Neither would have the reputation it does without the other.

It's a football club which has always tried its best to stand by Shankly's beliefs of socialism; it's a city which has always strived to help each other.

That's why it was poetic Shankly stood with his arms outstretched on St George's Hall in 1971, and not on the steps of Anfield. He wasn't embracing Liverpool Football Club alone - the show of strength before him was that of a city.

It's the reason why we have Spirit of Shankly, a supporters' union named after the great man himself - a union which has always acted with the fans and the city at heart; a union which does a lot of work for the local community, and a lot of work for the city.

It's the reason why hundreds of thousands welcomed the football club home after Rome, Wembley, Paris and Istanbul, proud of what they'd achieved as a city and for their city.

It's the reason why most fans we meet reserve that special respect for us. Language barriers are torn down to share our stories of following the Reds home and abroad.

And it's also the reason why we told those Koln supporters that we were Scouse, not English."

Words really do fail me sometimes...

And the next post from this rawkite was how to get to the stadium from the airport without interaction with the locals.

Kopites are gobshites.

 

[MrGrumpy]

never watch it, I don't need the endorsement (or otherwise) of MOTD to form my opinion of a game, ive played enough and watched enough to make my own mind up with a reasonable judgement of it.
TV people talk tripe, example today, when Gordon was getting stuck in, JJ comments that players need to have cool heads, ice in their veins, play the game not the occasion, later on he said you need get carried along by the passion of the game. make your mind up you wilting biff.

I loved the bit where Maupay ran towards goal and he said “Everton will be happy for a breather they been defending for ages”. There was 3 minutes on the clock

He didn’t say that about Ugly face who had fouledGordon twice before that

 

[jackyboy]

James Pearce is one smug, disingenuous toad. I’d rather burn money than subscribe to that Athletic rubbish.

Baffles me that people pay money for that

 

[fabricsince1985]

Baffles me that people pay money for that

Can safely say having subscribed at 'half price' for a year that although there are occasional interesting articles on it, on the whole it's full of sycophantic articles about a small number of clubs. Liverpool being way ahead in terms of content that tries to bleed 'this means more'. Simon Hughes an James Pearce are awful writers, but the athletic knows what their readers want.

 

[Wat Tyler]

 

[davek]

So the dust has settled on the derby and the Establishment club's media have their explanation: "Liverpool were not at their best. Something was missing. There was a lack of fluency and cohesion. But regardless of all that, it took Jordan Pickford to deny Liverpool".

That's the line.

The real explanation is that Lampard out-thought Klopp (again) as the latter set up and Everton outfought Liverpool to make up that gap in spending and quality of player by winning all their personal battles on the pitch....and they had Allison to thank for handing them a point.

 

[BlueStevie35]

That Nunez is going to be a bigger waste of money than Carroll was, that first header he put 5-6 yards wide was woeful, something Crouch and Carroll himself would have directed back across with relative ease

 

[davek]

I thought Lampard did very well there yesterday. He anticipated that Klopp would avoid taking the fight to Everton in central areas and would target our flanks. Coady and Tarkowski did brilliantly getting over and shutting the threat down from there and Iwobi and Onana too. I think that's why Davies had his best game for years for Everton and why Onana did so well. Klopp didn't think Everton would get on the ball in that area but we did. Fabinho was overrun and Elliott and Carvalho had hardly any presence there. They missed Horrenderson...who turns up for derbies...and his hamstring injury was instrumental to how Liverpool approached the derby and Lampard spotted it.

IFWT etc.

 

[woodsyni]

So the dust has settled on the derby and the Establishment club's media have their explanation: "Liverpool were not at their best. Something was missing. There was a lack of fluency and cohesion. But regardless of all that, it took Jordan Pickford to deny Liverpool".

That's the line.

The real explanation is that Lampard out-thought Klopp (again) as the latter set up and Everton outfought Liverpool to make up that gap in spending and quality of player by winning all their personal battles on the pitch....and they had Allison to thank for handing them a point.

And, despite seeing Pickford's tackle on St Virgil 325 million times - right up to yesterday, I might add - I've seen Van Dyke's assault on Onana once. I screenshotted because I doubt we'll see it again. The bias is genuinely shocking. So, one more time....

 

[davek]

That Nunez is going to be a bigger waste of money than Carroll was, that first header he put 5-6 yards wide was woeful, something Crouch and Carroll himself would have directed back across with relative ease

I think he's mpore Crouch like. He had a bit about him but wasn't top draw. Nunez will be the same.

 

[davek]

And, despite seeing Pickford's tackle on St Virgil 325 million times - right up to yesterday, I might add - I've seen Van Dyke's assault on Onana once. I screenshotted because I doubt we'll see it again. The bias is genuinely shocking. So, one more time....View attachment 182022

It was a sending off. Lineker saying it was an 'amber card' was pathetic.

 

[royalblue66]

So the dust has settled on the derby and the Establishment club's media have their explanation: "Liverpool were not at their best. Something was missing. There was a lack of fluency and cohesion. But regardless of all that, it took Jordan Pickford to deny Liverpool".

That's the line.

The real explanation is that Lampard out-thought Klopp (again) as the latter set up and Everton outfought Liverpool to make up that gap in spending and quality of player by winning all their personal battles on the pitch....and they had Allison to thank for handing them a point.

And we had Patterson Dave. ?

 

[the golden visionary]

So the dust has settled on the derby and the Establishment club's media have their explanation: "Liverpool were not at their best. Something was missing. There was a lack of fluency and cohesion. But regardless of all that, it took Jordan Pickford to deny Liverpool".

That's the line.

The real explanation is that Lampard out-thought Klopp (again) as the latter set up and Everton outfought Liverpool to make up that gap in spending and quality of player by winning all their personal battles on the pitch....and they had Allison to thank for handing them a point.

We all know the media's running with option a tho

 

[Alan Whittle]

Shearer on MOTD is fine with this; not a red card but the Newcastle disallowed goal because of an alleged “shove” by Mitchell on Willock, who would have clattered the keeper anyway was “ shocking, abysmal, disgraceful.”
It’s about time they binned off these fan boy “analysts” like Carragher & Shearer who add nothing but obvious bias.

 

[arch stanton]

View attachment 182023
Shearer on MOTD is fine with this; not a red card but the Newcastle disallowed goal because of an alleged “shove” by Mitchell on Willock, who would have clattered the keeper anyway was “ shocking, abysmal, disgraceful.”
It’s about time they binned off these fan boy “analysts” like Carragher & Shearer who add nothing but obvious bias.

I'd rather the options were given by lower league players who knew the game but couldn't quite play it at the highest level, or even better, top coaches.